Monday, June 1, 2009
Had been troubled by numerous crank calls about the car warranty to my home phone, my cell phone and my wife’s cell phone for the last three years. However, this type of crank calls recently stopped for unknown reason.
My pickup truck and my wife’s car were manufactured in 1999 and 1998, respectively. Therefore, the warranties on both vehicles from the manufactures became invalid when the set periods expired long time ago. The extended warranties on them were expired, too.
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch.
There was a crank call about the car warranty this afternoon, after a long time. Are they still monitoring my compute screen? What hasty people they are! Wait for a week.
No more extended warranty is necessary because it can be said that our investments to vehicles have already been recovered, almost. Our investments to the extended warranties were also recovered when one of them covered the cost of repairing the self-starting motor previously.
Ate a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Got up at eight fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
So far, the dull pain in my left-side abdomen has been relieved since last Saturday. A low does aspirin per day seems to be taking effect without causing any noticeable side effect.
Watched a DVD of “Chocolate” at home this evening. With the US sponsored European Recovery Program as a start, after WW II, Western European countries incorporated much more elements from American cultures than before, through rock ’n’ roll, Hollywood movie, pop art and so on. In the movie, the mother, who is descended from the Mayas on her mother’s side, and her daughter had roamed from town to town in Europe and, one windy day in 1950s, they visited a small countryside town in France. They came with the wind of the cultures of a Native American, opened an exotic chocolate shop and begun to have influences upon conservative Catholic residents of the town gradually. Here, chocolate represents an American culture as a metaphor for reverse-import into Europe.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Got up at nine thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Watched a DVD of “Shakespeare in Love” at home this evening. In the movie, with a relationship with a lady in male dress as a cue, William Shakespeare in a slump started getting one wonderful idea after another for his plays “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Twelfth Night” from experience in love and advices from friends.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
There was a crank call about the car warranty this evening.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Got up at eight fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Watched a DVD of “Le Grand Bleu” at home this evening. The movie tells the friendship between two divers, one of whom has been becoming addicted to catch a glimpse of the world under sea since his father’s accidental death at sea and the other of whom has drowned himself in winning a competition for the world free diving championship, especially with an old friend of his. A dolphin, which is a metaphor for mermaid in this movie, doesn’t save a diver but guide him to another world under the great blue Mediterranean Sea.
Spaghetti should be eaten al dente. An Italian restaurant should serve a dish of al dente spaghetti.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Got up at eleven o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and pieces of pizza and a dish of salad for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Watched a DVD of “Ladyhawke” at home this evening. This movie tells a fantasy set in medieval towns of the central Italy in the Holy Roman Empire era about a lady and a knight who carry the curse that she turns into a hawk during the day and he turns into a wolf during the night, forbidding them to meet each other in the flesh. Both the sound editing and the screenplay of this movie reminded me of a style of the1980s in vogue.
Feel recently as if some of the news that the media were covering on a huge scale daily were fabricated scandal, clumsily performed play, obvious subterfuge or a part of stratagem. Prefer watching the DVDs of older pleasant movies that were purchased either at local stores or through online several years ago to reading awful news, actually.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Got up at six forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch. Went shopping at Whole Foods and HEB grocery stores this afternoon. Ate a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 96 degree F (35.5 degree C). My weight is now about147 pounds.
Would like to write about how Japan could improve its image and how it could take the leadership and the initiative in the United Nations more than before. There is a great deal of room for improvement in behaviors, relationships and politics of Japan. One of many things that have always been bothering me is that Japan seems to have a tendency to underrate the importance of the likeability in spite of knowing what kind of people has ever had a lot of power behind the political scenes in the UN. Japan should refrain from committing what they “hate”. For example, Japan should be more discreet in the followings matters:
1.Don’t even discuss about a necessity for nuclear armament at the National Diet. Some majority powers may want Japan to possess nuclear weapons in order to help justify them. However, it’s not necessary for Japan to commit what they “want”.
2.End deep-sea whale fishing completely. This isn’t an old tradition of Japan’s, though Japan has been involved in coastal whale fishery since 17th century.
3.Don’t try to take the lead in imposing a sanction against a nation suffering poverty. Support the UN’s decision on a sanction.
It’s rather easy not to be an anathema. Japan need to be more careful not to fall easily into any political trap designed to lead it to be so. However, it goes without saying that Japan shouldn't play up to the tastes of them by changing its “good” “old” traditions.
Overall, Japan doesn’t have to be always likeable but it should avoid being “dislikeable”. Japan shouldn't blame the others for failing in the so-called “GiRi” that is just a custom of moral obligation peculiar to Japan. Moreover, Japan should maintain neutrality in religion more steadfastly, especially for a long-term perspective.
Only the easiest, quick, defensive action is described here. Indeed, there are a lot of points for improvement. However, most of them are sensitive and require a long period of time.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. There’s a lot of noise in the neighborhood because of its roof composition replacement all day long today. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 96 degree F (35.5 degree C).
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five. This morning, there’s a lot of noise in the neighborhood again.
A refrigerator in my house has stopped functioning since last midnight. Telephoned for an appointment to repair it this morning. Come to think of it, the defrosting sensor of this refrigerator went wrong and was replaced last summer. It seems that the failure rate of this product starts rising with following a bathtub curve after about six years of use. The term of the manufacture’s warranty may be properly defined because, according to the customer’s manual, it covers the repair cost for five years.
Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Watched a DVD of “The Last of the Mohicans (1992)” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen a classic novel of J. F. Cooper’s. This is one of my favorite movies. In 1757, the French and Indian Wars buffeted the lives of settlers in the Thirteen British Colonies in North America. A Native American who headed a party of the Hurons and was obsessed with satisfying a personal grievance against British soldiers with gray hair tracked obstinately down two daughters of a British colonel. An American settler, an English soldier, and a father and his son of the Mochicans risked their lives for safeguarding daughters of a colonel against the assaults by the Hurons on a runaway trip from Ft. William Henry to Albany along the Hudson River. The casting of this movie is wonderful.
Wednesday, June 10. 2009
Got up at eight thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 97 degree F (36 degree C).
Two repairmen came to my home and replaced a broken control board of my refrigerator this afternoon. This time, they walked into my house with their shoes on. Cleaned up the inside walls and the drainpipe of my refrigerator using the solution of baking soda in hot water for the purposes of both deodorization and disinfection.
It seems that a repairman from a majority group and that from a minority group acted on behalf of CEOs of a company this afternoon. If not, one of them might just represent a shy American and the other might also represent a rude Indian. There seems to be the people whose jobs are in either politics or Asian manufacturers pulling strings behind the scenes.
BTW, there is an ethnical connection between Asians and Native Americans. Needless to say, however, Native Americans (Mongoloid) are ethnically different from Indian (Caucasoid).
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Got up at seven thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and pieces of pizza and a dish of salad for dinner.
There was a severe hailstorm this evening. It brought hails comparable in size to a penny. The hailstorm inflicted no damage on our vehicles at all because our vehicles were kept in the garage of our house safely during hailstorm.
Watched a DVD of “Dark City” at home this evening. This movie tells an extravagant science fiction about a testing on all humans living in an isolated city floating somewhere in outer space by the aliens who are on the way to extinction, are parasitic on humans living underneath a city and believe that there is a clue to cure their species in the human emotions. In Dark City, the injection that contains the substances holding an artificial memory is unconsciously injected into a human brain while sleeping coercively, so that the memory of a human can be overwritten periodically, over and over again. One day, all of sudden, a series of their experiments leads a man to a rapid revolution. A man could be a savior of either dying aliens or captive humans.
The story is very eccentric. The audience may be divided in opinion as to whether the scene of the final battle is agreeable or not. The performances of the actors are excellent.
PS, Who set it originally? Unfortunately, sticky schemers have corrupted organizations by taking their usual measures. Anyway, it’s nothing to do with me.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Got up at ten o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch. Applied an organic fungicide to Red Robin Photinia planted around my house before an evening meal. Ate a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 99 degree F (37 degree C).
Watched a DVD of “Excalibur (1981)” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen a classic of the King Arthur legend, “Le Morte Darthur”. The cinematography, the costumes and the actor’s dramatic performances of this movie gave more powerful and pleasing impression on me today than they had left since my teens.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Got up at ten o’clock in the morning. Ate a piece of cake and a piece of Robiola Di Bosco for lunch. Went shopping at both Whole Foods and HEB grocery stores this afternoon. Ate a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. This time, some members of girls groups bothered my wife.
There has been a white-silver Infinity QX4 with bearing Texas license plates of N26ZXT parked frequently by someone on the street in front of my house. Any curbside parking in front of my house for a long period of time is unwelcome. An on-street parking may increase the risk of a traffic accident resulting in property damage, injury or death and spoil the beauty of the streets.
Watched a DVD of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen a classic drama of William Shakespeare’s. A couple of features that may give a conservative lover of Shakespeare’s drama shocks are incorporated in the movie.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Would like to write about my taste for literature today. My parents and sister seldom read books. It was through my influence that my sister was somewhat attracted to literature at the later date in her twenties or thirties. Instead of my family’s influence, movies, TV dramas and even TV puppet plays aroused my interest in literature. For instance, the classic fantasy of “Nanso Satomi Hakkenden” written by Bakin Takizawa and the historical novel of “Fuujin No Mon” written by Ryoutarou Shiba gave enjoyment to me in my elementary school days and my junior high school days, respectively. NHK broadcasted the puppet play of “Nanso Satomi Hakkenden” and the TV drama of “Fuujin No Mon” weekly in those days. Because entertainments attracted my fancy as a start, only light novels amused me early in my teens, such as historical novel, SF, mystery, horror and so on.
Educational novels, pure literatures and foreign literatures didn’t attract me until my university days. The Shinchou western literatures and the Iwanami Library became my favorite publishing series during my university days. My favorite novel at that time was a tetralogy of Yukio Mishima’s, “Sea of Fertility”. It consists of “Spring Snow”, “Runaway Horses”, “The Temple of Dawn” and “The Decay of the Angel”. The novels by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Anton P. Chekhov, Fedor M. Dostoevskii, Stendhal, Charles Dickens and Thomas Mann also fascinated me. After graduation from universities, historical novels still have stirred up my attention sometimes. It should be a good hobby for an older man.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was at last triple-digit, 100 degree F (38 degree C).
Watched a DVD of “Much Ado about Nothing (1993)” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen a classic drama of William Shakespeare’s and is well directed in the hope that as many types of audiences as possible enjoy seeing his drama. The Italian audience may feel slightly funny.
The Strategic Defense Initiative was called off in 1993. It means that the invention that may revolutionize military strategy against nuclear weapon was terminated about one decade and a half ago. If it hadn’t, some of the defense programs might have borne fruit by now and played a key role to handle a country suspected of having nuclear weapon. It seems that the programs that were designed to make it possible to pinpoint a target either in the air or on the ground indefensibly and accurately using a satellite equipped with either high power laser or guided missiles can be used to disarm a recently nuclear-armed country of its nuclear warheads by removing enemy’s dangerous weapons until its own troops little by little land the enemy mainland and complete marching on safety areas. However, things become extremely difficult when a nuclear-armed country possesses a nuclear submarine and deploys its nuclear warheads on it.
Instead, the US has generously released the knowledge of electronics that has to be related to the very basis of electronic warfare abroad. For the last two decades, it seems that the US has been gradually losing the advantage in the development of high-technology weapons, relatively speaking. Currently, there is no absolute power to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world. Even the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty has not yet come into effect, so far. A shakable policy alternating between economic sanctions against a nation and aids for it especially after it possesses nuclear weapons would bring upon unwelcome followers and accelerate proliferation of nuclear weapons, as the result.
Probably, within the next few decades, a couple more countries will develop their own nuclear weapons even if the plan changes immediately right now. Unless this tendency changes, considerable number of countries will possibly possess nuclear armaments in the future. A study of the limited history of the Cold War tells us that the probability of an all-out nuclear war may be kept very low as long as the cold war structure never returns. Both the risk of nuclear war between two nuclear-armed countries breaking out and even that of the use of strategic nuclear arms may be fairly low. An optimist may say that these facts assure that everything is all right. However, the fact that the probability can’t be reduced down to zero and it should rise surely as the number of nuclear-armed countries increases is also the truth certainly.
Most unfortunately, the risk of nuclear terrorism has been getting higher and higher. One of the reasons why is that, as the number of nuclear-armed countries increases, the identification of the smuggler who sells either its nuclear weapons or weapon-grade nuclear materials to a terrorist group also becomes more difficult. The nuclear deterrent theory that possession of nuclear weapons acts as a deterrent will become powerless when the true enemy that is sponsoring a terrorist group and the nuclear missiles in retaliation should be launched against is unknown. The other reason why is that it’s very difficult to prevent perfectly a terrorist bombing from occurring. Therefore, the tightening of terrorism measures is mandatory, as mentioned several times before. From my individual perspective, the choice of a city to live in for the next several decades is the most important.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Watched a DVD of “The Abyss Special Edition” at home this evening. This is my favorite James Cameron’s film. One day, during the Cold War, a mysterious form of life, which is a metaphor for either mermaid or sea-god in this movie, leads a US nuclear submarine armed with nuclear weapons sinking to the bottom of ocean. The crews on an oil drilling rig, who happen to be near there, have to get involved in both the rescue of victims and the investigation, accompanied by a SEAL team, one of whom will bring troubles to them later on. They little by little encounter a mysterious form of life coming from the abyss.
In the special edition, several scenes with an extended period of about 30 minutes are added to the original theatrical version. A form of life once decides to destroy the human race by gigantic tsunamis when it observes only the dark side of human character and history in terms of wars, nuclear testing and environment destructions but a fortuitous incident dissuades it from doing on the last scene. In the movie, a sprit of self-sacrifice helps the world.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Watched a DVD of “The Making of the Abyss” at home this evening.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and pieces of pizzas and a dish of salad for dinner.
Recently, a mockingbird sings sweetly from the branches of the tree at the front yard of our house. On my appearance, it comes flying and sometimes sings like a cat or a cicada. It’s intelligent and pretty.
Two pairs of blue jays always look busy with their patrol around the back yard of our house. They are eagerly protecting their nestlings in their nests located somewhere on the branches of the trees.
A pair of cardinals sometimes visited the back yard of our house. They are always happy together and often utter beautiful clear whistling notes.
According to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, “Aside from the European cuckoo’s familiar two-note call, cuckoo are best known for their habit of brood parasitism; their eggs resemble those of the host species, and the adult cuckoo removes one or more host eggs to ensure that the substitution is not detected”. “The newly hatched cuckoo may also eject eggs or nestlings”.
It’s cunning and unlovable. The TV program showing that a newly hatched cuckoo feverishly walks in circles in a nest in order to displace eggs or nestlings and then it grows much larger than its foster parents gave me a weird feeling long time ago. A cuckoo would be a likable bird if it stopped laying eggs. It should lay an egg after building its own nest.
Watched a DVD of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” at home this evening. It was about twenty-five years ago that a midnight triple feature program consisting of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” and “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” amused me for the first time in a movie theater in Tokyo, Japan. Indeed, a barrage of too strong humors almost paralyzed the senses of mine for a short term that night. The strange screen images suggesting a religious picture and their array of funny characters gave me an unforgettable impression. The musical comedy, Monty Python’s Spamalot that is based on the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and won three Tony Awards including Best Musical of the 2004-05 season gave enjoyment to both my wife and me in a Broadway theatre in the late winter of 2006.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Got up at ten o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch. Went shopping at Whole Foods and HEB grocery stores this afternoon. Ate a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Would like to write about subjectivity and objectivity in terms of the appreciation of the cinema. The audience whose subjectivity is enlarged is always looking for the character in a movie who has something in common with him / her. Because greater objectivity will come with time, it seems that older audience enjoy a movie without finding the character in it whom he / she may empathize with. Indeed, the movie that has many things in common with me would hurt my feeling.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Got up at ten o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
The photo above shows my father and mother. Both my parents are Japanese. It seems that they were their thirties in this picture. My father is about 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall and my mother is about 5 feet and 2 inches tall. My height is 6 feet and 1 inch. On average, Japanese of my generation is taller than those of my father’s generation by 3 inches. My physique is like my father’s and my face is like my mother’s.
My father passed away about seventeen years ago. He went into a comatose state with subarachnoid hemorrhage when he visited a city three hours away from his house by car in the late winter of 1992. He was unconscious on the bed in the hospital at the time of my arrival there before the day was over. During my staying in the hospital corridor for a week, since my arrival until his death, he had never become conscious.
BTW, the average height of Japanese at the age of twenty (5 feet 7 1/2 inches) is taller than that of my generation by half an inch. The average height of American male is about 5 feet 10 inches. The average height of White American male is about 5 feet 10 1/2 inches.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 102 degree F (39 degree C).
With the progress of the globalization, media have had more important role than ever before. Indeed, the power of media has sometimes sprung a surprise on me. Even in the free world, manipulation of public opinion by government and / or media groups have been observed everywhere and bewared occasionally. Although it’s obviously contrary to the idea of the free world, it exists certainly and may be necessary to a certain extent. However, it seems that its power is still limited to a range within the free world.
It goes without saying that each media has established mutually advantageous connections with political parties, profit-earning organizations, non-profit organizations, pressure groups, etc. inside and outside a country within the free world. A media may have also had connections with even the powers outside the free world, and unfortunately it may have been used to bring exterior influences either directly or indirectly. This is one of weak points of the modern free world. The free world is good, but it has weaknesses in the susceptibility to outside influences.
On the other hand, although political groups and media inside the free world have eagerly tried to impact on Communist bloc countries, despotic states and monarchs by means of several ways without violating principle of nonintervention hopefully, any striking example of the success of these efforts hasn’t been seen recently. It may require more ingenious schemes or just take a long time to have the impacts on the counties, the governments of which have tighter controls over their people under either the collective will of the nation or the military power. It shouldn’t be forgotten that this type of attempt is just a trick and may not be strong enough to influence their policy and decision. The rigidly regimented society is uncomfortable, but it’s solid in politics. The countries in the Communist bloc had ever revealed a weakness in the economy for the last decades. While most of them still show their economical weakness, some have gradually gained their strengths. It’s still uncertain whether the government of such a rising country will spoil its economy, leave it to take its own course, or find a revolutionary way in the future.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch, pieces of Daru Farmstead Cheese at three o’clock, and a Japanese style meal for dinner.
Watched a DVD of “The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen the first volume of a trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s, “The Lord of the Rings”. This is a didactic fantasy rewarding good and punishing evil, set in an imaginary world, Middle Earth. Long time ago, the allied forces between man and elf’s kingdoms once defeated the Dark Lord and his troops when the ring into which he forged his entire power to rule the world was cut off. After passing through three hands, an honest peaceful Hobbit fatefully owns the ring and finally he determines to start on a journey accompanied by friends to the only place in enemy territory where it was made and can be unmade, for the purpose of making the residual power of the Dark Lord become extinct forever. The casting was cleverly made in order to create a complex and deep atmosphere because many actors in this film have ever made various kinds of the roles in their careers, including the hero role and the villain’s role. The screenplay of the film is superb.
Habit, manner, liking and thinking of mine are quite different from those of a typical Japanese. The following table compares mine with a typical Japanese male’s:
Yasuhito Shiho Typical Japanese
Male (43) Male (40-44)
Male (43) Male (40-44)
Height 6 feet 1 inch 5 feet 7 inches
BMI = Weight /(Height)^2 19.6 kg/m^2 23.7 kg/m^2
Hobby Reading, Movie, Travel N / A
TV Program Rarely Sports, News
Drinking Quitted Drink Frequently
Smoking Never Smoke Daily
Thinking Logical Follow the Majority
Opinion
Opinion
Attitude Emotionally Stable Like a Comedian
Type of Blood Rh+ AB Rh+ A or + O
School Career Master Degree High-School, Bachelor
Religion Neutral Funeral Buddhist
We haven’t seen any movie in the movie theater since February 7, 2009, and we haven’t watched any TV program since February 22, 2009, either.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 103 degree F (39.5 degree C).
Watched a DVD of “The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen the second volume of a trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s. The scene of the warfare at a fortress between a besieged army consisting of men and elves and a besieging army consisting of ten thousands of Orcs is the best part of this volume. In the climax of the episode, the force of nature washes away the troops of the eminent mentor of all Wises (Wizards) that sold his soul to the Dark Lord on the ground of cutting down a large tract of forest around his tower. The realism and the liveliness of a small four-legged creature created using computer graphics were epoch-making in the early 2000s.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Got up at eight thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 105 degree F (40.5 degree C). This is the hottest day this year. The atmospheric temperature above the body temperature by 7 degree F (4 degree C) seems to be deadly.
Watched a DVD of “The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King” at home this evening. This film brings to the screen the final volume of a trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s. The evil sprit that is sealed in the ring gradually corrupts the mind of its current owner, a Hobbit, to be found by the Dark Lord. His journey is about to come to the final part that he and a friend of his infiltrates into the territory of the Dark Lord. The descendant of the King who cut off the ring from a finger of the Dark Lord three thousands years ago protects his country against the enemy’s force consisting hundreds thousands of Orcs, and then he attempts to support the task of a Hobbit friend of his by drawing the attention of the Dark Lord away from it. After the King Arthur legend pattern, the magical ring to rule the world was cast into a lava lake and main characters set sail to the other world on the last scene.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch, and pieces of California Pizza Kitchen’s pizza and a dish of salad for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 104 degree F (40 degree C).
Watched the second discs of all three volumes of “The Lord of the Rings trilogy” including their making videos at home this evening. This screen version of “The Lord of the Rings” was cinematrized with Peter Jackson’s passion.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Got up at six fifteen in the morning. Took a nap for two hours. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 101 degree F (38.5 degree C). Stayed at home for the entire day.
Watched a DVD of “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” this evening at home. This film is an early masterpiece of Stanley Kubrick’s. There are many venomous essences, indeed. In spite of its subtitle, the film does not tell me how to love the bomb. Probably, it’s impossible for sane people to love the nuclear bomb. There may exist a cult that worships the nuclear bomb in this whole wide world. A believer in such a cult group probably regards SDI, ABL and SONAR as evils, because these devices weaken the power of its idol.
The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser is a high power chemical laser armed in the turret on the aircraft nose of a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet and designed to destroy Tactical Ballistic Missiles and possibly Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles during their boost phase. According to an announcement by the Pentagon in April, this program may be cancelled because of affordability and technology problems. The reason in detail for the probable cancellation is uncertain. One of the possible reasons is that it may be powerless against missiles launched from a submarine dived off the coast near the target. It’s because, in most cases, the preparations to shoot down missiles from a submarine won’t be completed in time. Even if that’s true, Airborne Laser seems to have various potential uses. The existence of this sort of technology helps us stop worrying a missile armed with the nuclear bomb, at least.
However, it goes without saying that any type of high technology defensive devices such as military satellite, Airborne Laser and High-Sensitivity Sonar Surveillance does not have the capability of dealing with a terrorist attack. Therefore, no defensive weapon helps us stop worrying a terrorist bomb.
BTW, the nuclear bomb belongs to the category of a genocidal weapon because it explodes while radiating violent energy (in heat, shock, and radioactive lays such as x-ray, gamma-ray, beta-ray and neutron beam) on all directions in a flash and annihilates a very large surrounding area, followed by scattering of lethal radioactive dusts around. An explosion of a thermonuclear bomb in the center of an urban area may claim the lives of millions people. On the other hand, the Airborne Laser may belong to the opposite category, that is, the defense system. It’s designed to burn a localized area with pinpoint accuracy. This device is appropriate to shoot down a missile, an airplane and so on. The velocity of light is 300000km/sec and the effective range of the Airborne Laser is several hundred kilometers. Therefore, it takes a laser beam just 0.001 second to reach the target 300 kilometers away after pulling the trigger. The probability of success on the first attempt during laser tracking seems to be quit high and, even if it misses the target, the following attempts can be done quickly.
Furthermore, it may also become suitable for an assassination especially when it’s armed in a military satellite. The ability like “the thunderbolt of Zeus” might have frightened some sort of people. The risks of abusing its power, such as the assassination of a leading figure, have to be tightly controlled with regulations. Don’t hesitate to have an absolute but non-destructive power against the objects on the ground and in the air, though it still isn’t absolute enough to shoot down a submarine-borne missile such as Trident.
The main problem of Airborne Laser is currently associated with its power consumption. The high power laser needs the large electric power system. Low efficiency in converting electricity into laser leads to the intense heat in a laser device, which has to be dissipated.
The main problem of Airborne Laser is currently associated with its power consumption. The high power laser needs the large electric power system. Low efficiency in converting electricity into laser leads to the intense heat in a laser device, which has to be dissipated.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Got up at six forty-five in the morning. Took a nap for two hours. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Went out shopping at Asahi, Whole Foods and HEB grocery stores this afternoon. Today the maximum temperature was 102 degree F (39 degree C).
All my desires are a pleasant life in a luxury house located at a safe place together with my wife for several more decades and our own healthy children. The people who are blinded by love of gain and call themselves my friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, relatives, neighbors, lovers, teachers, translators or middlemen are unwelcome.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Got up at eight o’clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a Japanese style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 104 degree F (40 degree C).
The descriptions of the Japanese origins found in the Wikipedia and the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia are summarized as follows:
--- The Japanese Paleolithic period began since the presence of humankind in the Japanese Islands and continued to about 14,000 BC. The Japanese Neolithic period following to it, which can also be called the Jõmon period (14,000 BC ~ 400 BC), is characterized by pottery decorated with straw-rope patterns. The Jõmon people lived in sunken pit dwellings and subsisted primarily by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Many elements of Japanese culture may date from this period and reflect a mingled migration from the northern Asian continent (e.g. the Buryat) and the southern Pacific areas (e.g. Polynesian). Japan’s history began with the accession of the legendary first emperor, Jimmu, in 660 BC. The average height of the Jõmon males is about 5 feet 1 ~ 3 inches. Large head, wide nose, strong jaw, thick eyebrows, big eyes, flat tibia and large fibula are the Jõmon people’s distinctive features. The Yayoi period (400 BC ~ 250 AD) subsequent to the Jõmon period arose on the island of Northern Kyushu and spread northeastward across Honshu. The Yayoi people mastered bronze and iron casting, wove hemp, and employed a Chinese method of wet-paddy rice cultivation. The average height of the Yayoi males is about 5 feet 4 inches. Higher height than the Jõmon by about 2 inches, oval face and flat face are the Yayoi people’s distinctive features. It is widely believed that the cause of changes in Japanese physique in the Yayoi period was attributed to changes in their environment and eating habits and / or mixings of the native Japanese, who were a large majority of the Jõmon descendants, with the so-called Toraijin, who were minority immigrants from both China and Korea. It’s still uncertain which influence has the preponderance. The Yamato court established the first unified Japanese state in the 4th ~ 5th centuries. A considerable number of the Toraijin settled in Japan beginning in the 4th century and also in the middle of 7th century. The height of the Japanese once increased in the Kofun period (250 AD ~ 538 AD). The Kofun people are the second tallest in the history of the Japanese. Its average was about 5 feet 6 inches. However, the height of the Japanese has declined gradually since then and reached down to about 5 feet 4 inches. No significant number of immigrants had settled in Japan since the middle of the 7th century until the recent times for about 1,300 years. The Japanese living in the Islands of the Far East overwhelmingly became a single Asian ethnic group with very homogeneous characteristics, culture and language in this period. ---
It seems that the homogeneity is one of the most distinctive features of the Japanese people as a whole. The homogeneity gives Japan advantages and disadvantages. One of advantages is that mutually understanding and well-disciplined organizations and companies might be rather easily formed in the society. This enabled Japan to outstrip the West in the productivity. The homogeneity has also helped it to maintain a high standard of public safety. On the other side, the homogeneity also gives a disadvantage in finding a person with singular ideas. In the history of civilization, the germs of singular ideas have been mostly found in the place where different kinds of peoples mingle. However, in a society of highly advanced information technologies, modern people have opportunities to come into contact with heterogeneous cultures without stirring abroad if they desire. The disadvantage of the Japanese in making a breakthrough may have already been overcome with offering people with buried talents to touch foreign cultures actively through book, movie, TV, art and Internet. In general, it’s not enough yet.
The average height of my father’s generation is nearly equal to that of the Yayoi people. However, the average height has rapidly increased by 3 ~ 4 inches since my father’s generation until the present in half a century because of Westernization in eating habits and living styles. The average height of the modern Japanese males, who are the tallest in its history, is about 5 feet 7 1/2 inches. Both my parents are Japanese born and bred so the features characterizing both the Jõmon people and the Yayoi people seem to be found in me, though my height is much higher than the average heights of those peoples by about 0.75 ~ 1 foot.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Got up at eight fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereals for lunch and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was below 100 degree F.
A food waste disposer installed beneath the bottom of a sink of my house got broken this morning. It was beyond repair and replaced with a new disposer this evening.
