A parcel

Yesterday, I got a parcel from my mom.
She send me lots of food such as dry noodles, retort pouches, round donuts (Okinawan donuts), and some warm cloth like a jersey, a cape, a neck-warmer, foot-warmer.
...The mother's present is always warm.

What kind of bird?

Today, I saw one kind of birds which I've never seen.
There were four black birds flying together in a cloudy sky 20 ~ 30 m ( about 66 ~ 99 feet) above and the color of them appeared black. They were very similar to crows. But there were some differences between them. First I realized the size difference. They were much bigger than crows. Then the shape of their tail (?) . They all had clear fan shaped tail which was also bigger than crows. But the most different part was their calling sound. It was like a eagle or hawk calling.
From these differences, they are clearly not crows. They may be a kind of eagles... but I don't really know. So, if you know about them, please write a comment.
Anyway, it was very interesting to see those birds.

Math

After I started to study Mathematics in English, I felt that it is really a subject which mainly developed in the Western culture.
I feel so, because I can understand many rules of Math more easily by studｙing it in English than in Japanese. One reason of this could be the word order. Japanese has almost the opposite word order from English. We make a sentence in this order; subject, object, then verb. This system could be not suite for explaining Math.

Yesterday, I went to a friend(Japanese)'s apartment and spend whole night for reading comics. The total hours for reading would be 24 hours!! I think I'm little strange.

Firefox -- my new web browser

The day before yesterday, I installed Firefox, a web browser.
Then, I started to use it from yesterday. It's great!! It downloads pages much much faster than Internet Explorer, and from yesterday, I haven't seen any popup ad! I also like the tab system for pages. (I like the name "Firefox" too! It's cool.) Only thing I wanna request or want to find a way was to move folders in bookmark freely. I wanted to place a personal-tool-folder at the top, but I couldn't do it. My PC is still little strange, so it may be because of this.

Kindness

I sometimes think myself as not so kind.
Today, when I was in a bus, a blind person was getting on the bus, then, he was searching a closest seat to the front door. But, at that time, I was sitting on the seat. I should've moved to the other seat at the instant he got on, but I hesitated for foe seconds, because my stuff were on the board next to the seat. But while I was hesitated, a person who was sitting next to me called out、"Here, the seat in the middle is open, here." So, he sat on the seat.
... After his words, I realized my coldness.
I'll do better in the next time!

Boomerang Comes Back

Have you ever had the feeling of stupidity to yourself?
I often have this kinds of feeling when I find that someone who I thought is more stupid than me is actually smarter. Then I feel myself very stupid.
This is one kind of the law of boomerang, I guess.

an Internet Problem

I've been having an Internet problem.
When I start the Internet, Windows XP becomes unsteady, and the hard drive makes a strange noise.
And the most important, I can't update Windows XP. When I tried to update, it continuously downloads something and it never stops, even after I shut down the computer and turned on several hours later.
What's wrong with my PC? I may have virus? But I just finished checking it by through Virus Vaster yesterday (the software is trial version though).
In either there is virus or not, I have to solve this problem as soon as possible.

an Old Wheel-char Man

There are many homeless people in downtown Victoria.
One of them is an old wheel-char man who always sit(?) in from of a church and yelling in a loud voice, "Spare your change!" His voice is loud enough to be heard about 20m (about 66 feet) across the road.
When I heard this voice in front of him at first, I was a little scared. But after hearing it many times, I got used to it.

Then today, when I heard the voice again from across the road, I suddenly thought, "That's good. I still hear this voice. This means, he is fine. His voice is still strong enough to be heard across the road. He's been yelling over one year. I remember I had heard this voice a year ago at the same place same season. He's been treated by someone..."

I still don't have the courage to give him a change, but the fear is completely disappeared. It was good to know that even the people like him aren't given up by entire people.

16 and 1/2

Today, I slept sixteen and half hours!!
That was so good. I slept this much because I didn't sleep on Thursday night and Tuesday night (I slept Wednesday night for about twelve hours though); I worked whole night for the Math midterm-3. Then on Friday, I took the test, and felt that it would be so bad if I hadn't had study. The test was hard.

Blow the Language

There is a stream of thinking (or say consciousness) which doesn't involve any word.

We usually think in the most familiar language, but before our thoughts are expressed in the way, we already have its images in one below the language level. If I describe these thoughts in this level visually, they are like lightning. So, the speed of the currency could be as fast as light.
Most people don't recognize this currency clearly, but everybody knows its existence instinctively as we often use the expression, "It's difficult to say in words."
But if you can think in that "one below the language" level all the time and can express these thoughts in words clearly, you'll be a genius.

Take it easy.

"Break a leg!" in Japanese is "Ganbare! "
Though this is a very positive word, sometimes it gives an impression of order, especially when we are depressed. So,for that time, "Take it easy." or "Have a rest." be the best words.

Break a Leg!

What do you feel from the word, "Break a leg!" ?

When I wrote this word in Japanese while chatting with a classmate, he asked me to write it in his folder by pen.
This word often gives courage and eliminates fears. So it must be one of the gift-words from heaven.

To Get Help

I sometimes hurt other people's feeling,
when I feel a little tired and seek somebody's favor instead of doing my best.
This is a bad habit.
I do this unconsciously, but when I try to rely on somebody without doing my best, I always fail to get his or her help. The person who I asked immediately notices that I just wanted to suck his or her work result without paying a price. Then he or she is displeased.
So, first, I need to do my best and ask a favor. In that case, I usually not hurt the person's feeling, and can get useful help.

Clear Speaking

I've been wondered why I couldn't understand some people's English even their pronunciation don't have strong accents. So, I also have been comparing the differences between the two; the people whose English is very clear, and the people whose English don't clear.

Then I found some important factors for the clear speaking. That would be; the pronunciation, the volume of the voice, the intervals between the words, and the sentence structure. For native English speakers, the main cause of confusing English (mainly to international students) would be the last two; the intervals between the words and the sentence structure.

It's difficult to understand if one speaks long long sentences with almost no intervals. Most radio personalities use long and short phases or sentences evenly, and put intervals very effectively, so even they speak very fast, I can understand their words.

...May be I also should train my speaking too, because I often fail to express my feeling to the others.

a Happy Life

How am I happy and lucky now.
I don't have to worry anything about my life itself.
I don't have a fatal disease right now, I have a place to live, there are enough food and cloth and there is almost no possibility of a bomb coming from the sky.
I just need to worry about my grades and some other daily stuffs. I spend a day attending classes, chatting with friends, doing homework, listening music, reading articles, cooking supper, and (sometimes) watching TV.

In three or four years, when I start to work, I may have to worry about food, or cloth. And also just right now, there are the people who are suffering with foods, cloths, houses, diseases or bombs. But just worrying about the future or these people doesn't produce anything. The only things I can do right now are; playing for them, improving my head and enjoying the daily life. I'll do these until I can do something practical for them.

One More Day

The reading break was finished on yesterday, and I had an English test, LPI, again today. Then, from Monday, the university starts as usual. Though I have one more day to rest, I'm already starting to feel impatient, because I have Math mid-3 on this Friday!
I had expected this feeling already, but I still thought I should've studied more in that break.
Well, ... it always happens.

a New Fridge

I got a new fridge today, because the old one was broken (The fridge is part of the apartment's equipment, so actually it's not mine).
About 7 pm yesterday, I noticed that all of the staffs in the freezer were melted and the inside of both fridge and the freezer weren't cold. But the noise from the fridge had been normal, so I hadn't noticed about this.
Anyway, I called a building manager this morning and he replaced the old one to the new one in the very afternoon. So it's now OK.
(Only one problem is that the new one is a little tricky to use, because it opens to a wall, the opposite direction to the kitchen.)

the Gap

"I can read Japanese 8 times as fast as English."
I discovered this fact several days ago, and finally understood why I couldn't do well in class.
I hadn't recognized about this simple fact and suffered each time when I compared between me and the other students. But now I understand how large the gap between me and the native English speakers is. The difference in total ability is not only 8 times, but far more than it.
..But could I read English as fast as Japanese in some days? ... ... May be.
Language is important.

Being Lazy

From yesterday, (Nor. 9) I've been so lazy.
I was up all night (not for study), went to bed 7 am and got up 5 pm. It’s not good for health, but that was fun.

Gyoza

Today I went to a friend's apartment and ate "Gyoza (jiao-ji)."
It was delicious. So I'm glad to have some of it as a souvenir.
Reading break is from tomorrow, which is good too!

the Processing Speed

For these 2 or 3 days,
I restored my computer several times to resolve one problem, so now the computer went back to the point where the Norton Antivirus had not been installed. The initial problem hasn't been resolved yet, but I was amazed at the increase of the processing speed.
Before, I had to wait for at least 5 minutes from the boot, and also the start or the close of each application was so slow (includes web's downloading). But now it doesn't take more than 1 minute to actually use and web pages show up almost instantly.
There may be other causes to make this to happen, but I guess it's because of the open space used to occupied by Norton.
Mmmm...... would I better to keep this?

Getting Behind

I’m now doing Physics' assignment.
It’s difficult. But it’s just because I’m getting behind for the class (both Math and Physics). I guess those questions are the basic ones. Oh, I need study. (But reading break is in this week. Yey!)

Scorn

There is a kind of people who is liked by all, regardless of man, woman, old, or young.
One of my friends was like this. She was always smiling and laughing happily, and surrounded by many friends. So, be honestly, I sometimes felt jealous to her. But being friends for a long time, I found the key fact that would explain why all liked her. That is, ‘She had never looked down someone who she talked.’
So, I’m now trying to eliminate any small scorn in my feeling and trying to find some good aspects of others.

the University Bunnies

There are many bunnies in Uvic.
Their size is about 20 cm (8 inches) long and colors are: complete black, white with black patterns, complete brown, brown with white patterns. Seemingly, black is the most dominant color. The next is white with black patterns and least one is brown.
They are always eating glasses or lying happily. Sometimes they get snacks from humans and rarely they fight (I've never seen, but I heard.)
My aunts called them "the University bunnies" ; ... sounds very smart.

Clothing

It’s getting very cold in these days.
Today was only 2 ℃ (36 F). And so I wear lots of cloth; two pants ( one more under jeans), high-neck sweater, wool socks, ski jacket, fleece scarf, and lined gloves.
I wear this much, but I still see few Canadians wearing short-sleeved shirt.

One Regret

I've been regretting one thing.

When I was in an ESL (English as a Second Language) class, I had a presentation about the Internet in developing and developed countries. That was the best presentation I've ever done. But, there was one phrase I didn't say in class, only because I was too afraid to get lower mark by saying that.

That was like this, " But, you know what? When I first heard the words 'developing' and 'developed,' I thought 'developing' sounds much much better. Because it sounds lively, but 'developed' sounds dead."
We had been held up to use the phrase, "You know what?" so I hadn't said, but if I had said that phrase, I could have given some pleasure to the classmates who were from 'developing' countries.

I learned that any restraint doesn't require to give a pleasure.

Teachers

Today, I noticed one thing.
A teacher who teaches a subject easily, gives easy (I mean not too difficult) tests to students. However, a teacher who's teaching is hard to understand gives difficult tests.
The later teacher could be said that he or she isn't good at teaching. ...... Or, is it the feeling only I feel?

Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween.
On last year's Halloween, I went to a party, but this year, I just slept. But even I slept all day and no child came to my apartment suite, I enjoyed looking people in costume. From Friday, I saw many kinds of costumes: a spider woman with a big black spider (like a pet), two cowboys on small stuffed houses, John Lennon with music books, nymph, witch .... etc.
And today, I got some leftover chocolates from a classmate too.
Halloween was fun.