Aloha My Friends!
Happy New Year! 2019 is going to be an amazing year where the only constant is going to be change! I have declared this theme both to prepare you for the unbridled pace of innovation and global change – as well as to prime the pump for all of us to make the most healthy and beneficial changes we can in this brand new year.
My Hat’s Off to You in 2019! I’ve freshly shaved my head for 2019 so the answer to the question that no one is asking “What does a vagobond keep under his hat?” Is now revealed – “Nothing!”
I am making a number of personal and professional changes this year. As a part of that, I will be making some changes to Vagobond too. I will be keeping my focus on my home island of Oahu and the State of Hawaii but will be easing my editorial schedule a bit. There will be new articles and blog posts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Fridays will continue to be ‘Flashback Friday‘ and Saturday will continue to be the Saturday Slideshow. Flashback Fridays will be looking back at my past global travel adventures and Slideshow Saturday will be a mostly visual post focusing on pictures I have taken or will take in my travels. Friday and Saturday posts will be all over the globe. Monday and Wednesday posts will be focused closer to home.
Also, even though I have mixed feelings about social media – in 2019 I will be putting a renewed focus on Vagobond’s social media. I’ve neglected creating a decent YouTube channel for over a decade now and I’d like to correct that this year. My podcast Vagobond Podcast Adventures will continue with more of a travel focused theme. I will also try my hardest to give some energy to Facebook, Pinterest, and whatever the newest social media might be. My Instagram (@vagobond) and Twitter (@vagobond) accounts are way too far gone as personal accounts for me to be able to reign them into a tight niche – so you’re stuck on those with my art posts, political commentary, and whatever else I might want to throw up there. I will also be making some aesthetic changes to the way Vagobond.com looks – so don’t be surprised if the site looks different from time to time.
One more note about the year of change – this year, I am going to be taking all of my spare change and putting it in my daughter’s ‘share’ bank. When the bank is full, she and I will be deciding how to donate it or use it to help others. This is a bit of an experiment on my part because I want to see just how much a little change can actually add up to over the course of a year and whether it is enough to do some serious good. Welcome to the YEAR OF CHANGE and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Sincerely and wishing you happiness and joy in 2019,
Christopher ‘Vago’ Damitio
Founder and Chief Balderdasher, Vagobond.com
1/1/19 5:00 a.m.
Honolulu, Hawaii
After several years off the internet – Vagobond is back. I started Vagobond back in 2008 after graduating from the University of Hawaii. Vagobond and I travelled all over the world. I separate us because while I am Vagobond (aka Vago), Vagobond.com became something of it’s own. A community of writers, travellers, photographers, and friends. In 2016, amid massive internet wide hacks – Vagobond was hacked and infected with a huge number of viruses which were then being distributed outwards to the community we had built, new friends, and strangers. It was not good. So I made the decision to remove Vagobond.com from the internet for a while. During the time the site was offline, my family and I moved back to where it all began – the Hawaiian Islands also known throughout the world as paradise found.