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PUT-TOGETHER DESK CHAIR

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EXERCISE BALL ON THE REBO... EXERCISE BALL ON THE REBOUNDER DESK CHAIR!
When my younger daughter came back to live in the house in which she grew up with her two girls, I turned most of the house over to her and began spending most of my day in my room.
 
I found sitting at my desk and listening to podcasts for new learning, several hours at a time, gave me back aches!!! Also, my balance was deteriorating as I walked, especially up and down stairs.
 
Therefore, I knew I needed to exercise more and brought the rebounder from where Sam used to use it downstairs, to my room along with the exercise ball. I decided to sit on the ball instead of a chair with the computer on my lap. Sitting on the ball needed to be higher to reach my desktop. 
 
Then, I realized the exercise ball on the rebounder could be the right height to work at my desktop with the computer. I tried it out and found I no longer got back aches - even watching a couple hours of a movie or podcast. 
 
Now, I can spend all day off and on typing and watching U-Tube without back aches!!!
 
Also I can rotate, jumping on the rebounder and getting my steps. I also took off the hand-grip bar on the rebounder and installed the overhead exercise hand-pulleys. 
 
It all works great!!!
 
 
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DEDICATION & COMMITMENT PAYS OFF!!!

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Mercer Island Drill - WHAT A... Mercer Island Drill - WHAT A TEAM!
Granddaughter being Lifted
State Champions in all three categories:
Pom, Kick, Military
Mom, Sis & Kirin got home from the Yakima State Competition at 1:00a, with  tear tired EXHAUSTED faces - SMILING.
 
Granddaughter get's up 4 days a week for their 6:15a practices, with frequent performances for Mercer Island activities in between. It's a year round sport with hardly any summer break. 
 
Wow!! Congrats
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YOU RAISE ME UP!

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YOU RAISE ME UP!
This past year, I lost 5 people who would have been on my vision board. They are friends and family I have had for over 50 years of my life. But that's life and what I have to go forward is great!
 
The Vision Board is  my homework for the course I'm taking calling for, "ONENESS - CONNECTIONS", for moving forward in my life, by knowing myself.
 
According to Wikipedia, "Vision boards offer value by helping you clarify goals, boost motivation, and foster a positive mindset through visual representation of aspirations, serving as a tangible reminder of your dreams and encouraging focused action towards achieving them. " 
 
It's been fun this week to work on this!!
 
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TOOLS TO MANAGE MY EMOTIONS WITH AN OMOIDE (memories) WRITING GROUP

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The left brain generally excels... The left brain generally excels in logic, language, and analytical thinking, while the right brain is associated with creativity, spatial reasoning, and emotional processing.
This morning I listened to Dr. Ethan Kross in the Psychology Department at the U of Michigan. Current 2025 research and podcast interview academics suggest, “It’s important to know ourselves for Fulfillment of Purpose in our human existence. Stories of our heritage give us 50% of the tools for managing our emotions which is the key to fulfillment." Therefore, I was lucky to have been inspired to start the OMOIDE writing group in 1991with four of us, Margaret Yasuda, Chuck Kato, Del Uchida and me, meeting weekly around my kitchen table. We started with just conversations about our growing up years. I had started collecting documentation on the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest 20 years earlier, but I also decided it was time to create some of our own documentation with stories and writing. 
 
I was shocked to learn my Great Grandpa came to the USA as early as 1896. Even here on the USA west coast states our history books and education had nothing about Asian Immigration when I was in school in Oregon. Although I’m third generation and have 5th generation grandchildren, I'm still asked, “When did you come to America?” I’m thinking, “Even the Blacks are American.”
 
My Japanese Great Grandpa, Jitsumatsu Tsukamaki, came to America in 1896 when the Yusen Shipping Company’s Miike Maru established a trade route from Kobe to Seattle. The Japanese steamship carried to Seattle a cargo of teas, silk goods, raw silk, camphor, curios, matting, soy oil, and paper. The vessel steamed away with lumber, flour, raw cotton, heavy hardware, fish, leather, nails, beer, wire, and tobacco.  
 
Gr Grandpa “J” was a small farmer in the northern outskirts of Hiroshima. The fact that he was educated enough to know about America, had the connections and money to acquire the passport and ticket is amazing! He was required to have a return ticket to Japan, as well as paying an agent for the passport and a western outfit of clothing. It added up to almost a whole year’s average salary. 
 
My collecting of documentation on the Japanese Experience for the UW Suzzallo Library had started as early as 1970, which was funded by a two year grant and funding ran out. I remained on a committee Min Masuda Archival Committee, that met about once a year though the subsequent child raising years. After the girls left home, I was inspired to further get my master’s degree.
 
Completing a Master’s Degree in Psychosocial Nursing in 1989, my thesis was on the difference between our right and left brain. I learned that our Japanese/Asian heritage has a lot to contribute to emotional balance of the European/American left brain entrepreneurial dominant education. I also learned that we didn’t have a historical organization for our Japanese community in Seattle as other ethnic groups like the Swedish Community Center or the Polish or Hungarian communities. 
 
It feels great to continue learning, thinking, writing and publishing that contributes to the welfare of future generations!!
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DOG SPELLED BACKWARDS

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In Japanese dog is "INU". Spel... In Japanese dog is "INU". Spelled backwards is "UNI".
 "Uni" is kind of short for Unique. We are all unique individual humans. The podcast world is big on helping us find our "unique selves" and research says, we are 50% our genetic ancestry; 25% our early growing up and subsequent environment; as well as 25% the daily habits we have and practice over the years.
 
55-years-ago spring of 1970, I was a stay-at-home mom with two girls, five and two. I answered my white rotary wall-phone, hanging on our kitchen wall, as I was making dinner.
 
The person on the call introduced himself as Min Masuda. I had no idea who he was because I was new to Seattle. Later, I learned that he was a professor of Psychiatry at the UW. Masuda asked, "I got your name from your neighbor, Mariko Hayashi. I'm wondering if you might be willing to take a part-time job with our Suzzallo Library Archives to help start the "Japanese Collection"?
 
I was an RN with a degree in Public Health Nursing and had never thought of history or literature. Therefore, I answered, "No!" and hung up. But, my husband Sam, was in the living room entertaining the girls and wondered what the call was about.
 
Sam had started his own GOTO DENTAL LAB business at 423 Medical Dental Building, down town Seattle. He was always laden with deadlines, and we were busy raising kids. We had very little knowlege about our Japanese heritage, just that our Japanese community elders still wanted us to marry "our own kind!" But a couple days later, Sam talked me into calling Masuda back and agree to take the job with Rich Berner, who had created the archives at the U of Washington in the 1940s.
 
As I went through two boxes, already in Special Collections, I read the 1925 Nishinori Master's thesis. I learned that about 100 Japanese Dairy farmers in the first two decades of the 1900s had supplied as much as one-half of Seattle's milk supply! 
 
This was almost 10 years after Sam and I married. Starting to talk with my Grandpa Tsukamaki, I learned that he had stayed the night at the bedside of Sam's Grandpa Nakanishi as he died in 1934. What a shock! They had been leaders in the Dairy business and were best friends. That answered Sam and my questions of why we had gotten so many well wishers and presents from strangers when we got married. Sam and I thought we had found each other on our own because no one talked about their hard times as we were growing up - typical of most immigrants.
 
As my Grandpa told me his story, his words came out slowly and with anguish as he recalled the difficult times Japanese heritage farmers had faced with discrimination and being run out of the business. They knew they could not buy land because they could not become American citizens as Asians. But when Washington State legislators passed the 1921 Alien Land Law, they were no longer able to rent land. 
 
Sam's cartoon strip “Inu - doG” has shared many stories until he passed in 2017. Our OMOIDE writing group has shared memories for now 33 years and meets regularly on the 3rd Saturday of each month at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington.
 
Come share your "uni" stories!!!
 
I forgot that uni is also: 
"In Japanese cuisine, "uni" refers to sea urchin gonads, a popular and highly prized ingredient. It's known for its creamy, buttery flavor and is often enjoyed raw or lightly cooked in sushi and other dishes."  
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ARTHUR BROOKS' 10 VIRTUES RECOMMENDED BY ARISTOTLE

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Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) was... Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) was a Greek philosopher, scientist, and logician
I spent the morning reading about Aristotle after getting the email from Arthur Brooks and his Art and Science of Happiness organization. It reminds me of the Stories at the Panama that we had yesterday. Erica was there to share her story of being able to label her "anxiety"; deal with it and use it to further a career in fashion design. 
 
The following is Brooks' take on how "learning how to face our fears" is something taught by Aristotle after studying with Plato as early as 340BC. My take is that Plato was very left brain thinking. which is the heart of Western philosopy. I think Aristotle added the bigger picture which in today's world is more Asian thinking with the benefits I learned from my Japanese heritage. These are the things my parents and grandparents taught me as I was growing up - not so literally, but subtlely to fit in and be a good member of our communty.
 
1. Name your fears and face them head on.
 
2. Know your appetites, from substances to behaviors, and control them; you might need to eliminate some things.
 
3. Be neither a cheapskate nor a spendthrift with your time and money.
 
4. Give as generously as you can to causes you like and people you love.
 
5. Focus more on transcendent things; disregard trivialities. Yes, this means social media.
 
6. True strength is a controlled temper. Weak people freak out.
 
7. Never lie, on any topic, to anyone. Especially to yourself.
 
8. Stop struggling for your fair share. Doing so looks weak and petty, because it is.
 
9. Forgive others, and forbear their weaknesses. Even if they don’t deserve it.
 
10. Define your morality; write down your rules; live up to them. Even in private where no one else knows.
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PANAS TEST HELPS US UNDERSTAND MORE EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT

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ALL FOUR PERSONALITIES IMP... ALL FOUR PERSONALITIES
IMPORTANT FOR HAPPIERNESS!
FREE TESTS AVAILABLE ON-LINE
The first time I took the Panas test, I came out to be the Mad Scientist. Taking it several times on different days, I am a Cheer Leader most of the time with higher than average positive assessments and lower than average negative feeling assesments of my feelings. 
 
I do not go around with a "rah rah" voice, but it is easy for me to smile and be enthusiastic when I speak to audiences. At home, I rarely shout and mostly be quiet and listen. In my early gradeschool years, I was willing to raise my hand and answer questions, but in junior high and high school I was very mousy. I kind of blossomed in college and gained confidence to become a leader in my adult life. Arthur Brooks writes in his book BUILD THE LIFE YOU WANT that everyone wants to be a cheer leader, but it takes practice and needs all four connections.
 
I live with a daughter who came back to the house where she grew up five years ago. My guess is that she is a Judge with low positive feelings and low negative feelings; especially with her divorce. In high school she was a class leader and has owned her own "gotomedia" busines since 2000.  Brooks writes that a Judge makes a good surgeon or spy. She is a good parent and a succesful business owner as well as being the author of a best selling book WORKFLOW.
 
My older granddaughter who came to live with me is for sure a Cheer Leader but needs a lot of emotional self-management. She has a good head on her shoulders, but it is hard for me to watch her desire to get hits on social media. Fortunately, she is learning by making several of her mistakes while she is "home" in a safe place.
 
My second granddaughter is for sure a Poet. Somehow she was born with the ability to self-manage her high negative outbursts. As soon as she could walk she would take herself to her room for about five or ten minutes and come out ready to tackle the next event in her day. It was amazing. 
 
My husband was absolutely a quiet Mad Scientist and Poet. He was a new student when his family moved to Nampa, ID, his junior year. He was voted Vice President of his class of 400 students. He was an amazing partner for our 56 years. Our Japanese heritage was important in our life together with a clear goal of passing on our stories to the next generation with books and his cartoon strips. Go to seattlesamurai.com for info about his art and life.
 
LIFE is a privilege and more fun as we learn to practice being "HAPPIER"! 
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PANAS TEST FOR LIVING A HAPPIER LIFE

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The PANAS TEST was develope... The PANAS TEST was developed in 1988 by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Southern Methodist University.
I just spent an hour writing about my experience with the Panas Test and lost it all. I will wait a while and try to explain my story later today. Darn, I must not have pushed "Save" at the right time? I think I need to push "save regularly as I'm writing?
 
On the other hand, this is probably a good example of how I deal with life. I'm feeling drained and distraught and upset. I want to give myself a break. So, I go to a habit that I have aquired to assuage my loneliness since my husband passed seven years ago. That is to listen to YouTube Podcasts. I have a bunch of favorites, but I have not subscribed because I scroll through and settle on one that is interesting to me at the time. 
 
I find that I'm spontaneously directed to one that is interesting and often it's just answering a question I had awakening. My daughter says it's an algorithm and discounts my definition of "it was meant to be". 
 
When I lost all that I had blogged earlier this morning, I gave myself a break and found this interview with Alex Karp "Fight For the West". Alexander Caedmon Karp was born on October 2, 1967, in New York City,[2][3] the son of Robert Karp, a Jewish clinical pediatrician, and Leah Jaynes Karp, an African American artist.[4][5] He was raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School in 1985.[6][7] He has said he struggled with dyslexia from an early age. He is an American billionaire businessman, and the co-founder and CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies. In 2025 his net worth has at times exceeded US$10 billion, ranking him among the top 300 on the daily Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires Index. I will come back to this posting after I listen to some more of his story.
 
I'm resonating with the fact that he has embarked on studying something that is part of what he decided was his purpose in life with also convincing his Jewish parent that making money was not important and chose to live beneath his means. First, he had the handicap of overcoming dislexia.
 
Alex wrote his book over a year ago, but he is most proud of the fact that it has become so currently relevant. Karp is the co-author, along with Nicholas Zamiska, of The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West.
 
I am excited to hear how Alex views DOGE. He labels himself a Progressive Democrat and values the constitution of the USA. I too believe that WOKE has gone too far, but Universities is where we learn divergent thinking and is necessary.
 
I like his support of European Vocational High Schools for education. He spent a lot of time in Germany. I like that he is open to the battle of ideas.
 
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LEARNING HAPPINESS

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Happiness is not a feeling My ... Happiness is not a feeling
My goal is to learn and share "Happierness"
I'm spending the day listening to conversations with Arthur Brooks. He teaches a Happiness course at Harvard. His latest book is BUILD A LIFE YOU WANT. 
 
I am making a plan to learn to share HAPPIERNESS this year and adding it to my purpose in life of LEAVING A LEGACY with my work on OMOIDE and our Goto-Health program that we started way back in 1976 with HEAL-THY-SELF translating to the HEALTHY SELF benefits I am experiencing at age 86. 
 
I am assuming I will live to 100-years-of age with the 700,000 that are alive today at that age. So what kind of life do I want at that time?
 
Keep reading to learn what I am learning as I add to my repretoire this next few months.
 
 
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GRANDSON, ZACHARY - UC SANTA BARBARA SWIM TEAM

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GRANDSON, ZACHARY - UC SA... GRANDSON, ZACHARY - UC SA... Zachary and Mom Lynette in ... Zachary and Mom Lynette in Houston
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