Okay, no, I'm not learning Japanese, nor will I. After 6 weeks of a multitude of unrelated illnesses and a few rather disappointing weeks at work, I finally went out ... at night ... without medication ... I think. I had Japanese food for the first time, you know, the real deal with sushi and many other "looks better than they smell dishes". It was an interesting night of discovery.

Yesterday night my youngest brother landed in California ready to start a new job and new life. Just last month he was sitting in an arena listening to speeches from a clueless kinesiology student, random honorary graduates and the university president which he really didn't like too much. However the final talk by David Bing, a former Pistons basketball player, was very sincere and in many ways enlightening. Mr. Bing said that one of his coaches once mentioned the "

Just days before the new year, I came down with some bad sinus headaches. As much as I looked for a cause (lack of sleep, computer, alcohol, etc.), I could find nothing. So I tried my best to avoid any unnecessary medicine but only a day into the new year, most of that pain had shifted to my right ear. I took some aspirin, hoping to be okay for work the next day, and slept.

I have been a little uninspired lately. I could blame plenty of external reasons, but the truth is no one does anything for you, you have to make your own way. I can't even list all the happenings of the year, most of them I didn't even blog about. There was some "50 Rules to Life" that says visit some place new every year. Well I visited 3 major spots, outside of Germany, the local trips pushed me far outside of my comfort zone and that to me is probably one of the most significant accomplishments I can list for the past decade.

I'm not sure from where I caught it, but about 2 weeks ago I fell ill and lost my voice. After 5 days of not being able to talk clearly I went to see the doctor and he informed me that I had laryngitis caused by a bacterial throat infection. The odd thing was that he told me to wait another 2 days before starting the anti-biotics. Unfortunately the next day it got worse, so I started that day itself.