Greetings and salutations,

I am OGWanKenobi. Actually, I had an esteemed co-worker many moons ago who used to call me that. He might have been making fun, but I liked the name because it reminded me of the apparent link between StarWars and the Japanese history and culture. StarWars appropriates the name "Jedi", which is similar in sound to the Japanese "jidai-geki" samurai period films. I am part-Japanese on my father's side and he came from two samurai families. Samurai were feudal servants, who gave military service to a noble and had certain hereditary rights. Therefore, my appeal to the screen name "OGWanKenobi".

• Having just googled "OGWanKenobi", I feel compelled to add: To the disappointment of some, the screen name and I have nothing to do with cannabis or marijuana. I’ve never even seen it. But I once met someone, who knows someone, who had a sister, whose best friend’s cousin, ran into someone at a grocery store, who had heard of someone, who saw it.

Among those with Japanese heritage, I am considered a "sansei" or “third generation”. That is a child of a child who was foreign born to Japanese parents. My father was born in a Japanese internment camp during WWII, but registered as a foreign born Japanese citizen. The internment camp was not in the United States, other Allied countries had them too (but under worse conditions than the US). My father's family was living outside of Japan when WWII broke out. They were sending material aid back to Japan (via the local postal service), so it was inevitable that they would eventually be imprisoned at some point during the war. I may comment more about this in the future, but I will move-on for now.

My Favorite One-Liners

I’m a big fan of “Dad jokes”. Not jokes about fathers, but corny jokes that are typically lame and repeated by fathers…like me. Otherwise, I have a deep respect for comedians who can have me rolling on the floor without using profanity or resorting to sexual innuendo.

• On the other hand, you have different fingers
• I once considered changing my name to Hilton to match my towels
• I never knew the meaning of the word fear…so I bought a dictionary
• These are not the droids you’re looking for…
• I once heard the sound of one hand clapping
• Death is hereditary

Life

Recently, I’ve felt as though I have learned a lifetime's worth of lessons in raising two adopted boys. I have two wonderful sons ages 3 and 6. Raising children is not easy for parents, but it is even more difficult for the adopted child. They go through real trauma in adjusting to their new situation in life, of which they have little control over...a real lesson in loss and grief.

• I enjoy humor…a lot. Consequently I tend to smile quite a bit. I think I will a happy old guy in my retirement years.
• I sometimes compete with my sons on who is the silliest.
• I used to practice Epee (fencing), play Kendo (Japanese fencing) and other martial arts (4 hours a day), not so much now. But I do show my son’s a few tricks every so often.
• My wife and I used to go pier and bay fishing quite a bit in the middle of the night. But not so much now...maybe when the kids get older.
• My faith is who I am. I go to Mass at least three times a week. For non-Catholics, the Mass is central act of worship (also known as the Divine Liturgy or Liturgy or Sacrifice of Thanksgiving or Heaven on Earth). I used to go six or seven times a week, but I had a change in schedule.

Career

I have an MBA with a concentration in Finance and an undergraduate degree in Finance as well. However, most of my nearly 20 years of professional experience has been in Information Technology. In my professional career, I've been a technician, administrator, engineer, manager, director and executive in a multi-national corporation. I put myself out to pasture quite early…meaning that I chose management and stopped being hands-on early in my career. Hey, I was around during Y2K. At the moment, I am under-employed. Since losing my full-time job, I've been doing contract work in IT and tutoring college finance.
Current Plans:

1. Merge my professional background in Information Technology with my academic background in Finance...maybe FinTech or crypto currencies or both.
2. Open up a retail coffee shop. Now this has been on my mind for the past ten years or so. I would like nothing else than to operate a coffee shop and live in the country raising my children and some goats, chickens, cows and maybe a couple horses.

Social Media

• I can barely spell “The Facebook” and I think I may have around five followers.
• However, I have over 1,300 followers on LinkedIn. I think a big portion of those “followers” are vendors who have not realized I have lost my corporate influence.
• I have four followers on Twitter.

Some Future Blog Topics

In the future I intend to write about:

• Business and finance
• Information Technology
• Progress on my coffee shop
• Life and religion

Smile, stay happy and be filled with joy!

Thank you all!