Thursday, December 16, 2004

Dates to Remeber

Birthdays

21 Mar: C.Mori
14 Jun: A.Tsukada
23 Jun: T.Chan
25 Jun: S.Saxman
23 Sep: B.Shaw
26 Sep: C.Draves
12 Dec: D.Dewitt

16 Dec: Ludwig van Beethoven

Anniversaries

4 Sep: A&P First Date
28 Aug: BS & CD Wedding
9 Oct: TL & JB Wedding

Deaths

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Miyamoto Musashi's Principles of the Way of His Ichi School of Strategy


  • Do not think dishonestly.

  • The Way is in training.

  • Become aquainted with every art.

  • Know the Ways of all professions.

  • Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

  • Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.

  • Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

  • Pay attention even to trifles.

  • Do nothing which is of no use.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea

The Shape of Days

George Orwell's description of the Ministry buildings in 1984 (similarities highlighted):

"The Ministry of Truth -- Minitrue, in Newspeak -- was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometre of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons."

Thursday, October 28, 2004

The Seven Deadly Sins / The Seven Heavenly Virtues

Sins

Pride
Avarice/Greed
Envy
Wrath/Anger
Lust
Gluttony
Sloth

Virtues

Humility
Generosity
Love
Kindness
Self-control
Faith and Temperance
Zeal

The Three Poisons, The Five Passions, and The Five Hindrances

The Three Poisons

Greed
Anger
Ignorance

The Five Passions

"The five passions embrace excessive desire for wealth, women, reputation and over-indulgence in food and sleep. It is the passion which blinds the eyes. It is also the passion which leads us to go astray. Therefore, all evil is engendered by passion. When the eyes are opened, the absence of lust makes us see things as they really are. As a matter of fact, worldly pleasures are the bait, and the result is pain."

- Dr. Tencheng Liao; Annotation of translation of Lokottama's Chinese version of The Englightenment Sutra

The Five Hindrances

Sensual desire
Ill-will
Sloth and Torpor
Restlessness and Worry
Skeptical Doubt

Monday, October 11, 2004

Measurements

Tuxedo Jacket: 38R
Waist: 30 in.
Outseam: 40 in.
Inseam: 32 in.
Neck: 15.5 in.
Sleve: 34 in.
Shoes: 9 1/2

Pictorial Web Sites

hanzi smatter:一知半解
Stick figure Warning Signs

Monday, October 04, 2004

Osaka Dialect

Osaka Dialect
Standard Japanese
English

Okini
Arigatou
Thank you

Honnma
Honntou
very much

annta
anata
you

atai
watashi
me

honde
soshite
and

nanndeyanen
doushite
why

otu/okan
titi/haha
father/mother

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Pinyin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

ni hao ma? (How are you?)
wo hai ke yi (I'm alright)

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

La Vie En Rose

Version française

Des yeux qui font baisser les miens
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
Voilà le portrait sans retouche
De l'homme auquel j'appartiens

Quand il me prend dans ses bras,
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose,
Il me dit des mots d'amour
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ça me fait quelque chose
Il est entré dans mon coeur,
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause,
C'est lui pour moi,
Moi pour lui dans la vie
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré
Pour la vie.
Et dès que je l'aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat.

Des nuits d'amour à plus finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des ennuis, des chagrins s'effacent
Heureux, heureux à en mourir

BOurgeois BOhemians: BoBo's

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,319350,00.html

"The epitome of casual 'geek chic' and organised within the warranty of their Palm Pilots, they sip labour-intensive café lattes, chat on sleek cellphones and ponder the road to enlightenment. In the US they worry about the environment as they drive their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles to emporiums of haute design to buy a $50 titanium spatula; they think about their tech stocks as they explore speciality shops for Tibetan artefacts in Everest-worthy hiking boots. They think nothing of laying out $5 for a wheatgrass muff, much less $500 for some alternative rejuvenation at the day-spa - but don't talk about raising their taxes."

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Japanese and Korean Teas

oksusucha (kr. corn tea)
mugicha (barley tea, often served cold on ice; kr. bori cha)
sencha ("roasted tea", most common tea of japan)
bancha ("common tea", lower grade then sencha)
gyokuro ("jade dew", highest grade tea)
mecha (between sencha and gyokuro)
hukamushi (sencha which is steamed longer)
kabuse-cha ("covered tea", sencha grown in shade)
kamairi-cha ("pan-fired tea", similar to Chinese pan-fried teas)
kukicha ("stalk tea", twigs of tea leaves)
genmaicha (tea and rosted brown rice)
konacha (coarsely ground tea)
matcha (powdered tea from young gyokuro leaves)
houjicha (roasted green tea)
rei-cha (cold green tea)