free web tracker soliloquies: 08/15/2004 - 08/22/2004

soliloquies

so・lil・o・quy/- n. [C,U] a speech in a play in which a character talks to himself or herself, so that the audience know the character's thoughts.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

another day of editing


Please refer to the title and the blogs in the past for a loose outline of today's activities. Went to school, edited some more culture festival footages there, had lunch...as usual. We are about 99% finished with 1 of the clips with transitions, captions, and sound effects inserted, and about 75% finished with the other 2 we have already taken. I'm pretty sure that our class is the closest to completion at this point. After we had lunch in Shonandai, we went over to Mikito's house to retake one of the scene needed for the clip. Upon successful take, I left his house with other two people who had to leave.

The way home from Shonandai was disasterous. The Yokosuka Line AND the Tokaido Line were both delayed from an accident involving someone. I had to wait for over 30 min. at Totsuka sta...oh please. It took me approximately 2 hours to get home...damn the dead guy.

Also, using the waiting time resulting from the preview feature in the Premiere, I shared my thesis with one of the members today. She pointed out a fault in my thesis, which I vaguely had in my mind. I was concerned about it seriously for a while, but now I think I've found a solution to it. Thank you very much for the indication.

I've told everyone who were at the site of editing today that the tomorrow's weather is cloudy with a chance of rain, with a precipitation rate of 50%. Well, as you can see above, it seems like it's not going to rain tomorrow after all. Have a wonderful time, everyone!

Friday, August 20, 2004

a plain old august 20th


I woke up at 9 this morning, left for the library at 10:30 and borrowed some books related to my thesis and my history report there. As always. my mother asked me a favor, so I went to the supermarket again, and purchased bread, pork, leek, beansprout and shimeji. On my way back, I had a pack of leek spurting out of my PORTER totebag, which would've been a very peculiar view. I got back home at 11:30.

Today was not quite a thesis only day. After I got home, I began working on my thesis, but my habit prohibits me from studying while the sun is up, so I began making MP3 files of sound effects, out of the MD recording I made from the broadcast of the "Trivia" program yesterday. I really wish the Premiere will accept MP3 files uploaded on to its timeline.

And now, I am accerarating my brain cells by 139.6% and adding on the evidence necessary to make my hypothesis "installable" into my thesis. Currently, at 6,500 letters, I am aiming for 8,000 for today. My original plan was to finish 10,000, but I decided to be a little bit more easy-going.

I'm sorry for this rubbish. Oh yes, I can't wait till the 26th or the 27th!

Thursday, August 19, 2004

secluding day


With 19/49 days of summer vacation remaining, I have finally restarted working on my senior thesis again. I secluded myself in my room today, and wrote about 4,300 letters so far. The amount necessary is 12,000, so I'm about 1/3 finished. Well, I've heard that most people write around 18,000 but...I'll write the amount I think is necessary. Who cares about others?

This is the state my room is currently situated in. Prints given to instruct us the way we must write our theses in, the resources I copied out of newspapers and some useless books are shattered hopelessly on the floor along with my raquet, slacks, wires, and a bag from BEAMS. On my computer desk, there lays the books I'm currently using for my thesis, an electronic dictionary, a video tape, a video camera, an MD, some more prints, and a bottle of Suntory's oolong tea. What a mess...but it's my rooms' tradition to get messy, when something big related to school is coming up, like exams, and of course, this thesis. I assume the current situation will continue on for a while...

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

yhmf


It's HERRRRRE! An alien is getting off it's mothership on the transfer beam, carrying a...huh? A guitar. Excuse me for the dumbness. Well, it's imaginable, right?

Back to the topic. Today, I went to the Yokohama Arena in Shin-Yokohama district to go watch my classmate's performance in the finals of the Yokohama High School Music Festival (a.k.a. YHMF) with the 6F gang.

The song he played there, which is called "Blue Moon" when translated, was modified greatly from the version he performed at his live in May. The intro was extended, some interludes were added, and above all, he didn't miss. We all left after his performance, so his evaluation is yet to be heard, but his style differs from all of those common rock bands that played before him, therefore, I think he has a chance in getting one of the awards set for the competition. Good luck to Mikito!

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

daily activity getting with it


On my way to school today, I found out that there was an interesting article in today's edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, since the man sitting in front of me was reading it. The listing of "hot" articles in that issue was written on the front page, just like all of the newspapers around today. One of the headlines on the list was called "Kanji Conversion Errors Masterpiece 20", which gave me the eagerness to find out what those errors are.

By the way, the reason why I went to school today was for the continuation of our editing procedures, which are necessary for the Culture festival. We were able to complete 1 of the 4 videos, and were also able to learn a whole lot of techniques on Premiere.

Well anyway, after we had lunch, the eagerness flashed through my mind. I headed to the newspaper rack in the library instantly, grabbed today's edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, and brought it over to the editing PCs on the other end of the room. I opened the paper, read some top stories, and turned over to page 31; the page where THE ARTICLE was written on.

The actual acticle is posted along today. If you could understand the meaning, you'll understand our reaction. We were frenzy over it! It's hilarious!!! lol This article reactivated everyone who were in quite a dark mood from long hours of scruffle on the PCs. Another side effect. After the apperance of this article, everyone's tensions were eased so much that it made everyone sing, laugh and giggle for the rest of the day. Ain't it powerful? lol

Monday, August 16, 2004

a lame day for me, but a memorable day for him


I woke up at 9:30 this morning, cycled to downtown, ordered print out of Bali pics at the photo place, had a haircut, renewed my commuter pass, bought some bread, cucumbers, and pork which my mom asked me to do, received the printed pics, and cycled home. That's just about it.

The news came into me this morning from my father at our breakfast table. Yes, Kitajima has won the Gold Medal in men's 100m breaststroke,
which had been his goal since the Sydney Olympics. I'm not patriotic, and I don't really care whether Japan, as a country wins or loses in the Olympics events. Besides, the amount of people interested in the Olympics on a worldwide basis is declining game by game, which although I think is unfortunate, is true statistically.

But I think Kitajima, as an individual athlete, is the type I adore and respect the most, because he has set up goals in all of the upcoming tournaments, and is acheiving all of it by going through harsh and tough training. And most of all, he's young and still has a long lifespan remaining of his career. I believe he will remain in the history of swimming, and in the minds of many.

Sunday, August 15, 2004

autumn in the midst of summer


The news yesterday reported the mark of 40 consecutive days of "manatsu-bi"s in Tokyo. This is a record breaker, renewing the record set in 1995. However, the weather today is just like autumn; the sky is gray with a chance of shower, and the expected high for today is 22C. Believe it or not, the temperature has dropped 12 degrees in just a day. What's more, the temperature will go up 9 degrees tomorrow, if the forecast is correct. What is wrong with our weather? Not just here in Japan, but in Bali also.

When we were in Bali, the weather was a bit cloudy, even though it was the dry season there. We've had squalls, and a lot of clouds were visible throughout the day. The native hotel worker there told us that appearance of clouds are unusual, and normally, continuous sunshine greet the tourists this season.

Is is the global warming? On the plane there, I saw the movie "Day After Tomorrow". The meteorologists all say that the movie is fictionized and exaggerated, and is scientifically incorrect, but me, as an individual, is sensing change in our climate. Europe last year experienced its hottest summer, and disastrous flooding devastated Germany and Czech, while Japan experienced one of its coolest summers, resulting bad harvest and high rice prices. This year, its the opposite. Japan is experiencing its hottest summer, while some places in Hokuriku region had one of its worst flood. China had a one of its strongest typhoons in its history, landing in one of its provinces, causing deaths and economic losses of 15.3 billian yuans.

On the other hand, the main cause of the greenhouse effect, which are the fossil fuels' price has hit its record high in American and European markets. I wish this economic factor will promote the spread of energy efficient technologies and automobiles, since the main reason why the Kyoto Protocol is losing it's effectiveness is from the economic reasons. If the oil prices are high, the profit gained from using fossil fuels will decrease therefore, the ecology friendly technologies will go up as a new option. It's about time, people!