Saturday, September 25, 2010

Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson tells the story of where the good ideas come from. The story he tells is quite good and funny. A good idea often emerges at place like coffee shop, and sometimes a great idea is used to find a coffee shop close to you. If that makes any sense. Just watch his TED talk.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Rob Dunbar

Rob Dunbar talks on TED about acidification of ocean caused by CO2.

CO2 is causing earth to warm up, and it also acidifying ocean.

In 2030, ocean's acidity will become 450 ppmv. Today's CO2 level in ocean is 387 ppmv.

We have to go back 15 million years to find time when CO2 level is 450 ppmv.
The rapid change is why sea life is not adopting to the change.

Coral's growth bands can tell us ancient sea temperatures.

Calcium carbonate is more soluble in acidic fluid. Sea life, therefore, have to spend more energy to maintain body.

Friday, September 17, 2010

ノルウェイの森

八時間は読んだが、今までで一番長く本を読んだ。大分舌が動くようになってきて面白い。ロマンチックなクラシック音楽を流しながら読んだ。

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Bible - part 2

Annunciation of the angel, Gabriel, was given to virgin Mary that she will conceive a son named Jesus.

Antichrist is the enemy of God, whom God destroys before the defeat of Satan. Some considers Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as an Antichrist.

Apocalypse is another name for the New Testament Book of Revelation.
The catastrophe at the end of the world is also called apocalypse.

Jesus' twelve disciples are also called the twelve apostles.

Ararat is the mountain where the noah's arch rested after the flood receded. It is east of turkey, and about five-thousand meter high.

Armageddon is the name for the great battle between good and evil at the end of the world.

God will give whatever a person with faith asks him. Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Bible

The bible is divided into to parts, called the old testament and the new testament.

Thirty-nine books make up the holy scripture.

The best known books of the Old Testament are genesis, exodus, psalm, job, Ecclesiastes, the song of Solomon, and Isaiah.

New Testament consists of twenty-seven books.

The main books of the new testaments are the four gospels - Matthew, mark, Luke, and John - and revelation.

Abraham is the ancestor of both Arabs and Jews.

Isaac and Ishmael are the son of Abraham.

Arabs are descendant of Ishmael, and Jews are descendant of Isaac.

God told Abraham to kill one of his son, Isaac, to test his faith.

God said to Adam and Eve these words, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return", to remind them that they were made from dust, and are going to return to dust.

God is alpha and omega. He is the beginning and the end of the world.

I can't sleep

I can't sleep.
It's 3 am.
Thought of poems.
Violet and red.
Moons of Jupiter and threads of stars.
There is no rhyme.
I can't sleep.

TOEIC test tomorrow

I tested myself on Japan Times website's TOEIC program. I think I'm better at listening question. Gotta sleep.

D'Arcy Wretzky

On July 2009, D'Arcy called a Chicago radio station. Nice to hear her voice. Pumpkins' fan miss you. Never forget you.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Dan-ah Kim

Threads of stars are very beautiful... I've never seen paintings like these.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Aditi Shankardass

I watched Aditi Shankardass' TED talk. It is amazing to know that many children with disorders are misdiagnosed because doctors don't look at brains. Now with the new technology called EED, doctors can look inside head and see electrical activities of brains. I think this is the way of diagnosing brain disorders in near future.

• Research shows 50 percent of children diagnosed with autism actually suffer from brain seizures.

• One in six children suffers some kind of disorder.

• Interesting story of a child named Justin, who was diagnosed with autism actually had brain seizure, recovered when he was treated with anti-seizure treatment.

Matt Ridley

Watched TED talk by Matt Ridley.
It is funny, informative, and persuasive talk.

What I get from this talk is that collaborations and exchanges of ideas are an essence of human, and these are why we are so successful making tools and advancing technologies at accelerating rates.

• How many hours do you have to work to earn an hour of reading light? In the old days, it was very long hours. In 1800 we had to work 6 hours, but now only half a second!

• Louis XlV had 498 people preparing for his dinner every night, but now we all have people working for us preparing meals, and probably higher quality.

• Trading is way older than farming.

• The spread of tools means there were trades not migrations.

• The famous essay called "I, Pencil". People don't even know how to make a pencil.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Riches

I have rented a The Riches' pilot episode from iTunes and saw it. The main character and his families live as impostors, but they have a trouble with people in trailer park where they have been staying. One tragic accident causes them to have a house and friends in a town, but can they make it home? It is very interesting that the main characters are basically wrongdoers.

LED Balls

Helped film translation. Just picking up what Japanese actors are saying. Saw a movie called The Other Guys at my friend's. Was a funny film. Ate Oden after we watched. LED flashing balls he bought from a festival were so cool. When you swing that thing, you see the white color separating into three colors; Red, green, and blue.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Movie: Enter the Void

Enter the Void
Watched the trailer of Enter the Void by Gasper Noe yesterday night. Blew my mind. I was so excited, I even called my friend, but he knew it. I really love the shifting and flashing of colors. Lighting technique they use in the film is very interesting and inspirational. Certainly the neon color looks really great. It is now in my must-see list.

This Morning

Woke up early. First thing on my mind was this never-heard-of japanese vocab, らぶごじ - pronounces "labu gozi", from my dream, so I googled it and found out someone had made an illustration of Labrador Retriever wearing Godzilla costume. It is really cute, and another person created the cookie of it which is also really cute.

OK, then after that, I watched a movie called Planet Terror. Very gross, but funny in some way.

I created an account for YouTube with the name *********, and connected to my ******** Facebook account which has no friend. I'll use the account to create a list of Smashing Pumpkins's rare videos which I can enjoy again, again, and again.

Now weekend morning is about to finish. I would do go out and finish the book I'm still reading.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Rick Smolan and the story of Natasha

Watched TED about the story of an Amerasian girl, Natasha, who had lived in Korea and discovered by a photographer named Rick Smolan, and adopted to an American family. An incredible story which makes you think about life, destiny, and happiness.

Reading at McDonalds

Yesterday I read chapter 20 to 22 of The Catcher in the Rye at McDonalds, ordered coffee and medium fries. It was crowded with people, and business meeting had started beside me, so I moved to more quiet seat by the window where I can see people going in and out of supermarket. Listened to Nellie Mckay's rap like song all day long.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Lunch at a park

I had a peanuts-sourced chicken bento for my lunch at a park in Aoyama Kitamachi apartment. Sunny and nice wind. I bought the lunch box near my home Which sold it for just 450 yen, which is good deal!

Eddi Reader

Watched Eddi Reader's performance in TED. She sings Kiteflyer's Hill. It was really OK song and OK performance. I don't know why this clip is covering the biggest space in "Beautiful" category. I guess she must be really famous and has a large number of followers.

iTunes' new rental TV shows

I downloaded the pilot episode of Glee just to test Apple's new streaming TV episodes. One episode costs just 99 cents which I think is great price. The episode just played without a hitch, so I was impressed by that. Glee itself was really corny but fun musical drama, and I liked it. Characters in it were kind of interesting. Anyway, i think this Apple's streaming TV show rental scheme is working. It just needs more TV shows in lineup.

Ping

I downloaded and used iTunes10's new feature Ping, and it sucked. Probably because there aren't many famous people to follow, or I don't have any friends. But it bored me. It just felt like bad copy of Facebook. I didn't see any creativity in it. Also new Digg is bad like hell. I can't even select and see new articles. I really hate this trend of social networking stuff. I know it is to stay, but ... Apple, please make iTunes easier and more fun to use than just adding things.

Poems

Downloaded and watched Poetry Everywhere. Billy Collins' The Lanyard, Stanley Kunitz's final poem Touch Me, Coleman Berks' Translation from Rumi were noteworthy, and really hit me.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Reading at Dotour

Read chapter 18 and 19 while I was at Dotour. I sat where air conditioner blew cold air directly at me. Took me one and half hour to read goddam chapters, and I'm freezing cold. The place has a fountain which is nice.

Reading at Mcdonalds

From chapter sixteen and seventeen of The Catcher in the Rye at Mcdonalds on Aoyama street near United Nation University. I wasn't feeling well from sleeping too much. Ordered iced coffee and iced latte, and stayed there like 3 hours.

Apple Event

Slept till 2:00 am Apple music event. Watched it and went back to sleep. Watched it on my IPhone for the first time. It wasn't bad, but got bad connection speed problem, and switched to audio only mode few times.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Subtitles

Done putting subtitles. Translation is tough. I got bad headache and diarrhea.