I think the best age to have a kid is at 24 but I think the best timing for a woman to have a kid is when she is at least 32 and know where she is heading in life. How contradictory....

今日の言葉:
*************
思い出せない
Omoi dasenai
I can not remember.

Money ...

The fact that money can not buy happiness even though is true, but I think the more important realization is that having money itself already gives you a sense of happiness. And that itself is a kind of comfort that's almost necessary to have.

Recently, I realized that it's a blessing that I have a well-paying job that I can wake up to and support myself no matter what happens. (I only realized this after hearing a real-life divorce story from my colleague at work whose husband remarried one month after their divorce.) I can buy anything and eat pretty much whatever I want without having to worry much. My life is not stuck and I don't have to live under someone as long as I keep my current job. So I guess the greatest gifts the parents can give their kids are nothing more than good health, moral integrity and the ability to secure a well-paid job.

The phrase "to secure a well-paid job" also meant something new to me today. I was chatting with a co-worker today and decided to look up some people I used to work with at Apple. Shockingly, I found out one of the biggest talkers is now a CEO at a company he founded, with Gil Amelio on the board, and also he drives a Hummer and fly chartered!? So for some people, I guess even though they know very little and spent the whole of their time socializing with Big People, they can also do well (secure a well-paid job)!?! I am confused as to whether that's supposed to be inspiring or ridiculous....

先週末見た映画:
ホテル・ルワンダ
Hotel Rwanda

It's a wonderful movie based on a true story that happened in 1994. To me, this kind of movie is a MUST SEE. おすすめ!

This is a nice picture... I can't remember when was the last time I saw a live performance at a cafe... Got to do that more often.

髪

日曜日は髪を切っちょった。
毎回最初に、ちょっと後悔が・・・
でも、ここ2日間 家族と仕事の同僚も 私の短い髪が好きであると言いました。
たぶん、やっぱり短い髪型がすごく似合ってていいなと思いました。

Something I plan to read tonight:
http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

Spam

迷惑メール
めいわくメール
Spam

迷惑 = trouble, bother, annoying

Best buddies...

子猫の後姿かわいい。
I think this picture summarizes how we should live life...
Be with your best buddy and explore the world together.

If you will be visiting Taipei soon, here is a good map that shows all the areas:
http://www.taipeinavi.com/area/area.html
I have been there many times so I know pretty much know what are in each area. But I can get quite confused as to which area is in which relative direction. :-P



今日の難しい単語:
************************
侃々諤々 (kankangakugaku)
Outspoken, can speak fluently on a topic

E.g.
侃々諤々の議論

*侃 is a word I like!

自動車登録手続きの経験

This morning, I went to the DMV to pay the car registration renewal fee because I misplaced my mail-in notice. I had an appointment, of course! For years, the slow moving queues at the DMV office had been the ultimate example of gross government buearacratic inefficiency. If someone said they have to go to the DMV, you will pretty much assume that person is not coming to work that day. But guess what? I thought I will never say this but I actually enjoyed my very short visit there this morning!

There were 2 queues at the entrance of the office, one is for people with "appointment only", the other is "without appointment" and the line for the appointment only was actually longer! So the officier at the "without appointment" queue waved at those who were standing at the "appointment only" line to go over. Everyone hesitated worrying that they might got queue up in the long waiting no-appointment queue. The officier waved again and still nobody moved. So I decided to take my chances. It turned out she can process both and gave me a ticket - "A019". Then I noticed the office have many monitors mounted at every 2 windows announcing what number will be served at which window. The monitor listed 8 numbers along with the window number:
F020 6 G011 19
A015 20 B004 8
.....etc.

It's very neat! All the windows are now capable of handling all types of request and there is no one super long line with just a few windows open. Everyone is actually sitting down leisurely waiting their turn and the whole place have this cozy dim light ambience instead of the harsh florescent white light. I was like, "Wow! Is this the DMV I used to come a few years ago? This is pretty amazing! Did someone come in and customized the whole process? It can't go any smoother than this." And I was right. I was at the DMV for less than 5 minutes! I showed my insurance document, wrote a check, got the registration paper, receipt and sticker and I was on my way! Really pretty amazing!

ごくごく

極々
Extremely, highly

E.g.

ごくごく普通の生活
ごくごく平凡な日記
ごくごく簡単な英語の本

今日のサイト:
This looks like an authentic Hawaiian Burger place in Japan.
http://www.kua-aina.com/

Interesting read on the web today:
2 strangers chatting online for a few hours and the conversation went wonderfully well until they found out one thought the other lives in Japan and the other thought she was chatting with a guy!? The last comment on this was:
一個表達能力差, 另一個就理解能力低

It's pretty funny!

絶対的に信頼してる

This is a very sleepy young kitty. By nature, cats seldom leave their bellies exposed to danger like this. So this must be, at least, a 4th generation domesticated kitty. Who said cats are non-trusting animal?

We recently found 2 fat cats hiding in our warm attic, sleeping on the nasty insulation material. So that's an indication that we have a hole near the roof we need to patch. Luckily, we found it and it's now patched. It's cat season again. I should think of building a temporary pen in the yard with towels and food supply to capture them and deliver them to the Humane Society again this year. Leaving new born kitties in the wild will cause problems and people might want to feed them poison to get rid of them. That would be very bad!! Choose life!

*Update: Readers must love this post or the topic related to kitty or this picture is capturing their hearts... I got 189 hits in one day! That's a record!

今月公開映画: 春田花花幼稚園 (My Life as McMug)

This is why...

If you ever need a good reason why you should stay in shape, just remember this image. Wonderful, isn't it?

*This is a self-portrait of a very talented Polish photographer

ブログゲーム

Here is a neat blog game. Definitely try it and see for yourself when you have time.
You have to control, drag and swing the web-line with finesse in order to save those "condemned". Watch how some grab and climb up the web-line more aggressively than others. You might find it a bit disturbing at times...

笑顔

笑顔 (えがお)

What a wonderful picture!
この写真は素晴らしいんですね！
Nothing brightens my day like seeing this smile.
It's just absolutely powerful!
私の大好きな写真!

無言

最近疲れてて...
私が仕事のマネージャが変化したのが、あまり多くの圧力を感じます。
しかし、私の働いているの会社は Fortune Magazineの100 Best Companies to Work For 2006 と Best Pay のリストにありますけど、まだまだ少し落ち込んじゃった。

おたくの考え

What nerdy idea did we come up with this week?


How about watching TV the "Matrix" style? (Cool, but ...)
Can you tell which TV drama is this?

週末に見た映画:
The 40-year old virgin (2005) (馬鹿な映画です)
The Wedding Crashers (2005) (これも超馬鹿な...時間の無駄だとおもった。)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) (この映画に集めた情報は、本当に観る価値があります。 必ず観るよ!!)

灯り

灯り (あかり)
A light


These rechargable candle-looking nightlights (or cable-less lamps) by Vessel look great! But I am amazed that these are selling for US$135.00 for 4 though. The most I would pay is maybe $60.00 for 4 since they are made in China and not Italy. We have 2 solar-powered automatic pool lights that floats around with 5 alternating colors and they cost only US$20.00 each. What a deal!!

シロノワール

What is シロノワール? I 'see' people eating this at coffee shops.
私 も食べたいんな... I am glad to know it is topped with soft ice cream and not whipped cream. You can add syrup to it, too. If they serve this in one of the coffee shops near work, I wonder how many people will start taking real coffee break instead of getting coffee from the breakroom.

*This may be an interesting and somewhat related read.
http://www.ncvb.or.jp/achikochi/032/main_e.html

憎い

憎い
にくい
hateful, detestable (bad)

心憎い
こころにくい
refined, admirable, superb (good)

E.g.
この演出は心憎い。
This performance is superb. (And I thought the writer meant the performance was detestable...)

I don't understand why by adding 心 in front of 憎い makes the meaning a complete opposite? Is it like this out-of-focus picture? By adding color to it, it becomes an acceptable picture?

ばかりの

ばかりの
Just, recently

E.g.
買ったばかりのカメラ
Brand-new camera (that I bought)

オープンしたばかりのレストラン
just-opened restaurant

これは夫の初めて作ったラザーニャです。かなり美味しいですよね。

ひとまず

一まず
For now, for the time being

e.g.
ひとまず良かった。
I am happy for now.
I am glad for now.

I am kind of confused....

ひとまず vs. とりあえず (meanwhile)

新年の抱負

Some nights ago, I dreamt of the late '70s where no one carries a cell phone and Japanese restaurants were opened only by real Japanese chefs who went through years of formal training. I was just a young kid in the dream eating with some adults at a very formal Japanese restaurant. Suddenly a head waiter (not the server) whispered something to one of the adults at our table, informing her something had happened and she left quickly. It was then I think my dream went from color to black and white, and the lady who left was wearing a cheung sam with a big puffy hair-do. She hailed a taxi which I can't tell what color it was and left. There were some bamboo scaffoldings on some old buildings around the corner and the streets had only a few buses and taxis.

I woke up all amazed and could not believe what I saw in my dream. That was the time when kids do not question their parents and pop music was Boney M. For those of us who went to English Catholic School would be the trendsetters talking about Grease, listening to BeeGees, taking French lessons, swimming and playing tennis at some exclusive places, wearing Kickers and Esprit when we were 10. Some made-to-be-snobbish kids...

Anyway, the dream triggered some very old memories again... I just got a New Year email from my friend today updating me kids these days are skipping kindergarten and going straight to first grade at age 4.5 yr old and can speak 3 languages and can play chess! So our stories will be hilirious to them if we ever start telling them what we used to do when we were young.... That's why we need friends OUR AGE! :-)

I am not sure why I wrote the above but just chatting and laughing with someone who came from my generation is just so much fun. The fact that we can connect is just great and in some way maintain our sanity and it proves that we are not crazy.

New Year's Resolution 2 (新年の抱負 2):
Stay in touch with good old friends!!

新年の抱負 3:
Start trading stocks again this year and hopefully will make enough for a leisure trip to Asia for 2-3 weeks.

謹賀新年

明けましておめでとうございます!

ついに2006年ですね。皆さんにとって良い年となりますように お祈り申し上げます。
今年もよろしくお願いいたします。


We had 3 straight days of pouring rain (from12/31 - 1/2) in California and the Comcast cable was down during the same time with no TV and Internet access. It was frustrating at first but I got used to it afterwards. Today is the first day of work of the year, and surely, the sun is out! (*sigh)

I watched these movies during the 3-day weekend:

Matrix Reloaded (2003) (fell asleep 1/3 into the movie. There was just too much stuff going on and I don't care anymore. I have never finished watching this movie)
Matrix Revolutions (2003) (I went straight to bed. I have never started watching this movie)

American History X (1998)
Dear Frankie (2005)
Fantastic Four (2005) (fell asleep in the middle, since I have seen it before and it was like 2:30am)

Princess Mononoke (1997) (fell asleep 3/4 into the movie. I think it was during the battle with Shishi gami. One thing I don't understand is why is the rattling noise of the Kodama necessary?)
Billy Elliot (2000)
Into the Blue (2005) (started the movie for a few minutes and then decided to stop when the work-stress starting to build up)

Among all, I like Billy Elliot the most. [I found out Jamie Bell (Billy) is actually a student at the Royal Ballet School in London in real life and he is in the new King Kong, too! ] I had wanted to watch this movie since it first came out. So I guess it had been more than 5 years!! I have a lot of catching up to do with movies (and work!)

So one of my New Year's Resolutions will be:
. to try to make more time everyday out of the 24-hour and use it to do more things that is not work related.
to achieve that, I need to work more effectively and efficiently...