OneSeg 2

I wrote yesterday that OneSeg screen was as small as a palm.

No--! It's much smaller than a palm.

English expression of concrete fixed plans of the future

I have introduced the English grammar book which I'm using now. It's "Grammar in use". I call it "Murphy book". (Because it was written by Raymond Murphy.)

The Murphy book says in its section of the future expression that when you express plans which have been already scheduled concretely you use present continuous.
For example;

I'm not working tomorrow.

She is arriving at the airport at 8:30.

But according to my previous English grammar book, simple present is used to express fixed plan of the future. This book's example sentence is;

He leaves for San Francisco next Friday.

Hmm...

For now, I concentrate on the Murphy book.

Since I start studying with the Murphy book, I have been able to clear some things which had been obscure for a long time. I rely on this book.

The previous book was not so bad though.

My bad listening comprehension #8

The sentence which I heard wrongly this time is;

"Our company Michael bankrupt".

Michael bankrupt??
Correct sentence is;

"Our company might go bankrupt."

Might go --> Michael

When I tried to do dictation, I was able to guess it must be "might go", because I carefully listened even repeatedly and had time to think while doing dictation. But when I just listen it as a part of conversation, I can't hear but "Michael" even if I listen it many times...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-bad-listening-comprehension-7.html

OneSeg

I have thrown my electrical appliances away. I had been using them for a lo---ng time and it's time to change to new ones. Moving is a good timing to do that.

But electrical appliances are all expensive. I can't afford to buy all electrical appliances at the same time. (It was possible to throw all of them away at the same time thought. haha.)

I don't have the TV now.
So I bought an OneSeg tuner today. Then I can watch TV on my laptop PC. It's possible to record TV programs on PC. I've already reserve recording some programs using an OneSeg software. Goody!

But its screen is very small, as small as a palm.
OK, I endure that until I buy a new TV.

Mail for me hasn't been delivered.

I have moved some times in the last a year so I've applied for the post office to forward mail, and mail for me had been forwarded correctly.

Since about a month ago, no forwarding mail comes. I had been feeling it a bit strange, but I didn't care about that so much.

But I found that the last months' cell phone bill hasn't come. I asked the cell phone company and they said they have already sent it to me and it hasn't been returned. Finally I was sure that the mail forwarding wasn't working.

I went to the post office.
They checked it (they kept me waiting long time.) but nothing was unclear.

Probably, some mails for me were lost before I receive. Too bad!
I hope there isn't any important mail among them.

Moving has finished.

I finally finished moving. Whew...

As I wrote, it takes just 10 minutes on foot from the previous place to the new place. So I carried heavy burdens myself plying between the places many times. (My bicycle sometimes helped me with doing that.) I have a backache now.

Then I was injured and bled!

Haha!
I just grazed my hand. It's a small graze.

Zenko temple declined to be the starting place of the torch relay.

The Olympic torch came to Japan and the torch relay was held in Nagano city yesterday.
There were a few skirmishes, 6 people were arrested and 4 people were injured. Then the torch has left for Korea.

At first, Zenko temple was scheduled to be the start place of the torch relay, but it declined that.
The reason is safety for cultural assets and believers, and consideration for Tibetan problem as same Buddhists. Personally, I applaud their behavior.

Of course, it was a big blow to Nagano city because Zenko temple is the most famous spot in Nagano city.

Then the new starting place was... a city-owned empty lot. Mere empty lot.
It was changed from Zenko temple which is a symbol of Nagano city to the mere empty lot?!

Many flaws of my new place

I got a call from the real-estate office this morning. He said they would check the smell of my new room I complained this morning.

Before lunch time, I went to my place and met the person of the real-estate office by coincidence. He said the deodorizing process has just finished and that deodorizing was very strong. So I decided to wait for a while, about 30 minutes or an hour. He also said that the ground connection of an air-conditioner wasn't connected, so other person would come to connect it. Hmm... Following the smell problem, flaw again.

I tried to park my bicycle in the parking area of the apartment, I found another bicycle which was not authorized has already parked at my parking. I had to call a facility management company. Third flaw.

In the afternoon, I was cleaning the room. When I cleaned a toilet room, I found that the ground connection here was also unconnected. Fourth flaw.
The toilet has functions of bidet, heated seat, and even automatic lid. I sometimes hear that foreign celebrities buy Japanese toilet like that when they come to Japan. But in Japan, those are not just for celebrities. Many Japanese use it. Most toilets in department stores are like it.
But I don't think it's necessary. I've always thought that. Money is being spent on nonessential.
So it's OK for me that the ground connection is not connected. (I can connect it myself though.) I don't use those functions. I know that the toilet seat in winter is very cold, but if you use a seat cover, no problem. And why is it necessary that a toilet lid opens and closes automatically?

Sansevieria

The real-estate company gave me a small foliage plant. It seems that they give it all the people who signed with them.

It's a sansevieria. It's known to generate negative ions. OK, I will grow it carefully. But according to some web sites, sansevieria isn't very pretty because it's big (more like long?). My sansevieria is still small and cute though.

My new place

I went to a real-estate office to pick up keys of my new place yesterday. I'll move again, it is neighborhood of the current place though. It takes about 10 minutes on foot. I don't like leave from the area I'm living.
This is the entrance of my new apartment.

Then I went into my new place for the first time. Yes, it's the first time.

It was smaller than I expected. Hmm... Actually I decided to rent this room before I looked the inside of the room. The previous resident had still lived at that time and if I had waited for his leaving I couldn't have rent it because it's very popular apartment. It was the first time for me to sign up without looking inside of a room. I looked just its floor plan.

When I went into the room, it was smelled like smoke. I thought the previous resident was a heavy smoker. Too much smell. Hmm... It's a big problem.

I found the following thing on the kitchen.

At first I thought it was a candy box or something which renovating & cleaning staff carelessly left. But looking closely at it, it was a kind of room deodorant. I see. They realized the smell was too bad. But it was opened so it didn't work. I opened and left it in the center of the room. I wish it worked effectively.

And then, I called the real-estate office to complain that. A person in charge of renovating seemed to be unreliable. Talking with him bugged me. He said they change all the wall paper and even cleaned an air conditioner. It means that he admitted that the room was very smell. He droned on. Don't talk about unnecessary things! Then what do you go with this problem?! He said he would discuss how to deal with it in the company and let me know later. But call from him was nothing today. I'm moving on Sunday though.

Another meaning of "reservation"

I found today that "reservation" has the meaning of not only "making a booking", but also "anxiousness" or "concern". I didn't know!

A dialogue I am using for my English study today is about economic conditions, especially the low unemployment rate.

A person says that America is what they call "a worker's market". (This English material was made long time ago.) He also says that you can get any job you want. Then his boss says that he has reservations. Reservations? So I tried to understand that it meant he applied for some jobs and got some offers or was waiting for the results. But, of course, it was different at all. He is anxious about the worker's market situation. Hmm... If you didn't know another meaning of "reservation" like me, you would entirely misunderstand this story.

My poor English is sometimes dangerous.

A photo exhibition of Medecins Sans Frontieres

A photo exhibition of Medecins Sans Frontieres is taking place in Aoyama and I visited it yesterday.

The Photos were about activities by MSF in Kenya, especially efforts toward AIDS treatment. A German photographer, Mattias Steinbach took those pictures and he explained us about the photos and the situation there.

It was meaningful to visit it, it was a bit different from the activities I want to do though. I want to involve in the activities to help poor children in the world with going to school. But the activities of MSF are involved in the life-or-death issues. Probably all children who appeared in the photos can't go to school.

When I started to think about doing humanitarian assistance, I thought I should have become a doctor or other medical expert. What can I do when I go somewhere to do humanitarian assistance? In the poor countries, the disaster areas and conflict regions, medical experts are most necessary people. But according to the information, many people who are not medical experts are working even in MSF, such as administrators and logisticians. Clinical psychotherapists are also working, it's a part of medical experts though.
I thought that psycholotherapists are also needed for helping poor children with going to school. I wonder if it's difficult to be that. But to be the clinical psychotherapist, I have to go on to graduate school... Things are not easy.

Some toddlers in the photos are smiling, cherishing a doll, hugging their mothers... those are not any different from other toddlers in blogs I often access to. But real situations are much different.

"Should" and "Ought to"

I hadn't known the difference between "should" and "ought to". Many English grammar books say about these, but I had always thought those were the same and I wondered what is different.

Now, I have been studying English grammar using "Grammar in Use Intermediate", which is one of the "in Use series" published by Cambridge University Press. Those are very famous and used in the world. Of special note is (at least for me) that it was written by a native speaker in an English-speaking country. Many English studying books were written by Japanese in Japan. Sometimes native speakers point out mistakes or unnatural expressions in example sentences in those books.

In the Grammar in Use Intermediate, it says that you can use "ought to" instead of "should". Oh--! So I couldn't understand the difference. Oh, those are the same! Thank you, the book.

My subtle health condition

Somehow, I couldn't sleep last night. So decided to watch the movie I recorded before, at 1:00am.

I was watching "The Siege" eating caramel corn. Eating caramel corn at midnight. Uh, it is too bad for health.

To change the subject, I found I had a pain in my throat. And now, I feel a cold coming on. Uh, too bad. I want to put some articles on my blog today, but I should go to bed early.

Enough sleep, enough fluid and Vitamin C!

Totally mistranslation

Also this year, many Japanese baseball players are playing in the Major Leagues.

Fukudome moved to Chicago Cubs and has started his first season in the Major Leagues. His debut game was at 31st March and he played really well, 3-for-3, including 3-run homer. Wow!

Of course, the media in Japan reported his excellent performance, but actually they featured another thing more than his play. It was the boards the fan of Cubs held up.

Look this photo. Fan of Cubs held up the boards with Japanese words when Fukudome played.

According to one report, one local newspaper company made those boards and distributed them to the fans. They intended to translate "it's gonna happen" to Japanese. Pity! Mistranslation.

After hearing that, I tried to check Google Translate. Yes, the Google Translate was responsible for this mistranslation.

This Japanese word means "it's just by coincidence". It is rude to Fukudome. Haha.

Movie: 2001 A Space Odyssey

I watched the very old and famous movie.

Hmm... It was boring for me, and mysterious. After watching the movie, I checked the Internet about this movie, then I finally understand some of it.
At least I don't like the movie like it. It is self-complacency of creators.

Hmm... I can say just one thing; this movie is very Stanley Kubrick.

The Olympic flame has arrived at India.

The Olympic flame has arrived at India where there are the largest exiled Tibetans.

Things in connection with that has been big news since the rebellion happened in Lhasa. It's really an interesting topic for me, because...
There are 2 reasons.

Reason 1: I've always felt it strange that China was selected as the venue of the Olympics.
Reason 2: I'm very interested in Tibetan Buddhism.

About reason 1;
Food safety, the pollution in the air, the humanitarian problem... it was obvious that China had many problem like these before it was selected. So I had always thought why the IOC chose China. I personally think China is immature country to have international events like Olympics. Chinese can't even stand in line.

About reason 2;
I've always concerned about Tibetan problem. So I am for boycott for the Beijing Olympics Games by leaders from around the world. In a sense, this is a good opportunity that many countries and people in the world address the Tibetan problem by China.

Nice Weather

One scene of my neighborhood.