Favorite minor web page. Travel IQ (game).

I found an interesting and simple online game. This game is about geographic knowledge, try this out.

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/

iPhone vs Android

The presumed advantage of the Android over an iPhone is that everyone can develop a software for the Android. However, there is a rumor that Apple will provide the software development kit to create a software for the iPhone. I think this kit will make the iPhone much stronger to compete with the Android.

From Engadet:

It's not anything more than a rumor right now, but reports are floating around claiming that "select developers" are already receiving prerelease versions of the upcoming iPhone SDK.

Quitting to start.

"If you really want to start one new thing, you have to give up one favorite thing." This is a practical lesson I learned in my life. Since I am spending most of my life for science (my work), I seldom have time to do other things. Therefore, it is important to decide what to spend my little extra time for.

Last year, I wanted to start two new things: Running a marathon and comprehending English. To start these two new things, I first decided to quit four really favorite things: Drinking alcohol, eating meat, traveling foreign countries for fun and using Japanese at work.

I hope I can achieve two new things by sacrificing four favorite things in the near future.

iPhone love

I activated my iPhone last week, and I found that this is the best cell phone I've ever used. Although AT&T is very evil and I do not like them, the iPhone is really lovely. Especially, I love its elegant interface and excellent concept. I cannot imagine my life without the iPhone.

Great-grand mother, Setsugi.

Reach a certain moment in your life, and you discover that your days are spent as much with the dead as they are with the living.

Setsugi is my great-grand mother. Biologically, I must have four great-grand mothers, but she is the only one I have personally met. Since she was babysitting us (me and my younger sister) while my parents were working, I do remember her very well.

According to my mother, she was born in 1903, more than a hundred years ago. It is amazing that I have a strong personal link with a person who was born more than a hundred years ago. A hundred years seem to be forever for me.

The tragedy of Setsugi's life was that her first husband, who is my biological great-grand father, died very young in his early 20s. I do not know why he passed away so early, but soon she married again with an another man. Unfortunately, her second marriage went to a wrong way, and it became really suffering for her and her son. However, at that time in Japan, it was the way impossible for her to divorce her second marriage due to very high social pressure. She and my grand father had to tolerate an endless terrible period there.

These experience more or less twisted her and her son. Even though I do not know what they exactly experienced there, I think I am also under the strong influence of their wound. When the wound is too big, it is easily transmitted to the descendant generations. I am really afraid of this kind of wound or trauma which beyond human life.

Vegan -day 35-

I have been a vegan for more than a month. I am getting used to being a vegan and spending a lot of time on reading ingredients at Whole Foods. I have never payed any attention to the ingredients before, but now I understand more things are actually vegan than I expected to (There are many kinds of vegan ice creams taste good).

However, thanksgiving is approaching. This year I have to give up Turkey due to my resolution to be a vegan. A friend of mine suggested that there is a turkey alternative, called Tofurky, which is created by tofu and tastes like a turkey. I decided to cook this Tofurky on this coming Thanksgiving day.


Tofurky

"Android" instead of gPhone

There will be no gPhone but google will just provide the platform for mobile phones. This platform is called Android and is composed by open source materials. Google tries to make the Android a common platform for all mobile phones as Microsoft once monopolize the field of personal computers by providing an essential operating system. Google encourage developers to compose Android native softwares by rewarding 10 million dollars to who invents the best application using Android. I think this strategy is based on their philosophy that "democracy on the web works".

As far as I watch this demo, the Android is not superior to what is achieved by an iPhone at this moment. Therefore, I decided to buy the iPhone. However, I think, the most charming point of the Android is that everybody can develop a software for it. I admire that Google opened a big chance for new challengers to develop new business over the Android. But I think it takes little more time to catch up with what is already done by the iPhone.

Ezekiel 25:17.

I respect Quentin Tarantino very much. I memorized one quote he created in his excellent film Pulp Fiction.

Ezekiel 25:17.

The path of the righteous man

is beset on all sides

by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.

Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will,

shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness,

for he is truly his brother's keeper and finder of lost children.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger

those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.

And you will know my name is the load

when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

He generated this excellent quote by collecting sentences from the bible.

What a running will teach you.

In this wild world, you can only count on yourself. This is the important lesson you should learn in your life. Of course, your family and friends will always help you (they are very important), but when you are in the most dangerous situation, you will find that no one but only you can help yourself.

I found that a running teaches me more truth about this. When I am running very hard, my body and my mind resist against my will. My body refuses to take my order and my mind tries to trick me. You will find that although you can only count on yourself, your body and mind are not your reliable allies. This is the other lesson you should learn in your life.

I physically train my body very hardly to understand these truths: You have to fight against the world alone with your body and mind which are not cooperative to you. No matter how miserable it is, it is the life we have to live.

11-year-old guitarist

He is only 11 years old but covering Andy Mckee's Rylynn. He is incredibly good at it, check this out.

iPhone vs gPhone

My cell phone is getting too old and I am about to buy an iPhone. Since google is preparing its mobile phone, called gPhone, I am wondering if I should wait until the gPhone comes or buy the iPhone right now. However, The New York Times said that the gPhone will be quite different from what I thought it would be.

From New York Times:

But for now at least, Google will not put its brand on a phone. The software running on the phones may not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services are available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements to mobile phone users, just as it does on Internet-connected computers.

Google will provide mobile web platform but not homemade phones. I think this google's idea is very innovative. Although people say that google is as evil as Microsoft, I like them very much (But I cannot wait until the gPhone comes so I will buy the iPhone soon).

Favorite minor web page. What should I read next.

"What should I read next?" is a really cool web site. You can find books that you may like. Check it out.

What to write in you blog. IV. New teacher.

It is difficult to start a new thing. It is also difficult to continue doing a new thing. But once you start writing your blog, you should keep writing it. Now I am thinking how I can keep my motivation.

The biggest motivation for me to write blog is the desire to be able to comprehend English. I have been struggling with this language for quite a long time, but still far away from comprehending it.

I am thinking that I may use blog as new tool to study English more efficiently. For instance, 5 years ago, I had to go to school or see private teacher to learn English, but now the Internet can be my teacher. The readers of this blog can be a teacher: Please explain me the grammatical errors in this blog. If you are good at explaining the errors, I will ask you to be my personal teacher via the Internet (It will be a good and easy part time job at home for you).

Vegan -day 20-

I have been a vegan for 3 weeks now. I can call myself a 100% vegan.

There was an another big change in my body at around 2 weeks after starting vegan diet. Around that time, I started to eat a lot of raw vegetables and that surprised my intestine. My stool frequency was dramatically increased during that week, and I had to evacuate the bowels more than 5 times a day. I was impressed that even though I did not loose any weight. I think that was a part of detox process of my body. Nowadays my intestine gets used to digest huge amount of raw vegetables and I do not have to go to a restroom so frequently (This is more convenient).

After I started to eat huge amount of raw vegetables, I think my skin has changed. I don't know why but it gets much smoother and more sensitive. First thing I did after starting the vegetable diet is to cut off all inner tags of T-shirts. The tags suddenly started irritating me due to my skin condition change (I used not to mind them at all).

Slim MacBook Pro

I found that windows Vista is still a crap and I do not want to use PC anymore. So I am now thinking of buying a MacBook for my work. But the only problem is that current MacBook Pro is too big for me. Since I came from high tech country Japan, I believe that the notebook size is the smaller the better (I would use very big desktop computers but not notebooks).

I found some rumors that Apple is preparing new product that is "considerably slimmer" than the current MacBook. Although 9to5Mac said "They are set to be priced extremely aggressively", I would probably buy this slim MacBook as soon as they release it.