A new chapter in life – undergraduate instructor!

In all the hustle and bustle the past few months between moving and my job at NEON ending, I realize that I never actually mentioned what was coming next for me. The answer is: teaching several physics and astronomy courses at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, my alma mater.

I think I forgot to mention it in part because it was something of a long time coming. I originally applied to the lecturer pool near the tail end of 2024, after my job at Gemini ended. There weren't any classes available for the spring semester in 2025, but they liked my application and asked me to apply again for the fall. I started working at NEON in April and didn't think too much about it, though I did apply. There was some discussion in the summer of me teaching a single class for the fall semester which ended up not happening (probably for the best, given how exhausted I generally was from work). However, for this semester I ended up going into the new year with an agreement to teach two classes, which I forgot to mention in the whirlwind of preparing for my family visiting that was December. Then, in the few days between my family departing and classes starting on the 12th I was asked if I'd like to teach another class. I said yes, and that's how I ended up teaching three courses this semester – with zero prior experience teaching in a formal setting.

It's been a bit hectic. The first week of classes I was frantically trying to figure out what resources we had available (I got mixed up and thought I had one week more to prepare than I did), and the second week I came down with something (probably COVID, based on the symptoms) which really hampered my efforts to catch up and prepare and teach. Three weeks in, however, I'm more-or-less recovered and finally feeling like I'm starting to get a handle on things.

I'm still adjusting to this new role; it's strange being addressed as “Professor” and being in a position I looked up to as a student. I've never been in a management position before, so it's weird having the power to assign homework. There's a bit of a learning curve as I get back up to speed on hazily-remembered physics and math that I haven't used in over a decade, and there are no lack of demands on my time throughout the week. I do like being in a position to help people learn; it's something I've always enjoyed informally, so hopefully it'll get easier with a bit of time and experience. We'll see, I suppose! Truly, never a dull moment in my life*. A hui hou!

*I wouldn't mind some dull moments in my life.

Starting the year with an exhibition

My family have come to visit and gone again, and as expected it was a wonderful, hectic, whirlwind of a time. I'll have a report of my trip (for the first time!) to Green Sands Beach coming Soon™, but for the past few days I've mostly been decompressing and getting ready for teaching a few astronomy and physics courses at UH Hilo this semester, so this'll be a short post. Classes start this week, instead of next week like I somehow got mixed up and thought, so I'll be jumping in at the deep end with less preparation than expected! But hopefully it'll work out – it's mostly labs, so there isn't really anything to do the first week, and everyone I've spoken to seems pretty relaxed about it. (In contrast to how stressed I am thinking about it.)

Leaving that aside, for this post I wanted to quickly mention that I've got two of my drone photos in the 2026 Hawaiʻi Island Art Alliance Invitational exhibition at the Wailoa Center in downtown Hilo, as part of a collaboration between the Hilo Photo Shooters Club and Pau Hana Writers called Hawaiʻi Island: Images by Light and Pen. The exhibition runs from January 16–February 12, with an opening reception from 5–7 PM on the 16th which I plan to attend. I think I've shared both photos on this blog previously so it won't be anything new to long-time readers, but I'll try to get some pictures of them in situ, as it were. It's funny to think that I'll now be a thrice-exhibited artist, and for sculpture, paintings, and now photography! A hui hou!