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.

My bad listening comprehension #18

"If you look across the top of the spreadsheet, you'll see production volume XXXXX by site."

I didn't catch the part of XXXXX. It sounds "word" to me, but if it was "word", the sentence would be weird. I heard it repeatedly, then I finally came up with the word "ordered"! In this case, the sentence makes sense, doesn't it? (No?)

However, it wasn't "ordered", but "worldwide." Gah... Those are completely different.

In the dialogue, this sentence was said by a person who was supposed to be Indian. So she pretended speaking with Indian accent, but it's not so strong.

Do you think it's possible to mishear "worldwide" and "ordered"? It's probably only me...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-bad-listening-comprehension-17.html

Henry's handball put Ireland out of the World Cup.

The participating countries for the 2010 World Cup have been decided.
To my delight, Denmark is playing in the World Cup this time. Goody! I will cheer for Denmark, and England as usual.

Did you see the game, France vs. Ireland? France won for a hair and qualified for the World Cup, by Henry's goal with handball. It's called "New God's hand."

The handball scene couldn't be seen by a referee, so it can't be helped. It's often the case in sports games. However, for Ireland, it's not only one game lost. They lost the qualification for the World Cup. It's a really big matter. I feel very sorry for Ireland. When I think of feeling of the Ireland's players, I can't help feeling distress.

I feel a cold coming on.

I feel I'm going to get a cold.
So I'm going to bed early. I hope I'm fine tomorrow

.

The Giants won the championship!

Following the World Series in the US, a winner of Japan Series has just been decided. My favorite team, Yomiuri Giants won!! That's great!! However I missed the game. It's stupid of me. Now, I'm watching interviews of the manager and players.

It's for the first time in 7 years. 7 years is too long for the Giants, as well as the Yankees. It was really long way. The manager Hara must be having deep and various feelings.

Ah---! Why did I miss the game?

Giants Manager Tatsunori Hara being tossed in the air by his team members after winning the Japan Series

Matsui accomplished incredible thing!

The Yankees won the World Series for the first time in 9 years!! 9 years is a bit too long for the Yankees, isn't it?
And the most incredible thing is that a Japanese player Hideki Matsui, aka Godzilla, was chosen the World Series MVP!!! He showed the outstanding performance in the games, and when he went to bat, there was "MVP calls" from the spectators.

Hideki Matsui raising the MVP trophy

Although his goal had been winning the World Series, the Yankees was not able to win for a long time. The Yankees won for the first time since he joined the team 7 years ago.
When I saw him hug his teammates, such as mate Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, I was very impressed.

Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter

His contract with the Yankees expires this year, and it has been said that the Yankees wouldn't renew the contract. Although he was MVP, it seems to be unavoidable. It's a pity. But it was good that his long-cherished dream finally came true and even he was chosen MVP, in his last year in the Yankees. After the World Series, he stated positively that he came to the US and joined the Yankees to achieve this goal.

By the way, during his MVP interview, he was speaking through an interpreter. What!? He has lived in the US for 7 years. No less than 7 years!! No way!

Book: "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

(I read this in English.)

I went to see the movie, "My Sister's Keeper" the other day.
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/10/movie-my-sisters-keeper.html
Whenever I see movies after reading the book, I'm a bit disappointed, so I saw the movie first this time.

I always find a lot of words I don't know when I read English books, and realize my vocabulary is very poor. In addition, there were a lot of medical terms in the book this time. It's very frustrating to read books which have a lot of words I don't know.
I don't know that was a reason but reading it was a bit painful in the first half. But in the latter half, I couldn't stop reading. I wonder if the story became interesting.

When I watched its movie, I thought each person's story and feeling could be described more deeply in the book, although I hadn't read it, and it was true.

The story and the characters were a bit different, but it's often the case when books are made into a movie, isn't it?
However, the ending was MUCH different!! Yes, it's also often the case, but it's completely different. The ending in the book was really sad and shocking.

I think the filmmaker should have followed the original story.

Windows 7

Windows 7 finally went on sales.
Three editions out of six are released in Japan, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate.


I really want to upgrade my PC to Windows 7 because my PC is damn VISTA, but it will probably take some time. I'll wait and see. Then, I might end up not buying it. haha...

Happy Birhtday to me!

I set my goals on my birthday every year, but I have never achieved them. Too bad.

This is the year that I do my best and achieve my goals. I make a pledge to do that regarding the coming year is my last chance.

Get out of the laziness life, Sand!

Happy birthday to me!

Movie: My Sister's Keeper

I have watched several movies in the past few months, such as "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "Miracle at St. Anna" etc. Those were impressed and I was going to write about them here, but I goofed off.

Today, I went to see "My Sister's Keeper."
Too see the Japanese trailer, I got the impression that the movie would revolve around the youngest child Anna. But the story focused on each member of the family.

I couldn't stop my tears throughout the movie. The story is simple and there wasn't any surprising.
I even could predict the end of the story. But Thinking and feeling which each person have were very impressed and those moved to tears.

I'm going to read the book in English.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

About just one hour ago, it was announced that the American president Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One of main reasons of his receiving the award is kind of "the abolishment of nuclear weapons."

That isn't quite convincing for me. He hasn't do anything yet. What he did is only saying. He hasn't achieve any results yet. It's easy to just say. Everyone can do that.

I hope he will achieve the results which is commensurate with the Nobel Peace Prize.

The result of the selection of the 2016 Olympic site

Tokyo was rejected in the second vote.
I was thinking that it was difficult for Tokyo to be selected, because the 2008 Olympic was held in Beijing where is in Asia as well as Tokyo, and 2012 Olympic will be held in London where is one of the biggest cities in developed countries like Tokyo. However, that's a real bummer!! I really wanted to have an experience that the Olympics takes place in my city.

Chicago was rejected in the first vote. It was a bit surprising.

The final vote has already finished, but the result won't be announced in over an hour. The results of the first and second votes were announced as soon as the votes were finished. It was disappointedly fast. In contrast, regarding the final result, don't you think IOC keeps people waiting too much?

I'm waiting the result, then I will be back here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, IOC President Rogge announced Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the 2016 Olympic. Congratulations.
The 2014 World Cup will also take place in Brazil, which is one of BRICs. I think Brazil will more and more develop in the future.

Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, so I will see the summer Olympics in winter!?

The site of the 2016 Olympic will be decided soon.

The IOC General Assembly is being held in Copenhagen now and the site of the 2016 Olympic will be decided in several hours!

Tokyo's presentation has already finished. I hope Tokyo is selected. Unfortunately, according to oddschecker.com, Tokyo is in last place.
http://www.oddschecker.com/specials/olympics-specials/2016-olympic-host/win-market/

However, the selection method is the conclave way, so it's possible that Tokyo is chosen!

A business trip to Singapore part 3 - the Second week

My cold was getting worse and worse, so the second week was tougher. So it became much harder to communicate in English.

As well as the first week, people in the Singapore office were kind enough to treat us very well, such as taking us to dinner. I was really thankful to them, so, although my health condition was terrible, I attended them.

One evening after work, a person was kind enough to take us to the Night Safari. It was a bit scaring for me but amazing! It was good to go there.

By the way, F1 Singapore Grand Prix will be held on 25th, 26th and 27th. So Singapore is preparing for that. I wish my business trip would have been a week later.

My last day in Singapore (19th Saturday), I went to the National Museum of Singapore. It was nice and I spent about 4 hours there.

I was thinking about going for shopping after that, but I was very tired, so I didn't go.
Before I went to the airport, I met my friend again. We had dinner and I enjoyed chatting with him.

It was really tough business trip. I was in tatters.
And I strongly realize my English doesn't cut it at all. I have to do something, but I'm not sure what I should do. I just keep learning English with the same way as before?

A business trip to Singapore part 2 - Weekend

After getting a cold on Friday, it was getting worse and worse, but thanks to my friend, I enjoyed sightseeing on Saturday. I met a friend in Lang-8 and he showed me around!!

First, he took me the URA City Gallery. There were miniatures of Singapore. Those were made very well. There were also miniatures of buildings which were built in the future. It was surprising. Although there are already a lot of high buildings in Singapore, Singapore is still improving.

Then, we had lunch at a food court. I ate typical Singaporean (Chinese?) food. Yummy!

After that, we went to China Town. Singapore is amazing. Several different cultures gather. It's amazing and interesting.

Next, we went to Little India. Almost all of the people there were Indians and most of the stores sold Indian goods and food. I felt as if I were in India. (I have never been to India though.) It was also amazing experience!

Then we went to see the Merlion!!! Wow!!

It's the first visit to Singapore for me. This is must-see, isn't it?

My friend's friend joined us there. He explained about a lot of things we could see in detail.
Three of us had Chinese food for dinner. It was the first time for me to see (and eat) black chicken! But its taste was the same as normal chicken.

If I haven't met my friend, I would have come back to Tokyo without such a wonderful sightseeing. I'm really thankful to him and his friend.

Next day (Sunday), my cold got worse. So I didn't go out. I stayed in my hotel room and did just my job. Because of a bad cold, my face was terrible. I thought I had to do something, then I called Spa of the hotel. Fortunately, I was able to reserve a facial treatment after 20 minutes. Even after the treatment, my face didn't recover, it cost 200 Singapore dollars though...

A business trip to Singapore part 1 - the First week

I came back from a business trip to Singapore. Two weeks in Singapore was very long and tough. I was tired.

I left Tokyo on 7th Monday morning. I used Singapore Airlines. Of course, most of the cabin attendants were Singaporeans and I couldn't understand their English with Singaporean accent. I really worried about what things would be like during my stay.
I arrived in Singapore in the evening. It was very humid, like Tokyo's summer. Ve--ry humid!

After checking into a hotel, I went to the Raffles Hotel with my co-worker, which is the classiest hotel in Singapore, and ate and drink a bit in a place like a courtyard.

Then we went to Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, which is known for the birthplace of Singapore Sling. Of course we drank Singapore Sling!
It was my first day in Singapore.

Next day, tough situation, where everything was in English, started. To make things worse, I started to get a cold on Friday, because it was very cold everywhere inside in Singapore.

People in Singapore office were kind enough to treat us very well. They took us good places for dinner.
On Tuesday evening, we had chicken rice. It's very tasty! After the dinner, we went to the Swissotel the Standard Hotel to see the night view. It was very beautiful!

On Thursday evening, we went to a Mongolian restaurant in Clarke Quay.

Although I was srruounded in English and in the tough situation, the first week wasn't so bad. I think I did well. However, I started to get a cold on Friday and it was getting worse, it became much tougher.

English with Chinese accent

I had a conference call with Singapore office today.

I couldn't understand a counterpart's English with Chinese accent at all!! During my two-week stay in Singapore on business, I need to talk with him.

How should I do??