Well, I wanted to post...

But I'm having problems finding the right cord to connect my camera to my computer to transfer pictures on, so I'll give you the brief summary without pictures

Graduation weekend:

Mom got in to the Twin Cities last Thursday around noon. After I picked her up, we went to downtown Minneapolis. I took her to eat at Pot Belly, a sandwich shop (she said it was slightly different then the one she was familiar with). To get there though, we walked through the skyway, which connects most of the down town buildings, and she found that really intriguing. After lunch, I took her by DeLaSalle where she got to meet a few of the staff members there and I think I can safely say she was quite pleased with me being there and placed at ease after having met some of them. After getting to my apartment and finishing my cleaning up and vacuuming, mom and I went to have dinner at Pastor Tom and Lois Kramer's house in northern St. Paul. Ed and Pearl Yoshikawa also join us for dinner there. They were all glad to see mom in Minnesota.

Friday was my graduation day. After having brunch at a local dinner, we went to the Baccalaureate Mass, which was at the Cathedral of St. Paul. While the service was nice, the acoustics, as always, were poor in there. The actual graduation ceremony took place at 7pm at the River Center in downtown St. Paul. The ceremony itself was about and hour and fifteen mins; ours was only for those in the doctorate and grad schools (about 400 students). Im my department, the School of Divinity, there were only about 5 us that actually walked. (While we were one of the smaller groups, the smallest group was the one person getting a masters in real estate. The larger groups were MBA and education.) Charlie's dad was also able to make it to my graduation ceremony and sat next to mom. They had a reception there afterwards of punch and cookies, so I told mom to eat enough cookies since they were worth a couple thousand dollars for each cookie. Friday night, Charlie was also having a party, his holiday party for his family and friends. So after the ceremony, we went to the bar where the party with, and mom actually stay at the bar for over an hour! I took her to my apartment when she started to get bored, and then I went back to the party for a couple more hours.

Saturday...For Lunch we met with classmates at DeGidios, an Italian restaurant in St Paul. It is a nice sit down restaurant. Four of us were in the graduating class, two of them had taken classes with us but were not done yet, and 5 family members joined us. It was also a fare well party for one of our graduated classmates, Manuk, who is going back to his homeland of Armenia. Manuk is a deacon in the Armenian Apostolic Church (a traditional orthodox Church); his Church sent him to grad school for Ecumenical reasons and he was a blessing to have in class because he provided some good insights. Saturday for dinner, mom and I were invited over to the Yoshikawa's. We joined them and their friend, George, for a nice chicken and potatoes dinner.

Sunday, after I got back from Church, I took mom back to downtown Minneapolis. We went to the Macy's there which had an animated walk through of "A Day in the Life of an Elf." Apparently it's a tradition that Macy's does and each year they pick and theme to make in animation, we walked through it in about 20 mins or so and it culminates in a chance for kids to take a picture with Santa, which we by passed. We then went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. They have a nice collection of European and Asian artwork, but we went because they have a collection on loan from the Louvre. I figured since mom may never make it to France, it would be interested to see. While I'm not sure it is worth the $16 they were charging per person, I guess it wasn't bad since I got in for free for being a student. I guess the most famous painting they had was "The Astronomer" by Vermeer; it was quite interesting to see the detail of the painting so up close. For dinner on Sunday, we were invited over to Charlie's mom's house, who cooked pasta for us. I think mom had a good time chatting with Charlie's mom and step-dad, and I had fun chatting with Charlie and a few of his other friends who were also there.

Thankfully, the weather was good on Monday morning and we were able to fly out of Minneapolis with only a slight delay (since they were waiting for some crew members to get there).

Tidbit by Thomas: Bed time, in the morning I'm headed to Napa with my friend Jimmy. We are going out there to have lunch with some of my students I had out there and visit with the Brother's I lived with up there.

Catch up: Graduation and Traveling

Mom got out here for graduation last week.

My graduation was on Friday night.

We are headed home in about 9 hours.

I will post pics and stories before Christmas so you know what's been happening and come prepared with questions

Snow and Birthday

The first good snow fall (3 inches) for the season has finally occurred Tuesday. However, my mom was saying even Sacramento got snow earlier in the week. Well, my drive in to work Tuesday and Wednesday was quite an adventure. My normally twenty minute drive home was turned into 45 minutes. And now we are in a deep freeze. Last night, with wind chill, they said it was going to get as low as -30!

Besides that, lately I’ve been thumbing through my coins. “Why?” you may ask. Well, a few weeks ago while working the cash register, I noticed someone had used three mercury dimes. So I switched those out with 30 cents of my own and now I have them saved. It sparked that collector in me again. As my mom will tell you, I don’t use coins often; normally I throw them into a bucket and they sit around. Subconsciously, I like to think that they can sit there for a long while and become valuable. Yes, I know that won’t likely happen, but it’s a nice dream. Same thing with my philatelic side...I’m too poor to afford anything right now, but window shopping for stamps on ebay is always fun.

It’s one week till mom gets up here for graduation, and one week and one day till graduation!

Tidbit by Thomas: I decided to post today as a birthday present for Lily….Happy Birthday!!

(I was going to do a montage of pictures I have of Lily because I know she would love it, but I'll spare her the honor.)

Back from Cincinnati…(Part 2)

Most of Friday was spent listening to presentations by Dr. Ken Hardy and Dr. Mary Pipher, who are psychologists/therapists. While I thought both were pessimistic on their view of today’s youth, I thought they offered good insights into how to deal with extreme cases. One of the helpful insights they mentioned was the important role a community can play children’s lives.

Friday evening, the schools from the west coast held a dinner at Blackfinn Restaurant. It’s an Irish pub within walking distance of the Hilton, where the conference was. There we had the choice between a few different dishes. I chose the glazed salmon (even over the steak tips); I was very pleased with my choice. Over dinner, I had the opportunity to socialize with some of the different faculty members from the schools in Napa and Sacramento. After that dinner, we walked back to the Hilton and Br. George introduced me to a number of Brothers and other Lasallians that were in the hotel bar. One of the Brothers that I got hang out with a lot while in Cincinnati was Br. Claude (pictured left). Br Claude, originally from France, works in Rome as part of the governing council for the Brothers. I definitely learned a lot about the French society and religiosity from him, as well as a lot of general insight about the Christian Brothers around the world.

On Saturday, there was a morning session that included a panel discussion and closing remarks. More of the fun things to blog about happened in the afternoon and evening. Given the afternoon off, I walked around downtown since that’s where the hotel was. I walked a few blocks south to the Ohio River. I walked over the Covington Suspension Bridge which was constructed in 1865 by the same designer who did the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge. As I started walking across it I noticed that cars driving over it made an unusual buzzing sound. I looked over and noticed that there was no asphalt, but rather just a metal-grate-thing. If you dropped any pennies out your car while driving over the bridge, they would fall straight into the river. Well I walked over into Kentucky and back into Ohio. That afternoon, I also walked over the Cathedral of Cincinnati, which was about 10 blocks away.

That evening there was a Mass and dinner award ceremony at the Lasallian high school in Cincinnati, La Salle High School. The Mass was held in the school’s chapel, which is one of the nicer school chapels I have seen. Above the altar is the sign “Live Jesus in our hearts…Forever,” which is the saying Lasallians use to end their prayers. At the award dinner, I sat at a table that was comprised of educators from New York. It was an interesting group, personalities were almost what I would expect out of a group of New Yorkers (loud, opinionated, etc). It was a good time nonetheless and a good time to network.

Saturday night after getting back to the Hilton, I joined my semi-colleagues from DeLaSalle HS who were in attendance at the conference and we went out for ice cream and walked alittle around downtown. One of them pictured here is CJ (on the left) who works in our school’s campus ministry. Br. Bede (on the Right) currently works in Chicago, but he also joined our group. When we got back, I joined some of the others in the hotel bar for some more socializing.

Finally, Sunday arrived and I packed up and prepared for my 12 hour drive back to St Paul. I can tell you about how many hours I listened to my CD player and how many hours I chatted on my cell phone with my hand’s-free device, but I will spare you the details. I made PBJ’s for breakfast and dinner; however, I did decide to treat myself out to lunch. On my way through Chicago, I went to Super Dawg for a Chicago hot dog. It’s on the corner of Nagle and Devon. It’s been featured on the Food Network; and when I had gone to Chicago a few years ago for Thanksgiving with John we had gone there. Lily would be able to tell you that my hot dog came in a poppy seed bun with NO ketchup. Though there was an assortment of other possibilities (besides ketchup) I got only mustard and onions.

Tidbit By Thomas: I had another great Thanksgiving here in Minnesota. Charlie’s family was as fun as ever and the food was as good as ever. One of the specialties at Charlie’s Mom’s thanksgiving is her spaghetti; turkey takes the back seat to the spaghetti. It’s a family tradition they’ve had for years and years. I ended up bring the layered jello to her house. At his Dad’s thanksgiving, the turkey was tender and I brought a box of assorted Blue Diamond Almonds.

Back from Cincinnati…(part 1)

Last Wednesday I ended up leaving my apartment around 6 A.M. After stopping for gas in Madison, I made it into Chicago little after 12:30. My first stop in Chicago was at St Patrick HS. Br. Konrad, the president of the school, gave me a tour of their school. The school was founded nearly 148 years ago and was original located in downtown Chicago. Since then it has moved to northwest Chicago and I was thoroughly impressed by their facilities…from their great theater to their computer labs and their indoor pool. From there I traveled to De La Salle Institute off of Michigan Ave and 35th St., just south of downtown. There I met Br. Kevin. The Brothers have a house kitty corner from the school. When I got there, Br. Kevin took me across the street to the school, it was right before school was getting out.
So when school let out, we were able to walk around the school and visit with the students and faculty. Five mayors of Chicago have gone to DLSI, including current mayor, Richard Daley. The community of Brothers there had 5 brothers there the night I was there. They were all very friendly and welcoming. Because I know several Brothers they know, staying with them was like hanging out with old friends.


Thursday morning, I took off around 8 CST. I drove though Indiana down to Cincinnati. There wasn’t anything too exciting to see in Indiana, but the drive was not that bad. I got to Cincinatti around 1:30 EST in the afternoon. I got check into my room, checked into the conference and the first pre-session to the conference started at 2:30. The theme of the conference was “Providing Sanctuary for All in Times of Crisis” and particular pre-session dealt with grief and loss. It was nice to walk into the session room and see one of my old mentors from CBHS, Mr. McIntosh. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years so it was a great to see him and catch up with him over the weekend. The conference officially started later in the evening with the opening prayer service and key note speech by Br. Alvaro (pictured right), who is the superior general for the Christian Brothers (a.k.a. the head Brother from Rome…who is in charge of the governance of the Brothers worldwide.) I have met him a couple of times before when he has visited the United States. He recognized me and I gave him a framed picture from the last time we had met in Memphis.

Second part of trip to come later in the week…

Tidbit By Thomas: Happy Thanksgiving!!! I will be spending it with Charlie and his family like I have the past couple of years…I’m thinking of making layer jello to take over there….

Getting Ready for Cincinnati

Well there’s not too much to update on. I’ve been keeping busy, more or less, substituting at De. I finished my tenure as a cashier in the cafeteria. It took me a week to master the cash register, but by the second week I had it figured out. I’ve also been busy substituting various classes from Spanish to French, religion to history, and geometry to government.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I take off for Cincinnati, Ohio. There is a Lasallian teacher’s conference there. This year’s theme of the Huether Lasallian Conference is Providing Sanctuary for All in Times of Crisis. Thanks to the generous help of the Christian Brothers in Napa, who I lived with over the past summers, I am able to attend. I hope it will be a good time to strengthen good values and network with other Lasallians.

On Wednesday, I will leave early in the morning around 5:30 and I hope to make it into Chicago around noon time. I will be visiting St. Patricks HS and De La Salle Institute; both are Lasallian high schools in Chicago. I will be staying the night in Chicago with the Brothers who work at DLS Institute.

On Thursday I will finish driving to Cincinnati in the morning and hopefully make it there around noon. The conference starts that afternoon. In Cincinnati, Br. George has offered to share his hotel room with me. (Br. George worked at CBHS while I was there and then lived in Napa the summers I was there.) I’ll be attending different talks and sessions and hopefully be able to network with others.

I will drive back the 11 hours from Cincinnati to St. Paul on Sunday. And I will be sure to post stories and pictures next week.

Tidbits by Thomas: Preparation from Trip –
Completed:
-Snack food
-Check car and fueled up
-Change for Chicago toll ways
-Make business cards with contact info and CV.
-Clothes Packed
To Do:
-Make PBJ sandwiches for tomorrow’s food
-Pack camera, charge batteries
-Finish maps
-Make music CDs
-Pick up apartment before leaving.
-Go to bed early

Catch up for the week

So, what was Thomas for Halloween? Well, I was myself. Hahaha. I don’t even remember the last time I actually dressed for Halloween anyways. Besides running errands, I didn’t do anything for Halloween.

I’ve been busy working the last couple of weeks at De. This week I’m working not only as a substitute there, but also a cashier in the cafeteria. My first experience as a cashier. Mix that in with working with some interesting characters in the cafeteria, and it’s an interesting experience. Good part about working in the cafeteria though is 1) free lunch and 2) if there are leftovers, we get to take them home. So yesterday, I got three cheese burgers and a loaf of garlic and parmesan bread.

I took my meager Citi gains and threw it at UA (Under Armour). After it reported a good quarter but shaky outlooks for the fourth quarter, it dipped and dipped and dipped. While I did not catch the low, I’m glad I did not by it before its reporting.

Tidbit by Thomas: Right now I’m watching Anthony Bourdain on Travel Chanel in Japan, rerun I’m guessing (though it’s a new episode to me). While I was finding it interesting, he lost respect points when he couldn’t even pronounce “obon.” He calls it “oban.” Oban, oban, oban. It’s ironic they are showing that episode today since yesterday was “all souls day” for Catholics, Orthodox and a number of other Christians. All souls days is when we remember in special way those who have already died.

Games...

So I’m behind on my Sunday evening TV shows for one reason or another.

Last week I was teaching a Confirmation class at a parish. The 80 year old priest who is the pastor of the Church needed help with the class and got a hold of me to help him. So I am doing that every couple of weeks.

Anyways, so this afternoon I am starting/catch up on the Amazing Race. One of my favorite reality tv shows. I’ve only had the opportunity to see one episode, I think it was the third episode. So now I’m watching the whole season thus far on the internet.

The first episode is in Tokyo. It’s hilarious! If you haven’t seen it, go look up on the CBS website. On a Japanese game show, they are playing Sushi Roulette (or as they pronounce it “rourette”). They have to either eat a sushi roll or a wasabi roll. Personally, I wouldn’t mind getting the sushi roll a couple of times, but they need the wasabi roll to advance. They have to eat this wasabi sushi roll in 2 mins (which I’d like to think I could possibly do…I mean how hard could that be…rice, wasabi, and seaweed). And then lead a group of tourist (matching hats and flag – so typical/stereotype) across Tokyo to a shrine.

Needless to say, I got my laugh in for the day!

Yesterday, Charlie and his friends that live near him in Uptown host their first ‘Beer Olympics.’ We walked between 4 different houses for four different events. Being the light weight of them all, I was drafted to help team Greece with the first two events (flip cup and beer pong). Basically they started at 11 AM and I made it home around 1AM. It was a good time, even if team Greece lost all events….we got bronze though (yes, there were only three teams). But I would have made my Guro cousins proud.

Tidbit by Thomas: I sold my 100 of the 125 shares of Citi this week. I left with $100 profit and will let the other 25 shares ride for a while. I got tired of most of the financials not doing anything or just moving downward. So now hopefully in the middle of earnings season or shortly after, I can find another company to invest in on a dip.

Sports Games

Well, most of the week I have been recovering from a cold...but I got a few good events in.

Sunday, was the heart breaker 3rd game in the Twins and Yankees game. But it was the last baseball game in the Metrodome since the Twins are moving to the outside Target stadium. (Thankfully, they were in the Dome this year, cause it would have been cold enough to snow outside!)

Here's Shaun, Charlie and I at the game. Two other friends of our also came, Mark and Ian, but they were in a couple sections over since I couldn't get 5 seats in a row.


Wednesday was the last season home football game at De La Salle. There was a very lite misting in the air, that was partially snow-ish. Ehh anyways, De won like 52-14 or something like that. (Luckily they ran the clock for the 2nd half - normally they only run it for the 4th quarter.) They will probably play another football game there, but that will be when playoffs start in a couple of weeks.

And I guess if the stock market is considered a "sports game" the DOW hit 10,000 and my few invested pennies are doing well! And today on a pull back I invested a couple more pennies in to Las Vegas Sands (LVS)...an investment on gambling! I think it's poised to pop after the IPO next month in China. I think it will be a good long term investment too.

Tidbit by Thomas: This Saturday, the 17th, marks the 1 year memorial of Br. Jerome's passing. Br. Jerome was the brother in Napa who taught me Latin last summer (2008). Thanks to his patience and generosity, I have a Masters this year.

Exciting Week (Part 2)

Every year the freshman class go to the Mill City Museum and the library as part of their field trip. The Mill City Museum is about 12 blocks from the high school. It is a basically a former milling plant. I learned that Minneapolis was once the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.” The museum not only explains the process of milling, but it also incorporates a lot of the history of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Milling plants caught water from a natural waterfall in the Mississippi River, and use it to turn turbines. After lunch, we went to the Minneapolis public library. While it was not as structured as the museum, it gave freshman a chance to learn the basics of research, where to find material, etc. It was interesting trying to heard a group of 13 freshmen around four levels of the library during their “scavenger hunt.” Big open place, with lots of shelves that you can’t see through, and not knowing any of their names all added to the experience.

Thursday was not as exciting; however, I did go to the high school’s soccer game to see some of my former students play. Since it was windy and temperature was only in the 40’s, I waited till about the 2nd half to get out there. I was still frozen like a popsicle when it was done.

Friday and Saturday were pretty relaxed. Since I only had limited funds (due to buying Twins tickets), I laid low.

Lately, I have also been doing some more book reading on the ins and outs of the stock market. Now that I’ve been waking up earlier (about 8:30ish) I have been watching even more CNBC. Whereas about two weeks ago I was watching 5 hours of CNBC, now I watch about 7 hours of CNBC (on days that I don’t substitute).

It looks like I may have some possible volunteer and (part time) stable work opportunities in the near future…I will keep you posted.

Tidbit by Thomas: Saturday, 10/10/09. First day of snow falling and sticking to the ground. It was enough to make a light dusting, but melted by midday.We went from summer to winter with only about a week of autumn.

Exciting Week (Part 1)

Finally, I’ve had an interesting week…

Last weekend was homecoming weekend at DeLaSalle HS, so I went to some of the festivities. Friday night was the coronation for homecoming court and the bonfire at the school. Being the hearty Minnesotans they are, they still had the bonfire outside even if it was in the low 50s and drizzling all night! But I got to chat with a lot of the kids and catch up with other faculty members. Saturday afternoon was the football game. The weather cleared up, even though it was still cool. The school now has its own, brand new football field there on campus, and so it was double exciting as ‘homecoming.’ Of course DLS won by like 6 TDs or something like that. But a lot of the seniors I had last year came back for the game as well and so it was great to catch up with them!

Tuesday I went to the tie-breaker Twins game! I think it’s only the 2nd game I’ve been to this season, but I’m glad I went. I was in the upper deck, the 26th row (an there were probably only 32 rows or so). I went by myself since I could only get a single ticket when I was buying online and I didn’t know anyone else going. But it was the largest attendance record for a baseball game in the Dome (54,088 people). And for those of you who didn’t know, the Twins won in the 12th inning! It was ecstatic! It was electric! Imagine Arco Arena when it used to sell out…and multiply that by 3. And imagine the noise, multiplied by three! Most of the people sitting in front of me, young and old, had ear plugs in!

Immediately after the game, they were selling playoff tickets so most of the people exiting went to wait in line. I waited in line an hour for tickets! I was able to get 5 tickets in the upper deck again; 3 seats together and another 2 together in another section (but in rows 8 and 12 this time). While I could easily sell them online and make a few hundred dollars, I’m going to go with Charlie and some of our friends. And when you buy tickets, you have to buy both home games (games 3 and 4) even if they don’t make it to game 4. So I have tickets for game 4 as well. If they don’t make it to game four, I mail them in for a refund. But game 3 will be on Sunday!

Yesterday, Wednesday, after staying up late Tuesday and celebrating with some friends downtown, I got a call early in the morning to go in and substitute for the first time this school year! After only five hours of sleep, I told them I was too exhausted to be an English substitute teacher and after school supervision. So I went back to bed. An hour later, I got called again…this time they wanted me for a chaperone for a field trip! I figured God really wanted me to work, not to mention it was to just chaperone a field trip, so I said yes. An hour later I was at DLS, and headed to the Mill City Museum….

Since I don’t want to exhaust you, to be continued…

Gandhi and Chicago

So here I was watching CNBC on tv and my stocks on my computer and I see Chicago eliminated in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympics. WHAT?! Really?! Wow...

And, apparently, it's Gandhi's 140th birthday. Obviously, I never got to meet him. But I did get to meet his grandson, Arun Gandhi, and his wife, Sunanda, at CBU. My freshman and sophomore year there, they operated the Ghandi Institute for Nonviolence from CBU.

This picture is from the spring of 2004 in their office.

Last Day of the Third Quarter

Hello, readers!

Well, I don’t have much to report. Nothing new. I guess that is what happens with no school and waiting for work.

Friday till Tuesday morning, I was house sitting for Lou (Charlie’s dad) and took care of their blind dog, Jack. For the most part I stayed around there at night and in the morning and came back to my place during the day. So it was a low key (and cheep) weekend.

This week is homecoming week at DeLaSalle. Today was the Homecoming Liturgy, so I went over for that. It was good to catch up with some of the students and faculty over there. Hopefully, I can get some substituting jobs over there soon.

Tidbit by Thomas:

So I went to daily Mass last Friday and the Gospel reading was from the Gospel of Luke. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, his disciple, responds, “The Christ of God.”

The priest during his homily made an interesting point. He said all humans who have ever encountered Christianity have had to ask that question, “Who is/was Jesus?” Christians answer that he is the Christ who is fully human and fully divine. Others answer that he was a great prophet (like some Jews and Muslims). Others answer he was just a teacher or some historical guy that simply started a movement.

I kept ruminating on that thought and took it another step further. I think the next question anyone should ask themselves is, “Who do I say that I [myself] am?”

In the Gospel story, Jesus goes on tell his disciples about how he must suffer, be rejected, and ultimately killed for being the Christ. His disciples did not understand why; this was a paradox for them.

If we ask, “Who do I say that I am,” we get to look at ourselves. Am I living to my fullest potential? Am I living the life I should be? Am I doing what I should be? Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing for others [family, friends, or strangers]? You get the idea…

And, finally, the next question to ask oneself would be, “Who do others say that I am?”

The inside image/person and the outside image/person…

Dinners

I've had some good food lately. And by "good" I mean not only in taste, but also in nutrition...something beyond PB&J.'

Last Friday, Chris (who took classes with me here at St Thomas) and I went to a German restaurant for dinner. It was a toss up between German and Mexican food. Since I can't ever remember trying traditional German food, we went with German. I had a casserole sort of thing that was really good. And it was the first time I've tried Spatzel, which was pretty good.

Wednesday for dinner, I invited Pastor Tom and Lois Kramer and the Yoshikawa's to Kikugawa, a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis. I thought they would get along great, and sure enough it was a good time and good conversation. They are both Baptists, both have done work in Japan, both have lived in Sacramento and now live in the Twin Cities area, etc. I had a great saba miso and chicken tempura (yes, it was chicken strips fried in tempura batter).

(L-R: Me, Ed, Pearl, Lois, and Pastor Tom)

Last night, Thursday night, my neighbor (Carolyn), her boyfriend (Mick), and I did dinner together. I cooked the main dish (Grandma's 'Italian Delight' casserole), and they did the salad and dessert. It was nice time. They are both undergrads at St Thomas. But when I moved in two years ago, Carolyn used to lived next me. She moved out for a year, and when she wanted to moved back in a month ago, ironically, her old apartment became available.

Tidbit by Thomas: hmm really got nothing...I'll work on one.

Openness

Thank to all for the ‘congratses’!

It’s been a pretty low key week. Pretty relaxing, but pretty boring at the same time.

Last Friday, I went to the DeLaSalle HS game. I called up one of my graduated seniors from last year, who played on the team, and I picked him up at his college down the road and we went. Though they were only ahead by a point when we got there right before half time, they ended up winning by like three touchdowns. Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a bite to eat.

Saturday night, I went to a Tapas birthday party for a fellow I worked with at DLS last years. Matt’s only a few years older than me so we connected well when I was working. Last year, him and his wife invited me over to one of their parties; and so we go do things every once in a while.

After that I met up with some friend (who I knew through Charlie) in Uptown for a couple of drinks. We went to a couple of adult watering holes, only drink I had though was with Mark. We made a celebratory toast to me passing my final comps and Mark passing a section on the cpa test.

Hmm, that’s about the highlight of my week so far. Other than that, I haven’t done much, except lots of TV (oh and I washed my clothes yesterday.)

Not sure what is going on this weekend, but a couple classmates want to go out and celebrate the end of comps Friday, so that should be fun.

Tidbit by Thomas: At Buffalo Wild Wings, Zach said he was having a difficult time adjusting to the social aspect of college life, even though he is one of the most outgoing and social students I had last year. He didn’t like what he thought was fakeness by some people. I reminded him, “Don’t judge a book by a cover.” I told him the same great advice I got my freshman year from a number of people my freshman year of college: Be Open. You’ll never know what’s in that book if you don’t open the cover.

I passed my oral exams today!!!

Thomas Guro, M.A.T.

National Bowling Week

Happy National Bowling Week!

Who even knew such a thing existed? Now I do thanks to a segment that was just on CNBC.

Speaking of business stories...I bought my plane ticket to come home Saturday night. It was going to be nearly $700 to flight out Tuesday to come home for the week. Well my friend said I should look on Orbits. Sure enough, I was able to save about $400 by getting US Airways orbits! So I canceled the NWA one I bought, and you get one full day to cancel an online ticket without penalty for full refund, so I took advantage of that!

So I'll be headed home tomorrow; will be around through the following Wednesday.

And as for today, what am I doing, you may ask? Well I going back to the Fair...Again! I went with Charlie on Saturday (the weather high for the day didn't even make it into the 70's!) One of our friends, Pat, who's Charlie's roommate, also came along. It was a good time. Pat picked me up since Charlie went early with one of his lady friends, and we got out there probably around 1:30 and I ended up leaving with Charlie around 8 or so. It was good time...We shot arrows from bows, we heard about the fish in Minnesota, we walked for hours, watch the Twin's game for a while. And we ate a lot of fair food. I had a pronto pup (corn dog), fries and cookies.

Will get pictures up soon.

Namu Amida Butsu

I hope this video works (I hope you get sound to listen to it too). It was from Christmas day this past year.

I was going to title the Blog "Good Bye" because of the video, but Namu Amida Butsu seemed more fitting. Why you may ask? The answer is in Star Wars + Buddhims + Christianity.

Well, watching Star Wars lately made me think of the "force." Those fully in touch with the "force" and who have completed their task actually become even stronger and more influential after they die or are killed. They evaporate and are joined back to the "force" to aid those in the "force." Thus Obi-wan can help Luke destroy the Death Star in movie 4, even though Obi-wan had been killed by Darth Vader. Obi-wan was in the "force" and able to still guide Luke from it.

One can think of Amida, the source of infinite source of Wisdom and Compassion as that "force." In death, the soul reaches Nirvana and becomes extinguished, so to speak. The soul becomes part of Nirvana, it goes back to or get assumed into the great realm. And in Jodo Shinshu, that is of course of the primal vow of Amida to aid those who called upon his name. Amida is "force" because the "force" brings about that extinguishing to join the great beyond.

One can think that God is that "force." Christianity believes when one dies in a state of grace with God, they will be reunited to God in heaven. This reuniting of the soul to God can be explained as the most intimate connection between two beings, even closer than any human bonds. And because all Christians, living or dead, are in some manner connected to God, they are all connected to each other in a spiritual or "force-ish" manner. So, as I taught my kids last year, death is not the end of a relationship. Rather if you believe that the soul of your loved one is with God, and you believe in God, the perfect relationship that the three of you share is unending, for God and the soul have no end. Whereas when they were living, time and space kept you physically apart. In death, the soul is always with God and you're always in God's presence, so theoretically death can create an even stronger bond. This is part of the idea that makes up the Catholic teaching of "communion of saints."

So simply put, Im saying Star Wars-ism, Buddhism, and Christianity all teach the same thing on this issue: Ironically, death doesn't separate, but rather makes bonds stronger.

Tidbit By Thomas: (see above four paragraphs cause if that isn't a good tidbit, then I dont know what is!)

A very boring week so far

Well my test last week went well. As I have been explaining it: It was the best case scenario. I had talked with all three professors who were asking me questions. 2 of them were very specific in our discussions of what they might possibly ask. One was more abstract and general. Well, the two actually asked the questions we had previously discussed, and those were the ones I had specifically studied. So I answered those two on Thursday. Since we were given all 6 possible questions from the very start, I knew which question I wanted to keep till Friday so I could strategize for it Thursday night. Friday after the 5 of us were done with comps, we went out for lunch with a couple other classmates and de-comp-ressed ourselves over pizza and pasta (after comps we de-comp-ressed…hahaha ok.) Now, we wait another week or two before we find out if we passed the essay portion and take our oral exams.

So though I wanted to find a good adult watering hole over the weekend to relax…I couldn’t find anyone else to go with me really, so it ended up being a really slow and non-exciting weekend.

In fact most of this week hasn’t been too exciting. I got a renters rebate check from Minnesota (yes, it finally arrived, Susan), so I have enough money to survive for another month. I took part of it to the local Indian casino Tuesday night with a friend. My $40 was turned into $60! Woo hoo! So now I have extra money to spend at the Minnesota state fair, which started today. I got a couple of cheep tickets ($9 instead of $11) already at the store. So I’m looking forward to the fair!

Tidbits by Thomas: I just stumbled across this article online earlier this afternoon, my audience might find it interesting. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20090828b2.html

Tornado Sirens

Day before I take Comps and we have tornado sirens going off! And here I thought today would be a boring day of just studying....

Less than one week...

...Till the big test day. Next Thursday and Friday I'll be sitting in a room, writing for a total of six hours!

So in preparation I've been reading books, going over class notes, and taking notes by hand (to prepare the hand for the massive amounts of writing).

I've also been watching Charlie's baseball team play a lot over the last few weeks. They are now in the state play offs, amateur league. It's a double elimination thing, they've lost one game so far. Charlie was starting pitcher Wednesday night (he got the win). (They had games Monday and Wednesday night, both at 9pm since other teams were playing games before them.) But to win it all now, they have to win 4 more games, two saturday and two Sunday. They are known for having drinks and food after all their games so it's worth going to them.

But after Wednesday's game (it finished about 11:30) and during the drinks (and after they shut the stadiums lights off) we were able to see occasional shooting stars because of the Perseid meteor things which was cool. probably saw a dozen or so while we were out there.

Tidbit by Thomas: Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Kobata for making sure I had enough to get in a good meal before my test!

Laptop Back!

Yes, I got my laptop back this afternoon!

Oh how I'll miss spending 5 hours a day in the library :(

Or NOT!
But I did get 99% of my papers done while I was in there, which was good.

Anyways, more to come later in the week. Will update by Friday afternoon to give you something to read before the weekend.

Deadline

It's official...
I'll be taking final comps in 16 days on the 20th and 21st. That will be the written part (3 essays, two hours each; two on Thursday, one on Friday). The oral part of the test will be a couple weeks after that (one hour long).

So I have about 15 books to read/re-read, 4 portfolio essays to get submitted (2 which still need to be edited), and to remember all of that without going crazy...

2 Dead Laptops

Im sure a couple of you have seen my facebook status and are dying to know what happened...

Yesterday I decided to take in my new laptop (laptop #1)(3 years old) because there was a power source issue and the warrantee was about to expired on. It worked still, except to get a connection with the powersource, you needed to do 8 hops, two cirles and hail mary pass to get it to consistently work. So I backed up all my information onto my external hard drive (which Uncle Gary gave me for free at Christmas time), and figured I’d use my older laptop (laptop #2)(6 years old) to do the simple things (check email, facebook, notes, essays, etc) I needed while my other one was out.

So yesterday, I made sure my old laptop (#2)worked, could read my external hard drive, get online, etc, before I took laptop #1 to the see the geek squad. Test run of my old laptop went well so I went to the shop after Mass. Dropped it off and should have it back in 2-3 weeks. I got back home and tried laptop #2 and sure enough it started to do funny things. And now, it won’t even start up in safemode! I frantically called Br. Dat up, and once if I finally got ahold of him, I found out I don’t even have the right CD to reformate latop #2! Thankfully he’s going to mail that to me today and should be here in a few days.

Till then, I’m 2 laptops down, and working in the school’s library. It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I could just work on notes and essays w/o the internet from a laptop. For now I have to work on library hours, which is till 7pm, which most of my readers know is quite early in the evening for me.

Oh well, this is a practice to help me with detachment from a machine that ordinarily orders my life around. It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t planning on taking my final comprehensive exams in three weeks and needed to finish 4 essays till then. This whole situation will also help me study more as I wont be distracted by a laptop either!

But I sure hope both of my laptops get fixed sooner than later!

Finishing the Memphis Story

(^^^ Jacob, Myself, John and Chris at Central BBQ)
On Sunday, after going to morning Mass at the Christian Brother’s Chapel, I went to lunch at Central BBQ. There were about ten of us there for lunch. Of course I got the BBQ pork nachos. From there most of us went back to school to play basketball. Jacob, Bobby’s youngest brother, and I have a running competition with playing the basketball game “Horse.” (Bobby was out of town the whole time working at a camp in Arkansas). It’s been a thing we do ever since I joined Bobby and his family for Easter my junior year. So Jacob, a few of the other people from lunch, and I went to play Horse at CBU for about an hour. I won once and came in third the other time.

(^^^Ryan, Daniel, Travis, Myself in Martin, TN)
After I drove Jacob back to his house, I headed out of Memphis toward Martin, TN. It was about a two and half hours northeast of Memphis. What’s in Martin? Well not a whole lot. Farm land. UT Martin. And that’s about it. But two of my twin friends, Travis and Daniel, live there. And I’ve heard about their farm, their 280 acres of land, and their three ponds…so I told them when I had the chance, Id go visit them. I got there around dinner time, so we went to Union City, about 20 mins from Martin. They claim Mexican restaurants are the only good restaurants around, so we had Mexican food there. When we came back to Martin, another (former) CBU friend, Ryan, joined us at the Twin’s house. We had a couple of beers and caught up. And somewhere late at night, we also went outside, and out there in farm land, we could see the Milky Way, and in a minute we saw both a shooting star and a bat flying around! The next day, they took me around their farm. We tried to find the cows, who apparently migrated to another piece of the property. We also saw two of the three pond. And acres and acres of soy beans! For lunch we went back to Union City to have lunch at a pub that sells some good burgers. On the way back to Martin, they showed me around town, which while small, was bigger than what I was expecting.

I took off from Martin in the early afternoon to go to St Louis. I drove through Kentucky, into Illinois, and finally into Missouri. This was about a 4 hour drive. Along the way I drove through Cairo, IL. Any idea where that is? Lily has probably already answered it’s the southern most city in the state of Illinois. I was in Illinois for all of thirty seconds driving over the Ohio River into Illinois and then immediately over the Mississippi River into Missouri.

In St Louis, I stayed with my friend Kevin. We had dinner at a local brewery and then we went bowling. (My senior year at CBU, when my team won the intramural bowl, we played against Kevin’s team and won by three pins – I believe it was.) So we thought bowling would be fun. It was a bar/bowling place, so it only had 8 lanes. Even with house ball and shoes and that glow bowl thing, I still won three games.

The next morning, after getting some good sleep, I took off from St Louis and headed north with 9 hours left. And about midway, I stopped for Chipotle in Iowa City, IA. It was of course raining hard, parking was hard to come by, but I was determined to have some. After making loops around the city and block, I parked in a parking garage, walked seven blocks or so in the rain to get some Chipotle. Of course, I took it to go to eat along the drive.


And I know you are all probably wondering what did I do during all the driving? In my CD player, besides music, was a lot of catholic radio programs and Buddhist sermons (Midwest Jodo Shinshu Temple has its sermons on itunes).

I made it back into St Paul about 7 at night last Tuesday.

Tidbit by Thomas: Hmm can’t think of anything because these papers I’m editing takes all the brain cells I need to think…

...Walking in Memphis...

It’s been 14 months since I’ve been to Memphis! And I finally got to go back and catch up with a lot of people! I talk to a lot of them still regularly, so it didn’t seem like long lost friends hanging out, but rather as though we had been hanging out just yesterday…

Well I was on the road about 6:30 last Wednesday headed south. After driving about 13 hours, I made it into Memphis at 7:45. I stopped for gas twice and one of those was in St. Louis, where I also stopped for a few minutes to see my friend Kevin.

At 7:45 I drove immediately to Rendezvous where I met all my good Memphis friends. Yes, of course I had the full order of ribs. Deliciousness as always!

We asked the waiter to take a picture of our group; in the first attempt, one of the other waiters walked right in front of the camera. It was one of those things that everyone else saw happening in slow motion, so it was funny.

Chris (Andrew’s brother), Ashley, myself, Br. Allen, Tony, JP, Turner, and Andrew.

After Rendezvous, a number of us went to Ashley’s place for an ice cream party. And another of other people joined us there. Besides myself, Andrew and Sally were in from out of town, so people came by to catch up.

On Thursday, I had lunch with my old professor, Dr. Nikaido. He’s now using his BS in engineering, but he taught me in scripture at CBU because that’s what his doctorate is in. But it was good to see him, talk about Biblical things and educational things.

Thursday for dinner, a group of us went to dinner at Tasty Buffet (the Memphis version of China Buffet). 8 of us. We got there about 6:30. Everyone arrived by 7…and we shut down the place at 10. Yes, we were there when they started throwing food into trash cans!

Friday for lunch I met up with my old roommate, Jon, who I haven’t seen since he graduated in December of 2005. We went to a local burger joint, Huey’s. In the afternoon, Br. Allen, Br. Rob and I went to the cemetery where the Brothers are buried. I haven’t had a chance to pay my respects to Br. Vincent, who was CBU’s president when I graduated. So I was able to do that.


Friday night was Mark’s wedding, the primary reason why I went to Memphis last weekend. Though he was a year below me, he played baseball and happened to live near me in the dorms my sophomore year, so I got to know him well; and I got to know his parents over the years at the baseball games so it was nice to see them. I also got to see a number of the baseball guys as well. There were maybe about 250 guests there, probably even alittle more than that. A number of her relatives came from Greece and the middle east. And the food was ethnic food as well. An interesting touch: At the end of the night, instead of throwing rice, they had people hold sparklers. Drunk people (particularly drunk baseball players) + 2 foot sparklers = interesting mix. No one was hurt, though I did see one guy with a few burn embers on his shirt.


Saturday, I had lunch with just Br. Allen at a sandwich place, though I got the bake potato and the lobster bisque. For dinner, a group of about 10 of us went to Café Ole, a Mexican food restaurant. A mismatch group of us, but I got to catch up with some of my Little Rock buddies I made last year, which was awesome. After dinner, those of us who were old enough, went down to Beale Street for some fun. And due to some shooting a couple weeks ago, they know wand everybody down before the allow them onto Beale. Not sure if I felt any more or less safer though. Nonetheless, we had a good time.

I’ll post the escapades of Sunday – Tuesday later… It’ll give you something to stay tuned for…

Tidbit by Thomas: This is sure a tough job market!!!!

South Bend Trip

My trip to South Bend went well.

I left Thursday around noon-thirty. It was a slow start; I had been hoping to be on the road closer to 11. It didn’t take long to get into Wisconsin. It’s just on the far east side of Saint Paul, so it only took like 30 mins to get into WI. I knew I wanted to fill up with gas before I got into Chicago. So after traveling about 4 and a half hours and 260 miles, I stopped in Madison WI to fill up even though I could have gone another hundred miles. But I figured, if I filled up there, I’d have more than enough to go the other 240 miles to South Bend. While in Madison, I also stopped at the local Chipotle, of course. (No, the cheese didn’t taste any better.)

From Madison, I continued toward Chicago. I don’t know how much I paid in tolls on the way to Chicago, probably about $5 or so at different toll booths along the way. Though they get annoying to stop at, it kept the drive interesting. I ended up taking the route yahoo gave, which included taking 90 from Madison, through Chicago and down to the Indiana Toll Freeway. Now, I’m betting Lily is laughing her head off right now, thinking how foolish of me to do such a thing. I should have probably consulted her because 90 practically goes through the heart of down town Chicago! Even at 7:30 I was in bumper to bumper traffic!

Around 8:30 as the sun was nearly done setting, I made it to Gary, Indiana. It wasn’t any worst than Orange Mound in Memphis. (And for the Sacramento people out there, Oak Park would be considered “nice” compared to Orange Mound.) Police had streets around 2300 Jackson partially blocked off. I parked about three blocks away and prayed my car would still be there when I got back. Approaching the house, there seemed to be more of a festive feeling to it than a sorrowful vigil feeling. Across from the house on the other side of the street they had booths set up with videos, selling tshirts, etc. It is a simple house but it has a large yard that seems to take up two lots. There were a lot of posters, flowers, stuffed animals, and all sorts of things laid down there. I brought white carnations myself to leave there. I had to call a few friends from that hallowed ground. Br. Allen was one of those lucky people. JP and Chris also got calls.

I arrived in South Bend at 11pm. It took a while to figure out my way to find where Br. Dat was staying since he wasn’t too familiar with the campus, but after asking enough people, we figured it out. While he was in class Friday, I did some homework myself and walk around campus. When he got out of class, he showed me around the campus and did quite a bit of walking. After dinner, we went to the South Bend mall, the only other highlight of the town apparently. And well, this mall make Sunrise Mall look great!

Saturday morning, we went back to Chicago. Br. Dat was flying out of Ohare to go visit family in France for a couple weeks. After I dropped him off, I decided to continue driving back to St Paul. It had crossed my mind to stay in Chicago for their Obon festival that night, but decided I’d rather drive home since I wasn’t sure if my friend from CBU would be around later that night or not.

This week I’m off to Memphis. I’ll leave early Wednesday morning and drive for 14 hours. Im attending a friend’s wedding there Friday night. Sunday I’ll head to visit some friend in Martin, TN which is a couple hours north of Memphis. Monday I’ll go from Martin to St. Louis to see another friend and stay the night there. From there I’ll only have 9 hours back north on Tuesday.

Tidbit by Thomas: I don’t know if it’s because I feel like I’m busy studying and worried about a job; or if im just getting old; or what…but all this traveling doesn’t seem as much fun as it used to be. Seem like more work than what it used to be…

Post-4th of July

(Pictures from the Bash, when we mobbed DQ right when they unlocked the doors. Everyone in the pictures, minus the workers, were from the Bash)

I actually got a lot of school work in this past weekend, reading and doing papers. Progress is being made.

For the 4^th of July, I joined some people on top of one of the university’s apartment buildings that’s like 8 or 9 stories high. One of the guys taking classes with me works in campus security and a group of them watch the skyline’s fireworks. Instead of having to deal with parking, traffic, etc to only watch one fireworks show, we didn’t have any traffic and got to watch about 20 different shows across the skyline between Minneapolis and south St Paul between 10-10:30. It was amazing to see those at the same time.

This weekend, Im going to Chicago/South Bend. Br. Dat is taking classes at Notre Dame, so I’m going to go visit him for a couple days. I leave tomorrow, and a will be back up here Saturday or Sunday. Some hopefuls during the trip include seeing a friend from CBU that I haven’t seen in about 4 years and taking a swing through Gary, Indiana (yes, I did watch the whole memorial service on TV).

So I’ll save Lily and Marty the time and tell them there wont be another posting till the beginning of next week when I return, so they don’t need to check the rest of this week.

And the following weekend, I will be going to Memphis for a wedding.

Some of you have seen those pictures I recently posted on facebook. mainly facebook people in those pictures, but from different parties and travels this past year from California to Las Vegas to Minnesota. Apparently Lily didnt like any of the pictures of herself because she untagged them. The perfect picture search continues...

Tidbit by Thomas: What were you doing at 12:34:56 am or pm today, July 8, 2009? Well today this afternoon at 12:34:56 7/8/9 I was writing this blog.

Start of a New Blog

Well, here we go, again. (Reminds of me of the 80's song..."Here I go again")

Special thanks to Lily for helping me preserve my memories from my old blog.

Stats from the old blog on 360:
*First Entry: October 25, 2005
*Last Entry: July 2, 2009
*Number of Entries: 235
*Number of Comments: 20 (thanks marty)
*Not sure how many views, can't seem to find that information any more on there.

Well Last weekend, Charlie had his 7th annual Bash party at his dad's cabin in Wisconsin. It goes from Friday to Sunday. I ended up going just for Saturday till Sunday (I played host to Sharon's daughter, nephew and family friend Thursday night since they were in town for the JACL youth conference. I took them to St. Paul and the Mall of America Friday morning and then dropped them off at the conference, which happened to be at a college 3 mins down the street from me.)(Saturday afternoon, I had a graduation party for of my seniors. Thus I went Saturday evening to the Bash.) The cabin is about an hour and a half north-east of here in Siren, WI (not a big place, but at least they got one stop light in town). So I got there about 7:30ish in the evening. Pretty much the Bash is drinking, playing games, hanging out by the lake, jamming out to music, etc. There were about 30 of us there. At night they go to the town's bar, which has karaoke and music, and Saturday night they had a mechanical bull on top of that (of which I did neither, though i did some dancing). Sunday at 11 we swarmed upon the Dairy Queen a few flocks away from the cabin, we got there about 10:45, they wouldn't open till exactly 11. But exactly at 11am, about 18 or so of us swarmed in on them. They knew we were outside, so they had all three cash registers open, which I'm sure hasn't happened in a while.Though to their credit, it went smoothly and rapidly. We did some more lounging around Sunday afternoon. I stayed around to help clean up; when all was said and done, the last few of us left about 4:30.

Hope you have/had a great 4th of July. Happy Bday USA!

Tidbit by Thomas: Where were you when you heard about Michael Jackson's death? I think that will rank up there with the question of "Where were you when you heard about Kennedy?" or "Where were you when you heard about 9-11?" After leaving the grocery store, I was driving down University Ave here in St Paul. Heard it on the radio, which was quoting TMZ. I called Ann, my friend Chris, and Br. Allen.