welcom2.com

2011-12-09T10:36:00.001-08:00

_ _ORNAM_NTS: keepsakes, relics, socks, magic
curated by Kio GriffithBalconi Coffee Company
11301 West Olympic Blvd. #124, Los Angeles, CA, 90064 | 310.906.0267

Opening reception: December 11, 2011, 5pm to 10pm
Show runs from December 11 to January 9, 2012
OPEN EVERY DAY FROM 10 AM - 10PM

_ _ ORNAM_NTS: keepsakes, relics, socks, magic is a group show of artists' non-traditional ornaments. All ornaments will be available cash-and-carry in time for the uncommon holiday gift seekers. Small sized ornaments will be priced at $30 and larger works at $50.

FEATURING: LISA ADAMS, BRIAN ALLAN, DOUGLAS ALVAREZ, JUNA AMANO, MICHAEL ARATA, TERRI BERMAN, MICHELLE BOROK, JENNIFER LYN BROWNE, GINO BURMAN-LOFFREDO, STEVE CHILDS, MATHIS COLLINS, JANA COOKSEY, DAVID DE BOER, LAUREN DEES, HIRO DEGUCHI, ANNA DUSI, SHIGENORI EBATA, DOUG EISENSTARK, CHARLES ELLINWOOD, JAMES FAULKNER, BILL FARROUX, AARON GIESEL, WALT HALL, PHIL HAYES, JUN HIRAOKA, ASKA IRIE, TOMOYUKI IWANAMI, JIWON KIM, MICHELLE LAI, CHRISTINE LEE, MONIQUE MCKEAG, JON MEASURES, YUKI MIYAZAKI, MISATO NAGARE, ERIC NAKAMURA, AYA NIIBO, JAYME ODGERS, DAISUKE OKAMOTO , MOTO OKAWA, DIDI OI, SHINICHI ONO, ICELA PEREZ-BROWN, POEL, PHLOE PONTAOE, KOSTA POSTAMIANOS, CAROL POWELL, ERNIE RAMIREZ, NINA SAVILL, AMY SHAWLEY, MIKA SOMA, DEBBIE STAFFORD, RICCARDO SPINOTTI, JOE SUZUKI, MACHA SUZUKI, KELLY THOMPSON, NORTON WISDOM, FRED ZOLAN and more…

Big In Japan

2011-06-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

it's been long time from last post in English.. haha sorry about that. i went to Big in Japan event on 6/26/11 at hollywood bowl with 2 others.

it was my first time to visit hollywood bowl. you can actually bring food and alcohol which is cool! feels like picnic! brought some wine from Napa Valley and sausages from Alpine village.

if you don't know YMO, ask wikipedia
Cibo Matto, Towa Tei, and Buffalo Daughter were also performancing. i am loving Cibo Matto now.

YMO + Christian Fennesz + Keigo Oyamada + Tomohiko Gondo + Yoko Ono(guest)

sorry if you feel my singing ruin the song. LOL

here's the list what they played( got the info from twitter

firecracker
behind the mask
Riot In Lagos
the city of light
Tokyo Town Pages (or U.T.)
Technodelic
Taiso
Tibetan dance
1000knives
COSMIC SURFIN'
Tong poo
rydeen
It's been very hard (by Yoko Ono)
Hello, goodbye

awesome!

Feed the blue whale

2010-12-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

DOUGLAS ALVAREZ

DANIELA ARBIZZI

NEYSA BOVE

DAVID DE BOER

HEYWARD BRACEY

SHIGENORI EBATA

DOUGLAS EISENSTARK

BILL FARROUX

RONI FELDMAN

P-JAY FIDLER

DAIKI FUKUOKA

KIO GRIFFITH

MOSHE HACMON

PATRICK HAEMMERLEIN

ICHIRO IRIEI

ASKA IRIEI

RAFAL KARCZ

MASSIMILLIANO LEANZA

KAORU MANSOUR

JON MEASURES

MISATO NAGARE

AYA NIIBO

AMY OLIVER

AKANE OSADA

AVE PILDAS

ALLISON SWING

AGNES SZUMSKI

KEN TANAKA

MAYUMI TANAKA

ANDREW TAYLOR

JOHN URQUIZA

PETER WATKINSON

NORTON WISDO

curated by Kio Griffith
Saturday, Dec 11, 2010　123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St Los Angeles California UnitedStates

Here is mine! :

AFTERSHOCK

2010-05-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

EarthWorks06

2009-12-16T18:09:00.000-08:00

I did Nigaoeya(portrait shop) for earthwork06 at shojin restaurant.

I got tired of sitting for 3hours but... people are smiling at their own portrait, made me so happy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/aya.niibo/Earthwork06#

Cafemode show went real good too. Thanks for all visiting and giving me the opportunity to have the event.

Feel free to download my design of Christmas card : dowload >>

Earthworks06 50/50show

2009-12-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

EARTHWORKS 06 opens Dec 15, 2009 @ 8 - 11pm.
All new work can be previewed by clicking on the artists' names.
SHOJIN www.theshojin.com
333 S. Alameda Street., Ste 310 (3rd FL), Los Angeles, 90013

selling arts at sellit.com

2009-11-16T15:56:00.001-08:00

You and Me

2009-10-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

photo by shojin (Thank you for providing!)

the music is great, and the concept for this show"you and me" gave me a lot of inspire!

Thank you, Kio

EARTHWORKS 05 - You & Me

2009-09-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Opening Rception : Oct 6, 2009 8 to 11pm
$5 cover

Oct 6, 2009 - Dec 6, 2009
open everyday 11:30am - 10pm [except M-F between 2:30-5:00pm]
SHOJIN restaurant x333 S. Alameda St., Suite 310 (3rd Floor) Los Angeles, CA 90013

Mid Night Ridazz

2009-09-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

You might have ever seen such a big riders group somewhere in LA. and If you met, you would probably shout at them like "F*** you, riders!!!" LOL

It's called "Mid Night Ridazz"

OK. I joined to them yesterday. LOL

and became a b****

wow, so many ppl

there are some handmade bikes. wow.

Midnight Ridazz ppl helped us a lot. If somebody got a flat tire, they let all people stop and fixed it for him. and their organizing was pretty awesome.

but still making mess though... LOL

Thanks, midnight ridazz. I had a super fun time! and sorry ppl:-)

Omocha de cha cha cha show - Pics

2009-09-14T09:14:00.001-07:00

The show was awesome!! Thanks all for coming and setting up!
Here are the pics :

Sorry for all the multiple shots!! ;)

caming

2009-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

went camping!!!

we go camping every year. this time, had chosen the big bear as a camp site.
there were 18 people in the camp site! wow.

we fished, biked... and eat a lot. actually we had so much fun!

N brought several kinds of music instrument
Many people came into our site to play with us even their ranger LOL
It was like... "Music Live" in our camp site! was pretty cool.

here are the photos :

Omocha de cha cha cha

2009-08-17T11:06:00.001-07:00

CAFEMODE + CAFE BOLIVAR present
OMOCHA de CHACHACHA
AUGUST 17 to SEPTEMBER 26, 2009
ARTIST RECEPTION > SEPTEMBER 12, 2009
@ CAFE BOLIVAR 1741 Ocean Park Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
www.cafemode.com

Ferrofluids

2009-08-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

--Incredibly Unusual Art Using Ferrofluids. Physicist/artist Sachiko Kodama created a series of ferrofluid sculptures that will leave you with a sense of awe.(click here to open the movie)

It's like, Wow! what happens if you touch it?

Japan Trip

2009-07-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well... Should I say "Tadaima(I am home)"?
I guess not but I came back to the US from 3 weeks Japan trip.

I had been in Japan to get E-2 visa and to see my family. Going back Japan is for the first time in 3years and 7 months. pretty long.

The reason why I went back to Japan was that my dad got a cancer for his lungs.
As first I saw him, he lost his weight so much but after he took all the medication and I took care, he started eating a lot and seemed to be fine.

Now, he could work, he said.
I am appreciated how the medication got improved. Cancer is now curable in some case.
Not smoking or taking care of yourself is still important to not be though.

I didn't only go visiting my dad but also I spent time with my old friends.

-Kichijo-ji, tokyo... spent 1 week with my sisters, her boyfriend and two cats in there.
-went to 109 which is very famous shopping center for young people.
-visited where all the TV shows got me interested.
-in Odaiba, Tokyo. saw a real size of Gamdam(but the way, I am not really know bout those anime)
-took beautiful pictures with my new SLR camera.
-went to summer festival.
-spent time with family and pets.

I have now homesickness...(T_T)

Thanks for all 35people who took care of me in this trip!
Love,

Making Chopsticks

2009-06-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

Joined a workshop "making your own chopsticks" presented by Mr. Saburo Koga.

You have to rely which wood you will use on instinct to make a decision.
Mr. Saburo said the wood's character would be like yours.

My choice was "Red Wood" which cut off in 80 years ago.
80 years ago..so the wood has grown in very nice atmosphere like no acid precipitate at all. the wood was very soft and easy to make chopsticks.(so what character is that? lol)

Afterwords, we ate their organic bento as lunch with our own chopsticks.

This workshop is available from more than 5 people. Mr. Saburo Koga teaches very fair and softly.

here is the work by Mr. Saburo koga：
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cogasa/international/

Organic Bento :
http://www.casadetree.com/index.php

yay! just placed 1st place in the USGBC

2009-06-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

ok... not me, btw LOL

Al and my BF, Sho got the 1st place in the USGBC competition! yay!
so now they are going to the Nation in Arizona.

I am so happy to hear it because I knew they has been working so hard, even didn't get enough sleep..

here is the board! :

and the party was so fun!
there are nice music, food, and people!

Congrats again! Sho and Al

restaurant at home

2009-06-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

hahaha, it's about facebook's application. I am now addicted to make my Ein's Diner bigger lol.

It's like the sim city, but not that complicated. that's why I like it!

I am now collecting some ingredients, rice, ice cream... by exchanging with friends. hahaha fun fun fun!

iGoogle Design

2009-06-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

I finally created iGoogle theme by my own!!

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=ja&url=www.synapse.ne.jp/aya/IMAGES/google/welcom2.xml&type=themes

I thought it was very difficult to make xml file, but it was not. Here is the instruction : http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/themes/docs/dev_guide.html

The header image, logo, text colors, and more can all change throughout the day based on time of day, which is called "a dynamic theme". I didn't set it up this time, but I will!!

The Flip Design

2009-06-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recommended me this "The Flip" video camcorder. I always wanted to have a camcorder and my sony digital camera just got broken, so I am thinking to buy one.
(the flip cannot take still pictures tho, can get capture from movies you take.)

I found one at Amazon.com for $30 cheaper, but I wanted to do design by my own!

I can't wait to have thisssssss!!!! :0

To See my design >>

cafemode3 (2nd perticipation for me)

2009-05-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

EARTHWORKS 03 IS OPENING MAY 7TH !
SHOJIN www.theshojin.com
333 S. Alameda Street., Ste 310 (3rd FL), Los Angeles, 90013

my first bosam and vegetarian sunday buffet

2009-05-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

yuka, my coworker introduce me all the kind of odd food i have never had. the picture is bosam which is korean food. there are three or more kinds of meet like tonsoku(pork leg), fish, regular pork, and so on, then wrap them and kimuchi with radish slice like taco. we ate this bosam at kobawoo house, korean town. it tastes just OK for me(sorry yuka :X) but the huge "chijimi(kimuch pancake)" was the best!

and today, we went to inn of the seventh ray in topanga canyon to experience their vegetarian sunday buffet. the reason why yuka invite me was i don't really eat vegetable. lol
yuka was wondering how i think about their food because she thinks their vegetable was real good

so... how did i feel? i prefer more meet sunday branch like alpine(garmany) sunday branch. but there were much meet than i expected so that i didn't try that much of vegetables. ;P personally the corn salad and watercress salad were good. include champaign and seafood, the price was $35-. that was pretty nice branch for me.

i usually don't try. i tend to order pretty much the same dish every time i go restaurant even i don't go new restaurant, so the person who introduce me about all the restaurant like yuka is very important me. ya, challenging new thing is good:)

Grilled Cheese Invitaitonal

2009-04-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I know that all the American ppl like pizza, but not only that, GRILLED CHEESE SAMMICH is also very popular, I feel.

I joined the Grilled Cheese Invitational w/my friends, Yuka, Rhea, and Mia, last Saturday as competitors (as I mentioned last post). Grilled cheese is very simple and easy to cook, so that the idea was important to win.

Yuka, my corworker, is very good cook, her idea was putting ground pork and beef w/curry powder inside. for sweetness, she put raisins little bit and burn almost like deep-frying w/lots of batter and panko.

It's delicious.....mmm..yummy..

We didn't get any price this time, but just being there was totally fun. maybe next year?...we will win! but I don't want to eat any grilled cheese sammich for a while. LOL

Grilled Cheese Invitational

2009-04-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

The Invitational lands in downtown Los Angeles, CA on April 25, 2009!

(LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED ON APRIL 20, 2009)

Doors open at 12:00pm
Competition from 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Admission Fee: $5
Competition Fee: $10

I am joining the event above as a competition's assistant.

our category:The Kama Sutra
The Kama Sutra sammich is any grilled cheese that is made with exotic bread or contains any other ingredients than the above mentioned.

The only rules to the Kama Sutra sammich are as follows: The sammich MUST be grilled and the internal ingredients must be at least 60% CHEESE. Other than that, this is a freestyle category, so go for it. This is where you can create any savory flavor concept your twisted mind will allow, so long as the internal ingredients are at least 60% cheese.

The Kama Sutra category is not only the most liberal, but also the most popular. So you must keep in mind that the competition is fierce and professional. You could be up against as many as 50 professional chefs, so you better get it right!

mm....sounds hard, but challenging. anybody give us a good idea?

Let's take pictures!

2009-04-13T22:08:00.003-07:00

in our company, there are several people who have SLR camera.
and on every friday lunch time, they take pictures around downtown LA.

i was invited, so i joined w/my iPhone lol...just because i forgot to bring my Canon EOS D30.

when i am around ground central market(which locates where angle flight is), i feel like i am traveling mexico or somewhere not in the us. it was nice day to take pictures, sun shining and a lot of people are shopping around as usual.

well, next time i want bring my SLR camera definitely.

btw, on sunday, sho, his mom and i went antilope vallery to watch poppeys. we took 3hours to get there because of traffic and it was driving from orange county. unfortunately, this year's poppeys are not so good, the park ranger said, and close on windy days.

can u see if there is a bird?...i took few nice pictures and it was fun so it's ok.

Canon EOS D30... i love it, but it's old. i am little concerning about buying newer one. anybody knows any good camera?

okuribito

2009-04-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

i finally watched okuribito which won academy awards in the best foreign film category. okuribito showed what the "nokan-shi(casketing)" is, and how the death is very influental for the other surviving ppl.

i actually didn't know that there is the kind of job in japan, but as matter fact there was person who did make-up on my granma's face when she died, i remember. she was pretty and looked healther than when she was in hospital. i ve heard there is cases only clean dead body needs to be casketed, also nasty one like....i dont even want to write. so nokan-shi(s) make good money but it's very hard to be.

i cried at least twice when watching the movie. it was kind a slow like all the typical japanese movies though it was well done to show how main charactor connects w/ all the ppl between the death...also okuribito means "help with departures" in japanese. such an beautiful name! don't you think?

Colorado Trip

2009-03-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

yay! takeshi, sho and i went to Nevada, Uhta, Colorado and Arizona by car! mostly we had fun with all the national parks, vally of fire, Bryce, Zion, Arches, and Petrified Forest.

Bryce was my favorite national park! they have very nice trail that you can actually go very bottom of the rockes, the shapes are quite unique.

we were going to do snowboading in vail, colorado tho unfortuneatly, we couldn't because i cought cold:( however, instead of snowboading, we went to the US air force academy to see their chapels which were incredibly awsome!!!!

this trip was pretty nice and relaxing. hope b-day boy had fun too:)

happy birthday, s-boy!

hanami

2009-03-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

went to balboa park with my corworkers to do "hanami."

hanami is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying cherry blossoms(sakura)

but, it wasn't peak bloom period　yet...

there is the teasing proverb "dumplings rather than flowers(hana yori dango)" which hints at the real priorities for most cherry blossom viewers. that's right! the food we brought was real good!
it was fun fun fun!

restaurant at home

2009-03-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

i went to Joseph Mahon(208rodeo)'s new house to enjoy his meals ran by shokutsu.

his house was so huge and cute mexican style. and turned into like a real restaurant.

there are more than 30 ppl, i think. his cook was tasty, good-looking and cheap! we paid only $40 for it.

what we ate:
potato soup, salda(it contains "beets" which i dont know what heck is. lol even dunno the spelling is right or not.), salmon confit with mashed potato, and tart with ice cream.

joseph is yuka's friend. they met at one restaurant while she was taking pictures of food. then this event happend. i appriciated thier encounter because we could enjoy his meal at his home!

i wish i could cook like him and invite to my home. that was nice night. thank you, yuka.

cafe mode - earthwork2

2009-02-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

the art show was successfully done, i think. there are some music and dance performances which were totally "art". and it was packed!

it runs till april 26th, 2009 at shojin, so please come back and peruse our art!

finally my car was fixed!

2009-02-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

on Dec. 6th 2008, a women hit my car while i parked. luckly, the person who hit left a note, but then the nightmare has been began.

since my car was not drivable, i asked tow and leave my car at spectrum collision center, which BMW dealer told me to take. they asked me a lots of signatures and initials on their contract(like it said "even if they broke a glass while fixing, they don't pay anything", "strage fee is $50 per day." and brah brah brah)....i didn't want to put my initials, but you know how it is.....if i didn't, they dont start working on.
and it was so wierd that they told me to call MY insurace to take care of this case. i should have noticed that they were ripping off.

the first estimate was around $4,000.
however, after they talked my insurance(at that time already they had taken two months to just make an estimate), it raised up $11,000-, even thought my insurance's estimate was only $2,300-. i know my insurance's estimate was too law but...$11,000!?!?! you can buy a new car instead.

because of the $50(per day) strage fee, i couldn't cancel and ask another body shop. the parking fee was already over $3000.

fortunally, after a month my insurace deceided to pay $12,000-, and spectrum collision agreed with it.

today, finally i got my car back. (almost three months nightmare has been done.) it was nicely done but i couldnt be so happy because of what they did to me. and one more thing that i am worried bout is the final receipt was over $16,000- even thought i paid only $12,000!.....i don't even wanna know why and what's for....

i was so tired of calling my insrance company and body shop. the experience was totally nightmare....i wont take my car to dealers and spectrum collision center again.
.....or, i hope any kind of accident wouldnt happen again.

cafe mode

2009-02-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

i am joining the cafemode as an artist:)
the opening will be held on 26th, feb. come to see me!

EARTHWORKS 02　Feb 26, 2008 - Apr 26, 2009

open everyday 11:30am - 10pm
333 S. Alameda St., Suite 310 (3rd Floor) Los Angeles, CA 90013

SHOJIN restaurant


©2009 Aya Niibo	©2009 Aya Niibo

*THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU BEING THERE !
and making this show a success!
Please come back and peruse the art which will run until APRIL 26, 2009
SHOJIN www.theshojin.com
333 S. Alameda Street., Suite 310 (3rd FL), Los Angeles, 90013

*edited

Always on the side of the egg

2009-02-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

Always on the side of the egg 　By Haruki Murakami

I have come to Jerusalem today as a novelist, which is to say as a professional spinner of lies.

Of course, novelists are not the only ones who tell lies. Politicians do it, too, as we all know. Diplomats and military men tell their own kinds of lies on occasion, as do used car salesmen, butchers and builders. The lies of novelists differ from others, however, in that no one criticizes the novelist as immoral for telling them. Indeed, the bigger and better his lies and the more ingeniously he creates them, the more he is likely to be praised by the public and the critics. Why should that be?

My answer would be this: Namely, that by telling skillful lies - which is to say, by making up fictions that appear to be true - the novelist can bring a truth out to a new location and shine a new light on it. In most cases, it is virtually impossible to grasp a truth in its original form and depict it accurately. This is why we try to grab its tail by luring the truth from its hiding place, transferring it to a fictional location, and replacing it with a fictional form. In order to accomplish this, however, we first have to clarify where the truth lies within us. This is an important qualification for making up good lies.
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Today, however, I have no intention of lying. I will try to be as honest as I can. There are a few days in the year when I do not engage in telling lies, and today happens to be one of them.

So let me tell you the truth. A fair number of people advised me not to come here to accept the Jerusalem Prize. Some even warned me they would instigate a boycott of my books if I came.

The reason for this, of course, was the fierce battle that was raging in Gaza. The UN reported that more than a thousand people had lost their lives in the blockaded Gaza City, many of them unarmed citizens - children and old people.

Any number of times after receiving notice of the award, I asked myself whether traveling to Israel at a time like this and accepting a literary prize was the proper thing to do, whether this would create the impression that I supported one side in the conflict, that I endorsed the policies of a nation that chose to unleash its overwhelming military power. This is an impression, of course, that I would not wish to give. I do not approve of any war, and I do not support any nation. Neither, of course, do I wish to see my books subjected to a boycott.

Finally, however, after careful consideration, I made up my mind to come here. One reason for my decision was that all too many people advised me not to do it. Perhaps, like many other novelists, I tend to do the exact opposite of what I am told. If people are telling me - and especially if they are warning me - "don't go there," "don't do that," I tend to want to "go there" and "do that." It's in my nature, you might say, as a novelist. Novelists are a special breed. They cannot genuinely trust anything they have not seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands.

And that is why I am here. I chose to come here rather than stay away. I chose to see for myself rather than not to see. I chose to speak to you rather than to say nothing.

This is not to say that I am here to deliver a political message. To make judgments about right and wrong is one of the novelist's most important duties, of course.

It is left to each writer, however, to decide upon the form in which he or she will convey those judgments to others. I myself prefer to transform them into stories - stories that tend toward the surreal. Which is why I do not intend to stand before you today delivering a direct political message.

Please do, however, allow me to deliver one very personal message. It is something that I always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece of paper and paste it to the wall: Rather, it is carved into the wall of my mind, and it goes something like this:

"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

What is the meaning of this metaphor? In some cases, it is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them. This is one meaning of the metaphor.

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others - coldly, efficiently, systematically.

I have only one reason to write novels, and that is to bring the unique dignity of the individual soul to the surface and shine a light upon it. The purpose of a story is to sound an alarm, to keep a light trained on The System in order to prevent it from tangling our souls in its web and demeaning them. I fully believe it is the novelist's job to keep trying to clarify the uniqueness of each individual soul by writing stories - stories of life and death, stories of love, stories that make people cry and quake with fear and shake with laughter. This is why we go on, day after day, concocting fictions with utter seriousness.

My father died last year at the age of 90. He was a retired teacher and a part-time Buddhist priest. When he was in graduate school, he was drafted into the army and sent to fight in China. As a child born after the war, I used to see him every morning before breakfast offering up long, deeply-felt prayers at the Buddhist altar in our house. One time I asked him why he did this, and he told me he was praying for the people who had died in the war.

He was praying for all the people who died, he said, both ally and enemy alike. Staring at his back as he knelt at the altar, I seemed to feel the shadow of death hovering around him.

My father died, and with him he took his memories, memories that I can never know. But the presence of death that lurked about him remains in my own memory. It is one of the few things I carry on from him, and one of the most important.

I have only one thing I hope to convey to you today. We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called The System. To all appearances, we have no hope of winning. The wall is too high, too strong - and too cold. If we have any hope of victory at all, it will have to come from our believing in the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others' souls and from the warmth we gain by joining souls together.

Take a moment to think about this. Each of us possesses a tangible, living soul. The System has no such thing. We must not allow The System to exploit us. We must not allow The System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made The System.

That is all I have to say to you.

I am grateful to have been awarded the Jerusalem Prize. I am grateful that my books are being read by people in many parts of the world. And I am glad to have had the opportunity to speak to you here today.

---------------------

Peace!
japanese translation is here

blood type horoscopes

2009-02-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

Wo Ye !High FanO Xing Ren - jamais jamais

japanese ppl, expecially girls love talking about blood type horoscopes. they believe that they can tell person’s personality by their blood type like below,

Type A
Best traits Earnest, creative, sensible
Worst traits Fastidious, overearnest
Type B
Best traits Wild, active, doer
Worst traits Selfish, irresponsible
Type AB
Best traits Cool, controlled, rational
Worst traits Critical, indecisive
Type O
Best traits Agreeable, sociable, optimistic
Worst traits Vain, rude

i personally don't believe the blood type horoscopes(probably not that many japanese ppl believe either.), i don't think there are only 4types of ppl, and it's not a scientific-basis material at all. but i don't hate the topic, it's just fun to talk bout.

even if japanese ppl ask your blood type and you feel uncomfortable, plz don't be mean to them:). the blood type horoscopes is just one of their favorite topic, so...

Millennium Biltmore Experiences

2009-02-05T23:45:00.001-08:00

luckly, i got two chances to go restaurant at millennium biltomore today.

lunch... my boss treated all the corworkers to celebrate finish of one project. we had a seafood buffet for $22 at SMERALDI'S. it was real goooood. i loved the pasta which you can put any seafood from the seafood buffet. i think $22 is very reasonable. i wanna take sho to here:)

dinner... i was pretty full since i ate a lot at smeralidi's...but my friends, megumi and aya came over from japan so i wanted to take them to watergrill which yuka said the best taste restaurant in all the dineLA restaurant. as she told me, it WAS tasty. (lunch is probably better because you can eat the exactly same dishes for $20 chaper) and the atmosphere is great.

i have to be on diet from tomorrow:(

btw, everytime megumi come, it rains very hard. the forcast was saying thursday was "shower likely" but it turned into rainning all this week. last time she came, she brought one of the worst rain in 100years....omg. that sucks.

DineLA

2009-02-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

i don't really care what i eat, but my corworkers and my bf do. they are telling me where is the best place to go eat, all the recipes, and any other food stuff.

dine LA was one of their topic these days. they said they have gone some restaurant already. since everybody are talking bout dineLA, i became i want to go at least one. one of my friend came over here to LA from San Diego, so we went.

i called my corworker to ask the best place to go. she told me:

GLADSTONE’S OF MALIBU
17300 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
310.454.3474
gladstones.com

$26- for their foods(and probably where it locates too) is real cheap, she said.

my friends ordered $26 dineLA course. but i ordered the Lobstar plate for $65.50- by mistake:X...but they gave me the chowdar and desert for free!!!:0 so i am pretty much satisfied with the restaurant. the chowdar was real good. i think it was the best chowder i ever had.

here is the dineLA menu:
http://dinela.com/restaurantweek/listing/12611/GLADSTONES-OF-MALIBU

and the services are nice too. how they give you your left over is real unique.(i got a whale which made of hoil)

thank for telling me about dineLA and gladstones, yuka.

happy new year

2009-01-05T15:26:00.001-08:00

i had pretty fun of japanese style of new year this time even i was in the us.
i wish i could go back to japan during the newyear holiday tho.

hope you guys will have an awesome 2009!!!

Salton Sea

2008-12-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

since i got a canon D30 which is a old digitalSLR camera, i have been interesting in photograph. and sho is also the same since he took a photo class.

his teacher recommended salton sea as nice place to take photos. after xmas, we went there for two days.

when palm springs was much expensive place to have a vacation, this salton sea was reasonable resort to compare with palm springs. human put salt and fishes in the lake for those visitors. however later on, the place was dying out... the lake got dry and the salt concentration increase to 4.4% (regular sodiumconcentration in seawater is 2.2%)

you can tell the differences between the picture above and left one which was taken by a photographer, Kim Stringfellow. the cabin is being eaten away by the water.

i was expecting that i can take pictures like his, but it wasn't so easy to find nice places. the red water is the color of rusty steel or something? and the white part is probably salt. i saw also salt all over the soil and fish bones.

salton sea has sad stories, but some do all the environmental practice. there is a farm is called "bird farm", you can see some kinds of bird around there.
i took nice pics but those birds did crap on my head....oh boy.

next day, we went to palm springs to ride a tram because i google with"thing to do, palm springs", then it came out.

we didnt expect that much of fun tho IT WAS FUN! i made two snowman with the powder snow.

there are more pictures available on picasa: picasaweb link

how to use emoji icons on your iphone 2.2

2008-11-24T11:36:00.000-08:00

woohoo! finally i can use emoji icons(emonicons) on iphone2.2! offically only for japanese iphone... BUT there is a way to use emoji :

1)download .vcf file below.
http://sasa.main.jp/emoji/vcard.vcf

2)send the file to yourself via e-mail.

3)open the file on your iphone, then add all to your contact list.

4)try type "えもじあ(emojia)" , "えもじい(emojii)", or "えもじう(emojiu)"in japanese using text or notes.

note: you can send emoji to only whom has iphone 2.2.

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

2008-11-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

oh my. there is a 91% chance ein is plotting to kill me, it said.

oh ein... TT

this is from contribute CS4

2008-11-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

this is just a test from contribute CS4.

las veterans day

2008-11-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

november 11th, veterans day is our anniversary. last year, we decided to go las vegas every year on veterans day.

we had a great time again except sho lost $700 on gambling.

we are supposed to stay at hilton las vegas, but they overbooked. then they send us to embassy suite, which is huge motel for free. we are very happy about it.

this time, we had paris champagne blanch which is better than dinner buffet(i think). i think best buffet in las vegas is this champagne blanch.(opinion)

anyway, thank you and yoroshiku for this year as well.

windows vs macitosh

2008-11-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

i have been using macitosh since i was 19 or 20. and now i have to use windows for my job. i have confident i am pretty good at computer stuff. By knowing both those operation systems, i want to say "use macintosh" to ppl, who are using PC for just checking e-mails and using the internet.

firstly because, windows has a way higher chance to get virus and spywares. you have to purchese all the anti-virus software as default which is defferent from macintosh.
macintosh has never got virus since OSX came out. the reason why macintosh has never got a virus is not that huge share like windows. i guess the windows share makes ppl who make virus have lots of fun.lol

secondly, to ask somebody to fix windows problems costs much more. i know windows has huge share so you have more ppl to ask help, but you will feel sorry even if you ask your friend. in fact, my frineds usually pay or treat me to fix their problems.(i dont ask tho lol...) on the other side, macitosh, you can just take your computer to "apple genious bar" for free to fix problems.(HD problems are different story)

i believe that i had 3reasons, but i can't remember for now. lol

however, i'd like to say that once you get used to use windows, then stay with it. changing machines takes time like i took time to get used windows. finally now, i feel both OS are alike, but my first impression for windows was really bad because i couldn't find where is "desktop" and i got so used to use "Default folder".

anyhow, both OS are nice! i can't live without computer now! thank you, steve and bill.:-)

Gone Camping

2008-09-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

i went camping with my coworkers. we go every year. last year was kern river camping ground and this year was san simeon creek in San Luis Obispo. it located near the hastle castle which i went last year with my BF.

one of my cowarker got lost for 5 - 6 hours because he was trying to get there with his motercycle without looking any maps. he said he drove LA to SLO through san jose. omg... well...i am glad he was OK.

since san simeon campground is located by the ocean, we went fishing which was fun even tho caught anything. we might have needed to start 5 o'clock in morning.

anyway, it was fun.

here are some pics :

OMG! I want this!

2008-08-04T10:37:00.001-07:00

If Andy Warhol designed a HD case, it would probably be like that.

http://www.meninos.us/shop/en/shop.html

Yes! Finally!?

2008-07-03T11:09:00.001-07:00

New treatment may finally kill herpes virus
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25511729/

jyoji kubo-san exhibition

2008-05-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

I went to the art exhibition, which is held by a japanese contemporary artist, Jyoji(George) Kubo at LA Artcore brewery annex. He is actually my coworkers' father. (She is a great designer too:)

He is an artist from Yamanashi prefecture in japan. He has been creating so many great sculptures and showing his stuff at many Yamanashi(mostly) galleries. It was his first time to have an art show in Los Angeles, USA. I guess just bringing his stuff to the US was a lots of work, but he's selling his stuff inexpensive price. wow I want one to my room tho :D

It was a pleasure to see his stuff and meet him and her wife(she is also an artist, such an artist family XD) the show is available until May, 29th at: LA Artcore brewery annex.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

2008-05-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

i was not really a big game fan, but since i got the Nintendo DS, i became to love games.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of my favorite puzzle game; a combination of adventure storytelling which reminds of me miyazaiki hayao movies and over 120 puzzles. to me, the graphic, story, and all the puzzles(except few stupid questions) quality was awesome. but i am wondering if american ppl will like this game or not. well.... i looked at amazon.com, they gave this game 4-5 stars, so i guess they do.

anyway, i am definitely going to get all three Layton series!

chumby

2008-03-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

my sis let me buy a Chumby which is a clock.

Chumby is not just a clock. connects to the internet over your wireless connection. you can watch video, listen to music, and so on.

so cute.

came with three charms, sweet. but i don't where to attach(*edited i know now) activating is not that difficult :

first, it asked you to calibrate touch screen like a PDA.

second, wifi setting. do as usual.

third, type where you live.

then, activate your chumby.
on your PC, access to Chumby.com and log-in. just follow the instructions. you are already ready to use.

there are already some software which are called "Widget" on your chumby as default. you can change the order or add more stuff from your PC :

http://www.chumby.com/widgets/channels/undefined

opinion :

$160...that's too expensive for just a clock, but it's not just a clock so... actually japanese people love the design. even ipod/itouch dont have that cool features for free. i highly recommend for those people who can make flash widget on your own. well...only one thing that i dont like is it is not portable at all.

Downtown Art Walk

2008-03-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

M had an art show at Downtown Art Walk.

The old Bank district became as the art district now, that is great idea. Some place looked like just abandoned buildings, but have turned into art.

There are many kinds of art today and all the art works are very unique.

Here are the photos:

(Sorry! no large photo available)

The Cornelius Group

2008-01-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.cornelius-sound.com/

S took me to Walt Disney hall to see Cornelius because I kept mentioning him that I wanted to go inside of Walt Disney hall, and I used to love Keigo Oyamada's music when I was a high school girl. I was nice to see him in LA again.

Actually the show was WAY better than I expected. All stuff he creates were imaginative and totally cool. You can watch some his works on Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Cornelius&search=Search

woo.. nice nice nice.

There's something in the air

2008-01-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

I went to San Francisco to see MacWorld Expo 2008. I always wanted to see how it is so I decided to go there this year. I actually wanted to see Steve Jobs's keynote the most though, it was much expensive than I expected, $200 and more. I think over $200 was too expensive to see just the keynote so I purchased exhibit hall only tickets.

Before the exhibit hall was opened, all the mac geek people were talking bout the keynote with checking those mac rumor and news sites. A guy was sitting next me showed me the new Macbook Air’s photos and gave me the information during the keynote, which was good and fun. I love those geeky talk :D hehe
There are so many giveaway stuff like the other expo. For example, Maxell gave us headsets, a iPod case, empty DVD medias, and so on.

Actually I had fun with the QuarkXpress booth the most. I used to use 3.5, so 7 has so many amazing functions for me.

MacBook Air....Buy or not? MacBook Air is defiantly for a second computer use which means it might not need that much of functions, so I am not really sure that it's worth to spend $3,098 for it. but IT IS incredibly thin and cool. I wish I could afford to buy it.

LA kings vs. Nashville Predators

2008-01-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

I went to watch a ice hockey game at staples center as my first time. I don't even know any rules but I went anyway. (my dad used to play tho I haven't watched it in some reason. Was it really true that any hockey players are short temper? That's my friend said. as matter of fact, my dad is. lol)

My coworker loves hockey(actually he plays too) and has a season ticket for a nice seat. He sometimes buys two-three tickets to invite other coworkers.

He said that every time he watches the game with any coworkers, the Kings lose. Believe or not, the score was 7-0 the Kinds lost awfully. oh well... He is right. All the kings fans were yelling at the coach saying "fire reggie(the head coach's name)!". Anyhow, I had a fun time to watch the game even thought the game was awful.

Thank you so-chan.

35th Annual American Music Awards

2007-11-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

Erina and I went to watch the AMA, the three-hour show, at Nokia Theater.

Beyonce, Sean Paul, Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne, Chris Brown, Maroon 5, Celine Dion and Duran Duran and more performanced and Jimmy Kimmel was hosting the show for the second time.

What was funny that one of the member of the idol group, Jonas Brothers, slipped in the beginning of the show which reminds me of the old fashion Japanese comedy show.LOL ...all the kids loves them tho.
I am not a fan of anybody but I had fun anyways. Duran Duran was cool and I am glad that I saw all of them live. oh, one more thing that I laughed at was two Filipino guys. I guess they were interested in our nationality so they tried to hook up with us or whatever. They were totally drunk. I don't remember what we talked about, but they were funny.

Las Veteran's Day

2007-11-13T15:43:00.000-08:00

Nov 11th is the Veteran's day but also our anniversary. My boyfriend gave me his hand-made cake and a card said "I want to HOT SEX NOW"...I was like ..OK?..... but don't worry! all he wanted was not just sex. LOL. Hotsex has the other meaning.

To celebrate our 1st anniversary, we went to Las Vegas. Using Hotwire.com, the hotel Excalibur came up for cheap. but it didn't matter where to stay actually because we were gambling and WINNING.

"I usually win", he said, "What I need is knowing my own patterns where I am winning and losing". mmmm.. I don't gamble so I don't know. I am just scared of losing money even $5-. but wathcing what BF did and listening what people chated was fun for me.

Sho, thank you for preparing all the stuff even thoght you were busy for school. luv ya!

iPhone arrived!

2007-11-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Believe or not, my old cellphone got broken just before the day I got iPhone, so I had no choice to start using iPhone. I was really really worried if I will like it or not. 299 daller for just making phone call is not cheap...but I think I made the good decision so far.

When I tried iPhone as my first time at the Apple store, I didn't really like the key-touch, but I got used it already. I like all the google features. (I am glad that Apple didn't built the own application for maps, search engine, and so on.) Google is simple and handy.

I am looking for a free wireless access around my company, so that I don't have to pay $20/month for the data plan. yes, being cheap..LOL

Here is links what I did so far :

iPhone Dev Wiki :
http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Removing the iPhone's SIM card :
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9738138-1.html

iFuntastic :
http://www.iphonealley.com/ifuntastic

For Japanese :
http://max.iamas.ac.jp/2061/articles/684.html

Cool Software:
http://gridgets.com/

and I am working on connecting to wifi using a Nintendo USB adapter *edit*it worked!
:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/390312

iPhone/iPod touch emulator::psx4iphone :
http://tuyoshi.adam.ne.jp/blog/nr/item_1363.html

iPhone Jailbrake 1.1.3
http://cre.ations.net/blog/post/iphone-113-jailbreak-released

Making T-shirts

2007-11-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to make a own design T-shirts with silkscreen, and finally I did.

Osamu, who is the member of Shoku-Tshu(Gurumet) Club, taught us how to do everything. He has all the expensive stuff for the silverscreen (I can't believe that he does all just for fun!). I have wanted to have all, but I gave up! just too much money and work!

I didn't have enough time to create own design so I did somebody's design, but came up very cute and neat template. I realized that thin lines are very difficult to carve. Anyhow, it took 12 hours(!) to make one, but was fun fun fun!!

Happy Halloween

2007-11-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

Happy National Cosplay Day. lol

I went to the library bar to get drinks and West Hollywood w/ my corworkers. It was a fun night being a school girl and watching ppl.
It was funny that all American were asking me if I was a JAPANESE school girl or not. and some ppl in school girls costume were saying Konnnichiwa or Arigato and doing what Japanese ppl do...like peace sigh. I was wondering if school girls are only for Japanese.

iPhone was good one, and all the sexy girls and gay ppl made me smile.

First Look: Mac OS X Leopard

2007-10-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, I got Leopard on my PowerBookG4 and MacBook Pro.

My first impression was just OK. Switching users is little taking time but I think the overall performance speed is not that slow. I thought there were not that big changes, but the new features of Mail, iChat and Front Row (It's new, right? Does it come with previous version of OS? lol) are excellent.

These are what I noticed and care about :

Firefox and some softwares have little bugs.

My favorite utilities, Default Folder and SideTrack, are not working yet.

The classic environment is no longer supported.

Oh OK... One more thing: It's because of Leopard or not, this blog doesn't let me paste types using safari. well, as long as Photoshop and wifi are working fine, I can start using for work and play with Leopard. It's fun anyway.

This is how California looks like now...

2007-10-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

purrr

The Photo Exhibition

2007-10-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

I went to Ms. Courtney Dauwalder's photo exhibition with her classmate who is my coworker, S. While we were driving, he kept saying that he was always jealous of her because she is so talented. haha

As matter of fact, her photos were great. those were haunting and made me eager to take photos again. I like how she showed that there's a story in each without showing too much.

Afterwords, we joined M, H, K and Mr. Taztu Nishi to eat dinner.

S told me that Taztu is a crazy artist from Germany.

<-- That's his work. Does it looks like just a regular room? But it's not! If you look at it carefully, There is a Picasso inside of the room because the room located in an ART MUSEUM!

We didn't talk that much about art-stuff during the dinner. mostly we have been talking about dirty one. haha, but it was fun anyway.

holy...

2007-10-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

The fires are getting bigger and bigger. only 4 are contained.

I bet that natural disaster is the most scariest thing. If you are near the fires, please be careful.

konnichiWA or konnichiHA

2007-09-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

Do you know how to white "konnichiwa(good morning)"? In Japanese,
I thought we wrote "こんにちわ" as how we pronounce. If you google "こんにちわ(konnnichiwa)", 8,720,000 pages show up which means everybody is using "こんにちわ(konnnichiwa)" like I do.

One of my coworkers told me that is wrong. Actually, "こんにちは(konnnichiha)" is correct. As you may know, when "わ(wa)" is a focus particle, we white "は(ha)" even if we prononce "wa". What she said was that the greenting "konnnichiwa" is used to be "今日は、よいお天気ですね("konnnichiwa yoi otenki desune" : today is good weather), then it became shorter, so we need to write "こんにちは" because the "wa" is a focus particle.

Umm... It's like saying "hallo" as hello. I am a little embarrassed not to know until now... OK. I will stop writing "こんにちわ" then. ;-P

mixi for Japanese Learners

2007-09-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Do you know mixi? It's Japanese SNS(Social Networking Site). My friends, who are TA for Japanese classes, are recommending Mixi to have Japanese friends. Making friends with native speakers is good way to learn the language. I should join myspace to learn English too. XD

Here are links that might be helpful :

How to use Mixi : http://gaijinwomen.com/
Mixi's community "FOR JAPANESE LEARNERS" : http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=22179 (if you have an account already)
Mixi : http://mixi.jp/

You need an invitation to join, so anyone wants an invite can feel free to ask me for one. Enjoy!

being stupid

2007-09-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here's the transcript:

I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some... people out there in out nation don't have maps, and, uh, i believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and ... I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US, er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up a future for our children.

my bf's friends told us to check that movie out. oh...my. i feel sorry that everybody is making a joke about either south carolina people or blonde girls. i thought she must be too nervous or something, but at the same time i thought she could have said something better than that. anyway, it just hurt to watch... she is cute tho!

ellegarden rocks!

2007-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

my bf's friend recommended me to check out the album "ELEVEN FIRE CRACKERS / ELLEGARDEN". since i love alternative rocks, i love them from the first time i listen to. all songs rock!XD i dont really know their background, yet in some reason they can sing english songs with no japanese accent. anyway, i highly recommend to check them out if you like alternative rocks!

Ellegarden - Ash Lyrics

Camping

2007-07-22T18:01:00.001-07:00

i went camping to Kern River on last weekends with S,T, M and sho-chan.

i bought a tent, a sleeping bag and even a ramp for that. yes, i was so ready to camp!

we were planning to go to big bear camping place, but all reservations were taken, then sho-chan found "kern river camping" instead. the camp site was so much nicer than i expected! the river's water was so clear, made us to swim.

you can not only fishing also a lots of thing. it locates near sequoia: kern river. 3hours driving from LA. but we took more than that because how the google map said was wrong...

we all are japanese so that, of course, took japanese style of food and ate curry. (i donno why japanese people often eat curry rice when they go camping. maybe super easy to make, that's why.)

what bout fishing..? we got NO fish! suppose to get trouts tho...i guess because we had fun with swimming more than fishing. hahaha
the camp ranger said ''more fish upper course of a river." we should have gone up the river. but it's ok! even if no fish are caught, fishing is fun!

ahhh i wanna go again then spend more time!!!

trying to be appeared on google

2007-07-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

there are links related :

somebody broke my car window!

2007-07-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

i dont really like comparing between japan and america because i dont wanna be a stereotype.

BUT i need to say that japan is a lot safer!

btw, in this few weeks, all bad things happened to me.
first, i met a scam in vivinavi.com when i tried to buy a panasonic camcorder. he was telling me "looks like brand new" but it was not. after researching i found out that the camcorder came in 2000. plus, it keeps tell me an error and doesnt take any dv cassette. i am still trying to return this item, but whoever names "sato" @nandemo-ya in torrance kept saying "i am very busy" and never reply my e-mail! i told my friend who is a lowyer, he said to take to a small claims court, but the case is not that big...shoot. what should i do now?

next thing happened : somebody broke my car window again!! aaah this is the third time already. seems like those kids like my old red car...

i am so pissed right now:-(

t-shirt store

2007-07-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

i am trying to make an original t-shirt for my friend as a birthday present. i found cool t-shirts store on the web! you can make not only own design t-shirts but also "t-shirt store".

my own t-shirt store is : http://welcom.shirtcity.com/

what it says:

added google custom search engine

2007-07-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

just added the google search engine on my blog, the right hand side. what it does is that giving you search results from your favorite sites. since it's bate version, gave me a little time to figure out how to set up.

all my other sites are in japanese so that i needed to put character codes when input. otherwise, give you the results with unreadable characters.

resizing the width of result's window was little tricky. instead, i used "css".

and even posting, as a result's window, was taught too. with javascript, need to be careful if the character spacing is right. better to get rib of all
tags, but that story was under this "blogger" system. you may get other problems with other blog services.(as matter of fact i did)

now, i dont really like the result's window color is white! well, i am tired now.. let it go for a while...zzz
---------------------------------------------------

ok, afterwards, i noticed that there is a search box on the top of this blog lol. so, i put the search plug-in instead. this search results are much better.

Search Results

2007-07-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

how much is ur blog worth?

2006-01-26T22:56:00.000-08:00

hahahaha! this is how much my blog is worth! $0.00! i thought the web site was not working correctly, but it is! i put my friend's blog which has a lot of information, and showed "$$9,597.18." wow. that's how much his blog is worth. well, the reason why my blog is not that worth is that i haven't posted any and i am not getting that much of comments and trackback, i guess...

try it out!!

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

how to make sushi

2005-11-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

i've learned how to make california rolls (sushi) from my friend, a sushi chef. making california rolls is quite different from nomal sushi. very interesting to me.

cucumber thinly sliced
avocado thinly sliced
imitation crab with mayonnaise
tobiko
sushi rice
nori(seaweed)

cut cucumber, avocado and imitation crab into thin sliced sticks. lay seaweed sheet on a flat surface. gently spread a light layer of rice over entire sheet. turn the sheet over. at one inch from the edge of the seaweed sheet, add ingredients in layers to cover a one inch rectangle section of the sheet. starting from the edge closest to the filling, gently fold seaweed sheet over filling, lightly pressing to form a roll. continue rolling. afterwards, using makisu(3 and 8)pressing it a little tightly. slice roll into one inch pieces. put tobiko on the sushi rolls if you want.

serenity

2005-10-07T00:41:00.000-07:00

October 4th, i went to watch movie"serenity" without knowing about "firefly". as soon as the movie started, i totally missed the story because, i guess, i was too sleepy to watch movie and one of actor's voice was little too low to understand for me. however, almost all audiences (except me) were laughing and craping their hands, seemed like they were having fun.

in the middle of story, after i understood what the story about little, it was kind a fun. there are laughing parts, brother and sister's love, and scary parts. i think the movie's balance is really good. i am thinking to watch the movie again when i am not sleepy and hope i can see in japanese.

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says.

2005-09-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

blackout

2005-09-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

we got blackout in LA around noon today. i was on the pretty high floor, so i took pictures with my phone, unfortunately, can't tell if it's blackout or not from the pics. i heard that all the signal stopped and there were heavy traffic around downtown. good thing is that i wasn't driving or taking any elevator.

whoever made an error for this blackout is such a trouble maker.

apple ipod nano review.

2005-09-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

on saturday, i went to pasadena apple store to see ipod nano which just came out. i really like the material ipod uses because it's smooth and very stylish. plus, i like the thin body with 4g storage and really quick access to photo gallary since ipod nano has no"hard drive". however, i thought the design needs to be more change. for examples, no need to put monitor horizontally and around scroll-wheel has big open space, designwise.

btw, "nano" means "it is" in japanese so that "ipod nano" means "it is ipod", which sounds funny to me.

google talk review

2005-08-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

on 24th, google started providing an instant messaging service. i just tried it out with my sister. it's pretty fast opening and quick responding! and i like that little message window will minimizie like macos9 when i double click on the top of it.
unfortunately, i couldn't add my gmail account to adium and ichat using jabber. i am wondering if i am suppose to be able to.(addendum : i did!)

function that i really want them to add is file transfering and voice chatting with adium or ichat people since i am using them with macintosh. or they can make macintosh version of "google talk".

i love any service, google provides. for example, google map, gmail, and this blogger because not fancy, but light!

addendum : just successfully added the google account to adium. need to change the setting like this :

server : talk.google.com
port : 5222(5223)

cyber story

2005-08-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

The little boy asks his father - "Daddy, how was I born? "

Dad responds, "Ah, my son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! "Well, you see, your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on AOL. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a fire wall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a blessed little popup appeared and said, "You've got male!"

mmm...del.icio.us...

2005-08-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

how you find cool sites? ...well, google? someone's links? there are bunch of way, i know. but, today, i wanna introduce one way to find cool sites!

do you know a social bookmarks site "del.icio.us"? mmm.. what a nice url... social bookmarking is an activity performed over a computer network that allows users to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. (by wikipedia) the point is this :
"users can also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others."

ok? got what u can do? this is the way :
1. post the same kinds of url which you wanna find. famous one might be better.
ex)if you wanna find cool a seach engine, post google.
2. go back to your own bookmarks. the bookmark, just added, may show how many people who have the same url, like this :

3. click on the number of people.
4. click on any id or tag name.
5. the person might have cool other sites. just steal them!!

that's it. i found some famous photostocks and a design database which are very useful.
btw, when i found only one person who has unexpected site, i feel like.. i wanna know bout the person! but unfortunately, i can't.

musical baton（from:my sister）

2005-08-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

* total volume of music files on my computer:

6.97GB..doesn't mean stealing music, man!

* song playing right now:
i am not listening to any music right now. watching tv, sponge bob...

* the last cd i bought:
relax cd for $1 at target, lol.

* five songs(tunes) i listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
1.perfect / simple plan
2.jerk it out / caesars palace
3.yorokobini saku hana / aco
4.that's where you take me / britney spears
5.kuchibashini cherry / ego wrappin'
..that's what i-tune says.

* five people to whom i'm passing the baton:
is there somebody who wants to do it? :-)

charlie and the chocolate factory

2005-08-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

august 12, i watched the movie, charlie and the chocolate factory. frankly, i didn't like the movie even thought i like tim burton and joenny depp. the reason why i didn't like so much is, i guess, i don't like movies which have dancing scenes(that indicates little scared face guys). also, i expected too much that the movie was gonna be cool if the director was tim burton and the joenny depp acted. oh, well.. too bad for me and i give thumb down, sorry!!

one funny thing is that i felt the sense of humor was quite similar to the recent japanese cartoon(not the famous one). i can't explain how the humors are different from where used to be, but i am wondering there is no wide difference between japanese humor and american one. if people whose mother language is english like this movie's humors.

btw, even thought i didn't like the movie, i love the joenny depp's michael jackson like acting. still i think he is a good actor.

3 times windows installing.

2005-08-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

omg, who expects windows installing is so hard!!!

i am an apple person. i have ipod, powerbook and g3 blue and white, but i do have windows xp computer for testing a website(my job is making website) and doing my computer classes' homeworks. recently, the windows computer was taking forever to boot, so i decided to re-install everything. ...but i am getting the horrible messages :

we apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully. a recent hardware or software change might have caused this. blah blah blah...
then, it won't boot anymore!!! jeez, i've reinstalled windows two times already because of the stupid massage. i gave up with updating windows since it happens after windows update.

well, there is a japanese idiom,"san do me(3times) no sho-jiki(honesty)", which means third time is lucky, so hopefully, i won't get the stupid problem anymore ..but i know that there is the other idiom"ni do(twice) arukoto ha san do(third time) aru.", it never rains but it pours.

thanks to : http://tinyslope.com/texts/windowsxp/

hello world,

2005-08-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

hi, this is my first time to make an ENGLISH blog. i have japanese one, but i know not everyone can read it. i am wondering my english is good enough to make one. actually, i just quit keeping an english diary, i have kept for 2 or 3 years, because it was too short to practice english and totally pointless!! well, if somebody find this blog, then find weird english, tell me plz!! and be my friend. ;-)

btw, there is a japanese idiom "mikka bo-zu", which means person who can stick to nothing. (just "bo-zu" means little boy or bonze and "mikka" means 3days) i will try not to be like that...maybe.
- peace out -

welcom2.com

Big In Japan

Feed the blue whale

AFTERSHOCK

EarthWorks06

Earthworks06 50/50show

selling arts at sellit.com

You and Me

EARTHWORKS 05 - You & Me

Mid Night Ridazz

Omocha de cha cha cha show - Pics

caming

Omocha de cha cha cha

Ferrofluids

Japan Trip

Making Chopsticks

yay! just placed 1st place in the USGBC

restaurant at home

iGoogle Design

The Flip Design

cafemode3 (2nd perticipation for me)

my first bosam and vegetarian sunday buffet

Grilled Cheese Invitaitonal

Grilled Cheese Invitational

The Invitational lands in downtown Los Angeles, CA on April 25, 2009!

(LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED ON APRIL 20, 2009)

Doors open at 12:00pmCompetition from 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Admission Fee: $5Competition Fee: $10

Let's take pictures!

okuribito

Colorado Trip

hanami

restaurant at home

cafe mode - earthwork2

finally my car was fixed!

cafe mode

Always on the side of the egg

blood type horoscopes

Millennium Biltmore Experiences

DineLA

happy new year

Salton Sea

how to use emoji icons on your iphone 2.2

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

this is from contribute CS4

las veterans day

windows vs macitosh

Gone Camping

OMG! I want this!

Yes! Finally!?

jyoji kubo-san exhibition

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

chumby

Downtown Art Walk

The Cornelius Group

There's something in the air

LA kings vs. Nashville Predators

35th Annual American Music Awards

Las Veteran's Day

iPhone arrived!

Making T-shirts

Happy Halloween

First Look: Mac OS X Leopard

This is how California looks like now...

The Photo Exhibition

holy...

konnichiWA or konnichiHA

mixi for Japanese Learners

being stupid

ellegarden rocks!

Camping

trying to be appeared on google

somebody broke my car window!

t-shirt store

added google custom search engine

Search Results

how much is ur blog worth?

how to make sushi

serenity

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says.

Doors open at 12:00pm
Competition from 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Admission Fee: $5
Competition Fee: $10