Japanese Home Room Teacher

A quick post today.

My daughter is a teacher in Japan.  She's been there for a couple of years and I really believe that she loves it so much there that she won't come back to America to live. I'm very proud of the work she is doing with children.  (She speaks, reads, and writes Japanese as well.)

I'm posting a link to a movie about a wonderful Japanese teacher. Please watch it and enjoy.  Its 10 minutes of how to LIVE LIFE that you will probably want to watch again, and show someone else.

Japanese Home Room Teacher

Peace to YOU!

Campy Out!

Roger's Guide to Hangover's

(To someone I love dearly!)

PHYSICALLY...  Purge thyself! (Toilet bowls, and bathroom floors, DO feel nice smooth and cool.) Ice the bruises. Drink water... slowly. Rest. Brush your teeth as soon as the retching stops, then gently move to eating a well diluted can of Campbell's Chicken Soup, or something just as plain and salty.

MENTALLY... Don't sweat the clothes... yet...  Accept help if offered.  Call ONLY ONE person you've known, and can trust, for more than 5 years. Then pull the battery out of your cell phone.  Rest.  When you wake up, can stand without pain, shower, drink more broth, go back to bed. 

PHILOSOPHICALLY... Pride always reboots itself... Always...  Times like these will be the dark times of your life, that can make for good stories.  When your pride eventually shows up again... remember how shitty it felt when your pride left.  Integrity and pride live together. Pride protects integrity. When you drink, pride leaves integrity unprotected, an your integrity may get injured.  However pride returns quickly to protect and reassure your integrity. 

Learn from this process. 

Laugh at yourself.

And don't do it again... Well, at least not to soon!!

Campy Out!

Veteran's Administration Website Support Desk

Yet another fine dialogue with the VA www.eBenefits.va.gov website support desk.

This morning, I couldn't log into the VA's  www.eBenefits.va.gov website. I called the support desk, as instructed by the "An unexpected exception has occurred please contact the support desk for further assistance." Directions following my unsuccessful attempt at logging in to my account.

Phone call at 8:15am Pacific: (11:15am Eastern)

Me - I can't log in to my account. Can you help me?
VA Helpful Person - The website is down.
Me - How long will it be down?
VA Helpful Person - I have no communication on that.
Me - How long has it been down?
VA Helpful Person - I have no communication on that.
Me - Really? That stinks!
VA Helpful Person - Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me - You mean other than logging into my on line account?
VA Helpful Person - Yes
Me - How about helping me change my address and phone number...
Me - (Silently to my self, in my head) again... for the 3rd time!!
VA Helpful Person - I can't do that the Website is down.
Me - (Pause... I'm still silent...)
VA Helpful Person - Hello?
Me - (In my best pleasant voice) Hello
VA Helpful Person - Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me - What can you help me with when the VA Website is down?
VA Helpful Person - Nothing.... Really... Not Much...
Me - So why do you ask me if there is anything else you can help me with, when you know the answer is going to be that you can't help me no matter what I ask you.
VA Helpful Person - (She silently pauses...) We want to know how we can help you.
Me - Yeah, I get it... This is like a great big metaphor! The VA, overall, wants to know how they can help me, but they can't, or won't help me, because they are broke "down".  Way to go! Thanks for helping me understand the VA to Beneficiary relationship.  I know its not your fault... Its just a communication thing. Take care... Good day.
VA Helpful Person - Are you sure there's nothing I can help you with today?
Me - Really?... No... No...
VA Helpful Person - Have a good day.
Me - Right.... Thanks....  You too....

My aching head...  Campy Out!

50 RULES???

Read this article... 
(Just until the nausea sets in... it shouldn't take much more than two paragraphs.)




50 Rules for Dads of Daughters

50 rules!!!

There are only two (2) RULES when it comes to raising kids, especially girls!

1. Respect them (NEVER EVER HIT THEM!)
2. Listen to what they're "TRYING" to tell you.

Every thing else is negotiable!

I've raised two girls who have become wonderful self-sufficient women.

Rules go right out the window when hormones set in from about 11 years old and last to about 20.

My advice to this guy is that he should visit his doctor and get his testosterone level checked.

Sure, the first week of the school year is a drag. GET OVER IT!

Get off the computer and get in the shop.

Its way past time for this guy to build something manly to help restore his self-image and more importantly his self-respect.
Dude....

Campy Out!

Scheming and Daydreaming

Whatever happened to daydreaming? I mean real down to earth daydreaming? Standards, requirements, expectations have all changed since I was a kid. Many of the changes were changed out of a perceived need to make “life” safer, to make kids smarter, to even out the playing field for those of little or no means, and many other reasons. Here’s what I remember filling my “idle” time with during my adolescence years. 

Reality television didn’t exist, with the exception of shows like the weekly National Geographic, and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Television was available in color, but we had an old black and white set, complete with “rabbit ear” antenna, (cable, Dish, and Internet didn’t exist either), with two twist channel selector switches, the second one was for UHF channels, channels above 13.  As a family, we watched “Lassie”, “Adam 12”, “Emergency”, “Carole Burnett”, “Drag Net”, “Star Trek”, “Outer Limits”, “Concentration”, and “Jeopardy”.  Cartoons, Godzilla, Lewis/Martin, and Creature Feature flicks were reserved for us kids on Saturday morning… before 8am, when we, under our own power, headed outside to create some source of entertainment for ourselves.

Cell phones were nonexistent, but my brother and I did get a really cool Radio Shack two channel Walkie-Talkie for Christmas.  I used to make no battery required, crystal radios out of old wires, paper tubes, razor blades, safety pins, and an old ear phone plug, and I know I could whip one out now.  When I started working, I scraped up enough money to buy a slightly used CB radio, increased the output, and made a directional antenna that I could focus on the neighbor house and blank out their TV when I keyed the microphone.

Video games did exist, but not until I was a teenager, and only at the Pinball arcade at the mall, where we frequently dropped $5 to $10 dollars at 25 cents a game. The coolest thing was when my father brought a “Pong” game home.  My father, brothers, neighborhood kids, and myself, played Pong well into the night, all summer long on the porch… yep, on the porch!

My brothers and neighborhood kids used to lay on the grass on clear, muggy, hot summer nights looking at the stars, while we listened to the ABC Radio Mystery Theater, on a portable Am Radio/8 Track tape player.  We even caught tons of fire flies in spaghetti sauce jars, then we squished them, and made glow in the dark war paint!  It was pretty cool seeing a face glowing!!!

I didn’t make rafts, or boats. I made ships, and every one of them sunk! I learned how to swim in the ocean waves, save myself from rip tides, sail with the Boy Scouts, sharpen knives and axes, shoot .22 cal rifles, start fires without matches, skin squirrels, trap small animals, wear skunk smell, fish, hike, climb big maple and oak trees, and a whole slew of other stuff.

I broke both my arms, my right collar bone, my right ankle, separated my left shoulder, destroyed my left knee, had a hernia, scratched both my corneas, got stitches for deep gashes in my hands, head, feet, legs, and arms.  I’ve been knocked unconscious playing soccer, baseball, football, running cross country (pretty tough to do… I know), and while sailing. I can’t tell you what I’ve sprained and strained, but if it moves, or moved, I’ve strained or sprained it.

I got my license the same week I turned 16.  No driver’s education required!!!   I backed into a telephone pole, 15 minutes into my first solo drive, 30 minutes after getting my license.  I’ve owned several $100 VW Beetles, and learned how to keep them running on a nonexistent car budget. 

I had a really nice girl friend. I was in love, no matter what adults called it at that time. We went all over the place, and had some really cool times.  I broke her heart, and broke my heart at the same time.  I lived through it.  I repeated the same love drama in college, and lived through it again.  I guess I had to learn something about myself from my failed attempts at love. 

Circling back to my initial statement about how things change… Change is good.  Invention is good. Emotional strife is good.  Loss is good.  Pain is good.  Love is good.  I think daydreaming is where I put it all back together, in perspective to everything else I’ve done, experienced, and plan to do.  My daydreams now are more pleasant than they used to be. I think that’s because as I age, my memories fade, individual events are muted by other events, and I can pick and choose what I want to spend my time concentrating on.

Kids need to daydream, take risk, create and invent, read, play, relax, play, dork around, and experiment with many different things in order to learn what they’re good at.  Controlling kids isn’t the answer either.  I believe that the answer is to challenge kids.  Ask any kid… What did you make today?  What was the best part of your day today? Did you meet anyone new today? Did you see anything cool today?

I think, you will be excited with their answers.  

Campy Out!

Lickity Split

Why does the phrase "Lickity Split" sound so... obscene to me?

Its probably just me.

Campy Out!

Father's Day

There are many things that run through my mind when I think about Father's day.  I've been very fortunate to have had two actual father's, and many other father figures. All have taught me wonderful things, from how to be a father, how not to be a father, how to live with integrity, how to explore what I don't know, how to fix things, how to trust myself, how to trust people... the list goes on.

I don't remember ever getting lessons on how to raise a family.  My education on how to be a father was based on learning by association.  I had wonderful role models during my life.  Looking back now, at age 51, I can say that all the father's that I have had the honor to witness, have had a large affect on my life, my views, opinions, and desires.

Today, I am thankful for my Father's Lou and Roger who taught me the bulk of how to be strong, forgiving, and most importantly, to BE THERE.  I'm thankful for my grandfathers who taught me how to enjoy life, to enjoy making art, and to enjoy children.  I am thankful for my Boy Scout Masters who taught me that no matter what I do, I should do it for the right reasons.  I'm thankful for my Navy Chiefs, who taught me that anything is possible... ANYTHING!!!  And I'm thankful for my Geezers, (if you know me, are around my age, or older, and have a kid, YOU ARE A GEEZER), who teach me every day that no amount of bullshit is ever too much to handle.

Thanks Dads!! 


Campy Out!

We're moving!!!

After over 20 years in our little Port Orchard home, its time to say good by!  

 

Now comes the "easy" part.  We're in the process of purchasing a wonderful home on Fox Island. To complicate things, we are also in the process of selling our home to a young family.  If everything works out, we'll be in our respective new homes by the end of June!

This is the point where I usually do a risk assessment and figure out the potential pitfalls, and try to make a plan to mitigate the issue.  I'm so not doing that this time. 

I figure since we're paying for the realtors, brokers, inspectors, lawyers, and any one else that the Island, county, and state requires to "protect" us, from ourselves, I figure, let 'em go to work for us. 

Now get down to it people! 

Just tell me when and where to show up to sign all that paper work stuff. 

Really!

Oh!  I'm keeping the pen too.  So it better be a good one!
 
Campy Out!

Apologies!!

I apologize for my last email. 

Sorry folks.

I let some whiny assed moron got the best of me. 

If you got it and liked it... cool.

If you got it and hated it... sorry.  


Campy Out!

Job Well Done... Roger

How come shit just don't feel done unless I screw something up?  

Earlier tonight...

I got the broken old wheel off the piano, and the new wheel on.  

 

Every thing went amazingly easy. 
 

Big screws wrenched in just fine into real solid wood too. 

As I laid on my back in a moment of victory...

 

I pondered how really stinking EASY that was. 

To make matters EVEN BETTER, I only needed to do one wheel!! 

The wheel my friend purchased was the same exact size as the other ones! 

What GREAT luck!!! 

Feeling triumphant, quickly I stood up, thinking "ICE CREAM TIME!"

 

AND immediately smashed my head on the hanging pots!

 

Seeing stars, and as I landed on my knees, 

 

I banged my chin on the cross member behind the piano and bit my tongue.

"POOOOOOP!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!  NUUUUUTS!!!!

(You all know that's exactly what came out of MY mouth!)

I sat... 

I sat some more....

I rubbed my head, spit some blood on the kitchen floor and thought to myself...

"Well... Now it FEELS like I'm done this project."

BACK TO REALITY

Just cleaning and organizing the house tonight.
Tomorrow, cut the grass, paint house trim on back of house, touch up bedroom paint,
install the bifold doors in the middle bedroom, scrub the kitchen floor, and take another load to the dump.  

 

Oh! And I got to pick up Susan from the airport.

I'm down to just busy work now.

I'm cool this weekend.  Thanks to Everyone...

 
Campy Out!

We're officially looking for a new house!

In light of the fact that Sue and I are actively home hunting, I figured I'd post our official requirements. These requirements were discussed at length and recorded the next morning exactly as I remember the conversation.

Area desired, Point Defiance to the bridge, and all Gig Harbor...

Susan's needs: Newer home, bright and airy open concept, hard wood floors, rambler style everything on one floor, 1500 sf or greater, state of the art kitchen, professional location, at least 2 bathrooms, at least 3 bedrooms, one bedroom with a master bath, at least a two car attached garage, large outside living/dining/family area,

Roger's needs: I need a place talk to Susan, sleep, take a dump, and eat, land to work, (at least 3/4 acre), privacy to run naked, and room to build a proper shrine to the art of tool hoarding and manly repair jobs, daily naps, beer crafting, HAM radio operation, VW Beetle restoration, chainsaw carve, target plinking with my air rifle, and a exclusive combustion zone to burn the shit I don't want any more. 240 Volt, 50 Amp triple phase electricity distributed on two legs throughout the shop with 4 step downs to 120 Volt, 30Amp single phase electricity, cable internet access, electric heat, back up wood stove, polished cement floor, 4 ton hydraulic floor lift, 2 ton overhead lift, water, septic, installed vacuum dust removal system, 108 inch plasma HDTV, BOSE high quality surround sound system, infrared/motion sensing laser guided 9mm one warning defense system, and a refrigerator.

I'm sure I missed something.....


Campy Out!

Fascinating! Blends two of my favorite hobbies.

I love to do stop action movies and time compressed movies with my GoPro camera.  I'm also new to turning wood on a lathe. This piece of wonderfully creative work is masterful on both fronts.  Just watch the whole thing.  I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!



Campy Out!

Roger and The Chief

Roger and The Chief, In Costco.
(Self-Talk in Parenthesis)

1st Lady in Costco: What kind of dog is that?
(Trying to be nice in the Costco stool softener isle)
Roger: He's a mutt.
(Crap... Why don't these animal people mind their own business)
1st Lady in Costco: Looks like it could be a Border Collie?
(Stop squinching smiles at Chief!)
Roger: Nope. Smart mutt.
(Dip shit!)
1st Lady in Costco: Pretty baby... Can I pet him?
(Reaching for Chief)
Roger: NO... HE'S WORKING!
(Crap! Crap! Crap! Go Away Leave me alone!)
1st Lady in Costco: OH?
(Still standing like I'm going to say, Sure, Only Fooling!)
2nd Lady in Costco: Can I pet your dog.
(Clearly just out of the gym, nice boobs!)
Roger: Sure! His name is Chief!
(Summer's almost here!!! WOOOHOOOOO!)
1st Lady in Costco: Turns and walks away.
(I love this stuff soooooo much!)
2nd Lady in Costco: Your such a nice doggy.... Yes you are..... Pretty baby....... I bet you love it when I scratch your butt........
(Oh.... Man.... I love my service dog!)

Campy Out!

This cracked me up!

Campy Out!