Public Spark

Master Kineya Kichisaburo’s musical accomplishments were quite remarkable, but he also showed excellent craftsmanship. In addition to fixing the shamisen, he also loved to create items out of recycled goods.

The picture below is a water well he made out of recycled Japanese cookie box. It is intricately made. The wheel actually rotates allowing movement with the ropes.

The next picture is a tsuzumi (Japanese drum) that he made with wood, construction paper and rope. Although it does not make any noise it is very similar to the real instrument. He strung the rope similar to how it is done on a real tsuzumi.

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• Value of auditory learning

  My teacher was a great musician, able to listen to a piece of music and notate the music. Often new music would be sent from Japan via tape and without a music sheet. He would listen to it and write the notation in a book he made for all the students. Master Kineya Kichisaburo would teach auditory learning as well. During nagauta singing lessons for example, he would sing the new music part first. I would learn without music sheets, relying solely on listening to his singing. He would then sing with me the first time and then I would have to sing the new part on my own. These lessons have helped me to sharpen my ear rather than solely relying on reading music.

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Master Kineya Kichisaburo was a brilliant teacher and performer. I first started taking lessons with him when I was 3 years old. Although I could barely read Japanese, he handwrote a book for me and pasted a colorful bind. Usually he would sing and through auditory learning, I would copy him.

The picture below is my first performance with him at the Japanese American Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California at the age of 4.

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It is hard to believe that it has been 7 years since my teacher passed away. He was my nagauta (literally meaning long song, is a lyrical music accompaniment of Japanese Kabuki and classical dance), and shamisen (Japanese 3 string instrument) teacher for 14 years.

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• Find safest places in the work and home.

  • stay away from large objects and glass.

  • at home, the kitchen and garage tend to be most dangerous.

• Know all the emergency exits both at home and work

• Locate shut off valves for water, gas and electricity

• Note the location of your nearest Police Dept

• Have a plan with your family:

  • where to meet

  • secure a location where a message can be dropped

• Have an earthquake emergency kit (either in the car or at home in a corner/ safe area)

  • water (last at least three days-at least 5 gallons)

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• Manage stress
  Stress can be a huge factor in causing headaches. Ways to manage stress include regular exercise, deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation.

  Previous blogs:

  • reduce stress at work

  • increase energy naturally

  • steps to be stress free

• Preventative Medications for tension headaches

  • Tricyclic antidepressants, including amitriptyline and nortriptyline (Pamelor)

  • Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) include antidepressants such as partoxetine (Paxil), venlafaxine (Effexor) and fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem)

  • NSAIDs include ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) and ketoprofen (Orudis)

  • Other medications include anticonfulsants such as divalproex (Depakote) and muscle relaxants such as tizanidine (Zanaflex)

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In commemoration of one of the Father’s days (I say this because I try to think of Father’s day as everyday):

One of my dad’s greatest advice is that when you have too many choices, particularly in regards to searching for a career, it’s okay not to have the perfect job on your first try. What is most important is to do what you think is right at the time, pour your heart into it and then you will begin to see your passion.

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Myspace Comments

1. Giving a short phone call

   In this day and age, where time is of the essence even 5 minutes tends to be treasure. Therefore, the value of talking with your dad for 5 minutes is much appreciated.

2. Sending email-ecards..glitter!

   Benefits of modern day technology: Email! It can be done at work (secretly-wink wink-) Now in addition to regular email or ecards, you can buff it up with various text such as one of my favorite.. mytextgraphics, (as used above) which offers many choices of text generators from glitter text to even father’s day text. They were even recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as a competitive text generator site.

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MEDICATIONS:

Tension Headache over the counter medications

• Aspirin (Ecotrin®, Bayer®, Anacin®)

• Acetominophen (Tylenol®)

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Motrin®, Advil®), naproxen sodium (Aleve®), or ketoprofen.

Migraine

• Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Motrin®, Advil®), Triptans for severe migraine attacks. Sumatriptan (Imitrex® injection) was the first drug that was developed. Recent medications include rizatripan (Maxalt®), naratriptan (Amerge®, zolmitriptan (Zomig®), almotriptan (Axert®), frovatriptan (Frova®) and eletriptan (Relpax®).

• Ergots (Ergomar®)

• Anti-nausea medications including metoclopramide or prochlorperazine

• Butalbital combinations

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Headaches can literally interrupt your day and make you feel miserable. I’ve experienced several different types of headaches, including sinus headaches, stress related headaches, and caffeine withdrawal headaches.

What are headaches? (Wikipedia, Medicine Net, Neurology Channel)

A headache (cephalagia in medical terminology) is a condition of pain in the head. It can be chronic, recurrent, or occasional and the pain can be mild or severe enough to interrupt daily activities. Headaches often result from traction to or irritation of the meninges and blood vessels. The membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, called the dura mater, is innervated with nociceptors (a sensory receptor that sends signals that cause perception of pain). Stimulation of these dural nociceptors is thought to be involved in producing headaches. In the United States, over 45 million people—including more than the 33 million sufferers of asthma, diabetes, and heart disease—experience chronic, recurring headaches. Of these, 28 million suffer migraine every year.

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