Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wish I had the video
Every year, the University of Washington Huskies, my alma mater, and where I attended graduate school, play the University of Oregon Ducks...the place I matriculated my Freshman year of college. The reason I went to the U of O was because I was a runner and I wanted to be a better runner. Obviously I won't forget the day that I made a trip to Eugene, OR and there on the track was Steve Prefontaine. He was doing cut downs.. He was running 110s on the track trying to increase the speed of each on the four after running about 10 miles. Don, one of the coaches, asked me if I wanted to meet Steve and he came over. "We could always use some more runners, " he said. Steve is a legend but that was not exactly a true statment. They were loaded. Only months from that meeting, Steve would win the National Cross Meet and the team including my room-mate Randy James, 19th place, an All-American, would win the nationals. It was indeed an experience. But the real point of this is to explain how such a UW football fan would end up at Oregon. I would say I was conflicted. I loved the Oregon runners but I still loved my dawgs. So it came to pass that I attended the home game my freshman year at Oregon when they played the dawgs. It was a hard fought game as befits the rivalry. Oregon was ahead, but the Huskies were driving. Now the whole game amidst the Oregon student section there was one very loud Husky fan. As the game progressed he got louder and bolder and drunker. So on the last drive, he was slurring, "Go Huskies!" and the crowd just looked at him in silence as the Huskies drove down the field. The Husky fan was in his glory as the dawgs lined up for the game winning field goal. Louder and louder, "Go Huskies!" The kick went up... No good. The poor fellow utterly deflated and the crowd didn't say anything but I think he was overcome by vibes as he slunk off in silence.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
My Karaoke and singing with a band Career
I don't remember when I first did Karaoke. I started singing in front of crowds in Elementary School as part of our informal choir. And later, I used to lead songs at church and other venues ultimately leading to a few performances. I played in a band: John 3:16. I was the lead guitarist, did some back-up and lead vocals and played bass on some of our songs.
In the early 70s in Victoria, British Columbia, I ran about 3o miles from Sooke and volunteered to sing songs with my guitar at a coffee house. ( I used to have a lot of energy).
I lead some songs on my guitar for the troops at Ft Dix, New Jersey for some outdoor field church services and I sang a song for a group at a prayer breakfast at Fort Dix,New Jersey.
In 1984, in Bainbridge, Ga after winning a 20 K run there, I sang Luckenbach Texas with the band(I miss Waylon)
It was a Fort Rucker that I remember singing Karaoke at the Officer's club there in the 80s. The crowd always loved, "Born to Be Wild." My most memorable singing with the band was at a Christmas formal. I was persuaded to sing, "Take this job and shove it" Some friends applauded my bravery to sing such as song but the leadership thought I did a great job with singing.
In 1994, I got up with a band in Hawthorn, Nevada at a Casino and sang a few.
During a trip to Germany in 2006, I found myself in an Irish pub, and the guitar player and singer let me get up on stage.
In the early Millenium, I did a lot of singing at Nick's in Alexandria. Great place to do country dancing, then take a break and sing.
I had some good times in Baghdad 2003-2004. At the Hotel Rashid, I sang with the band, and played guitar and bass with the band. I sang a cappella at a pool party. I did some Karaoke at the Palace in the Green Zone-Born to be Wild. It is on video tape and I wonder if I will get a monetary offer to destroy the tape!!
During a trip to Korea in 2010, I discovered that Korean Karaoke is a little different. A group rents a room and then they pick their own songs. It is different.
This year, 2011 I sang Karaoke in Phoenix and Tucson Arizona, and also Albequerque, New Mexico.
Recently I was in what is known as the best Karaoke place in Vegas, Ellis Island. The good thing is that there is a crowd, the bad thing is that it takes about an hour plus to sing after singing a song. But, I was so good that someone bought me a drink. (Great pay) I have been going there since the early 90s. I was in a contest once where I did, "Keep your hands to yourself" playing also my harmonika. I lost to the one who sounded like Frank Sinatra.
Very recently I was in Brussels, Belgium. There were only about 10 people, but I was impressed with the talent. I heard song in French but also in English with virtually no accent with beautiful tones.
I must note that I had the privilege to sing a duet a capella with my friend Vanessa at my graduation from a training program. We sang the National Anthem.
As long as I have breath, I will make a joyful noise.
In the early 70s in Victoria, British Columbia, I ran about 3o miles from Sooke and volunteered to sing songs with my guitar at a coffee house. ( I used to have a lot of energy).
I lead some songs on my guitar for the troops at Ft Dix, New Jersey for some outdoor field church services and I sang a song for a group at a prayer breakfast at Fort Dix,New Jersey.
In 1984, in Bainbridge, Ga after winning a 20 K run there, I sang Luckenbach Texas with the band(I miss Waylon)
It was a Fort Rucker that I remember singing Karaoke at the Officer's club there in the 80s. The crowd always loved, "Born to Be Wild." My most memorable singing with the band was at a Christmas formal. I was persuaded to sing, "Take this job and shove it" Some friends applauded my bravery to sing such as song but the leadership thought I did a great job with singing.
In 1994, I got up with a band in Hawthorn, Nevada at a Casino and sang a few.
During a trip to Germany in 2006, I found myself in an Irish pub, and the guitar player and singer let me get up on stage.
In the early Millenium, I did a lot of singing at Nick's in Alexandria. Great place to do country dancing, then take a break and sing.
I had some good times in Baghdad 2003-2004. At the Hotel Rashid, I sang with the band, and played guitar and bass with the band. I sang a cappella at a pool party. I did some Karaoke at the Palace in the Green Zone-Born to be Wild. It is on video tape and I wonder if I will get a monetary offer to destroy the tape!!
During a trip to Korea in 2010, I discovered that Korean Karaoke is a little different. A group rents a room and then they pick their own songs. It is different.
This year, 2011 I sang Karaoke in Phoenix and Tucson Arizona, and also Albequerque, New Mexico.
Recently I was in what is known as the best Karaoke place in Vegas, Ellis Island. The good thing is that there is a crowd, the bad thing is that it takes about an hour plus to sing after singing a song. But, I was so good that someone bought me a drink. (Great pay) I have been going there since the early 90s. I was in a contest once where I did, "Keep your hands to yourself" playing also my harmonika. I lost to the one who sounded like Frank Sinatra.
Very recently I was in Brussels, Belgium. There were only about 10 people, but I was impressed with the talent. I heard song in French but also in English with virtually no accent with beautiful tones.
I must note that I had the privilege to sing a duet a capella with my friend Vanessa at my graduation from a training program. We sang the National Anthem.
As long as I have breath, I will make a joyful noise.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Birthdays
Well I have had a few birthdays. I can remember back to my 5th one. There I was in Seattle in the U District with some of my neighbor friends in the yard of my baby sitter. I won't go through all of them but it worked out that most of my friends celebrated birthdays during the school year but mine was a family affair in Edmonds with my mom, her mom and dad and my uncle, aunt, and cousin. I don't complain about the date, I have a grandson who is a Christmas baby. He will always get less because Christmas is the "big deal" and so the birthday is the afterthought. As I got older birthday celebrations weren't such a big deal..my wife even forgot but did a nice make-up celebration the next day. It is interesting the Orientals count birth as the year one since they count the womb without a view time. I would have liked to have the year when I was 15 so I could drive earlier, but I am trying to subtract years now. There are people that don't celebrate birthdays. That is their thing but me, I always like a party. I take my kids to a restaurant and they say, "dad, don't embarass me, don't tell anyone it is my birthday. Me, well just the opposite. I look around and expect the whole restaurant to sing. I mean, I call out anyone who is eating and not singing. I even make the cook take a break to sing. Anyway, I have already enjoyed my early birthday wishes on Facebook and I think this year I will get the most birthday wishes that I ever had. Cards are nice and appreciated, but seriously to any who reads this, I really appreciate the birthday greetings and I hope we share many many more birthdays together.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Poetry
Driving in the cold, snow, dark and silence Kafka images at the time for 18 years streamed as the river in the Country Doctor which now streams back 45 years but the future is as cold, snow, dark and silence unless God or metempsychosis intervenes but I awake uncomfortable and confused by the streaming river or am I asleep or am I in eternity?
Back From Iraq
A Work of Fiction
I had often thought of what I would write about if were to write about my year in Iraq. One day, I was reading an excerpt from a book by some person who had been to Iraq and he started the book about the food in Sadam's palace in the Green Zone and I no longer had writer's block. I could talk about food easy. In fact, the fellow had no perspective whatsoever. He was just some civilian who wanted to comment on food, but I was a GI, a soldier who had lots of experiences. you see, just down the street members of my unit were getting along with what were called T Rats, (T-Rations). Basically they were like frozen dinners you heat up. They were happy to get them instead of the ubiquitous MREs. In fact to get them, it was necessary to do "drug deals" (This term causes a major digression lest you think that something sinester was happening. Drug deal in this context meant that the T-Rats were coming from outside the formal supply channels. Now the formal supply channels might not work for:1)The Logisticians had omitted accounting for food or supply requirements for a unit, or 2) the Unit supply point of contact was incompetent and did not know how to make the supply system work, or 3)Why bother with paperwork when you could make it work the easy way.) So I believe this drug deal for food was allowing soldiers for a division to use a Sattelite phone given as a gift from a certain country for morale calls. So my unit was giving up nothing but the foreign country was incurring a serious long distance headache. Anyway, I had a moral dilemma. Did I forego the creature comforts of the palace which offered canned sodas, Steaks, lobsters, rice, cake, etc or go for frozen dinners. I justified my actions because I had soldiers under my command who were able to get a better dinner by joining me. I respected Joe because he wouldn't eat unless everyone in the unit could eat. Many months later ironically after the military got their dining facility up and running down the street, all the high muckety-mucks *(Note 1) at the palace were leaving the palace to partake of the better military food down the street. I pleased that my men returned the favor by inviting some other GIs to the palace so they could use the internet and make some calls back home on the DSN (a military free phone) Evidently, back in their unit their commander nick-named Safety Rob used the unit's only internet connection to keep up with things back home all day and didn't want to help the GIs get into the palace since they might embarass him.
*(Note 1)
(Just today writing this down I use the word muckeddy mucks which I had heard used before but was unaware that it originated from the Chinook Jargon native to my state of Washington, the jargon of which many place names in Wa originateat
http://www.answers.com/topic/high-muckamuck
*One might not immediately associate the word high muckamuck with fur traders and Native Americans, but it seems that English borrowed the term from Chinook Jargon, a pidgin language combining words from English, French, Nootka, Chinook, and the Salishan languages that was formerly used by them in the Pacific Northwest. In this language hayo makamak meant "plenty to eat" and is recorded in that sense in English contexts, the first one dated 1853, in which the phrase is spelled Hiou Muckamuck. In 1856 we find the first recorded instance of the word meaning "pompous person, person of importance," in the Democratic State Journal published in Sacramento: "The professors-the high 'Muck-a-Mucks'-tried fusion, and produced confusion."
I had often thought of what I would write about if were to write about my year in Iraq. One day, I was reading an excerpt from a book by some person who had been to Iraq and he started the book about the food in Sadam's palace in the Green Zone and I no longer had writer's block. I could talk about food easy. In fact, the fellow had no perspective whatsoever. He was just some civilian who wanted to comment on food, but I was a GI, a soldier who had lots of experiences. you see, just down the street members of my unit were getting along with what were called T Rats, (T-Rations). Basically they were like frozen dinners you heat up. They were happy to get them instead of the ubiquitous MREs. In fact to get them, it was necessary to do "drug deals" (This term causes a major digression lest you think that something sinester was happening. Drug deal in this context meant that the T-Rats were coming from outside the formal supply channels. Now the formal supply channels might not work for:1)The Logisticians had omitted accounting for food or supply requirements for a unit, or 2) the Unit supply point of contact was incompetent and did not know how to make the supply system work, or 3)Why bother with paperwork when you could make it work the easy way.) So I believe this drug deal for food was allowing soldiers for a division to use a Sattelite phone given as a gift from a certain country for morale calls. So my unit was giving up nothing but the foreign country was incurring a serious long distance headache. Anyway, I had a moral dilemma. Did I forego the creature comforts of the palace which offered canned sodas, Steaks, lobsters, rice, cake, etc or go for frozen dinners. I justified my actions because I had soldiers under my command who were able to get a better dinner by joining me. I respected Joe because he wouldn't eat unless everyone in the unit could eat. Many months later ironically after the military got their dining facility up and running down the street, all the high muckety-mucks *(Note 1) at the palace were leaving the palace to partake of the better military food down the street. I pleased that my men returned the favor by inviting some other GIs to the palace so they could use the internet and make some calls back home on the DSN (a military free phone) Evidently, back in their unit their commander nick-named Safety Rob used the unit's only internet connection to keep up with things back home all day and didn't want to help the GIs get into the palace since they might embarass him.
*(Note 1)
(Just today writing this down I use the word muckeddy mucks which I had heard used before but was unaware that it originated from the Chinook Jargon native to my state of Washington, the jargon of which many place names in Wa originateat
http://www.answers.com/topic/high-muckamuck
*One might not immediately associate the word high muckamuck with fur traders and Native Americans, but it seems that English borrowed the term from Chinook Jargon, a pidgin language combining words from English, French, Nootka, Chinook, and the Salishan languages that was formerly used by them in the Pacific Northwest. In this language hayo makamak meant "plenty to eat" and is recorded in that sense in English contexts, the first one dated 1853, in which the phrase is spelled Hiou Muckamuck. In 1856 we find the first recorded instance of the word meaning "pompous person, person of importance," in the Democratic State Journal published in Sacramento: "The professors-the high 'Muck-a-Mucks'-tried fusion, and produced confusion."
Chinook Jargon in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond
I saw this interesting link to the translation of place names into Chinook Jargon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinook_Jargon_placenames
I knew that Olympia Beer "it's the water" came from Tumwater, WA but did not know that tumwater meant water fall.
http://www.planetware.com/picture/usa-waterfall-in-tumwater-washington-us-wa401.htm
Here is a Chinook jargon dictionary
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/chinookjargon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinook_Jargon_placenames
I knew that Olympia Beer "it's the water" came from Tumwater, WA but did not know that tumwater meant water fall.
http://www.planetware.com/picture/usa-waterfall-in-tumwater-washington-us-wa401.htm
Here is a Chinook jargon dictionary
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/chinookjargon/
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Marriage
Marriage is a very inprecise term. Getting married in a state, a federal District like Washington DC or territory. Gives various rights, identifies issues in a potential divorce such as property, custody, visitation and a variety of definitions. Another amazing thing is that after marriage in one state (or even a foreign country) it would be possible to travel to Nevada, live there for six weeks and file for a divorce based on the laws of Nevada. That is not even addressing jurisdictions with same-sex marriage.
Muddying the water even further is the fact that there are religions that have really a separate marriage which is not governed by national laws in the U.S. I recall an episode of L.A. Law wherein a Jewish wife was unable to obtain a Jewish divorce from her husband. In this case, the issue was resolved by waiving some rights to property in the California marriage to encourage the husband to grant the Jewish divorce. While in Iraq, I heard of former Iraqi Muslims ( returned to work in Iraq) who had a different interpretation of marriage. They would remain legally married to their wife in U.S. They would meet women, have a private religious ceremony to add another wife to their household (polygamy is legal in Islamic law up to 4 wives). They would then have conjugal relations one night and in the morning would have a divorce. Any details of the payment of a dowry to the divorced wife was not discussed with me.
One general rule I have observed in U.S marriages and a majority of religious marriages is that they generally have gone to no fault. Citizens may file for divorce alleging some problem such as adultery but ultimately after time passes, the divorce is granted based on a time such as a year of separation. In many churches, after an U.S. divorce, the divorced person will describe a reason for the divorce that no one in the congregation checks and will go on with their lives. The Roman Catholic church does not adjudicate divorces, since it will not grant a divorce. But it will consider a petition for annulment which is carefully considered.
MORE TO FOLLOW
*Under U.S. Jurisdiction (14)
* American Samoa
* Baker Island
* Guam
* Howland Island
* Jarvis Island
* Johnston Atoll
* Kingman Reef
* Midway Islands
* Navassa Island
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Palmyra Atoll
* Puerto Rico
* Virgin Islands
* Wake Island
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_US_territories_are_there#ixzz1BQz3mqhe
Muddying the water even further is the fact that there are religions that have really a separate marriage which is not governed by national laws in the U.S. I recall an episode of L.A. Law wherein a Jewish wife was unable to obtain a Jewish divorce from her husband. In this case, the issue was resolved by waiving some rights to property in the California marriage to encourage the husband to grant the Jewish divorce. While in Iraq, I heard of former Iraqi Muslims ( returned to work in Iraq) who had a different interpretation of marriage. They would remain legally married to their wife in U.S. They would meet women, have a private religious ceremony to add another wife to their household (polygamy is legal in Islamic law up to 4 wives). They would then have conjugal relations one night and in the morning would have a divorce. Any details of the payment of a dowry to the divorced wife was not discussed with me.
One general rule I have observed in U.S marriages and a majority of religious marriages is that they generally have gone to no fault. Citizens may file for divorce alleging some problem such as adultery but ultimately after time passes, the divorce is granted based on a time such as a year of separation. In many churches, after an U.S. divorce, the divorced person will describe a reason for the divorce that no one in the congregation checks and will go on with their lives. The Roman Catholic church does not adjudicate divorces, since it will not grant a divorce. But it will consider a petition for annulment which is carefully considered.
MORE TO FOLLOW
*Under U.S. Jurisdiction (14)
* American Samoa
* Baker Island
* Guam
* Howland Island
* Jarvis Island
* Johnston Atoll
* Kingman Reef
* Midway Islands
* Navassa Island
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Palmyra Atoll
* Puerto Rico
* Virgin Islands
* Wake Island
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_US_territories_are_there#ixzz1BQz3mqhe
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