3/13/14

Tonight… so first off, our house is suffering from a slight centipede infestation.  For those who don’t know, Hawaiian centipedes pack a punch.  Some people who are unlucky enough to find out after the fact are allergic and the sting is possibly fatal.  Almost as painful is the bite.  They get to be 6 inches or longer and have blue coloring.  For 13 months I didn’t see one alive, a few dead in the driveway after a big rain.  Now we have dozens in the ceiling.  Small bitty fuckers, that probably couldn’t bite through the skin, but only getting bigger.

Now on my way to bed, there is a leaf tucked up in my door jam.  I walk by several times, it doesn’t move.   But I notice that it has a tail and the more I look I realize that it might also have legs.  It might not be a leaf … scorpion.  So far I haven’t even heard that they have those on the island.   Given its disconnect from the mainland there are many things that just never made it here, I’m not sure if scorpion is on the list.  I check Robyn’s room for a dirty glass, there is a better chance of that being the case then you might think.  But no success, so I go get a class from the kitchen.  It hasn’t move yet, why should it run now.  Come back and sure enough I have trapped a scorpion in my bedroom doorway.  

After a bit of debate I decide that my karma has been pretty good these last couple weeks, I have found $80 on the ground ($20, $20, and $40).  So instead of throwing the scorpion in the fire outside (roommates were having a little bonfire to enjoy the night) maybe it would be better to release him.  But as I am coming to this decision, a fire truck arrives and 4 fire fighters have come to investigate our fire pit.  Apparently someone down in the valley below has seen our little fire and was concerned that our house was burning down.  They were very nice, told us that for cooking or religious services a fire was ok, but otherwise it is frowned upon.  Vieve quickly extinguished it and they headed off. 

The scorpion, while already decided it could live, was clearly not met to go in the fire.  It was released over the side of the house back to not my room.  Now its almost 1am, I have to work at 7am and I can’t sleep for shit…and the internet doesn’t work, so this is going to have to wait to be posted for at least a day or so.

3/9/2014

On the big island for the weekend and have been having a great time.  Marina has now met both sets of parents and I think it was pretty painless.  But the weekend distractions have been pretty good.  Friday we went diving, two dives.   A reef dive and night dive with the manta rays.  The first dive was amazing, the visibility was so much better than where I dive on a regular basis.  Saw so many things from the basic eels and fish to garden eels, spinner dolphins, octopus, and a nudibranch.  Even on the way to the dive our boat stopped for a couple whales that were within 20 feet of the boat for about 10 minutes.

The second dive was Marina's first night dive and was also re aally cool.  It was supposed to be the manta ray night dive where everyone gathers and uses their lights to attract plankton and briang in the rays.  Not many came through, but still saw 3 and 1 stayed overhead for a while circiling and being awesome.  Saw a whole bunch of custraceans, lobster, shrimp, something in a big shell and an eel eating a fish.  Overall the dive was great.  I am a huge fan of the night dives and cant wait to do more.

Then on Saturday we went to volcano and checked the national park out.  It was pretty cool although the lava flows in the area have stopped.  It was much better to come back at night and see the crater lighting up the area from the glow.  My cell phone did not do it mcuh justice but thankfully Terry was able to get some good shots.  This morning we hiked through the crater and walked across the old volcano flow.  The landscape was unreal in distant plantet kind of way.  What Mars or the Moon should look like, but the weather was great and with mild overcast and good wind it was a really pleasant hike for  walking on Mars.  After the hike we had lunch in Hilo and headed back to Kona.  One more day here and then its back to Oahu and time to get ready to move...

March 3, 2014

updates...
school finished yesterday for the last real term.  Still waiting on one grade, but should be another straight A term.  Passed the research class so now the last term is going to be finishing my research project and defending my project.  Should be pretty easy as I am confident with what I have put together so far.  Then I am done. Will have a masters degree and the debt to prove it, question is now what to do with it...

I have started working at Smart Karate teaching martial arts to kids.  I think through them I am going to be able to get a black belt in karate, although to be honest I'm not sure what that would be worth at this point in my martial arts progression.  Some of the knowledge, self-defense and weapons stuff is fun, but a lot of the abstract and fancy kicks that they teach for the higher level belts is really not that useful.  Plus having the belt doesn't get me more MMA matches... but who knows.  Would be fun to have, but would prefer one in BJJ.  That might take a few more years, or a decade.

The dive job has been going better since the new captain, George has been handling more of the admin duties.  Staffing seems to be running better as well since they removed one of the divers and replaced him with a string of new people, they never seem to last that long.  One of the current divers is going to be sailing a boat that he made from Hawaii to the mainland.  When he takes off I am going to move to three days a week from two.  But at the moment he is waiting for a window in the weather.  Between that and Smart Karate I am almost to a real number of hours working in a week.  Not quite, I  want to ease myself into it.

I think I will try to get myself one more fight to try and redeem the loss from January.  Maybe in May or June when I can really dedicate myself to work and training without the third distraction of school.  Not sure what kind of schedule I will have once I start the hunt for a real job or something that might use either Chinese or psych so I want to get another fight in while I know I have the time for a good training camp.

Last real update is that Marina and I will be moving together and got word today on an apartment on liholiho street.  Going to be signing the papers in a couple days, trip to the big island to see my mom and then time to move in.  The Robert place house is starting to wrap up and slowly cleaning out the house.  At least stocking the kitchen should be pretty easy.  Pics of the new place to come.