JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

The Okinawan snow season has begun. At least that is what I call it. Although it is nearly spring according to the Julian calendar, the lunar calendar indicates we are just entering into the thralls of winter. The lunar calendar is similar to what Americans think of when we think of Poor Richard’s Almanac. The seasons are based more on the actual weather than on a given date. So what is Okinawan snow you may ask? Okinawan snow is when the North Wind blows and light dewlets of rain scatter in every direction. I call it snow because I think the only reason it isn’t snow is because the temperature isn’t at freezing point.

When I was growing up in the 60’s the common belief was that life is usually a smooth road with a few bumps in it. Lately, I have to disagree with that assessment. More and more it has begun to feel as though life consists mainly of bumps with a few smooth patches in it. Not just because of what is happening in my own life, but the overall world situations seemingly consist of nothing more than bumps. If it’s not one thing it’s another, i.e. world disputes, weather, etc. The world just seems to be moving much more quickly than it used to move. I’m almost 49 and I can remember my father telling me that “time” seems to move more quickly as one gets older. I have to agree with that. One year seems more like six months nowadays. As life changes so should some of the old adages. Take the saying that the only certainties in life are birth, death, and taxes. I think it should be changed to birth, death, taxes, and increased traffic flows.

Note on the blog comments: As I was deleting the blog’s hacker’s comments, I accidentally deleted the authentic comments. However, I was able to retrieve and resubmit the information.

I was doing a Yahoo search on the site and ran across something I’ve never seen before. It doesn’t show up on the regular site. Can any one tell me what this is and how it happens?
this is the item in question

NOTE: The item no longer shows when you click the link. From what info I could gather, I think it was a comment spam.

Sometimes the advice given to us when we are young ends up being the best move we can make as an adult. For instance, I was taught to try and learn something positive from the negative things that happen in my life. The recent passing away of the former guitarist is providing a chance to learn about what behaviors are actually applied in practice by locals, as opposed to the traditions, as far as death rituals. Through this I hope I will make fewer mistakes when it comes my turn to apply the practices

Isn’t life great! At this time eight years ago, I was wondering if I was even going to be able to “wake-up” each day. Now here I am, struggling with all the intricacies of learning the language of computers. Although I just started teaching myself HTML about six months ago, I am now on to XHTML and multifaceted CSS. I love the challenge of everything that is happening in my life. Yeah, it can get to be a pain in the a**. But it sure beats the alternative!

Here it is the end of January. The holiday season is finally coming to an end and Taki and I finally have a chance to look at the events of the past year. A lot happened this year. We said good bye to our beloved pet of thirteen years, Twinkie; a trusted car of seven years; Speedy, and a guitarist who had chosen different path in life, Jimmy. Mother Nature had taken her toll on everyone over the past year. And for the first time in ten years, Live Music Bar JET was forced to have bouncers. I don’t know what has happened with the local scene of young rockers. It seems many of them are determined to prove just how much of an ***hole Americans can be. First it started with physical destruction in the bathrooms. Then it escalated to guys “dancing” and pouring drinks on local customers (which advanced to purposely knocking local customers’ drinks over), guys screaming in the microphones as they “danced” and the band was trying to play, large numbers of people trying to bring in their own beverages, guys grabbing and harassing the regular female customers who were trying to listen to the band, etc. It seems an attitude has developed that just because these people are in the bar, that they should be allowed to do anything they want! I haven’t lived stateside since January 1988 (17 years), but I doubt any of theses behaviors would be put-up with over there. Anyway, we were able to find a good, young pup (Jaco) to join our family; we also found a new vehicle, and we are extremely pleased with the new guitarist, Appin. And so, life goes on!

Winter is upon us as cold winds chill our bones and the sky begins to cloud over everyday. I wonder if dogs can suffer from lack of sunlight syndrome. Every time the sky clouds over for more than one day at a time, our seven month old dog goes into some sort of depression. He starts taking out his displeasure on his doggie bed, chewing into the corner of it. When the sky is sunny, he never chews into the bedding. This behavior first began during typhoon season, so I thought he was just bored with being stuck in the house. Now that the winter season has begun to eliminate the usual sunny day time, the behavior has reemerged. He has no idea what in store weather-wise after January! Guess I better start stocking-up on thread.

With all the turmoil caused by Mom Nature in the past few weeks, even on Okinawa one has to wonder what in the world a leader of an area that has been faced with mass devastation is thinking when he starts a stand-off that results in the delay of aide to the citizens of the area. Does he really think that the appropriate time to play a red-tape game is when his own people are in dire need of help! Does he really think that the people who are risking their own lives to respond to the serious basic needs of the victims of a disaster that was not of their own choice or doing, but that of a natural disaster of epic proportions, are posing a serious threat by asking to maintain a thread of self-protection against unknown threats? These aid givers are under the constant observation of every news organization on the planet! Does the leader really think the aid givers are foolish enough to do anything other than help the victims of the disaster? Everyone knows they wouldn’t deny aid in situations of mass destruction! If this had been any less a caring and giving nation, these aid givers could have just as easily said no, we are not going to risk our lives for your countrymen if you won’t let us maintain a minimal degree of self-protection! Speaking of which, now that the leader’s request has been met, what is the leader of the devastated area doing to ensure the protection of those selfless aid givers?