Have you heard the word "meatware"?

English textbooks introduce a lot of words, idioms and expressions, but native speakers often point out that some of them are not used so often or not common expressions. It's often the case, so I'm not surprised.
However, it's the first time that nobody knows a word. It's "meatware."

This word was in my textbook, but it didn't exist in a dictionary. From the explanation in the textbook and information on the Internet, I found that it means "human relationships" or "human element."
The sentence in the textbook is:
All the software and hardware is one thing, but it's the meatware that counts.

I asked about it on Lang-8.
http://lang-8.com/sand/journals/310842
Almost all of the native speakers who posted comments in my entry haven't heard this word.

Do you think that it's OK to put such a word in a textbook?

Movie: A Christmas Carol

I watched this movie wearing 3D glasses. Here are the 3D glasses.

It was a bit annoying to wear them whole the movie, but 3D images were amazing. When I was a kid, "The Wizard of Oz" was on TV with 3D. At that time, we had to wear a cheap paper glasses with blue and red cellophane in order to see 3D images. However, even though I wore them, I couldn't realize 3D. Now that I think about it, the technological advance is tremendous. I think we will able to see 3D images without glasses sometime in the future.

As you know, in this movie, the technology called "performance capture" is used. Actually I don't like humans described by it. They look very scary. They are like dolls that are too much close to humans. Look at this.

S,s, scary!!


By the way, the original book written by Charles Dickens is very hard for me to read, because there are too many words I don't know. I feel that I don't know about 70% of all the words in the book. Does Charles Dickens tend to write with a bit difficult words? It might be just because of my poor vocabulary.

Rock and Roll?!

I'm using a business English textbook for my English study. All dialogues in it are conversations at work. In a dialogue I was studying yesterday, there was the phrase, "We are ready to rock and roll."

Rock and roll?!?! I was surprised because I couldn't associate "rock and roll" with a conversation at work. However, the sentence was taken up as a useful phrase.

According to the explanation of the textbook, it expresses the situation that everything is prepared and just waiting to get started, like a band has already prepared for everything and is waiting to be on stage. It's a colloquial expression that is often used in the US.

I see, but... Do you often use it at work? What is the difference from "We are ready to go"?

The draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

It's 2:20am in Japan.
The ceremony for the draw is being held. It's too long and unnecessary! There is always such a excrescent superfluous sideshow. I think it a waste of time and especially a waste of money.
I wish the draw started soon.
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3:10am
The draw has already started.
The opening game will be South Africa vs. Mexco.
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3:30am
Finally, the draw was finished.
Here is the result.

I think England and Denmark, which I root for, can advance to stage 2. Goody!
188 days to go until the World Cup!

Charlize Theron at the World Cup draw

FIFA announced that Charlize Theron, who is one of my favorite actresses, will serve as co-host of Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town. I thought why she, but now that I think about it, that's because she is from South Africa.

I'm very interested in the result of the draw, but in Japan, it will be broadcast on TV during midnight, so I planned to see the result on news next morning. But Charlize Theron will appear, so maybe I'll watch it.

By the way, I have no idea how I should say for the second sentence in this article. I feel that the title is also strange. I'll ask about it on Lang-8.

A sound made by a bone or joint

I post my article before this one on Lang-8. Of course, it got a lot of corrections. hehe.

Then I got to know how to describe a sound made by a bone or joint in English.
It's "click", "creak" or "crack."

I think "crack" is appropriate for the previous article.

Onomatopoeic words are really difficult because those are much different depending on each language.

Frozen shoulder?

I have had a pain in my right arm for more than a month. Especially I feel the pain when I lift the arm.

I felt the pain for the first time when I went to the relaxation salon to get massage in mid-October. When a massager stretched my arm after finishing massage, I felt a pain in my right arm. Since then, it hasn't cured.

I wonder if it's frozen shoulder.
Frozen shoulder is called 四十肩 (しじゅうかた) or 五十肩 (ごじゅうかた) in Japanese. Those mean "40 years old shoulder" or "50 years old shoulder", and it's one of the symbols of getting old. No way!

When I moved in bed this morning, my right arm made ボキッ sound. （ボキッ is a typical bone or joint sound. I wonder what you say it in English.) Then the pain decreased a little.

I still have the pain but it got much better after ボキッ. I hope it completely cures soon. I also hope it isn't frozen shoulder. haha.