free web tracker soliloquies: 06/18/2006 - 06/25/2006

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, June 24, 2006

a bit sick

From last night, I had been experiencing minor exhaustion...there's a certain chance that I caught a cold from all the air conditioning that has surrounded me last week. Work was really tough today from the drowsiness that accompanied my medication and I made a lot of errors. Well, I've got a reasonable excuse...right? At least, I managed to stay till the end of my shift. But I do feel a lot better now than the condition I was in during work. Thanks a million!

When my father is home, we usually have feasts on Saturday night. Tonight's menu was mainly Italian and I enjoyed it really well, because I was craving for Italian for quite a while now....great dinner. According to my mother's plan, I am listed up as the driver for a shopping session in Yokohama. I do desperately want to drive, but only if I feel well tomorrow morning. Now's definitely not the right timing to be sick. I'd better go to sleep early like last night with assistance from medication. Nighty night, everyone.

Friday, June 23, 2006

2 minutes

According to some sources, Tokyu Electric Railway is going to speed up its Toyoko and Meguro lines upon completion of track elevation in September. This timetable renewal is going to make limited expresses and expresses departing from Shibuya station arrive at Yokohama station more quickly and vice versa. Its margin...2 minutes.

No, the news itself is not the part that drew my attention. My reaction toward it was. I couldn't believe myself finding fulfillment from a 2 minute time reduction. Living in a modern society, time is a luxury, but it's quite sad to find out how your consciousness is directed toward that little amount of time.

Japan is a country where a lot of things come and go with chronological precision. Clocks are in your sight whichever direction you look at and somehow, you feel suppressed by time 24/7. In some other countries, people tend to limit the amount of clocks they place in their houses, but here...there's at least one clock in every single room in an ordinary residence. This may sound exaggerating, but more or less, I find this factual.

What's more, time flows really quickly in this country. This can be interpreted both positively and negatively, but I would like my life to have a little leeway. Living in an environment where you are constantly restrained by time is really discomforting. What can be done...?

I haven't got a clear solution to this question yet, but for now, I would like to be a bit more optimistic with my everyday life. That oughta improve my mental haste a bit.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

delay

Tokyu Toyoko Line was delayed this morning because apparently, they had some sort of trouble with one of their cars. Fortunately, I had just enough spare time to be on time for the Criminal Law class...my favorite.

Besides that, I don't have anything to write about with an adequate amount of interest. It was an easy-going day in school of which, I spent most of my time hanging out with my friends. Would someone be kind enough to suggest me a topic I can write an essay on? I'm doing a lot less brainstorming lately...believe it or not, I used to post a lot of opinions on various matters before.

Oh yeah. Why is Japanese public transportation system a lot less reliable nowadays? They were widely respected for their efficiency, cleanness and precision. Nonetheless, as you can observe from the picture above, delays and accidents are a lot more common on many of the lines in the Capital Metropolitan Area which is really irritating since our expectations are high from their proud record of reliability.

Is it because of the harsher environment the operators are placed in from a tougher competition, or is because they are not doing their job as well as they used to? I am not an expert in this field, but in case of Tokyu Toyoko line, they have introduced various measures to compete against JR East's Shonan-Shinjuku Line that was introduced in 2001. I assume they are trying to make their service more appealing to us consumers, but the amount of delays that could possibly be connected to their "trials-and-errors" are unacceptable.

Operating a crucial trunk line with precision requires a God-like "know-how", but they must not forget their responsibility from the fact that they are in charge of an important social infrastructure. Their failure would effect thousands in a matter of minutes. I just wish that Japanese public transportation system regains its prestige they used to possess a decade ago, both as a Japanese and as a consumer.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

damn

For the first time in 3 years, I went to get myself an oral check-up at a dentist nearby. This dental clinic is the closest "commercial" facility to my house and I was surprised by its closeness since today was my first time there. I didn't have any conscious disorder at all, but I went there to make sure my teeth are all right for my summer school program. The result was better than expected...no cavities. Yay!

After that, I temporarily went home and spent some time there. I found this sheet music of Linkin Park's "Numb" online and I guess I worked on it for about an hour on the piano.

I left my home at around 12:20 to have just enough time to shop for some necessary commodities before class. I haven't went shopping since last February when I was in New York and I missed it so much. Like always, I went around many shops located around Yokohama Station and compared the line-ups of all the shops I know. Ultimately, I bought myself a pair of pants and 2 shirts. Quite satisfying, really...I assume I was able to have a productive day today, other than the fact that I missed my class. Somehow, even though my shopping began in Yokohama, I ended up in Minatomirai.

No...please don't ask me why. Sigh.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

french

Tuesdays are tough, boring and lame...but there's one good news. I am getting better at French comprehension and I can understand longer, more complicated passages than ever before. My teacher always gives us an assignment to translate the passages in our textbook. This procedure took me a lot of time and numerous rounds of translation with an online translator (oops!), but now, all I need is some confirmation of selected verbs. Nevertheless, I am probably going to need a wider range of vocabularies and an adequate listening skill to communicate. A long way to go...

Anyway, I believe that our lives are filled with unexplainable phenomenons. Under certain circumstances, I tend to experience this "illusion-like " effect repeatedly. No, none of the observances I see are fake...they are real life occurrences indeed, but its coincidentiality is the part that surprises me the most...the precise timing of its appearance. Yes, that "object" does have a lot more significance momentarily, but I have always experienced this symptom in all of the cases in the past. What is this...oh, by the way, I am not sick or anything, so there's nothing to worry about at all, but...interesting.

Monday, June 19, 2006

extra time

Another day at work. Nothing much to say, but I had a lot of spare time with nothing to do. This job probably pays off with highest efficiency out of all available employment opportunities. I practically sat throughout the day doing nothing...it was pretty tough mentally, but physically, there probably is nothing easier and less tiring than this.

Besides that, I was in charge of phone call substitution for the first time today. At my work, people obtain authentication to make phone calls after obtaining certain amount of knowledge on products and stuff, so basically, newcomers must ask someone else who is in charge of phone calls for that time period of the day. I obtained telephoning skills about 3 weeks ago and my boss assigned me that post for the first time today. It wasn't as difficult as I thought since this post basically is an extension of compulsory confirmation phone calls we usually make. Even so, I dislike making phone calls because you never know what that client is going to ask you and there is no guarantee that you have the ability to answer that question or request with precision.

Anyway, after I came home, I checked my mails like always. After reception, I noticed that the TOEIC society had offered me a "sneak peek" at my scores for the previous round of their testing program which I took in May. With anxiety, I followed their instructions and logged in my account to check how well I did. Upon accessing that page, an awkward number showed up on my display.

990...990!? Yes, as some of you may know, this is the perfect score for this test. Last time, I got a 920, so even with the advancement of my English skills in the equation, I was expecting something like a 975 at maximum. Instead, I got a perfect score on my first attempt...unbelievable. Which of the testing programs should I take next? UNATE or instead, one of the French tests. Nah, both of these are way too difficult...maybe. Maybe not.

sunday

They have done it again...it was an awful, uninteresting match. They had so many chances, but they never succeeded to make that one, necessary goal. What's more, they allowed the Croatians to advance way too many times, further emphasizing their exhaustion. Shame, shame.

Other than that, today was "La Fete de Pere", or in English, Father's Day. Technically, it was more like...chores' day for me. My parents used me for various chores and I ended up making 3 round trips to the station; to pick up my grandfather, to drop off my grandfather and to pick up my sister. But I had sake from lunch time along with the family get together and some nice cuisine that came with it...no, it's probably the other way around. lol

Anyway, I am so fed up with the indecisiveness of our national team. Our next match is with Brazil and the only way for us to advance into the tournament is for us to win. Possibility? Don't even think about it...not a chance.