happylife

Popcorn flowers

I was surprised to see the head of the survived popcorn was yellow in color this morning. It has finally got flowers. Precisely speaking, the yellow things are not flowers but pollen, and the petal is too small and thin to be observed by the naked eye. It's really interesting to watch how it grows everyday. I'm now expecting to see how it grows into ear of corn, but I'm wondering whether it happens without another popcorn because most plants need mating. All I can do is watering everyday and watching it with love.

Autumn in Vancouver

The shining summer has completely gone away. It was a long lasting summer with a lot of blue skies this year. Now we are in the midst of the dark autumn but I don't hate it so much for now. I was thinking about going back to Japan when this dark autumn began, but I haven't gotten the air ticket yet and haven't even decided when to go back. Sure I have been living without any detail plan, but I don't like to go back in this situation. I wish to do something interesting and exciting before going back. One of the idea is buttoning up the network project which I have devoted since two years ago. I found that the dark autumn and winter in Vancouver is suitable for PC working.

iPod Shuffle hacks

Whenever I go out, I'm with iPod Shuffle. It's really a great gadget and thanks to it, I can always enjoy my favorite music or Pod-casting programs anywhere. The only one source of discontent is the twining cord. As I usually wear a T-shirt with no breast pocket, I have to secure my iPod in the pocket of the jeans. It means that the cord is running from my crotch to my ears, and it is sometimes hooked. If you had any portable music players, you should understand this irritating situation. Of course I know there are some ideas and products to prevent this tiny but universal problem including wireless headphones, but they are costly. My idea is not more than this picture. It might look awkward, but it is effective and costless.

24HOUR Cafe

I feel that I had been too lazy for these three years. I know I have to be more diligent but how? Sure my room is pleasant with a spacious desk, high-speed Internet, the great sea view and a comfortable bed. It's almost ideal except for one thing. That is to say, it's too comfortable to concentrate on working. To change my lazy habit, I visited tonight a cafe at the edge of Downtown which is open 24 hours. It was almost 3:00 in the middle of night and few customers were in there. I took the best seat after getting a cup of latte and opened my notebook PC. I could my work intensively with no interruption, and it was after 6:00 in the morning when I raised my face after turning off the PC. I was happy to have had fulfilling hours after a long break.

To exchange Yen

As I have no income in Canadian dollars, I sometimes have to exchange Japanese Yen in some ways. Usually I remit from my Japanese bank account using the Internet banking service, but this time as I had some Japanese cash at hand, I went to an exchange shop in Downtown. As you know, the exchange rate from Japanese Yen to Canadian dollars is very bad for Japanese people. 10,000 yen used to be more than C$120 three years ago, thought it is less than C$95 now. When we exchange money, we have to choose the exchange shop very carefully because the rate varies in a wide range. I could exchange at C$0.09380 per yen today, but it would have been only C$0.07900 if I chose the worst shop. I hope Canadian dollar drops to the reasonable level as soon as possible.

The next generation

The popcorn in my room has finally born seeds. I was very happy to find these seeds because I hadn't expected them. Seeds are great because they are the next generation. It means that they can self-reproduce themselves and increase in number forever. Any man-made machines or software have never had this function as far as I know. When I recall the beginning of this great plant - it was only three months ago, and it was just a tiny piece of popcorn - I can't help being impressed. I'm looking forward to watching they grow into a familiar style of corns. Cropping the corns and cooking them is my dream.

A headlight

Headlights are indispensable for outdoor life. This is my headlight which I found at Walmart a few years ago. It has three light modes: 2 red LED, 1 white LED and 1 incandescent lamp. It is almost an ideal light combination because every light mode is useful in different situations. As you know, LED saves battery and I usually use the 1 white LED. I can read a book in darkness. The 2 red LED is gentle to eyes, so it is useful for night navigation or star watching. When I need to look at a point in a distance, I choose the incandescent lamp which can reach way further than LED. This headlight is so useful that most students in my ex-sailing school have it. If it were water proof, it would be perfect.

Katsu Curry

Katsu Curry is a typical Japanese style curry on rice with fried pork cutlet. Of course we can enjoy various kinds of curry menu items in Vancouver just like Indian, Malaysian, Thai and Chinese, but I love this menu item best. I think it has two special characteristics. One is that its curry roux contains flour so that it gets a little bit stickier than any other curry sauce from other countries. Most Japanese people should feel a kind of homesick whenever they have this sticky and light yellowish curry sauce. Another point is that it must be served with steamed short rice which is much stickier than dry, long rice. It might be that we Japanese are fond of sticky food. Unfortunately, most Katsu Curry which is served in Japanese restaurants in Vancouver is not sticky enough to be authorized as a real Japanese Katsu Curry. Therefore I was very happy to find this good Katsu Curry in a Japanese fast food restaurant on Broad Way.

How to slice a garlic

The buds of garlics are said to be poisonous just as same as potatoes. Actually I have felt sick after eating them long time ago. We have to take them away before eating them, but it's a tiring work to remove them after cutting a piece of garlic in round slices. I had been picking each fragment of the bud after slicing, which means I had to repeat the work as many times as the number of slices until my friend told me a great tip about how to slice a garlic. Just cut the garlic length-wisely, that's it. In this way we can remove the poisonous bud all at once. It's a very simple and powerful way once we know the trick. I think women have lots of valuable tips about cooking while men know only worthless tips about cars or computers.

The calm sea

We got up around 10:00 in the next morning after the ideal camping night. As I had to come back to Downtown by the late afternoon to do some stupid procedure about the car insurance, we left Plumper Cove before noon. The weather was as good as yesterday, and the sea was quite calm without wave and current on the way. Although we couldn't sail under the conditions, we could enjoy this fantastic view. My boat proceeded by the motor, cutting through the mirror surface of the sea. Sitting on the bow deck and watching the sea surface is one of the most pleasure feeling except in rough conditions.