Shu's so called life

First post of 2012

2012-01-22T17:42:00.000+13:00

Hi all, it looks I haven’t updated my blog forever, but happy belated new years! I hope you all had kick ass time on the Christmas and new years. Well, you can ignore the Christmas part if you’re non Christian like myself, but I do celebrate ‘cause I get gifts, well technically not anymore, I used to, shame. Now I’m the one who have to spend fortunes on it, bummer. Well whatever religion you are in, why not just let us share the excitement of having new years, 2012. By the way is it the end of the world this year, apocalypse will be upon us, well, if so I’d definitely need to go to a Taylor Swift’s concert once at least. She’s stunning, no doubt.

Yes, it looks like I ended up falling by the wayside in posting on the blog. Well, you are wrong, I have been always creative thinking to myself loads of things and had strong urge to put them in words, but had just not much time to do it as I have been pretty tied up with miscellaneous things, well mostly work. Being busy can be a good thing, I mean not frantic or frazzled, at least you got something to do, and in that way it makes your weekends meaningful and valuable so much, you know what I’m talking about. Fridays after the weekly sales meeting, which I hate to attend, it’s little more than you are on a day off if you ask me. When I was back in Aotearoa, which is only about 7 months ago, I cannot believe it, I loved the nothingness there, the slow lifestyle, laid back people, well I still love the life style back there, but in those days I resented imagining myself in busy business field in Tokyo in all respects. But now I see things differently somewhat. Some may think I’m frazzled or frantic, but I’m not really bothered holding heaps on my plate as long as I find there’s substantial upside on what I do and I can learn from it.

The hard working guy

2011-10-31T01:31:00.001+13:00

I had a chance to talk to one of our project managers for the first time like really he and I face to face. To be honest I hadn’t known much about him though. We had a good 20mins chat over a cup of coffee at a Starbucks. In the conversation, I discovered the fact that he wasn’t the guy as he looked. He had been taking classes at a university in the U.K. over the Internet. He engages with leagions of the assignments, projects, group works, etc., and he does all those works after work and whenever he finds time to do it, like weekends. I found him very determined and aspiring. I was pretty impressed. Indeed, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

the town

2011-10-03T03:50:00.002+13:00

It looks like I fancy only TV shows and have no life in reality. Well, that's certainly not true. I do have life in reality. So on this post I'd like to show you guys the town I live in now, Higashi-Kawaguchi. Me and Tommo have been here for about 5months now, and are liking it. Not so crowded, it's cosy, clean, quiet, relatively abundant in green, peaceful, in fact we haven't heard any serious crimes so far, like murder, robbery, etc. and haven't seen any gangsters. I have only seen some local idiots in ones of those ridiculously oversized pants riding cheap mopeds making noise. But morons like them are everywhere throughout the country, and most of them universally ends ups doing silly jobs in not so long future.They will learn their lessons, they are just punks after all. Well, it was a bit of digression. going back to the town, it's not really sophisticated. There hardly is night life, only one sports bar near the station, and couple of Karaoke places, and that's it. But neither me and Tommo is a type of person who enjoys going out, so it's all good. When we decided to move in Tommo said her instinct had told her Higashi-Kawaguchi would be the place for us. I suppose she was right. I have put some photos of the town. So have fun looking.

An excerpt from 90210

2011-10-02T03:35:00.002+13:00

Sorry if you're not really into it, but I am writing on 90210 again. I am recklessly engrossed into it. I just found this episode quite engaging and compelling. So I put an excerpt from it as follows. Well, please condone me for not putting it properly, I mean proper academic referencing styles. I forgot the APA format, which I used to use every time I write an essay. You don't really use it once you graduated from uni, do you?

History is largely told as a chronicle of great people doing great things. But for most of us, life is not made up of big moments. It’s made up of small moments. And with every small choice, with every small decision, we are defining ourselves. “Are we honest?” “Are we faithful?” “Are we proud of ourselves, or are we disappointed by who we've become?” Life rarely turns out the way that we plan. The unexpected happens, and it surprises us with new and exciting possibilities. But sooner or later, reality hits you in the face. My mother never imagined having to start over as a single mother with two grown kids. But when the unimaginable happened, she adapted. She found strength. She moved on. And I hope, when my life doesn’t go as I plan..which it certainly won’t.. I can handle myself with the same grace and strength that my mother has taught me. She may not be an Olympic athlete or a world leader, but my mom is definitely my hero.

( from 90210 Series3 episode8)

Words cannot express...

2011-10-02T01:31:00.000+13:00

the songs you love, the songs you want to hear when you think of someone you truly love, the songs that could make people stop fighting each other...

Things I’ve been obsessed with2:

2011-09-23T03:25:00.002+12:00

90210. I was a massive fan of the original series back in 90's. So my initial thoughts of this new series were like that it would be nothing compared to the original one. As a matter of fact I watched some bits of it on Youtube and thought it wasn't as great as the Brandon & Brenda pair, also I thought it was just a bunch of rambling proses of astronomically affluent high school kids as it appeared. Considering the fact that there is no determined, hard-working kid like Andrea who would commute a long way to school, in order to have better education nor a kid like Brandon, who makes money on his own working at the dinner even though his family was relatively wealthy, just because he didn't want to rely on his parents' funding. Absence of a heart-warming place, where the kids can chill, like Peach Pit is crucial. They really should have one indeed.

Having said that, I just cannot stop watching it.....

The job interviews from the hell

2011-09-04T17:39:00.005+12:00

I was watching this NHK documentary that was about Japanese undergraduates on the hunt for a job. The program follows this engineering company, who manufactures pumps and pipes for factories in mainly the water industry throughout APAC. The CEO bolstered the crowd’s morale at the briefing, and advocated they needed poised, decisive, and aspiring individuals in order to attain their hegemony in the industry and to reinforce this with the coming dawn of a sluggish economy. Whilst legions of youngsters applied for the positions and balked at how hard it would be, this Chinese kid was salient. He put the most adversaries to shame with his sterling CVs and phenomenal grades (all As) at Uni. (post graduate at Nagoya Uni.), and the fact that he interviewed very well with his amiable personality and that he was very articulate in both Japanese and English. I assume he is not one of those people who are endowed with some great business instinct, but his hard work paid off indeed. He said he had studied like three times as much as other domestic students probably did and he only had had little stipend from the government, so he had tried not to play around. More interestingly, the firm puts a great deal of effort into cooperation with the Chinese government. So, from my point of view, he indeed outperformed other candidates in many respects and met the expectations of the high-ups and loads of other people, including his family, friends, etc…

Job hunting is getting ridiculously hard these days due to market saturation and manpower liquidity in this stagnating economy. As a matter of fact, I, myself had a very hard time getting into the company now I am working at even though I wasn’t a new graduate. Well, though, I am doubtful that any uni student is subscribing this blog, if you happen to find me and want to gain insight from me, I will be more than happy to share my experience and to give you advice as follows.

1. Being articulate at the interview is strategic, especially if you are applying for non-technical positions where you need to communicate with clients and others. That’s your first small milestone.

2. Contrive your career plan with discretion. Brain storm, bounce around ideas, and get prepared for bloody interviews so you won’t feel uneasy.

3. Try to be proactive even when you are on the verge of something at the interview, like when you are asked difficult questions. What companies do not want is any applicant with complacency.

Good luck!

Things I’ve been obsessed with:

2011-08-25T02:03:00.002+12:00

The apprentice, especially the UK, and the junior version. To be honest, I find the US one is sort of showbiz oriented as it’s got lots of cat fights, which I initially enjoyed watching but got bored soon. And it’s got less actual business practices. On the other hand, the UK one was full of negotiations, pitching, team works, communications, and more, so like I find it pretty much necessary for pragmatic business scenes. I also think the series reflects nationality in a good way of course, for example Trump seems to try to be entertaining and generous-minded while Lord Suger is stringent but practical minded. NZ version is hilarious; everything is so much laid back. I think the NZ one reflects the nationality the most! Here's one of my favourite parts of the junior ver. Have fun watching.

Work week5

2011-06-26T04:39:00.004+12:00

It's been alright. I actually have been liking it. Heaps to learn, the multinational and multicultural environment, nice people and not so nice people, angry clients, grumpy high-ups, exciting tasks, you name it. I don't think I will get bored for at least another year for sure.

Being a sales person is quite exciting, but at the same time it means you put heaps of strain on your back, which very often makes you feel timid, inarticulate, and brings unnecessary pressure to you. I believe having communication skills is incredibly important whatever job you do, even if all you do is to write codes sitting at a computer for all day long, or cleaning someone's house, you need to communicate somehow, which could be verbal, or in writing. Communication. It's pretty simple, but indispensable. Being articulate makes people around you assure and conveys the messages you express effectively. So I think one of the things I really should do at the moment in order to be successful in business would be to shoot videos of myself speaking about something. Well, I might post it on the internet, might be on this blog, one of those days, but I'm not quite convinced if it's necessary for me to do it. Because I don't want to be embarrassed by myself showing my stupid face watched by the whole bunch of strangers on the internet, however at the same time I think it might work for me to overcome my shyness and to be confident and assertive. Well, having said that, at the moment I'll just go with the original idea, videos for myself. But you never know. Come to think of it, I massively give respect to those people on youtube that expose themselves to the entire world advocating their ideas, convictions, or whatever, some of them even do performing music, dance, etc... That's one of those thing I'd love to do if I was a bit more confident.

Overall, I reckon as of yet I just don't have time to get overwhelmed by the continuously happening unexpected tasks and things, just have to deal with it. Now that I know what I should do, so I'll see how well I'll be doing.

The coolest cover of Cindy Lauper Unconditional Love

2011-06-05T20:45:00.002+12:00

Performed by beautiful beautiful Shena Ringo, no explanation needed

Work week2

2011-06-03T00:42:00.000+12:00

I went to a business drink with two female sales staff members of ours. Although the meeting was supposed to be given to let us build professional social networks, it turned out as if a matching party with legions of Asian hunters. No one even tried to talk to me. Shame on the pervs, give my time and money back.

TEPCO's handling of Fukushima

2011-04-22T17:53:00.003+12:00

Regarding the phenomenal explosion, undisclosed stories about the nuclear plant were unfolded awfully. Well, I might be a bit too cynical, but I reckon the Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO,’s decision, that they did not convey all the information they had at the time to the government immediately, which they claimed that they had done in order not to cause a chaotic commotion, was without merit and purely arbitrary. Although some critics advocate that the power company underwent a painful process and made a relatively right decision, I have a confrontational standing against them. They should be denounced for the discrepancy between their incipient announcement and the dire consequences that are happening now. What they did did not seem to follow precise methodologies and did not seem coherent and conscientious either. It resulted in the fact that overwhelmed casualties in the affected areas had no alternatives but to conform the guidance and regulations provided, which seemed very conventional. Even though TEPCO says the effect of the radiations scattered will be only paltry, the residents are not appeased and concerned about latent health issues, such as respiratory problems. A bulletin says that for the people in Fukushima, the firm is now a paradigm of menace.

In my humble opinion, power companies are obliged to convey any kind of information as long as it is to do with humans’ lives whether or not it reaches a consensus for an announcement within the firm. Judging from their handling, it is quite certain that precluding from decommissioning of the reactors was their top priority. I believe the Cabinet should have been able to exert power over TEPCO and should have made them to keep the government in the loop. Contrary to my expectation, the implementation of it still had yet to be ratified by the Diet until a few days later. The relegates and high-ups from the both parties looked pretty perplexed on TV when asked about this.

uniform number 11

2011-04-17T01:22:00.001+12:00

For me he is the coolest 44 years old I know in the world. When he appeared on the pitch, it took me back when I was 15. The way he runs, passes, touches the ball, and his play style remained as the same as back then. Although the match was meant to be held as a charity event for the casualties of the disaster, to be honest I was simply moved by his playing and his goal. Maybe I should not be saying things like this, but I completely forgot about the tragedy when he came out in the field.

Dear smap and their fans

2011-04-17T01:09:00.002+12:00

My apologies, to be fair with the pop group, SMAP from my last entry, they accordingly donated 4 hundred million yen from their superfluous fortunes. Having said that, I still resent the group though. I have been pondering myself for a long time on this issue discussed on the forums. I find it very controversial. I reckon probably there are quite a number of celebrities who are putting a lot of strain regarding this on their backs.

As it happened 2

2011-03-27T00:11:00.012+13:00

Evidently an issue arose among the Japanese over the past weeks. It has been being discussed on online forums that whether or not the wealthy, typified as TV stars, comedians, politicians, etc should donate proportionate amount of money to charity for the casualties of the tragedy. Well, it might be controversial, but I would probably say that it is not a matter of amount of money to be used for donation but of willingness if this disaster was not this devastating in terms of the number of death toll and the economic damage.

The thing is that I am pretty much sick and tired of seeing and hearing the TV stars, pop idols, comedians, and those who claim themselves to be artists (I don’t find them as ones though) superficially making condolence comments for the losses and words of encouragements, which do not sound as they are spelled, instead of making donation. Of course, there are a number of celebrities who have donated millions to the affected areas. However, there are still relatively many high-ups and celebrities seemingly unconcerned by the disaster while quite a number of people, and organizations from overseas contributed enormous amounts of their fortune to charity. I think they should be highly ashamed with that fact.

It is very much unacceptable that SMAP, a Japanese pop idol group has announced earlier today that they were going to go on the air tomorrow for a live show for the victims of the quake and tsunami, saying that the morons were going to bounce around ideas to find what they could do for the casualties, insinuating probably they could sing and dance on live to them. I was appalled to hear that and almost to destroy my radio in pieces when I heard that crap. First of all, apparently most of the casualties at evacuation cites are not even able to watch TV. Second, bounce around ideas about what they could do? Come on, it's not rocket science. What could be more obvious than this? It is very hypocritical that they make literary millions of money by singing and acting on crummy TV shows and spend immense amount of money on food, cars, clothes, etc.furthermore, some of the members are seen painting the town of Ginza almost every weekend, however all they have done so far is donate very little money and sing on TV to the casualties who cannot watch TV.

In addition, I am speechless and dismayed to hear some idiot comedians and pop idols asking us for donation, setting up a charity movement. We are already making donation at the designated places in the first place, do not need to be told where to do it, plus I am not quite convinced why we need to donate through their impromptu foundations. Those fools make millions of money by attending stupid TV shows, so why don’t they donate!

When it comes to criticism to Japanese TV stars, people like me always look like we are causing a stir in our society because there are always these people who are recklessly engrossed in those pop idols. Whatever you say they always tend to leap to conclusion that you are accusing their loved pop idols, try to defend them, and then get too dismissive in the course of rebuttal when others have a point. More like so intoxicated with the groups rather than being fans that they have confrontational standings to whoever is opposed to.
Having said that some celebrities are begrudging money to charity even though they are incredibly wealthy, we are very grateful those who did it around the globe. I hope this fact awakens those intoxicated fans.

As it happened

2011-03-21T20:15:00.000+13:00

Assuming many of you already know what has been happening in Japan over the last two weeks, I would rather want you to know the things that have not been reported outside the country.

Seemingly there is hardly any type of fuel left in petrol stations in Kanto area as well as daily grocery, such as bread, eggs, milk, vegetables, and more in supermarkets in the region. However, the thing is that it is not happening directly due to the quake and tsunami. This whole chaotic unnecessary confusion was caused by ordinary people like us, those who have not got involved in the gruesome disaster. I am a bit ashamed to say this as a Japanese citizen that since the tragedy it has been reflecting the character of the people, too much security conscious, that they, people in the safe areas, apparently overestimate the damage they might get. It is hard to look at people going rush in shopping grocery and petrol abruptly in a second after seeing someone else does it even when they have enough and trying to evacuate to further areas of the country even when they are safe, as if they are forced to do so, riding on others’ coattails, otherwise humankind will perish or something. When it comes to emergency situations like this time, bad news goes around very fast even if they sound fishy, and the Internet plays a great role of spreading words in a bad way.
What I would like to highlight here is that, why don’t we just relax a bit, take a deep breath, be poised, analyse well information you get. I know some people may be a little computer illiterate or clumsy about the Internet technology though, in that case, listen to the radio then; there is always informative information. Don’t panic and stay calm otherwise there will be dire consequences.

Queenstown

2011-02-21T01:11:00.000+13:00

Finally, my long-longing desire came to fruition. Tomo kindly gave me a green light to explore the city of Queenstown, which is abundant in spectacular nature and landscape. With so little limited time left in the country, I actually thought I would fall by the wayside. I was so grateful toTomo for letting me go. The city was just incredible. I was totally amazed especially by its landscapes, atmospheres, people, and lots of things. I spent most of the time on just walking around the town’s symbolic lake, Wakatipu Lake. The whole area is surrounded by loads of high mountains. So wherever you are you always see those beautiful mountains. I met a Japanese backpacker, Kensuke at the hostel. He was very friendly and talks a lot. Kensuke kindly offered me to show around the town.
To be honest, I actually wanted to be alone and explore the sites on my own, but with his very friendly countenance and amiable personality there seemed no way to say no. However, his guide turned out to be not so bad, I actually enjoyed it. We went to a nationwide well known hamburger restaurant, Fergburger, where Kensuke had had lunch at for three consecutive days. I ordered an immense hamburger, which had a massive piece of beef, and pretty much everything that can be expected in a Kiwi-style sandwich: onion, mushroom, tomato, lettuce, relish, avocado, aioili, etc. It was tasty and big enough to stuff a starving guy’s stomach. On the next day, I went on a tour to Milford Sound, which I had booked in advance online on the night before of my flight to Queenstown. Unfortunately it was raining so badly, but according to the bus driver it usually rains on more than 200 days of a year. So considering that, it was not very unfortunate. Our coach stopped at the Mirror Lake on the way, where supposedly you could see the surface of the lake as if literary you saw yourself in a mirror, but the heavy rain made it nothing but an ordinary pond, which reminded me of the ones in my hometown. Even though it was raining, Milford Sound was stunning. Other tourists seemed to be amazed by its spectacular and stout figure as well. I wondered what it would look like on a sunny day, but getting rained in was not only a bad thing; there were loads of small rainfalls in a row that only appear when raining. It was incredibly outstanding. We luckily encountered a group of dolphins. I was very excited and happy because I had never seen a dolphin in the wild.

started a business course

2011-02-08T23:08:00.001+13:00

After a long contemplating, I have decided to do a short business course at an institute in town, starting on Monday. Well, it is kind of exciting as I have not been in a school for a while and I think having new friends who have similar goals can be a very strong insensitive, in the same say, it raises my dedication to the language. The main reason why I decided to take the classes is that since I am thinking of finding a job, when I go back to Japan, where I can make the best use of what I have learnt in NZ, IT and English language, hopefully working at an international firm as a liaison, interpreter, at a Japanese company as an overseas sales position or the like. I conceived it would be a very effective way to spur myself to prepare for that. In the course, judging from their brochures, I am expecting we will learn about marketing strategies, advertising, human resourcing, helpdesk and more. Well, it is only a four week course so maybe I should not expect that much, though.

Happy New Year 2011 and quick update

2011-01-13T00:23:00.005+13:00

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you guys had kick ass time on New Years. Well, I have been rather busy doing lots of miscellaneous things over the last couple of weeks; well, mainly work though.

I have only got roughly a month left at work and two months in Aotearoa. I knew that I would feel like working there would be so precious that I don’t want to let time go by. I have mixed feelings. Anyway, we have started sorting things out our stuff by selling and giving out. I have just sold my long-loved guitar to one of my workmates. I hope he takes good care of it. It was the first guitar I bought when I was 15 with the money I saved from my Otoshidama. Well, Otoshidama is a Japanese custom in which adults give children money over the New Year’s holiday. I think I played thousands of songs for millions of times almost every day and stopped going to soccer practice at the team. Anyway, though it was a guitar with loads of memories, I thin it was about the time to say bye.

I find myself that I am a kind of person who watches the same films again and again if he hearts the film. So lately I have seen the following movies again: 500 Days of Summer (for the 3^rd time), The Hang Over (for the 2^nd time), Goal (for the 3^rd time), and The Social Network (for the 4th time). Well, the last one I saw multiple times was 500 Days of Summer, which was tonight. It made me think a lot about various kinds of things. I cannot really explain well, but I reckon I liked the way they filmed, the atmospheres of the story, the music they played in the background, the fact that it does not deal with serious subjects like that aliens abduct farmers from their trailers, that someone you loved turned out to be in a serious incurable disease or something.

We went to Piha for the first time yesterday. It was great. It’s kind of funny on the way to get there. We were pretty much concerned about losing petrol. The gauge showed just little left, but we were expecting there was a petrol station in Piha. However, it turned out be none. A girl at the café said that it would take at least 15 mins. by car to go to the nearest petrol station, and you had to go beyond the mountains. Although the beach was awesome, we could not really enjoy it as the petrol thing would not go away from our minds. So we pretty much ended up leaving real shortly after the long drive to get there, and headed off home hoping we find a petrol station real soon. We finally found one in New Lynn. Relieved.

Bye bye 2010

2010-12-31T02:17:00.004+13:00

Last year exactly on this day, I promised myself I would post to this blog in English at least once a month. And this entry will be probably the last for 2010; yes, I made it. That can be nothing for others, but who cares. This is something I have achieved and should be proud of. If you take a look at the archive bars on your right side, 2010 is the first year I have posted every month, and has the most entries, 26, ever since I started blogging in 2007.

What a shame. It’s about the time for us to leave and go back to the country. We will be here only until February or at longest until March. We are pretty sure we will miss everything about New Zealand: friends, the great nature, kebab, the She’ll be alright attitude, people, culture, and heaps more. At the moment I cannot really think of starting new life in Japan. I mean I know exactly what and how I should do to prepare for it, but right now I just don’t feel like doing it. Just nothing pumps me up. Frankly, I am not even sure if I really like my own country. However, there is one thing I am absolutely certain about. Having lived, studied, and worked in a foreign country, where they do not speak my first language, now I know what it is like and I can imagine how hard it would be. So it is going to be my turn to give a hand to those who like me, international students, someone from overseas trying to achieve their goals. Well, that does not mean I will work for some kind of foreigner support organization or anything like that. I just simply want to help them spontaneously on a personal basis.

Well, it’s 1:48 am on the 31st. I hope everyone will be having a great New Year’s Eve tonight. As for me, I am working till 8pm. It’s OK, because I love working there with my kick ass workmates. Well, I wanted to write about the Christmas party at work, which was awesome; it couldn’t have been more fun, but I reckon I will write about it sometime soon next year. So look forward to it, OK? I reckon that’s for 2010. I will see you guys in 2011.

Shu

Tutukaka Coast

2010-11-26T01:26:00.006+13:00

We went on a trip up north for a couple of days last week. Tommo insisted to go to Tutukaka Coast as she already had had been to almost the rest of the known places to visit in New Zealand. The area is said as one of the top ten dive spots, meaning it is abundant in great pristine gift from nature, which include spectacular seascapes, beaches, bush, and very transparent water, in which you can see the beautiful coral reef. Well, this might sound a bit trivial, but I have discovered this after the trip that National Geographic Traveler put the TUtukaka Coast in the top three coastal regions in the world. Indeed, there is no wonder. Have fun looking the pics of our exploring bits of the North Island.

The drive to the destination was pretty arduous; the road had loads of up and down hills and were pretty much winding, which made us feel nauseous. We had encountered a group of local idiots on the motor way. We were very annoyed by their reckless driving reminding us of the gruesome collision we had been involved in two years ago by a pair of drunken idiots, who were somewhat similar to them in foolishness, in the way they behaved. The morons gave us a loud horn and shouted at us something nonsense while overtaking us with ugly smiles, but I ended up condoning just giving the finger to them. Those types of guys are just annoying as can be. Apart from that, all the people we met along the trip were very friendly and nice. There was this old man when we were standing in the middle of the street in Whangarei with a map in my hands. He walked up to us and kindly asked if we were lost, then gave us the right direction. The staff at the backpacker were gracious too. We liked the lodge. It was adorned with loads of cool furniture, such as bed, rug, blanket, pictures on the wall so on, which helped make the tranquil atmosphere. According to the brochure, the owner couple went all the way to Bali to buy the furniture and ship them to New Zealand. Considering that although we went without any itinerary, we had a pretty good time having a feeling that we wanted to linger behind a bit longer. The culminating point of the trip was Whale Bay; it looked as if it had been a sacred place.

先週、北の方面へ小旅行へ行ってきました。ツツカカというこの地域一帯は世界でベスト10に入る

ダイビングのスポットと言われ、その透き通った水に生息する珊瑚礁も、ビーチも森も圧倒する位に美しく手付かずの自然のままなのです。ちなみに、後から調べて分った事なのですが、ナショナルジオグラフィックの記者が世界ベスト3のビーチエリアとランク付けしたらしいです。それ程までに美しいツツカカ、どうぞ写真を御覧あれ。

到着までの道は時間がかかり、山道だった為、二人とも少し具合が悪くなった。途中、危険な運転をする車がいて、イライラさせられた。クラクションを何度も鳴らし、追い抜きざまにわけの分らぬ事を喚き散らしながら消えていった。一年前の事故の事を思い出させられて一層気分が滅入った。しかし、この馬鹿物達を除けば、旅の中で出会った人は親切でフレンドリーな人ばかりだった。街中で地図を持って道を調べていたときに、おじいさんが声を掛けてくれて、優しく道を教えてくれたという事があった。俺達二人はすこし嬉しい気持ちになった。泊まったロッジのスタッフもいい人たちだった。特に、部屋の家具や調度品が全てオーナー夫妻がわざわざバリ島まで買い付けに行って揃えてきたらしく、そこでそれらに囲まれて過ごす空間が心地良かった。

写真のビーチはWhale　Bayというところで、今回の旅のメイン、まるで何か神聖な場所みたいな感じがした。

dots and lines

2010-11-23T13:03:00.001+13:00

One of my favourite quotes, made by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, from the graduation speech at Stanford Univ, CA.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

AppleのCEO、Steve　JobsのStanford大でのスピーチ、「勿論、予め将来何が起るのかを予測して行動するなんて不可能だが、後から振り返って自分の経験をそれぞれ結び付けて行く事は可能だ。１つの経験という点が在って、もう１つの点に気付けば、点は線になる。線は全てを描く。その点が結びつくと強く信じる事が重要だ。そういう風に何かを成し遂げたり、努力するときには心の支えとなるような物が必要だ。それは、自分が納得できるもの、強く信じれる物であれば、宗教でも、カルマでも、誰かの言葉でも何でもいい。信じる、信じないじゃなくて、何の為に信じるかだ。」

To the fools who leave spams on my posts

2010-11-12T02:03:00.004+13:00

First of all, I am not really bothered by you because those continual messages, which supposedly are intended to solicit and look intriguing in order to procure attentions from loads of randomly chosen people, are automatically detected as spam and quarantined separately to the delete box by Blogger; they just go straight to the spam box without being noticed by anyone, even me unless I spontaneously check them. So I am sorry, but it does not go anywhere but the rubbish bin. So I do not really care whatever and however many you send them.

Second, by utilizing a web analyzing tool and my web developing skills, it will be a piece of cake to track where you accessed to my page from and your ISP, and even your damn IP address, which I could expose to the whole bunch of strangers on this post if you wish. For your reference, your last spam about the scum online dating site was made at 23:06, 27th Oct, transferred from Tennoji, Osaka, Japan, came through mixi. If I embed a fragment of simple javascript and php codes onto this xhtml, it will be very easy to do a little scrutiny; I could see your stupid faces on mixi, facebook, whatever, or maybe your company if you send those spams from there, resulting in making your account revoked. Now you see I do not rule out identifying you. So it does not seem to be very judicious to keep doing it, but it is entirely up to you.

Although this is none of my business and I assume you do not care about any grievance one may have, maybe you may not even care how much your victims impeach you, I cannot help telling you how dambass and pathetic you are. What you do for a living is an outright scam and could give rise to serious harm to any individual you send spams to. You may not clearly state on your pages but what you insinuate on there are pretty obvious and abhorred by many. Basically you swindle credulous people by misleading to fake sites or illicit business, such as prostituting, gambling, etc., and inflict a mental problem on them infringing upon liberties granted by the constitution. I bet you have not even thought about those who are deeply agonized by you. I conceive you are deemed to be some sort of bacteria who are to be sterilized by strong disinfectants called Blogger spam filter. My contention here is that I have no idea how much money you make and by what your thirst for your success are quenched, but are you proud of yourself, really? If so what is the rationale for that? Then perhaps you can tell your children or family about your felonies, can’t you? I bet they would forsake you and you will end up perishing. What do the foods you buy with the dirty money taste like?

Well, it seems to have reached a mile stone; I am not writing this to stop you from doing it. I am writing this to tell you how stupid you are. So I won’t stop you. Go write and keep wasting your life of forgery.

迷惑メッセージを残す愚か者達へ

初めに言っておくが、君達のメールは俺の所に届く事は無い。何故なら、Bloggerが自動的に迷惑メールだと検知して削除してしまうからだ。ごみ箱には入ってるかも知れないが俺が自発的に確認しようとしない限り誰の目にも触れない。

次に、分析ツールと俺のプログラミングのスキルを駆使すれば、君達がどこからアクセスしてどこのプロバイダーを使っているのかという事や、IPも簡単に分る。参考までに、前回送られてきた出会い系サイトのメッセージは１０月27日日本時間23時06分、大阪天王寺のISPを経由、サーバーはmixi、もしここに、俺がjavascriptとphpの簡単なcodeを埋め込んだら、君のfacebookやmixiに載せてある間抜けなプロフィールの顔なんかもここに載せれるけれど、俺のこの大切な場所にそんなものを置きたくないからやめておく。

君達がこの低俗な商売でどれだけ稼いでるのかは知らないけれど、その事に誇りを持てているのか？もしそうなら、そのことを自分の子供達や家族に胸を張って言えるか？その汚れたお金で買ったご飯はどんな味がするんだ？　多分考えもしていないだろうけど、君達のやっていることは明らかな犯罪だし、それによって多くの人が迷惑を被っている。詐欺や威嚇行為によって憲法で保障されている誰もが平穏に暮らせるべき権利を蹂躙している。

俺が君達に伝えたいのは、迷惑メールを送るのを止めてくれという事ではない。勿論、俺には届かないから困らない。送るのか止めるのかは、この俺の文章を読んで自分で決めてくれ、続けてくれるのも結構。思う存分、これまで通り偽りの人生を無駄に生きてくれ。

The girl who leapt through time / 5 centimetres per second

2010-11-06T02:23:00.004+13:00

As you know, due to the ascent of kick ass Japanese anime works, going to Armagedon, an anime expo in Auckland dressing up as Naruto is now not the prserve of geeks any more. On top of immense circulation and being caught on in Japan, successful animation studios you may know such as, Studio Ghbli, well known for Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Ponyo and lots more, and Akira Toriyama from Dragon Ball, their woks are now being translated into loads of different languages and thriving. There have been great new talents uncovered, of which you probably have not heard yet. Today I am going to introduce two must sees to you guys, which I believe have excessively graphic drawings as, could be more, Studio Ghibli and moving storylines that take you back to the age of 15, where supposedly we go through sweet-and-sour experiences for the first time, and strictly no adult is allowed to intervene. You may probably conceive that as though your times of life could not be better than that. Well, there should be as many as dozen points why they are such great movies from other people’s perspectives though. You cannot help watching Five Centimeters Per Second without wishing that your youth had been like that and struggling to accept it as it was. There could have been rendezvouses after school, walking in the burning sunset hand in hand on the riverbank, unbreakable bonds of friendship, etc. However, the real world of the first year of high school was likely more complecated. Timid kids are most likely to be subjected to bullying. You have to work hard unless you want to fall behind. Everyone thinks they are omnipotent and is trying to climb the social ladder and undermine the status of others in the class room. Girls have to belong to a particular group in the hierarchy, like caste differentiation in some Hindu countries. It is as if everyone is on the verge of something. They talk in a language only they can understand, which is encrypted such that adults never have a clue. It is like a world of murky blemished water of a bucket. That is what makes it all the more reason why this film attracts so many people at my age. Chiaki, from the other film I recommend, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, can be deemed as an occupant of our side of the world. He never had had such great times like he had with Makoto and Kosuke, but somehow he felt he knew what it would have been like and it was too sweet to want to go back to where he belongs to.

English edition availavle

今や知っての通り、日本のアニメはスタジオジブリや、ドラゴンボールの活躍で世界中の色々な国で本当に多くの言語に翻訳されて認知されている。アニメフェスにナルトのコスプレで行っても、もはやオタクだとは思われない。だけど実はまだあまり知られていないけれど、それらの作品と同じ位、本当に素晴らしい作品がいくつかある。ジブリ並に、いやもしかしたらそれ以上に写実的な描写、そしてゆっくり時間を掛けて進んでいく、どこか懐かしいような、誰もが経験するような、共感できるストーリーで、この「秒速5センチメートル」は観る者達に、高校一年生にはどんな時間が流れているのかを思い出させてくれる。きっとそこでは、誰もが初めての甘酸っぱい経験をする。放課後の待ち合わせや、沈む夕日の中を手を繋いで歩いたり、熱い友情の絆だったり、そういうものであるはずだ。青春がこうであって欲しかったという気持ちにさせる。しかし、実際、現実の15歳という世界はそんなに美しくない。彼ら、俺達がいた世界では、いじめの無いクラスなど無いし、皆相手の出方を腹の中で伺っている、不良グループに入れば全てが許されるし、女子はインドのカースト制度みたいに階級グループに属している、何もかも親や他の大人達とは全然違う座標軸の中で動いている、そんな複雑で、まるで汚れた掃除のバケツをひっくり返したような濁った世界。中学生三年生なんて本当はそんな時代。だからこそ、こんな映画を観ると自分の青春を綺麗に塗り替えてくれる様な気持ちになる。「時をかける少女」の千秋はきっと、そんな“俺達側”の住人だ、功介や真琴と過ごす時間は彼が決してそれまで経験した事ない、だけどどこか懐かしい青春のイメージ、楽しすぎて元の世界に返りたくなくなる位に。

the brave and the coward on youtube

2010-10-16T01:37:00.003+13:00

I love watching videos on youtube, especially videos in which those who are not professional musicians are performing their works. I think it is even worth admiring for just exposing themselves to totally strangers on the Internet aside from how good their performances are. Well, some shy people wear sunglasses in order not to show their faces, though it ironically makes them weirdly more eye-catching than without. One of my favourite youtubers, he is an American armature singer, he has beautiful voice and talented song-writing and guitar skill, and what’s more he speaks excellent Japanese. However, there have been nasty comments left on his page almost every time he posts a video log. Those heartless messages include unrelated mental abuse, racism, perversion, you name it. In addition, unacceptably they are made by anonymous users. How can they do that? I mean, those losers cannot even tell the world who they are, and leave nonsense. That is a very unmanly and pitiful thing to do. Think about this, how could cowards like them, who use anonymous names to leave a comment, criticize a brave man like him, who boldly identifies himself, shows himself, and sings to you his songs in a language he is learning?

I reckon I probably have been studying English much longer than he has been studying Japanese. But I do not think I can speak that well and fluent, let alone shoot a video of myself speaking and post it on the Internet. I honestly am very bothered and scared of those haters on the Internet. So I think he indeed has courage to take action. I have a great esteem for him.

Youtubeの動画をよく見る。特にアマチュアの、素人の人が何か演奏したりするのを見るのが好きだ。内容の良し悪しよりも、まず自分自身をWeb上、不特定多数の人々の面前に曝け出す勇気、それだけでも、俺は尊敬する。中には、顔をサングラスで隠す人達もいるけど、皮肉なことにかえって奇妙で目立ってしまっている。お気に入りのアメリカ人のアマチュアのsingerがいる。歌もギターも上手くて、なにより日本語が凄く流暢な彼。しかし、毎回と言っていい程、心無い書き込みをするつまらぬ者がおり、読んでいて気分が悪くなる。書き込みの内容は、本人には関係のない誹謗中傷、差別や変態的なものまでなんでもありだ。しかも匿名で。こんなに卑怯で、情けない事なんてあるだろうか？ちょっと良く考えてみてくれ、この様な嫌がらせのコメントを載せるのにさえ、匿名を使っている様な者が、singerの彼の様に自分の名前、顔、歌やパフォーマンス、それらすべてを外国語で不特定多数の人に正々堂々とアピールできる勇気ある人に対して、匿名で批判などどうして出来ようか？俺は多分彼が日本語を勉強してきた時間よりもずっと長い間、英語を勉強し続けてるけれど、とても彼の様に、流暢で上手く喋れないし、ましてやVideoを撮って載せるなんて出来るとは思わない。それは勿論、彼に対して行われてる様な書き込みが怖いからだ。それだけに、彼の勇気は本当に素晴らしい。

Moving, trading….

2010-09-20T16:43:00.003+12:00

We just have moved into this little new place in Mt.Eden a week ago, and have settled in this quiet and cosy neighbourhood. It takes only 5min. drive from the previous place, but it feels like we are in a totally different area. It’s absolutely silent at night. It’s still 8pm I can only hear the sound of my computer fan. We now have set up pretty much everything, gas, power, water, the Internet, bed, appliances, etc. etc. Most of these appliances are either second hands items or rented. We bought them on trademe and some other auction sites, and sold our unnecessary things as well.

Buying and selling second hand items online is very common over here, in New Zealand, and, for that reason, it’s very reliable. What"s good about Trademe, an auction web site, from my point of view is that they let us trade a wide range of items, such as furniture, cars, and properties, and even search for jobs and flatmates, and their great security system. It includes a feedback system where you sell or buy things with no issues and maybe with a polite manner you will get feedback from the person you have traded with and everyone can see the feedback. So basically if someone with many negative comments for his/her trades wants to sell something you want, you won’t want to bid on it. Well, there are some trading websites like Trademe in Japan, but these are not that common, I mean, lots of people know about those sites but don’t really want to buy and maybe they are not as safe as Trademe, in terms of the number of frauds, identification thieves and some other potential risks. Come to think of it, the fact that most people choose “pick up” for the way of delivery of items represents the national character of NZ. In other words, that is never going to happen in Japan because of the same reasons as above. Although I said I would start posting Japanese translation, it IS troublesome…

最近になってやっと引越しをしました。Mt.Edenというところで、前の所から車で５分程しか離れていないのに、もうまるで別の地域の様に様子が違います。静かで、心地が良いところです。現在20時だっていうのに、唯一耳に聞こえるのはパソコンのファンの音のみ。引越作業は殆ど終り、電気もガスもインターネットも整いました。家具や家電は中古のものをオークションサイトで買ったり、レンタルのものを使用して安く抑えてます。不要なものもついでに売りました。中古品の売買はここNZではすごく一般的で、その多くの人によって利用されているという事がまた、取引の安全性に一役買ってます。また、特筆すべきその安全性の一つとして、ユーザーの信頼性がサイトによって管理されるという事。どういう事かと言うと例えば取引を問題なく行うと相手の人からの感想やコメントが送られ、誰もがそのコメントを見ることが出来る。つまり、評価の良くないユーザーとは誰とも取引しなくなるようになり、サイトの健全性が保たれるという事に繋がります。日本にもこの様なサイトはいくつかあるけれど、ここまで広まっていない、というか、よく知れ渡っているけれどあまり一般的ではないです。多分、安全性の問題、特に日本では他人の情報を悪用した詐欺が多発している為、皆慎重になっているのだと思う。この中古売買サイトを使う上で、本当にNZらしいな、と思う事がある、商品の発送方法を選択出来るのだけれど一番一般的なのが「直接家に取りに来る」です。日本なら絶対にありえませんね。勿論理由は上記の通り。それにしても日本語でも文章を書こうと前回かいたが、結構面倒です。

learn based on your mother tongue

2010-08-26T02:22:00.007+12:00

I have changed the way I study English a little. I used to think it would be the best to put all of yourself in English circumstances. For example, you think, write, and speak in English at all times so that your brain absorbs things efficiently in the language, and try not to think in Japanese because I thought when you use these two languages you deal with it as if by different parts of your brain, in terms of rhythm, intonation, pronunciation, grammar, culture background, customs, etc, etc. However, I recently have realized by a book that being able to have a good command of your mother language is vital, in other words you can rule out developing any greater in the language you study if you cannot make appropriate use of your mother tongue as there’s nothing you could translate from. For that reason, from this post on I will put Japanese translation at the bottom like many others do by way of experiment.

Also, according to the book I discovered that learning superior writings by heart can help improve your understanding of grammar and develop your vocabulary as well. It says literatures, such as Shakespeare can be great materials. But Shakespeare does not ring my bell, so I think I will just go with what I like for now. I came across a good English translation of one of my Japanese favourite songs called Aozora, written and played by Blue Hearts. Here is a part of the lyric below.

You might know where I was born

by my eyes and colour of skin

But otherwise what do you know

you dont know a thing about me at all

英語の学習方法を少し変えてみた。以前は全ての事を英語で行うのが最良の策だと思っていた。例えば、考える、書く、話すというこれらの動作を全て英語で行う、そして出来るだけ日本語では考えないようにする、そうすれば脳が効率よく英語で物事をうまく吸収すると考えていた。この2つの言語を使うとき、まるで脳のどこか完全に別の場所が機能しているかの様に考えていた、つまり、リズムや、イントネーション、発音、文法、文化、習慣等等が両者では全く違うのではないかという発想があった。しかし、最近、とある本を読んでこう考えるようになった、母国語を正しく使いこなすという事は不可欠である、言い方を変えると、日本語さえ満足に使えぬ者がどうして外国語でそれを言えるであろうか。そういう事で、他の人もやっている様に今回から日本語訳をこのブログに実験的に書こうとしよう。
また、例の本にあったのだが、名文といわれる文学を暗記するのは語学習得に於いて非常に役に立つであろうとの事。例えばシェイクスピアなど。しかし、私はあまり興味が沸いてこないので、今のところは自分が好きなものを覚えようかと思う。ブルーハーツの青空の英訳があったので、その一部を以下に載せておく

“生まれたところや皮膚や目の色で、一体この僕の何が分ると言うのだろう?”

The coolest cover of Kanpai ever by Scott Murphy

2010-08-06T15:46:00.009+12:00

This dude is just incredible. His pronunciation of Japanese and rhythm flow pretty naturally. He puts most Japanese to shame. I also sense his respect to the song. Scott Murphy is a must.

Go To Youtube

just updating

2010-07-29T03:05:00.005+12:00

Well, the job market has been totally dead. No good news yet. I wonder at this rate where I am going to. One of my mates from school, who was at the same class as mine, Computing Science. Now he is working as a window cleaner. I cannot believe this. I now am beginning to think expanding my job option to other areas would be a good idea. You see how desperate I am. So I have applied for jobs, such as technical support, customer service representative, sales assistant, etc. in the last couple of days. The other day, I finally got a phone call from one of the companies I sent my CV to, but I was pretty nervous on the phone because I didn't expect any of them would call. I also regret going to a pub at 6a.m. to watch a world cup game to cheer for Argentina, as a result I was not quite sure what I was saying during the conversation over the phone. I think I might have said something dumb. They said they would get in touch shortly for a face to face interview. Well, that was like a month ago.... Today I got an email from the firm to inform me that my application did not go too great. Damn..

Chilled out at Donny and Vanne’s last weekend.Their new place was pretty cozy, clean, quiet and warm, and it seemed pretty safe down there. I suppose we need a new place to live like theirs.

The world cup and media

2010-07-02T14:47:00.005+12:00

Well as you saw, the Japan team did an awesome job regardless of negative speculation. I am so proud of them. However, I am now a little sick of the media. If you are living in Japan or checking Japanese news websites occasionally, you would notice how they criticized Okada, the head coach of the squad, before the world cup saying things like “he is useless! The team is the worst ever under a crap coach…” and hypocritically they changed the way they portrayed him straight after the team’s first victory. They are now treating him like as a God, saying like, “We knew he would make it. We’ve been believing him blah, blah, blah. ” This made me want to puke. I think they should at least apologize him. This is why I hate the media. They write anything with no respect to anyone as long as they find it profitable even though it could hurt someone’s feelings. Speaking of Okada, in the Japanese largest online forum called “Channel 2”, there have been loads of threads about Okada to apologize to him for criticizing his strategy and to thank to him for the wonderful games. I hope he reads those posts.

I saw an impressive scene outside the field. After the North Korea’s first match, a reporter was interviewing one of the North Korean players. But although it was supposed to be something about the game or soccer, the interviewer’s questions were leading the conversation to the political concerns of the country. I reckon most people would be curious about that particular topic, but it definitely was not an appropriate question in that situation. But his response to the fool’s insensitive question was quite impressive to me, “We are not here to discuss about our nation’s politics. We are here to play soccer.” That was pretty cool. That is what spots should be like. I was quite touched.

A former famous Japanese national team player, Hidetoshi Nakata is one of those people who had bad experiences with media. When he was still playing, his interview with a weekly journal was once distorted by the publisher in a way people would pay attention to with curiosity. The article they wrote was about his point of view about the Japanese imperial family, which he did not mean to say at all. But what the magazine did resulted him in having to hire some bodyguards to protect himself from right-wing political parties and putting his family in danger. So from that moment on he has rarely been on TV and decided to speak on only his website to speak with his own words and so that no one can distort his words or mislead readers.

Well, I wanted to post something casual, but this entry looks like an essay. I realized there are a lot of dramas behind the scenes.

Lang8

2010-06-24T19:22:00.010+12:00

I have joined another social net working site called lang8. Lang8 is a community website where people from different language background put their journal entries in the language they are learning, and those entries will be corrected by other members who are native speakers of the languages. So basically what happens is that the members help each other by correcting other people’s grammar, spellings, expressions, etc, etc. I found this idea incredible and helpful for anyone who is learning any languages. I in fact posted three entries so far and received several feedbacks and corrections. The corrections the other members have made for me are very helpful in different ways. I mean, in other words, I basically used to studying grammar and expressions with general English grammatical resources, which include books and web sites, and picking up supposedly correct ways of using them, which is very textbook, not practical. But what I learn in there by getting corrected by those members is pretty much substantive because they in fact read my entries and give some recommendations based on the contexts and from his/her points of views, also sometimes they leave some nice comments regarding why they corrected in that way. Alternatively, I read and correct other member's entries that is written in Japanese, and leave some comments. I must say it is a great idea to build a social net working like this not only being with interactive communication, but also co-operation amongst members. I strongly recommend lang8 for those learning foreign languages. http://lang-8.com/

hate it....

2010-05-23T04:38:00.005+12:00

I seriously cannot stand it when people say ah!!?? or arr!? instead of saying “pardon me?” , I am not too sure what exactly they say though. That sounds incredibly rude to me. It reminds me of some kind of pathetic cheap street gangs. Especially those whose first language is not English tend to say those words quite occasionally to hide the feeling of embarrassments that they did not get you. Well, English is not my first language either, but I am absolutely certain that I do not say ah!!?? nor arr!?. Well, this could be a controversial topic as different countries have different ways to say it. I am not referring to any particular countries nor ethics on here. And I know it depends more like how you say it. Those people who say it are pretty much likely to say in sarcastic ways with their faces contorted as if YOU have some problem with speaking the language even if they just simply cannot understand it. It could be because they are not listening to you, because they cannot hear you, or etc. etc… Whatever the reason is, even if you have no problem, they always act as if you are a little slow or something and try to put the blame on you. Yes, my English is not perfect, I admit, but I always try to speak loudly and clearly enough and try to make it sound nice and polite. So there should be no reasons anyone asks me back what I said in such a rude way. It really pisses me off. I want to be nice and polite when speaking English rather than to speak fluently.

I also hate it when people swear. I reckon they listen to rap music too much or watch too many gangster movies. You know you are not Eminem, and you don’t sound cool, just strange and pathetic. In my opinion, it should be very easy to explain things with those cursing words, but I believe you never learn how to “describe” things in felicitous ways as you never extend the range of your vocabulary as long as you try to act like one of those gangstas on telly. Simple, you just claim in an appropriate way if you have got in trouble, then no one feels uncomfortable and things will get done smoothly.

Japan part 1

2010-05-18T01:04:00.004+12:00

Brilliant having caught up with my mates, family and real Japanese foods. As most Japanese restaurants in Auckland seems to be run and owned by Chinese or Korean people masquerading as Japanese even though at few places are run by Japanese people, the dishes they serve are pretty much likely to be designed for foreigners. Those dishes are awfully far from what average restaurants in Japan serve in terms of tastes, price, quality of foods and customer service. Therefore everything I put into my mouth made me cry for a joy because I had been away for about 3 years. We went to two Kaiten sushi places, where sushi on plates rotates on a track around the tables like a train goes round and you pick whatever sushi you like up when it comes round to your table. It was really funny Donal was eating like a cow all the time we hit the restaurants and even at the souvenir shops. They provide some samples. He tried loads of stuff, such as mochi, senbei, pickle, etc, etc.. at almost every shop on the streets. We also went to some beef bowl places, they always give cheap deals, for example, one beef bowl and a curry and a miso soup, 560 yen! I wish I could stay there a little bit longer.

back to work with a bit more confidence

2010-05-18T00:45:00.003+12:00

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.

A stupid faced guy just cut in the line and rushed in to me trying to get a pair of tickets at the counter. I, of course said no as first, he was not in the line second, there were some customers waiting on the cue. So to be fair to those who on the cue, I explained this fool, but I could see he was getting more arrogant while I was persuading to line up. I reckon he probably got embarrassed being asked in public to line up and that he was with a girl. I was kind of prepared for a situation like this as I had had pathetic customers like him lots of times, so I thought I definitely was not going to let him get anything when I saw this moron coming toward me. As expected he eventually started cursing around asking me unrelated things such as where I was from and my ethnic. I told him that I would not serve him as we have a right to refuse to serve anyone with indecent behavior like he had. And then I decided not to respond to anything out of his stink mouth, and just gave him a lovely grin without a word.

reviews: the hurt locker

2010-05-10T03:12:00.000+12:00

I still cannot believe that this film was directed by a woman. I mean I am not a male supremacist but I am impressed by the fact a woman directs a hard-core war movie like this. It depicts the guys’ friendships, boys nasty talks that I reckon it’d be probably hard to understand for women. Yet the story goes mainly from views of U.S., I would say 70%, it substantially has some perceptions of people in Iraqi that ranges from local innocent people to the solders that fight against the U.S. army. This film tells you a lot of things that you might not notice when you generally think about war. Such as the fact you never judge that not all people in the country are representing the nation. They are just happened to be born and raised in there. In most cases, local people have got nothing to do with wars. One of the things that makes this film interesting is that it reflects such differences between the local people and the nations. The nations what I mean here is not only Iraq, but also the U.S, the supporting countries, the terrorists, etc, etc. I reckon reality is the actual war is way more complex than the movie, but at least I have managed to capture some bits of it.

20 days to go

2010-04-01T23:16:00.002+13:00

Hola, just a quick update. Exciting news, I got a return ticket to Tokyo, and most surprisingly, Donal and Vanessa got the same tickets and come along with me. Tommo has been back home a month before. She said she’s been having fun catching up with her family, friends, and the foods, especially Sashimi, which is her favourite. We have already booked those main things such as transports and accommodations. I asked the manager for time off for two weeks, I hope she accepts. We’ll hit Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto in 7 days. Yes, we know this trip is going to be kick ass. It’s been almost three years since I went back to Japan last time, so I am pretty much looking forward to seeing how everything has changed, like the views of the cities, people’s fashion, my family, and even my stupid dog, Michael.All right, the far east land of the rising sun, here we come!

These pics have nothing to do with what I have written above though, have fun looking.

Piano

2010-03-11T00:18:00.004+13:00

When I was small, my mom forced me to take some piano lessons on a weekly basis, and forced my little brother as well. Having said that she forced, she might have asked me if I was keen for that, and I probably said yes, I don’t recall. But even if I said yes I reckon I made no considerations on that, just said yes for nothing. You know kids do that sort of stuff. But asked or not, I reckon it’s too young for a four year old boy to make a tough decision like this. The lessons were pretty hard and my tutor was strict as hell. I was not sure why the hell I was enduring a crap like this being bossed around by this hard core woman who looks just like she was from an army or something. As a consequence I became to hate practicing piano, and there’s no improvement could be seen at all despite the fact we spent tons of time and money on practice and tuition fee. As a result I began to use some excuses to avoid the lessons, such as that I don’t feel so great today, it would feel a bit better if I go out a little and take some fresh air…blah blah blah. I reckon that was how and where I developed my excusing and reasoning skills, which I am not proud of. The whole bunch of boys in my primary school were hanging out playing base ball and soccer whatever, but I always had to stay at home and practice damn songs in which I have no interests. What was the worst was that on Sundays like once a month they held a small concert where the kids play their assigned songs in front of the audience which usually consists of their parents and siblings. So I had to join the group of the girls and play my assignments. I sure looked pathetic and desperate because of lack of practice and confidence. I felt like an idiot being an only boy in the crowd of the girls. It was not very common and cool among country bumpkin boys to play the piano back then in Nagasaki. I reckon Nagasaki was much less sophisticated than other cities (maybe still is). Well, some people might think what a luxury concern but I am only writing my childhood memory in a quirky way. Now I am grown up and can appreciate what my parents have given to us. No offence, otherwise I cannot write anything funny on here and my posts will be dull. But after all I thank my parents to give such great chances.

It’s ironic now I have grown up, and would kill to play piano. Maybe some easy standard piano numbers, such as “imagine”, “Let it be” as as long as I find enjoyable, not like the ones that I used to be forced to play in floods of tears. Thank to technology we can learn piano on youtube these days. And now I have been looking for a cheap keyboard on trademe. I’ll upload some pics of a key board if I win on an auction. So wish me luck!

a conversation with an idiot at work

2010-03-09T00:08:00.001+13:00

Ugh annoying, one day when I was selling tickets and foods at the counter this moron came in to me and he goes like:

Me: would you like any food or drink?

Idiot: what? Are those free?

Me: no sir

Idiot: why did u ask then(with an ugly grin)?

What I wanted to say was:

“Look, you’re not funny. That’s why I’m not laughing. And there’s nothing we can offer you for free except my middle finger.”

my thoughts on whaling

2010-02-16T03:42:00.001+13:00

In regards to what’s been happening in southern ocean between the Japanese whaling boat and the activists, let me tell you something as an animal lover myself, you’re right. I proudly am Japanese but am opposed to whaling, so call me a traitor if you want to. I don’t care. Whales are our beloved friends; they shouldn’t be killed for our foods on the table. I’m totally with you on that. That said, however, attacking a Japanese student calling him “whale muncher” is not an answer. Neither are racially abusing Japanese tourists and calling for boycotts of Japanese products. You can find these nasty incidents that happened in New Zealand and Australia by simply googling if you don’t get what I’m referring to on here. I just don’t put the links to them not because I can’t be bothered, but because I don’t want to see the painful photos of that awfully attacked boy ever again. I’m pretty mush sure you’re not stupid enough to think this little innocent boy happens to be involved in whaling in southern ocean or for some weird reason he has mighty political influence that could stop whaling. Nothing can be solved by violence or nasty things like these. It is tragic as most Japanese people are opposed to whaling too and that we have no more control over our governments support for whaling than the peoples of the other nations when they had invaded Iraq. In addition, as an animal lover again, I can see that you love whales as much as I love kangaroos. So those activists against Japan’s whaling, you’re going to stand up to protest the commercial kangaroo kill in Australia, right? Or you’d say it’s a different matter form whaling? Then, let me say to you something as Japanese. Give me a break.

Wellington

2010-02-12T02:09:00.000+13:00

Just came back from Welly. It’s such a nice city. I totally loved it. A bit too cold and windy though. The people were wearing outer jackets and some were wearing even mufflers already. Considering in Auckland, they are still in sleeveless shirts and short pants, like typical kiwi style, it seems like there’s so much difference in temperature from Auckland indeed. There’re lots to see. We first hit Victoria Uni. It’s huge, looks like so “university” really, huge campus, quite old but well maintained buildings, I’d say a marriage of the tradition and the cutting-edge technology. We did some paper works done for Teya’s application and visa.

Happened to find Skycity cinemas! Well, they call themselves “embassy cinemas” but it’s got the same logos, so I believe it’s one of their complexes anyway. Like most buildings in Wellington, we were impressed by its antique design and architecture. They are pretty small but they’ve got a pretty nice café and bars upstairs. So we savored the tranquil atmosphere of it with incredible coffee. Watched nine, not too bad, I might see again.

Went to some restaurants. First, this Japanese restaurant. It says "authentic" Japanese style sushi and Dons on their nameboad, but it turns out there's no Japanese staff working there like every where else, as soon as they found we are Japanese, they looked so awkward. But we don't mind as we're used to it. Seems like running Japanese restaurants by other Asians, acting like they are the real ones is now a norm. Second, we went to this Taiwanese place, the food was real nice, but their attitude toward customers was awfully bad. The waitress didn't even look at our faces while taking our orders, and got no smile on her face at all. I don't really want to criticise much, but let me tell you something, they've got zero customer service skill if you ask me, and it looks that it is pretty much affecting the quality of their hospitality, the atmosphere, and even the tastes. Spending our hard earned cash on a crap like this is ridiculous. It should go to right places. Unfortunately,those two things were the only things that disappointed us in Wellington. Apart from that, we had a pretty good time.

avatar

2010-02-07T13:27:00.000+13:00

Well, apparently, evidently Avatar box office sales are growing insane. It’s like the whole country is watching on IMAX. Though it’s now slightly going down, it’s been sold out for last several weeks. Seeing over like 30 times of its ending, I can even recite the last couple of script lines of the dialogues. It goes”how’s it feel betraying your own race?”, “it’s all over”, “nothing’s over while I’m breathing!”, “I kind of hope you say that”, “you think you’re one of them? Time to wake up!” blah blah blah....

Heading for Wellington

2010-01-29T00:40:00.000+13:00

Thank you guys for celebrating my birth day. It was great and also thank you to those who left sweet b-day messages on my facebook page. I got 18 messages so far on my wall, which is about as many as when I posted about my graduation. Again, thank you guys I appreciate it. Well, we had a birth day dinner at Tanuki’s cave, CBD. Although we’ve been in Auckland for quite long time, it was the first time for us to go this eye-catching place. It’s like every Aucklander knows it. We’d always been wondering what the place is like, seeing from the other side of the street while waiting for the bus. Luckily we have a voucher from the entertainment book; it’s discounted by 25%. So although we were pretty much stuffed it costs about only 50 bucks for two people, which is much cheaper than we expected. Yes, and I have a pretty good news besides that; Teya made it for his uni entrance exam finally! His course starts at around the begging of March, quite soon. So we’ll fly down to Wellington on the 1^st Feb. to help his applications, visa, and stuff. Well, apparently he’s pretty much nerves and a little excited at the same time, which kind of reminds me my first year back then. It also kind of makes me want to go back to uni to put myself in those crazy busy days. Now that I think about it, I liked it actually. I miss working with other fellow students, doing those crazy amounts of assignments, preparing for insane exams that have way too big ranges. I reckon I might come back to uni at some stage in near future to get some further degrees. Like doing as part-time and working at the same time. I know it’d be easier said than done. But I know some people doing that. Even some of my mates do. On top of that it’s not really unusual in NZ compared to that in Japan. Ok, so anyway we’ll be out of Auckland next week, so can’t make it for the soccer on Monday. Sorry lads, but I’m pretty much sure you guys will beat whoever the opponent is. Go MIGUN nations!

Justice will prevail

2010-01-25T17:21:00.000+13:00

NZ police gets job done I think. They really do. Well, in regards to the accident last year again, the police rang me couple of days ago and kindly told that the driver from the other party has been sentenced to some reasonable time in prison and that the traffic court fined him. I forgot how much and how long. Though I had always tried not to even think about it, this news made my day, and I now feel so “fair” finally. It’s like there’s always something that deserves waiting for you at the end no matter how much unfair it was at the begging. Justice will prevail.

assertiveness

2010-01-15T00:56:00.001+13:00

Argh, arrogant customers! I seriously can’t see their faces straight without wanting to stab them repeatedly. I am pretty much frustrated by their rudeness. I had always thought if they could understand Japanese I would debate like a hotshot lawyer and talk them down, but probably I should be assertive to them neither aggressive nor passive.

Well, since my graduation I’ve been so lazy and It’s been even a pain to get myself motivated to work on my portfolio, which I’m supposed to have finished off by now to job hunt. I currently am working on three websites, which have got some database, user login systems, and all that jazz. It’s like whenever I’m in the mood, sitting at my desktop and start coding there’s always something need to be fixed. So then it's been looking a pretty big challenge. I’m thinking of updating some of it on the blog when it’s ready. Hopefully it won’t take that long.

me and the flatties at Christmas, let's pray lol

the "real" Japanese music

2010-01-07T02:50:00.000+13:00

It’s a pretty much shame that most people do not have any chance to know the “real” Japanese music. If you are not Japanese, it’d be pretty hard to find good ones, because all those music that’s brought to you by Japanese Medias are pretty much nothing. They are joke. Those companies do not care of the quality of the music and artists. They just merchandise as long as they find artists bankable. To give an example, a cool Canadian rock band came to Japan two weeks ago to do some concerts, but the event organizer arranged this Idol duo who has got no talent but popularity in teens. The dump duo is only well known with their cute looking, and everyone knows that any idiot can sing their numbers way better than them. When it comes to music, Japanese Medias cannot be trusted. That’s why lots of talented Japanese artists are buried in deep and generally dismissed. Yes, they are victims of the show-business of Japanese Medias. I am writing you today on behalf of those real musicians in Japan who do not have chances to be known even though they are talented and have enough skills, because I kind of know what they feel like about it. I actually was aspiring to become a professional musician with my band, which I spent a lot of time in my youth with. So our band and other bands around us back then had always wanted to change this unfair circumstance, but it never did. Other than the fact that I reckon our band did not succeed because of the lack of ability in performing and writing cool songs and popularity, under that circumstance it’s almost impossible to become professional musicians and keep writing songs that you really want to sing. Even if your band are luckily caught by a record label and successfully make your debuts, the label won’t let you write songs that you want to. They will force you to write/perform boring tunes that they think makes stable income. Considering the biggest shopper range of music CDs is early teenager, those record firms try to provide something easy-listening, kindergarten-style, and something looks/sounds innocent no matter what kind of music it is, even if it is punk rock. I reckon if worldwide famous musicians who have got distinct tastes of music, such as Bjork, Korn or those who bring controversial strong political messages, such as Rage Against the machine, System of A Down, if these musicians were in Japan, they wouldn’t be as successful as they are today. They wouldn’t even make their debuts. So most songs on Japanese music charts are full of crap if you ask me. However there ARE some real good musicians in Japan but they are not known at all even inside Japan because of the reasons I explained above. However, taking benefits of the IT revolution, it’s become pretty handy to transmit information. I now proudly introduce this cool Japanese rock band called “The Back Horn” They definitely have distinct style of music and sound. I think they deserve to be known world widely.

my graduation

2009-12-31T21:14:00.000+13:00

10^th of Dec. was our graduation day of Computer Science at Uni. All the graduands were gathered in Albert Park at 9am for the marching. I took Tommo and Teya along as my private photographers. The marching was fun and great. All of us were wearing the academic dresses and gowns, which have different colours and shapes depending on degrees and courses. Our course is Computer Science, so we put on green ones. We walked grandly down Hobson st. and turned right onto Queen Street up to Aotea square. It felt great to occupy the one of the busiest street in NZ marching in the middle of the street with the fellow students sharing the feeling of accomplishment. The whole bunch of the students followed a Scottish marching band during the marching. I loved their bagpipes. It contributes to make a stately atmosphere of the procession. Tommo and Teya followed us through the pavements to catch up and take photos of us. They took nice pics. Thanks.

reviews: district 9

2009-11-13T14:45:00.002+13:00

District 9

This film had not seemed like my type of movie until I saw it, but since then it's beena must for me. It left a huge impression on me and made me a bigfan of Peter Jackson. I eventually watched it twice.I ranked this film #1 on my TopFilms of 2009, (btw, the Dragonball movie was at the bottom. ;p)

It isn’t just one of those typical sci-fi alien movies. You won’t be ableto predict this intriguing twist and will be surprised by the flamboyance actingand the amazing story. The script is multilayered and full of those details thatyou may not pick up on the first time around. I found that this film dealt not only with the issues between human beings and aliens, but also issues that was as human beings deal with, such as prostitution, discrimination, and the expanding disparity of wealth. One of the themes of this film is the question "Where do you draw the line in protecting your most precious thing, whether it be your family, a friendship, a lover, or contribution to your nation?" Instead of worrying about what the aliens might do to us, this film is concerned about what we are doing to them.

As the story goes, you will see yourself in a room with mirrors on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The film reflects your perceptions of outsiders of the society you belong to. It does not have to be aliens; it could be anything. It could be ethics minorities, religion, the poor,or vulnerable segments of society. This monster film tells you who themonsters are.

stop playing MJ's!

2009-11-13T13:29:00.000+13:00

Well, it’s been a while… where to start.. I reckon many of those who (if any) reading this blog might be pretty much fed up with my “not neatly” updating. But, please don’t stop subscribing. I’ll manage to keep it updated as often as I can. Like you know, things keep happening, so there’s always something I want to address.

just let me mention I got this sweet job, more like the sweetest job I have done ever including back in Japan. The colleagues and bosses are awesome, no doubt. So I’ve been pretty much enjoying this place except those rude customers. Well, maybe I should supposedly call them patrons against my will, but quite frequently they pretty much piss me off and sometimes even keep me awake whole nights. To give an example, this wanker just cuts in the line and “tossed” me his note, and said “tickets.” I am supposed to read their mind and give them tickets to whatever movies they want to see without them saying anything?

Apart from that, I can’t complain. I learn new things everyday listening to Michael Jackson, which they have been playing for last 2 weeks. And l find myself like singing “black or white”, “beat it” unconsciously even though I’m pretty much sick of it. They seriously should stop playing it.

Poster 2

2009-09-17T19:40:00.001+12:00

Created new posters for my final assignment of visual communication last semester. I passed all the papers with pretty good grades except this paper, C-. Below is one of the two, a photo-realistic image of a scene that never existed or could never exist, by compositing two or more photographic source images together. It shows myself looking at the small version of me stuck in the bottle. What do you say?

My Honda died

2009-09-15T16:24:00.000+12:00

Probably I can put this on my top 5 worst list in my life. Well, I’ll tell you step by step what happened to us, because it’s a very long story. So now I mentioned it’s a very long story, it’s probably about the time to stop reading this post now if you’re not up for it. It actually had much luck to start with. Our flatties, Donal gave me and Tommo two free tickets to Cirque du Soleil Dralion Auckland show. It was awesome. We pretty much loved everything from their dance, music, story, and clothing to even the allocating staff! She was so friendly giving the customers her beautiful smiles. After the show we drove home and tried to park as every time we do. After turned right to reverse, at that instance there was a horrendous sound, and we saw a car in the air jumping over our car and bounded on the ground, then almost flipped. Well, what happened was that a car was driving up behind us from the bottom of the street at very high speed, and tried to overtake us from the right side (F.Y.I. In New Zealand we drive on left lane), but ended up to crashed into us and drove over our car’s bonnet and bounded on the ground. At the time of the crash our car’s whole body was on the right lane facing the right side of the street. The street slopes upward. It was exactly like in a movie, “Fast and the Furious”. They hit the front right side of our car, so both of our cars damaged pretty badly. The only good thing was no one was injured. After the crash I still did not get what exactly was happening and was in a panic. Now that we think about it, it is obviously the other driver’s fault. But at the time I even thought it might probably be my fault because I never had got involved in an incident like this and I know I am not a very good driver. So when the driver came out of his damaged car he looked very freaking out and offensive to us, and said “What are you doing?” I had no idea what to reply. Probably I should have said “What are YOU doing?” But I said “umm, sorry”, “are you OK?”, “do you need to see a doctor?” He said he was fine. But the fact I said “sorry”, he probably took it as that I admitted it is my fault so I was sorry, which I did not mean, though it is obvious that I am a foreigner whose first language is not English. They are two of them. The other guy was fine, and looked weirdly chilled and giving us grins significantly. He even looked relaxed. I bet he was on drug. About 5 minutes later after the crash, the police came. It was very quick. I still don’t know who called them, but appreciate whoever it was. There were some people on the street already; probably they heard the sound of the crash. The police officer did an investigation of the scene of the accident, taking our explanation from the both sides. They also did a breath test to the both of us. I passed (of course!). But the other driver didn’t. He was over the limit. I knew it. So after the whole investigation process the driver was taken to the police station, and we were released. My car was towed away to Penrose by my insurance company. Tommo was a little shaking up. As I expected, the negotiation didn’t go great. It turned out that the driver is not the owner of the car. So it started between the actual owner, who is his sister or something and me at first. She had no thought of paying us our car’s damage and even of admitting that it’s their fault. She surprisingly even insisted that it’s my fault saying “you caused the accident as you didn’t indicate, so why do I have to pay you? You should pay” So I gently replied that since my car was turned already, and was on the right lane and then her drunk friends drove over us. But she replied saying “he wasn’t drunk actually. after the breath test the cops did the second test, and then it turned out be fine. Plus on the police report that I have, it says you caused the accident.” After the conversation I got pretty much concerned about what she had said and was not quite convinced. Renaud and Donal kindly helped me go to the police station with me to talk to the officer from the night so I can make sure if what she said is true. The cop gave me a relief. It turned out that she was lying. The police didn’t do the second test. The driver is going to court for his drunk driving. Most surprisingly the police report had not even been issued yet. It is first sent to a government agency and goes through some police procedures, and finally sent back to Auckland. It takes about two weeks. So there’s no possibility that she could have had one at that time. So it seemed the situation was favourable to us. I had felt quite relieved until I got a phone call from AA insurance the following week. They said the other party had said that I admitted that it’s my fault so I need to repair by myself.OMG, I couldn’t believe it. Of course I controvert at instant saying they were lying. What I couldn't believe most was that an insurance company was hearing a party in the first place. They shouldn’t be listening to any of us, aren’t they? So I went straight to the point. They replied saying that sometimes depending on situations, they decide a liability by themselves. I bet they were just trying to decide that it’s my fault so they simply did’t have to pay both of us. So I had been having discussions like this with AA insurance heaps of times. It completely made me down. I was so depressed, and didn’t feel like doing anything as I had been under the stress since those crazy asses had crashed into. Moreover, the worst thing was that I had had classes and assignments due pretty much soon. I found AA insurance not organised at all because almost every time I spoke to them I got a different staff, who don’t have enough information about the case. So I always had to explain from the beginning and controvert against them. It kept giving me headache. To make matters worse that the other party kept calling AA insurance insisting that it’s my fault, and that I admitted, which of course I didn’t. Therefore as we had more dialogues like this, they had become sounded on the other party’s side. Our flatties were pretty much concerned about us as we obviously didn’t seem to be doing fine. So Donal called AA on behalf of us questioning and claiming about the case. He pointed out that AA had been supposed to check my car’s damage where they could easily see the trace that the other car had driven over and not supposed to decide the liability until they get a police report. Thanks Donal, we really appreciate everything you’ve done for us! So we eventually waited for a police report. Things still didn’t go well as we had expected. AA called me saying that they had got a police report, and it says I caused the accident. Also said, “Considering the fact that the other party was drunk driving, we decide that those facts contribute the liability evenly. You both have to repair by yourselves.” How could it be stupid like this? I insisted that since the officer I spoke to said “there’s nothing to worrying about. It IS their fault”, your report is completely different from what I heard. But they wouldn’t hear me. They even told me to come and pick up my broken car otherwise they were going to charge me the storage fee. Fed up, Apoorva rang the police on behalf us, only to be told that they couldn't help me because it is outside the scope of the police’s authority. I had to assume that someone was lying. Called AA the next day and asked to send me a copy of the police report. But at that instant there was a pause for five seconds, and she said that you need to ask the other staff for it. Oh, common! How could it be so stupid, you guys are in the same company, aren’t you? So I asked her to ask the staff to send it to me. As you can guess there’s something suspicious. On the next day, AA called me and said, “We actually find it the other party’s fault. So we’ll cover your car’s damage.” OMG, they changed the liability overnight! I didn’t ask why because I knew they would bullshit me and I was pretty much fed up with them. They told me that they would call today again regarding their covering the damage. But they didn’t’ call eventually. A week later, I rang them and asked what’s the hell was going on. They put me on hold for 15 minutes to put me through to the staff I spoke to last time. And finally they asked me my bank account number and paid. It took more than a month to finish off. So I now finally feel pretty much relieved and can think with aplomb what I have learnt from that accident. First, be prepared well, second, don’t say yes till you get it, and finally keep your mind proactive. Most importantly, I would like to use this space to thank our awesome flatties from the bottom of my heart.

Posters

2009-04-27T16:39:00.000+12:00

Well, I’m doing Visual Communication paper for this semester, which is meant to be my final semester. But like mentioned before somewhere in this blog, the stupid admin completely screwed me over and I’m gonna end up doing one more paper. I’m not gonna explain it this time, ‘cause every time I think of it, it makes me feel incredibly unhappy. Anyway going back to Visual Com paper, for the first assignment, we make 2 posters for assigned themes, which are a Biotechnology conference and our University radio station. We are meant to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for each poster. Here’s my works. The bio one tells you the date and the location of the conference, and who supports it. And the picture in the centre portrays how DNA genes connect each other in an abstract way. Because I don’t like to use an exact image of theme, for example in this biotech case, using a picture of a microscope or something which is like most of the other students does. I personally think it’s too obvious and boring. So I aimed to make people imagine by using this abstract drawing, plus considering we are allowed to use only two colours for it. However, at the first working on progress presentation, when I explained my works to the lecturer and other students, their feed back to me pretty much sucked. One of the students said it looks more like a military design, and hard to understand it’s DNA genes. Of course hard you fool, ‘cause that’s exactly what I aimed. I didn’t want it so inartistic or tedious like yours. Hell yes I am so happy, you can’t understand it’s GNA genes! And for the other poster they gave me “not so good comments” as well. I’m not surprised. But I hope you guys like it, but actually I don’t mind whatever you think of it. Leave comments only if you like it, ‘cause I don’t want critics anymore.

argh, bed bugs

2009-03-31T16:00:00.000+13:00

Can anyone get rid of these annoying bed bugs out of my room? They seem like to choose people to bite. Luckily, they hate me, hell yeah, i don't like them either. But the problem is Tommo's got bites like on her whole body although she's kept washing the sheets, cover, clothes, anything we susupect they might travel through. So she's pretty much sick of it, keeps scratching herself all day long, and even said"let's get the hell out of here". So then I went to this pharmacy on Queen st. next to Mcdonald's to shop something for bites. But this stupid staff's so much useless and grumpy to boot, doesn't even say hi or anything and looked annoyed by my asking. I was incredibly unhappy with this sucker. Well if i was her boss i'd definately fire her in 2 seconds. So we're like so much sick of everything about this bug things, everything from getting itchy, having to buy stupid sprays and bombs to the stupid grumpy pharmcy staff. wish a little extirpation to the bugs

Video game is a mother of programmers

2009-01-18T21:55:00.000+13:00

Figured. There’s this thing I found by asking around the students in my Java class, they all love video games like more than anything in the world, like more than hanging out clubbing, more than skating, more than girls…more than anything kids out there do. Just ‘cause they seem like if they don’t, they would die or something. So they’ve grown up with it, so it’s not hard for them at all to sit at a computer all day long typing programs. This is like explaining why I so suck at programming.

Well when I was a kid my parents were pretty strict and they seemed like they think video game rots your brain or something. So it spent years to convince them to buy me and my bother our first Nintendo. But we were strictly allowed to play for only a half an hour on only rainy days! Once she found that I spent playing the Super Mario 3 all day long at my mate’s place , she went completely mad, she never took it calm. So I thought every kid in the world is having more fun than me, which could be true. This is why I suck at it. Moreover, my mom bought me a copy of Dragon Quest 3 for my b-day present, which was one of the most popular RPG games at the time, so like bunch of kids were crazy about it. So I cried with a shriek of joy and almost kissed her, But like mentioned, she expects me to play it for only a half an hour on only rainy days, no expectation! Come’ on, It’s a Role Playing Game for god’s sake! So I was like “ Am I making a fool of myself? how the hell would I be supposed to complete it for such few days, otherwise it’s gonna take years! Kids are like pretty much obsessed with a journey with Roto! Well so then I stopped wanting to play it, and started spending time and money on mangas instead. I reckon it’s kinda same, could be worse. Games or mangas, I wasn’t studying at all anyway. So if your mom and dad won’t buy you a real guitar, ask them a GH3 instead, it rocks much more in my humble opinion.

Teya's so called life

2009-01-18T21:33:00.000+13:00

Well, my little brother Teya just came over to NZ. He wants to go to Victoria uni which’s in Wellington. To go to uni in NZ, u’gotta get the required score on this some kind of language test called IELTS which stands for Indians, Eat, Lots, Tandori.... Kidding! lol, um.. not sure it’s prolly something like International English L…. whatever. So we start off travelling down to Napier where there’s the language school he wants to go to. After the 8 hours travelling by bus from Auckland, we finally got there. It’s pretty much cosy and quiet, people are so friendly and pretty laid back. We both love it. So I stayed there for a couple of weeks till he gets used to, and then headed back to Auckland. Wish him a good luck with study.

so how's Celtics? who knows

slip inside the eyes of your mind.. dont'you know u might find a better place to go....

hola amigo!!

2009-01-18T00:43:00.000+13:00

Hey guys Mery Christmas, happy New Year, and all that jazz! Sorry guys like every time, not updating for a while. Well.. where to start. The run up to Christmas felt so long, and then all of a sudden it was Christmas day. We didn’t really have a big party or anything just my mates came over with KFC and coke, and just kept playing GH3 which I suck at. This could be a typical NZ Christmas day these days. New Years was fun, Mike came over, and stayed with Andrew and his family, then talked to Tommmo over skye till morning. Since that I've not done a lot other than work at this sandwich place. Expect a more detailed update soon

Whangarai

2008-10-14T01:43:00.000+13:00

Hi all. Sorry for not having updated for a while. As you can reckon I have been pretty much busy with uni and stuff. I hope everyone’s days have been good. Awww.. three assignments, one presentation, and the final exams, these all within a month! You guys feel free to give me a hand, lol.

Argh thieves

Well, I’ve been having bad days a little lately actually. Things didn’t work very well. I got robbed last month. I don’t really want to talk much about this, but just let me say this,”You, thief! I don’t mind what and who the hell you are, and don’t care if you get busted and end up in a smelly tiny jail and get fed shits either. Just give me back my stuff u stole from me! You’re not worth it.”

I have been wondering whether or not I should ask you guys this question I've been dying to ask. This cop stopped me from riding bike and asked ”how come your hand in your back pocket ?”, I was like”What?”

The cop”I gotta fine you cowboy”

“Nah, wait 'caues just it's itchy”

“You weren't scratching your ass”

can't be! How the hell could this dude watch me riding if scratching or not while his driving on the other side of the street? He must be telling a lie.

Do you think I deserve to get fined?

Though I don't know NZ's traffic laws, sure this is the most ridiculous reason I got police questioning ever.

argh spams on Myspace

Dont bother asking for my Msn address or asking me to add You as a friend cause theres no point, It isn't going to Happen!! Msn is for people I know and well if you want me on your friends List you can add me!! The heaps of people I still get asking after clearly writing it on there does my head in!

Moving On..

Well, so I was just sick of Auckland as hell. I don’t want to get involved in any stupid problems, don’t want to see any vulgar gangsters, prostitutes standing on K-road asking me out with smoking weeds, and those rude people. I seriously can’t be fucked up with them anymore. I need a change.

Luckily, now it's semester break for two weeks.

So I moved in to this new flat last weekend. And yes, I need to relax. So I decided to go traveling.

Whangarei was awesome. No doubt. The great Whangarei water fall, the cosy backpacker, relaxed atmosphere, But most importantly, all the super duper great people I met along the way. All the friends I made really made this trip worth it.

I have never gone home from backpacking disappointed.

So it's all good now. You guys be careful of thieves, OK?

Well, here's the pics, so have fun looking!

my worst time table ever

2008-07-28T21:34:00.000+12:00

8-9 Mon Applied Operating System 8-10 Tue Logical Database Design 12-14 Wed IT Project Management 14-16 Wed Logical Database Design 14-16 Thur IT Project Management 16-14 Thur Applied Operating System 9-10 Fri Applied Operating System what a useless timetable. What am I supposed to do with just three bloody papers? Taking a yoga course or something instead? No damn way! Maybe I can find a part time job, hopefully some IT related work. But you know what? The alll I have learned so far includes: fundamental skills and knowledge of programing languages, which are java, perl, bash, cgi...... and some basic principle of hardware, data communication. ah wait wait, this is just so basic, as basic as crawlers! I just want to make use of my free time that happened to come to me. Actually I don't really want much money, would rather like experiences.

five exams to go, whatever. all good

2008-06-02T00:21:00.000+12:00

Hi all, sorry for not having updated for such a long time. But i can explain it. As u can reckon, I’ve been pretty much busy with this heaps of bloody uni stuff, you know. It’s like I’m being forced into an arranged marriage.

On an unrelated note, I found out three things lately.

1. Surprisingly, there is a course at uni that they study Japanese language and culture as their major. Their class rooms are right up in the same building as mine, computing and science. I happened to go up stairs to chill, thenI heard most of the students thare were chatting in Japanese. They were doing pretty well, and way more politely than I do, lol.

2. Other than the fact they had Sushi with coke, watching them working that hard made me motivated and find the importance of understanding deeply the culture they learn.

3. You can ride to the science building in less than five min. As long as you don’t mess up and go in the wrong direction, I mean go straight down Queen st. and end up in traffic jam.

Going by bike saves me a good 2 bucks, which is good considering how poor I am.

Blah blah blah.

holi is over. I'm home.

2008-02-24T00:03:00.000+13:00

Call me oink, idiot, dumb, whatever. I couldn't make it on The Big Day Out! Actually I didn't go, although I paid around $140 for the ticket. It's a long story, so maybe I’ll tell you sometime later. I wonder how it was, how the rage against the machine was, and how beautiful Bjork was! A friend of mine, who was supposed to go with me, Horry from Galatos texted me saying "hey shu u won't believe this Tom Morella and Serji Tankan played on the same stage!" It sucked I wish I was there. But I was in the South Island at the time.

Yes, I was working on vineyards in this town called Blenheim in the South island, which is about 2 hours drive from Nelson. Working in there and that crazy hot sun made me a completely different person with deep brown skin, yeah i got tanned pretty much. You might not recognize who I am, lol. I stayed this backpacker, where about 40 people from many different countries all over the world were staying. They seemed grumpy to begin with. But as time went by, they turned out be super duper nice guys. I really loved to hang out with them.

We'd start working at 7:30. The job was just simple, like helping the grape trees grow and harvesting, lifting wires that they put on them along each row of the trees so that the trees keep growing up straight. The wires were lowered under the weight of the grown falling trees, so you just lift them up each by each. As it sounds, it was so boring, and made us sick. Anyway we just kept working this kind of crappy jobs murmuring. We worked on contract, so the salary depends on how much you work. I couldn't make very big money 'cause I was kinda slow. But It's OK as long as I get enough money to live on, 'cause I wasn't there to make money, to try something new, like making new friends. After work, we'd go straight back to the backpacker, take shower, eat and drink beer and wine till around 2:00, and wake up at 6:00. It might sound a bit insane, but it really was pretty fun, looking back on those days. I even want to go back there and work!　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　tugging and tidying up the grape leaves growing on stalks to inside the wires. It gave me a long-lasting backache.

wanted them set on fire　　　　　We are vineyard gangs, bring it on, lol!　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

After 4 weeks of work in Blenheim, I started traveling heading back for Auckland. I hit Nelson, Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Mt. Manganui, Te Puke and Raglan. I met heaps of people from many different countries along the way; they all were so kind and friendly. This journey told me that meeting new people is the most wonderful thing in traveling. So I promised to myself that as long as I have enough money and time, just go traveling

the view from the Mt. Manganui.

Last weekend I and a friend of mine that I met on this trip went to a reggae festival called Sound Splash ’08 in Raglan. All backpackers around there were full, so we decided to camp in the festival. They also provided a camping site, so we changed our tickets to camping tickets, witch cost us an extra $20 each. But it was way cheaper than staying at backpackers for 2 nights. So we bought a cheap tent at the Warehouse, which was just $39. The festival was freaking awesome! nice music and relaxed people, peace! Everyone there seemed they don’t care anything like how others think them. They were just completely relaxed chilling, doing whatever they liked from drinking from early in the morning, smoking weeds, playing music, kissing and hugging somebody they don’t know and etc. No one seemed sad in there. I loved it! I will definately go back to this festival again next year.

The next sem's gonna get started pretty soon, so I need to put myself on busy days so that I get used to those crazy uni stuff. I've got a year and half more in uni.

Sound Splash '08 in Raglan Aotearoa's Annual Reggae Festival

got a new carriage!

2007-12-24T01:57:00.000+13:00

Hi All, Just a quick update. Bought this sweet bicycle.

Guess how much it was? Surprisingly costs just only $65 itself. But I had to have a shop staff assemble it, so it was actually $85 in all. Not bad, eh? I really like this boy, so bought him some cool stickers at the $3 shop on K-rd, put them on him and named him Sonic Death Monkey.

Sonic Death Monkey takes me further places than when

walking around. And I discovered this comfy beach just 10min cycling right back from our house.

Almost every timeI go there there’s few people, so it is a good place to practice singing. Sometimes I bring my guitar and play it and sing loudly. Last time I went there I saw some one in the distance watching me singing pretty aloud, and he was saying something to me, sounded like he was mad. But I couldn’t really hear him so just ignored and kept back singing louder. I don’t care whatever he was trying to say. This is how I practice playing music. Otherwise he might have been on drug.

I have been on Bebo lately, and came across John Edward, the senator heading for the next president of the U.S. I wondered if he was a real deal. Seemed like for real, putting a picture and videos of himself. But one of the comments on his page says the real John Edward certainly wouldn’t have time to care Bebo page. That made me rough. In New Zealand Bebo is the most popular net working web, that’s why I started. I have only one friend on my page so far though, who is one of my class mates. Apart from Bebo I am on three other net working webs, but I hardly use them ‘cause it’s so complicated being on other different sites. In addition it’s weird this guy from my old work place, who I don’t really know about, just have said hi or something just for once, asking me for adding himself on my friends. And it’s hard to say no, then he will see my pics and schedule on my page.

Tomorrow is Christmas day.

What you guys up to? I’m going to a party which my uni organizes. So excited! But here’s another thing about Christmas, I haven’t wrapped up the presents yet, I really suck at hand-making things like this. I haven’t even started it, just bought a roll of wrapping paper.

wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Peace

shu

enjoy ur holi!

2007-11-27T21:50:00.000+13:00

My gosh, passed all of the papers Yay!! I can't believe myself. I thought the essay one would be failed 'cause I ran out of the time on the exam, although we were allowed to spend 3 hours on the exam to write 2 essays. It seems long enough, but it wasn't for me, not. Needless to say, I was the last one who finished and came out of the room. So I hadn't been very happy till it turned out i passed. But it was really close actually. I would have failed if the score was lower by at least 3 points. Apart from that, I got really good scores, which made me happy: A-, B and C+. So finally the summer breaks has come. I' m gonna take one paper in the summer school during the holidays so that I would be able to spend time on jobhunting in my last semester. But, the summer school, it's gonna be pretty tough, because it has only eight days for one paper, which means we have to study the same amount of the paper as the one on a whole semester, which goes 3 months. So I can't go easy.

Oh, sadly, I heard Serge left System Of a Down and he is back in Auckland! I haven’t heard his solo album yet, but some of my friends said it’s awesome. I’ve gotta get one.

A month to Christmas, what's every one up to?

The finals are coming

2007-10-31T00:00:00.000+13:00

Well, it’s eventually only one week left to that damn final exams. One of the four papers, PCIS is already done by giving the group projects, so three of them are waiting for us to be beaten.

Been stuck on this java programming thing, this keeps giving me headaches, like every time it says “compile error” on its window, I am about to throw away my laptop out of my room and destroy it in pieces!

And this essay stuff is also challenging for me, because I’m not really good at writing academically. So for students like me, AUT provides "learning develop centre", where students can drop in and ask for some helps on some points they don’t understand. I dropped in there to have a staff there proof read my essay, and met this man, Marcus. He is pretty old like 60, and so nice to me with big smiles. But as soon as he looked at my essay title, he turned pale. “Should societies accept implements of euthanasia?” this is it. No, I didn’t mean to write this to show him. I felt like we were in an awkward atmosphere. But he just joked”Oh boy, this is meant to come to me, eh? ” .Yes, he was pretty cool, and I was relieved that he did not seem hurt.

The group project was well done, and I found it so much fun, because we organised the work efficiently and nicely by having lots of group meetings. Both Ashley and Hayden helped me practice the presentation. Thank them two. In addition, I really impressed by what Michael did in the last PCIS tutorial. He suddenly stood up in the middle of the class, and started giving a brief speech on thanks to Alison for her lectures this semester, representing all of us. After his speech we clapped Alison, and then she looked very happy. It was a very sweet moment. Michael might not be one of those hard-working students, but he actually is so cool. I was touched.

I hope we all survive, and after this we’re gonna be totally off the hook, ok? I cannot wait till the summer break and The Big Day Out in January!

it’s getting warmer and warmer in Auckland. Look! hanging out washing in the wild, how much I got New Zealandized!

Shu's sweet school days

2007-09-18T23:24:00.000+12:00

Well, it’s been almost two months since I got started my course at the uni, AUT this July. So now we are on break for two weeks, so I got time to update this blog. Well, I think I’ve been having really nice time so far with my class mates, though the tutors give us heaps of assignments, which drive us crazy. I discovered some differences between uni-students in Japan and in NZ. Since I experienced being a uni student in Japan couple of years ago, I will show u some of what i have found.

First, the cloths and how they dress. Kiwi students look like they have got strong influence of punk-rock fashion. Most boys wear skinny black pants with studded silver belts, the converse super star’s high-cut sneakers, mostly black, and have their lower lips pierced. In addition some of them go school on their skateboards. So they look like they came straight out of some music videos of sum41 or something. Nothing to mention, girls wear like Avril lavigne does.This might be only our class mates, but I like this kind of clothes and also like both Deryck and Avril.

The classes are fine. But we only have few girls in our classes, cause I’m doing computing science course. So this is a bit different from what I expected. I thought how students' life in foreign countries is something like Beverly Hills 90210. It’s like “Gee! She is a bitchin killer knockout!! Brandon. I’m drawn to her, dude!” So, it would be way more like what I expected if we had cheerleaders, proms and Peach Pit. After all America has everything I want.

The pic above is me playin’ basketball wearing Johns Town College’s T-shirt that my little brother gave me.

moved in Grey Lynn

2007-08-05T18:53:00.000+12:00

There could be several reasons for keeping a diary, I guess. It's not only supposed for girls in high school to do, but boys sometimes feel sad, lonely, silly of themselves or pathetic as well. I'm not a strong person, but am trying to be. I think this is why I write in a diary, I guess.. Look! I moved, by the way. Here's where I live now. Isn't it sweet?

a party boy gets job done

2007-05-19T23:28:00.000+12:00

Well, I got 14days off, and am in Taupo right now, heading for Colomandel peninsula. Last night on the way home, I saw an 80's-hippy-looked young guy standing at the corner of the information center of Taupo. He was holding a board, and it says " $1 PARTY BOY ". As soon as he noticed me, said " Wanna have one, friend? ". I wondered a little and asked him back " What kind of boy is that?" then, " He'll amuse you ", he said." Ok, I'll take one ", I replied and paid him $1. In the next breath, he started taking off his jeans, shirts and socks, and finally got totally naked finally, except his boxer's. And then he started singing, "livin' on a prayer's song, dancing to the Latin rhythm, smiling significantly. I got embarrassed and couldn't stop laughing. It was not that bad and worth way more than 1$, probably. And I headed for the backpacker, leaving him still dancing though. Lake Taupo so cozy and relaxing.... kayaking at Waikato River,the longest river in NZ, I saw stream fishes jumping around on the surface.

how to hang out in Tokyo?

2007-05-15T16:49:00.000+12:00

Occasionally some ask me where to visit and see in Tokyo. Heaps of travel agents and webs out there that deal with those originally recommended sights can be found today. However, they don't tell the truth, if you ask me. Those damn firms lead tourists to spend money here and there, so you better not trust whole issues (that said a few of them might be pretty nice). So I ended up to make some recommendations, so that you won't get bored when you get there (frankly, I just wanted to write).

oh, I must mention this in the first place that unfortunately we no longer have any Samurais today. They disappeared around 300years ago. Sorry for disappointing you.

Here it comes.

■Asakusa　has a traditional beautiful temple called 'Sensoji' and the row of the houses and streets would look pretty interesting to you. ■Harajuku has a ton of weird youngsters in strange clothes, wearing thick make-ups, so you would be surprised. Harajuku, in addition, is the centre of young hot fashion and culture among those kids. ■Kamakura has an amazing huge statue of Budda called'Daibutsu'. You can even get inside him. ■Akihabara, yeah, u must go there. Heaps of weird people are hanging out there all the time, wearing insane costumes of cartoons. I bet Akihabara is the craziest place in Japan. The boys hangin' out there are known as cyber tribe, called "A-boyz (A for Akihabara)". They normally seem to be grumpy and don't talk a lot, but we know they are just so much shy and they want to behave and dance cheerfully in their own mind, like most of us. Thus if you meet up with some of them, talk and hug, they would be pretty happy. All these places written above are in Tokyo except Kamakura (which is in Kanagawa, about 1hour drive from Tokyo)

seems better let it go

2007-05-12T01:43:00.000+12:00

Well, I'm still chilling with these Galatos gangs right here, on K-rd. It was pretty sad to have said good-bye to Jeff, Carly and Erik. I'm wondering where in the world the rest of the gangs are (Ollie, send me back the mail for god's sake).

Oh, I must mention this first ;I hope this blog will be helpful to myself in improving my writing dramatically. I will try to let it continue as often as i can. So there will be tons of mistakes in grammar, spelling, and so on, but please go easy on me. Any weird comments, sentiments, feedbacks, advices whatever you feel, but slanders (don't do it, I 'm vulnerable) are welcome.

I'm off to explore right now...