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Diary

Apr 16, 2015 22:49
Today, I learned the phrase "That’s the way the cookie crumbles."

This is used when something unlucky happened, and you would like to comfort someone like "That’s the way it goes."

And I found other interesting phrases that have similar meaning.

「That’s the way the cookie crumbles.」　

「That’s the way the mop flops.」

I felt like I could make phrases like this, so I made them.

「That’s the way the formula diverges.」

「That’s the way the algorithm explodes.」

【No. 0118】Rain Cats and Dogs

Apr 15, 2015 21:35
Today, it was temporarily downpour.

In English, there are some phrases that means rain hard:

・It's raining cats and dogs.
・It's coming down in buckets.
・It's really coming down.
・It's pouring.
・It is the heavens open.

There are various hypotheses about why "cats and dogs" means hard rain, but one of the most widely-accepted theory come from Scandinavian myth.

In Scandinavian myth, it is said that cats have a power to cause rains, and dogs have a power to cause winds.

In fact in many European countries, the bad weather was referred to as "dog(wolf) weather."

Also, while "cats and dogs" means bad relationship in English, "dogs and monkeys relationship" means bad relationship in Japan.
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【No. 0115】Washing My Wallet

Apr 12, 2015 21:12
Washing My Wallet
財布を洗濯

Today, I washed my wallet.
今日は、財布を洗濯しました。

I forgot there was my wallet in my pants, and I washed them together using clothes washer.
ズボンの中に財布があるのを忘れて、一緒に洗濯してしまったのです。

Bills and cards were soaked.
お札やカードがずぶぬれです。

Fortunately, it will be available if I dry them.
幸いに、乾かせば使えそうでした。

However, I was sad.
でも、とても悲しかったです。
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【No. 0113】Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Apr 10, 2015 23:33
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
くも膜下出血

Yesterday, I was informed that my customer, who is a dentist, had been hospitalized with subarachnoid hemorrhage from ruptured intracranial aneurysms.
昨日、私の顧客である歯医者の先生が、脳動脈瘤破裂によるくも膜下出血で入院していたことを知りました。

The subarachnoid hemorrhage refers to the state in which the blood was mixed in the cerebrospinal fluid, caused by bleeding in a subarachnoid space in a brain.
くも膜下出血とは、脳内のくも膜下腔に出血が生じ、脳髄液中に血液が混入した状態を指します。

This is a horrible disease, it is said that about one-third will die at the same time as the bleeding, and only one-third can return to society.
これは恐ろしい病気で、約1/3は出血と同時に死んでしまい、社会復帰できるのもまた約1/3だと言われています。

I was really relieved, because the dentist got back into society a few days ago.
その先生は、最近社会復帰できたようで、本当に安心しました。

【No. 0112】Salt Content in a Ramen

Apr 9, 2015 23:12
Salt Content in a Ramen
ラーメンの塩分

Today, I went to a ramen shop to eat Szechuan spicy noodles with my friends.
今日は友人と、ラーメン屋に担々麺を食べに行きました。

The ramens, especially the Szechuan spicy noodles have a high salt content, and it's not good for our health.
ラーメン、特に担々麺は塩分含有量が高く、あまり健康には良くありません。

In fact, the salt content of the Szechuan spicy noodles is about 6.3 grams.
実際、担々麺の塩分含有量は約 6.3 g です。

According to the WHO, it is recommended that people limit their salt intake no more than 5 grams per day.
WHOでは一日の塩分摂取量が 5 g 以下になることを推奨しています。

Also, the US government recommends that Americans limit their salt intake no more than about 6 grams per day to prevent a cardiovascular disease.
また、米国では心臓血管病の予防のため、一日の塩分摂取量が約 6 g 以下になるよう呼びかけています。

That is, if you ate the Szechuan spicy noodles, your health would be exposed to risk.
つまり、担々麺を食べた時点でアウトです。

However, Japanese people get salt average 10 g per day.
しかし、日本人は一日に平均 10 g の塩分を摂取しています。

Therefore, most Japanese people have the problem of high-blood pressure.
このため、日本人は高血圧の人が非常に多いです。

I'd like to be careful not to become HBP.
私も高血圧にならないよう気を付けたいです。
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【No. 0109】I bought a kindle paperwhite

Apr 6, 2015 22:49
I bought a kindle paperwhite because it was sold at 3000 yen off for people who are members of Amazon Student.

Recently, I think I became a person who spend money lavishly.

Maybe because I can't progress my paper on wheels, I am losing my marbles.

Today, I learned that the phrase "lose one's marbles," which means like "go out of one's mind," is derived from the phrase "let his marbles go with the monkey."
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【No. 0106】I bought a iPhone 6

Apr 3, 2015 20:46
Recently, I often perform presentations using the software "Keynote."

I bring only iPhone 5 to a conference room, and perform a presentation by connecting the iPhone to a projector.

It's very easy to prepare, but when I was creating a presentation for next week, a problem was found.

When I have played a heavy movie file on the iPhone 5, the movement of the phone became very slow.

In order to solve this problem, I decided to buy an iPhone 6.

By using the iPhone 6, the slow phenomenon got really better.

From now, I will connect the iPhone 6 to a projector, and will use the iPhone 5 as a remote controller of presentation slides.
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【No. 0105】Health Checkup

Apr 2, 2015 21:58
Today, I had a health checkup at my university.

I was weighed and measured, took a urine test, had an eye exam, performed a blood pressure check, and took an internal health check.

No serious problems were reported.

Except an increase of body fat percentage.

Woe is me.

I heard this phrase is derived from the phrase "woe unto me" in the Old Testament.

Also, I'd like to express my feel using Yiddish too, because I learned it.

Oy, vey iz mir.

In addition, German.

Ach, Weh mir.

【No. 0104】April Fool's Rule

Apr 1, 2015 23:27
Today is the beginning day of the new semester in Japan, and new members were joined our laboratory.

Today is also April Fools day that we can say lying, but in around me, there were no people who were lying.

By the way, do you know an April Fool's rule?

There is a rule that we can say lying only in the forenoon in April 1.

It is a lie that is popular in Japan in recent years, haha.

However, this rule is not a complete lie.

I heard this forenoon rule is a general thing in Britain, Australia, and South Africa (Maybe this is true).

In the UK, there is an anniversary of the Restoration called "Oak Apple Day," and there is a traditional custom to wear oak apples up to noon.

It is said that this custom influenced April Fools Day.

For now, we can say lying all day in April Fools day in the US, Russia, France, Japan and many other countries, but in the future, there is a possibility that the forenoon rule become used in general.

【No. 0103】Hackers and Crackers

Mar 31, 2015 23:18
Today, we could not access the internet at our university.

The cause was unclear, and we could not use internet almost all day, so it was really inconvenient.

Someone might attack server of our university.

We (this may be applied only to Japanese people) often refer to a person who attack network system et cetera as a hacker, but this is not correct.

Hackers have a deep technical knowledge that is related to computers or network, and they use the knowledge for system improvement or problem solving.

In other words, hackers are good people.

Although hackers also refer to people who look at inside of computers, when accompanied by illegal acts such as unauthorized access, destruction or falsification, they are called crackers.

However, since hackers and crackers are often confusing, we sometimes refer to a benevolent hackers as a white hat hacker, and refer to a cracker as a black hat hacker.

Also, an especially good hacker is called "wizard" or "guru."

I sometimes hack Java, but I'm not villain.
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【No. 0100】100th Post

Mar 28, 2015 17:47
Finally I reached this 100th post.

Since I have posted my journals on Lang-8 every day, today is day 100.

However, I still make the same mistakes (especially about "a" and "the") repeatedly.

I think making mistakes repeatedly is rude to those who corrected my posts.
(I'm real sorry.)

Reviewing repeatedly every day is very important, however, it is also difficult.

I'm considering a development of software that we can review a few our posts selected randomly.

For the time being, I will review my posts in order.
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【No. 0098】Graduation from Doctoral Course

Mar 26, 2015 20:41
I have to write papers early, otherwise I cannot graduate from my university.

For the graduation, one more paper is needed by next January.

However, I want to graduate in next September, and to do this, three more papers are needed by next July.

Since an paper acceptance takes about three months, virtually I have to write three papers by next April.

This seems pretty difficult, but anyway I'll do my best.
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【No. 0097】Hot Spring

Mar 25, 2015 22:52
Today, I woke up at my university.

I had a little hangover headache, but I patiently did my research to submit a paper.

In the evening, I went to a hot spring with my junior.

The hot spring, which is surrounded by mountains, have a wide open-air bath, and it was really comfortable.

http://kano.arkoak.com/lang8/photo/zippuku.jpg

Nagano prefecture where I live has about two thousand hot spring facilities, so we can enjoy various hot springs.

Also, there are over 20 thousand hot spring facilities in total in Japan.

When you came to Japan, please do soak and relax in a hot spring bath.
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【No. 0096】Commencement Ceremony

Mar 24, 2015 18:31
Today was my juniors' commencement ceremony.

After the ceremony, I presented my juniors with cacti and alcohol as graduation gifts, and had photos taken with them.

Then, my junior who didn't graduate and I prepared for an after-party, while my juniors who graduated are going to the thank-you party.

Because the graduates will eat a lot of delicious cousin at the thank-you party, we prepared many kinds of sake for the after-party.

The graduates will finish the thank-you party and come back to our university soon, and then, the after-party will be held.

Since I will get drunk and get less able to post my journal, I'm writing while I can.
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【No. 0095】ColorIQ Challenge

Mar 23, 2015 16:24
In Japan, it is said that around 5% of men and around 0.2% of women have some sort of color blindness.

Today, I took a test of color sense on the following site:

http://www.xrite.com/online-color-test-challenge

This test is simple, all we have to do is to arrange color boxes by hue order.

I luckily won a perfect score.

I was very happy, but according to the internet, there are a lot of people who won a perfect score.

The test seems easy for many people.

【No. 0094】Baumkuchen

Mar 22, 2015 20:26
Today, I ate a slice of Baumkuchen that is my junior's souvenir.

Baumkuchen is a cake that originated in Germany, balm means a tree, and kuchen means a cake.

Also, Baumkuchen has two etymologies.

One is that it had been baked while entwining soft doughs and a stick of oak trees.

The other is that a cross-section of this cake looks like tree rings.

Baumkuchen is very famous as a German cake in Japan, and we often use Baumkuchen as a gift of wedding etc.

However, I heard Baumkuchen is not very famous in Germany.

Someday, I'd like to eat Baumkuchen that are sold in Dusseldorf, Germany.

【No. 0093】Cactus

Mar 21, 2015 17:16
Today, I bought cactuses as graduation gifts for my juniors in next week's graduation ceremony.

I usually buy bouquet flowers as a graduation gift, but my juniors said like they want succulent plants like cactuses in advance, so I chose pots which several cactuses were planted.

It is easy to grow cactuses, and it will not wither easily.

Cactuses have thorns, but actually, they are leaves of the cactuses.

It is said that by the leaves shaped like thorns, the surface area would reduce, and it would prevent the evaporation of moisture.

In addition, the thorns have a role of cooling their bodies by scattering strong sunlight.

If you pulled out all the thorns, the surface temperature of the cactus would rise 10 degrees.
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【No. 0088】Chiba Travel Day 2

Mar 16, 2015 22:53
Today, my juniors and I went sightseeing in Chiba.

We firstly ate breakfast at a hotel, then we went to the Kamogawa Sea World.

We saw performances of beluga whales, dolphins, killer whales and sea lions, also watched many variety of aquatic organisms there.

Animals in the aquarium were so cute, and we enjoyed.

After that, we ate lunch and went to the undersea observation tower of the Katsuura Marine Park.

We could observe organisms that really inhabit the undersea at 8 meter depth.

Next, we saw a beautiful beach at the Kujukuri Hama, and saw a lighthouse at the Inubosaki.

Finally, we went to the Ibaraki prefecture and ate delicious sushi.

It was fulfilling and fun trip.

Tomorrow, I will resume my work.
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【No. 0085】How many times should we knock a door?

Mar 13, 2015 22:43
Today, I learned how many times we should knock a door.

In Japan, most people think that we should knock a door 2 times anytime.

Essentially, Japanese rooms had been separated by a sliding door made of paper, so we didn't have a custom of knocking.

For this reason, we don't know what the number of knocking means very much.

I also didn't know that until recently.

Generally in the United States and Europe, knocking 2 times means toilet knock, knocking 3 times means close relationship with a person in the room, knocking 4 times means international standard protocol.

Although knocking 3 times is becoming mainstream in the Japanese business scene, nearly 90% of Japanese people knock 2 times yet.

Therefore, if you knocked 3 or more times in Japan, you might seem to be "cool."

But conversely, there is a possibility that you seem to be annoying to knock a door many times.

By the way, the reason for knocking 4 times is derived from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 "fate."

I heard the beginning of this song represents that the devil is knocking the fate door.
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【No. 0084】University Entrance Examination Day

Mar 12, 2015 20:17
　Today is an entrance examination day of all national universities in Japan. Since I couldn't go to my laboratory, I was working at my apartment almost all day. Today, I wrote an annual report of my study in English, however, it was really difficult for me. I wanted to use a lot of conjunctive words such as "therefore", but it is unsuitable for academic texts. So I want to distinguish the word "therefore," "hence" and "thus" well. I read some blogs that explain differences between them, but I haven't understood it yet. Actually, I had commissioned an institution to correct my short English paper last year, and many conjunctive words, especially "thus" and "hence" were modified. In the near future, I will post an article about these conjunctive words for my understanding.