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Friday, December 30, 2016

"New Years Reflections..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Friday)

Judith Whitehead lives in Amherst New York
( A suburb of Buffalo, N.Y.)
 and has worked in the ophthalmology
 field of medicine for nearly 40 years

New Years Reflections



The new year of 2017 is upon us, I begin to reflect on all the past years celebrations and how they have changed; as I remember when I was a teenager, it was totally unacceptable to have NO plans for the New Year celebration. There was no way I would have thought of staying home on December 31st.



It's funny how those thoughts do change as we grow up. We would start early in December trying to make our plans so we were not left out in the cold on this important day.

After I got married, we would celebrate with friends in different ways; we tried First Night downtown, dinners, movies, house parties etc. and then the children came along. It became a challenge to find a baby sitter on that all important night since most teenage baby sitters had their own plans. After our good friends' son became old enough, we had a built in babysitter and we then could go out to celebrate once again.

For so many years we would return to our house for desert to relieve our babysitter and ring in the New Year with home made confetti that my son would have been cutting up for hours; it then would rain down on us all, which took an hour to vacuum up afterwards. As I reflect on those special days, they bring on a warm and happy feeling inside.


Now a days, as our children are grown and gone and we can once again do whatever we want to do to celebrate. After all these years, the importance of that momentous day seems to have diminished somehow. It is no longer most important to find an unusual and expensive way to celebrate, and staying up after midnight poses a problem today. If we are not physically moving at that hour, we become sleepy and after that magic midnight cheer, we return home, happy enough knowing we had a nice dinner, movie or activity with our good friends. For the last decade or more, we have chosen to have a quiet time with our dear friends by choosing a movie we will all enjoy and a restaurant that is not too fussy. We have grown tired of paying the prices that have “special” packages for the most important day - it seems to give proprietors a chance to raise the prices, throw in a music maker and collect many dollars over the regular price of that exact meal that will cost much less later in the week.


It has become not the enjoyment of expensive food, but the joy of spending time with special people every year. It no longer holds the importance of finding a place to go as it did in those teenager years, and we now enjoy the happiness good company brings no matter what we are doing to celebrate.

As always, we reflect on the past year that brought happiness along with hardships and sadness, worry and celebrations and the hope that the new year of 2017 will bring good health and happiness for all whom we hold dear.


As we anticipate each new coming year,with happiness and hope that this will be the best year ever; we pray that all those that we love are care about will have the best year as well.

Happy New Years to us all.

Hana Hou, (Encore)





Tuesday, December 27, 2016

"It happened top me, a random act of kindness..!" 'James "Kimo" Rosen' (Special holiday edition of Kimo's world)

James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired professional photographer
 and amongst other things lived in a tent outdoors for 7 years.
Rosen currently resides on the tropical island of Kaua'i
with his best friend and spiritual adviser Ivanka Da Dog!


Note, In above photo  I am wearing the hat gifted to me by
total strangers on Christmas and Chanukah eve.

Kimo's world's #164~Blog #1881

It happened top me, a random act of kindness


Erev Chanukah and Christmas eve afternoon a couple  drives up to my back door, Ivanka Da Dog is barking. They are a nice straight looking couple. They are carrying two gift bags, one for me and one for Ivanka . I don't know them, they don't know know me.  The bag for Ivanka has a bag of dog treats. She went bonkers over  these chicken treats made in China.
  
They brought me, mochi, butter cookies, a Hawaiian calendar and a straw sun hat all in a beautiful large gift bag. Talk about a random act of kindness and something to lift ones spirit.  
The irony while the couple is driving on the lawn I am whispering behind my breath who the hell is driving on the lawn. I felt like old crotchety Mr. Wilson of the Dennis the menace comic strip. 

I was humbled when they came to my place. Why me? Why crotchety old me?  I asked the couple, "are you sure this is  for me, you sure?" They were adamant, they insisted.
The gifts from Derek and Anna!
The hat I am wearing in the above photo was also
a gift from this awesome couple.
  


They initially wanted to visit my next door neighbor however she wasn't home. "I didn't get her present's did I?" No they insisted. In fact, I saw them return a few a few hours later when my neighbor returned home.

I asked the couples name, their names are Derek and Anna. Many times I have grumbled on how I wish my place was more private. This is one instance it pays to have the most visible place in a 38 unit housing development.

Thank you Derek and Anna, mostly for the gesture of the giving, not the actual gifts, though they were great. Your generosity and aloha made my day, made my year. It's been a rough and tempestuous year, your random act of kindness made this Jewish guys Christmas and Chanukah shine with light!


Don't you wish people acted like they do at Christmas time all year round?  I plan on paying this random act of kindness forward when I feel someone needs a lift or the holy spirit tells me someone needs to be elevated!  Hope you think about doing the same!
I shall call this my random act of
kindness hat.  Whenever I wear this hat
my mood must change automatically
to kindness!
 Hana Hou, Encore!







Monday, December 26, 2016

"Fake News..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen' (Kimo's world #163)

James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired professional photographer
 and amongst other things lived in a tent outdoors for 7 years.
Rosen currently resides on the tropical island of Kaua'i
with his best friend and spiritual adviser Ivanka Da Dog!

Kimo's world's #163~Blog #1880
Editors note;
This blog appeared as an opinion article this same day,12-26-16 in the Kauai Garden Island news!
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-for-monday-dec/article_89fd6435-850a-556a-a202-ce3c79b73e7f.html

Fake News
It's hard to believe the news these days


Did you hear that Donald Trump is selling Kauai to the Japanese and that Michelle Obama is really a man?   Believe it or not these stories were circulating the internet. People believe them. People re-post them. Fake news is a problem.

Please fact check before re-posting on social media!  Michelle Obama is not a man, she is a beautiful woman inside and out.  Donald Trump is not even president yet and even if he was   would not have the authority to sell the island of Kaua'i to the Japanese.  Oy! 

The Democrats have their spin, The Republicans have their spins and Facebook and fake news have their spins.

Us humans like to believe what we want to believe. There are many people that like to have fun in designing fake news as a means of entertainment. Others design fake news as a means to an end to get a final result in many matters such as elections of national and local interests.

How does one know what is the truth and what is a non truth? A Republican may stay clued to Fox news and believe everything they hear and see, by contrast a democrat may do the same by watching MSNBC? 

Before re-posting a meme or favorite news story that fits your ideology and agenda it might be a good idea to fact check it at one of the fact check websites. There  are many fact checking websites on the world wide web--- Snopes, NPR, Polifact and an an abundance of others...
This was proven  fake news buy every fact checking website
yet circulated the internet freely during the past
presidential election.

Enclosed is an article that recommends the six best fact checking websites on the internet.  I highly recommend you save this article and refer to it when your in doubt or when an internet meme or story just sounds to good to be true.
"The 2016 guide to political fact-checking on the internet."
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/best-fact-checking-websites/


The next time you hear that  Hillary Clinton is in the sex slave business or that Donald Trump said that Republicans are idiots and that's why he'd run as one. Make sure and fact check if it sounds to good to post and fits your political fantasy just too perfect.


Did you hear that Donald Trump is picking James "Kimo" Rosen as his personal iPhone photographer and Blogger-n-Chief! You might just want to fact check that one! Hope it's true

Editors note;
This blog appeared as an opinion article this same day,12-26-16 in the Kauai Garden Island news!
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-for-monday-dec/article_89fd6435-850a-556a-a202-ce3c79b73e7f.html

P.S.
Donald Trump Fires Back at ‘So-Called A-List Celebrities’ Snubbing the Inauguration
(So sad that our nation will not come together for the sake of our nation)
http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/donald-trump-fires-back-at-%E2%80%98so-called-a-list-celebrities%E2%80%99-snubbing-the-inauguration/ar-BBxtbIH?li=BBnbfcL

 Hana Hou, Encore!




More dakinetalk reading on Donald Trump; (Great reading!)
(All Trump related  blogs by James "Kimo" Rosen unless otherwise indicated)
1-Trumped by "The Donald" 'Obama Da Dog' (Special political edition)
2-Trump supporters must come out of the closet! (Kimo's world #118)
3-Trump, the election and the Jewish connection...(Kimo's world #119)
4-Trump-fulling... (Kimo's world #120)
5-A poem about Donald J. Trump...
6- Trumps Failing businesses are his strengths...
7-Extra! Extra! Read All About It!--Trump Hijacks Republican party into Hell
8-Trump and the race for President, a nasty one fueled by the media (Carrie Eckert)
9-Win or Lose, Could Trump Be A Secret Agent For Hillary
10-Raccoon's and Trump~Larry Arruda~(Source)
11-Definition of Trump
12-Hillary and Donald Trump walk into a bakery
13-Kaepernick and Obama, trump this Kool-Aid
14-Hoping one thing will remain after the election
15-Undecided voters
16-Don't be surprised if Mr. Trump is hired
17-Biggest Hail Marry of all time, Obama Da Dog to change name to Ivanka
18-Mazol Tov Mr. Trump!
19-Just Give Trump a Chance
20-Wishing Hillary well and why all the protesting?

Friday, December 23, 2016

"Social media has changed our lives..." 'Judith Whitehead' (inspiration Friday)

Judith Whitehead lives in Amherst New York
( A suburb of Buffalo, N.Y.)
 and has worked in the ophthalmology
 field of medicine for nearly 40 years

Social media has changed our lives





Many years ago when I was growing up in a very different time and place, we had something called a phone booth on almost every corner. My mom always reminded me when I went out to make sure I had a dime with me just in case I had to make an emergency call. 

The times progressed, phone calls escalated to 25 cents and there became less and less phone booths. It was the 1960's and there were no ATM machines or cell phones to either get money or call people with immediate gratification. You had better not leave the house without “cash” money just in case. I think in many ways it made teenagers growing up more responsible. You were made to think “ahead” , or you may be stranded or hungry depending on whatever your plans were.

 Driving my boys to school one day in the 1990's some people did have phones in their cars, they were large and clumsy. When our car broke down in an intersection, a friend driving a special vehicle had a cell phone as he called it for us to use for emergency use. A large ariel anchored on his trunk made it possible for transmission.


Today our thoughts are posted and known instantly on a Facebook posting or a “tweet”. Many times if we had taken little time to contemplate what we were thinking at that time, it may have been better to “sleep on it” before making public what we thought . Sometimes less is more in those cases.

I must admit, I have bought into the Facebook world and find myself checking on my phone through out the day to see what friends and family are up to. Now a days you don't skip a beat on the latest news. World news, weather reports and events are immediately accessible and you can even skip the nightly news if need be; it was all laid out on public media on the web earlier in the day.

Are we better off for having such technology at our fingertips?

Families seem to spend less time actually “talking” to each other. We eat our meals out a few times a week and have noticed that children are using electronics to entertain themselves or messaging their fiends at that time,instead of facing each other to converse about their days.


Yes we are socially more connected but spend less time actually talking to our friends and family; we
send a quick text to save time to get our thoughts out there. 

Meetings and greetings are made sending an Instagram without even speaking a word.

Party invites and congratulations no longer have to go through the mail service in the form of a
card with a stamp. It no wonder that the mail service continues to raise the prices of packages and
stamps--their circulation has dwindled over the years.

I for one still enjoy opening up a greeting card but notice I do get less each year in replacement of a quick message over the internet.


 Our younger generation will no longer know the pleasure of sitting down and writing a letter to a friend across the country. When my husband and I dated on two different coasts, we used to write letters. Phone calls were more expensive then and were used in limited time increments. Today our thoughts and actions are sent and received with immediate gratification. It has changed our lives; don't know if for the better or not. It has taught our current generation that things can be taken care of instantly and I fear we have grown an impatient group of young people who have learned to want things done NOW.

Hana Hou, (Encore)
Judy wishes everyone a Happy Chanukah!


Thursday, December 22, 2016

"A Rich Arab in a bar..." 'Chester "Unc" Lau' (Source of comedy relief)

Dakinetalk's favorite Uncle (Chester Lau)
Unc's really passionate about creating
 a National day To Help US Veterans
  and  their families for their risks
 and sacrifices to keep America FREE . 
'Unc' currently resides on the Hawai'ian Island of Oahu. 
He is a retired cinematographer,
 and  enjoys giving the politicians a bad time...
Above photo of Unc with his boss
Wm F.Sullivan at a Waikiki Foto shop,
 A Rich Arab in a bar  

A rich Arab walks into a bar and is about to order a drink when he sees a guy close by wearing a Jewish yarmulkes , a prayer shawl and traditional locks of hair. 


He doesn't have to be Einstein to know this guy is Jewish. So he shouts over to the bartender so loudly that everyone can hear: "Drinks for everyone in here, bartender, but not for the Jew over there." 

Soon after the drinks have been handed out, the Jew gives him a big smile, waves at him, then says, "Thank you" in an equally loud voice. This infuriates the Arab. 

He once again loudly orders drinks for everyone except the Jew. 
 As before, this does not seem to bother the Jewish guy. He continues to smile, and again yells, "Thank you."


The Arab asks the bartender, "What's the matter with that Jew? I've ordered two rounds of drinks for everyone in the bar but him, and all he does is smile and thank me."

The bartender replies, "He owns the place."

 From :Unc C ==
Remember,
If you haven't got a smile on your face
And laughter in your heart,     
Then you are just an old sour puss
Ha ha ha,
L'oncle Ammusant  AKA~ Chester "Unc" Lau



 Hana Hou, (Encore) 







Wednesday, December 21, 2016

"The story of Yankel the Baker..."'Melinda Kontos' (Source of this touching story)


 Please welcome our newest guest blogger!
Melinda Kontos lives in Amherst,  NY.
 She is a retired music teacher and  professional violinist.
 She lives with her husband, Ulysses and her bulldog Maxwell
Maxwell the pride and joy
of the Konto's family!





Original author,Michael J. Nadel
The story of Yankel the Baker

In Crown Heights, there was a Jew, Yankel, who owned a bakery. He survived the camps. He once said, “You know why it is that I’m alive today? I was a kid, just a teenager at the time. We were on the train, in a boxcar, being taken to Auschwitz. Night came and it was freezing, deathly cold, in that boxcar. 


The Germans would leave the cars on the side of the tracks overnight, sometimes for days on end without any food, and of course, no blankets to keep us warm,” he said. “Sitting next to me was an older Jew – this beloved elderly Jew - from my hometown I recognized, but I had never seen him like this. He was shivering from head to toe, and looked terrible. So I wrapped my arms around him and began rubbing him, to warm him up. I rubbed his arms, his legs, his face, his neck. I begged him to hang on. All night long; I kept the man warm this way. I was tired, I was freezing cold myself, my fingers were numb, but I didn’t stop rubbing the heat on to this man’s body. Hours and hours went by this way. Finally, night passed, morning came, and the sun began to shine. There was some warmth in the cabin, and then I looked around the car to see some of the other Jews in the car. To my horror, all I could see were frozen bodies, and all I could hear was a deathly silence.

Nobody else in that cabin made it through the night – they died from the frost. Only two people survived: the old man and me… The old man survived because somebody kept him
warm; I survived because I was warming somebody else…”

Let me tell you the secret of Judaism. When you warm other people’s hearts, you remain warm yourself. When you seek to support, encourage and inspire others; then you discover support, encouragement and inspiration in your own life as well. That, my friends, is “Judaism 101”.

P.S.
Sadly,
Man walks away from helping woman stuck in snow because of Trump bumper sticker on her vehicle...
http://diyhilfe.com/man-sees-woman-stuck-in-snowwalks-over-to-helpthen-sees-her-bumper-sticker-and-just-leaves-her/

Hana Hou, Encore








Tuesday, December 20, 2016

"Obama should be on Mt. Rushmore..!" 'Glenn Mickens' (Kauai county watchdog)

Glenn Mickens has lived on Kauai  with his wife Ruth for the last 26 years. Born July 26, 1930 in Wilmar, California, USA) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in four games (two of which were starts) for the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. He also played for five years in Japan, from 1959 until 1963 for the Kintetsu Buffaloes. There, he compiled a record of 45–53 with a 2.54 ERA.  Glenn also  served in the Army for 2 years and coached baseball at UCLA for 25 years. 
Last but not least Glenn would really like to see Kaua'i give the county manager style of Government a chance.
Above photo of Glenn Mickens courtesy of Kauai Garden island news, used with permission...

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...
Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---


Mr. Mickens is locally known
as one of Kauai county's
political watchdogs
and Nitpickers...
Mahalos Glenn!
Obama should be on Mt. Rushmore
  
Very soon our 44th President of the United States will leave office and he will leave as one of the most popular Presidents we have ever had.

Consider that against all odds he was the first African American in history to serve 8 years as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth. What this brilliant man accomplished in 8 years would have probably made him eligible for a space on Mt Rushmore with our other greats if he had been white!


But to have accomplished what he did with his opposition trying to block every move he made, not only because 
of his policies, BUT because he was black was miraculous. 

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball and I was privileged and thrilled to have played with him. I saw how he had to be not only a great, talented ball player but who had to be someone who could tolerate being called every racist name in the books and without reciprocating. The legendary Branch Rickey not only found a person with these qualifications,  he found someone who went far beyond all expectations. As a sign of the respect and admiration future generations of ball players had for Jackie, his number 42 has been retired and on a day to honor him every team and player who plays against the Dodgers wears number 42--never done before and will probably never be done again. 


And today I would hope that every citizen in the U.S. white, black, brown or yellow could, without prejudice find it within themselves to appreciate and honor Barack Obama for what he has done for his country. 

Again, against all odds (the race card always being an underlying factor that no other President had to tolerate) this man got us out of the worst depression since 1929; the stock market climbed from 11,000 in 2008 to just under 20,000 today; unemployment dropped from over 10% to 4.6% today; Obama promised that he would bring our troops home from the Iraq war and kept that promise; he got health care passed and though it is not perfect 20 million more people have health insurance today than ever had it before which no other president accomplished; he went after and killed the number 1 criminal in the world, Osama Bin Laden; he saved our auto industry and the thousands of jobs that went with it; he put regulations in place to prohibit the crash of 2008 with the loss of homes and life savings; and his diplomacy with Iran has given us inspection rights to their atomic bomb activities.


And with all our problems and the turmoil in the rest of the world this country is still the best place on earth to live in and Barack Obama can leave office proud that he had a hand in making it what it is.

Mr Trump now has the torch and his tenure will be judged on what happens in the next 4 years. 


P.S.
Check out Glenn's Wikipedia page;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Mickens
Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...
Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---


Kapaa Sunset
From my backdoor-Sleeping Giant-
i-Phone photo by James "Kimo Rosen
Hana Hou, (Encore) 







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