Saturday, September 17, 2011

Two People Win a Vacation Business Class to New York & 5-Star Hotel w/ Domino Pizza

Domino Pizza Japan is having another fantastically fun and exciting campaign! One couple is eligibile to win Business Class round-trip fare courtesy of America's best airlines: Delta airlines and it includes a 4 nights stay at a 5-star hotel in Manhattan courtesy of Delta Tours and all you have to do is signup! There is no purchase necessary!


日本語はこちらhttp://www.dominos.jp/topics/110829_c.html


FOR LARGER VIEW CLICK ON IMAGE


That's not all! 100 people will also win a Francis Ford Coppola red and white wine set courtesy of Japan's online wine superstore, iwine.jp! www.iwine.jp is Japan's online wine superstore and you can order in Japanese or English and have your wine delivered right to your door! Go to: http://www.iwine.jp/


FOR LARGER VIEW CLICK ON IMAGE


Domino Pizza is having their Brooklyn Pizza campaign and it's another winner! The campaign runs from August 30 until October 30 and all you have to do is go to the Domino Pizza Japan webpage and signup. No purchase nessessary! The URL is: http://www.dominos.jp/

FOR LARGER VIEW CLICK ON IMAGE

So get in on the action! What do you have to lose? Signup now.... 


Of course, I, Mike Rogers, give my stamp of approval to this great campaign because I helped arrange it! I fly Delta every time I go to the continental USA or to Guam and can vouch that it is my airlines of choice for those routes! 




Join now and win the vacation dream of a lifetime! 


For more information, click here. If that link doesn't work: http://www.dominos.jp/topics/110829_c.html

FOR LARGER VIEW CLICK ON IMAGE


(Hint: Domino Pizza also has an English ordering site that has specials that are an even better deal than their regular Japanese page like their 2 for 1 special! Buy one pizza and get one free! Check the Domino Pizza English webpage herehttp://www.dominos.jp/eng/.


Also check the iwine.jp page for great everyday specials on the best in wine selections at www.iwine.jp!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Recurring Dreams and Alternate Universes

I think most people have recurring dreams. If most people don't, then maybe I am just weird because I have had the same five recurring dreams over and over for these last 27 years. Do you have recurring dreams? 



Since moving to Japan, I have had basically five recurring dreams. But, now that I think about it, one of these dreams, the dreams of me flying like a bird or a jet plane, stopped a few years ago.


I wonder why my dreams of flight have disappeared? Maybe because I turned 50 and stopped dreaming like a 17-year-old? No, I don't think it is that because I still feel like a 17-year-old many times (just won't be doing the crazy things I used to do).


The first of the five recurring dreams I've had was flying in the skies. They started when I was a small boy. In my dreams could fly like Icarus. Can you fly in your dreams? Those are fun dreams... Sometimes, I guess when my condition wasn't so great, I'd have a hard time achieving lift-off in my dream. I'd have to run and flap my arms as hard as I could until I took off. Sometimes it was a great effort and I had to try over and over. Other times, I was just like a graceful bird; a tiny step and jump and I was off soaring like an eagle in the clouds.


Then, when I got to about 30 or so, I could fly like a jet plane. In fact, many times I knew I was dreaming and that I was flying. I figured it was some sort of alternate universe and so I rode it like a snow-boarder rides the snow or a surfer rides the waves. I knew I was dreaming but didn't care. When  could really fly and fly like a rocket, doing a thousand miles and hour, I would consider flying over the Pacific Ocean and going to the United States to fly over my parents house.


Weird thing is that I would fly out a few hundred miles from the coast of Japan, look over the water, and turn around because I'd start getting scared. Scared that I would wake up and be flying over the cold ocean, fall into it, and have to swim back. I used to be a good swimmer, but not that good. Being so high over such deep water freaked me out so I'd turn back. Even though I knew it was just a dream.


The other problem with flying to the USA like a 747 in my dreams was that, at such high speeds, I had a difficult time turning and would often continue on a straight line when I wanted to make a hard left turn.


Sounds ridiculous because it was all a dream and I knew it, but I also felt that, somewhere in my heart, dreams were and alternate universe and a reflection on reality. I guess I still do.


Another dream that often occurred was fishing. I love fishing. Before I moved to japan, I went fishing every week. Sometimes two or three times a week. Fishing is heaven. Fishing is spiritual and fishing is close to God.




There is a saying about fishing. It goes like this: "Do you know what the difference is between a religious man and a spiritual man? A religious man goes to church and thinks about fishing. A spiritual man goes fishing and thinks about god."


I am a spiritual man. I'd go fishing everyday of the week if I could.


I used to dream about fishing at least once a week when I first came to Japan. Sometimes I dreamt about it every night for days in a row. That's because it is difficult to go fishing in Japan and I had been an avid fisherman since I was a small boy living in Minnesota. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" so fishing is a lifestyle there.


Fishing in Japan, Tokyo especially, though, is a chore. Japan is a crowded place and the good areas for fishing on the coastline are usually taken by the local fishing collective so they don't take too kindly to your fishing in their good spots... In fact, they might give you the boot up the ass if they catch you fishing in their prime areas. Going fishing in Japan is not like the USA where you can just grab a rod and reel and head off to the lake or shoreline. In Japan, fishing is an all-day expedition like 18 holes of golf: You need a plan and it costs lots of money.


My other two recurring dreams, or maybe I should say nightmares, are related to work. Whenever work is going poorly or I worry about bankruptcy or the economy going down the tubes (an understandable and common recent worry since 2008) I have bad dreams of returning to the USA and going back to my old jobs. 


The worse job is returning to Prudential to the same old office and working with those dishonest people that I wrote about yesterday in Working With Thieves, Liars and Crooks. The weird part of the dream is that I am always scheming about returning to Japan and, even after one year, haven't sold one single contract yet they do not fire me in my dream.


Talk about being able to live off one's laurels!


The other work-related dream is that I go back to working at a Sears, Roebuck and Company in Ventura, California (it was in Oxnard when I worked there, but has since moved causing the city of Oxnard to sue the city of Ventura, but that's another story about the insanity of the USA).


When I was 17 I started working at Sears in the catalogue ordering department and then transferred to commission sales in the Photo & Office Equipment department. As a commission salesman, I made a heck of a lot of money in the late 1970's.


In my dreams, for some bizarre reason, I go back there and have to work in the sewing machine and vacuum cleaner department selling poorly made and badly designed Sears equipment. The nightmarish part of the entire thing, besides selling this poorly designed and quite unstylish junk, the same management is there at the company running around doing their weird hijinks.


There is the store manager, whose name escapes me, but he was a very short, yet handsome man. He dumped his beautiful wife and four beautiful daughters (whom he often brought to the store) to marry another woman (who he soon also brought to the store). I always noticed the daughter because they were very beautiful girls. He got his lightening strike from god when, soon after the divorce and marriage, he was diagnosed with some sort of brain cancer. No kidding. I think he soon died after that. 


Then there was a guy named Walter who was a section chief who was married but he ran around unable to control his libido and was trying to take every woman working at the store to bed. I guess his wife got fed up with it one day and dumped him and got another boyfriend.


Walt, being like the immature little boy he was, then decided that he wanted his "toy" back (the wife he disrespected and treated like sh*t) and, from what I understand, went screaming drunk to the boyfriend's house while she was there and started banging on the door and breaking it down.


The boyfriend shot him and killed him.


Later, after the funeral that I didn't attend, many Sears employees were complaining that the wife was wearing black but didn't seem sad. I heard them complaining about that and said nothing. It did nothing for me but confuse me as to what was really important to these people and what they were thinking about. 


There were lots of really weird things going on at Sears at that time. I found the same types of problems when I got myself transferred to the Sears in San Fernando Valley and found that store, too, was full of some very twisted people whose priorities were not success of the business and success of their personnel and staff but protection of their position and attempting to continue their lives acting like high school students with their idiotic politics and clicks.


But, I digress....


These are the recurring dreams I often have. Even in the case of Sears or my old jobs, it is nice to be able to see my old friends and to remember them in their beautiful youth. Even when I have nightmares, I am able to realize that they are nightmares and am able to view them like a movie so they rarely scare me. 


I went to see my sick old dad a few weeks ago. He wasn't the same person that I will always remember. In my dreams, he is a young and handsome 30+ some year old Marine wrestling with us kids in the yard. For the sick, aged and ill, dreams are an escape. Back to better times and the treasures of youth. 


Surely, dreams are one of the best things about living that there could possibly be. I look forward to sleeping every night and I look forward to the dreams of my youth.

How about your dreams? I think if you wake up and think, "Today is going to be great" and you keep track and write down your goals, you can control your dreams and make sure they are positive. Try it. For more on that, read, One Easy Step to Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful at Life.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

My New Favorite Blog

Recently I have been reading a blog by a guy named James Altucher. I like what he writes. A lot. What he writes sometimes bothers me because he hits too close to home.



Let me flatter myself by saying that we often cover the same material excepting his writing is better than mine because he is even more self-unconfident and paranoid than I am. 


James is also Jewish. 


Being Jewish seems best for having a paranoia or guilt complex. Just ask one of my favorite comedians and movie directors, Woody Allen, about that! 


There are girls like this running around in Tokyo!
They give me an awful "victim complex."... Oh wait,
"victim complex" isn't what they call it....


I am half-Japanese Hillbilly American so I never had a guilt complex or such bad paranoia. And, considering the Japanese economic miracle, pretty Japanese girls, sushi and Ichiro Suzuki, I guess having Japanese blood doesn't work too well as a vehicle for having a guilt complex in order to get laughs. 


Woody Allen and the Monkees can complain about people like, say, Auntie Grizelda... I don't think complaining about Auntie Katsuko has that certain ring that makes people laugh. 


I had always thought that since I was 1/2 Japanese I was somehow superior (maybe like some mustached Germans did). 


People reading this blog are Homo Sapiens. Being half-Japanese made me believe that I was Homo Superior. I still think that 1/2 people, be they 1/2 Japanese American or 1/2 Chinese British, or 1/2 Korean Canadian are somehow Homo Superior if only because we have some idea about two cultures. Don't they say that two heads are better than one?


If somehow I were half-Jewish and half-Japanese then I might be the Ernest Hemingwitz of the modern age. Alas, I am not.


Too bad my dad wasn't Jewish, then I could be an insecure little Jewish nutcase, that I should have been, writing hilarious vignettes for millions of dollars a piece. Now, I am just a regular nutcase. No big deal. There's lots of those.


NOTE: That's weird. I don't want to write about Jews, Gays, Nazi's, or people who are crazy, yet that is the way this blog has turned recently. Perhaps my recent trip to the USA did screw my mind!


Anyhow, back to the point. I found a new blog that I really like. It's quirky and might take a while to get used to but I highly recommend it.


His name is James Altucher. One of my favorite blog posts of his is "Dealing With Crappy People". In that post he talks about his methods of dealing with jerks and the four types of people. I will probably lose you as a reader, because his writing is better than mine, but please go and read that. It's a wonderful post.


If I lose you as a reader because you find James' blog more satisfying then that's OK with me. It just might help me with my new schtick: Loser Paranoid half-Japanese guy.


Think I can sellout Las Vegas shows with that? 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Idiots

Idiots. The world is full of them. I try not be identified as one as I try my best to keep my mouth shut (especially at business meetings and in mixed company) so I don't sound like one. 


I probably am a idiot, but at least if I shut up, it will be more difficult to determine by other folks.


As one astute reader chimed in with a quote:


"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt." - Unknown.

I wrote an article that appeared on Lew Rockwell yesterday. In that article I basically expressed my opinion that the government should leave people alone and let them live and let live. Of course the government won't do that, but I was just expressing my opinion.

See? Like an idiot would do.

Many people wrote into to agree with me. "Live and let live!" They said... Excepting in the few cases where they agreed with 100% of what I wrote then were inconsistent in their beliefs because they want government out of our lives but they were against gays marriage and legalized abortions.

One guy wrote to me, first quoting what I had written:

"Take abortion, for example. If some woman wants to get an abortion (I like to think no one wants to get an abortion, but some feel a need too) then what business is that of yours and mine? It's none of our business and none of he business of the central government either. An abortion is the business of that woman and her god and, hopefully, her husband or boyfriend."

He added:

Mr. Rogers, I will not waste time and effort trying to persuade you how utterly wrong this much of your essay is. I merely express my metaphysical certitude that, one day and some way, you will learn. And express my hope that the learning experience works out well for you.

What a pompous clown. May I hand out an idiot award? Thank you your royal highness!

I responded:

Thanks (for expressing wishes for my learning experience).

And, you, yours.

Mike

It's self-righteous people like this that make our world a screwed up place with their judgmental thinking. He hopes the "learning experience" works out well for me? 

Laughable. What about his learning experience or does he already know everything that needs to be known?

I'll give you a short example why people like this are wrong.

You can hear this sort of logic, often, when the discussions come to the topic of the existence of god. Some are sure there is a god, some are not; some are absolutely convinced that there is no god. 

I have my god, don't know if it's the same as yours (doubt it), and I wish to "worship" in the way I see fit. I hope you do too. (mine could be the big electrode in the sky - I wonder if God even speaks English?)

The line is crossed when people state vigorously, "There absolutely is (or isn't) a god!" Why does this cross the line for me? Well, consider the fact that man has been searching for god and the reason for his existence since the beginning of time. 

For thousands of years, since man first gazed at the stars, the great philosophers have pondered this question. Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Bob Dylan and many more. People who are much wiser than you or I and they never came up with the answer... .

Yet some guy, say, living in Des Moines, Iowa at the ripe old age of 46-years-old thinks he knows all the answers and understands everything there is to know about life? What the greatest minds mankind has ever known couldn't answer this guy thinks he knows?  

Ridiculous when you stop to think about it, right? Even more ridiculous that he is so self-righteous that it never occurs to him how idiotic such a notion is. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Yes. I laugh. But remember, I am an idiot. 

Well, I may be an idiot but at least I'm no fool.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Many Doctor's Are Drug Pushers

I think that the biggest drug pushers in our societies are doctors. No offense to anyone, but that's what I think and that's what I've come to realize through personal experience. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, it's only because doctors keep (and have all my life been) prescribing various drugs to me.


These drugs have sometimes led me to some very bad reactions and side effects. They've put me in the hospital. Many times the cure was worse than the disease.
In many cases, these drugs have been poison. They have really screwed me up.


Here's today's example: Recently, I have had a cough and I feel like I have indigestion. I've felt this way for the last three days. I guess coughing and indigestion is not uncommon for a drinking man who likes to go out with friends and enjoy life and good food....


The cough is a strange one. I had the same cough when I was a cigarette smoker. But I quit cigarettes cold almost three years ago. So you can't say my current cough is because of cigarettes. 


The weirdest part is that I only have the cough when I am taking a nap in the daytime, and when I sleep face up. Really. 


Really, I only have a cough when I am sleeping on the sofa face up.


I don't cough if I sleep on my side or if I am awake. Weird, eh?


I decided to go to the doctor (well, actually my wife insisted that I go). Who knows? Maybe I have a tumor or an ulcer or some other nasty growing in my tubes or lungs. 


One can only hope.


Even so, I hate going to the doctor when I have a specific ailment. Here's why:


In Japan, because of the way the medical insurance system is designed, doctors get paid to see you and they get more money for dispensing drugs. The more drugs they dispense, the more money they make. Sounds like a scam (and it is) but it's still a heck of a lot better than the USA! I can go to the doctor and get a check up in Japan and medicine and be out the door for about $40 (USD). 


Today, I had an X-ray, four blood tests, a heart check, and a typical doctor's check up that ran about $70. Tomorrow I will pick up the medicine that he prescribed and that will set me back another $40 so, all in all, it still blows the USA out of the water.


Did I mention that Japanese people live, on average, at least 4 years longer than Americans do (8 years for women) even though America spends much more money on health care than any western nation in the entire world.)


But darned if I don't hate the fact that the Japanese doctor wants to give me 5 different medicines for what ails me every time I go there.


He wants to give me a medicine that stops the coughing; In order to make sure the coughing medicine doesn't screw up my stomach, he wants to give me medicine for that; He also wants to prescribe a medicine to make sure that the medicine he already prescribed to stop the coughing and to protect my stomach, doesn't cause side-effects.


I've dealt with this before. One time, when I was a (legal) druggie (and before raw food) I was taking a drug that my doctor prescribed for stress. That drugs side effect caused me ( and many others) to cough uncontrollably and lose conciousness. No kidding. 


I passed out several times waking up with my head resting on my computer keyboard and myself dribbling and drooling uncontrollably. What fun that was!


Yes, that drug worked well: When I am out cold and collapsed on the floor, I had very little stress.


I'm not making this up. This kind of bad side effects from drugs that doctors prescribed for me goes on and on. 


After I "graduated" from rehab, I was prescribed Lithium. That was hell on wheels! Whenever I took Lithium it was like Mike Tyson punched me in the stomach! Nevertheless, the doctor insisted that I take that drug until I put my foot down and said, "No more!" I do not take Lithium at all and will not. 


I don't care what the doctor says. 


I wrote about this sort of nonsense before in Gout Sufferers of the World Unite!


The doctor told me that the medicine he was prescribing for me was the standard gout medicine. (Hey! I am not a doctor!) He also told me that this medicine was powerful stuff and that my body had to get used to it first so I wasn't supposed to take full dosages, but to build up to a full dosage over a two-week period.

I was to take the pills and cut them into quarters and take one quarter every day for eight days. Then, after that, cut the pills in half and then take another half every day for another eight days. Once I did that, I was to start taking one full pill every day after that. Simple. Right? Sure, but things didn't work out so well.

On December 12th, I started taking the quarter pills and increasing the dosage as the doctor prescribed. Finally, after doing this religiously every day, on December 30th, I was up to a full dosage; one pill a day in the mornings.
For New Year's we were invited by my wife parent's to stay at their house in the country. So, coincidentally, we were at their home from the 28th of December. Things were going fine, but by the evening of the 30th, my right knee started to hurt. I thought nothing of it and went to bed. The next morning I took my medicine, as usual, and, once again, by the evening I noticed that my right knee was really starting to hurt a lot.

The next morning was "Happy New Year!" We all got up and did the traditional Japanese New Year things that people here do; go to the shrine, eat rice cakes, visit family and relatives… Of course, I took my medicine again.

But darned if my right knee wasn't really hurting really badly that New Year's morning. It felt as if I had twisted my knee doing some sports but I hadn't done anything for the last few days except get out of bed. By 5 pm that night, my right knee was killing me. It had suddenly swollen up like a grapefruit and I just couldn't take the pain anymore so off to the emergency room at the local hospital I went.

It just so happens that, when I got to the hospital, there was a doctor who was a specialist on gout on duty and he attended to me. He said that what happened to me was a fairly common reaction of some people to the gout medicine I was taking. He used a syringe to pull about 200 milliliters of liquid out of my knee and gave me a bunch of painkillers. He also told me to stop taking the medicine and go back to my regular doctor and tell him what happened.

What a miserable New Year's Day that was!


Well, a few days later, I did go back to my doctor. He told me that he wanted me to take the same medicine, but only this time, he was going to give me another medicine to prevent the side effects of the first medicine! 


.....That's when I decided that there had to be a better way.....


That's when I went on a raw food diet. Today I am about 70% raw food. I feel like I am 17 years old now.

No joke. I want to and need to become 99% raw and am aiming for that goal.

At today's meeting with the doctor he told me that he needed to put a camera down my throat to see my tubes to discern exactly what is wrong. I don't have a problem with that at all. I do have a problem, though, with the 4 medicines that he was going to prescribe to me.

Look. I am the patient. He is the doctor, I have rights. So do you. Don't allow yourself to be railroaded into taking a bunch of drugs you don't want. 

I told my doctor that I wasn't interested in taking this drug cocktail that he was prescribing. He backed down.

Now, I will take the one minimum drug he wants me to take before swallowing the camera. That's OK. I can live with that.

I am not a doctor but this is my body. I refuse to take drugs just because my doctor thinks that's what is best.

I've had bad side-effects and even been in the emergency room because of these drugs. I won't do that anymore.

I am the patient and I am the customer. I pay the money. So are you. Never forget that.

If my doctor cannot convince me that these drugs are the best I can do, then I don't want them. Blindly following a doctor's advice is just plain stupid. Don't do it. It's your life and your body. If your doctor cannot explain why you need a certain regime or drug, then don't take it. 

I don't.

I suggest that you do the same. 

Admit the Worst Thing You've Ever Done and Be Happy

Most people have done some pretty bad things in their lives. Most people wouldn't admit the bad things they've done. I think that most people wouldn't believe the terrible and sick and pathetic things others have done in their lives before - all the while not wanting to admit their own evil deeds... 


But those admissions make great reading. 


Unless, of course, you are like someones prudish grandmother. In that case, tales of hair raising schemes and being chased by the police will just cause shock and disgust. Stories like that, when told to prudish "church-lady-types," are kind of like when W.C. Fields asked the old bitties who complained about his behavior, 


"Do any of you ladies have any empty gin bottles?" 


To which the insulted women replied, "Do we look like we drink gin?"


And W.C. Fields retorted, "OK, then. Do you have any empty vinegar bottles?"


W. C. Fields: "Don't say you can't swear off drinking. 
I've done it a thousand times."


I've done some pretty bad things in my life that I am ashamed of telling anyone. But today, for some reason, I've decided to admit some stuff because I feel that things aren't going as well as they should so maybe I need to get this stuff off of my shoulders. Think of this article as a sort of catharsis for Mike Rogers today.


I've done at least several very stupid things so far in my life that I have only admitted to just a few people because they are embarrassing. They are so embarrassing and so dumb that I've been reluctant to admit them before. 


Not that I didn't want to. I do want to admit my wrongs.  Why? Because I don't think you can be truly happy unless you admit your wrongs and your shortcomings and then move forward. Don't Catholics and Christians think this way, too? Aren't we supposed to ask for forgiveness?


Aren't we supposed to love ourselves first?


Not admitting bad things you have done is having skeletons in the closet. Maybe I am anal retentive, but I don't want any skeletons.


That's why I write a blog. I've been writing a blog, or writing for another blog, for nearly 8 years now. That's a pretty long time as far as blogger lifetimes go, I reckon.


I like writing these blogs and these blogs posts because they allow me to spill my guts and cleanse my soul. It's sort of like confession sometimes and I get to admit some of the bad things I've done to people before in an attempt to clear my conscious and, perhaps, start from a clean slate.


I've posted to this blog and others about stupid things I did and some of the bad things that happened to me. You know, they say "What goes around comes around!" So, I figure that if I tell the truth and admit my wrongs and shortcomings then good things will come back to me. It's worth the risk, no?


So, don't think I'm being magnanimous in admitting my wrongs. It's actually selfish. If I admit my wrongs, then maybe so many bad things won't happen to me or my family and friends. 


Or are these thoughts that I have the thoughts of someone suffering from delusions of grandeur?


All of us have things we'd like to hide. Especially if we are looking for a job.


Have you ever had the police pointing guns at your head and yelling for you to get down on the ground? I have. More than once. The first time I was only 17-years-old. Have you ever been arrested? I have. More than once. But I have never been convicted of a crime and have no criminal record (so don't tell me that there's no God!) I was never a criminal, per se, never stole anything or shoplifted or robbed or beat anyone or anything like what goes on today.... I was a prankster... My calling card was hijinks and playing tricks on people.


Have you ever drank so much that you couldn't walk? I have. Far too many times to count. I used to like drinking myself nearly blind. If you don't believe me, ask my friends. I'd get so drunk I couldn't hardly stand up (and being so drunk once that I actually forgot my own then 5-year-old like a piece of discarded luggage when I got off the train and walked away).


How about getting divorced twice and married three times? Yeah. Been there, done that. 


In Japan, a very conservative and proper society, people who have these experiences will usually never admit them publicly. I used to host a very popular FM radio show and admitted these things freely. That garnered me lots of fans. I even admitted to going into drug rehabilitation on the radio before and that in a country that will lock you up for possessing even a minuscule amount of marijuana. That was a shocker. The program's ratings skyrocketed.


The ratings skyrocketed because I believe that people were ready to hear from someone who wasn't perfect and had all the same flaws they did (I don't have perfect pearly white teeth, slicked back hair and a pink cadillac either).


My 5 weeks in drug rehab happened in the late nineties. Thanks to that experience, and my wife saving my life, I've been off drugs with no desire to do that ever again... Though I will admit that, looking back, drug rehab was a lot of fun and I met some of the wildest people there. 


Please refer to Drug Rehab for George from Lew Rockwell:



Like the time I put myself into drug rehabilitation for speed addiction. The little voice was right about interning myself — I just about had no choice. But darned if that little guy didn't change his mind and start telling me to plan an escape within the first few days of being there; Which is it? Get high or stay straight, make up your mind, will you?

Everyone else who found themselves trapped in drug rehab seemed to be hearing voices too. One day a guy, I'll call him "George," (not his real name) came up to me while I was secretly planning on tunneling out of the hospital complex using a tea-spoon I had stolen from the cafeteria to dig through concrete floor — à la that World War II movie The Great Escape (The little voice was also playing the theme song from that movie in my head for special effect). George sat down next to me, looked around to see if anyone was spying on us and then he whispered, "Are you a foreigner?" Sheesh! Duh! This is Japan. Do I look like a foreigner? I answered, "Yes." He said, "I thought so." He looked around again and then he went on to explain to me how he spoke to God and that a scar — shaped like a star — on middle of his forehead proved that he was the Chosen One. Well, he did have weird star shaped scar on his head and it's not often that I get to meet the second coming of Christ so I listened in. He explained that they had him interned because he knew too much — and had too much power. I would find out later that they interned him because his mom put him in there. It seems that he would wake up in the mornings and pour Vodka straight onto his cornflakes and eat that for breakfast and then not go to school — Funny that. I guess he'd been doing this since he was in 5th grade. When I met him in the hospital he was 18 or so.

Later on George explained to me that, even though they had never met, the heavy metal rock band Mettalica had written a song about him. I think the song title was Master of Puppets (makes sense). The song was something about George being the second — or would it be the third — I didn't bother to ask — coming of Christ. I told George that if he really were The Chosen One, then he could just wiggle his nose like Samantha in Bewitched (Even though I liked I Dream of Jeannie better) and get us out of there. But he couldn't do it. Damn! And I had my hopes up there for a minute, too. You know, usually I'm a pretty good judge of character, but George had me fooled. What a big liar. Oh well, back to the spoon escape plan, I thought.

Now, a lot of you folks reading this might think, "Why did Mike sit there and listen to this nutcase?" And I might have to agree. But let me defend myself by saying that I was in a hospital full of screw-balls, so George's conversation was just as interesting — if not more than — anyone else's. I had nowhere to go, so I'd listen intently on what George would have to say and usually wound up thinking the same thing over and over, "How in the world did I wind up in this hospital full of these crazy people? Get me out of here!"

That was over 14 years ago. I don't do drugs anymore. There's no way in the world I'm ever going back to play my part as Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest again. By the way, at least the hospital in the Nicholson movie had background music playing all the time. Mine didn't, yet we still had two or three people dancing all day in the hallway all the time.

The other reason I don't do drugs anymore is that drugs make you forget what you were doing. It was quite a shock one-day when my then 12-year-old daughter walked up to me holding my speed pipe and said "Daddy? What's this?" "It's my, er, asthma medicine, Stay away from it." 

I know she didn't believe me.

But even though rehab-hospital was a living hell, I'm glad I went to that hospital. You know why? Well, at the time I hated it. But now, looking back, it was a great (and funny memory) — but never again. 

The other thing about it that I am thankful for is that I was put through a rigorous method to break my addiction at the most famous rehab hospital in all of Asia — Matsumoto Clinic. And I did it. The doctor told me leaving Matsumoto and never returning was as tough as getting into the world famous Tokyo University and graduating. He said that the chance of retuning to drug rehab was about 96% for first-timers. If they re-enter after the first time, the chances for a full recovery are 1 in 10,000. Three times in and out of drug rehab means that the patient will usually spend the rest of their lives going in and out of the hospital (usually in secret). So now you know where guys like Rush Limbaugh most probably go when they claim to be "on vacation."


....I never went back, even once.

I hope that the above passage doesn't shock dear reader too much. There's lots more about that place that I will write about someday. Also, someday I will work up the courage to write about events leading up to drug rehab that will really blow your mind...

Like the time I rode my motorcycle ala Hell's Angels through the double front glass doors at a big building in the middle of the night and revved the engine in the lobby as I sat upon the bike waking up the entire neighborhood.

But not today. I'm saving that one up for a movie script.


1/2 of my reason for living... I see that I need to 
take a photo with all 4 of my kids and us together too!

I'm not perfect, and neither are you. None of us are. That's why we need to ask for forgiveness from our god and from our loved ones. We've all done stupid things and made mistakes. We've all done things we regret and hurt people we loved... Every time I do this, I feel better about myself and more positive about me and my life.

Admitting these things, like an alcoholic admitting that they have a drinking problem, is the first step towards a cure. And that first step is the first step towards true happiness.

Pray or meditate for a moment on a past wrong. Give a friend or a loved one a hug or a phone call and say, "Remember the time?...." and ask forgiveness. 

Today is a wonderful day. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, you can spread your wings and shed some weight from your shoulders but just being honest and open and saying "sorry" (if even just to yourself).    

It's an easy way to spread love, share the light and to sooth the mortal soul.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Save Your Life With a Blender


Are you or your parents feeling poorly? Your health declining? Is your stomach constantly messed up? You have have all sorts of ailments like high-blood pressure or gout? 

Would you like to feel twenty years younger? Would you like to help your ailing parents feel better, even just a little bit? Well, you've come to the right place.

When I went to see my dad in hospice the other day, he looked like he was going to die at any minute. Around his eyes were dark and sunken. His cheeks looked the same. Throw in the oxygen tubes he had running in his nose and he looked like he could have keeled over and died at any moment.

That wasn't my dad. That guy near death was some guy I didn't even know.

My father was much worse than the last time I saw him three months ago. At that time, I went to see him right after he had been released from intensive care. We visited him and, within a week, he was up and walking around and feeling much better.

This time, on the first night, as I said, he looked like he was next to death. Besides an oxygen tank, he had a walker and couldn't safely make it by himself from the bedroom to the living room. He couldn't put on his clothes by himself nor could he even button his shirt.

By the time I left 7 days later, he was standing in the kitchen, without a walker, and was cooking his own biscuits and gravy (which, to my chagrin, he laced with salt before eating - as he has always done).

What was the secret to this miraculous conversion? Well, you can bet it wasn't because of the cocktail of chemicals he was being given by the doctors nor his SAD diet (consisting of heated up canned food). I believe that his quick recovery was due to my insistence that he drink one glass of raw vegetable and fruit juice before every meal. Then he can eat whatever he wants.

You don't even need a juicer. A regular old household blender is plenty suitable for making your own fruit and vegetable juice. Just throw in some celery, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, what-have-you with some bottled water then blend at high speed.

After that, add fruits to sweeten it up.


People will always tell you to eat healthy and cut down on processed foods and foods filled with chemicals and salt and other additives. That's obvious.

Everyone knows that eating healthy is better for you than eating the diet which is now referred to as, "SAD" (Standard American Diet).

If you were to list the factors that increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, intestinal disorders – just about any illness – the standard American diet has them all:
  • High in animal fats
  • High in unhealthy fats: saturated, hydrogenated
  • Low in fiber
  • High in processed foods
  • Low in complex carbohydrates
  • Low in plant-based foods
The striking fact is that cultures that eat the reverse of the standard American diet – low fat, high in complex carbohydrates, plant-based, and high in fiber – have a lower incidence of cancer and coronary artery disease (CAD). What's even more sad is that countries whose populations can afford to eat the healthiest disease-preventing foods don't. The United States has spent more money on cancer research than any country in the world, yet the American diet contributes to the very diseases we are spending money to prevent.

Yes. SAD is poison. But, as with people like my dad, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He will still eat his mash potatoes and gravy and his steak and potatoes, but at least with a glass of homemade Frappe (juice) he fills his stomach up first and gets those raw veggies his body so desperately needs. And, if he has a glass of that before every meal, he won't eat as much salty chemical laced foods.

It's not the best solution but it is a practical one that worked wonders for me and my father.

It might work wonders for your too. Try it.

For more on raw food and the benefits of drinking raw juice and eating raw foods, check the Live Food Factor.

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