This week has been pretty nice! I was able to go and visit a number of friends in addition to just sort of chilling out and taking it easy. I'll be back through the state one more time on Memorial Day to catch up with one last friend and say goodbye to a few others before taking off.

Here's a pic of my Granny.

My kid brother finally got hitched!
What could be better than that you ask.
Decorating his car of course!!!

(I know it's spelled wrong, that wasn't me)

My Mums!



ALSO,
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND...

The Story Of The Story Of My Camera..

Things to remember when viewing this file.
* The file is 1.04 mb and my take a moment to download.
* It plays with either windows media or divix.
* My parents are so cool I would have just given the camera to them if they'd have asked.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy. My brother is getting married this weekend and since I have time off I volunteered to lend a hand in setting things up. 46 banquet tables and 350something chairs later the U-Haul was loaded and ready ready to truck on out to the reception site for unloading.

Believe me when I say there was nothing gentle about the ride. That poor poor truck, I think we might have broken it.

On a much more enjoyable note, I was able to help build the dance floor for the wedding!

CanMan, MadChatthew, Holly and I all played canasta the other night. CanMan didn't want me on his team cause it's been a while since I played and he he thought I wouldn't be any good, so MadChatthew took me as a partner. CanMan was partially right, but it turns out that MadChatthew was good enough to compensate and managed to capitalize on their one mistake and carry "US" to victory.

A picture speaks a thousand words,
MadChattew and I are "US", CanMan and Holly are "Them".

Why the long face?

Molly's a city dog who was getting her first real taste of the country dog life, and I'm telling you she didn't want to get back in that truck when it was time to go.

I'm leaving Japan today, in exactly 93 mintues to be exact. Two years will change a lot of things in a man and I'm interested to relfect on the changes I've seen take place in myself. I had a few close friends here, and leaing them was hard. It's not like when I left Bemidji or Brainers, although that was hard too I knew I'd be back eventually to check in on things. Not so with Japan. We exchanged email addresses and did the handshake man-hug thing and tried not to dwell on the idea that we'd never see eachother ever again.

When I arived at the comand, I was new to the police field, and then somewhere between the 30 man bar brawls, dead bodies, child abusers, more dead bodies, child molesters, rapists, and trying to keep living bodies from becoming dead ones my friends and I suffered together and grew together until one day I looked in the mirror to find that the balding pot-bellied computer geek had been replaced by someone a bit leaner, a bit harder and a bit balder.

I'm through with police work for a while now as my next command is going to be oriented in a slightly different direction. I'm learning the local language already "Shokran Gazillan " and plan to become as fluent as possible throughout my time there. I have this sinking feeling that I'm going to spend more time there than I am supposed to, but right now I'm content to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Valleyfair is going to be open while i'm back in the states!!!
"WHOOOOO'S COMIN WITH ME?!"

Also, my camera broke yesterday while I was taking some shots of Landmark Tower. It's a few years old, and I'm debating now whether to get it fixed and keep it around for a bit or just bite the bullet and get a new one. The pictures (I hope) should be recoverable and will make a nice addition to the "Studying Japan in charcoal and chalk" site that I'm hoping to put together.

I learned how to use people's eyes to tell whether they are lying today. Purely in the interest of perfecting the science, I tested this newfound technique on a lot of people today and found out a number of interesting things. I'm not great at it yet, but it is definately a usefull skill and something I'm glad to have learned.

I'm home in just a few weeks!
Already my schedule is packed, but I'm hoping to get around the state to visit everyone at least once or twice.

In other news, THE MARSHALLOW SHOOTER
All I can say is you fools are lucky I don't still live in the cubicle jungle.

Ever wanted to learn Swahili?
I am trying to learn Arabic. The cdrom I bought had Swahili on it too, and I thougth to myself what a great language to know.
Here're a few really quick first words:

Yes - Ndiyo
No - Hapana
Good Morning - Habari za asubuhi
Good Afternoon - Habari za mchana
Good Night - Habari za jioni
Please - Tafadhali
Thank you - Asante
Thank you very much - Asante sana
Sorry - Samahani
Hello - Habari
Goodbye - Kwa heri

that's right, I'm a geek.
Asante sana,
Kwa heri.
-Ace

Summer is almost upon us over here and boy it is nice outside!
Unfortunately, I'm inside doing homework but only for another week or two.

Yesterday was... Interesting.

Almost as soon as my shift started I was sent to a domestic disturbance. Imagine my surprise when I round the corner and there stands a good friend and mentor. What can I say, I was at a loss for words. Training took over and I processed it like any other domestic, checking for signs of violence, any visible need for medical attention, kids or other people in the house etc..., the whole time this little voice inside my head is screaming "I can't believe this, Just can't believe it!"
As it turns out no physical violence had taken place, and he's actually the one who called us when he saw where things were heading. I promised him I wouldn't repeat any of our conversation, and to be honest I haven't even told my supervisors about it, but we did sit down and talk about what had happened and what started it and where it was heading. I suggested a marriage counselor, or a chaplain and we talked some more until I was satisfied that he wasn't going to do something crazy the moment he was alone. There's more to it, but I don't really want to put him out there, so you'll all just have to mind your own business. Needless to say, it gave me a lot to think about.

Two nights ago it was cold and rainy, last night it was cold and rainy, but today!!! That's right, it's cold and sunny.

I think this weekend I'll go through and catalogue both of the personal effects that I'm having shipped to my next residence. Living in a barracks, I don't really own a lot of personal stuff.
As a precursor, here's a rough list:

1) Old laptop
2) Old desk chair
3) Used folding homework table 2'x2.5'
4) X box
5) JVC T.V.
6) Sony DVD player
7) Epson Stylus cx4600 printer/scanner/copier
8) One Ansel Adams print
9) Three unknown artist's paintings
10) Lots and lots of books
11) Small book shelf 2'x3'
12) folding poker table that sits on top of the folding homework table.
13) Laptop surround sound speakers
14) vacuum cleaner
15) Folding Papa-San chair

I'll be back in the states towards the beginning of next month. Also, my kid brother's getting married! My other brother is thinking of wearing his uniform to the wedding and I was asked if I would too, but I don't know if I should. After all, the attention is supposed to be on the groom and if I'm walking around in my dress whites...

My friend and I ate Yakiniku the other night. It's a great idea where you roast your meat at your table over an open flame, but somehow it just seems to fraught with lawsuit possibilities to ever catch on in the states.

I'm in a new section today and it's pretty interesting. My partner is someone I've never worked with, but so far things are working out pretty well. She's been in the Navy a bit longer than I have so she calls the shots and I just sort of sit back and let her do all the talking. She doesn't like the section very much and wants to switch out to a different one, but somehow I think she's a bit to valuable for our section leaders to let go.

Some friends and I at the Cherry Blossom Festival.
I'm the big square jaw in the background.
The quality of this pic isn't the greatest, but you can see it's actual size HERE.

My grades came back and I passed my English midterm!!!
The actual grade doesn't matter so much as the fact that I passed. I was somewhat sure I would, but you never know. The reason I was worried is that it composed 40 percent of my grade for this class and only consisted of one question. To further my anxiety, the question they asked related only vaguely to what we've studied in the class so I had to guess at what they were looking for in an answer.

In an unrelated topic, have any of you read The Great Gatsby? If so, do you think that he did or did not personify rugged individualism, or that he tried at it and failed?

Had an interesting day yesterday, one of the bases I work at held an Easter Egg hunt for residents of the town it's located in. The day was pretty nice, so a lot of people turned out for it, we'll have another one today that is strictly for the families living on base. I have to say I am a bit puzzled as to why they didn't host them together as it would have been a great opportunity for some intercultural relations. In the end, I suppose it came down to a limited space available for the event or something else along those lines.