Okinawa gets attacked by Gobi Desert Sand

The LA times news story regarding the sand

Air quality is "very bad for the health," China's national weather bureau warned. It said people should cover their mouths when outside and keep doors and windows closed.


China's expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms, the grit from which can travel as far as the western United States.

These first two pictures are looking out at the ocean, normally after the trees you can see in the distance, there are some buildings and then the ocean, it's about a mile away. You normally can see way out into the ocean and off in the distance there is a little island. Also this is taken at about noon, it looks very late in the day.











Just driving through town, again visibility is normally a few miles, here you can hardly see a few blocks.







This last one is in the evening, about 5pm, taken from my house, if you look closely you can almost see the ocean, visibility is still about a mile.

Deployment Update

I got a Homecoming window, less than 2 months and he will be home!

Delayed Monday Post

it's not monday anymore but I had this post in my mind and I got to busy to do it so here goes:

disclaimer: I am not a doctor, I am not a parent, I do not study nutrition, these are MY feelings, this is MY opinion, based on nothing more than observations.

Calories are a big part of weight, they are the only part, they make or break your waist. Knowledge about calories is very important to loosing weight, maintaining your weight or gaining weight. With that said, Children have no place even thinking about calories. I feel no one under the age of 16 should even know what a calorie is. This is just asking for an eating disorder. Two things I've witnessed in the last few weeks, one yesterday: A little girl, no older than 5 running with a pint of ice cream, her father tells her she has to share it with her sister. She starts to put up a fit, his response to her "why's" is "you can't eat the whole thing it's got... (pause while he did the math) 1020 calories in it. to which she replies "what's a calorie?" he says "it's what makes you fat". Seriously? Really dude? I wanted to smack him. Even not directly telling your kids about calories and fat grams and carbs, I think a child seeing and hearing a parent verbally share distaste over these things can cause issues. A few weeks ago I saw a little boy about 9 eating some candies out of a bag, he stopped and told his mom that he couldn't eat them, when she asked why he said there were too many calories and he didn't want to get fat. His mom with a near perfect response told her son that he didn't need to worry about calories and he wasn't going to get fat. The boy learned this somewhere. I understand dieting is a major part of millions of peoples lives these days, but let the kids see the healthy side, the exercise, eating the right food, not the ugly side, which I do just as much as the next person, counting every single thing you put in your mouth. Back to the age thing. I pick 16 as the age you must be to think about calories because that I feel is the age where one can partially understand what a body needs to function. Also this is about the age where parents (at least my parents) lost control of what is eaten. Younger kids parents have much more control of what kids do, what kids eat, I often see many really good examples of using this power, kids in sports, playing outside, riding bikes. Childhood obesity is a problem, little fat kids are everywhere, but education can make a huge difference, and over-education can lead to huge problems.

Like I need more on my plate right now

http://alanaslosingit.blogspot.com/

I'm blogging my weight loss journey for all who care to watch!

oops...

Okay I admit, I skipped today. (Tuesday)

Tuesday was a day filled with military wife fun, food, pedicures, and gossip. I may fill in the blanks later, but it's doubtful. More or less, us Military wives have to learn to let loose once in a while or the stress would cause serious injury to those close by.

Thank you ladies who were with me tonight, and every other night.

Love all my fellow Military wives, stay strong!

Manic Monday

First off, I really shouldn't be blogging, I should be working on my paper for History, or reading for Government, or studying for Environmental Science. (why yes, I am taking too many classes again this term, why do you ask?) but that's no matter, I want to blog.

Monday's topic- Fitness/Diet/Healthy

With homecoming fast approaching it's time for me to work on shedding those deployment pounds, and then some. I'm going to be brutally honest about myself because this is my blog and I can say what I want, but not only am I overweight (to myself and according to my BMI) but I am painfully out of shape. I get winded running up to the third floor. I get tired walking the dog around the block. I am a lazy person, and being overwhelmed in school doesn't help.

I'll start with diet.

I've been reading alot about Atkins, it speaks of rapid weight loss and still remaining healthy. More or less you are seriously limiting carbs, no sugars, and no caffeine. 20 grams of carbs a day to start, normally in a day I consume 150-180 grams. I love bread, noodles and sandwiches. all are huge carb adders to my diet. fortunatly meat, chicken, beef, fish, pork, not breaded and fried have 0 carbs. I thought this would be easy, get some carbs from veggies and eat lots of meat, I like meat, I can have all the sashimi, steaks, and chicken wings I want.

I started last monday, 1 week ago today. I lasted 2 days before I broke down and had oatmeal for breakfast. every day since then I have passed the 20 gram a day carb mark, but my average daily carbs is around 50 grams, so not too bad, i think. I've lost 4 pounds, I notice my pants are a little looser, I don't feel great but I am getting over a cold. I've also almost completely cut sugar out, havn't had a soda in a week, (well I had a coke zero today, but no real sugar, no carbs, and no calories) I've been eating lots of fish and veggies, last night for dinner I had asparagus and salmon, it was yummy!!!! My hardest part is low carb breakfasts, I am getting sick of eggs, and I don't much feel like a steak in the morning. I sleep in so when it comes to breakfast it needs to be grab and go. which is why I like oatmeal. I know i am not sticking to Atkins as prescribed, but I have found that when my carbs are lower than 30, I feel like shit. So I am going to compensate and eat what I need to feel good. Like today for lunch I had soba, 1 1/2 cups of soba noodles is about 36 grams of carbs, but you know what? I wanted it. so there.

Fitness.

As soon as my nose stops draining and my cough stops I'll likely start back up at the gym again, until then I am going to start today with doing some workouts at home and around here. I've got light weights. I have workout DVD's; P90X, Biggest Looser, Billy Blanks. I just need to stop watching South Park in my spare time and working out instead.

Overall Healthy Lifestyle.

I just want to modify my life for the better, I am eating way more organic produce, and meats, I eat less processed foods. And I feel better, about myself and in general.

I read somewhere in my quest for healthy living that the healthiest grocery shopping is done along the walls. Think about it; produce? against the wall; fresh meats? against the wall; milk, eggs, cheese, dairy? against the wall; Fresh breads? against the wall. over processed, full of added crap, sugars, High fructose corn syrups? in the isles. I try to avoid the isles at all costs. (also cause I despise fighting people through them at the commissary) but some things I need, canned veggies, which i still support. Frozen dinners and veggies (Love me some Lean Cuisine microwave panini! and broccoli with cheese) I don't eat potato chips, I do eat tortilla chips, I stopped drinking soda, except the occasional coke zero or sugar free redbull. I love salads and roasted veggies.

Also along with the lifestyle changes, I love being outside, I just wish Okinawa would get with the program and warm the hell up and stop RAINING!!!

well that is all for my blogging today, stay tuned tomorrow for... Military Life/Deployment

On hold

Blogging is on hold until lappy gets home, hopefully this weekend. I appologise for making you wait. It's just a pain in the ass to blog from the iPhone.

It could always be worse

I just have to keep telling myself.
School is going well, social life is good, talked to Paul last night so that's fantastic.
Then last night I went to bed. Packed up the laptop and carried it upstairs, as I do every night. Put it on the bed, plugged it in opened it back up and the display didn't come on. I wigle the mouse thinking maybe It just went to sleep or is stuck i sleep mode, no dice. So I manual power off and reboot. Unfortunatly at this point I already know what is wrong, I'm just trying to prove myself wrong. Still nothing. I do the reboot: unplug, remove battery hold power button for 30 seconds, battery back, plug in an power on. Laptop powers up, fans come on, keyboard lights up.... No display.
Several months ago I had an issue with the display going out bit it always came back, after some research I found that the video card in my model is known to fail. They will almost always fix it under warranty within two years of purchase. My two years was up about 30 days ago.
This morning I called Apple in Japan, and they are going to pick my laptop up Sunday. Ship it to a fixer place. And I should have it back in about 10 days. And there is a chance it'll still be warranty. This is great.
So I had a nice lunch with Joselyn and on my way home I ran over a bolt. Huge bolt. Thankfully I made it to the auto shop and I am now waiting on a tire repair.

It could be worse.

Around the interwebs

I spend an awful lot of time on the internet. But with P being gone, outside of school I need to keep myself occupied. Here are some of my favorite sites that give me a good laugh.

(some are NSFW)

Failbooking

Texts from Last Night

(262):

dude this girl next to me farted in the middle of a quiz and denied my high five

(1-262):

bitch

People of Wally World

Epic Win

Oddly Specific

Failblog

Japan

I am going to try to get more active on here (like I don't already have enough to do...) but M-F I will be trying to post about specific things (or not so specific, you'll see) Wednesday is now Japan Day. Each Wednesday I'll try to post something about life in Japan.

Today= Driving

(click on picture for larger image)

almost everyone in Okinawa has a scooter, and if you don't, you know someone who does, these things are everywhere. They also have little regard for the law, they will go before the light is green, pass everyone on the shoulder of the road just to get in front, and drive like total asses most of the time.

In most of the neighborhoods we have these mirrors, see that one with the reflection of the little car in it? I would have never known he was there had the mirror not been here (perfect timing). That's because most of the back streets have completely blind intersections and without these mirrors there would be lots and lots of fender-benders.

just a shot of a bus with a cute sign on it.

Gahhh we drive on the wrong side of the road!!!

I live in an area that is fairly suburban, but this is pretty typical a small two lane road, apartments and a few cars.

the end.

stay tuned tomorrow for.....

Thursday- Around the interwebs, where i'll find and share interesting thing(s) that I find.