ChanomiTalk

I had to wake up very early for a bus to pick me up at 4:45 A.M.. When I arrived at the airport, I found out that I would be the only person on the tour for the whole day. I was really surprised. Fortunately, the guide was really nice, full of information, and willing to drive me around by myself all day. The scenery on Maui is very beautiful with lots of nice beaches, old volcanic craters, green mountains, and even waterfalls. The old whaling town of Lahaina was also quite quaint and an enjoyable stop. I think I would be willing to return some day.

Right now Kansas is in a drought. Got a couple of short rains but rivers are drying up. We have been extra busy helping a homeless couple that came 2 weeks ago.

Better go for now.
Be blessed.
Jena

Why do I love Rock music? It’s actually difficult to say really. I love all genres of music, nothing is off limits. If I had to narrow it down to one thing about rock, okay maybe two things I like about it. One, is a common answer for most people, I love the way it makes me feel. And Two, I love when guitarist rip into awesome solos. In my opinion you can’t have an awesome rock song without one.

A wise woman once told me that is important for me to understand the heart of the speaker. Well, I can honestly say I am bit confused. Though I have learned that the proper way to say I is to say 私、in Japanese I have also discovered there are other ways to say I, which I guess can sound less polite I guess. But in the interactions that I have seen and enough Japanese movies it is difficult to tell. Initially I had thought 俺 was someone who may be very arrogant, like a favorite character of mine on one of my old favorite Cartoons Vegeta, he always would use 俺。 and he was quite arrogant, but recently in other movies I have watched calm characters used 俺、they spoke softly and what seemed to be nice to others. What’s most interesting is I attend a Japanese Church and even the pastor used 俺、 Of course I could not understand him completely, but found it strange as I have been advised not to use it. My final two strong observations I made in movies at least is that it seems “hip” younger guys tend to use 僕 and men with strong voices tend to use 私、 normally villians as well. Anyway, I hope I didn’t confuse anyone else, but I’m sure in time I’ll have a better understanding about the Three “I”s . And if you all wont mind, I will now briefly blog about why I love Rock. 🙂

I came back today with my bass guitar and Michiko and I were able to play together a little more smoothly. I still can’t sight read normal sheet music, but I’ve improved my understanding of the notes on my fret board to the extent that I can look at the guitar chords written above the staff and play those along with the beat. As far as getting Michiko to play along with the stuff I’m coming up with, she wants me to write it down for her first. If she doesn’t see the notes between the lines of a measure, it’s hard for her to match up her rhythm to mine. So I’m going to try to learn to read and write music. All the good musicians say you’ve got to do it anyways.

Today I tried to write down an arpeggio riff that I came up with this morning. It has ten notes and I can easily tap them out, but Michiko and I couldn’t figure out exactly how to get the rhythm down on paper. Jazz is really different from classical music, it seems!