Friday 5 for November 27: Pandemic daze

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. Where do you get most of your pandemic-related news?

Um... hate to say this... Facebook first and then verify the sources by going to the more traditional local news sites like Honolulu Civil Beat, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Hawaii News Now, Hawaii Tribune Herald. Nationally I will occasionally check what the networks are posting to YouTube, Twitter, etc. There are also the State and National health links such as CDC, and Hawaii Dept. of Health. Just letting you know these options vary in terms of timeliness and thoroughness of the coverage.

2. How do you feel about your local government’s leadership during this pandemic?

They are not very good at leading this crises. The Governor says you can do this or have to do that and the four mayors often disagree, like whether or not to quarantine all visitors for 14 days upon arrival to Hawaii or from within the islands of Hawaii. State says you get a negative test, and you don't have to quarantine. Counties are saying quarantine negative test or not... BAAAHH!!!!!! HUMBUG!

Best to just hunker down, stay home and not go out as often... thereby killing our economy even further than it already is. Hawaii's economy has been in the toilet long before the pandemic hit. We have some of the highest taxes in the nation, the highest cost of living in the nation and some of the stupidest public works projects in the making such as the $14 billion rail project that does not want to die and only suck more money out of the taxpayers.

Guess what? Many taxpayers have no jobs and can't afford the continual bombardment on our wallets. The tourists are not coming to alleviate some of that horrible rail tax collections, thanks to the insipid non-leadership of current elected officials. I don't see much change happening with the some of the recently elected crop of leaders coming into office.

We're doomed.

3. What does your favorite mask look like, and about how many masks have you accumulated?

First of all I HATE MASKS and the mask mandates. Ugh!

Favorite mask you ask? NONE. I only wear them because government requires me to wear them. More of our freedoms have been taken away in the name of safety because of the pandemic. 

I have about 8 to 10 masks of various quality. I am not a fashion guru or anything like that so I just go for something cheap and mostly plain colored... like the standard cheap ass light blue ones, or black or white cloth ones. I don't care much for patterns. I rather blend into the woodwork vs. stand out in a crowd.

4. Where have you most often had takeout during this pandemic?

I have not eaten at a restaurant since February 2020... my last restaurant meal was with a friend at LikeLike Drive-in. After 67 years in business and because of government closure and regulatory "martial" laws passed in the last 9 months, this restaurant and hundreds of others are now gone and closed forever.

I haven't bought a takeout meal from anywhere since the pandemic started. I just buy stuff that I cook mostly in my microwave and stay at home most of my days. Life is no longer interesting, much less fun.

5. What new interests, skills, or hobbies have you picked up since mid-March?

I'm mostly in a state of depression lately and some of my hobbies haven't interested  me much as of late. I have no motivation to go out to take photos or just see stuff. I am feeling so blah in this science fiction like, dystopian life we are now living in.

Learning the ins and outs of my recently acquired iMac with MacOS 10.15 is a new skill I am doing. I had to replace some of my older 32 bit MacOS apps with 64 bit compliant ones, several of which are new... so there is that. I divorced myself from the Adobe suite and Office because I hate subscription based software. Luckily some of the Apple apps and non-subscription software I bought years ago allowed transfer to new versions on the new Mac without incurring new costs. Thankfully I had kept most of the old software registration information, which meant all upgrades were free. So now I am learning a bunch of new versions of software I have used for a long time.

Friday 5 for April 10: Excitement in the domicile

The following questions are from Scrivener's Weekly Friday 5 site.

I guess most of the questions these days address our stay at home lives. Thanks #COVID19.

1. In what way have you recently been naughty?

Generally I am a law abiding citizen, so the chances of me doing anything serious naughty is next to slim. This morning I did take a walk to a closed park and only ventured on the extreme edge of the park, mainly to take pictures of the "PARK CLOSED" signs.

You don't want to venture out these days for much in Hawaii because you risk being caught and fined up to $5,000 and/or jail time. Um... no thanks. I'll just mostly stay home.

2. What’s the closest you’ve been to death-defying these past few weeks?

• Forgetting to wash my hands sometimes.
• Forgetting to dodge the unstable and unclean homeless people when I'm out in public. Don't want to catch #COVID19.
• Just going out of the house can be death defying with all the COVID-19 viruses out there.

3. What temptations have you recently resisted?

I so want to drive and walk into Waikiki just to take photos of the abandoned roads, closed stores, hotels and beaches. This would probably be safe to do in a car, but since I am mostly the only one driving and riding in my car, I don't think I can get decent pictures while driving. Plus it is dangerous to do that, and also breaks the "using a device while driving" statute. It would be easier to do if someone else drove and I just shot pictures. Hmmmm....

4. What’s something you wish you didn’t recently see?

On my early morning walk this week, I was treated to a ghastly sight! Right there on South King Street in plain site, near a small tree.... was... get ready for this.....

A GREAT BIG HUMAN TURD! Oh yuck It was about 10 inches long and it looked like to be 2 inches thick... It was dark brown and a few flies were buzzing around it. How disgusting! Luckily I did not take any pictures of that. The next day as I walked down the same street, it was gone. Somebody cleaned it up.

5. What behavior from others are you excusing nowadays?

When people actively avoid me when I am oncoming. Good. We are all potentially contaminated.

Friday 5 for March 20: Healthy sequestration?

As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues, we have this wonderful set of questions on self sequestration. Thanks Scrivener.

1. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do for your mental health?

Take some herbal medicine that my friend Lisa has given me. Listen to some audio books, meditation podcasts and new age music to make me fall asleep.

2. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to feel connected?

Talk and listen to Lisa more closely. Also talk to my sister, friends and other people on the phone.... and connect to my other friends, relatives and acquaintances through the usual virtual apps... Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Voice, etc. It is good to be connected on a personal level to people as well as being connected to media news on COVID-19 updates and er... um... the government... and industry.

3. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to relax?

A. Sleep more
B. Hopefully find time to walk around where places are still open and allowed.
C. Take pictures of stuff.
D. Listen to music
E. Watch useless videos and online movies/TV shows.
F. Listen to audio books and podcasts
G. Read stuff - books maybe... online news and stuff.

4. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to make yourself laugh?

Make up stupid songs to sing for Lisa.

5. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to flex your creativity?

Work at home on stuff my boss sends me and expects me to do.

Update ALH website and Facebook page. Set up the April newsletter.

For my own sake... take pictures of stuff if I can or want to.

Perhaps write something on my blogs... update my genealogy stuff...

Finish writing my will... er... is that fun or creative? No.

Friday 5 for March 13: Social Distancing

We're doomed.

1. In what ways have recent events altered your everyday life or your plans?

I'm buying more toilet paper, stocking up pack by pack on separate one purchase trips to Don Quijote after buying some bulk packs at WalMart before they ran out. Been stocking up on some other items such as soap.

2. Where’s a good place to dine out if you want to practice comfortable social distancing?

Anywhere that has a drive through window or take out. Spend as minimal time as possible in a crowded venue. Best to stay home and be isolated even if you are not sick. Better to be safe than sorry.

3. How’s your mood lately?

As usual always pessimistic. More so now that we have this COVID-19 virus running rampant. But I've been extremely pessimistic ever since July 11, 2005 when the rail tax became law without the Governor's signature. Now look what we have. A horrible rail that costs way too much money and a virus that will cost us even more money in terms of lost revenue (for state and county) and possibly more taxes and costs thrown at us somewhere down the road. It is definitely no-win situation.

4. If you’re forced to isolate at home for a couple of weeks, what would be your primary source of entertainment?

Nothing much different... spend a lot of time on the computer doing stuff, surfing the internet, streaming music and videos, downloading stuff.

5. How do you think you’d be able to handle two weeks of isolation at home, assuming whoever you live with (if anyone) would do the same?

Probably difficult because I would have to be very careful about exposing her to the virus since she has a weak immune system. One of us would probably have to move out on a temporary basis.

We're doomed. Watch Life After People.