Real quick... something I forgot to mention

One other update I forgot to mention: Becca-isms (in General Blather).

Becca is my second daughter. She can sometimes be a bit... uhm... interesting. I had a page with a few of her quotes on it, but of course that meant remembering her off-hand comments long enough to write them down.

Better solution: she now has her own blog where she can do what she does best - ramble. Have you ever seen the movie, "Airplane". Do you remember that guy in the control tower? He was that one who would make random comments like "Aunty Em! Aunty Em! It's a twister! A twister!" Well, Becca reminds me a lot of him sometimes...

Her first post is a tale she like to tell about the "apple kingdom". That tale gets more "interesting" each time she tells it.

Enjoy! And consider yourself warned. ^-^

May get to that Japanese diary entry tomorrow...
Need sleep.

peace

Updates

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

Those words were written by Albert Einstein, a truly intelligent man and fellow pacifist. I was looking up the dates he lived for my daughter and was sucked in by the rest of the site... and the links to a couple other sites. What should have been a "quick look up" turned into an afternoon's reading! He was an extremely fascinating person!

Actually, until I saw that quote, I was going to use the Rush song "Time Stand Still" as the theme to start my post. I've been planning it for over a week. The song is about wanting time to stand still for a little while so that we can more fully enjoy everything that is around us now. Ironically, it didn't get posted due to lack of time.

Between work, and kids' schoolwork, and Sakura-Con meetings, and errands, and appointments, my life has been like a run-away train.

I found out that I have a couple weeks vacation at work that I have to use by the end of the year. I plan to take at least a week of it next month sometime... and for once, I don't wan't to go anywhere. I normally am the type of person who wants to go places and explore, but this time I want to just stay home and spend time with the kids and maybe catch up on my email... maybe take the kids to a park. I miss the days when I could just throw them in the car and go wherever whenever we had the notion. Now we have to plan days in advance and hope nothing comes up to get in the way. (sigh) It used to be that I had more time than money. Now, thanks to the economy being the way it is, I don't have much of either.

Well, it's after 10:00pm... my "day off" is nearly over. I did manage to squeeze in a couple updates in on my web site... stuff I'd intended to do month's ago. I've added a couple "featured artist" pages to "Let's Talk Music": Far East Native and Tetsuro Morita. You've probably noticed I've changed my featured artists to a constant list from the "artist of the month" format. I could never keep up with it the other way... and this offers me the luxury of updating the artists' information a little more often.

I condensed down the concert calendar information for those artists I was keeping tabs on down to just the Yoshiki Fukuyama concert calendar and the Shounan Artists Concert Calendar.

Of course, this was all done at the expense of answering my email... I will get to it soon. Promise.

Right now, I need to go post in the Japanese version of the diary so I can finish and get to bed by midnight. I have to get up at 04:45 tomorrow to continue the ride on that runaway train...

By the way, the site map needs to be updated a little bit. I'll set it to right during my vacation next month. Good night.

peace

It's been a while, eh...

Saturday, our family took a long needed ride together to the ocean. We were crammed 8 people in an old 7 passenger van, but it felt good to get out. We need to do it more often.

Between my work schedule and my husband's schedule, we only have 1 day out of the week that we can all be together... if there are no meetings or appointments on that day. I miss the days before I had to get a part time job to help make ends meet. Back then, the kids and I were able to just jump in the car and go explore. Now, we have to plan everything in advance to make sure everyone's calendars are free.

Outside of work and the kids, I've been quite busy. Sakura-Con came and went in a blur, but we've already begun planning again for Sakura-Con 2005. This year, I'm volunteer coordinator again and I'm helping to create the Japanese language version of the site. That should be up within the next month. Also, I am now the ANCEA treasurer. ANCEA is the parent corporation for Sakura-Con. Like Sakura-Con, ANCEA is run by all volunteers... yea, we actually do this just for the sake of doing it. Crazy, eh. ^-^

In other news, I've finished the travel journal from our trip to Japan, finally. I do have a few extras I still plan on adding to the English version of the site, but the journal itself is finished.

I've got Fukuyama-san's new album. As expected, it's awsome! I've got one of the song translations finished... the rest will get done as I have time.

It's nearly 2:00 am already. I have to get up at 6:00am to get my son going and get myself ready for work. The weekend has gone too fast...

I'll have to do my Japanese language journal entry tomorrow... having trouble keeping eyes open now...

peace

Sakura-Con is coming soon...

Change of plans on the 6th: We decided to drive to a park instead. Pt. Defience park in Tacoma is criss-crossed with over 100 miles of hiking trails. This time, the kids and I hiked up from the promenade at Owens Beach.

This week was my baby's birthday. She turned 7... I guess she's not really a baby anymore, eh. ^-^

I updated a few things on the website this last few days:
- Concert schedule information added for both Fukuyama-san and Aso-san
- I changed the appearance of the lyrics/translation page for "hachigatsu muika", adding a picture and making it more readable
- still slowly adding to the Japan trip report
- oh... and in case you didn't see it already, Fukuyama-san has a new solo album coming out in July!

Sakura-Con, the Northwest United State's largest anime convention, is coming up April 23-25. This year we are expecting well over 4,000 people!

Check out the website at www.sakuracon.org

I work on Sakura-Con's staff as the Volunteer Coordinator. That means that until the 26th I am extremely busy. I'll try to get an update or two done to my site before then, but no promises, eh. ^-^

Till next time... peace

It's Spring! ^-^

It's been a fun week... work, broken toilets, bills, etc.

However, today I have no work, no major errands, and it's beautiful outside! We have several trees in our yard, all of them in some stage of bloom: cherry, plum, apricot, apple, pear, quince. Even hayfever can't dampen my spirits today! \(^-^)/

I'm going to try to get a couple updates done on the site this morning. After that, the kids and I are going to a park. It's too nice to stay cooped up inside.

peace

I love computers. I really do...

I keep telling myself that. Maybe some year, I'll convince myself. Right now, I have a headache.

One of the local power company's transformers blew a couple blocks away, and took my computer with it. I've been spending the last few days combining what was not blown on my computer, with parts from an older computer we had out in the garage. At least, my hard drives turned out to be intact... although a lot of things had to be re-set up.

Tonight, I've got to take Becca somewhere. After that, maybe I'll get a chance to catch up on email and/or finish my Japan trip report. Right now, I'm tired. I need a shower...

peace

Still working on that Japan report...

I can't believe it's already February 15th! The time is flying so fast!

I've started the Japan report... look for it under "General Blather". So far, I've finished through the 20th. I've finally got a day free today, so I'm going to work on the 21st and 22nd. Hopefully, I may even get to the 23rd. That's the day I first saw Fukuyama-san! I used a roll and a half of film that day! ^-^

Tomorrow, it's back to real life and work... and a van with a bad engine. I'm ready for vacation again! Where would I go? Well, Japan sounds nice...

peace

I love Japan!

The two weeks we spent in Japan were absolutely awsome!

The cities were clean, transportation easy, and the people were the best part yet! With very few exceptions, everyone we met was helpful and friendly. I didn't want to leave... I definitely want to go back some day.

At my husband's suggestion, I took lots of pictures - 11 rolls worth, in fact. I got all but one of the rolls back from developing now. The last one will be ready on Saturday. As my schedule allows, I'm working on a report of the trip for the web site...

Hopefully, it'll be ready soon. ^-^
Now I go to bed. I have leave for work in 4 hours...

peace

ready or not...

I don't have much time to post. We need to leave within the hour and I still need to get in the shower.
Our plane leaves for Tokyo at 0945. Ready or not, here we come...

If I can, I'll post from Japan. If not, I'll see you in two weeks. ^-^

peace

It snowed again today...

This winter has been a lot different than the past few years. Not only did we get snow, but we got it four times! We've actually had snow on the ground for about a week now!

They predicted 6-8 inches of snow for this morning, changing to rain by late afternoon. We got at least 6 inches, I think. It was nice having real snow. It changes the world somehow. I had an errand to run, so I went for a walk. The air seemed stiller, the white world seemed more innocent, people slowed down and talk more... some grown men were playing a game of street football. Eventually, it did start to rain a little - more of a soft ice mist, actually. It was the kind of rain that was fun to walk in... tinkling like hundreds of small bells as it landed on my coat and hat. The whole thing had a magical feel to it.

It's now about 10pm and raining, but the snow still seems hardly touched. Still, I expect by the weekend that it'll all be gone and we'll be back to the normal Western Washington green. Ah, well. Green is a nice color too, eh.

9 more days till we leave for Japan. I think I'll sleep well on the plane... after I collapse from the exhaustion of getting ready.
peace

It's cold!

I like winter... always have. The fact that it's snowed three times this week absolutely thrills me - but boy is it cold tonight! It's not the actual tempurature that's the problem. I lived through much colder when we lived in Anchorage, but here in the Puget Sound region we get a very wet cold, the kind where it only has to drop to the high 20s to chill a person to the bone. High 20s (farenheit) is what they are predicting for the high temperature tomorrow...

As you can see, I've been playing with the style sheets here learning how to insert pictures and such. It's my first experience using style sheets and there's still a lot to learn. In my case, the best way to learn is by doing. ^_^

12 days left until we leave for Japan. I hear they are having a very mild winter over there this year... Sounds nice.

peace

With the new year comes a new diary...

Happy New Year!

This year, I decided to replace my update Journal with a general diary... well, actually, two of them: one in English (this one) and one in my rather unskilled Japanese. I had thought for quite some time that I should have been translating the Journal entries into Japanese but now, on second thought, I've decided that the English diary and the Japanese diary are going to be seperate. Sometimes they'll say the same things, other times they'll be totally different. If you can read both languages, I'd be happy if you read both diaries.

Things to look for in the near future... update info for my website, of course, but also January is a big month for me and my oldest daughter, Eleanor (age 17). We're going to Japan for two weeks starting January 15th. We arrive in Tokyo at 5:00pm January 16th and come home January 29th. More on the trip details later...

I have to work in the morning and it's getting late. Till next time...
peace