Maitta! Always - Daily Amazing Confusions -

2017 was the year I made small but steady progresses. I acquired several entry level certificates of information technologies and business etiquette. Also I felt much better in this year than in the past 2-3 years. There were much less chances to spill or fail to measure hot water, when I drip coffee. On the other hand I have gotten a bit weaker in outside noises. There were a little more chances than the last years to use earplugs when I sing worship songs. I also doesn't try to hide the nature that I'm prone to jump up and down when I was uneasy at a worship service, but I took a few minutes of timeout and went out to the hall, and wait until I feel much calmer. I will go on in 2018, the coming year, piling up small efforts and I hope I will be able to report substantial progresses.

I use frequently a Japanese learning site "ping-t.com" to prepare for information technology exams such as CCNA or LPIC. I started the studies for these exams from almost zero knowledge. For example, for CCNA, I hardly knew about differences between IP address and MAC address. Using quizzes of the learning site helped me greatly to learn the knowledge required for the exams. I owe greatly to the learning site the successes of the tests, especially to its selection of knowledge and its design of practice quizzes. There are two types of quizzes there, multiple choice quizzes and typing quizzes. Also I have learned that rote learning can help me understand technology, when I don't mistake what to learn by rote. If I had learned by rote only the answers of multiple question, I wouldn't have passed the test. I learned tables of commands, options, and paths in the description for the questions which I can see after I answer and click the "check (correct answer) b...

Yesterday, I acquired LPIC Level 1. I'm having a few glances of LPIC Level 2. Most people may want to take the 201 exam first as the natural course, but I'm thinking of studying for the 202 exam first, because knowing further about web servers and other application servers matches my interest. Now I'm having a glance about LDAP server, which is new to me and is asked a lot in the exam. I took a brief look at some practice questions and viewed a few videos which explain LDAP and configure LDAP servers.

I made it finally. In the morning, train delayed with heavy snow. 10:00 a.m. was due. I had planned to get on a train starting at 8:35 a.m., left home 8:22 p.m., saw the lights of level crossing blinking. The train of 8:20 a.m. was delaying. I wanted to catch that, because otherwise I wasn't sure I would get the venue in time. The delay turned out to be about 20 minutes and arrived at Kita-Sendai station a few minutes past 9:00 a.m. From there I took the subway. I got to the venue at 9:35 a.m. Time, IDs were OK, and it was time for the exam. I put my properties into a locker according to the exam policy, and got into the room. The procedure was the same as how I took the LPIC 101 exam. I sat in front of the exam PC, read terms of the test, accepted them, and then I started answering questions. In a few minutes I started answering, I was surprised because I saw a question which I was asked also in the 101 exam. From then on I answered every question carefully, checking quest...

LPIC 102 exam for tomorrow morning. I have prepared a lot but still there are many things I'm not sure. However at least I can easily answer correctly practice quizzes, so all I have to do is take the test tomorrow and see the result. And, to have enough sleep, not to catch a cold, and to be sure to bring valid IDs

I have to hurry up, pace up my action in 2-3 days, preparing for an appointment and LPIC 102 exam.

No time to lose for LPIC 102 exam. Tomorrow night, I have an appointment. The exam is in 3 days. The time left is tonight, next morning and the morning and night after tomorrow.

Sent new year's greetings. Earliest for me ever since I began to send new years greeting when I was in the first year of elementary school. Some year I sent only after new year, some year only response, and some year no one to send. Now I can focus on Christmas, and then exam prep of LPIC 102 for Dec. 28.

I started at 6:15 a.m. as I usually do on Saturday in the winter, going on skiing. I felt a bit of lack of sleep from the morning. I skied only for an hour, because I had had hip pain since Thursday. I got breathless even on a gentle slope, when I tried to speed up with a suitable posture. I was already on the bus back at 11:00 a.m. Still sleepy, and even began to feel headache. I was home at 1:20 a.m. and still sleepy. I wanted to write new year greetings in 2 days, but at that time it wasn't good time to write greeting. I took a nap for a while and then went to a local indoor swimming pool at 3:30 p.m. I swam a little bit, and when I left the pool, I felt sick even worse. I had 30 minutes to sleep before supper, and with this sleep, to my relief, my appetite came back. Today I felt a little bad, with hip pain from too much exercise and headache from lack of sleep. I was made known again the importance of self control, especially avoiding too much (exercise) and too little (sleep)...

Weekdays, 5 days, especially this week was a little bit too tough on me. I worked through anyway. Yet, I felt this week really short, and passed just thinking of and preparing new year greetings, checking if the addresses are up to date, and getting rid of empty bottles of instant coffee and cardboard used in wrapping my shopping items. To be honest, I felt this week to short to even perceive that it is a little bit too tough on me.

Data, numbers, formats and formulas: What I'm relatively good at. Amount of communication; especially the capacity of that I can receive: What I'm really poor at. By enhancing what I'm relatively good at, in what way am I going to be able to someone else? I'm looking for this, and this is going to be my major goal when I advance in my career.

"Jog to calm down" This was what I was thinking 5 minutes after I started jogging. I had been already stressed out and in so low a spirit that I didn't want to one step outside in a cold weather of December night, by the time I finished my supper and free to go outside. At first I started for an exercise. Soon after I noticed that I have taken up and continued on jogging habit as a way of stress coping as well as exercise. Jogging is a good way to thinking slowly and calmly about events that caused my stress. I had been not happy about there wasn't no caring reaction of sharing notes of the previous meeting. Meditating on that later, I came to know that I intended to do this "without expecting on any return", but subconsciously expected on something from someone. That attitude didn't make me very happy. Jogging, walking, swimming, cycling and other forms of slow exercises are also good way of meditating, and calming myself down. I would like t...

My pace of studying for LPIC Level one has been gone down. In this week, I have been answered 60 quizzes. A few weeks earlier I practiced I guess more than 600 quizzes in 2 weeks. At that pace, the possibility to pass the test would be very high, I had thought then, but at this pace of this week, it's not so certain that I'm passing the exam. I need to pick up the pace again!

I'm weak in the night. The quality of my sleep goes down if I can't go to bed before 10 p.m. When I attend a meeting at night, ending 8 p.m. I go home no earlier than 9 p.m. and I'm not able to go to sleep in an hour right after I'm home. This is one reason I need at least a half holiday after I attend a meeting of adults with developmental disorders, and the reason why I will be absent the session for December. This time I couldn't take a paid half holiday in the week of the session.

Yesterday afternoon, I practiced how to catch and release binding shoes and pedals of my road bike, to prevent me from falling, unable to release until the bike totally stops. Still, however, I decided that I need to practice "how to fall, as safely and as painlessly as possible", because I see several blog reports that riders fell from their bikes because they couldn't release the binding, and it typically happen several month later since they begin to their binding pedals for their bikes, and even experienced riders sometimes fall. This afternoon, I wore binding shoes. I also wore old skiing wear to minimize the damage of fall, and practice falling in the grass area of my local church. It was rather difficult to fall with both feet bound to the pedal to the last moment of falling, and every time before I fall, I subconsciously release my left foot before falling. The posture while the falling is important to minimize damage. I practiced to fall on my back round to ab...

In the morning I went skiing to a ski area in Sendai city. It was the second skiing for this season. There was less snow than Zao where I went last Sunday. In the afternoon, I practice bicycling. It was the practice of SPD binding shoes I got and installed the other day. I rode in front of home for an hour, to learn how to catch and release.

In the last part of the work for this week I seemed to had worked through without major problem. However on the train home was a panic. I couldn't tell the open button of washroom from the close button, when I dashed into the room because I feel I'm going to shout out loud. I can't tell any specific one, but I have had much more frustrating event than any other week in this year.

Yesterday I heard news about Geminid shooting stars. When I was about go come home, the sky was so clear that I would be able to see the milky way, in spite of the time of winter. I was really able to see more and smaller stars than I usually see, and saw one big, and a few small shooting stars when I looked up. When I was thinking "Milky way in December?", I also recalled the fact that I haven't seen the (real) Milky Way in the summer a couple of years. I didn't look up the night star for a long time in the summer in recent years, although at night of that time of the year I look carefully rivers or rice paddies to see if fireflies appear. Homework for tonight, shooting stars, and maybe one for the next summer, the Milky way.

Off line at night, after 8 p.m., will help my better sleep, yet the temptation of news online, especially gossips around pro sports is so strong that I'm typically online until 9:30 p.m. The temptation of game is also strong, especially when I have the desire to get a high score in a Touhou Project shooter game.

Delay of the train home due to snow (probably) was bearable. I had anticipated it. However its crowd really told on me. Due to the delay, much more passengers  was on board after the train's due departure time, and passengers had to endure longer in heavier crowd, which would cause much more stress on each passenger.

The date I'm going to take LPIC 102 exam is Dec. 28, 10:00 a.m. It's the first day of year-end Holidays. I have a bit more to study to confidently take the test, and I also want to be careful enough not to forget the date of the exam, as well as knowledge I learn to take the test.

Place : Zao Onsen (Zao Hot Spring) Ski Resort From : Home in Sendai Took JR Senzan Line, arrived at Yamagata at 7:37 a.m. Transited to Bus at 7:40 p.m. Transition time is only 3 minutes, and walk about 250 steps (I guess). A bit tight. Took the Chuo Ropeway to  and began to ski by 9:15 a.m. Skied with club members until 2 p.m. I couldn't understand all points of the lessons, but not bad for the first skiing for this season. By the way, the destination of the bus read Zao Onsen, and audio announcement was Zao Hot Spring. Different ways of calling but the place, meaning is the same (Onsen is a Japanese word for hot spring).

Tomorrow I'm going on skiing for the first time in this year. I'm a bit uneasy when I'm preparing, worrying about I'm missing something. I hope I settle myself and getting better and better able to enjoy it.

SPD binding shoes, cleats, and single-sided clipless pedals. I ordered binding pedal set in spite of the time of this year, setting in winter, perhaps roads and roadsides being covered with snow, and getting less and less suitable for bicycling. Shoes and cleats will arrive on this weekend, however probably I will have to wait until Christmas before the pedals arrive. Probably I'll install the pedals on my road bike, but I'm not sure if road conditions are safe enough to ride, for we have fair amount of snow on roads and roadsides in January until March or perhaps the beginning of the April. If there's somewhere safe for ride, I will practice stepping on and releasing the pedals, so that I wouldn't fall because I fail to release.

I'm relieved that I was able to work through today, the day after paid holiday. Yesterday I was greatly frustrated. Well that was due to my fault, my bad choice. The things I'm to do is to do my best the rest of today and tomorrow.

My pant length is 79cm. 76cm would be OK, but 66cm was too short. Waist: 84 to 94 cm. Buying the wrong size and losing money have taught me a lesson.

Burnout in the beginning of this week. It's fortunate that tomorrow is a paid holiday. A few smallest irregulars make my body and legs rigid, and make me limp for a while. It's hard for me to organize thoughts, or make it letters. It's the day after tomorrow that I will know if I can continue to burn.

Recently I have learned that huge prime numbers are used in public key encryption. Well, I majored in mathematics, and I heard a lecture on public key encryption, but at that time I only remembered the story so much as I get the credit of the course, and didn't research any deeper. Sometimes I think that if I studied this topic, much deeper, I would be able to play much more an important role in computer security solutions.

This morning I went on bicycling. I walk up 5:50 a.m. and it was 6:20 a.m. I started. It was 0 degree Celsius at the outside of the entrance, and 2 degree below zero Celsius, on the display along Route 48, near Rikuzen-Shirasawa station. I road quite comfortably, with new bar tapes and gloves, but fingers of toes was a little bit cold.

Today I changed the bar tape of my bicycle for the first time. It took more than 2 hours before I finish, and maybe next time I will do better and faster. I'm relieved anyway that I didn't failed after I removed the old one, because I can ride again without bringing my bike to fix it.

I post this on my Kindle Fire because my laptop is unavailable due to Windows Update. It's unusual that we have an update in the beginning of the month. Usually we have updates in the middle of the month. In the first 15 minutes the update progress was indicated as 0% so I was thinking that there's something wrong with the update process, but 2 hours after the update program began, the progress was 84% and, looks like end successfully, actually 10 minutes after I began to write this, my laptop is up again and typing this with a bit inconvenient touch keyboard of my Kindle Fire, almost opening the blog dashboard on my main browser, (and even checked the spelling of "browser" on Google on my PC).