Every little things in my ordinary life 2

A new webcam like a human’s eye
Ever since I was 27 or 28 years old, I often chat with many people all around the world. Yahoo! Messeneger was the main software at my initial chatting experience, though, Skype has taken over the position past few years. I turned my webcam, which I bought 6 years ago, on and had a happy time talking with my friends. Time flies. I’ve recently bought a new webcam, about which I wrote in this blog before, and that made me surprised with its advanced techinical method.

This is the webcam I bought. Logicool QuickCam Orbit AF It looks like a human’s eye very much, doesn’t it? I was impressed with it again as I installed it into my comupter. As the website introduced it, this camera can trace your face in front of your PC. When you stand up in front of your PC, it turns its angle upper, when moving toward right, it chases your face as well.

Watching this camera excitedly, I imagined one slimy but metallic thing in one movie. Do you know the movie, “War of the Worlds”, which Steven Spielberg rivived in 2005? In the movie, there is a scene, in which a father and his daughter, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning acted respectively, tried to hide in a basement. And one of aliens came down to the basement and search for humans, then. This new camera reminded me of this slimy but metallic thing in the movie. What do you think of this cam? Anyway, in addition to this chasing function, it can sophisticatedly broadcast your face, even your wrinkles included, so I think I have to go to the aesthetic clinic in order to show my face beautifully…lol

The reason they are going to divide the story into two movies
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ is the book I’m now reading. I just achieved the half of the whole story yesterday, and I understood why the movie director was this time going to divide this story into two movies. You can see a lot of topics even in the first half, which seem necessary in order to put plots into the story. Ofcourse I know directors are also required to abbreviate or omit the original story, however, I think it’s impossible to do it. In other words, if I’m allowed to critically say something, I think the auther puts extra topics into the story too much.

Galloping up and down on the first strings
Ritche Blackmore was my first guitarist turning me on when I was a high school student. In Japan, we often hold a school festival every year in our high school age. At the festival, I stood right in front of audiences and played. ‘Highway Star’ was one of songs I played at the festival. After graduated from the high school, as you see in this blog, my friends and I made our own songs and played them in the livehouse. Ritche Blackmore also had many influences on my playing style, esecially on my guitar solo. My ex-girlfriend, also played the guitar, told me that I tended to finish my guitar solo with galloping up or down on the first strings like Ritche. Listening to this song, I remembered this topic.

Others
I’m going out to have dinner with my friend, so I have no time to reply your comments right now. Sorry about that. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Please vacuum my fear and generate my happiness

I know it is said that the prices of cigarettes in other countries are more expensive than Japan’s because many taxes are imposed on foregin countries’ comparing with Japan’s. In Japan, ofcouse we got taxes on cigarettes as well, though, it takes approximate 300 yen for a pack of cigarettes (20 cigarettes are included in a box), which is about 3.26 US dollars (the rate as of Oct 25 2009).

The number of the places forbidden to smoke in Japan is gradually increased and I have no problem for no smoking in such places, however, I…must call myself a smoker. Even if the conferences proceed over 6 hours or I am under circumstances meeting with no-smoking people, I can go through them, however, I am still…sadly…a smoker.

I, however, don’t like smell of cigarettes, and unfortunately, I have ever gotten asthma long long time ago, in my kid’s age. House dust and hair of dogs and cats are especially dreadful allergens, so after my pretty tiny dog (you can see his picture at the previous article) throw himself into under my sweater in winter, I sometimes have a nightmare at that night…lol

This time, I decided to buy an air cleaner as I watched one TV program in which many comedians called kaden geinin(which means comedians loving appliances) admire their favorite appliances.

I, in fact, wanted to purchase an air cleaner made by Panasonic, but all air cleaners in the shop manufactured by Panasonic were sold out. The pieces of paper respectively put on samples said “You can get this product in four weeks”. Oh my God…there’s no choice…SHARP, for my second choice, I decided to get it.

Once I got back home, I opened its package and set it up in my room. According to instructions, as long as the green light keeps on the top of the body, the air of your room is cleaned. I tested it by smoking. Oh…the light turned into red and start vacuuming, rotating in it and generating fresh air. A few minutes later, it turned into green again and got silent (but the machine itself runs around the clock). I was so amazed and carried away that I started slapping my huton and let house dust roll. Thanks to this air cleaner, I got a chance to clean up my room.

In order to turn its colors again and again, I smoked much more cigarettes than usual….Ummmm…too disgusting.

An analogy for your sincerity

I got one topic on soba, one of Japanese noodles.

As I wrote it in this blog, it was my birthday last Sunday. “So…you had spaghetti?” I got these words from my godmother who lives in the other country.

“Why?” She told me that there is just one of customs in her country. “Ummm…it’s like…hikkoshi soba?” said I.

Ofcourse she didn’t know what the meaning hikkoshi soba has, so I explained it to her. As one of the ways to show politeness, we have one custom to visit our new neighbors and let them know ourselves when we move to the new place. At that time, we often bring hikkoshi soba and present it to them. hikkoshi just means “to move to the new place”, not indicate sorts of soba. In other words, all sorts of soba gifted when moving are called hikkoshi soba overall.

soba, as you know, is a long and thin strip made from soba flour, like spaghetti. Giving soba to our neighbors in the new place, we try to express our “I would like to let you know I start living in here, and make a long and constructive relationship with you” feeling.

I asked her that serving spaghetti and eating it on one’s birthday have the same meaning as hikkoshi soba has. She said “kinda”. In her country, they eat spaghetti on thier own birthday or someone else’s birthday, hoping for the person’s (who got his/her birthday) health and happiness.

Unfortunately, such a custom I refered above now seems to be diminishing in Japan because people tend to avoid communicating with each other, and even if people has opportunities to visit neigbors after moving, the visit is finished without hikkoshi soba. Anyway, it’s so crucial for you to visit neigbors, let them know yourself and know what kind of neigbors live. It is said from police officers in Japan that such behaivor can protect you from robbing. “You have to know at least the people who live in your right upper floor, right lower floor and right your both sides, especially in the case you live in a condominium” One of police officers taught me like that when I went to the police station and got the instruction against crimes related to condominiums. I often get such instructions on condominiums and use them as one of interesting topic for my clients. That is one of my job as a consultant.

What about your contries? Are there any similar customs?

Incidentally, zaru soba is the most favorite soba among all kinds of soba. Here it is.

I’ll show you how to eat zaru soba. Don’t pick soba and put it into your mouth directly. You have to some strip of soba and dip it into the cup placed next to soba, and you can taste it better.

Every little things in my ordinary life

iTunes make me sick
Since I bought i-Pod, I’ve used iTunes while listening to music in my room. Sadly, I had my i-Pod taken by one of my friends. I don’t know how many CDs you have, though, now that the number of people who perchase your favorite music on the Internet is increasing, I guess. I am, however, totally an analog person, so still buy CDs at the shop or on the Internet. I put about over 100 CDs into my PC and there are still about 100 CDs to go. Maybe you already know the system of iTunes, you can flip installed CDs’ jacket like books. I like this system and often keep turning jackets over and over even though I’m not going to listen to music. I guess it because of my bad condition, one day, I had felt sick while flipping. I’ve once been feeling sick while playing FPS game because I got some disease in my eye, but usually, I don’t think that happening, such as carsick or shipsick, is my thing. I’d like you to use great caution when you keep flipping jackets in iTunes.

Happy Birthday to ME
Actually, it’s my birthday today, 18th Oct. Do you think how old I am? “How old are you?” “Guess how old I am?” Ummm…that’s typically an entrance of small talk in the club or something with typical working women there. I became 35 years old. In Japan, some new coined words recently appeared like ara sa- or ara fo-(I tried to describe these words like most of Japanese pronounce). ara sa- is abbreviated expression of “around thirty”, and ara fo- is “around firty”. I already got 35, so you can round off to the ten. I WAS a member of ara sa- until the previous day, but now what I’m classified has been fallen in ara fo-.

Her sweet words appeared no sweet
Actually, I had one exam on English today, so I had to get up early and headed for the place where I took a test. At the right moment I set off, my mother told me if I wanted to eat a cake. I rarely eat any slice of cake, but with her words, I suddenly felt like eating a cake, so I said to her, “I wanna Mont Blanc”. Since I was a kid, I’m a lover of Mont Blanc. I don’t know if there is such kind of cake called Mont Blanc in other countries, but in Japan, people calls sponge cakes on which maron cream is topped “Mont Blanc”. As a matter of fact, cooking is definitely not my realm and maybe I choose words in this paragraph with Japanese English words. Just in case you might not understand what I tried to depict, I’ll put a photo of “Mont Blanc”. Here it is.

“After the exam was finished, I’m gonna go around somewhere, so I think I’m home late.” said I. She told me that Mont Blanc could be preserved for a few days and I didn’t worry about it.

On my way home, thiking about what I should write tonight in this blog, I was imagining flaver of Mont Blanc. “Hey, where is my Mont Blanc?” asked I. “What? You sounded like you weren’t desperate to eat it, so I didn’t buy it.” answered She surprisedly. Oh my God…my Mont Blanc…only imaginary taste of it remained in my brain…

Others
This time, I thought I tried to write my article in a different ways like J suggested. Felt this way was interesting, so I will write my ordinary and plain life in this way as well as I put some specific topics. One more thing, I’ll leave comments for reply tomorrow. It was a tough day today…I’m so sorry.

The lady I used to love is still smiling in my dream.

I guess any man has had such a dream like this before; One lady you used to love appeared and kissed you. No? You haven’t gotten any dream like that? Me, about twice or three times a year, I often fall in such a dream. But unfortunately, the lady is not a human, but a car. RX-7, that’s the car of which we should be proud as the gorgeous and curvaceous one.

RX-7 is often called ‘FD’ or ‘FC’ among people who is addicted to cars, which originated from their serial numbers. The second RX-7 have “FC3S” as their numbers, and the third RX-7 have “FD3S” as well. I often visited the place where my friend lived when I was an university student. His older brother owned his gunmetal-colored FC and tuned it up.

I guess I can marginally call myself “the super car generations”. There was one trend in Japan when I was a kid. People turned on many kinds of sporty cars, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and others. Festivals on sporty cars held in a lot of places and kids visited there taking photos. At that time, I guess it’s due to their aerodynamic control, cars with retractable lights were popular. One of my uncle had a “CELICA XX”, which featured retractable lights, and I asked him to open and close its light even during a daytime. (Incidentally, CELICA XX have another name in U.S.A because XX is associated with slang words or something. I have read this topic before…but I might be wrong.) Me, as one of the super car generations, ‘FC’ and ‘FD’ were also one of my dream cars.

After I got a job in a company, I had an opportunity to have my car inspected. In Japan, we have to have our own car inspected every two years (In the case of a new car, you have three years until you have the first inspection). If your car’s inspection has been expired, you will be penalized by police. I went to one car dealer in order to ask an inspection. “Hey, honeypotter, I think you want to drive this car.”, pointing out one red car, one salesperson told me. That was a RX-7.

As you know, RX-7 have a characteristic engine in their body, which called a rotary engine (You might prefer to call it Wankel engines). Now that rotary engines no longer have their advantages, comparing with reciprocating engines, but it is said that rotary engines are so small but powerful that people can make car’s balance equal by mounting rotary engines.

Even if you can’t see the techinical differences between rotary engines and reciprocating engines, you definetely can feel the difference on sounds when you get in RX-7. I can hardly explain this difference on sounds in writing, but you can feel it anyway. “Hey, honeypotter, how’s it? You like it?” the salesperson said it to me, chuckling heartily. At the following day, I got a contract to buy it.

My ex-girlfriend was surprised that I ordered RX-7 without telling her, without consulting (or asking? hihi) with her. “What makes you think? How come you bought such a car? You can’t load something big in that car! I imagined you bought a station wagon and went shopping… You and I select foods and commodities, walking in the store… And then, you bring things we bought instead of me… You open the back door of the car and put things into the car… I imagined such an ordinary but happy time…but…Look at the car! The seat is so low that I think I’m gonna have trouble getting in it! My dream has gone!” mourned she irritably. On the contrary, I had a happy time with RX-7.

I often pulled over my RX-7 and dreamily gazed it from its back, smoking cigarretes. Its curvaceous figure turned me on.

When I started running of my own business, I thought I couldn’t visit my clients with this red colored car, so I gave up keeping it. Ever since I sold it out, the dream I bought it again and got a happy time sometimes happenes in me. It’s been about seven years since the production of RX-7 were stopped, so it becomes more difficult to get a good conditioned used-RX-7. It is, however, still occupying my heart.

This is the same one I had.