A Small Halloween Celebration

Today is Halloween day.
This is the first time for four years that I didn't go any party for Halloween, mostly because of the big mid on the day after tomorrow.
But, I put a light on a cute, small, tin pumpkin lamp, which I found from a box in a closet, and placed on my old TV. So, now I can see little Halloween in my room.
It's cute.

Multiprocessing Ability

If I can read, write, and calculate more efficiently while I'm talking by phone, I could finish my assignment in this morning and early afternoon!

I talked with a very talkative friend over the telephone for more than five hours today. And since it's much efficient to do something while we were talking, I finished some multiple choice quizzes for coming Wednesday's Anthropology midterm.
But, that wasn't enough.

... Well, I'm now training for this multiprocessing ability, so hope I can do more in few years.

The Grand Canyon

Today, I got a phone call from my aunt in California.
We were talking about the pictures at the wedding ceremony of my cousin, and her and the other aunts' trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

She seemed so impressed by the tremendous view of the Grand Canyon, and that really made me think about the place. If there is a chance, I want to go and see the great landscape of another creation of the mother nature.

Two Communities

These days, I'm absorbed in two communities in the social networking site that my oldest friend invited.
One is the community of the beginner violinists, and another is the community of the people who like the sky.

I don't have any friends who just started to learn violin in here, but now I have some (actually, lots of) fellows! I can read the bulletin boards and know how other beginners think.
And in another sky community, I can see lots of beautiful pictures of many kinds of skies, which the members moved and liked to put their pictures up.

I really enjoy reading the bulletin broads of these communities.
It's fun.

Before and After ?

It's a wonder that I become a good student (eager to study) just after a test finishes.
(Maybe it's because of the laziness before the test.)

The Refrigerator

When the noise of the fridge stops, my room (bachelor) is filled with silence, and it lasts about twenty minutes before the fridge starts working again.

I am always relieved when the noise stops.
Sometimes, I hope our manager to change this noisy fridge to a more quiet one.

But still, this is the fridge which made me realize the importance of quietness.
So, I guess, I have to give thanks to it. (It would be terrible if there is no fridge in my room too.)

Rain

It's strong raining now.
...I wonder whether this 'rain' is common or not so common in other planets.
I've heard that in Jupiter, there is sulfuric acid rain.
... Maybe 'rain' itself is not so rare apart from the substances.

In Jealousy

The people I'm jealous of is only exist in my world.
They even look different from others who have different values, and they might feel jealous for a person in such groups.
Things are always relative.
So, there is no meaning for having jealousy for others.

One Law

When I feel lazy to study,
... my kitchen becomes clean.

Let's Shrink That Part

Today, I realized very clearly about one of my biggest fault: idleness.
There could be more faults that I'm not yet realized, but this is the biggest one I should start correcting from right now.

I heard that faults should be corrected one by one, so I decided to correct this first.
I know that I don't feel good when I'm bone lazy, and I don't like that part of myself either. So, I decided to shrink that part.

May be it's impossible to erase that part completely, but I believe that it can be shrank as small as an ant. Then, it would not be recognized by other people so easily, and not affect my current study or future job.
So, I'll try.

From the Nature

It's also important to stop thinking and feel the nature for sometimes.
The nature accepts every part of you.
It leads you to your larger self and to the deeper wisdom.
Then, you'll know the most important things you need to know.

I learned a lot by looking the sky, feeling the wind, and inhaling the clear air.
I give thanks to them.

To Move Again

When the desire to go further is infinitely strong, we sometimes feel tired.
When we feel tired, it's better to compare ourselves with the ones from few years ago. Then, we'll notice that the present self is certainly better than the ones from few years ago. Think like this, "I want to improve more, but the ability I have now is just enough for present situation." and exhale deeply. If it's not enough, take a bath or a nap.
Then, you'll be refreshed.

vs. Kids' ability

I've been living in Victoria for about four years now, but I still can't talk English as fluently as a four-year-old child.
A Kid's learning ability is surely amazing.

Pro & Con

Some parts of myself against me so hardly, but the other parts agree with me.
When the ratio of these two become fifty-fifty, it's very hard to live.
When the con part occupies more than half of my mind, it's impossible to maintain a normal life.
Therefore, to create a peaceful mind, I want to keep the ratio, 8 (pro) - 2 (con).

On Reflection

About my sleep;
Last year, I wrote many about how hard my study were (I really stayed awake for three days without sleeping during the week, and got some sleep on the weekend), but now, I know that I was too lenient.
One of my friend became a doctor, and I've read many of her posts on the Internet. She really seems to have only 2 - 3 hours of sleep every day. And I guess she's keeping this pace for more than several years. (To become a doctor, the person need to study so hard too.)
How am I lenient?
Oh, but I can't improve myself so suddenly.
So, walk one step per day.

Sleep

Today, I slept about fifteen hours!!!
The day is almost done with this sleeping.
...Well, it's said "The Middle Way" is important by Buddha, so it's OK since I hadn't slept enough last week.
"The Middle Way" sounds very wise...
(Of course, it's the word from Buddha!)

The Sound of Practice

I'm hearing a piano sound from outside of my suite now.
There is a person who has a piano in his/her suite, and I often hear the person's practicing sound. The sound is not as beautiful as a CD, nor the melody is perfect, but I somehow feel very comfortable.

Actually, I don't feel good for the piano harmony when I hear it from CDs; from them, I feel more comfortable with the sound of synthesizer or other instruments. But from somewhere outside, the sound is not so clear; therefore, it's OK. Moreover, I feel good for knowing that someone is making his/her effort tirelessly. It gives me some energy to work my own study.

Crashed on My Sofa

Yesterday night, around 9 o'clock, I lied down on my sofa knowing that it would be dangerous.
Then, about six hours later, I wake up thinking like "Oh, I did it again." (That's why I'm writing for yesterday's post now.)

These days, I often crash on the sofa. I succumbed to a feeling of weariness and fell asleep on it, even its size is not as big as my whole body (it's a love sofa).

Well, maybe it's a good thing because in this way, I get up very naturally without loafing around in my bed over half an hour.

Great Friends

It's a good thing that I still have so many great people around me.
I can emulate their excellence, and improve my ability.
Their existence are helping me to go higher.

Only a Small Portion

When I looked down the landscape from the airplane ten days ago, I realized how small portion of the sky we always look up was.

The sky that we always look up from the ground was really really a small portion of the whole. It might be only a pert per million or even per trillion.
From high up the sky, it felt so silly; determining my feelings by only such a small portion of the sky.

Today is rainy, but I now know that this black clouds are only above the small city called Victoria, and not even covered one-tenth of the island.

My Mind vs. African Violet

Do I really progress even 0.5 mm every day?

While I closely look my African Violets, I often think like this.
My African Violet is now blooming one after another, but I don't recognize its movement. I know it's too slow to catch the growing by our eyes, but even with this slowness, the buds are opening one by one, and imperceptibly became a bunch of flowers. They are certainly slow to grow; I think that they don't grow even 1 mm per day. But can I really say that to them? Do my mind grow faster than them?

I hardly imagine my mind grows 1 mm per day. I can't observe my mind from outside, but I imagine it grows only like 0.2 - 0.3 mm a day.

A Gem

There is nobody who is perfect.
Every person has at least one fault.
So it's not good to accuse he/she by that fault. Rather, we should find good aspects of that person.
Then, the person become a gem for us.

Relaxed Time

Today (actually, yesterday), I went to my friend's apartment and ate Thanks Giving dinner.
Well, they are all Japanese, but we just mimicked the dinner to have fun. Then, I stayed at them until around 12:30.
...It's good to have a relaxed time at whiles.

A Special Name

There are some special words for every person.
Especially the name of a person one loves is special for him/her. Only murmuring the name, we recover from our fatigue.
It has such a powerful energy.

The Basic

Because I've never worked, all of the money I'm using now is from my parents, but sometimes, I also get money from my relatives.

Today, I was going to use some amount of money from my relatives casually. I was thinking like, "With this money, I can buy something like a free present, because it's from my relatives." But since I couldn't find the right one I wanted, I didn't use.

And now, I'm really grad that I didn't use that money with such a silly thinking. Even though that money is from my relatives, I shouldn't use it so casually. There is no difference between the money from my relatives and the money from my parents. They are both giving it because they care about me.

So, the source of the money is the same. It's love. All of my money is from Love.
I really shouldn't use it so casually.

Way Off Base

I sometimes miss the point when I'm writing an essay.
I did this again today.

We were given a topic, "What was the attitude of your parents or your friends when you decided to go to UVic?"
I started writing about my feeling when I decided to study abroad, then continued how I prepared, and then wrote about the attitude of my parents.

The first two, my feeling and the preparation were not being included on the topic. I realized about this after I wrote these, and thought "Oh, my gosh. I was way off base. But there is no time for rewriting whole of this. What do I do now..."

Then, what did I do? I wrote few sentences in the beginning of these spurious paragraphs, and made some kind of connection to the topic. But I'm sure that my teacher will notice it.
I have to make a plan more carefully before I actually start writing.

"Happy Birthday!"

Today is my mom's birthday.
So, to say "Happy Birthday," I called my aunt who are currently with my mom and other aunts. After the wedding ceremony last Saturday, they start traveling other places and now they are in Las Vegas and Grand Canyon.

I wasn't sure whether the call from Victoria (Canada) to the cell phone in Las Vegas would get through or not. (I've never called to a cellphone in the US from here.) However, only after the second waiting tone, my aunt took the phone and we started talking. The voice was surprisingly clear too. So, I was very amazed by the technology.

It's very good if I can say "Happy Birthday" to a person in any part on this earth. And I'm sure that in the near future, we can all say this to a person even if he/she is on the opposite side of the earth.

Midterm Attacks

One third of the fall term has already finished.
And now, I'm just in the middle in the midterm attacks. O oh, it's so hard! Can I survive this?
Well, I have to survive. So let's study!

The Direction

In my mind, everything exists; from Christ like loftiness to Hitler like madness.
If I choose, I can drive someone insane, but I know that that direction isn't the right one.
Love is the direction we are all following.

At the Wedding Ceremony

I come back from California today at 6 o'clock.

Yesterday's wedding ceremony was very impressive. It started about 4:30 pm at a park. The bride (my cousin) and the broom exchanged their wedding vows by the lead of the bride's younger brother (I've heard he has the license(?) to do this.)

My aunts and I wore kimonos, but after the ceremony, It became so casual. We moved to a hall in the park, and had so much fun at the reception. We even danced to the music of both Okinawan traditional dancing music and American rock music.
It was a really good wedding.