Tired

Ever get the feeling that you're over extending yourself?

*sigh*

I think I need to sit down and straighten out my priorities.

Did you vote?!?

It is your right an obligation to vote, so please do so! Here's an old comic from a couple of years ago...

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Smokeless

W

hen we got remarried back in 2000, M and I were already well into our 40s. In fact, we were both 44 at the time. Now, the Japanese have a relatively long life expectancy; indeed, it is the one of the longest in the world, where men live into the upper 70s and women into their mid-80s.

This is fine for M, but not so relevant for me. I am Japanese heritage, but culturally--diet, health habits--I am strictly American. Hamburgers and potato chips, steak and french fries are foods I can hardly live without. So my life expectancy is likely lower than the average Japanese male. I am hoping, however, that genetics will play a role in my longevity. My father and his siblings all lived long healthy lives. My uncle Frank lived to be 101, my aunt Ichi reached 88 (I think) a full 20 years after she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. My father lived until he was 92. My grandmother on my mothers side also lived into her 90s. My mother, an atom bomb victim, not only survived the blast, she survived two heart bypass surgeries, but finally succumbed non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a disease that may be connected with a-bomb survivors.

Unfortunately, both M and I were smokers. M smoked since her early 20s. I was much worse. I started at 14, stealing Kents from my mother and smoking behind the garage. By the time I was 18, I was a two-packs-a-day Marlboro Red smoker. When K, my daughter, was born in 1987, I cut back significantly to half a pack or less, but just couldn't kick the habit. So the effects of my years of smoking will undoubtedly influence my life expectancy.

But when M and I decided to get married late in our lives, we wanted to live together as long as we could. "It's never too late" sounds cliche and in fact it probably is, but we decided to quit the one thing we could control--smoking. We have been married since June of 2000 and neither of us have smoked since--well, I think I cheated once when I was drunk one night at a bar... which leads me to the next topic in the "Getting to Know Someone" survey.

Getting To Know Someone From A to Z

D - Drink or smoke: Yes, I drink, but only on the weekends, usually Friday, and occasionally Saturday, and often to excess, meaning 5-6 points of beer. No, I don't have the stamina I once had and find that I get drunk much easier than I used to. But it's okay. At least I no longer smoke.

Poetry is My Gig

T

oday I spoke on Japanese poetry and it made me realize how much I love talking about poetry and how it reflects who we are as humans. I truly believe that we interpret everything in our lives--consciously or not--by associating them with our past experiences. Some may be relevant, some may not, but experience influences how we interpret any given situation we confront. And since we all have different experiences, no two people interpret the same situation in exactly the same way--although they may be similar.

There are those who would argue vehemently against me, and I welcome their input. It would be stupid of me to think I know everything, although there are some I have met--both liberals and conservative--who think they have all the answers. Well, bully for them. I always admire a person who is confident to the max. I just make sure I stay out of their way, and hope they never get elected to office. *ahem*

In any event, poetry requires the reader to respond to the sparse words on a page. The more experience you have--whether you are well-read or simply worldly--allows you to read more into a poem, to get more out of it, to enjoy its many nuances. And this is a direct reflection of the human condition. Every time we are confronted with a situation--a red light, a large credit card balance, or a hot date--we are required to respond and the more experience we have, the better we will respond to the situation--stopping, using either a heavy duty shredder or antiperspirant. Not that I'm trying to justify my profession or the field of literature.

But this is what I do--profess the beauty and relevance of poetry. And I love doing it.

Getting To Know Someone From A to Z

C - Career: Education; specifically, I am a college professor teaching Japanese language and literature. My field of expertise is premodern court poetry, focusing on the intertextual nature of poems of the late-Heian early Kamakura period.

P.S.

The song I have playing is 48 kbps--I don't want anyone to get hung up loading my page. My own copy is 128 kbps, so if you like it enough to want it, please leave me a message and I will be more than happy to share...

Sorta Eclectic but sorta not...

I

like to think my taste in music is rather eclectic. I'll listen to some Jimi Hendrix, Billi Holiday, Beethoven, Dave Mathews, Mozart, Oscar Peterson, maybe even some Gershwin. Well, maybe it's not too eclectic. I don't listen to Opera and country music is not really my cup of tea.

But lately, most of the music I listen to is more basic than stylized. I lean toward rock, but the rock I listen to these day seems to have a lot of accoustic. And a great deal of it is J-Pop. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Anyway, this might bore many of you, but here's a song that I listen to and listen to and listen to. It's light and kinda poppy... so sue me. Blame Starberri and her survey.

To hear it, you gotta go to the Comments page. You might leave a comment while you're at it.

Getting To Know Someone From A to Z

B - Band listening to right now: Snorkel--1,000,000 hp.