HispageTONOway

Making a vacation trip to my hometown, the island of Oahu, next month!

We are looking forward to our first vacation for the 2011 year!  It happens less than three weeks.  It's been a busy time since our last vacation back in September when my Sunshine and I visited the Magic Kingdom in Florida.  It's been busy times at work.  I've been working many six-day workweek for the months when I arrived back to work after the 2010 late vacation.

It will be a good change of pace enjoying time with my Sunshine.  I learned that it's always good to take a little vacation along the way.  The demands of work life have taken on a feverish pace of getting results.  It only works in the private sector, as I noticed.  Believe me, if we don't make the financial numbers that is required, I get immediate feedback.  I definitely need some rest and relaxation.

The last time we were in Hawaii it was in late June/early July 2008.  I posted pictures of our visit.

We will be in the islands for full days from August 4 to August 12, 2011.  I would like to get together with any one of you living in the island of Oahu, if you are receiving this, just contact me by Facebook, my blog, or by e-mail.  It will be good to catch up on what's been happening with you!

August 2011 2nd Hawaii trip with Sunshine confirmed after realizing fifteen years on the mainland

A thought crossed my mind recently.  I arrived from Hawaii to the mainland U.S.A. in January 1996.  (I honestly don’t know the exact date that I arrived.)  This realization happened just before confirming our plans to a trip to the Pacific again, the second in about three years.  On Thursday, Aurora and I finalized our vacation plans later in the year to head on back to Hawaii in the beginning of August for my niece’s graduation celebration, and to touch base with my hometown. 

Thoughts of when I left Hawaii would make my stay on the mainland fifteen years.  It has been an interesting journey for these years.  I learned that everywhere I have stayed a while in certain cities, I’ve been inspired by many people and enjoyed the sites and the context of the different cultural communities.  I am thankful for those experiences throughout my life.

Thursday is my only day off this week after a rollercoaster six-day workweek that ranged from a seventeen-hour day to an eight-hour one.  It’s been a six-day workweek since the beginning of the New Year, and it seems like there are at least a few more weeks, at the least, scheduled.  Believe me, I will definitely let you know when this work schedule ends!  As many of you know about me, I don’t mind working long hours; I just don’t like it when it’s mandatory when I have to do so.  Let me be the one to have the freedom to decide!

I was thinking the other day about how I wish that the circumstances would be like back in late November 2007.  I was starting a new marriage and a new beginning at a company.  Now, I am faced with a history of the ups and downs since then.  I am determined to prove that it is possible to change at work and at home that what others believe about me is not true, especially the aspects that do not meet their expectations of the roles in my life.  That is what I realized the other night when I prayed: “Let the change be within me to change the circumstances around me!” I realized that in any given circumstances when you are in a leadership position whether at work or at home everyone can second guess any decision that was made.  I must offer them another side of my well-considered skills, Hawaiian-inspired talents and goofy personality.

2010 Merry Christmas … away from the Hawaiian Islands … from the eastern time zone!

2010 Mele Kalikimaka from the eastern standard zone for the second year in a row!

White Christmas Picture uploaded Christmas morning 2010 at the 8'oclock hour

I hope that you all are enjoying the time with your friends and family because that is what this time of the year is all about.  I thought that I would share with you our tree, which my Sunshine decorated with our ornaments.  She did a mighty fine job!

 It’s late in the evening on Christmas Eve presently on the east coast.  I woke up early this morning at 3am and I am still going.  I worked hard for thirteen hours, and got a chance to spend time with Dad, Mom and my Sunshine’s brother at our place for a while.  I appreciate their patience for waiting for me to start dinner.  I am blessed to have a family accept me as well as they have.  Even if I don’t receive any material possessions this year, I am a blessed man.

Three points in the United States: Shopping halted in Hawaii; Wet Southern California; Snow in TN on Christmas?

I have been reading news report of the two places I lived: Hawaii and Southern California.  In Hawaii, the popular tourist attraction Ala Moana Center had its fourth blackout since Sunday, this during the peak season of shopping.  The island of Oahu faces more chance of showers till after Christmas.  I remember that shopping center from the many hours visiting that location, hanging out and people watching.  In Southern California, six to ten inches of rain fell onto the Orange County region, according to the Orange County Register, and in Temecula, California, where I had a newspaper route when I first arrived in the continental U.S.A., 12.56 inches of rain fell, exceeding the annual rainfall of 11.4 inches, according to the Press-Enterprise.   It looks like a test of adversity against Mother Nature.  Last week, when I was out of town last week over 100 miles away from home, there was pretty pictures of snow.

The light snow falling upon our arrival in the city of Crossville, Tennessee.

Where I parked my truck at the hotel.  The light snow was still falling. ...

Picture taken from inside looking outside the lobby window.

The next day after the snow fell from the sky.  Nice blue skies! ... Yay!

Furthermore, since Tuesday when I noticed the weather forecast locally, snow was forecasted.  Now, it says “Light Snow.”  I don’t know what it means, but it will be interesting to experience what it’ll turn out to be, as my Sunshine and I won’t be leaving anywhere.  Her parents will be traveling this year from Florida to here.

2nd time for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1; Little Buddy scare!

I watched for the second time the first part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on Saturday evening.  This time it was a little harder to stay awake, and enjoy the movie, which I haven’t followed, because I woke up at 3am in the morning on Saturday.  I tried to stay up; however, I just couldn’t do it.  Let’s just say that I took several naps along the way.

I’m wondering how many times you all have watched the movie.  How many times have you watched the movie?

Earlier on Friday night we had a scare.  I was home alone with Sunshine, and my adopted indoor cat, Flitwick; I call him Little Buddy.

Little Buddy up close ...

Little Buddy resting ...

Little Buddy cleaning himself ...

I was awakening after 11pm by my Sunshine asking where Little Buddy was.  I responded by saying that he was walking around in the apartment.  My Sunshine said that she was looking for over ten minutes already before she woke me up.

We continued to look for another ten minutes or so.  We opened cabinets and looked under every place that we could.  We couldn’t find him at all.  At that point, my Sunshine told me to walk downstairs and look outside in the thirty degree weather.  I opened the door, and looked around.  He was nowhere to be found.  I peered around the side of the two feet from the door, indent of our apartment complex where it provided a place for windows for our neighbors until the next door entrance was.  He was lying down in the corner away from the wind, looking all scared and cold.  This was the first time that he was out of the apartment—outdoors—for this long of a time. Apparently, Little Buddy slipped out of the apartment when she came into the door.

I could go back to sleep, and get up in a few hours to get to work on early Saturday morning.

Random thoughts on the top of Thursday’s mind

I have several random thoughts today.

• There are many times that what I want out of life and where I am is not what happens in reality.  I need to work harder to execute my professional dreams and living a married life living up to the song, “Lead Me” by Sanctus Real.

• I wish that I didn’t have to work so many hours at work, as I have for many years.Why do I have to work so many hours and others don’t?  I hope that to get ahead in life I have to work twice as hard as my colleagues and even take more work home, as I have.  Do I have to be more persistent in what I want, regardless what they do?

• I wish that I had more time to spend on the things that I want to do, instead of constantly feeling trapped of doing my job the “right” way.  I noticed that so many others do it the short cut way, just to complete it.

• For those on Twitter, how can you express a complete thought in 140 characters?

• I notice so many occasions when communications with key parties involved in an issue doesn’t happen.  And that cannot happen in 140 characters.  Yesterday, at work was a perfect example.  I had to work harder because of information not received about staffing for the store.  It makes it more challenging to get the projects I need for my professional development.

• I wonder what satisfaction people at “get” by continually spreading rumors around at work.  Do you realize as a manager how much time is wasted by getting to the truth?  How productive is it spreading rumors just to make those gossipers look “better?”  It’s not about revisionist history, it’s about facts—what was said, and what was done at that time—not what we would like happen or changing history.

• I repeatedly say: Lawmakers in Washington D.C. and in our state legislature really don’t get it!  I think that they like the drama of fighting than solving American problems.  If you cannot solve our problems, stop taxing us and let US decide where we want to spend our money—even if it is to help others in need!

These were the several random thoughts that I thought about today when I woke up this morning through this afternoon.

Post 400! … Pictures of Sunshine and me on her Special Day Birthday!

It is appropriate to make blog post #400 as The Sunshine post on her Special Year Birthday.  Happy very Special Year Birthday, Sunshine!  I was searching through all the pictures we have taken together, and I have put them in another photo album.  (It's on the very top on the right hand column. of this blog.  And there will be more pictures added as time goes on. ...)  I thought that I would share four of my favorites right here, right now!

 

One of my first pictures of my Sunshine and I in March 2007

Taken on our Honeymoon in the Smoky Mountains

Taken in 2008 at our stay at Hilton Hawaiian Village near Waikiki

Taken on our "In Search for Colors" Blue Ridge Parkway/Connecticut/Washington D.C. trip

Forty-five months that changed my life … Prayer to change it more!

Its forty-five month-meeting anniversary since I met my Sunshine.  I know that throughout all those months, and even after my marriage there is sooo much more I need to do to lead as a husband.  Recently, Sanctus Real has come out with a song called Lead Me.  The following link is my prayer to my wife on an on-going basis, as I focus on being “filled with the [Holy] Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18

Download SanctusRealLeadMePrayerforHusband

Leading a married couple, family, or business is an awesome responsibility.  It is the order that was determined from the beginning of time.  I realize that more than ever now.  I suggest that it should be a prayer of all men in this nation.  Our neighborhoods will be a “better” place to live.  I know that I look at this responsibility in a different light, a much deeper meaning than just a while ago.  It is conviction to not live by my natural tendencies of the flesh, but to walk in the Spirit.

Mirror of God’s image and a living picture of Jesus and His followers relationship

There wasn’t really any out of town trip scheduled on this vacation.  I just needed some rest and there was a lot to do around the apartment. 

I thought I would do some review on the marriage conference my Sunshine and I attended.

I attended the Weekend to Remember conference in November.  I re-read these two quotes from the Weekend to Remember workbook:

• God joined a man and a woman together so that together they would mirror His image.  … Their oneness reflects the character and unity of God (Matthew 19:4-6; John 17:22-23). … Their oneness is a living picture of this intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and His followers (Ephesians 5:22-23).

• When couples fail to grasp God’s perspective on difficulties and problems, the result is isolation.  In one bullet point about this subject, the conference pointed out that “Your response to difficulties will either drive you apart or bind you together.  This is what all married couple faces at one point of their marriage.

Then, during the first few days of my vacation, I completed reading the book, Staying Close, by Dennis Rainey.  The book reinforced the points of the Weekend to Remember conference.  I know that there are many areas that I need to respond and lead much more effectively as a husband.  What I read is a high standard to live and strive to fulfill.  But I realize that it’ll only be when I am walking in His Holy Spirit.

From reading the book, the challenge is to put what I learned into practical actions that demonstrate to my wife who she means in my life, the most important person in the world to me, and the true meaning of what marriage means to me is what I’m meditating on an hourly basis.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

A long time since I read 25% of a book in one day!

While my wife and mother-in-law was shopping around locally, I used the time wisely by reading the book, Staying Close, by Dennis Rainey.  It’s about keep working toward oneness in marriage, not isolation.  With my HTC EVO 4G Sprint phone, I can download books from the Amazon store with its Android Kindle reader.

Expression while reading ... picture taken with my Sprint HTC EVO 4G phone.