Sunday, February 1, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a French-Japanese-style meal for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Got up at eight forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a loaf of bread with red bean paste in it at four o'clock, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
There are a prank call and several crank emails from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
According to the USPS Track & Confirm information website, my 2008 tax forms have not been delivered to the IRS Austin yet. The delivery status of my mail in its data system has not been updated since 01/30/09 at 2:04 pm. A clerk of USPS might merely forget to do it. The following is the current Track & Confirm information that was provided to me by email last evening:
Current Track & Confirm e-mail information provided by the U.S. Postal Service.
Label Number: 7183 5970 0210 5501 6523
Service Type: First-Class Packages Certified Mail
Shipment Activity Location Date & Time
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Arrival at Pick-Up-Point AUSTIN TX 73301 01/30/09 2:04 pm
Arrival at
Arrival at Unit AUSTIN TX 78710 01/30/09 5:29 am
Acceptance AUSTIN TX 78759 01/29/09 11:53 am
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Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Read online news. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-French style for dinner.
Installed the driver that allows transferring data between a Yamaha Clavinova and a computer, on iMac G5 successfully. Knew that Yamaha unfortunately stopped developing the software called "Yamaha File Utility" for Mac OS X that lets the user use a computer to access and organize data files stored on compatible instruments, such as Clavinova.
BTW, my wife sometimes plays the piano.
There are prank calls and several crank emails from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
The return mail to confirm the delivery of my 1040 tax forms to IRS Austin was delivered to my house today. It shows that my 1040 forms were delivered to the IRS on Saturday, January 31. However, its delivery status in the USPS data system has still not been updated since last weekend.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
There are prank calls from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Friday, February 6, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Read online news. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Central Market dinner set for dinner. Went to buy some items of food at HEB this evening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went to see the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" at the Gateway Theatre this afternoon. This movie reminded me of a series of TV dramas, the so-called "Trendy Drama", televised in Japan previously. Its target audiences are women in both 20s and 30s. My wife is still in the range.
Ate a piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano at four o'clock and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Got up at ten o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a bowl of Japanese noodles for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Read online news. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of Japanese cake and a cup of tea, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. There are prank calls from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
I would like to write about the recovery of the world economy today.
Neither a bailout plan nor a stimulus plan will help recover the US economy. The corporate bailouts may temporarily help some dying trees, but they won't recover the economy obviously. They may help avoid reaching a critical situation. Therefore, the number and the amount of the corporate bailouts have to be minimized. Don't waste any funds. Spend the funds for the investments.
The stimulus plan is just a camphor injection. So, the stimulus has to be done timely. It's hard to believe that now is the opportune moment for it. The cause of a disease should be removed and the US economy should be cured to some extent before administering a boost. The Government party usually prefers the stimulus plan.
Stop madness to dash generously to fabless without waiting for the arrival of the next leading sectors. Keep the values of the US high in a variety of areas such as real properties, currency (against the Euro mostly), technologies, etc. by spending (investing) the funds in order to maintain not only the service and the design but also the manufacturing (and R & D) for high-end products of automobiles, electrical applications, semiconductor chips, clothes, foods, etc. inside the US. Release them to developing countries at the right time later on. Don't place too much confidence in the "simple" business style that blindly forces both the service and the design to advanced nations and both the development and the manufacturing to developing nations. This is a cause of problems. One of the other causes is its speed. It's too fast. Don't be an extremist in the economy.
Regulate the speed of the development of developing countries. More appropriate pace-control of developing countries considering the matters in terms of the world economy, ecology, and peace (democratization and terror prevention) is necessary. Don't be too bullish only on price competition.
Don't raise taxes during a recession.
The current (or last?) leading sector, that is the computer & IT-communication industry, had significantly promoted the growth of the US economy while yielding both the IT bubble and the real estate bubble as by-products in the 1990s, as well known. Once the IT bubble partially burst in 2000. The US economy had gradually recovered from that slump until the point of some time between 2003 and 2005. However, the real estate bubble also burst and the prices of the real estate have continued to decline because of excessive outsourcing of the productions and excessive outgoing of the investments. It has led to the financial crisis and the recession in the US. The US recession rapidly led to the worldwide economic slump, as seen recently.
Mitigate the recession by the acts written above until the rise of the next leading sector. These acts will help the US economy somewhat by improving the values of the US and creating jobs inside the US in the next 3-5 years and may help recover the world economy as a result. Identify the next leading sector that will help the world economy.
Will the CEOs in the US adjust their management style by adopting the acts above? No, most of them won't, probably. They need a little bit of the founder's spirit in order to realize these acts. Some of the CEOs who possess narrow-ranging discernment, understand only business administration and have to be the CFOs continue to engage in more cost reductions and seek higher efficiency while neglecting the fact that a part of those efforts has led to the world economic slump as the result, and without creating anything because it's easier. It's difficult to create but easy to cut. This is why I have hesitated to write about this issue.
BTW, What is the next leading sector? Though medical and biochemical areas are always important for all of us and will certainly and solidly grow, they may not become the leading sectors because of the difficulty in growing venture businesses in these fields. There are a number of "necessary" regulations preventing their rapid growth. It may be found in the energy area or somewhere else. Will buy some stocks of favorable companies in the next leading industry when I'm better off. Actually, this is the billion-dollar question.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of Japanese cake and a cup of tea, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of Japanese cake and a cup of tea, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
There are prank calls from servants of Devils today (* figurative expression).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went to buy some items of food at the HEB grocery store. Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
There is a prank call from a servant of DEMons on Friday the thirteenth (* figurative expression).
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Got up at ten-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of Brie Lepetit and two pieces of chocolate at three o'clock, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
I would like to write about the recovery of the US automobile industry today.
The automobile industry is one of the former leading sectors in the US. The US auto manufacturers started relying on outsourcing the production of automobile parts in the 1990s (or in the 1980s?) and have increased their dependency upon foreign manufacturers mostly in China in order to make their products competitive with Japanese auto manufacturers in price. It seems that they somewhat gave it up to improve the productivity of their manufacturing fabs in the US at this stage. The choice of relying on outsourcing might be the right decision. However, that was not enough. Unfortunately, they had to come up with a plan for large-scale restructuring, when the computer & IT-communication industry promoted the growth of the US economy in the 1990s. In this period, the other industries could afford to absorb their workers.
The US auto manufacturers may need to accelerate outsourcing of not only the production of automobile parts but also the assembling of "low-end" vehicles in the future. As written four days ago, both the assembling and the production of key parts of "high-end" and "high-tech" vehicles have to be kept in the US in any case. Dark clouds are hanging lower in the industry if the US auto manufacturers have to place reliance on imports even in the production of the batteries, motors, and regulation systems of the plug-in hybrid vehicles.
So, there is no magic solution. The slight control of currency may help them somewhat without solving its fundamental problem, but keeping the US dollar weak consistently should weaken the US value.
It may be said that the bottom line is that the US shouldn't have made too much of outsourcing productions in computer & IT-communication areas while having surpluses in older industries, without waiting for the rise of the next leading industry.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Got up at ten-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went to buy some items of food at Whole Foods grocery store. Ate BBQ for dinner at home.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, pieces of beemster classic cheese at three o'clock, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
I would like to write about the method to improve productivity today.
Most people become productive when they are doing what they would like to do. In the case of productivity in an organization, people need to enjoy contributing their efforts to an organization for being productive. If a nation needs to improve the productivity and the quality of the products of its industries, it needs to educate its people to be willing to contribute their efforts to an organization they belong to.
A megalomaniac liberalist may make a criticism by saying that it looks like either totalitarianism or military fashion. Actually, it's true if a nation makes an "extreme" measure in this way only for the benefit of a nation. The vast majority of people dislike the extreme case of it. However, it's also true that it significantly improves productivity. It seems to me that the adjustment of the education system for its elementary and junior high schools toward this direction "slightly" should not fade Americanism. The cause of the problem should be attributed to its extremism, especially its extreme racialism. Don't be an extreme liberalist, an ultraconservative, or a fascist.
However, there is a problem associated with its timing. It takes a nation at least two to three decades to see the improvement of its productivity in this way. This method might have helped avoid the current financial slump by keeping productive and competitive manufacturing in the US if it had been adopted in the 1970s. This is why the issue was excluded from my comments on the economy made last week. Needless to say, this isn't an immediate solution for the current recession.
Indeed, there are several additional advantages in the "slight" shift of the education system toward this direction. One of them is a high standard of public order. The shift should improve public safety. The people who are willing to contribute their efforts to society seldom commit the crime. Instead, inculcating liberalism too persistently in the minds of the young should increase the number of criminals in a nation. I would like to emphasize the need for a better balance in the US education system for its future.
On the other hand, Japan's education system has needed to shift slightly to either the opposite direction or a different direction from the other side in order to grow creative people. Japan's education system used to be criticized frequently by saying that the object is to educate people to be only little teeth on a giant cogwheel at the company. In other words, its education squeezed a person into a pattern. Not sure whether the so-called pressure-free education helped grow creative people in Japan or not for the last two decades. It seems that it might just degrade the quality of the teeth of a cogwheel. The Ministry of Education in Japan may still be seeking the way.
My advice to Japanese educators is that they should try to educate people to be "logical" thinkers. In the areas of science, technology, economy, and many others, people can't be creative without being logical. This can be developed.
In order to be highly original, a person needs an innate sense. This talent seems to be similar to that found in Arts. Try to single it out.
There are many prank calls from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Read online news. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
According to the BBC Online News, "Japan's finance minister has resigned, amid claims that he was drunk at a recent G7 summit meeting in Italy". He had to be more careful, but he didn't have to resign. Such an act just belittles the position of Japan's finance minister and gives a non-tenacious impression of Japanese politics.
The sarcastic hidden message from Western nations to Japan in the issue seems to be that Japanese politicians can't have any lively discussions at the G7 emergency summit conference, as they should usually do while drinking sake at a Ryotei restaurant. G7 foreign ministers may be somewhat disappointed at the lack of leadership of Japanese politicians. They expected that Japan might learn from the experience of its financial recession triggered by the burst of the real estate bubble in the 1990s, and they could play a leading role in the recovery of the world economy this time. The recent financial downtrend in Japan due to the increased value of the yen by 25% for the last half-year revealed the fragileness of Japan's economy. Japan's economy still shows a strong degree of dependence on exports. It can be said that the unbalance of trade is a weakness of Japan's economy because it may be easily harmed by a currency operation. They need to find more ideas and chances to obtain profits from imports while maintaining excellent exports and avoiding excessive protectionism though it's not easy, in order to make Japan's economy more durable.
There are many prank calls from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
I would like to write about a high standard of public safety today.
As written two days ago, the "slight" shift of the education system toward the direction should improve a high standard of public order though it takes a couple of decades to see the improvement.
The substitution of conventional guns for advanced weapons, the use of which inflicts no casualties, such as a Teaser device, for an ordinary citizen potentially helps improve public safety by reducing the number of guns flooding the cities and without taking a safeguard from an ordinary family in the future. Although the defensive strength of a Teaser device isn't currently comparable with that of the gun, Teaser, Smith & Wesson, Colt, and/or the other companies will develop more competitive ones in the future. The widespread of such a convenient device may have caused some problems, for instance, its abuses and misuse. However, they are not fundamental problems and will be overcome in time. Actually, this is a win-win.
The strengthening of the border security should improve the public safety. This is mandatory in the era of the war on terrorism.
From the long-term perspective, the final goal of a high standard of public safety can't be accomplished without improving both the economy and the public safety of the neighboring countries, and the countries of Central and South America. It probably takes a century or longer to see the achievement.
PS, I'm not saying here that the munitions industry will be the next leading one. However, it may play a supportive role in the recovery of the US economy, as seen in the early 1990s.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. There is a prank call from a servant of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Friday, February 20, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
A servant of devils sent me an email regarding the Red Cross Society this morning (* figurative expression). According to my experience for the last five years, this is an omen of the danger. Have to be more careful especially when driving a vehicle this weekend.
Don't dishonor the name of a humanitarian agency.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Got up at nine-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went to buy some items of food at Ashahi, Whole Foods, and HEB grocery stores this afternoon. Ate a Central Market dinner for dinner.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of small Japanese cake, a cup of Matcha green tea at three o'clock, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Watched the Academy Award ceremony on TV until 10:00 pm (CT).
Monday, February 23, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of small Japanese cake, a cup of Matcha green tea at three o'clock, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Make backup copies of computer files to an external hard drive this morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of Green Fields cheese at three o'clock, and a Japanese-European style meal for dinner.
The rise in taxes in this stage may delay the recovery of the US economy from the recession.
There are many prank calls from servants of DEMons today (* figurative expression).
Friday, February 27, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-European-style meal for dinner.
According to the online news, the plan to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by August 2010 was announced today. It seems that the timeline is reasonable, especially for the current leading party.
As well known, the seeds of trouble were sowed in the 1990s. The exchanges of acts of terrorism (the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the destruction of two US embassies in Africa in 1998) and acts of military retaliation (the missile attacks of Al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998) between fundamentalist terrorists and the US started in the early of 1990s, taking in a narrow sense. The act of terrorism in 2001 known as "9/11" is a part of the chain reaction of acts of terrorism followed by acts of retaliation. The "9/11" terrorism prompted the US military forces to attack the Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan and developed into a major war against Iraq. One of many conflicts will hopefully come to an end within a couple of years.
The itemized list below shows a brief explanation of a part of the chain reaction of acts of terrorism followed by acts of retaliation in the 1990s. These documents are copied from the Wikipedia.
[1990~1991] "The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War, or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response. The final conflict was initiated with United Nations authorization, by a coalition force from 34 nations against Iraq, with the expressed purpose of expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after its invasion and annexation on 2 August 1990."
[1991~] "The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia, that began in 1991. The conflict has caused destabilization and instability throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to the rebel forces.
UN Security Council Resolutions led to the creation of UNOSOM I, the first mission to provide humanitarian relief and help restore order in Somalia after the dissolution of its central government. UN Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on December 3, 1992, which approved a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid be distributed and peace be established in Somalia. The UN humanitarian troops landed in 1993 and started a two-year effort (primarily in the south) to alleviate famine conditions."
[1993] "The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042."
[1996] "The Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company (Saudi Aramco) headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996, Khobar Towers was being used to house foreign military personnel".
"On June 25, 1996, per official statement, individuals identified as members of Hezbollah Al-Hejaz (Party of God in the Hijaz) by the United States, exploded a sewage truck packed with explosives adjacent to Building #131 in the housing complex. This eight-story building housed United States Air Force personnel from the 4404th Wing (Provisional), primarily from a deployed rescue squadron and deployed fighter squadron. In all, 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi were killed and 372 of many nationalities were wounded."
[1998] "In the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings (August 7, 1998) hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list."
[1998] "August 1998 bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan (codenamed Operation Infinite Reach by the United States) were American cruise missile strikes on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan on August 20, 1998. The attack was in retaliation for the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people (including 12 Americans) and injured 5,000 others."
"Unfortunately the factory was Sudan's primary source of pharmaceuticals, covering the majority of the Sudanese market. Werner Daum (Germany's ambassador to Sudan 1996–2000) wrote an article in which he estimated that the attack "probably led to tens of thousands of deaths" of Sudanese civilians. The U.S. Bureau of Intelligence and Research wrote a report in 1999 questioning the attack on the factory, suggesting that the connection to bin Laden was not accurate; James Risen reported in the New York Times:"
"According to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, the Al Badr camp controlled by bin Laden and Muawai camps run by the Pakistani Harkat-ul-Mujahideen were the main targets. However, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was training to fight Indian troops in Kashmir, not Americans. According to Rashid, 20 Afghans, seven Pakistanis, three Yemenis, two Egyptians, one Saudi and one Turk were killed."
"Some, however, including bin Laden, saw this as a way of attracting attention away from the Lewinsky scandal. On August 17, three days prior to the missile strike, President Clinton admitted in a nationally televised presidential address that he had an inappropriate relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. This address followed President Clinton's grand jury testimony earlier that day. An additional motive for the strikes could have been to communicate some form of indirect warning to India and Pakistan, in hopes of discouraging those two countries from their new nuclear testing policies, opposed by many Western countries."
This chain reaction of acts of terrorism followed by acts of retaliation in the 1990s preceded the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a piece of small Japanese cake and two cups of Matcha green tea at three o'clock, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Went to buy some items of food at Whole Foods and HEB grocery stores this afternoon.
Servants of devils did mischief at the EB store (* figurative expression). It reminded me of the following record described in my 2008 diary (Wednesday, August 13):
--- My certificates of completion of both the undergraduate school and the graduate school courses were stolen by Joyce Brown, Hisao Kawasaki, and accomplices about 2~3 years ago. I am solicitous for their return to me. I want to believe that sinful criminals have not yet destroyed my degree diplomas. ---
