Maitta! Always - Daily Amazing Confusions -

Today before supper I tried to turn off air conditioner with a remote controller, but it wouldn't turned off how many times and how close to the air conditioner. After supper I looked up manual, changed batteries of the remote controller, and turned off the air conditioner's switch by pushing the switch inside the front cover, and turned on again. When I pushed a button on the remote controller, it worked well. I'm not sure what is the problem exactly, but there are cases in which although the display of the remote controller works it won't work properly, in that it won't transmit signals properly. When the display of the controller work but the controller itself won't work the manual advised us to change batteries. Many electric appliances these days is mainly controlled by a remote controller and operating switches of main unite is sometimes non-standard way of using those appliances, for example, only used in case of troubles or maintenance. In this r...

Recently I've been transcribing newscasts spoken in English. I do this on the train to work and when I have a seat the train from work. It's 20 to 40 minutes a day. The average progress for a day is only one or two minutes a day. In some days I progress by 3 minutes. One thing I noticed while transcribing is I stop my iPod word by word or at most two, three or four words. At first I played a phrase or clause before transcribing, ending up in playing back many times, sometimes more than ten times. Now I stop word by word, write words, and play back a word or two or a little more again. Playing back word by word is what I didn't do when I was crazy about getting a high score in an English test. In the listening part in an English test, participants have to answer questions after listening to a passage just once. Basically, stopping the playback and listening again is not allowed in a test. This made me think that it's useless to practicing listening to English speeche...

160 words, 14 syllables ... The numbers I've perceived through the work of transcribing a newscast. 1. 160 words  I transcribed a part of a newscast, and counted words for 1 minutes the speakers said. It was about 160 words. Probably it may be some larger number. I was surprised that this is even faster than my reading speed when I want to enjoy a book, and I'm also surprised that the words they spoke are more than my typical daily blog post. 2. 14 syllables  Not only letters of the words they speak, I record their breathes. It was interesting that I'm most likely to find about 14 syllables between breaths. Sometime it become about 27, but probable 14 syllables are the number a lot of narrators comfortable speak. As well as I review language, I find several interesting numbers when I transcribe a newscast.

Today when I left the office building right after I finished my work, outside was a little bit lighter. Until yesterday it became totally dark by the time I left my workplace after work. It rains sometimes in this week, although the weak earlier, we had snow rather than rain. It may be still cold and take longer for us to see typical sign of spring, there have been already seen some signs of spring. It is a little bit regrettable that cherry trees along the junior high school near home is being cut down, to widen the sidewalk beside the school.

As I told earlier, these days are the busiest period of the year. Thanks to actual helps and efforts to keep the workplace in a good mood, I'm relatively in a shape. But some sign of tiredness is appearing. Especially it appears in my ankles. Probably due to the accumulated tiredness, I have small trouble in adjusting muscle tensions to sustain a good posture. I'm inclined to stretch my ankles, which causes pain in its joints. I'd like to keep a good tension to keep my ankles in shape, but minutes later, I feel my ankles are stretching unconsciously again. I'm thinking that my sign of tiredness sometimes appears in an unexpected part of my body. Sometimes, I feel pain in my right elbow when I'm stressed. It may be real pain because when I use the keyboard and mouse of my laptop at work, I actually use my elbows. I wonder why my ankles this time. When I work on my laptop I don't directly use my ankles, but, interestingly, I unconsciously tense my ankles whe...

Yesterday the Senzan line, which I take to go to work, had much trouble. The train I took to work in the morning was delayed. Fortunately I had a seat and the delay was not so much as to be late for work. The more trouble was when I go home after work. I thought I needed to take a train later to have a seat, but when I got to the station, there was already a lot of people on the platform. The train I usually take, bound for Yamagata, was suspended, and they were waiting for the next train. I heard that the trouble of the line was due to an avalanche. According to another announce it was due to a rockfall. I wasn't sure which was right, or both. One thing certain for me was that my plan to have a rest on the train back home was ruined. Fortunately, up to today, I haven't been so tired as to feel some mental troubles, but I'm beginning to feel some sign of tiredness in my body.

I use a ballpoint pen a lot to take notes and sketch. Sometimes I use up the ink in half a month. At first, after using up the ink I bought another pen, but soon after I come to buy refills. Today after work I bought four refills of the pen I'm using. Although I don't sketch much on the train to and from work, I transcribe news podcast so I use as much ink anyway, and I feel so busy that I feel there's not so many chance to go shopping for stationery. Besides of pen refills, I bought a bundle of five notebooks. I bring two notebooks and one sketchbook to work. A notebook to write to remind schedules, and one to write down ideas related to work. I use my sketchbook to sketch cars and humans sometimes in order to cope with my stresses. I also use my sketchbook to transcribe newscasts and write down ideas and anything in my mind. I bought the notebooks because I wanted another notebook for writing down ideas of the work of future and just knowledge related to my hobbie...

On the way back home from work I was so tired from work that I almost collapsed on the train. Maybe I should have take a train later and have a seat to take an enough rest. This Saturday and Sunday I had a lot of rest. I hope this week I can manage tiredness from work, since we'll have a lot of dater to enter for next one month.

Today it was sunny and not windy. A perfect day for skiing. My condition was not perfect. I had been nervous and worried since I was on the train for home yesterday, and I didn't felt like much going skiing. I thought to myself, "Tomorrow will be fine and perfect weather for skiing, but ..." I went skiing anyway. If I didn't felt better, I could leave the mountain after skiing for an hour. Actually I skied until noon, and even tried ski bumps, and after I went through well, I become breathless but I also felt that my stress is much relieved. I sometimes worried about how to improve my skiing technique, but basically I ski for fun, free from stresses of work which sometimes required performances.

Today I had the most work, the most dater to enter in the year. When at work K thought I was OK, but on the train home I could not stand straight. Right after I was home, I looked into mirror and I looked almost dying. Probably this is why some passengers on the train and my mother thought I was not OK and looked unpleasant to them. I had underestimated the influences on my mind and body when I was overloaded.

Now I'm home and it's time to be relaxed, but I have few words and slow to speak, write something, and take other actions like have fun with game or go to sleep. At work I felt fine especially in the afternoon, with feeling being able to work rather efficiently, but I feel some signs that I'm being tired. Noticing the sign of my tiredness has been an important problem to me for recent few years to avoid bringing about mental trouble such as depression. By noticing the sign of stress I control the pace at which I work and the amount of rest to recover from tiredness. I have a desire to spend my time in the weekend for my hobbies, but having much rest is important as well.

When you are working for somebody else, figuring out and composing what to communicate is basically your job. I didn't understand this at all when I got a master's degree, and began to look for a job. Until then my way of communication is finding someone who well guess what is not far from my desire, probably what I want to communicate, and communicate it on my behalf. People I could communicate comfortable had this faculty. Even when looking for a job, I was thinking that someone should find what I'm good at, and what I can contribute to someone else or a certain business. After I had a job, I've found that it's basically my job to find what I can contribute to someone else and a business. Looking back in those days, my problem was thinking that it's the job of someone else, because I'm extremely bad at doing this, to find my sales point. Now I'm practicing and making efforts to communicate how and what I can contribute to other people.

I have been practicing counting numbers aloud with smile since last autumn. At first I began with counting numbers below 1,000. After I got used to counting these 3-digit numbers, I began to count numbers more than 1,000. At first I counted down one by one from 2,000 to 1,000, then 3,000 to 2,000, 4,000 to 3,000, 5,000 to 4,000, 6,000 to 5,000, 7,000 to 6,000, 8,000 to 7,000, 9,000 to 8,000, and finally I just now began to count from 10,000 to 9000. I don't think many English learners count numbers repeatedly so many times, and at least I'm convinced that I've practiced one of the most fundamental expressions thousands of times, although I'm not sure whether this method is powerful in improving fluency. At least I'm sure that I've practiced thousands of time particular type of pronunciation, actually many of most frequent pronunciations. Counting number has had also a wonderful side effect to. It motivate me greatly with transcribing newscasts I've f...

This time of the year is the busiest at work, with a lot of data. This year my physical and mental condition is better than that of last year, although I had to do more. Relationships with co-workers can be a cause of mental stress. I have, however, a small problem. I have fewer words in my Japanese and English blog, and communication with friends in person or social site like Facebook.

These days I turn in early. I go to sleep around 10 p.m. It's desirable if I can go to sleep earlier than 10 p.m. I do this because I want to have a lot of time in the morning without feeling sleepy in the afternoon. Actually I want to play a video game more, but the plenty of time in the morning in the morning is also good for self enlightening. To go to sleep early, I have to do the habit of the night as fast as possible. For example I write a blog post every day, every night in effect. I need to be to the point and write what I'm in mind now. Take the morning time for blogging? Maybe it's a good idea, but I'm worried that I spend a lot of time to worried about what to write on the blog. Writing a blog fast is enabled by the motivation of what I really want to do, and regretfully writing a blog is not so motivating, as making blogging itself faster and more effectively.

Imagining what and how to contribute at work. I think this is a key to start work of the week. For example I can help staff with html knowledge just I did the end of last week. To be honest there are a fer things which make me afraid and worried, but thinking of what make me valuable really help, I believe, start the work for this week.

In this morning outside was a little bit of snowstorm. I think twice in going skiing discouraged with the wet snow and a slight train delay, but finally I got to the mountain. My physical condition wasn't good either, with stiff hip and legs. I attended alpine skiing giant slalom lesson, hoping my condition would be improved once I began skiing. Just after plowing the course before the practice began, I had already been fatigued and my skiing hardly functioned. I was so fearful that I couldn't go through a gate near the edge of the course without my skies braking across the fall line. I found that I wasn't in a condition that I could practice skiing safely, so I took courage to give up the lesson. With stiff hip, I thought I was catching a cold, but later I found out that my condition wasn't so bad. Every member struggled with today's heavy snow and had a hard time with getting through. Other participants seemed to more used to skiing courses regulated by poles,...

It was windy today. In the morning the train to work delayed by about ten minutes. The train home didn't delay so much. Tomorrow it will be windy and felt cold too according to the weather forecast. I had hoped to going to skiing for this weekend, but with the decline of my physical and mental condition and the forecast telling it being windy tomorrow, I'm hesitating to go tomorrow.

I staggered even I was having a seat on the train for home. After I left my workplace, I went to the monthly meeting of young adults with developmental disorders. I was so tired that, in the begging of meeting, all I was saying was missing the point and I didn't even know what I was speaking, although I had had a view of the attitude toward the meeting. I was so tired that I had no choice but leave just in the beginning of the meeting, because I knew I then wasn't able to speak anything making sense there. All the way from the meeting to home I was dizzy. On the train home I had a seat as soon as possible, but even after I had a seat my posture was unsettled and at a time I was almost wiped out from the seat I didn't have the energy to sustain fully my posture. At work, I had felt rather good and I entered the increased data at a high pace, and after work suddenly my condition declined sharply. I hope enough sleep tonight will help me recover from the decline of my condi...

Today I had planned to go to swimming pool instead of skiing because of my ankle pain, but I ended up in giving up after I arrived at the pool. When I arrived at the pool and began to prepare for swimming, I noticed that I had forgot my towel. I thought of doing without the towel, but unable to dry my body quickly may lead to chilling my body and cause me catch a cold. I decided to gave up swimming and left the pool, going back home on foot, concerned about the shortage of exercise.

Tomorrow is a national holiday. It's a shame that I probably have to give up go to skiing in spite of good weather forecast. I have slight pain in the left ankle, and probably it's time to take a lot of rest instead of having fun with skiing. By the way, I often confuse the difference between feet and legs. Now I know that I wear my shoes on my feet and wear pants on my legs, but just a few years ago I couldn't tell the difference. I guess this is a typical confusion of Japanese who are learning English. For both of these, Japanese call them "ashi". Thinking of my ankle pain, I was also thinking the confusions between the body parts above and below ankles.

This year's resolution is writing about 100 post about my progresses any time in my life. When my focus was improvements in my skills and attitudes towards my life, it was easy to remember my progresses and improvements. But once I begin to focus on my bad conditions and tiredness, it is hard to remember the improvements and takes time to write about them.

I have been practicing counting numbers in English for a half years. I haven't been practicing in these weeks, because I have been feeling tired. Today I restarted the practice and counted number around 7,200 to 7,300. For some reason, I have a difficulty with counting numbers 7,300s. The pronunciation of seven thousand and three thousand is a little bit confusing. I often begin with three thousand and notice my mistake a little bit later. When I count 7,200s, I find it much easier to count. It's interesting that even about big numbers, there are ones easier to count and more difficult to count.

I've been trying to transcribe CBS News Weekend Roundup for 2 weeks. I've been listening to this news podcast for years, but I doubt whether I understand the news very well. I began to transcribe because I wanted to understand news more, and because I found it unexpectedly fun if I'm able to write down what I've heard. Maybe in order to improve my English, there are a lot of better ways, but now I enjoy doing this. I transcribe the newscast mainly on the train to work. Every time, I only can write down around 1 minute of speech, and at the end of the week, I could only transcribe from the start of podcast through about 8 to 9 minutes of 40-minute podcast. Basically I listen to a few words, stop my iPod, and then write down what I've just heard. I often rewind when I couldn't recognize a word. In this month I want to transcribe at least 10 minutes, more than a quarter of the whole podcast. In order to do this I have to either increase time to engage myself in...

At this time of the year I have the most data I have to deal with at work. With 3 years of experience, I've got used to it, but working on the laptop for a long time, I feel a few signs of tiredness. When I said it to my mother, she said something like that, "Feeling tiredness is a sign to be healthy."

I live in Sendai, a city in the northeast area of Japan. This area is called Tohoku area. Being northeast of Japan, in the winter it's cold and we have snow to some extent, but being the mid-eastern area of Tohoku, basically we don't have snow so heavily as the western area of Tohoku. By the way listening to a newscast, the northeastern area of the United States had heavy snow due to a hurricane. Never had I imagined the northeast area of America, but there it looks like they have much snow as we have in northeastern area in Japan. I was surprised that a hurricane caused heavy snow. In Japan we have similar strong tropical storm called typhoon, but being a tropical storm, and bringing warm air, it hardly ever cause heavy snow. I might like to be interested in climates in some other area than Japan where I've lived in.

It looked like I was working pretty well in the day, but once I'm home, I feel dizzy and don't have much words to say. Although the night before last I didn't have enough sleep, last night I thought I had had good sleep. I'm also feeling I'm becoming a little bit more impatient than usual, especially worried about I hadn't something on the train or in the office, or having no idea of what I say. Maybe it's time to have a lot of rest instead of playing video games a lot.

In front of my PC I sometimes spending time with thinking what to blog. Actually I have a lot to tell, but I often have a difficulty in putting them in words. Lack of vocabulary? Fear of being misunderstood? Fear of even some stranger knowing some of my embarrassing facts? For example today I had a medical checkup and had a bit of stress. I had a barium test in the checkup, and I sometimes struggled with and sometimes even failed in the x-ray operator's instruction. I bent knees intended to lift my hip but I bent them in wrong direction and my hip strongly pressed the wall, and so on. Some people hate barium test because they have to swallow barium, but as for me, it's more because instructions while x-raying are so many, specific that I feel them too demanding.

This morning I restarted my laptop, then there are notifications of GPU updates. My laptop has GPU of Intel and AMD. At first I downloaded the Intel update utility and ran it. After launched, the utility suggested some drivers. I downloaded all the update files and updated the drivers with its guidance. Before the GPU driver was installed, it required a system reboot. After the reboot, the GPU driver left without update and still there was notification of the update I tried to do. I'm running the update utility again. Not only GPU driver, but wireless driver hasn't been updated either. Only bluetooth driver, the less in size has been updated.

I have annual medical checkup in two days. The company had gotten an appointment for me for the middle of January, but needed rescheduled because of the situation of the work place. Preparations are needed from 2 days before the checkup. Especially, since I take a checkup in the morning, I can't eat anything until the checkup ends. I'll deal with tasks around it one by one.