Coffee Time

Coffee time in the morning should be memorable experience with quiet time for introspection. Coffee should be sipped, not gulped down. Yet, coffee time was debauched by poor customer service at various fast food joints and by idiotic customers. Shitty coffee in a nice environment is way better than decent coffee in a shitty environment.

Enter Nescafé® Taster’s Choice® instant coffee ... actually it’s not bad at all. Fast to prepare ... hot water courtesy the microwave oven in the “old folks home” community room. That’s 16 ounces of coffee for pennies. No shitty customer service. No loud Korean senior citizens. No bullshit.

Only extra time and care must be taken to thoroughly clean the Contigo® travel cup. Otherwise, the old coffee residue will taint the flavor of the already-marginal instant coffee. And, the ambience at The Lanai in Ala Moana Center at 8am is very nice. In all honesty, there’s no possible return to the horrid fast food coffee experience.

Warning: Do NOT wash coffee travel cup with dish detergent. Residue taints coffee. Use baking soda with water instead.

iPhone 7

The Apple® iPhone 7 has essentially been a big, albeit expensive, disappointment. The only “saving grace” over its former Android® counterpart is that it may receive OS updates for longer than two years. As with any “smartphone,” there are no useful “apps” except for the standard system ones. Third-party “apps” are mostly useless and vain, many of which require additional purchases to become fully functional or devoid of tacky advertising.

iPhone 7

The “smartphone” is essentially an opioid and a medium for mindless consumption. Every component of the device requires some kind of subscription to wireless services. Of course, the device is fairly powerful now that a standalone computer is not necessary. Most productivity or utility software is available for mobile devices. For that, the “smartphone” is indispensable.

The update to iOS 11.3 today finally brought the battery health function to the device. The iPhone 7 tested perfect, most likely because it now only goes through a complete charging cycle every 3-5 days.

Sadly, there are quality issues with iOS. For example, deleting system “apps” is now possible. However, the settings panes for some of those “apps” remain visible and functional. The problem seems to get worse with each new iteration.

Update: Bug report submitted.

Senior Citizen Housing

The Sand Island homeless shelter’s housing staff provided placement in “affordable” ($835 + $40 rent & parking per month) senior citizen housing in town. Utilities (i.e. electricity) not included. The term “affordable” is used loosely in describing the small one-bedroom unit.

“Old Folks Home”

Electricity is currently costing $16 per month with all appliances (i.e., water heater, refrigerator, air conditioner) turned off. No cooking is done in the unit either. Lights are rarely used. So, the total expenditure to reside in the “old folks home” is about $900 per month. However, first month rent and security deposit were covered by the Sand Island homeless shelter parent organization.

Residing in the “old folks home” is less than ideal. Many of the residents are 80+ years old and very close to needing “assisted living.” Mortality is a constant reminder. At best, the “old folks home” is a temporary arrangement for sanity’s sake. However, various contingencies have been thwarted, including the plan to purchase a leasehold condominium in Waikiki.

As part of the transient nature of the “old folks home,” absolutely no furniture, appliances, or amenities have been purchased. The unit is stark, bland, pitiful at best. Only an airbed, provided by the Sand Island homeless shelter, is sitting in the bedroom.

The location of the “old folks home,” on King Street in lower Makiki, is a “stone’s throw” from where the formerly-homeless buddy had set up camp with his associates. Very ironic.

Closing the Homeless Chapter & Beyond

The experience of residing at the Sand Island homeless shelter was priceless. Many lessons were learned. Sad to say, the Sand Island homeless shelter is ideal for people with modest means and humble expectations. What more do mere mortals need?

Sand Island Community Tent

Placement in the “old folks home” was not a happy event. Some details were provided in the form of “tweets” on Twitter® interspersed between other nonsense. A future footnote will consolidate those thoughts and update any newsworthy events. For the time being, the “old folks home” is now considered a temporary residence. That is, until a more cohesive strategic plan is developed.

The original Twitter® feed has undergone a strange metamorphosis. In its current Molech phase, there is little resembling the original concept. The Molech theme has been extracted from the old “blogs,” so the reasoning behind it all can be found in the latter.

The reinstatement of the so-called “footnotes” is an emergency measure taken to fork the original content in the Twitter® from the Molech theme. The need to do so is necessitated by the upcoming plan to switch to a “pay ‘n go” wireless plan, which has basically no data allocation. Heck, there is basically no talk time or text message allocation either. In essence, the switch is the equivalent of Net disconnection.