Michael T. Miyoshi's Blog, page 43
June 30, 2018
Vrooooom!
Apparently, we all talk with our own sound effects.
I never really noticed it until I laughed at my wife for doing it, but people talk with sound effects more than I would have guessed. Her reply to my laugh was, “Doesn’t everybody talk like that?” I did not have an answer. Instead, I just started listening to people.
What I noticed is that people really do make their own sound effects.
“Vrooooom.”
“Rat-a-tat-tat!”
“Kablooie!”
“Splooooosh.”
These simple onomatopoeia do not do the actual soun...
June 23, 2018
Wordless [1]
It is interesting. Today, I am speechless. So to speak.
As I am sitting here writing, I realize that I have nothing to say. Not one word. Which is odd, because here I am writing. So what am I writing? I have no idea. It is just that I know I must write. Period. It is like the proverbial shark who needs to keep moving in order to survive. I need to keep writing in order to survive. Writing is like oxygen to me. Without it, I will die.
Metaphorically, of course.
I am sure that if I stopped wri...
Wordless
It is interesting. Today, I am speechless. So to speak.
As I am sitting here writing, I realize that I have nothing to say. Not one word. Which is odd, because here I am writing. So what am I writing? I have no idea. It is just that I know I must write. Period. It is like the proverbial shark who needs to keep moving in order to survive. I need to keep writing in order to survive. Writing is like oxygen to me. Without it, I will die.
Metaphorically, of course.
I am sure that if I stopped wri...
June 16, 2018
Where Has the Time Gone?
A calendar from
the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad
by Visitor7
Licensed under
CC BY-SA 3.0
Here it is the end of another school year and I am wondering where the time has gone. I am wondering what the students have learned. I am wondering what I have learned. And I am wondering if I am still doing what I am supposed to be doing.
I hope the answers are lots, lots, and yes.
Most of my students have learned lots. They have learned how to program computers or how to make cool 3D stuff on compu...
June 9, 2018
Summer’s Almost Here
Academic Costume
by Gardner Cotrell Leonard
This work is in
the public domain.
I know I should be glad
that summer’s almost here
But all I feel is dread
that the end is drawing near.
No, I do not fear apocalypse
or anything so drear
It’s that I do not like the fact that
the close of school is here.
For we have to say “Goodbye”
at the end of each school year
To the graduating class
whose hearts we hold so dear
To the children who not so long ago
came...
June 2, 2018
Going to the Zoo
Going to the zoo is quite the adventure. Even when you take a grownup kid.
My wife and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo last weekend with our middle son. It was a great time. We walked around most of the exhibits and saw nearly everything. We even got to park without much hassle. The weather cooperated by being warm and sunny. All in all, it was a wonderful day. If not a bit surreal.
One of the strange things was seeing all the people there with little kids. We wondered how we did...
May 26, 2018
When You Can’t Sleep
Lullaby
by François Nicholas Riss
This work is in
the public domain.
What do you do when you just can’t sleep?
Do you try to settle down and not make a peep?
Do you toss and turn to try to settle in?
Or do you try to breathe softly out and in?
Do you open your eyes and lie in wonder?
Or do you shut them tight against the thunder?
Do you listen to the sound of the wind a howlin’?
Or do you get up and satisfy that stomach growlin’?
What do you do when you just can’t sleep?
Do you close your ey...
May 19, 2018
Thrill and Agony
Agony of Defeat
Victor Bogataj
When I think of Track and Field (T&F), I cannot help but think of Jim McKay introducing ABC’s Wide World of Sports. T&F is both “…the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”
It used to be that I would see the ski jumper crashing when I thought of “the agony of defeat.” After all, we heard Jim McKay’s voice say those words to that scene each weekend when we were kids. Now, I see faces of my own kids and of athletes I have coached. Thankfully, I see those fa...
May 12, 2018
Not Bird nor Plane…
Santa Claus Arrives by Tweber1
licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
I love a parade. They are so much fun. At least when there are marching bands. I am not so much into floats and dignitaries and such, but I love the marching bands. Still, there is something about parades that I enjoy even when there are not that many bands. And even when those parades do not include any of my children. I like those big balloon characters in the big parades.
I do not know of any big parades coming up. I was just think...
May 5, 2018
God Takes Care of Fools
There is a saying that says God takes care of fools. I am an obvious example of that saying’s truth.
The actual quote (or misquote according to some) is attributed to Otto von Bismarck and says: “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.” Well, I am not a drunkard nor am I a country, but God certainly has a special providence for me. Therefore, I must be a fool.
I have come to these two conclusions (that I am a fool and that God has a special provid...
