happylife

8:2 law

Well, I have "almost" completed my new system. I feel about 80 percent of all the job was finished. But the rest of them, 20 percent is the problem. Different from making a building, programing of software is invisible work. I don't know how many percentage I have done before the completion. I'm now debugging my software and when I find a small bug, it sometimes requires a tough work of me. But the more bugs I can eliminate, the firmer and the more stable my system would be. Do you know the "8:2 law"? It means that when you have done 80 percent, you really have done only 20 percent. This law often suits computer systems. If it is true, am I just on the 20 percent yet?

Anko

Anko is Japanese sweet jam made from red beans. It is so popular in Japan as cream or chocolate in Western countries. We enjoy it as a basic sweet essense of Japanese cake. I wonder why Anko is not so popular as Sushi, Teppanyaki, and other Japanese foods. As it doesn't contain any fat, it is healthy and tasty. So, I think Anko should be more popular in Canada. This is a picture of Ohagi, a sticky rice ball wrapped with Anko. This combination of Ohagi and green tea is deadly yummy. If you like sweets and are worrying about your health, I recommend you this Japanese traditional sweets.

Chinese character

I found this Chinese sign at the entrance of a Chinese restaurant. As I am a Japanese, I can read Chinese characters, which are a little bit different than those of Japan, but it doesn't matter. There are more than ten thousand Chinese characters, and we Japanese usually use a few thousands of them. The largest difference between Chinese characters and alphabets is that most of each Chinese character has not only pronunciation but aloso meanings. For example in this four character sign, the first character means "small", the second "mind", the third "ladder", and the last one "level", respectively. And what is more complex is that particular combination of two or three or sometimes four Chinese characters works as an idiom. In this sign, the combination of the first "small" and the second "mind" means "cowardice". And the second combination of the third "ladder" and the fourth "level" means "stair". So finally these four characters mean "Beware of Step". Is it difficult, or interesting? Chinese character is difficult to learn, but it is by far more perceptible than alphabet. So we can read books faster than alphabetic people.

Sports addict

I think that people in Vancouver really love sports. Especially they like alternative sports such as roller-brading, skate-boarding, and kayacking. I have never seen such many people skating all around the town. Quite a few young boys are every day practicing skate-boarding in the parkade in front of my apartment. And today, In spite of rain, they were enjoying kayacking on chilly English Bay. They are really good at enjoying their lives without spending money.

Condominium

I found this brochure in my mail box a few days ago. It is a colorful brochure of a new condominium which is going to be built in Vancouver Downtown. It has 60 floors and is supposed to be the highest building here. The lower floors upto the 15th is Shangrila Hotel and the rest of the higher floors are apartments for very rich residents. The smallest and cheapest onebed room costs $400,000. The penthouse is said to be $13,000,000! (Too many digits!) I read a book which says that if you want something you should prepare the picture of it and put it on your side. Then the picture always stimulates your right brain and the dream comes true someday. So, I put this brochure on my desktop.

A train on a ship

Ships sometimes carry strange things. This ship has a train on it. It also has a rail. I wonder how they conect the rail precisely with the rail on a harbour. I think it's very difficult to adjust the position and the angle of the rail because the sea level always changes and waves might shake the ship. If the rail is shifted only five centimeter, the train would be derailed.

The Motorcycle Diaries

It was Tuesday today, and I was a little bit tired of facing toward the laptop. So, I went to Tinseltown to see a movie. The movie I chose was "The Motorcycle Diaries", which is a story based on a real adventure by two Argentine medical students. They traveled around South America on a ragged motorcycle named "Mighty One." They slipped so many times that the motorcycle got broken on their half way. Then they continued the travel by hitch and on foot. It is interesting to see how they grew through their various experience in the travel. And the people they met are all tasty. As I like traveling on a motorcycle, this movie seemed more fascinating. And what I have to say is that this movie is a Spanish film with English subtitles. So, I could understand much more than usual English movies.

My favorite place

This is one of my most favorite places in Stanley Park. But I think very few people know where this bridge is. It was fine Sunday yesterday, and I stayed here for about one hour without seeing any other people. So this is a good hideaway for me.

Mongolian BBQ

I sometimes visit a Mongolian BBQ restaurant on Davie. When I enter the restaturant I'm given a bowl to pick the meat, vegitables, and sauce up. I can take as much ingredients as I like, but I can pick up them only once, so it isn't an all-you-can-eat system. After filling up the bowl, I will give it to this cheff who looks like Mongolian. And he spread all my contents on this large, round, heated iron plate. He cooks with only one long stick. While he goes around this plate, it takes only 10 to 20 seconds, my contents are well cooked. At the end of his cooking, he shows his greatest performance. That is, he takes back the spread ingredients into the bowl at one time using his magical stick. It's enjoyable.

Moving day

Every first day of the month is moving day. As my apartment has more than two hundred rooms, there is at least one family coming in every month. The large truck parking in the back yard tells me that some new people moved in this month. The only one trouble of new comers is the elevator jamming. That is, there are only two elevators in my apartment and while new comers are occupying one elevator, all the other hundreds of residents have to share only one elevator. And my longest record of waiting time for an elevator is twelve minutes!