What a great weekend in Penticton - fantastic weather the whole time. Yesterday was BC day, making for a long weekend. Most of the action was at Penticton speedway with the races and concert they held up there - about 2,000 people for the concert on Sunday night. Sunday morning I took in the Mr. Muscle/Miss Bikini contest down by the beach. Ah, the glory days of college revisited. The sun, the sand. The beer, the hormones. The testosterone, the steroids, the silicone. Nice for a nostalgic walk, but not so sure I wanna live there.

Yesterday we BBQ’d on the beach down by the lake with relatives and their friends and families. The races this past weekend were sponsored by Katana Boats, and the owner of the company brought his massive vessel over to our side of the lake. We could see it approaching from a long way off. It anchored offshore and then as the current brought it around, we were all amazed at the size of it. A 63-footer, $2.5 million boat. Too big for the lake, really. A zodiac was soon deployed to come to shore and ferry those of us who wanted to go aboard. Soon we were enjoying drinks not only on that impressive piece of floatable real estate, but also on the other 4 boats who drew up alongside and tied on - all smaller, but still very nice boats in their own right. The Snowbirds air stunt team made a few passes overhead - 5 aircraft flying at high speeds in perfect, close-tight formation. What a great way to finale a long weekend!

The ride back to Vancouver wasn’t so pleasant. Arrived about 4 hours late due to Greyhound logistical screw-ups. Someone would probably be fired for that in Japan. Brother took it very nicely in stride, having waited around all that time to pick me up at the Vancouver bus depot.

I arrived in Vancouver via Portland, OR and the bro was there to pick me up. I got my application for my Canadian drivers’ license in at the local driver licensing office - it will be so nice to have that back since I lost my former one when my wallet was stolen in Tokyo a couple of years ago. Luck was on my side - if I’d left this for 6 more months I would have had to take the whole road test over again. And I’d also remembered to bring my birth certificate and other back-up papers with me from Japan as well. Good to get that application in - with any luck, it will be in my brother’s mailbox before I leave for Denver…

Caught the midnight Greyhound bus out to Penticton to visit my sister. A bit of a trip since it was just a couple of days ago that the freak in Alberta beheaded a passenger on a Greyhound bus… I waved bye to bro and told him I’d try not to lose my head…

Today was my last day as an employee of T-Systems, the German IT company in Tokyo I’ve been working for since April of last year. A few of us got together to swap some drinks and memories after work. For the most part, it was a positive experience, but its time to move on. The Agel business is growing to the point where it can take off, and its just time to make a number of moves at the same time. I leave for Canada tomorrow.

Look at these two news stories from the BBC:

1) US man charged for shooting mower:

A 56-year-old man from the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin has been arrested after shooting his lawn mower in his garden because it would not start. Keith Walendowski was charged by police in Milwaukee with disorderly conduct and possession of a sawn-off shotgun. He could face a fine of up to $11,000 and a maximum prison sentence of six-and-a-half years if convicted.
(more…)

Click on the image for info, or check out this page: http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/intj/.

Wow, another 2 or 3 weeks have already gone by since the last blog update… busy, busy, busy me! Work has been a bit slack and boring the past couple of weeks, and I’ve spent a lot of time documenting in detail all of my tasks to make it easier for the next person to pick up. My side business with Agel is really starting to build momentum, and as of this month I am now cash-flow-positive with it. It takes work, but is very rewarding personally. I feel a lot of energy and motivation, and it feels good to be building something where I can eventually be my own boss and leave my current job - which could happen as soon as the end of July.

This week I received a martial arts promotion as well as notice of an upcoming ("grade up") event in August on the fraternal front. Lots of positive momentum building on all fronts - I feel such a change of energy this year compared to the last 7 or 8 years, its quite amazing.

I’ve also been tinkering with a new blog setup which should be pretty much what I’m looking for. Still tweaking the comments functionality though, and after that’s fixed it should be pretty much ready to go and then I’ll post the new URL here. Stay tuned!

Its an awesome Friday afternoon in Tokyo!

A rainy day in Tokyo
bored
I’d rather be on Facebook
or making some greater contribution to Life In General

I need a new blog
and time to install one

Shoulda done it yesterday
Too many other things that also needed doing

Is this a poem?
That’s up to you

My Facebook account was deactivated today for sending too many Friend invites in too short a time. The warnings were being sent to my home email account, which I wasn’t checking at the time. I thought FB would simply put the brakes on me by refusing to allow me to invite more people, but no, suddenly I wasn’t able to log in. I’ve written FB about it and received an automated response, but nothing else… Hoping for action from them fairly soon.

On the other hand, it could be a blessing in disguise as now I have some extra time to get all of those other things done. Like an upcoming design contest I’m organizing…

After work in the evening I met with a business partner and one other friend in Ueno to discuss the side business I’ve been developing since February. Eventually wound up back in Kashiwa for a drink with the same friend, but didn’t make it too late as we were both pretty tired, and he had been feeling a bit sick since last week.

Saw this on Facebook and thought it was a good reminder to make the most of every minute to invest in the things that are truly important in life:

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn’t supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it’s harder every time. You’ll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You’ll fight with your best friend. You’ll blame a new love for things an old one did. You’ll cry because time is passing too fast, and you’ll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’ve never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back.

Don’t be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!

Class started out tonight with a demonstration of one of the first techniques of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu by N. Sensei. Soke then did his spin-off thing and soon had the full class in a state of confusion. Nothing unusual about tonight in that regard.

We did a lot of work with “fist changing” tonight - using multiple strikes against the opponent, changing the strike from one form into another along the way. From a shishinken to a boshiken to a shutoken for example, 3 consecutive strikes with the same hand. It wasn’t as if we were just standing there hitting the other guy repeatedly with one hand though. Sensei stressed the necessity of *walking* through the technique. With every step, a strike would be applied. A step was used to power every strike. Sensei often uses the term “juppo sessho” (’10 ways of interacting’ is one rendering of that phrase) in relation to this “fist changing.” The number 10 represents infinity and circularity, continuous, never-ending change. The martial *artist* must be able to continually adapt his attacks and strategies to best fit continually-changing circumstances, “changing as change is necessary” to accomplish that which [s]he wills to do.

From the number 10, Sensei went on to talk about the “bugei juhappan”, 18 martial skills to be learnt by the common Japanese warrior (bushi). ("Ninjutsu practitioners also study Bugei Juhappan alongside with Ninja Juhakkei (the 18 Ninjutsu fighting art skills).") Sensei said that by adding this extra dimension, we arrive at the number 36, which is a significant number in ‘fuusui’ (風水, pronounced ‘feng-shui’ in Chinese). He didn’t elaborate, leaving it up to the listener to figure out for themselves. (I could turn it into a ‘93′ by turning it around, but…) He did leave a hint though by stressing the *simplicity* of the concept, stating that its simply a continual circulation in two (or more) directions at the same time, much like the simultaneous circulation of blood through both the arteries and veins through the body. Once again we were left with the teaching that budo is simple, but its simple on a grand scale.