Faces by the Alphabets of Name

in a Halloween costume

Dolores

I drew a moon face also, but I need at least one photo to capture a shape.

                                I couldn't decide for Chris Meek.  None of them look even a bit like him.

Please see more faces as follows.

http://redroom.com/member/keiko-amano/blog/faces-by-the-alphabets-of-their-names

I hope you enjoy it!

Faces in Letters

                                                     henohenomoheji  へのへのもへじ

The above face is a standard Japanese face design in kana letters.  I don't know who created it or when, but this has been used in many designs for centuries.  Ryokan, a Buddhist monk and poet, drew this kind of face, but I'm unsure if he was the original creator for this  idea not.  Each artist draws in her or his own way, and all of us are artists including children and adults without any art education.

We are all artists.  That's my excuse to upload these photos.  Someone perhaps has done similar drawings like these, but I wanted to create faces in alphabets.

adamc

                                  ztzuj

xOxHU

                                                                                                                               GHGVL       

                           QIQND

Let's have fun.  Please draw your own and let me see it.

Ipsus

Ipsus belongs to my daughter’s fiancé.  He is three years old.  I asked Jeff how he chose him among 12 puppies a farmer was giving away.  

“Because he responded to the sound I was making.”  Jeff made the sound of kissing loud three times. 

I sat down and massaged Ipsus all over.  When, I stood up, he passed through between my legs and went round and round in circle. 

“Look, look, what he is doing?!”   I’m so excited.

“He does that when he likes someone,” my daughter said.

I made three kissing noises to Ipsus.

“You know Ipsus gets seizure,” Jeff said.

“I didn’t know dogs get seizure like humans.  I wonder what causes it.”

“Someone said it’s because of depression.”

“But dogs?”

“Doctors cannot find a cure.”

Then later on when I was alone with Ipsus, he started to make a banging noise as though he was scratching his own body.  I looked down.  He seemed unaware of what he was doing.  He kept making the noise.  I called Jeff, but he was out.  I called my daughter.  She came, knelt down, and wrapped her arms around his neck in a loose way.  The shaking stopped, but his body became like a rock with his knees all extended.  10 or 20 seconds or so later, he began hitting his body against a leg of the desk.  I rushed to their bedroom and picked up a crochet blanket and inserted between Ipsus and the leg of the desk.

Soon he became quiet.  We kept talking, and before we knew it, he was okay.

I wasn’t planning this trip for a personal reason.  It was the last moment thing because a dear friend of mine offered me to drive down there for one day trip.   She is the mother of my daughter’s good friend since high school.  One day is okay I thought.  Probably it would do me good.  I still have Sunday to think it over and make another call.  Perhaps, I can muster my courage and resolve this problem for once and for all on Sunday.  

One thing led other, and the friend and I ended up staying at a motel.  Probably I should have made it clear to her that I wanted one day trip or else I didn’t want to go.  I couldn’t say no, but sometimes I could neither make a yes motion.  I don’t know if one extra unscheduled day made a difference.  But now it is dead clear to me that I am a coward.  I can’t do the things I don’t want to do even though I should.

One thing I’m sure is I can’t escape from my cowardice.  It remains. 

Thank you, Ipsus.

Morro Rock

7:30 a. m.  I took this photo from the window of the motel room I stayed at.  It was gorgeous.

8 a.m.  Then, Morro Rock disappeared.

10 a. m.   Thank goodness, it reappeared a little.

Taco Factory South

I'm so happy to announce new venue for Coffee House Writer's Group.


Taco Factory South
133 East Bonita, San Dimas, CA (map)

Thursday at   5:00 pm
Saturday  at 12:00 noon

Minimum Requirements:  Before meetings start, we are required to purchase a meal and drink.   Let's support Taco Factory South to be our permanent home!

A view of Bonita Avenue from inside Taco Factory South

Carlos, the owner

I've been coming to this place once in a while for years.  I usually order a fish burrito.  Yesterday, I noticed a hamberger meal advertised, so I ordered a hamberger instead.  He asked me, "are you in this group?"   I said yes. 

The hamberger and large fries were excellent.   Why didn't I think of this place as our new venue before?  

A new room in the back was added to the restaurant not long ago, but I thought it was a place to watch football games and drink beer.   Once I had that image, I didn't think of our writer Group meetings taking place there.  So, when I found out this place would be our new venue, I was so excited.  Why didn't I think of that before?  Maybe it's because I don't drink beer.

It's a pretty big restaurant with plenty of parking space in the back. 

The room is private and quiet.  We had twelve readers last night.

Here is our leader, Christine.  I don't know how she has been keeping up with all the meetings and still smiling.

Thank you for organizing and everything else, Christine.

Also, the man in blue shirt is Cliff.  He is an assistant organizer. 

Thank you, Cliff for everything and Cliff's Notes.  

Manga: "Tching"

19 years ago, I drew this manga series titled "Tching." Some of us have accent, so we are still the target of people's fun. But sometimes through having a lot of fun, we might hurt other people's feeling. So, my manga career ended after this series. I couldn't rise that emotional level in manga, but in writing, I passed that long ago. So, I shall keep writing.



 

Tching and Mark L. are the models for this manga.

I love the way Tching calls me. It sounds a music. This is based on our real conversation. The boss is Gary. How I miss that moment!

This idea came from Modesto, but since I started "Tching" and I wanted to draw one a week or so, I forced the idea onto this Tching's manga. Then, in my mind, it wasn't funny anymore. So, I quit.

Gary Cook's Retirement Party

Ex-Farmers Insurance Group employees, Ex-IBMers, and current CSC employees, and their families and friends gathered and celebrated Gary’s retirement. His 50 year career compassed all the facets of the data center business.

As most people can imagine how stressful the data center business is. If we screw up, the systems wouldn’t come up. No systems, no profits, no company. In the old days, mainframe computers came down often enough. Don’t I know it? It was a pretty lonely job struggling to bring a system up in the middle of night. Besides, we all had our life stresses, and top of that, we were all independent thinkers with different traits. Who could manage all those stressful situations without looking stressed out, and actually creating a fun and games among employees? That was Gary, and I confirmed that he is still the same.

When my mother was alive, I told her I had a good boss. Without him being my boss, I didn’t think I could raise my kids, commuting about two and a half to three hours a day, going through my medical treatments and divorce. I told her he smiled when he became angry. My mother was impressed. She said he was a big person. I also told her if I were in Japan, I could never become a system programmer. Period.

There are many managers operating their data centers throughout the world. Some must be successful at it. But I wonder how many are successful in creating and having fun among their employees and colleagues doing it. At the party, I converse with my former colleagues, and we agree that Gary's been good at it. We all know how hard it is to manage systems programmers.

Tching always makes an impact as she is doing here.  One of her way is to pronounce “Hollerith” with her French, Chinese, and Vietnamese tongue.  It still sounds wonderful.  I still mix up Wally and Warry, but I can pronounce Hollerith.  Thank you very much.  But Gary still cannot tell us apart.  I was the one he gave a free day off time to time, not Tching.  Tching didn’t work for Gary. 

They haven't changed a bit.  On this photo, Tom looks like having more fun than Gail.

My important picture.  Gary and me.

Thank you for hosting this party, Randy.

Network and data base people.  Modesto, Ulrich, and Ben.

The former OPSYS members.  But not enough gathered because a few are working behind the scene organizing this and that for this party including fixing a toilet, and others are still on the way to the party, and some won't show up for various reasons.

Randy, Gary, Modesto, Bill, Tching.

Tching and Eric

I see my cousin's house from here.

 Ready for his speech.

Mark makes his welcoming speech and narrates the highlights of Gary's life and accomplishments.  But this is not an ordinary narration.  It is unique, unpredented although I have heard it a number of times.  Still I heard a woman in the audience asking the person next to her, "Is that true?"   I used to ask that question.

Gary patiently waits for his appearance.

Lyneius is adding his comment.  I think by this time Gary has been on the center stage.

Here he is.

Roland makes his appearance.  Gary exclaimes, Hammer. 

Through up and down in our careers and personal lives, Gary's been there.   No one can be Gary, but because we know him, we are still able to have this outrageiously fun time!

Continuing his speech.

His brand is Lucky Strike. Ironically, Farmers Insurance was bought out by British American Tobacco while I was there. Lucky Strike is one of the BAT's products. We were all shocked then. Because of the change, a big application project was launched, BTS. He is probably talking about that period. After I left the company, a Swiss company bought Farmers.

 

This is the climax of his speech.  I still don't understand why it is so funny, but it's like a lullaby to my ear.  For some reason, we can't stop laughing.  Just looking at this photo, it makes me smile.

I think Roland has gained weight. I'm glad he has because I've gained also. Let's do diet together.

Right around this time, I run out of the battery of my camera. I'm sorry Dave, Jennifer, and others that you do not appear here. But the photographer must have taken many fantastic pictures, much better than mine.

The battery was gone I thought, but next morning, just in case I clicked my camera. It let me, and I took a few more shots. The evening before, Gail had given me a ride from Pasadena to the party, and I stayed with Tching and Eric in Santa Monica for the night. In the morning, after our oatmeal and coffee breakfast, Tching makes a call to her mother in France. The oatmeal breakfast is one of our connections, and about mother and daughter relationship is the other. Her 85 year old mother is in an assisted home in France. She says the mother seems panicky talking because it's Sunday. Services are off on Sunday. My aunt became like that, too, I say. She calls one more time before we head to the beach.

After I say goodbye to Tching, she still worries if I can make it to the bus stop okay. It's only a half block away. I walk a quarter block and look back. I don't see her crossing the street or on the other side of the street. I walk further and look back again. I see no one wearing the pink t-shirt. This is weird. I wonder what has happened to her. She must be there, and she cannot fly. I examine the half block distance right and left. Over sudden, the pink t-shirt appears in front of me. I guess she's been following me to make sure I reach the bus stop. My goodness. We burst into laughter. Maybe, this is why Gary still cannot tell us apart.