I'm back.

So I haven't written for a while now.  Been busy.  Officially moved off Guam and back to the east coast of the United States.  Just started a new job in marketing and sales, and teaching diving on the side whenever time permits.  The pace is picking up quickly and there is less time available for writing and photography.  Hopefully I will get round to filling these pages once again.  Until then, have a nice life.

The truth about Guam from the perspective of a civilian, Haole, single guy.....

Guam is a beautiful place if you enjoy tropical climates and love to dive.  Some of the best diving in the U.S. is here on this rock where the Philippine Sea meets the Pacific.


But that's besides the point.  If you aren't local (Haole or "Howly,")  or military or female, it's pretty much the end of the earth.

Basically from being here almost a year, I've found out several painful realizations.  This place is great if you're a single military guy.  That's what the talent here is looking for, a nice big fat meal ticket with perks and benefits.  That's what landlords are looking for too because they know they can rent for ridiculous prices.  I've never thought that I'd ever see so many gold diggers.

Most jobs here are minimum wage at best.  The work ethic here is pretty pathetic and everyone knows everyone so forget landing anything salaried because it's contracted out or given to someone's cousin regardless of the qualifications.  Also most of the people who I've met who come here from the states who aren't civilian contractors, Navy or Air Force, are just dead beats who couldn't keep it together back home.

Being form stateside and a civilian with aspirations of teaching diving this was a good idea on paper but now I think otherwise.   At least the training was as cheap as it gets.

So if at first you don't succeed, then don't stay somewhere were you keep getting strung out......

Next up.  My best friend from high school is getting married in Honolulu next week.  I'm going to wish him best of luck and because I need to see what the options are over there.

I have no idea where I'll be in a year.

Happy belated New Years!

Life just got a whole lot busier.  Now back on the tropical island in the middle of the pacific after a mild xmas and new years split between New Jersey and Nagano, Japan.  I've come to realize winter is only fun when you're on skis.

Now working full time as a driver for an aerial tour charter company.  Just testing the waters here.  Hopefully a higher paying job will present an opportunity soon.  The perks at least with this job is I get to fly the company airplane around on my days off to build time towards a possible commercial pilot's certificate in the future for a reduced fee per hour.  Hope to get many hours of x-country time back and forth between Guam, Saipan, Rota and Tinian.  I'm also using my Japanese on a daily basis.

Still diving, finished my emergency first response instructor course. Now just have to wait it out until the instructor diver course happens in march.

More photos to come when I don't feel exhausted after work.

2010: better than '09 but hopefully '11 will be even better!

Here we go around the sun again.  2010 was fun.  2009 being the worst year of my life I think I'm back to my regular wanderlusting self.  Working in New York City for a non-profit although interesting was going nowhere as was living on the east coast.  Frustration with the economy, weather, obnoxious drivers and pedestrians not to mention just being exhausted at the end of every day was no way to go through my early adult life.  So it  was time for a change of address.  How far away could I get without needing a visa?  I moved some 7,000 miles away to the northern Pacific to the island of Guam.  

Meeting Shanon and Wes and the Micronesian Diver's association was great!  I went from being an Open-Water diver all the way to Divemaster (should be done in a week!) and have begun the training to become an instructor.  I've got my diver's lungs back too and am more comfortable in the water than I have ever been.  I've met some really awesome people who love to dive spontaneously (I'm talking about you Kelsey!)  Night diving is my new favorite way to pregame an evening of live music and good beer (The Boonie Dogs!) 

Hopefully My boss Mr. Miyaji at Micronesian Air gets that new engine installed soon, we'll all pile into his Cessna for a long weekend of diving and exploring Saipan and or Rota.  

I've just returned from 3 days of skiing my legs off in Shiga Kogen, Nagano and am back in Tokyo.  In 12 hours I'll be on a plane headed back to Guam.  Last week was hectic as I was spending the holidays with my extended family in New Jersey.  Managed to meet up with my ex-Czech flight instructor Jozef  for 30mins of white knuckle landings at my home strip N05.  Also hit NYC with old friends from Tokyo: Mike and Brian for too much jagger and waking up in a strange apartment.  

Got my dose of winter, now it's time to return to the endless summer of the island.

Bry-Guy is AFK.......

At least until I can get my own connection set up in my apartment.  The free wifi that I was using no longer exists and paying to use the internet cafes is prohibitively expensive.

Other than that I seem to have acquired an electric bill that doubles every month.  I have a feeling that my faulty air conditioner which never seems to stay off is the culprit.  I went to the power company trying to figure out why a single bedroom apartment is drawing 1,200Kilowatts per per month and they're going to send a guy over to investigate my meter.

Good news is I got another part time job.  I'm now an aircraft handler and driver for Micronesian Aviation Systems.  Basically I pick up and drop off Japanese tourists between the airfield and their hotels.  Hopefully this will pan out to be more full-time.  Haven't done much flying this month because Micronesian Air's C-172 is getting a new engine and won't be ready until January.

I've been trying to get a checkout in a smaller Cessna 150 owned by Freedom Air; Micronesian's neighbor.  It's $30 per hour cheaper to rent and 10% slower than a 172 and would be perfect to build 250 hours of pilot in command time between Guam and Saipan.  Only problem is I find new mechanical problems before every flight.  It's actually quite pathetic.  First check flight couldn't be conducted due to an inoperative green (right wing) indicator light by the way are not required to be on for daytime flights, but company policy states that the lights must work.

Next set of problems after the first day were to find that the intercom batteries had died because the mechanic left the unit on and this made the radios unusable.  After fresh 9volt batteries were installed we then found that the starter motor slips and fails to start the engine.

So I rescheduled a week later only to get a call from my flight instructor friend that this time he found a bad magneto (one of two mechanically driven permanent magnet dynamos that provide the charge for the spark plugs,) so we rescheduled yet again.   So the next day after the mechanics had performed extensive cleaning of the cylinders, plugs, magnetos, and fixed the starter motor.......the damn green left wing position light is out again.  OMFG I can't believe this shit!  You must be wondering to yourselves if I'm crazy enough to strap this small hulk of aluminum and rivets to my ass and fly it right?


I'm heading home for the holidays with a brief stop in Tokyo and then on to NJ and NY.  Just a couple weeks, and should be back on island early January.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Island thanksgiving at the Hyatt with free flowing champagne......this could turn out to be an interesting night.




.....Hey it beats open-faced turkey spam sandwiches with cranberry jelly.

A little bit of New York City by bike.

I was recently cleaned out one of my camera's memory cards and found the video footage I shot while cycling in New York City back in May of this year.  I was testing out a new camera called a Go Pro HD Hero.  The device is about the size of a brownie and is as simple as cameras get.  It shoots up to 1080p HD video as well as the ability to automatically snap a 5 mega pixel still every second, 30 seconds or minute depending on how you set it.  It has an ultra wide angle semi-fisheye lens with a maximum aperture of f2.8 for low light situations and comes in a special housing that is water resistant to 180ft, shock resistant, and can be mounted on just about anything.  The Hero can be purchased with additional mounts that allow it to be mounted to windows, via suction cup, roll bars, handlebars, surfboards, your head, helmets, even on the wing of an airplane!  I've seen skydivers strap it to their heads and I strap it to my head when I scuba dive.

Anyways here are some still images cut from footage the first time I used the camera.  It's in 720p, mounted upside down on the front of my bike's handlebars as I rode around NYC for a day.

Enjoy!

The steps at Grove St. station, Jersey City.

Grove St. PATH.

PATH riders

World Trade PATH station exit.

Man at crosswalk.  Woolworth's Building in background.

The New York Stock Exchange, Wall St.

The South St. Seaport.

Musicians performing at the Seaport.

Riding down South St. towards the Staten Island Ferry terminal and Battery Park.

Silhouette of track bike rider, Battery Park.

Korean War Memorial, Battery Park.

Second World War Memorial facing the Hudson, Battery Park.

Looking at the waterfront late in the afternoon, Battery Park.

Wreckage of World Trade Center, now an eternal flame memorial, Battery Park.

Rider approaching the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian level. 

Riding towards Brooklyn.

Heading towards one of the tower supports.

Spider web like design of the wire tension cables.

"Welcome to Brooklyn."

Leaving Brooklyn.

Heading back towards Manhattan.

Sushi Samba.

Heading towards Time Square at dusk.

Time Square.

More Time Square.

Turned the camera on myself, Time Square.

As always, temporary barriers for perpetual construction are placed around sidewalks everywhere.  Riding back towards PATH to go home.