Snapped this just now while walking through the park in Osaka. Just a few early Sakura out now...much more to come. A symbol of life and rebirth and a fresh start.

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Jazz is many things, but to me it does not get any better than this (above). It belongs to the world now, but it is surely one of America's greatest contributions to this world - at least it is my personal favorite. Modern music owes a great deal to the blues and to jazz -- we must never let those art forms die. And "So What?" really sums it all up.

I'm not much into boxing, but I always liked the Rocky series of movies. Although the films may seem a bit cartoonish, to me the narrative was really about overcoming odds, never giving up, exposing your own vulnerability and taking risk to achieve something great, and so on. When we saw the last Rocky movie a couple of years ago, this scene above really stood out to me. I know it is simple and may seem like Hollywood cheesiness to some people, but if every student graduating high school had at least this much wisdom, the world would be a better place. Moaning, complaining, and pessimism get us no where. I mentioned before over on the PZ website about the Japanese concept of "bambaru" - of never giving up, of sticking to something no matter how bad it gets. It is OK to fail so long as one does their absolute best and makes no excuses. It's OK to fall a thousand times so long as we get up each time. Persistence is key, in fact -- and Dan Pink talked about this in his book--persistence often trumps talent. Here is the quote from the movie below:

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place... and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit... It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you worth, go out and get what you worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers saying: You ain´t what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain´t you! You´re better than that!" — Rocky Balboa

This slide features a very similar idea to the Rocky quote. 七転び八起き (Nana korobi ya oki) speaks to the concept of bending but not breaking and of never giving up or making excuses. Seems like a good and simple code by which to live.

OMG Cat discovers Star Wars. Source. http://www.swtorstrategies.com/2011/03/omg-cat-discovers-star-wars.html
This is my kind of cat. My two cats just sleep through the best parts.

This should make you feel good. My friend Trish Huffman sent me the link. Swing Girls was a popular movie a few years ago. The girls are actually playing the instruments (though many had to learn them just for the movie.) They really could play and even went on a Japan-wide tour playing live to promote the movie.

This is from a TV show (no dubbing). And as you can see it sounds almost as good as the movie production (just in case you were wondering if they can really play - yes they can...and did). The group was put together for the movie, but I have heard actual high-school bands that sound even better. In Japan, students typically do only one "club activity" like this. So they will play in the jazz band (or practice baseball, etc. - whatever they make a full commitment to) all year long and they get very very good! This teaches the principle of committing to an endeavor and the doing your best at it to achieve perfection (or as close as you can get to it.

12 days after the tsunami hit up north in Tohoku, the local day care/kindergarten which our daughter attends still has the flags at half mast. Life goes on, especially for those of us here who are not so directly impacted by the crisis, but the whole nation stands with the people up north who must deal with such great difficulty everyday. No one is forgetting. Supplies are beginning to reach even the isolated areas in Tohoku and temporary houses are already under construction even as rescue and recovery operations continue. Tens of thousands are still in shelters (usually schools or community centers).

Besides donating money to various organizations in Japan, there is not much we can do down here. But one thing the city is doing is collecting non perishable food and many other items including clothing. All of these items will be accepted here locally next weekend and then shipped up to people who are living in evacuation centers. Most of these people lost everything, including clothes and so on. My wife and I were able to fill two boxes of brand new clothes. Used clothes are not accepted. We needed to provide clothes that were like new or never before worn. I had a lot of brand new items from companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Firefox -- t-shirts and sweatshirts -- that I was going to give away at a future tech event but this cause is better.

Though everyone's heart is with the people up north, life goes on down here in Kansai pretty much as normal. Since our daughter will have her first birthday soon, we took her to Universal Studios for the first time (about 30-40 min drive from our house in Nara). As you can see, everyone had the same idea. The day out was a welcome diversion. The place was full of smiling children; their joy has a way of influencing the spirits of the adults. Our daughter loved it and was walking all over the place -- she loved the wide open spaces. She especially loved Snoopy!

This is rare video footage of a tsunami before it reaches shore. You can hear the coast guard personnel saying to "hang on" and "it's a 10-meter wave, right?" and so on. They are quite calm given the circumstance. As you know, usually a tsunami would not really be felt by a ship out at sea, but this ship is only a few miles out and in relatively shallow water I suppose, and also not too far relatively speaking to where the wave was generated. Still a scary sight. The crew must have know then that Japan was in trouble as that wave would break on shore in just a few more minutes. This wave would go on to cause the largest and most painful disaster since WWII.

Snapped this during a run in the farmland of the mountainside. The plum (ume) trees bloom before the cherry trees. Spring is a symbol of a new beginning, and this year we could really use it. Hope, birth (re-birth), a fresh start, and on and on...nature is always speaking to us.

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During my run today I came across this sign at one of the shrines in town. And a good sign it is.

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"Beauty expert" says Obama has aged a decade in two years. Source: http://tinyurl.com/4sr5hp2

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano has had virtually no sleep since the three disasters hit Japan one week ago. People online in Japan and Korea are encouraging him to get some sleep and take care of himself. Source: http://tinyurl.com/4m79u9r