Hello, long time no see. It's been almost two weeks, hasn't it? I was so busy these past two weeks, and while I wanted to update the entries here, my mind just didn't function well enough to generate some English sentences when I was dead sleepy. Last weekend there was some kind of event, and the total sleep I got from Thursday night to Sunday night was probably about 15 hours. It was hellish, but I had fun :)
Since it's November now, that's why I decided to come back again. Hopefully I can keep up writing something every day, but... you know, it's just hard to keep it up >_<;
Yesterday was Halloween. I've never trick or treated other houses, but it was nice to see bunch of little children dressed in costumes and went "trick or treat~!" Some of them were little Pikachu's. There were some big kids that covered themselves with cardboard boxes (which wasn't so cool), but regardless, they got plenty of candies from my household.
Though. Halloween. It doesn't necesarily bring me pleasant memory. The biggest memory I have on Halloween is about this Japanese senior high school student shot to death several years ago. He went to the best high school in my prefecture, and it just make me sad that the fact US allows people to possess guns.
Of course, I do have pleasant memory, too. I think it was one of the earlier year of my US life. Several friends of mine and I got together and curved pumpkins, baked pumpkin pies, etc. While pumpkin was molded by the actual Halloween day, it was still a nice experience I had. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to curve pumpkin this year, but hopefully I can do it next year.
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November 1, 2007
Came Back Alive?
October 18, 2007
Azalea
Azalea - 躑躅 - つつじ I participate in blog ranking in Japan.
Something hard for me to memorize in English is flower names. Not that I know all kinds of flower names in Japanese, but at least I know common flower names. In English, on the other hand, I'm so clueless unless those English names are already popular in Japan.
One day when I first moved to the current address, I met a grandma from the neighborhood, and she was telling me how whoever planted our flowers were clueless about flowers. She said something like azaleas should be planted more in the shade, and roses should be at where azalea is now. Back then, I was so clueless and I didn't even know what azalea is. I was just nodding along her talk.
After while, I was checking out all the plants in my house, and found that most of azaleas were dying from the strong sun and not enough water. Ack!
I started to give them extra water once in a while, but still not good enough - I'm very forgetful. In the end, I lost four of them. One is totally dead, the other three... I hope their roots are still alive, but I don't know, maybe someone who's familiar with plants can give me some guidance?
Though, other azaleas "somewhat" survived, and even though they're not in their best condition, they bloomed! It's amazing considering those azaleas were half dead at the heigh of summer.
Aren't they nice? The green is not its greenest, but still bloomed!
I remember when I was little, I often took azalea flowers and sucked its nectar with bunch of other neighbor kids, but I don't think I can do that any more... They're too precious... :P Hopefully I can see azalea flowers every year from now.
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October 17, 2007
Blog Action Day Wrap
Wrap - wrap up - まとめ.
http://blogactionday.org/
The statistic is posted. Seeing how many people participated in the action gave me shiver.20,603 Blog Participated
23,327 Blog Posts (Google Blog Search)
14,631,038 RSS Readers19 of Technorati's Top 100 blogs
* 3. Boing Boing
* 6. LifeHacker
* 8. Mashable
* 10. Daily Kos
* 16. Problogger
* 17. Treehugger
* 18. Official Google Blog
* 20. Read/Write/Web
* 32. GigaOm
* 33. DoshDosh
* 35. LifeHack.org
* 36. CopyBlogger
* 37. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
* 39. Valleywag
* 44. Telegraph Blogs
* 70. ZenHabits
* 86. Explore Vox
* 87. Download Squad
* 98. Pronet Advertising"Blog Action Day" was the top Technorati search term AND tag for the day
The Blog Action Day story was not only featured across the blogosphere, but was also picked up across all forms of traditional media from TV stations in Greece to radio stations in Spain to newspapers in New Zealand.
When I googled on "Blog Action Day" for Japanese pages, there were 11,700 pages found. Whoa! Isn't it amazing? I hope I will still be around to participate next year, and hopefully Japanese translation (by anyone, really) will make it on the main site!
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October 16, 2007
English-Adapted Japaense Words
orz orz orz
I packed my lunch today, but forgot to bring it.
There are many Japanese words out there that were adapted to English. Sushi is a famous one; there are miso-soup (sometime I say "miso-soup" when I'm talking in Japanese, which sounds very odd >_<; ), takoyaki, okonomiyaki, etc. Food is almost always an international language, isn't it?
And there are Japanese cultures imported to English language. Manga, anime, etc. Once I went to an American bookstore and asked if they have English translated Japanese comicbooks. The store clerk looked puzzled for a second, and asked me "you mean... manga?" Manga! The word "manga" is more common than "Japanese comic books" now. That was very strange experience for me. I guess they see manga and American comicbooks two different thing. The same thing goes to "anime." Animation is a big genre, and "anime" means Japanese animation/cartoon. I wonder if dictionaries will eventually have "manga" and "anime" listed with such meanings...
Then, there are stuff like "orz." I think it is originated from 2ch.net, but when I visit English BBS/forums, I see those stuff often now. Urban Dictionary says:It is a Japanese based emoticon of a man pounding his head on the floor.
The o is the head.
The r is the arms.
The z is the legs.
Used to symbolize the emotion of frustration.
Weird one would be "desu." Afaik, this term was spread from Rozen Maiden, when Suiseiseki frequently used it in spite of her rude language.japanese for 'it is', often said at the end of sentences to seem cute or unwitting.
I went to the store and bought some milk, desu.
Very weird experience, indeed... You see "desu" is used in 2ch-like BBS, often by trolls.
Still, I'm somewhat proud of Japan, for having such influence in the world. I love that country... ^^
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October 15, 2007
TOEIC?
日本ブログ村に登録してあるブログタイトル、 Ficus Passiflora ではなく Passiflora だけだったことにいまさら気づく。訂正。名前の由来はまた後ほど。ちなみに「英語の日記」の URL が english_diary ではなく english_dairy になってるのは周知？昔この綴りについてクラスメートとケンカしたことがあったよなぁ。さっさと辞書引けばよかったのに。
As I mentioned in the past entry, I've been reading other people's blogs, and noticed that quite many people are focused on taking TOEIC.
I've never taken TOEIC, and the last I took any kind of English-related test was back in 1999, when I took TOEFL to transfer to 4 year college. I think I got 550 PBT, barely enough to be admitted to the 4 year college I wanted to go (phew!).
So it's been, what, about seven years since I measured my English skills. I can gurantee that my English didn't improve at all when I was in college, but upon graduation, I started to do some translation for people, and since people proofread my translation for free and corrected my English, my writing skill (or should I say, grammar?) has improved quite a lot.
So... Even though I know it's pretty worthless for me to take TOEIC at this moment, it got me wondering how much did I improve on my English skills.
But then... it'll cost me $65 and only happens 12 times a year? And the closest for me is at San Jose State? While SJSU is very close from my work place, the parking is hellish there I heard, so suddenly I lost my motivation... ... orz. If it were something like TOEFL, a test I can take anytime at more convenient location, then I probably would've taken it for that cost.
Oh, there's a "Speaking and Writing" TOEIC, too. In its contents, you will have toWrite an opinion essay
I'll give you a round of applause to whoever accomplish to "write an opinion essay" in "60 seconds of speaking time." ... XD
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October 14, 2007
The Day After Blog Action Day
I was supposedly writing about environment yeseterday, but it was pretty busy day, so I missed it. Or, maybe I can say I go by Hawaiian time, so I'm still on the day I'm supposed to write about it.
When talking about environment, I always think of trashes. The first time I remember talking about it was when I was about 3th or 4th grade. We learned about the subject in social science class, and each student were to make a class newspaper about it. I think I wrote about how nearby community pool uses heat from burning the trash to keep their water warm. I also wrote about how burning plastic (I think. I don't remember any more) will create dioxin, and it's very bad for our body. The word "dioxin" was frequently used then probably because of Việt-chan and Đức-chan.
So about trash. In Japan, this subject seems to be very big. When I went back to my parents' house couple of years ago, I tried to throw trashes how I used to when I was still in Japan, but my mother kept yelling at me: "No, no! Don't throw that in that basket! This goes here!" There were tons of way to separate the trash according to their type. In the end, I got fed up and just left the trashes in the kitchen, so my mother could throw them away from me.
In the States, on the other hand, separating trash doesn't seem to be so big of subject. We still do separate trashes in some area. The place I live now, San Jose, separate them to can/glasses, papers, and other trashes. Though, when I was in college, San Luis Obispo, all the trash went into one trash container. The place I live now, Palo Alto, has only one garbage can for recyclables. Scary, isn't it?
I thought so, too, until I found out from my ex-roommate (an elementary school teacher) that there are actually people who work at garbage disposal facility to sort out garbages. Quoting from City of San Jose, Garbage & Recycling page:At the MRF, the truck driver empties the recyclables onto a conveyer belt. A system of belts, screens, electromagnets, and blasts of air separate paper, plastics, glass, aluminum, and other materials. While much of the system is automated, workers help separate certain materials by hand.
While this is quite a lot of work on city, but at least I'm relieve to hear/read about it. At least we are recycling something here. Though, probably it is better if each family separates recyclables according to their type and put in each bag or something, so the sorting would be much easier.
Oh yeah, one good (?) thing in the States. We get charged extra 5 cents or so for recycling fee per a can or a bottle. Then, once we collect them and bring them to certain facility (usually near supermarkets), we actually get some cash back. I think it is a good way to make people recycle. Most of the time, homeless people collect cans and bottles to do this type of recycling, but still, it's better than nothing... :)
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October 12, 2007
Tracking Comments
I started to go visit random blogs through Blog-mura. It's a nice experience to read what someone with same background (well, sort of) wrote in English. Though, one question... How do people keep track of comments? I try to leave comments to wherever I visit, but how would I know if that person ever replies to me or not? I would probably remember three or four blogs, but anything more than that, I bet I'll miss here and there.
In Blogspot/Blogger, there is an option to subscribe to RSS for the comments, but subscribing to RSS just for comments? Uhm... :S
If anyone out there knows a good way to track the comments, please let me know!
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October 11, 2007
Difference - Parking Fee
I was visiting natsuwo-beer-san's blog and while talking to him in comment, he got me thinking...
In Japan, parking is free during weekdays and isn't free on weekends. In the States, I believe most of the place that charges for parking (ie. downtown area, China town, etc) only charges on the weekdays and not on the weekends.
Why?
Here's my theories. (I thought of it too much and got multiple theories. I have too much time on my hands DDD: )
Theory Number 1.
In Japan, people use public transportation to commute during weekdays, so not many people would drive to shopping malls = less car = people don't have worry about parking spaces. During weekends, probably family will go out using "my car" (is it a too old word?), thus, there might not be enough parking, so shopping malls charge people and that'd encourage people to take more public transportation? But then, probably public transportation cost more anyway...
Theory Number 2.
Basically the same theory as theory number one, except that the shopping malls charge people so that they can gain extra $$ on the weekends when more people would drive their cars. They just don't charge on the weekdays so that people think "oh that shopping mall is being nice!" or something.
Theory Number 3.
Thinking from the States' stand point. On the weekdays, everyone drives thier car to work. I mean, almost every single person out there with driver's license would drive to work/school. Since there are too many people, cities/organizations charge people fees so that people would think of carpooling to their destination. On the weekend, on the other hand, not many people would go to work, so that's covered, and even if they are to go somewhere by car, they'll most likely to carpool with their family and/or friends.
I'm certain that my theory number 3 is correct. At many places, parking is free after 6pm on the weeknds, until morning, maybe until 7am or something. Exactly the non-work hour, isn't it? This is not the case, though, if it comes to amusement parks. They (over-) charges all the time. Oh the only place I remember that doesn't charge is Disney Downtown at Anaheim. I think the parking is free for first couple of hours or something. Probably because everyone goes there to buy stuff, so they're not losing any money...
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Blog Action Day
Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:
I got to know about it through LiveJournal, where I keep regular diary.
From Blog Action Day! website:On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
It doesn't seem like Japanese translation is listed, so here you go:
10 月 15 日に、世界中のブロガーが集まって私たちにとって大切なこと - 環境 - を皆が意識するように試みます。参加者は、個々のブログにそれぞれの形で環境について書きます。私たちの目的は皆がより良い未来に向けてみんなが話しはじめることです。
ブログ・アクションデーは参加することに意義があります。つまり、皆さんの協力が必要です。参加するには、以下の三つの方法があります。
もし参加していただけるのなら、いくつのブログが参加しているか、そしてどれぐらいの読者がいるのかを集計したいので、 ここ にあるフォームに記入してください。ブログのタイトルと URL 以外の情報は公開しません。
参加するのに一番良い方法です。記事は環境についてのことなら何でも結構です。
例えば、プログラミングやテクノロジーについてのブログをお持ちでしたら、環境のために使われたアプリケーションについて書いてもいいし、自分のオフィスをどうやって環境にとって良いオフィスにするとか、紙をどうやったら無駄遣いしなくてすむかとか、テクノロジーがどうやって環境を救うのかとか、或いはもうテクノロジー関係なしで環境について書いてしまっても良いです。
ほかには、例えばレストランについてのブログをお持ちでしたら、キッチン内でどうやって環境に良い事をしているとか、食べ物のパッケージングについて、環境破壊していない農業からの農作物を使っているか、などということを書いたりもできます。
一番大事なのが、いつも書いている調子で書くことです。読者さんたちはあなたのブログが好きで訪問しているはずですので、いきなり調子が変わった記事を書いたりしなくても、いつもの調子で、でも環境を念頭に置いて書いてくだされば幸いです。
ゴールはもっとたくさんの人に環境について考え、議論し、疑問に思って話しあってもらうことです。
一日の収入は微々たる物かもしれませんが、皆の収入を合わせたら大きな力になります。ブログ・アクションデーのオフィシャル・チャリティー機関が ここ に掲載されています。また、自分が知っているチャリティーに寄付してもかまいません。ブログ・アクションデー自体は寄付金を受け付けていないので、直接チャリティー機関と連絡を取ってください。
少しでも多くの人がブログ・アクションデーについて知ることが出来れば幸いです。もし宣伝していただけるのなら、 ここ にあるバナーをぜひ使ってください。もしデザインに特別な要求があれば、 連絡 してください。
Blog Title = ブログタイトルを記入してください。
Blog URL = ブログのリンクを記入してください。
Approximate RSS Subscriber Number = おおよその数でいいので、平均的なブログの訪問者を記入してください。この情報は公開されません。ブログ・アクションデーのことがどれぐらいの人々に伝わるか推定するのに使われます。もし読者数がわからない場合は 0 と記入してください。
Your Email = 電子メールアドレスを記入してください。電子メールは二回送られます。一回目はブログ・アクションデー 2007 の二日前に、そして二回目は 2008 年の 8 月ごろ、来年の日程が決定したらお知らせします。
Are you human? Please type '1210' = 機械によるスパムじゃないかの確認です。半角英数字で 1210 と記入してください。
Would you participate with me, please?
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Jewish Community Center
There is an empty lot on my way to work. Actually, it's been sitting there for a while but I didn't notice it because it was hidden among trees and other stuff. Now that I guess they finished contracting and other arrangements for it, they took down all the trees and surroundings, so now I can see really huge empty lot.
On the corner of the empty lot, there was a KFC. That was the only KFC around my area, but it was bought out by Jewish Community Center, or so I assumed. One night after that KFC closed down, my fiance and I had crave for KFC, so we googled up the next nearest KFC, and went to satisfy our crave. There, we chatted with the store manager (or rather, complaining about the other KFC has been shut down), and he told me that JCC paid extra $93,000 on top of what the place worth so that they can get that piece of land. Heck, it's not even that big of lot. But $93,000 for it? It could well be the double of what it's worth. When my fiance and I heard about it, we couldn't blame the other KFC. I would gladly sell it for that price.
Good thing is, that KFC will build another KFC across the street, so hopefully by next year, I'll have a KFC again to go on the way to work/home. Then again, how often do we go KFC? I bet we just wanted KFC because that one closed down :x
But this got me thinking. Jewish Community Center. Built by Jewish. It's a gym that costs $50.00 monthly membership fee. (Pretty expensive I'd say, considering I only need to pay $20.00 a year for my 24 membership.) I was kind of thinking it was just another stupid streo-type that Jewish have money, but maybe that's true after all. Two of my roommates belong to JCC in Foster City, and they've been telling me it is very clean with high-spec gym machines.
Uhm... I lost track of my thought. I guess I wanted to say that if the fascility is so high standard, people won't mind paying a lot of money to use that fascility. A good (?) business model. Maybe. I don't know. Never mind. x_x;
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October 10, 2007
Autumn's Welcome
I like the word autumn better than fall for some reason. It sounds more poetic, and autumn is all about... art.
When I left work yesterday, I really felt autumn is here. Actually I was feeling it's getting near since couple days ago. When I feel autumn is near, I feel like creating something, and this blog is probably one of them. I'm planning to start on knitting and sewing as well. Photographing might be good, too; the color is so pretty but sad, and it'd be nice to capture them in still pictures.
Last Sunday, Oct 7, I took my relatives to Standford University and we walked around. Sky was very blue on that day without even one cloud. The word "秋晴れ," fine autumn day, would fit perfectly well. It'd be a nice "体育の日," so-called Health Sports Day in Japan. Many Japanese school would have sports festival on that day.
I kind of miss the drastic change of spring, summer, fall (eh, fall... I guess I'm used to American English after all), and winter back in Japan. Those changes in seasons are beautiful. Here in California, the weather is weird. Sometime it suddenly becomes hot. Last year, it became so hot that I couldn't really stay at my home, so I ended up coming to work. But then very next week, it became so cold that I had to wear long threeves... What the heck...? After that, I keep both summer and winter clothes out all the time, so that I can wear whatever depends on the weather. One good thing, though, in California, it only rains at night for some reason. Even if it is raining in the morning, the sky would clear out by noon.
Autumn is also the season that we start experiencing frequent rain. It rained once last week, it rained again yesterday. Soon, we have enough rain that we'll be able to ski up in Lake Tahoe! (When it rains here, it snows over there.) I can't wait.
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October 9, 2007
English
Fiance vs fiancee. I always get mix up. Fiance is guy. I have a fiance. I'm a girl. Oh this sounds so ridiculus. Spelling always gave me headache in the past. For the longest time, I couldn't distinguish glass and grass. I think I had trouble with that until eight or so years in my US life. How did I overcome that problem? It was quite easy. GRasses are GReen. Sigh. If I were to teach English in Japan in the future, (which is never,) I'll make sure to teach my students that trick. I still have problem with some other words like peak vs peek, but those I just wing it. And it works.
Foreign language is hard to learn for Japanese. English is no exception. Now that I go to many English forums and sites, I'm amazed at how many other non-English native speakers can use English. Belgians, Indonesians, French, German, Hebrews, etc... Before I always made excuse for my bad English grammar/spellings, but after finding it out, I'm pretty much ashamed. What depressed me more was the fact that most of them I got to know are much younger than me - they are in their high school or college age. Some of them are good enough to proofread whatever I wrote in English.
So, what's the difference? Japanese learn English, too. I thought Japanese students' English grammar is pretty good.
... I guess the difference is English taught in Japan is too focused in "entrance exam grammar." Or maybe I can call it "textbook grammar." They're not really useful in real life. I remember when I was in high school, I had to memorize the entire text in order to do well in the English exams. For me being not good at memory, I almost always had failing grade. What's funny is that in the last exam of high school, an "ability test," I did perfectly well. I did so well that I think I was the third in the entire grade. That was the only exam that didn't require to memorize the textbook.
I don't really know how they teach English in other countries. In European countries, they probably have native English speakers as their teacher. In Japan, too, have native speakers as English teachers, but most of them teach "oral communciation," mainly focused on speaking. (I actually did well on that class.)
If... those foreign teachers actually teach Japanese kids grammar and such, and teach them how to write essays in English (I seriously had problem with that!), maybe overall level of English in Japan would be higher...
Don't give up; keep writing diaries/blogs in English, people!
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Click a day will motivate me to write more.
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Girls Talk
I always wonder if it's supposed to be Girl's Talk, Girls' Talk, or Girls Talk. Anyway.
My period has been irregular ever since it started. Sometime it came every other month, sometime in one month, sometime in three monthes. Though, maybe after 15 years since it started, finally I think I got a grasp of when it's starting. Couple days before my period starts, I get severe shoulder ache, which leads to headache, and constipation. Last time when I had period, it was so severe that I had to lay down most of the time, and even used salonpas to relieve the pain around my shoulder.
Why do girls get PMS, premenstrual syndrome? I always thought PMS is a Japanese equivalent of 生理痛, but I guess not. It's premenstrual, and that's exactly what I'm getting right now.
I remember once reading that we get PMS when you're stressed. Maybe. Now when I read more articles on the net, it says you get PMS when you're lacking calsium and magnesium. So... drink milk and... I don't know, eat food listed here? Before when I got PMS, I thought I'm lacking iron and thus getting the pain, so I often ate chocolate. Though, one of the website says it's better to stay away from food that contains cafein, and chocolate is listed as one of them. Ouch. I was eating chocolate bread at the very moment when I read that article, and my motion literally stopped.
I just hope this pain will go away soon. I got black sesame drink from one of my coworkers a while ago, so maybe I'll go drink that instead of eating more of chocolate bread.
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Rankings and Webrings
I don't know how much of these rankings and webrings are popular among non-Japanese bloggers. For almost my entire blogging experience, I've been using LiveJournal, and they are one biggle community by itself that has almost no relationship with any other blog sites. It is rather amazing since its parent comapny, Six Apart, owns other blogging sites/tools such as Movable Type, TypePad, Vox, etc. We once had a talk with higher-ups when we wanted to improve our Japanese translation rate. They told us that we can ask Six Apart Japan (or something like that) for translation help, or at least share the glossary list. I wonder what happened to it in the end.
Either way, back to the topic.
So I registered to Blog-mura ranking for English Diary (is this a diary? but I don't see any other fitting category) and joined english2diary webrings. Let's see if anyone would ever come visit here... ... DD:
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October 8, 2007
Personality
I'm almost always very calm, and really - never fangirls of any sort. When I see something very exciting, I just enjoy it to myself and... that's it. I'm a closet fangirl.
When seeing fellow fans of my favorite manga series, most of the time they're super duper hyper type of fans. Either that, or over-analyzing fanboys.
Is there any manga fan out there who are... moderate fans? Or maybe - they do exist, but they're all closet fanboys/fangirls that never express any opinions, thus I don't see them around. Probably.
When I first started to contact with my bosses of Anime Expo, they were a little afraid that I'd be too much of fangirly type. In email, I did act like one. I think of my own personality a boring one, and naturally the mood can be not-so-cheering, so I thought it'd be nice to be cheery/fangirly in those festivity type of place. Later my manager told me that he was glad that I was not a fangirl type of person, and said that he would be glad to have me next year, too. (Only that I might not be able to attend next year, depends on my wedding schedule.)
So when I'm "analyzing" my own personality from third person point of view, ... do I want to change my personality?
I know I had the exact same problem ten years ago. I remember writing in my diary that I want to be more outgoing when I come to the States. For some reason, I always have this mind set to think I can easily change my personality when the environment changes.
Sometime it was true - I did act a little bit more cheery during Anime Expo. I was a little more social then. It only works for short term though. Maybe it's like having some sort of drug to hype myself up. Heh.
I'd better sleep before I write some more stupid stuff.
Making Use of Cucumbers
My coworker has been giving me a lot of Japanese cucumbers lately. After getting two or three of them almost every other day, and if you're the only one eating them, you'll eventually run out of how to eat cucumbers, let aside the fact that these cucumbers are organic, thus they rot very fast.
So what can I use for cucumbers?
There's a normal way - eat. I once dressed them with mozuku, which is what my mom often did back in home. I didn't like it back then, but after not eating her cooking for so long time, it did make me nostalgic and I appreciated the flavor. Other days, I made Bang Bang Ji - a supposedly-Chinese dish, with strips of boiled chicken breasts on top of cucumbers with special sauce. This was pretty yummy and I made it several times.
Another way to use it is for beauty. I don't know if it's true or not - but if you slice them and put them on your eyes, it's very soothing. Now that I think about it, there are some beauty products like that exists. Even in elementary school's science project back in Japan, we cut cucumber vines and collected cucumber water, and used it as beauty water of some sort (for mostly mothers).
Different coworker of mine asked me what I'm holding today, and when I told him they're Japanese cucumbers, he told me to try making cucumber drink. Just slice them and leave them in water for overnight, then add some lime and drink it. Pretty good, he said.
If anyone out there is reading this entry and actually know other healthy ways to make a good use of cucumbers, please comment and let me know.
