Michael T. Miyoshi's Blog, page 49

The Lull

Kanagawa oki nami ura; The Great Wave off Kanagawa
by Katsushika Hokusai
This work is in the public domain.

There is a thing in writing called the Lull. Or at least that is what I am calling it today. The Lull is the time between finishing one project and starting another. It is an annoying time.

I recently wrote about the effects of the Lull (see Confused), but I never really understood that there was a lull at all until I finished another project. Rather, got a project ready for editing an...

I Finished

Image courtesy of Keith Ferrin.

Not to brag or anything, but I am going to brag a little. I finished reading the Bible in four and a half months. (I know people read it faster, but it is my speed record.)

If you read my first post about starting to read the Bible rapidly, you might remember that my goal was to finish in less than five months. So I accomplished my speed goal.

I also accomplished much more than that.

I realized through reading the whole book quickly that Keith Ferrin was rig...

The Greatest Sport Ever

I only competed in the sport for one season (if you can call what I did more than thirty years ago competing) and have only coached it since 2010, but I must say that Track and Field is the greatest sport ever.

(Of course, I am biased. Track and Field (T&F) is the sport I am currently coaching. But there is more to my claim than just my own bias.)

If you think about it, T&F must be the ultimate athletic competition. After all, it is known as Athletics in the rest of the world. That must coun...

Not a Professional Holy Man

Praying Hands by Albrecht Dürer
This work is in the public domain.

There are some days I wish I could be a professional holy man. Not many mind you, just every once in a while.

The head pastor at our church likes to say he is a professional holy man. Which means that he is educated about the Bible more than most and that he gets paid to work on Sundays (or whichever day happens to be the Sabbath). And all the other days too. Oh sure, he gets scheduled days off, but there are things that happ...

Bake and Release by Chelsea

I have written about my friend’s Bake and Release mentality, but now it is time to get into her business a little.

My friend, Chelsea, is a great baker. She bakes cookies and cakes and all sorts of goodies. Then, she lets them go out into the wild. Actually, she makes the treats for special occasions or gives them away to friends and family. She loves the process and the finished product, but she does not necessarily want the calories all to herself. Which is why she bakes and releases.

Thos...

A Broken Record

A Vinyl LP Record
taken by Evan-Amos
This work is in the public domain.

It seems like I have been writing this a lot lately, but I do not know what I am doing on the internet.

I do not know what I am supposed to be writing. Today. This week. In fact, as I look at my computer screen, I see four starts for today’s blog. Four. Oops. Five, including this one. It makes me question my sanity. And makes me wonder if my wife is right. If I ought to worry less about getting something out there on the...

Not a Human Metronome [1]

Taiwanese-American conductor Apo Hsu in rehearsal
(original size 500 × 418 pixels)
by Alton Thompson licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

I was at our youngest son’s school concert when I realized something that I should have known all along. The band director is not just a human metronome.

If you have ever been to the symphony or the opera or even to a school concert, you see the maestro up there waving a baton. I think of the director tap tap tapping the baton on her music stand to get everybody’s...

Not a Human Metronome

Taiwanese-American conductor Apo Hsu in rehearsal
(original size 500 × 418 pixels)
by Alton Thompson licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

I was at our youngest son’s school concert when I realized something that I should have known all along. The band director is not just a human metronome.

If you have ever been to the symphony or the opera or even to a school concert, you see the maestro up there waving a baton. I think of the director tap tap tapping the baton on her music stand to get everybody’s...

Guest Artist

Seeing an artist in action is a rare treat. Especially, a painter.

One of my friends and faithful readers is also a talented artist. Mike, who is the assistant principal at our school was a guest in the art class across the hall. Not as the assistant principal doing assistant principal stuff, but as a guest artist doing artsy stuff. In fact, Mike created a whole painting in less than a class period.

If you have ever seen a Bob Ross show, Mike’s painting was similar in some ways. In fact,...

Confused

I am a bit confused today. I do not know what to write.

There are days when I know exactly what I am going to write. There are days when all my projects seem to be going well and I know exactly what to say. There are days when the words just flow and I run past my allotted writing time because I do not want the flow to stop.

And then there are days when I just do not know what to write. When the words dry up. Actually, there are never days when the words dry up. I can pretty much always writ...