Way to Lake Saiko

I rode to Lake Saiko on my bicycle. It is placed about 20km far from my house. There's dirt trails everywhere on the way to there.

There's also a canal for the boat racing.

For what it worth, my boss lives in around this canal.

Ridiculous Party

I have trouble associating with others in a party. Today we had a farewell party. It's ridiculous to hold these party each time someone transfers to another department in such a small company. Besides being a waste of time, it tears apart a peace of my mind.

Be a Mentor

My colleague learns to use the Debian box with the command line interface. I'm using a Debian box all the time. So I became a mentor today, though I'm not an authority.
Chad Fowler recomends being a mentor in his book "My Job Wen to India". I realized the truth of his word. Teaching someone needs deeper insight.

Even Squirrel Cage

If I have to do squirrel cage, I would begin by making tools which help me get over the repetition. A squirrel cage yields an instant gratification. Such a gratification saps ones creativity.


But I agree that a complex problem is usually hard to deal with directly. Doing a mindless job in a blind way sometime reveals an underlying structure of a problem. Struggling in a squirrel cage, a smart solution may suddenly becomes clear. I believe this approach is better than just losing in meditation.

Oatmeal is good for me

I'm being addicted to oatmeal. When I made a working visit to Washington, D.C this summer, I eat oatmeal for the first time. Some people seems to dislike oatmeal. I've also been under the impression that oatmeal must taste bad. Who’s been persuading me to believe that oatmeal taste bad?

Fungus trap

I hate mushroom. I cannot suffer its smell and rancidity. I don't mean to harm anyone cultivate it, but I cannot eat all kind of mashroom for my soul.

At a restaurant, I have an unexpected encounter with the mashroom once in a while. I call this unwanted encounter the fungus trap. There's another trap in the veggie sandwich I've ordered for today's lunch. I ordered it inadvertently because I like vegitables themselvs, though I know "veggie-foobar" or one of those meals is so dangerous.

I claimed for mandatory information if the meal containing any kind of mashroom.

Trouble with Vacuum Tube Amplifier

There had been a trouble with my handmaid vacuum tube amplifier that sometime produces a noise in its left channel. The noise ceased by slapping the body:)

I've guessed that the grounding has relevant to this problem but I couldn't specify the undelying cause because usually it didn't occur.
I changed the geometry of the inner circuit. To be more precise, I rearrenged the path of the black wire in the below photo. This wire is the grounding from the power transformer.

The noise in a left channel dramatically disappear so far. Unlike computer programs, building physical equipments is filled with practical know-how which is hard to be addressed without experimentation.

Ornette Coleman is still hanging

Long-awaited weekend. We woke up early and went riding bicycles to Arakawa riv. We reached all the way to the estuary today. However, it's actually no more than 10 miles. So, we could come back to home before noon.

Taking several hours rest, we went to Shinjuku not by the bicycle but by the train. My wife bought a frilly bluose wearing at her friend's bridal. For me, what's more Shinjuku than the Tower Records? That's why I bought some music CDs. One of these is "Sound Grammar" which is the new release of Ornette Coleman. What a surprise to see him still hanging!

Soba for lunch

Soba is one of the japanese traditional noodle made of buckwheat. There's many soba shop in Tokyo. Especially, Kanda, an old historical town in Tokyo, has many famous soba shops.

Today, I ate soba for lunch in Matsuoh. Matsuoh is a soba shop in Kanda. Though Matsuoh serves a finest Soba, it's not so crowded at ordinary lunchtime because it's in a back street. However, it's too crowded today to have to wait outside the shop. Apparently a TV program recently has featured Matsuoh. Damn it...

Jacobi-method Again

I managed to implement the Jacobi-Method. Yesterday, I overlooked an error in the definition of the rotation matrix, whose cosine values have been bigger than 1! I wish I could sink into the floor.
Here's my Scheme code of the Jacobi-Method (it requires Gauche the Scheme interpreter).

Jacobi-method

I'm trying to implement the Jacobi-method which calculates eigenvalues of symmetric matrix. Though there's a hint on the book, it's slight difficult for me. Moreover, The best I can do now is most naive implementation. The book says that one should consult with expert of numerical calculation, and I'm keenly aware of the words.

Books are merely investments

After weekend. I worked at my desk like a lamb. The wolf is not this company but this business. The worst aspect of publishers in Japan (maybe, it's not exclusively in this reasion) is that they are running hand-to-mouth affairs. Publishers have to plan and publish more books than are necessary for readers. As a result, bookstores are flooded with hogwash books. It is hard to find truly valuable contents among these. So, everyone stay away from bookstores, and the business is shrinking. Publisher might have to force more and more boring books on stores to raise cash. Publishing books is not a good old honest business now. Books seem to be merely investments for recent publisher. More precisely, publishers are in debts to the wholesale store. They pay off their debts every month by publishing new books, but they fall in another debt meanwhile.

Meantime. Who can see my broken english?

Practice at Arakawa river

Today is a holiday in Japan. So, we went practicing riding to the Arakawa river. Thanks to her constant effort, she didn't fall today.



Then we went shopping to OIOI the department store because she has wanted to buy a new jacket to wear for her friend's bridal.

Gra and Bell

We go cycling to Imperial Palace where the street becomes cycling road in Sunday. And my wife had another falling.

By the way, I named her bicycle "gra" after Grumman F6F for its color. Here is gra (not yet peeled off a paper protecting its paint).



Mine is "bell" after Bell X-1A for its color.

The more expencive the less its weight

I and my wife have ordered each bicycle in July. Today we go picking up our new bicycles to the shop. This means it took two months to finished products. It's worth the wait because these are built specially for our physical constitutions and our tastes.

When it comes to mechanical equipment like bicycle, generally the more expensive the less its weight. My wife isn't used to ride such a lightweight machine, so she fell off at her first ride. All she has to do is practice a little.

POM the orange juice

I'm so tired with incredible amount of tasks. The only remedy for such a depressed mood is 100% fruit juice, isn't it?

There's two types of 100% fruit juice. From concentrate or not. In a strict sense, 100% fruit juice from concentrate is less than hundred-proof. It is made by diluting the condensed fruit liquid with water into 100%. Freshness of from-concentrate juice has no advantage over not-from-concentrates juice. So does flavor, taste, nutrition.

POM is my favorite fruit juice brand. POM's original orange juice is well-known among almost every japanese. Although POM's leading product is from-concentrate one, they have a few line of not-from-concentrate juice. I'm going to buy it now.

The List

Recently, I use The List introduced in "Ship It!" written by Jared Richardson and William Gwaltney. This small book is primarily for programers who develop the system on a team. Though my job is a book editor but not a developer, The List is so effective in my job too. Using The List, our team was able to ship the japanese edition of "Ship It!" last month. It may be that my job is a book developer but isn't just a editor :)

journal in english?

Last sunday, I got my birthday and decided to start polishing my english skills. This journal is one of my challenge for the decision. I'm happy if there're some natives who seem to like to correct my poor english.