Knitting & USB memory

[Notice:注意] The English edition doesn't necessarily correspond to the Japanese one. 必ずしも英語版と日本語版は、一致しません。(^^♪

Since yesterday was my birthday, I expected someone got me something nice. But, unfortunately nobody gave me any presents. (ToT) There was just a cute thing when I was having dinner alone after work. My six-year-old daughter was knitting something, so I asked her what she had been knitting. She replied to me that it was a muffler. As soon as she replied, of course I asked her again who she was going to give it. I wanted her to said like, "Of course, I'm giving Dad this!" However... no reply.... (ToT) I wonder when I can get a muffler that she knitted by hand....

To change the subject, I bought a USB flash memory at an Internet shopping site, to use it as a virtual memory. As you know, most operating systems, such as Windows XP and UNIX, support virtual storage access method. A friend recommended the other day that I should install a USB memory to use my PC comfortably, because the speed of accessing USB flash memories is much faster than that of accessing hard disk drives. It doesn't seem to run faster than I expected so far tough. :p


昨日は私の誕生日。誰か、なんかプレゼントくれるかなぁ、と期待してたけど、誰もくれませんでした。(ToT) ただ、夕食を食べていたときに、かわいい出来事がありました。6歳になる娘が、何か編んでいる！『何を編んでるの？』と聞くと、『マフラー』との答え。『誰にあげるの？』とさらに質問。『もちろん、お父さん！』という返事を期待していたけど・・・返事なし。(ToT) いつ、娘が編んだマフラーをもらえるのかなぁ・・・

話題は変わって、ネットショップでUSBメモリを買いました。仮想メモリとして使うために。ご存知のように、ほとんどのOS(例えば、Windows XPとか、UNIX)は、仮想記憶アクセス方式をサポートしています。友人が先日、PCを快適に使うために、USBメモリを使うように薦めてくれたのです。USBメモリのアクセス速度は、ハードディスクよりもはるかに速いから。今のところ、期待したほど速いようには見えませんけどね。(^^♪

Fixed Charge for i-mode

[Notice:注意]
The English edition doesn't necessarily correspond to the Japanese one.
必ずしも英語版と日本語版は、一致しません。(^^♪

As some of my friends know, I often host private English conversation classes, like NOVA's VOICE, from the end of last year. For that purpose, I have to use my cell phone more often than before, especially i-mode, which is the packet-switching service presented by NTT-Docomo and which allows users to connect the Web.
This month I decided to change my way of payment to fixed charge, that's called "Pake Hodai" and that costs about 4000 yen, in order to surf the Internet anytime anywhere without worrying about the charge. Since I bought the current cell phone about two years ago, it might be about time to get a new one.

Speaking of my cell phone, I saw a new word for me, that didn't look a new word at first, in an email newsletter with the gadget when working in my factory yesterday. The word is "stationary", that's an adjective. I knew a noun similar to it, that's "stationery". Then I emailed my PC's email address about those words to check them out after I get home. Actually, I often send emails to myself with the phone while I'm out, so that I don't forget things to do later. Anyway, I studied them with my dictionary after yesterday's dinner. Holy cow! The pronunciations of those words sound exactly the same, but the meanings are totally different! (ToT)


友人の何人かは、ご承知でしょうけど、昨年末から、英会話喫茶(NOVEのVOICEのようなもの)を開催しております。そのため、以前よりも携帯電話を使うことが多いです、特にiモードを。
今月あら、支払いプランを『パケホーダイ』に変更しました。これで、料金を気にすることなく、いつでもどこでも、ネットに接続することができます。(^^♪ そういや、携帯電話も2年前に買ったのだから、そろそろ変え時かな？最近、調子悪いし・・・・

携帯電話と言えば、昨日仕事している時に、新しい単語(というか、最初は新しい単語とは思えなかった)を携帯電話で読んでいるメールマガジンで見ました。それは、"stationary"という形容詞。それによく似た"stationery"という名詞は知っていたのですが・・・帰宅してから、ゆっくり調べようと思って、それらの単語について、私のパソコンのメールアドレスに、携帯電話からメール送信。実は、後でやらなくちゃいけないことを忘れないように、外出先で自分自身に、しばしばメールを送るんです。とにかく、昨日の夕食の後、それらの単語を辞書で調べてみました。なにぃ！発音は全く同じやんけぇ！！！でも、意味は全く違う。(ToT)

ISP(ZAQ) in Trouble

I tried to surf the Internet this morning when the network environment seemed to be in a bad condition. I wasn't able to even email my friends! Holy cow! The problem must have been caused by my Internet service provider, ZAQ, or heavy traffic because of this Christmas season. I have no choice but to study English with books at that time. (>_<) I might have been lucky to have concentrated on the study though. :D However, I wasted some spare time to find out the cause anyway.

Speaking of lost time, I saw an interesting remark the other day.

"Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever."

That's exactly true! Give the time back to me!

今朝、インターネットを使おうとしたら、どうもネットワーク環境がおかしい。電子メールを送ることさえできない。なんてこったい・・・OTL このトラブルは、私が加入しているZAQというISPによるものか、クリスマスシーズンによって引き起こされたに違いない。仕方がないので本で英語を勉強するしかなかった。(>_<) 勉強に集中できてラッキーだったかもしれないけどね。(^^♪ でも、原因を解明するのに、少し時間を無駄にしてしまった。

失われた時間と言えば、先日興味深い名言を目にしました。

『失った富は努力によって、失った知識は勉学によって、失った健康は節制することや医療によって取り戻せるが、失った時間は永久に失われたままだ。』

正に、その通り！俺の時間を返せ～！

Unexpected Emails ? from TAGGED

Wednesday, April eighteenth, two thousand and seven

I find out how the invitation systems of TAGGED are, which is one of social networking sites. If you registered your web email address - such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo - with the password on the site, the system will send invitation emails to your friends automatically in your email address list on the web email service in complete disregard of your wishes, I guess. Come to think of it, I signed up for the SNS with my Gmail account and the password. I think it couldn't be good for my friends who don't have accounts of TAGGED to receive the emails sent by TAGGED, I mean, they are kind of spam emails. Therefore, I've just changed the password for my Gmail account. Now that the TAGGED system wouldn't be able to access my Gmail account, I expect the system won't deliver that kind of unexpected emails to my mates from now on.


in complete disregard of one's wishes: ～の意思に関係なく
Come to think of it: そういえば・・・、考えてみると・・・

What does Spam mean?

Tuesday, February sixth, two thousand and seven

I often get a lot of "spam comments" on this blog space these days. They write down just "Nice Site!" or something like that, and leave some links to other web sites on my blog - such as adult web sites. That's sort of a proof that my blog has become more famous than it was. :)

Talking of "spam", the word originally means a trademark of cheap canned meat made mainly from poke. But these days, you know, the word tend to be used to mean annoying advertisements on the Internet - such as "spam emails", "spam comments", and "spam trackbacks". Do you know why the word "spam" is used for the way? I know why, actually.

At one time in the UK, BBC broadcasted an comedy TV program, which is called "Monty Python's Flying Circus". In one scene of the comedy TV program, when a married couple went into a restaurant, they heard another customer was shouting out "Spam! Spam! Spam!" over and over again. So they couldn't help but order some dishes with "Spam meat", although it's few and far between for them to have "Spam meat". That sounds like a subliminal effect, doesn't it? :)　So, the customer's shouting was kind of an attack to make them wants to try "Spam dishes", even though they don't want to have the menu that much. That's why tons of annoying emails are called "spam emails" as far as I researched.

Hope you understand what I mean...

Anyway, I came up with the idea of this article thanks to a nice lady and a number of spam comments. I appreciate you giving me this idea, Ms. M.


at one time: かつて
over and over again: 何度も
few and far between: めったにない、とても稀な (=rare?)
subliminal effect: サブリミナル効果