Prophecy

How do people establish self-esteem?

I have been thinking that there are no short cuts to achieve goals. Thus, self-esteem is a consequence of what you have done. But not all people treat it that way. Building self-esteem first, and thinking how to close the posture you have constructed might be another easiest way to thrust things further.

Preparation does not always respond to the consequences.
Sometimes people are required to be a prophet.

Japanese and drinking

The best way I should do now is to stop drinking. If it sounds like someone is in alcoholic, I would not deny it. Although I am not that alcoholic (I think), I found some cans of beer or a bottle of wine empty in the kitchen in the morning. My husband and I drink too much.

Alcohol eases one’s front lobe. But at the same time it damages one’s hippocampus gradually but surely. Hippocampus supports memorizing; therefore the body requires to sleep to reload the memories from hippocampus to the master brain.

I need to keep my brain ready and refresh for all new things: new words, new philosophy, new sentence structures. I was thinking a glass of wine would help human relax and make even more flexible to activate the impulse among synapses. With all those excuses for drinking has confined me to stay away from alcohol.

People says Japanese drink too much. I totally agreed on that, but it did not intend to put myself in the same group of drinker. I was listening the sound of bells that someone churns very far from here. Suddenly the sound ascended by the reality, and it rang the bell over my head. Then I realized that my body was long sucked in the smelling swamp.

Here is the time to stop the bell.

Very Latin feeling

It has been 5 days since I wrote the English post last time. It is not a good movement. Probably, within once every three days would be the best or least to improve writing, if I take it very seriously.

A writing book said that “very” sometimes makes weaken the word power. If I add very to the sentence, “I was busy”, it will be “I was very busy”; it sounds the word “busy” stands out in different meaning. If you are really busy, you would not have to put “very” in front. Adding very, then, turns to soften the busyness in order for you to convey the whole sentence modestly.

ANYWAY…

April has just started. Six months from now, I will be taking a graduate school examination and submitting the graduation report three months after that. And one more challenge is waiting, Latin. I found the Latin class in the syllabus this year, yet I have not decided 100% whether registering it or not.

Relative pronoun's obsession

The professor said that relative pronouns are the most grammatical difficulty, which was left over behind the conquest for second language learners, and I totally agreed with that. Especially for Japanese, the style of modification in English is distinct from what Japanese normally construct the sentences.

We manage this long sentence: “the beautiful woman who lives in Japan” in Japanese as well. But if the sentence goes this long: “the beautiful woman who had dinner with me yesterday lives in Japan”, that would be hard to memorize about what was supposed to modify at the very beginning. I am not a grammarian, but something is significantly different from English on this point.

Many people, however, do not remember the differences between “which” and “,which”.

The book I learned today about the chapter of relative clauses says that the latter (with comma) gives us extra information about the person or thing, which means you already know which thing or person signify the “which”.

The example, “the beautiful woman who had dinner with me yesterday” does not tell who she is without the relative clauses because there are thousands of beautiful woman (including myself, perhaps) in the world. This is why we connect the clause with “who”.

If the sentence is as “She is Jane’s sister, who had dinner with me yesterday,” Jane’s sister is already identified as the woman whom you know in the sentence before at the relative clause. Then the following sentence after the relative pronoun “who” takes a role of extra information.

Both two are confusing, for it favors the grammar test. I sometimes forget “that” is not allowed to use in this case. After today, I will banish those mistakes from my writing forever.

June wedding

I have been struggling with old literary expressions in a novel these couple of days. Especially the killer is adjectives. “Shiny” turns to be glistering, resplendent, dizzily, burnishing and more. Each of them may not differ much, but they are different. It is true headache, but I need to keep doing until it ends. I cannot abandon it since this novel is going to be my graduation thesis anyway. The author concealed humongous theme behind her intricate language. Therefore, it is a clue to consider the reason she drew each words. That is not easy for a second language leaner.

 There was a line mentioning a season.

“It was fragrant early June.”

This sentence may not sound realistic to Japanese because our June does not a fragrant month. It always drizzles and even cold, and it is mere chance to see blue in the firmament. I tried to imagine which month is fragrant in Japan. It probably is April or May, definitely not June. From this sense, wedding in June becomes the least suitable choice for couples, however it is still popular here. How influential the Wetestern myth is.

The Times has come in my life.

It is an honorable moment that I have applied to subscribe the New York Times. The New York Times allows us to view free twenty articles until the end of this month. Starting next month, they reduce it to ten articles. It looks like I have reached twentieth articles today.

Everybody may ever think about whether it is worth to pay the fee for online subscription: which one should I read? I have thought about that to pick either The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. It would have definitely been the Wall Street Journal if I had applied it a year ago since I trusted more in the numbers. It does not mean I lost the reliance to the result of economic activities; it is true that business paper pictures now and current. Somehow, mostly causing my literature work, I see the current has faded into uncharacteristic world with dead people walking.

In the book review section, I found a critique of Harold Bloom today. How exciting it is! I revere him as one of the literary genius. The first surprising was that he is still alive (sorry, I was thinking until today that he was one of the legends like Ezra Pound). He should be over 80 years old now, and he is a Jewish American.

The article will amaze me the rest of the day.

Protect from enemies

My husband loves going to dentist. One reason is that he had an implant surgery long time ago. Not only having it checked, but he seems enjoying to have his teeth washed, and he boasts his lustrous teeth.

One of the American professors threw the question that Japanese do not go to dentist unless they have had a serious problem. He said American have their teeth cared periodically regardless of their aches. I think there are some class differences among the USA where you belong. Professors are obviously in the higher class with medical insurance, for the fee should be affordable level as Japanese pay the bill at dentist.

Japanese may have less sense of prevention of diseases. Or I should say, Japanese may have less sense of protect ourselves from the disaster unless it appears in front of their face or your bodily insured. This nationwide lack of prophylactic is costing right now on a fear against sustainable health insurance system. Protecting yourself is the fundamental notion that human would have. Unfortunately it looks Japanese do not.  We are unconsciously deprived of living coarsely at some point. The way we stand-up by ourselves, the way we live alone lightly.

My husband says he is going to have the whole teeth washed, which means a high pressure nozzle wash the mouth from upper palate to the lower teeth is using some medical liquid (I do not know what it is). It is the ultimate oral hygiene. I have claimed that frequency cost us since he does it once every three months.

“You use money whatever you like, I want to do it whenever I go to the dentist.”

Rational.

I just bought some clothes to wear in spring (women need to change the clothes every season!), and I go to a beauty salon once every three months. Recently the frequency dropped from two to three because I have no reason to care its beauty just for sitting and studying at the quiet desk where nobody talks. His haircut costs 2400 yen every months, which is quite cheap. Mine is 16000 yen, including cut, perm, color and treatment. I have no reason to argue him on spending the high-pressure cleanings. He protects himself, I don't.