Ending Stress

No matter how bad a day one is going through there is always humor to be found in order to lighten the day. The problem is that once someone is having a really bad day, they have already developed tunnel vision and like the old saying goes; ‘You can’t see the tree because of the forest’.

I was working at one store dealing with four pallets of product, a short time to completely work the pallets to the shelves, condense everything to keep the store manager happy before I had to leave and work a great deal of many more stores in the same situation before heading home to cut the grass while taking care of two kids due to their mother being sick with a summer cold. Oh and do the grocery shopping before coming home. A typical day for the working person.

About half way working this store I was in the back room loading up another cart to take to the floor when I and a few others noticed the store manager acting like he was not happy with his phone conversation. It got to the point that he put the phone on speaker so everyone could here this woman complain in great detail. That is if you count repeating the same thing in every other sentence going into detail. At this moment it became break time.

Apparently, this ‘lady’ was shopping and when it became time to pay for her items; she laid all her coupons on the little counter where you write out checks. After the casher rang up all the items she took the coupons and starting scanning them. To the horror of ‘this lady’ who had not yet sorted out her coupons to decide which ones she was or wasn’t going to use. It took a good ten minutes for the lady on the phone to explain her side of the story due to the fact that every other sentence was; “And then she took my coupons!”

My very long day became a little more enjoyable. Even the Stores receiver was going around in the back room saying ‘Don’t take my coupons.’ A great deal of stress that was building up all of a sudden had gone away. For the rest of the day I kept remembering the sound of a woman screaming on a phone about a cashier taking coupons that were on a counter. Her voice is very similar to Steve Urkel on the TV show Family Matters. But with a lot more of a high pitch whining tone. She might have been having a bad day but I walking on sunshine after listening to her.

Fullmetal Alchemist Muscle video

I made a slideshow using my wife's drawings of characters from Fullmetal Alchemist that were drawn in a more muscular way. Many sites like You Tube and Veoh wouldn't let me upload my video on their sites so I went to Megaupload instead. If one does not have an account will have to enter the four dig-get code then wait about 30 seconds before clicking on the download button. After which you can download the video for your enjoyment.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QM9MAVV6

For us, the video played better using Windows Media Player. But whatever works for you is OK.

Fullmetal Drawing

My wife has been drawing a lot of muscle pictures lately and this one is of Jean Havoc and Lust together.

Lost You Tube Account

I received my third strike with You Tube and as so I lost my account and all the videos I placed on it. Apparently Toei did not like all those Shinkenger videos I made and as such they responded. 


But soon I will be back up under a different name and hopefully making more videos as well. Shimakuwa sounds like a nice name for a You Tube account name. Its Okinawan for Island person

Ashita no Joe - Live Action Movie

The official website for the live-action film adaptation of Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba's classic boxing manga Ashita no Joe has begun streaming a 30-second teaser trailer. 25-year-old Tomohisa Yamashita (Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Kurosagi) of the idol group NEWS stars as an orphan named Joe Yabuki who rises from the Tokyo slums under the tutelage of a former boxer. Actor and boxing "otaku" Teruyuki Kagawa (20th Century Boys, Tsurugidake Tennoki, Tales from Earthsea) plays Yabuki's boxing tutor Danpei Tange, Karina plays the heroine Yōko Shiraki, and Yusuke Iseya (Casshern, Honey and Clover) plays Yabuki's rival Rikiishi Tōru. Fumihiko Sori (Ping Pong, Vexille - 2077 Isolation of Japan, To, Dragon Age) is directing the film, which will open in Japan next February.

Takamori and Chiba's original 1968-1973 manga is among the most critically acclaimed stories in Japanese popular culture, and Osamu Dezaki's television series added to the story's iconic status. It would later influence two generations of sports and shōnen manga, including Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit). A crucial twist in the Ashita no Joe television anime's plot made headlines in Japan as people marked the occasion with public ceremonies.

Tai Seng licensed the first Ashita no Joe anime film for North America in 2008. A relatively new anime distributor named Animewho also released the Joe vs. Joe video anime series that same year. There was an earlier live-action film directed by the late Yasuharu Hasebe. (LINK)

Stuck Truck

Nothing like taking a nice drive around the country side and as we journey through the town of Zebulon, NC we encountered a rather interesting site. A semi became stuck to the road as he was leaving a Family Dollar store. It took a large toe truck to pull the semi as well as his cargo back off the road and onto a more level surface. All the while leaving afternoon traffic go make their journey home to include a side trip through a car dealership. All in all a very interesting day to a rather normal hot, sticky sweat-filled day.

Dilbert

I've been playing around on the Dilbert website. Once you set up your free account, one can play around with the strips by changing the last panel into whatever one wants. A little fun to pass the time and by voting on your own strip as well as others to see who is funnier than Scott Adams.

August Banner

A new picture my wife drew for my blog.

Back to School

The phrase ‘Back to School’ has created many feeling some of which has reached almost biblical proportions. For the parents it is a time of celebration. A time to return the living room back into a place that doesn’t look like a Toys R Us store. To the kids it is like off to prison to face multiple homework assignments, peer pressure and learning how to remove underwear from their but crack. And to those who do not have kids it is a time to complain like Satan about being stuck behind a school bus that make stops every 100 feet to pick up a child or two.

In all a time where the malls are less crowded, the roads have less teenagers on it until the afternoon and knowing you can finally go to a movie theater without listening to a bunch of kids talking throughout the entire film. But there are those small encounters that happen that leave one in awe. It was on a Saturday morning around October 2004 at a grocery store near State University in Raleigh, NC. The store had just opened up and I was inside writing down what I needed to fill up the shelf and displays before moving on to other stores in the area that this once in a lifetime event was preparing to take place.

The manager approached me to talk about moving a display to another area of the store plus general chit chat about sports and relative news topics. A customer entered the store which at that time of the morning was a rarity being that it was still dark outside and too early for anyone to really want to do anything on a weekend, especially around a University. We glanced over at this female customer and was struck that she was wearing a trench coat and running shoes. After a while the manager and I were still talking when she came near to where we were and while holding her current purchases tried to bend down and pick up another item. When she stood up we were given a show that was right out of a Penthouse forum.

Her coat was not buttoned or zippered up but instead it was held together with the strap that went around the coat. When the girl stood back up, her coat strap had come undone and as her coat opened up we were given a view of a college woman wearing a trench coat, running shoes and that’s it. Clean shaven in all the right areas with a body well suited as the center fold of a Playboy magazine. Realizing that we were looking at her and she knew we were looking she stayed real calm and cool and placed the items in her possession down, stood up and fixed her hair followed by adjusting her coat and retying the strap back around her coat. She then picked up her items and continued her shopping.

Needless to say the manager excused himself and proceeded to walk around the store keeping an eye mainly on her. Going as so far as to help bag her groceries and watch as she left the store and returning to the dormitories located just behind the store. Needless to say the man was in love. I on the other hand finished the rest of the day in a very good mood later wishing I had took her picture as the manager had done. But in all as time goes on when the bad days outnumber the good ones; I know memories like these will always cheer me up.

Time marches on and by now that girl may be around 25 years old it is safe to say that she will always have the memory of two guys with their mouth wide opened just staring at her. And having an overweight store manager attended to her every need while she was inside the store. As for me, well, let’s just say that I am not a State fan and leave it at that. After all it’s to be expected that activities like these happen a lot around this area.

UNICEF Uses Donations to Sue Critics into Silence

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UNICEF Japan, the children’s charity noted for considering the rights of imaginary children as more important than those of real ones, and for funding the lavish lifestyle of Agnes Chan, has come under sustained attack for its heavy handed attempt to muzzle a critic, using donations supposedly intended to feed starving children to fund a campaign of legal action against him.

A critic of UNICEF who became concerned about their latest donation drive, the “Tap Nagoya Project,” composed his objections into a letter which he then sent to participating businesses, also putting the letter online for all to read.

UNICEF’s reaction was to sue him in an attempt to silence the site.

A summary of the letter which prompted this attack:
UNICEF Japan recently held a fund-raising event called the “Tap Nagoya Project,” and there are some important questions I feel must be brought to your attention.

1. Are you aware that the organisation known as UNICEF Japan has no connection to the UN agency of the same name and merely appropriated the name? [details]
2. Are you aware that a quarter of all the donations received by this organisation are in effect “kickbacks,” having been used to build and furnish the organisation’s luxurious HQ in Tokyo’s Minato district [the most expensive area in Tokyo], to entertain VIPs in lavish parties, and to support Christian political lobbying [see here] with no connection to helping children?
3. Are you aware that those vast kickbacks are being used to pay salaries nearing 2 million dollars to staff who have been awarded their positions as a reward for their reporting in such news organisations as Asahi, Mainichi, Fuji TV, etc? [a well-known practice referred to as "amakudari"]
And did you know that the mass media refuses to report on the organisation’s shady background because of this relationship?
4. Did you realise UNICEF Japan spends much of its funds on aggressive direct mailing campaigns attempting to solicit more donations, and that some have objected to it spending their donations in this way?
5. Are you aware UNICEF Japan receives an annual income of some 18,000,000,000 yen (210 million dollars)?
Of course, they pay no taxes and there are no reports on just how many “children” they actually save. Much of this clearly disappears into employees’ lavish expense accounts and their numerous political contributions.
In spite of this, we “consumers” and “customers” are being involved with their fund-raising by way of the “Tap Nagoya” event at establishments such as yours – just why would this be?
6. The abuses of UNICEF Japan are well known on the Internet, away from the pressure of the mass media companies. Yet your company participates in their activities – do you approve of their swindling and misappropriation of funds in the name of saving the children?
7. Do you intend to keep collaborating with this fraudulent “donation business”?

This was physically mailed to a number of Nagoya businesses involved in the “Tap Nagoya Project.”

At least one business, the Nagoya branch of the Hilton Hotel, apparently took exception and forwarded the letter to UNICEF, who were doubtless highly upset about a direct attack on their funding.

UNICEF immediately proceeded to set lawyers on the site responsible, contacting the administrator’s host directly and ordering them to take the site down, whilst starting civil legal action. The site’s owner was subsequently ordered to appear at a Tokyo civil court in August to defend himself.

However, the host was not to be duped or intimidated, realising that UNICEF had no right to shut the site down.

They reported in no uncertain terms that “The site does not contravene any law or our terms of service” and that “Your claims about the site are completely without foundation.” They flatly refused to take the site down on legal or “voluntary” grounds.

The site owner reports that as he has no money with which to defend himself or pay any settlements he has no choice but to ignore the court summons, but whatever the outcome of any court action he will not take down the site.

He cites the example of 2ch founder Hiroyuki, who famously ignored all legal attacks on his site, as demonstrating that UNICEF are unable to directly do anything to him or his site.

He comments that “For such a huge organisation to take such an interest in suppressing the speech of one individual, the letter must have hit very close to home indeed.”

My New Favorite Commercial

Life is Good

Life is what you make of it. But more it is what you do with it that really defines a person. As a Pastor of a church told me many years ago, “It is a God given right to be a Saint or an asshole. And it only takes a split second to go from one to the other.” That comment kind of stuck with me even though it’s been over 10 years since I last heard him say this. July, 2010 has been one of those months I wish I could forget.

I spend my vacation plus two more weeks preparing for as well as recovering from my Gallbladder surgery. My wife had an MRI done to confirm that she will be given two shots of steroids in her lower back. Two wonderful children of ours whom after being cooped up in the house during days of over 100 degrees of heat and humidity had started to get on each other’s nerves. Add that all up to a huge storm that took out many trees around our house as with the power for a couple of days while trying to survive on only one week’s paycheck for the entire month of July.

Oh the joy. It could have been worse. Although I too was cooped up for three weeks, recovering from surgery, encouraged through constant fighting between the kids and their mother yelling at them to get well as soon as possible and to get out of the house and back to work. And as I can always count on my family, I was up early and ready for my first day back to work. After all I have a lot of medical bills to pay and a desire for peace and quiet.

But once I was physically able to work much better I had a lot of catching up to do. Mostly cutting a lot of grass that was growing more than ankle deep and moving a lot of fallen tree branches as well as trees lying all around our house. If it wasn’t for my MP3 player it would have been a very long day. It helped to drown out the constant boredom of listening to two boys complaining of nothing to do. Only to run back into the house once I tell them what to do. Peace and quiet always comes to those who recognize it.

I look forward to the rest of the year and to the next. We may be a poor family holding on to a weekly paycheck but there are times I really can see the beauty that life has given me. Even though it’s been a really bad month for us, had never took away the bond we had grown into as a family. Instead we grew closer together.

On days when I was lying in bed, my youngest son would join me as we watched cartoons for hours. My wife would fix me something to eat and serve me in bed as my oldest son would help around the house such as washing the dishes and folding the clothes. Experiencing hell or heaven is all around us when one wishes to choose a course in life. The group U2 may still haven’t found what they are looking for but I have. And I wouldn’t change a thing.