I'm boring and bored.

granulocytopenia

2011-12-13T15:34:00.000-08:00

Ah..., I have not updated my blog for a year or longer. I have been so worried about the layout of this blog. This blog should be more organized, not an assembly of unrelated posts. I want to sort out the entries by content. I know many blogs have an organized archive classfying their post. How can I do this on this blog? I have been looking for someone who takes care of the hassle of making a new archive for me.

The Minami-dake peak, 3033 meters high. I saw many alpine plants which form a tight cushion in rock crevices along the ridge.

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome

2010-07-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

Extremely hot..., no breeze... I am writing this entry in the uncomfortable lull, while eating dinner.

The primula is Primula cunelifolia var. hakusanensis. This species grows high in the mountains where snow still stays around this time. If I reincarnate, I wish I would be reborn as an alpine plant. Just sitting in the same place throughout the life in cool climate. Awesome.

When choosing coffee this evening in a grocery store, I stepped on something soft and slimy. At first I thought I got dog shit on my shoe. The feeling was very close. But, I found it a jelly fish! Why do I have to stumble upon a jelly fish in front of coffee shelf? The store is not even close to the shore (at least two-hour drive to the sea). The jelly fish might reincarnate into something else. Could be a coffee tree.

preeclampsia

2010-04-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, it bloomed. This is a hybrid of Japanese alpine rhododenrons. I got this four years ago. It had grown slowly but never come to flower. With camera, can't show its real elegance. The milky color with a yellow hue. The petals are so thin as to be translucent. Lucent technologies bell labs.

retinopathy of prematurity

2010-04-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

It has took me more than ten years to have an intuitive picture of ∇×∇=rot.　When knowing this concept in class, I could not understand why this means rotation. ∇= (∂/∂x, ∂/∂y,∂/∂z) was easy to see: how steep the slope is. But, ∇×∇was not such straightforward to picture what the formula means. I asked the teacher for intuitive interpretations. He answered something. It only confused me even further. I kind of gave up grasping the meaning, and tried to learn how to use it to solve problems.

Ten years since then, one mid night, I remembered this for some reason and googled "∇×∇=rot, intuitive, image (in Japanese)". The one-decade-long question was solved in 0.21 seconds. I was so exhilarated and called to many people to deliver my pleasure. Their responses were all cold and sleepy. I think they were merely jealous of me.

A Qdoba in St. Louis, MO.
Photographer: seno minoru.

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

2010-03-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hello, I have nothing to write in this entry.

I got an email from my cousin. He went trekking today and sent me some pics he took in the mountain. Posted is the one I like most. The flower is called Fukuju-sou "福寿草", Adonis ramosa. It blooms around when snow melts away. This plant opens leaves very early in the spring and the above-ground part goes before summer comes. They apprear only during spring. We collectively called such kind of plants spring ephemerals. I like this name. Sounds beautiful.

Well, I often have a hunch when something unpleasant is going to happen to me. It very often comes true. Maybe I should use it to avoid potential problems.

arteriosclerosis obliterans

2010-01-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

Hello. Now that it is winter, I will talk about liquid nitrogen, which is as cold as -196C or -321 F.
As the temperature goes down, so does the electrical resistance of a metal. You may know this rule. When the temperature is extremely low, it even becomes zero ( superconductivity). The liquid nitrogen temperature is cold enough for some materials to turn superconductive.
I immersed my cell phone in liquid nitrogen for 5 minutes when its battery was nearly out. I had expected the battery would get recharged because the cold liquid nitrogen would lower the resistance. We feel invigorated when we have our stress lessened. With a twist of physics, I applied this analogy to the chilled battery and its resistance. To my surprise, when taken out, the phone didn't work at all as the buttons were deeply frozen and immobilized. I let it thaw for 20 minutes or around. The power was off... Tried to boot it. Coudn't! Found the battery empty! Where had the energy gone? Almost empty it was, but not exactly empty. Superconductive recharge was not observed...

I think there is something wrong with the superconductivity theory. I have lost some of my faith in physics.

sick

2009-06-15T01:34:00.001-07:00

I took a sick day today. Persisting headache and diarrhea. The diarrhea is very watery. Except for its foul odor, you would not be able to tell it from tea. My father, a doctor, told me to only drink hot tea. Taking up tea through the mouth and squirting tea out of the bottom hole. That is what I have been doing since Sunday.

Bored...

2009-02-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

The first post in 2009. At the beginning of March, I have a pretty big exam called CBT among students. Any medical student in Japan is supposed to take it before moving up to clinical training. Since this exam marks the end of course work, its coverage is extensive. It asks about all the clinical specialties as well as basic medical science.

Although all students have to pass CBT, each medical school can set its own passing grade. Some school place very tight ones, some lax ones. Since I learned my school is nice, I have procrastinated about preparing for the exam.

I like modems a lot.

pivka II

2008-12-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

I've been staying in bed over the weekend. It has been four years since I got a cold last time. This would be the last cold in my 20's.

My friends refused to take care of me, saying "The sick cause is struggling in your body without asking others for help. Why not fighting against it only with your own immune system?". This remark made no sense to me, but they insisted.

The tubes in the picture are blood sample tubes. On the other day, I collected blood from a living human for the first time in my life. She got a big pain, though.

infringing a copyright

2008-11-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

I've been working as a lab technician since this summer. I usually work til 1:00 am or later, staring from 5:00 pm (after class).

Slim payment, demanding job, complicated politics among the lab members. Any of them turns me off. But, sometimes, I find something bringing me somthing different. Extracting DNA, I use a kit made by a biotechnology company named Promega. I foundthe company is located in Madison. I felt kind of good, thinking that I was using a product probably made there. It was a very slight thing, but good for me.

Picture: a snail in Hawaii. Posted without the permission of a person who took this.

mercaptoethanol

2008-11-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Now I have an urge to defecate. I've decided to withstand it until I finish writing this. I don't think I can take it long. So today's story will be a short one.

Basically, I am too hasty in doing pretty much everything. Haste makes waste, this is very true of me.

I found the topaz crystal. Real beaut!

So long.

obituary

2008-09-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

September 27 (Sat), 12:15pm, the neutered tomcat died of old age.

He had been with us for fourteen years (if my memory is correct). One day fourteen years ago or around, he dropped at our place from somewhere, and had lived with us since then. As he was already an adult cat with castration undertaken when he joined us, his actual age is totally unknown... I think he lived long well for a cat.

The pic was taken several days before he passed away.

heat rash

2008-08-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

A man in his late 20s is arriving here from Vietnam. You must know who he is. He is an economist specialized for small fishery industries. He is living in Hawaii. He is a member of a softball team. Today, I meet him for the first time in two years.

He won't arrive here today. His flight has been canceled due to a typhoon. If arrangment for a next flight goes well, he will be here tomorrow morning.

tropical nights

2008-07-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Alpine plants can't thrive in hot weather. Neither can I. This July has been so sweltering. The temperatures do not go down even during nights. When a night temperature is above 25 degree Celsius, we call the night "nettai ya" (literally tropical night, meaning a sultry night like one in the tropical zone). Osaka have been tropical for 13 nights in a row. Probably, a fourteenth consecutive one will come tonight.

A pic of an alpine butterwort from the European Alps. It flowered in my garden this May.

rho

2008-07-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of a liquid called Mili-Q water? It is specially purified water for laboratory use. It contains few contaminants. It is extremely close to theoretically pure water. I am not exactly sure how to make the water.

I had been curious what it would taste like since I knew it for the first time. I tried a test-tube of Mili-Q a few week ago. Not to contaminate the liquid, I used a new sterilized test tube as a glass. I only found it tasted bland. My instructor frowned on me using a tube for such a silly project.

My lab training has been done. I no longer have to stay late at the laboratory.

lab slave

2008-06-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

Ah, a whole 2 months has passed since I last updated this blog. Nothing publishable has happened to me as I have been working around the clock in laboratory like a slave. This excuses me. No?

But, I found lab work less stressful. Lab work is team work, while researchers in theoretical fields like social science and math work individually. So I don't have to feel that it is all my fault if the project goes wrong. Besides, for a project to go well, only a few of the members have to generate good data. When I was in social science, I had been wondering why a life science paper has so many co-authors. Now the reason is becoming clear to me.

electrophoresis

2008-04-07T06:14:00.001-07:00

Lab work has begun. My project is looking at a gene and its product responsible for spermatogenesis. If a male mouse lacks the gene, his sperm won't work, resulting in male infertility.

When sitting in biology class last semester, I could hardly understand what professors were talking about. I'm getting to see their points, after actually doing experiments.

paypal sucks

2008-03-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung. Cherry blossoms are going to flower. Full bloom is expected sometime in the next week.

I have been troubled by PayPal since this weekend. They don't allow me to send money, saying "This payment cannot be funded with a credit card at this time". I called to PayPal at least 42 times and asked for explanation. They said each time the same thing "Nothing wrong with your credit card, but some risks could be involved in this transaction. So the payment is suspended for now."

Have you had such problems with PayPal? If so, tell me how to beat them.

plutonium

2008-02-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

A night view of Kyoto City. The tower is Kyoto Tower, the tallest building in the city. I'd say that it is just an ugly eyesore. Hard to find what made them to build it.

I know of a guy who got ripped off by a bike shop.

2008-02-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Wandering downtown areas in Japan, you may stumble across flashy, boisterous places like the one in the photo. They are pachinko parlors. Pachinko is a gambling game, possibly the most popular one here. The game is found almost exclusively in Japan. As far as I know, Guam is the only place outside Japan.

Pachinko fans are all busy studying strategies to win. You can find various pachinko books on bookstore shelves. Some of them are technical enough to resort to probability theory.

Nobody knows why, but the spell checker has recovered.

a real nuisance.

2008-02-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

I made a trip to the ski resort for the first time in nearly twenty years. Last time I visited there, I was an elementary school kid.

Not a soul in sight. The lift on the slope is not operational. The oldest ski place in my district, opened 80 years ago, seems to have little time left to live. The slope has less snow year by year. This winter brings exceptionally good amount of snow, local people told.

On a just slightly off-topic note, my blog has a spell checker. But it doesn't work for me. I can't find out what is wrong with it. Is any beholder to tell how to fix it?

you can't pass through tight junctions.

2008-02-18T03:19:00.000-08:00

There is a university named Kinki University. The school seems to be catching on among English natives. The name is pronounced kinky university, although Kinki in Japanese simply refers to an area consisting of Osaka, Kyoto, and four other prefectures. Nothing to do with perverts.

The picture is an ad of Kyoto Sangyo University ("KyoSan" for short), one of the finest schools in the northern hemisphere. I'm not an alumnus of KyoSan, sadly.

NTT DoCoMo

2008-02-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

Can you see falling snowflakes? Not the circles on the lower side of the pic. They are snow stuck onto the lens. Look closely for white spots like dandruff.

Weather news tells that the coldest air in this season is covering Japan. Now the snow is waning. It was so intense an hour ago. Such snowfalls don't occur very often in Osaka.

I've been sloppy with blogging.

2008-02-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

I don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning these days. This winter in Japan seems colder than usual. Indeed, Osaka had snow covering for the first time in eleven years.

I start the day by warming my body in a bath. It's so soothing that I often fall back to sleep while soaking in the bathtub. If you try this, you'll know that it couldn't be helped that I was late for the public health exam.

Your NMDA receptors

2008-02-05T04:06:00.000-08:00

The tense exam spell is now almost over. I only have a silly public health exam on Friday.

Humm, I have nothing to tell for now.

N-acetylglucosamine

2007-12-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

May be this year's last article. May be not.

I'm going to do nothing but studying throughout this winter break. This coming January is packed with tough exams, plus a makeup for microbiology. I failed the subject. When I completed the test, I felt like that I would, though not with a remarkable score, pass it. I had even forgot about it until my not-passing was announced a few days ago. It's really painful when something that you believe would go well actually turns out to be a failure.

alpha

2007-12-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

Sigh..., biochem covers so many topics. Although each topic may be interrelated, my brain can't really see the links. I'm so daunted. I've turned to blogging to evade biochemistry.

Here! The topaz I talked about in the last post! A flawless crystal of 4 cm high, 2.5cm wide, with gem-quality clarity. You must marvel at this.

Your letter always lacks a salutation.

2007-12-17T01:36:00.000-08:00

Howdy my audience,

I'm being so sloppy with updating this shit. I've got tons of requests from every parts of the planet to urge me to post new articles. I've been so busy digging the ground in search for gems. My father and I have been so deeply involved in gem hunting. Finally, finally, we found two pieces of truly gemmy topaz! I'll post a pic of the stone anytime soon. The left is not the one.

Biochem exam is approaching me. Seems tough with my limited knowledge on the field...

You're not welcomed to the banquet.

2007-11-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

118 is different by 2 from 120. So is 122. No difference in terms of distance. Yet, I inexplicably feel that 122 is closer to 120 than 118. I wouldn't be the only person who feels this way.

the worm has no ploy.

2007-11-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

Workers are building a garage in front of my window. It is just 3 or 4 feet from the window of my room. Light can narrowly get into my room. But, a view from the window has completely gone. You would think the garage sucks. I would think a different way.

My room is on the first floor. So I was at risk of being peeked at, when I was doing something inappropriate. Now the garage protects me from peep. Yeah, you'd think the garage sucks if you're peepers. And I wouldn't because it serves as a convenient blind.

daisuke matsuzaka

2007-10-29T03:22:00.000-07:00

Phew..., I took exams for two days in a row last week. Osteology on Wednesday, microbiology the next day. Actually, so soon another one is coming up. Immunology on Tuesday next. I seem to be snowed under with exams this semester.

The pic looks like one of cloudy sky at dusk. You would say ''Yes! That's what I guessed first'', when you know it is a water surface reflecting cloudy afternoon sky.

A day before the osteology exam

2007-10-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Now that A/A/R/O/N/ and I broke up, I went trekking with another guy. The vista was spectacular. We climbed up the hill, which is 4,600 feet high.

I'm supposed to be taking an exam around this time tomorrow. I will be answering names of minuscule parts of bones. And my short term memory will delete the bone knowledge as soon as the exam ends. Incidentally, did you know human bones are really light? Very light, actually. I don't think we can make arms from them, though primitive people in comics do.

osteology exam coming.

2007-10-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

This is the city of Osaka. You see so many buildings tightly packed and the air lightly hazy. This city harbors tons of infectious microbes. In terms of infections, Osaka is the dirtiest city in this country. Many of them are airborne. A professor of microbiology told so in his lecture.

When it comes to air hygiene, lecture rooms in my university are horrible. Windows and doors are not properly located to secure comfortable air ways. The rooms easily get stuffy and suffocating. This is the very reason why I am so distracted in class.

Cytomegalovirus

2007-10-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

I went bowling three in the morning with my friends. I've marked a new record. 125! It was the first time for me to go beyond a score of 100. My best had been 90. This new best has improved by more than thirty.

Gecko and bowling. You should immediately see the similarity between them. I've found myself in two days before a virology exam. I wish I had more time to tell about gecko and bowling. Talk to you soon.

your explanation never holds water.

2007-10-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Finally the ridiculous hot spell has gone. It's getting cooler. I took the photo amid the scorching summer. I was on my way to a clinic to have a HIV antibody test. Yeah, I'll level with you. I'm...

he is on the stupid side.

2007-09-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've quit living without artificial lights. I stepped on my glasses last night. I couldn't see them lying on the floor at all in my dark living room. As a matter of course, the glasses got broken. My foot got cut as well. I've got nothing but the scrapped glasses and foot injury from the natural light dogma.

The electric cables are an eyesore. However, I must thank them. 'Cause we couldn't light our step without them...

sine qua non

2007-09-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to live with the natural light. I mean I never turn lights on once the sun sets. I'm updating this article in my room, which is exactly as dark as the night outside. I'm looking at the screen in complete darkness.

You might be curious what has made me start this practice. It's just to impair my eyes. Inexplicably, my eyes are slightly getting better. Now my glasses don't really fit well. So I have to go against the sight improvement. Otherwise, I'd have to buy new glasses!

Tell me. Why are you so wrongly self-willed?

2007-09-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

Japanese are famous for their long life expectancy. Indeed, the oldest man, who has been officially registered in the Guinness Book of Records, is a 113-year old Japanese man. Now this country has thirty-two thousand, two hundred, and ninety-five people aged 100 or over. The number of centenarians has grown sharply. In 1963, it was only 153. About 1,000 in 1981, 10,000 in 1998, and 20,000 in 2003. It's over 30,000, as of today.

Quite a bit foggy.

γ-aminobutyric acid, or GABA.

2007-09-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

The first ever diamond in Japan found! It has been long believed that the country did not produce diamonds because the geological condition is not for the gem.

The stone found is as tiny as a hundredth of one millimeter in diameter. It is included in an igneous rock sampled from the western Japan. Some light spectroscopic method has detected it.

The photo is of a mosquito. Japanese often associate mosquitoes with diamonds. Hence, the pic is highly relevant here.

elephantiasis.

2007-09-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'm done with a general pathology exam! I'm pretty sure I've passed it (but not with flying colors). My favorite disease is retinoblastoma. It's really cool. You can google if you want to know more about it.

your eyes are so blue.

2007-08-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

The rays of light penetrates the cloud gap. Western people call such phenomena ''Jacob's ladder''. I don't think it is an imaginary ladder. They can see a material one reaching the bottom of clouds. I mean like the one painted in the photo. My father told so. Has to be true.

I saw your car towed away.

2007-08-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

I'm somewhat depressed today like a postmenopausal woman. Alas, it's gone... Never comes back to me again.

leukotriene antagonists

2007-08-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

It's now thickly cloudy. We have a cloud day for the first time after it has been hopelessly cloudless for about a fortnight. So the intense heatwave, which has been baking Japan, is significantly weakened. Fairly comfortable now.

However, I really wish it were entirely cloudless until tomorrow morning. A total lunar eclipse is expected tonight. We have a high chance of rain, and virtually no chance to watch the celestial pageant.

Somebody is cheerfully singing, but completely out of tune.

2007-08-24T03:46:00.000-07:00

This ridiculous hot spell never seems to end. It has been extremely hot for more than three weeks. This summer has recorded the highest

temperature since the meteorological agency started taking statistics. I won't tell how high it is because I'm afraid you might not be able to translate it into the Fahrenheit scale. If you're overconfident of your math to an irritating degree, and if you really insist, I would tell.

you're living in an industrialized nation.

2007-08-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

I received the repaired laptop this morning. It has got back much earlier than they told me. It just took a few days. It must be Hewlette-Packard's surprise. They, at first, told it would take ten days or so in order to get me down. But actually they fixed my machine in a day and sent it back to me the next day. They did it merely to surprise and/or impress me.

intel inside

2007-08-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

My laptop has fucked up. I can't seem to update my blog for at least ten days.

For now, I don't have much to tell.

you're highly inappropriate.

2007-08-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

So..., which way would you take? I'd go on the right side. In Japan, the right is literally ''right''. Make sure you keep to the right.

It's been so scorching... Reluctant to go out during the day.

pocari sweat

2007-08-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

A vista from my room. This eyesore wall shuts morning light, which excuses my chronic morning tardiness.

I used to be notoriously nocturnal. Some of you might see me wandering in the department building around 3 in the morning, with doing nothing productive. Learning that Japan is designed for early birds, I'm trying to rectify my sleeping pattern. I think I'm doing pretty good job on it.

basic pathology

2007-08-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

A snapshot of a Japanese train cabin. Quite roomy. I only found a few other passengers. If you get on a train very late at night, your train may be like this.

What would you do if you witness a young girl on board being raped? To my country's shame, Japanese passengers seem to let the gruesome action go on.
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/shukan/395
Sadly, no samurai on the train, then.

I really hope the government will make a law to castrate rapists.

I can't make forkballs. Can you?

2007-07-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Many assume that orchids are rather rare and precious plants. I must admit that it is largely true. Here is a notable exception, Spiranthes sinensis var. amoena. They are so common in Japan that you can find them even on lawn patches between skyscrapers.

As the academic name agrees, they have spiral appearance. Their Japanese name literally means ''screw flower''. The photographed one is an albino form of the orchid, a mutant with white flower. They usually have pink flowers in summer.

non-linear partial differential equation

2007-07-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm finally done with the anatomy work. I don't have to fool around with cadavers any more. It is supposed to be good... But, somehow someway, I just feel like that something is missing. I might have enjoyed dissecting the body more than I thought. Very unlikely to get involved in cadaver works again. I'd say that it was a significant experience for me. Quite smelly, though.

The obelisk, located in front of my building, commemorates one of the founders of my med school.

you screwed up the midterm.

2007-07-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

This is the first aquamarine I found in my life. I marveled at it when I found it in the dirt. As a matter of course, the pic doesn't exactly reproduce its color, luster and transparency.

I will be out this weekend again. I go trekking in a mountain, which is about 9,000 ft high. You can't join me.

jordan canonical form

2007-07-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

My crappy camera can't really show the gem-quality of the mineral. It is topaz, a semi-precious stone found usually in granite. My father has been intensely involved in collecting the gem. He spends all weekends in the mountains on topaz hunting. It is a good hobby for him. But, he always urges me to join to get me to carry heavy mining tools like shovel. I seem to have to stay in the mine over this weekend, although a fairly intense typhoon is approaching (it's raining heavily now...).

I should have visited the linked mine when I was in the States. It seems well known in Utah.
http://www.pgjr.alpine.k12.ut.us/science/whitaker/Places/Topaz/Topaz.htm

tmas

2007-07-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hmm..., something is wrong with this blog. I replied to tmas' comment in the last post. But, the comment counter remains one. Can anyone tell me how to fix the counter?

jungle

2007-07-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

It rains most in June. Now that the month has gone, it seems to be rainy up until mid July. This means that the pic is of my school.

By the way, could you tell me your highest bowling score? I want to be a semi-pro bowler, although my best score is only 87.

pancreaticoduodenal artery

2007-07-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

The first post since I started medicine this April. I'll be snowed under with school until late July. Thanks to tons of minuscule things to memorize, I can't even remember when I took the flower pic. My memory is now being crowded out of the brain by medical trivia.

Yet, I remember somebody told me that beautiful Asian women are often likened to lotus flowers. I think the intense blue flower is a water lily, not a lotus because this doesn't look like an Asian girl.

Your mother told me that she expected much of you.

2007-03-31T03:38:00.000-07:00

I'm unpacking the dog. Well, I formally counted this morning how often the dog rose its right rear-leg when urinating. Out of eleven, the dog rose the right only five times. Six times for the left leg. The distribution is practically even. I had supposed that the distribution would be very skewed, like 10 (R)-1(L).

I telephoned to the institute to report this observation. They were being just nice to me. They said ''It's not your fault. We wouldn't blame you. Nothing wrong with you.'' But, they wanted to cancel the experiments.

Back to unpacking...

you think you're married.

2007-03-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

I'm packing the dog in question to ship to Germany. A very, very prestigious institute for animal experiments in the country contacted me after they read the last post. The article aroused their scientific curiosity. They will know whether the suspected right-footedness is real or not through extensive experiments. No worry, none of the experiments will be painful to the dog.

Back to packing...

just can't get enough

2007-03-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

How's it hangin', my friends? I'm so sorry for being out for a while. Now I'm back. I've gotten a bunch of requests to update my blog from across the globe. A guy now in Mexico will be moved to tears.

Spring has sprung. The water surface tells so. Slightly off-topic. I suspect that dogs also have dominant limbs just as we have dominant arms (the majority of us are right-handed). I noticed that my dog almost always rises its right rear-leg while peeing. It could be only a habit rather than actual ''right-footedness''. Any idea?

advanced linear algebra

2007-03-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Behold! The flower bud and the toothpick-bundle are very close in appearance. It's too strong for a coincidence!

I don't have much to tell tonight. Bye bye.

linear algebra

2007-03-07T04:31:00.000-08:00

Somehow someway, the winter is leaving. You've noticed it? Maybe not.

The flower bud is about to open. It looks like a bundle of toothpicks.

the US Defence Department

2007-03-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

A pentagon of deer shit. Powerful.

quantum electrodynamics

2007-02-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

Rice cakes are a staple winter food for Japanese. They can come in various shapes. The shape you see here, a dome-shape, is the commonest.

You heat rice cakes in an oven for several minutes before you eat them. Hot rice cakes are very sticky. Many elder people choke on them and die every winter. According to the Japanese version of Wikipedia, domestic vaccum cleaners can be used to suck the cakes out of the choked throats.

I've changed my mind. You don't have to p@y.

2007-02-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

A night view from a driver's seat. This pic is very significant because I took this on the last day of 2006, i.e. Dec/31/2006. You don't know why the date alone makes the photo so important. You can't tell where my car was heading to, either. I won't tell.

What!? You mean you don't know? No, you're absolutely lying. You're just pretending not to know it. You have to pay me back right away!

2007-02-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

I went skiing yesterday. The snow condition was terrible.

you have to pay me back $10. You must remember it.

2007-02-24T00:13:00.000-08:00

They are on the set for a drama. I usually don't enjoy movies and dramas. When watching them, I always picture scenes where the actors are practicing the clips. I mean I imagine scenes like the one in the pic. This distracting obsession never allows me to share the emotions that other beholders would feel from the clips.

shanty town

2007-02-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

This outstanding plant, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus, is from the Andes highlands in Chile. Some gardeners believe that this is one of the bluest flowers. T. cyanocrocus would be surely the bluest in the southern hemisphere. I'd say that some gentians in the Alps could exceed this Chilean blue.

Tecophilaes cyanocrocus seem to be extinct in the wild due to over-collecting and environmental deterioration in the habitats. Commercially available ones are all from gardens, not from the nature. On a slightly positive note, wild T. cyanocrocus, reportedly, was rediscovered somewhere in Chilean Andes.

fedex express

2007-02-17T01:31:00.000-08:00

It's around 3:20 pm, Feb 17th (local time in Japan). So here is my plunge-ritual venue. The water temperature is slightly below 3 degrees Celsius.

The little kid is taking clothing off.

Well, I think I gained some weight.

It's me in the fall. Rather than plunging into the water, the water is plunging onto me. My brain got paralyzed with this ridiculous shower. The best numbing experience ever, literally.

I'm praying that plunge events in your venues will be successful. Cheers!

scandinavia

2007-02-11T01:46:00.000-08:00

My college professor, who studied fungi, said that some species of mushrooms feed on chemicals in urine. The teacher in fact observed mushrooms growing on the ground where he had pissed.

Here's my follow-up on his observation. Since last October, I've pissed on a particular spot in my backyard. The ground now must contain a good amount of my pee chemicals. Surprisingly, the follow-up didn't support the theory; nothing showed up. Instead, weeds around the spot have gone! My piss seems to have worked as a herbicide rather than a fungi-growth-factor (FGF).

FGF..., it's an acronym of the supposed factor. Ah, making trivial acronyms really brings me self-satisfaction. I feel like as if I were doing something extremely advanced in a scientific sense. It's embarrassing to tell that I went out of my way to do the experiment not to examine the theory but to coin the acronym FGF. Overlook this silly person, please.

antibiotic

2007-02-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

Now you see from where the wind is blowing as the ice is growing down the wind. In Japan, this form of ice is called "shrimp tails". The one in the photo is not a typical one. So it would be hard to reason the name. Well-developed "shrimp tails" indeed look like a line of tails directing down the wind.

abortion

2007-02-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

So the ridge looks like this. You see ice growing on the branches of the shrubs. Seeing them up close, they just look like branches decorated with sugar. Quite a bit windy and freezing.

You may think the snow thickly lies there. However, it is only half as deep as the snow-level in an average year. We have an unusually snow-less winter this season. Most ski resorts in western Japan are now weeping because they have a really tough time.

I blame El Nino for hampering Japanese ski industry. So I asked a girl who is now traveling South America to slap the waters off Peru, where El Nino is going on. We'll see how it works.

Alzheimer's

2007-02-07T01:32:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, I went hiking in the mountain range. I photographed the mountains from afar. Next a couple of posts will be about this trip. See you tomorrow.

maria yuryevna sharapova

2007-02-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

Some English words are difficult to spell. Basically, I'm not a good speller. I can never spell ''entrepreneur'' without a dictionary. Kids in spelling bees are often...

Well, I drew the Nike mark. I think I did a fine job on it. I have a nike backpack, a pair of nike shoes and a piece of nike t-shirt.

dementia

2007-02-02T22:15:00.000-08:00

It is called Roh-bai. A literal translation of the name is ''plum blossoms made of wax''. This is because Roh-bai's semi-transparent petals look like a wax product. People enjoy its sweet fragrance as well as the unique appearance. This species is from China, not Japanese native.

eyesore

2007-02-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

At last, I've photographed an unidentified flying object (UFO). It has the typical hat-shape. Some critics say that it is a blurry image of an airplane.

bribery

2007-01-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

The last one. It's of the highest value. No Japanese coin (except for some commemorative coins) can beat it. Because of its high monetary value, there is a risk of forgery. Forging cheaper coins wouldn't make economic sense. The coin has several forgery prevention tricks. One of them is a technique called ''latent image''. Looking from some angle, you find other letters of 500円(yen) in the zeros of the 500 on the coin.

autopsy

2007-01-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of the 100 yen coin. Behold this exquisite design and this blinding color! Besides its attractive appearance, I must admire its monetary value. I wouldn't be so amused if I find other lesser coins (like 10 yen coins) on the street. However, I'd be absolutely on cloud nine when I stumble across a 100-yen coin.

Value: 100 yen = a little bit less than 1 dollar.
Material: copper 75%, nickel 25%.
Weight: 4.8 g.
Size: 22.6mm (d), 1.7mm (t).

x cingular

2007-01-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

Hi, the 10 yen coin! Finally, it's your turn.

I think the 10 coins pretty low key in appearance. I don't like them very much. Here's the profile of the bronze coin.

Value:10 yen = approximately 5 cents + 5 cents.
Material: copper 95%, zinc 3-4%, tin 1-2%.
Weight: 4.5 g.
Size: 23.5 mm (d), 1.5 mm (t).

Trivia:

The 10 yen coins minted in 1951 contain minute amounts of gold.
The coins can kill mosquito larvae if you put them in the water.

That's all from today's topic. Join me next time.

elf

2007-01-17T23:18:00.000-08:00

It's the 50 yen coin. I don't have much to tell about it. Let's see the facts about the coin.

Value: 50 yen = nearly half a dollar.
Material: copper 75 %, nickle 25%.
Weight: 4.00 g.
Size: 21mm (d), 1.7mm (t).

Trivia:

The 50 yen coins minted in 1987 are extremely rare. You should add it to your jewelry collection if you find one in your wallet.
The coins minted from 2000 to 2002 are rare.

Ah, now I noticed that I had skipped the 10 yen coin. It should have been here, instead of the 50 coin.

motorola. inc.

2007-01-16T19:51:00.000-08:00

The five-yen coin is today's coin. For Western people, the coin may be the trickiest of all Japanese coins since this is the only one with no Arabic number on it. Instead of Arabic 5, the Japanese character meaning 5, "五", is used.

Value: 5 yen = 5 cents or so.
Material: copper 60-70%, zinc 30-40%.
Weight: 3.75 g.
Size: 22mm (diameter), 1.5 mm (thickness).

Trivia:
The five-yen coins minted in 1958 are rare. Could be worth more than 5 yen.

it's just a coincidence.

2007-01-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

I know you're keenly interested in money. Coincidentally, so am I. Through the next several posts, I will write about Japanese coins. Today's coin is the one-yen coin, the coin with the least value.

Value: 1 yen = 0.008299 US dollar (as of today)
Material: aluminum 100%
Weight: 1.0 gram
Size: 20 millimeters in diameter, 1.2 millimeters thick.

Trivia:

Most minted coin.
The cost to mint a one-yen coin is more than 1 yen. So the more one-yen coins are minted, the more deficit the government gets.
The one-yen coins minted in 2001 are rare. Hence, coin-collectors may buy them at more than 1 yen per coin.

Good bye.

endoplasmic reticulum

2007-01-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

I went skiing for the first time this season. The ski place I visited has a piste for cross country skiers. The snow condition was much better than I thought it would be. I was the only classcial xc skier at the ski resort today.

cocoon

2007-01-13T00:50:00.000-08:00

Today, an earthquake occurred around north-east of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Fortunately, only a very minor tsunami hit the northern-east coast of Hokkaido. No damege reported.

Japan is geologically so active that many earthquakes have hit Japan. It won't surprise you that the people have developed lots of insightful superstitions about quakes. The most famous one would be that catfish can predict quakes. According to the story, they show unusual movements as a sign of quakes. Scientists suspect that it is not a groundless story. Compared to other freshwater fish, catfish are found to be much more sensitive to electromagnetic waves. Some abnormalities in electromagnetic waves are often detected before quakes actually happen. The unusual waves would affect catfish's behaviors.

I emailed to an aquarium to ask how their catfish had been doing before this equake happened. They answered they were just as usual.

Tell me

2007-01-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

how to manufacture mirrors. A mirror consists of a sheet of glass plate and some metal. Some kind of metal quite evenly and thinly covers one side of the plate. I have no idea how we can coat a plate with metal so neatly. The price of mirrors is fairly cheap. So I'm guessing there is a mass-production method which is technically doable.

VD

2007-01-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

It's snowing today. Also very windy. In the photo, you can see red flowers covered with snow. Its English name is Japonica. Despite the name, it might be less famous as a plant from Japan, compared with Japanese cherry blossoms (sakura).

You might wonder who helps the winter bloom plants pollinate. Insects must have died out before the winter or be hibernating in the ground. Birds do it for Japonica. Since few plants bloom in winter, Japonica can exclusively attract pollinators. On the other hand, except for Japonica's nectar, birds don't have much to feed on during the winter. They seem to adopt a no-loser strategy.

speedo

2007-01-05T00:27:00.000-08:00

When I was little, my elder brother asked my mother where he could buy luminescent ink. She, all of a sudden, got into a bad mood. I don't think both of them remember this incident. That's all for today!

dandruff

2007-01-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

We can tolerate cold weather well if we get bundled up. However, hot weather is often intolerable even if we get naked.

I found this empirical rule. I phrased it in the form of maxim.

marlboro

2007-01-01T06:11:00.000-08:00

The year of 2007 has begun. You might be aware that a year has 365 days. I'm wondering why that number? Who decided it? It's a subtle but good question, isn't it?

To answer the question, the Japanese visit shrines on New Year's day for their year's first pray. I suspect that many of the Japanese pay no attention to the religious significance of the new year's shrine trip. However, they still visit because it is a part of their new year celebration routines. Yes. That must be the answer.

qualcomm

2006-12-31T00:33:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure that the year of 2006 is now ending. To tell the truth, I've been feeling so for days. Looking at the bleak sky at dusk, everybody would agree with me.

international business machines

2006-12-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

Different parts of the globe have different versions of computers. Japanese boards have Japanese characters on buttons. The displays and the interfaces are also in Japanese. I asked a computer company helpdesk if it was possible to switch the display language to English. We can't change it as long as we use Japanese versions of operating system (e.g., Japanese Windows XP), they told me. That is, Japanese computers are very Japanese. So many avid computer geeks visit Japan to buy the version for their computer collections.

intel inside

2006-12-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

At last, we got the first snow this season. We got an awesome 0.5 cm of snow this morning. However, it disappeared by the noon as the temperature went up. It is still snowing. Since the ground is warm enough, snow melts away immediately after it falls onto the ground.

beyonce

2006-12-27T22:28:00.000-08:00

Mind-numbing... I might die of being bored.

virology

2006-12-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

Norwalk, Ohio. Do you know of the city? Although few Japanese know it, most of them know about a totally unwelcome thing from the city. It's a virus named Norovirus.

The virus was named after an outbreak in the city in 1968. Now, Norovirus outbreak in Japan is one of the big health problems. It causes transmissible gastroenteritis. Two of my family got it. My turn is next?

leukemia

2006-12-26T01:22:00.000-08:00

At least one beholder seems to have limnological interest. Meeting the person's curiosity, I'd like to present a microscopic appearance of the lake. Yes. It's a pic of plankton in the lake. I should explain about it. But I'm not a limnologist. I don't know much about plankton. So, would you settle for the photo alone?

fort lauderdale

2006-12-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

My father and I went on a trek in a mountain north of my city. Our destination was a gorge stretching to the mountain ridge. The last time we visited there was more than fifteen years ago.

Snow stayed on the bottom of the gorge. I touched snow for the first time this year. We enjoyed a splendid vista. I should post pics of our trek's highlights. But I forgot to bring a camera with me. So, would you settle for my drawing?

cherokee

2006-12-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Milvus migrans is the commonest raptor in Japan. You can see them throughout the country. In many countries, birds of prey are significant because of their appearances and cool hunting skills. So are they in Japan. However, we don't necessarily think of this species that way. They seldom prey on animals. They are rather scavengers. This characteristic makes them less impressive. Besides, they are too common for us to respect.

subway

2006-12-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

I found some of the blog audiences really romantic. Impressed...

Sadly, I must disappoint the romantics. I must tell that there are no stars in our holes. No matter how extensively you explore the caves, you'll find nothing but excrement. That's reality.

artificial anus

2006-12-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

If you call me an asshole, it will surely hurt me.

blowin' in the fart

2006-12-21T01:05:00.000-08:00

♪ ♪ ♪

How many times must I break gas
Before it runs?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the fart,
The answer is blowin' in the fart.

♪ ♪ ♪

tellurium tetrachloride

2006-12-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

The city is floating above the lake. Compare these two pics, the bottome one is an usual image. This phenomenon is known as ''mirage''. I think you've encountered another mirage on the road on hot summer days-i.e. highway mirage. If you don't get the picture, you can visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage

You see what a highway mirage looks like. Both a floating-city mirage and a highway mirage are caused by the identical mechanism.

When the air above the lake is cooler than the lake's temperature, we can observe such phenomena. This condition seems to be easily satisfied in this lake. We see the cities floating pretty often.