An explanation of my last two posts.

Goya is a bitter tasting vegetable that is eaten regularly in Okinawa. I've seen it sold in the area but it's a little different, both in texture and taste. My mom grows the"Okinawan" kind in the summer in Michigan and asked me if I would like her to send me some. Naturally I excitedly replied yes. The video was taken on my cellphone (hence the poor quality) and is me going on about how good Pat and I's goya champuru tastes. In the champuru, "stir fry or mix", is goya, spam, eggs, bean sprouts, and tofu. By the way goya is also known as a bitter melon or gourd ( think) and in Japanese is called Nigauri.

Goya Champuru

If the video's not working for you, you can go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNHPHsiGcdE

お母さん、ありがとう！昨日、ミシガンからゴーヤが来ました。お母さんがゴーヤを育ちました。

パットと私はゴーヤチャンプルーを作りました。味がすごい懐かしかった。

This is really how it's like :)

MP3 powered by Sugar



Why eat it when you can use it to power your MP3? Huh? I'm talking about sugar (glucose) powering your MP3. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing battery but it's a start. Better than the lithium ion batteries Sony had in their laptops last year. In case you forgot they were the batteries that had to be recalled due to a little problem called fire.

To learn more about the battery, you can check out the
Sony site

This site will give you a chance to brush up on your Japanese also as there's no English.

A work of art

One of my ex-roommates, Kristina, has had her art exhibited at Bloomingdale's in San Francisco for the past couple weeks.  It's taken me too long to go check it out but during lunch I took a stroll to check out her work.  I'd seen a lot of her paintings before as she had them up in the apartment when we lived together but to see it up in an exhibit setting was really cool.  I'm not an art critic but I felt that she put her show together very well and it really did wonders to make the area much more visually exciting.  You can check out her work on her website: www.kristinaq.com

 

 

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm still young, right?

In a city like San Francisco, you meet a lot of interesting people.  It's quite a diverse city but I've noticed that a lot of people went to tier 1 schools for undergrad and grad school.  I've never really thought too hard about where I fall in the whole smart & successful lineup but it can be a tad in your face here.  In Okinawa, my friends and I (for the most part) were all doing the same thing, getting paid the same, and living in the same types of apartments.  It was a very comfortable, non confrontational existence.  I pretty much put my life on hold careerwise, unless I move back to Okinawa and teach, and now find myself playing catch up.  I'm not bitter, actually most of the time I'm quite the opposite.  The adventures and experiences I've had in my 20's will be cherished and I've made some wonderful friends all over the world.  But in this dog eat dog world, it can be tough keeping your priorities straight.  I notice the guy who drives the really nice car to the really nice apt, and sometimes I notice his really nice looking girlfriend.  It sounds nice but up until this point, I've decided that there needs to be a line where I leave time for myself and not overwork.  This has come in the form of exercise in my case.  I spend 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week training for marathons and triathlons.  I've gotten faster over the past couple years and this year has culminated with me qualifying for the Boston marathon.  I enjoy all this exercise and I was planning on doing an Ironman next year, after Boston.  But with pressure to succeed careerwise, I find myself torn between my training and taking the GMAT and business classes.  After thinking about my choices, I think I've come to the conclusion that I'll do Boston next year, but I'll start taking classes in International business this fall.  When I moved back to the states after 5 years in Japan, everybody told me that my international experience and language skills would be enough to get me that great job.  I am happy but I think it's time that I took that next step towards being more marketable.  Who knows where my thoughts will be in a few months but for now, you know what I'm thinking.  By the way, my thoughts have been summarized a great deal in this blog entry.  If you really want to know how I got from point A to point B, feel free to ask me. 

A sad realization

Well, I shaved my head before my last tri and have been growing it back since.  I've fallen back into the faux hawk style (spiked towards the middle).  It's occurred to me that I really don't have much choice as on either side of the faux, my hair has become a tad thin.  I'm in no rush to post a pic so you'll just have to wait. ;)

Rule of thumb

If you're not sure you can bench press the weight on the bar, then make sure you have a spotter. 

Guy at the gym dropped the bar on his face yesterday.  Had a nice bar mark across the side of it. 

He looked ok besides the big red line and humiliation.  That's why I only lift my own body weight, ie. pull ups and dips.

 

Identity Crisis

With all these new reality shows coming out, I've got one where I can be the contestant.  Not sure if it's been done yet as I'm pretty behind on the whole popular shows front but we'll call my show "Identity Crisis."  I'll be the contestant, bachelor, single guy and there will be 20 women.  Half of the women will be white and the other half will be Asian, I guess Japanese in my case.  The show will be PG-13, I won't be making out with all the girls!  My grandma might watch and so I'd like to keep it "children" friendly.  We'll mix it up and keep it interesting by having Survivor type contests.  I don't know about you but that sounds like fun to me. 

 

     

 

Do you know how good you have it?

We've all seen in the news lately how the bridge in Minnesota collapsed or troops dying in Iraq.  Such stories are the subject of conversations when we talk of death or destruction but we don't really talk about what's going on in other parts of the world.  Did you know that there is massive flooding going on in South Asia?  Here are some highlights from a story I just read on CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/03/soasia.floods/index.html?eref=rss_latest) :

• Millions affected in South Asia by what U.N. calls "worst floods in memory"
• Officials say more than 1,000 killed or injured
• India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal all hit by rising waters

I can't imagine what those people are going thru.  I know that we have the same natural disasters here in the states but we truly are lucky to have assistance in such cases.  It never even occurred to me that along with landslides and disease, they also have to worry about snakebites. 

 

Really puts things into perspective. 

Purikura

Went to the Asian Art Museum yesterday for a special on Tezuka Osamu Manga (comics).  I wasn't aware of all the different comics he had done and a lot of them weren't "children friendly"  There was also a wood block exhibit that was interesting but the manga portion was the part I enjoyed the most.  There was also some performance art going on where 4 people were "dancing" in different parts of  the museum.  It ended with them slowly going down the stairs, rolling on the ground towards the exit for about 10 minutes, and then slowly walking out of the museum with a hand raised like how Japanese kids raise their hands when crossing the street.  When they reached the street, they just kept going.  By chance, a cab was driving by and stopped in their path because he thought they were trying to catch a cab.  It was a very funny moment.  I didn't get pics of it but here are some pics I did get.

I've waited long enough

Today I finally bought the new Harry Potter book.  I've been holding out since I've been busy with training for the marathon, work, and also wanted to finish the current book I'm reading, Lamb by Christopher Moore.  I will probably start reading Harry tonight and hopefully be done by Sunday.  I've got a packed weekend but if this book is anything like the previous six, it won't matter as I'll spend every free moment glued to the pages. 

 

Signed,

 

John Hayato - Griffindor Mudblood

MarathonFoto.com took some great photos of me but I don't feel like buying them. You can follow the link and see small images of me.

Congratulations on your accomplishment at the San Francisco Marathon. I did it and they have the proof(s) to show online. Click on the link below to see all of the race photos. http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?RaceOID=27892007M1&LastName=BRANDERHORST&BibNumber=5630&Mailing=5147