Thanksgiving 2021: a year in review

Well, here we are, Thanksgiving 2021. Four hundred years since some of my ancestors participated in the first one, and like them I both crossed an ocean earlier this year to start a new phase in life and have much to be thankful for.

Where to begin? Less than two months ago I submitted my thesis for examination, and just today I got back my thesis examiners' reports. They were both good, with just a few minor revisions suggested (a very common outcome), so as I move towards my thesis defense in a little less than a month I can be quite confident of passing. (Intellectually confident, at least, I'm sure it'll do nothing to calm my nerves on the day.)

Moving back to Hilo and getting set up as a functioning adult again has been a major stressor these past few months, but now that I'm a little more than a week settled in my new place the worst of the stress is finally over. I've got my own car and place to live again for the first time in four years, and I'm enjoying the hospitable Hilo climate. I'm still waiting for the stuff I shipped from Australia to arrive, but while I'd like to have it here (now that I have a place to put it) I can afford to be patient a little longer. And in the absence of most of my hobby-related stuff, I've managed to take up yet another hobby or two, so expect to hear more about that before long.

Of course, this move wouldn't have been possible without the job with Gemini Observatory I currently have. I always wanted to move back to Hilo, but actually doing so was entirely dependent on finding a job here. That one showed up at the right time just as I was finishing my Ph.D., and that I got it is little short of breath-taking. (Especially since it was the only job I applied for; I know other students at Swinburne who applied for dozens of jobs before getting one.)

And finally, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage (though hopefully begins to wind down), I've got my doses of a high efficacious cutting-edge vaccine. I'm also living in an area with very low spread at the moment (daily cases are roughly in the teens for Hilo right now), and am fortunate enough to have little to fear for myself. Last year at this time...all right, I don't remember exactly when the first vaccines began to be approved, but there certainly weren't any available for the likes of me! It took a bit longer to get my shots in Australia than it would've in the US, but I got 'em in the end, and I'm incredibly thankful to have so far survived the worst pandemic in a century without loss of anyone close to me or serious damage to my health.

So all in all, I've no cause for discontent this year, and look forward with anticipation to the new year to come. Who knows what it'll hold? Happy Thanksgiving! A hui hou!

A new place to live!

Following the acquisition of a new set of wheels in the last post, this time I'm ecstatic to report that I've finally got a new place to live! It's maybe 10 minutes' walk from where I lived before in Hilo, and has the same convenience for getting to work. It's an interesting new situation for me, moving into a new place without furniture (or much of anything really) and starting from a blank slate, and I'm savoring the opportunity to start fresh and customize my living space how I want. (As for the stuff I shipped from Melbourne, the latest update I got had an ETA of November 30 for the ship to arrive at Los Angeles...so given the situation there, who knows when it'll make its way back across the Pacific to me?)

If you've noticed a general lack of posts the past two months, it's not because I don't have things to write about (I've got a few post ideas in my head) or even the time to write about them. It's more that it's been an extremely stresseful period of time, and it's been really hard to concentrate with so much uncertainty hanging in the air like a noxious fog. However, as I fell asleep last night for the first time in my new place (in my brand-new bed), I could feel the stress beginning to lift now that I have my own private retreat from the world once again. Maybe don't expect a flood of new posts (I'm still working full time—and thank goodness), but with the gradual easing of care I hope to have some more time for writing before too much longer. A hui hou!

A new car!

It's been exactly 4 years and 2.5 months since I last had a working car, but since Tuesday I finally have my own wheels again!

I got a used 2018 Nissan Rogue (<50k miles), in the gorgeous "Monarch Orange" you see above.

It's actually been a bit of a shock driving again after four years of not driving in Australia (except for a single time in early 2018). My previous car was a 2013 Honda Civic, and while only five years elapsed between the production of that and my current car—well, SUV—it feels somewhat like I've just emerged from the Stone Age only to take the controls of the Space Shuttle.

This vehicle is chock-full of what feel to me like extremely futuristic features. It's got a touch screen, for one thing. It's got cameras around it giving a 360-degree panoramic view. It's got a push-to-start system—not even a physical key hole for ignition. It's got remote start, and an "Intelligent Key" system that makes locking and unlocking it without taking the keys out of your pocket a snap, a rear-window wiper, a huge powered moonroof, a powered, remote-triggerable back hatch, and a host of other little conveniences and exciting features. My previous car had a digital speedometer, and that felt like a serious innovation at the time (to the point where every person I gave a ride to commented on it), but compared to this SUV it retroactively feels like driving a horse-and-buggy.

A shot of the cameras when reversing, showing the stitched-together panoramic view.

Now I know cars have been slowly getting new features throughout my life, but never have I had so many new (to me) features all at once in a car that I own. The first time I saw a push-to-start ignition system was just back in September while I was spending a week with my family on my to Hilo, in my brother's car. I've seen cars with rear-view cameras before, but never the panoramic 360-degree view that this one has. Cars with key fobs that can lock and unlock them are familiar at this point, but this SUV can detect if the key is close to the door or back hatch, and if so, you can press a button on the handle to automatically lock or unlock the door as appropriate without even touching the key. I've seen cars with in-built navigation screens before, but never owned one, and the list goes on (though I don't think I've personally seen a car with remote start before).

I could keep gushing about all the many features that I'm still discovering a few days later (the heated seats and steering wheel might be nice when I get up at altitude), but for the sake of brevity I'll spare you. Needless to say I'm quite blessed to have been able to find such an impressive vehicle in this period of car shortages. I was really glad to get one with AWD drive, which'll allow me to get some places I wouldn't want to take my 2WD Civic—I can finally drive to the summit of Maunakea, for example, and I've got some other places in mind that I might see about exploring. And I'm certainly pleased with the color; I quite like orange (as evidenced by this blog), so when I found a car matching what I was looking for in such a beautifully striking shade I could hardly believe my good fortune. (Funnily enough, yesterday I saw a vehicle that could've been the identical twin of mine—same model, same color!) Anyway, I'll spare you further gushing from me for now. A hui hou!