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I watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" today on this subscription channel on cable. At first, I believed that the movie was a childish fantasy with pirates and treasures and princess...that sort of authentic stuff, but I loved it! lol It was really nice, really. Last Saturday, I joined my parents from in the midst of it, so I didn't really understand why Jack Sparrow and Barbossa where having a sword fight, or why the curse broke, but they reaired it today, which allowed me to understand the whole story. Two thumbs up! lol

About the title. I love how the Western culture advertises things, you know, with a sense of humor. I was browsing through Yahoo! Movies today and I saw an ad for the new PlayStation 2. No, I am a retired gamer, so I don't play games much anymore, but the ad popped up on the page anyway, as you can see from the screenshot I've saved.

They are trying to say how much thinner their new model had become, by saying "Use 50% less wrapping paper". Humorous, timely and easy to understand. Here in Japan, they would probably give the actual numbers directly by saying something like...45% smaller than original or they may not say anything about the product at all; some talent may hold the product, smiling, which of course is really dull and boring, especially is you're not interested in showbiz. This is not the only case and I've seen a lot of these humourous and memorable advertisements in various medias.

It may sound like I'm praising the Western culture again, but I just can't give away this one. I LOVE the way they advertise. Sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic...sarcasm is another thing that doesn't exist here, at least in a humorous way. People always take sarcasm directly here...boring! I wonder how Chandler's going to be able to live here, if there is any case he's going to have to do so...? lol

a beautiful mind

I watched two Oscar-Winning movies two days straight. As I've stated yesterday, I watched "The Pianist" yesterday night and I just finished watching "A Beautiful Mind", which starrs Russell Crowe.

Some of you may already know, but I totally disgust mathmatics. "A Beautiful Mind" is indeed a movie about this Nobel Prize winning mathematician named John Nash and how he suffered schizophrenia...luckily, at least for me, you don't have to know anything about math to enjoy it. His wife, Alicia is so nice...how she cared him, even though he was pretty messed up from the disease.

It's amazing how these actors/actresses are able to act out all sorts of characters, especially characters that are bit "weird" from a normal perspective. John Nash is certainly a genius, but also, "peculiar", "unsocial" and "nerdy" at the same time. The moves and the way Russell Crowe talked in the movies was quite realistic and was really breathtaking. Similarly, I like how Leonardo DiCaprio acted out Gilbert Grape(Johnny Depp)'s brother, who is mentally weak in the movie "Gilbert Grape".

I wonder what shall I watch next, now that I've seen all of the unseen movies on my PC...

shopping

I woke up, took breakfast, vacuumed the 2nd floor of my house and off I went to Yokohama to do some shopping today. I didn't buy a lot of stuff, but I really wanted to get out of the house and there was this thing I needed to buy. Besides, the commuter pass was going to expire tomorrow, so today was just the day.

It was warm throughout the day again like all days, with a maximum temperature of 16C or something. That's just about...it.

Oh, I'm watching "The Pianist" which is a movie I had saved in my PC, but wasn't able to watch for a month now. It's really...interesting, but grotesque. I can give mercy to Jewish people if I just watched the movie itself, from the situation they were in then, now known as "Holocaust", but I don't think it's that simple, because the walls and the Ghetto that appear in the movie closely resemble of the wall that the Israelis are building in Jerusalem now...why are they doing things that is close to the things Nazis did to Jewish people to Palestinians? I just don't get that part...the repitation of history is unavoidable. Blah.

crap

I just resetuped my PC! But it got infected with a computer virus today, and kaboom! There it went nuts and somehow I was unable to connect to the internet, no matter how much I altered the settings. So...I'm currently re-resetupping my PC. Goddam it!

I went to the Bank of Japan and Tokyo Stock Exchange today for social sightseeing. It was kinda cool and interesting, especially that place in Tokyo Stock Exchange that shows up often on news's economic section(TSE Arrows?). It was very stylish with all the quotes spinning around on the top. But they didn't show us much though. I guess most of their operations are confidential or something. Well, if those fellows at Bank of Japan are working so hard for us, why was the Japanese economy experiencing one of it's worst depression for the past 10 years, and still is experiencing deflation? but from the video they showed us, they saying something like they were the guardian of economy or something...I'm an amateur with economy and things probably are much more complicated then that, but why don't we just increase the amount of currency in the market, so we can get out of deflation spiral? My hypothethis. lol

return "home"

TOEFL. Yeah, I think I did pretty well...but I can't believe I didn't notice "a eagle" being the correct selection in the section where we had to choose an underlined section that was incorrect. Now, my dream of getting a 667 for my score had shattered. jk

I may be able to visit the place shown in the photo during the long break we have off school; yes, New York/New Jersey. My family has this extra mileage that must be consumed by end of this year or something, so I could just visit them since schools there have Mid-Winter Recess in February. It's like a second home to me...the trip's not really gorgeous or anything, but I would love to see my friends, go shopping and maybe watch musicals or something. The plan is still in the works, but I'd probably call up my friends around Christmas or write them a card to set things up, so the plan would become a reality. A second trip should get rid of my boredom I was prepareing to bare...it's REALLY cold there this time of the year though. Oh, but I'd love to see snow! lol

gemini

Streak of light crossing the Orion...

Unfortunately, the apperance of clouds had terminated my observation a bit early, but I was able to see 7 meteors during the 20 minutes I had stargazed. Today was supposed to be the maximum of the Gemini Meteor Shower. Not bad, since we were expecting to see around 20-30 per hour.

Stars were so beautiful...twinkling. I was even able to see the Milky Way couple of weeks ago. That's how clear the sky is here, I guess. Rural, but beautiful.

Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Pleiades, Saturn, Procyon...these are some of the stars I was able to identify. Just...beautiful.

spic and span

I wonder how I am going to live through the break that is going to come real soon...? I did a lot of things today to consume time I had in my hands, but were not really necessary. I'm planning on going skiing at least once, get my driver's license and...the list ends there. Oh, we're planning on accepting 2 exchange students from Australia that are coming over to my sister's school. 2 guys. Isn't it exciting!? No sarcasm, really.

If I wrap up my day today, it would be like...

Cycled around my neighborhood
Went to 7-11 to pay
Played piano
Began reading "The Catcher In The Rye"
Watched CNN and ABC
Resetuped my PC
Installed our new printer
Claimed Canon's service center since the printer we've got had an intialization failure

Since I resetuped my PC, it feels really fast! I think I'd be able to use it for couple more years, although I'm planning on getting a new one upon my recommendation. The replacement printer's supposed to arrive on 15th. I was quite impressed by the quick support they gave us, considering the fact that Canon's a big company. It's difficult to forgive that fact that they shipped us broken product, but hey, they're giving us a new one, free of charge. It's their responsibility, but their decision sure was quick.

"The Catcher In The Rye"'s really interesting...

family get-together

We celebrated my grandmother's 69th birthday yesterday at our house yesterday. It's been a while since last time I met my grandparents, so we talked about a lot of things for quite a while! What's more, even though it was my grandmother's birthday, they gave me congrats money to me for passing the level 1 eiken. Yay!

They're going to stay another night here. I wonder what we're going to talk about tonight. My father, who was present yesterday had left for his buisiness trip like always. I wonder what he is doing out there...

We've purchased a new printer today. The quality of this year's "nengajyo" should increase dramatically...I hope. Next year is the year of "bird". It's so difficult to think up of a nengajyo design that matches with...birds. They're birds for God's sake! lol I don't think I'm going to put last year's effort this year though. I sent out like 50 last year, but I'm only planning on sending out about 25.