Self evaluation

Self-Evaluation

Language

My strong points as an English speaker are being able to make an English sentence without thinking so much and some confidence in talking in English.

My weak points as an English speaker are not being able to understand others sometimes in English and wrong accents.

The English language is important / not important for me because I have many opportunities to talk with foreign people here.

Being multilingual means you can communicate in more than one language, but you don7t have to be as well as native speakers.

Academic Life

My strong points as a university student are being able to manage my time and keeping my grades.

My weak points as a university student are not earning any money and missing opportunities to join in activities beyond this university.

My most improved point over the last school year is making a plan on study.

My goals for next year are joining in further activities like a research experience program.

In the next four years, I am looking forward to deciding my future and finding a satisfying way to live my life.

Life in General

My strong points as a human being are being curious and trying to do the best in my interest.

My weak points as a human being are sometimes getting overworked and being not good at refusing an offer.

I am happy about many people with me who always help me.

I am sorry about that I haven’t do favor for those who have helped me.

I get frustrated with people who judge things only by their perspectives and neglect other opinions.

If I see Mario again in twenty years, I will let him write a blog this time.

The meaning of life is how many dreams you can make come true.

Life is a queue

Life is a queue

You make a queue and look for something awesome

You might feel a long queue is somehow troublesome

People are busy and they like to rush

No time to wait for even buying a toothbrush

Have you imagined what you can see while waiting?

You may see some businessmen who never stop walking

But outside is quiet just the sunlight is coming

When you look at the head of the queue, you miss a fine daily thing

Cheater jumps ahead in the queue and get his stuff

He’s proud of himself and people make a fuss

Who can realize there’s no reason to get mad?

After he leaves a queue, what’s left for this greed?

At least from a queue we can enjoy a good view

How come you think of ending your life up?

And what’s actually waiting for you ahead the queue?

You never see because the crowd will be an obstacle

So curious guys are excited and think what will be there

Or you lose interest and give up waiting here

Now finally you could finish the long queue

Then think about what you saw from the queue

Vivid memories shall come to your head

And to the silent world you go ahead

My health issue

When I was an elementary school student, I was told that I have an enlarged tonsil.

              An enlarged tonsil is a somehow common type of disease. A tonsil is an organ which is around the end of the mouth, in other words, the beginning of your throat. Some of you should have been warned like ‘Don’t breathe with your mouth open. The virus and germs will be on the mucous membrane of your throat.’ So in my case, since my tonsil is larger than other people, my throat tends to catch these virus and germs and be infected by them if I breathe with my throat.

              I recognize that’s why I’ve tended to catch a cold than others. I tried to make mouths close as much as possible. But while I’m sleeping, it’s pretty difficult. My parents consider asking the doctor about this problem. However, according to study, the easiest way is an operation, and generally the tonsil is getting smaller and it’ll be the size of the average by the time you become adult.

              Since my parents didn’t want to make me take a needless operation because of the risk (it was pretty small though) and the money we need for that, I didn’t anything with that. And I haven’t seen my doctor for a long time, so even I’m not sure if it’s been cured or not. But I’m sure I get a cold less times than I was a child.

              So I’ve thought an enlarged tonsil is not serious disease at all. However, according to my research, I found out it can be the cause of SAS, sleep apnea syndrome, which may cause your death. It’s the syndrome where you stop breathing for a while when you sleep. And an enlarged tonsil can be fall down and make your throat stuck because the tension of your muscle is released while you’re sleeping. Especially, for fat people (they usually have narrow throat), an enlarged tonsil can be a serious problem.

              For those people, sucking out their fat or cutting some parts of their tonsils will be the best treatment.

              In addition to those, an enlarged tonsil can cause some problem on drinking or swallowing because a large tonsil may bother the foods in a throat. This may lead you to malnutrition, so you’ll need to take treatment like what I mentioned above in this case.

              Fortunately, I was not in that serious case. But we need to remember your small health problem can be serious.

Time to review... What did I achieve from my "to do" lists?

     Seeing my "to do list this year" on my second blog, I found I could achieve some of these.

     First, I think I've been able to keep my grades. My GPA in spring semester was pretty good and I attended in most of the classes I registered. Sometimes I think chemistry experiment is pretty hard because of reports I need to make every week, but I can still catch up with everyone.

     And reminding this year, I've seldom got sick or injured. So I want to say I succeeded in controlling my physical condition well. I think my health comes from the physical trainings in my orienteering team and meals I make 3~5 times a day.

     This year I began to learn French. Also I usually get an opportunity to learn English, Spanish and French every week. In this way I can keep my competence on English. But I still have a little knowledge on Spanish and French, so I want to keep studying them from now on, too.

     I can't say I went traveling many times this year, but I had great experiences by traveling. The biggest trip this year was a one to Turkey for a week. I'm amazed with beautiful buildings and unique cities in Istanbul and magnificent landscapes in Cappadocia. And I was satisfied that I could understand some parts of Muslim culture, which I'd not been familiar with. And I've already made a plan to go to Taiwan with my senior this spring and I'm looking forward to it.

     In this university I could make many friends, so I might be able to be more sociable than before. And when I saw my parents this summer, they looked pretty pleasant that I can somehow do well in the new environment. But I'm still very dependent on my parents financially. Maybe I'll begin part time jobs from next spring.


     At the same time I failed to achieve other goals. I kinda gave up A Capella because I'm already busy with other activities. Also I couldn't do much on composing music for the same reason. I was able to study English this year, but not for TOEFL.

     However, I'm rather glad I could achieve more the a half of these. I found that my school and study will be hard from my junior year, so year 2015 may be my last chance to do many things I'd like to do. Time flies, so I want to make my "to do" lists next April again, and hopefully I get some chance to review it, too.

Planning a dinner party with awesome guests...

At a dinner party with Taro, I want to invite Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animator, John Lennon, whom probably everyone knows, Nobuyuki Tsujii, a blind pianist, and the father of modern science, Galileo Galilei.

And Taro invites Michael Moore, an American writer and movie maker, Naomi Uemura, an explorer who achieved to climb on the Everest and never comes back from his last adventure, Cristiano Ronaldo one of the best football players in this century and Theodora, a wife of the old Roman Emperor who had had a miserable life in her youth.

Hayao Miyazaki sits next to Michael Moore. Though genres of movies Hayao Miyazaki and Michael Moore make are very different, we guess they share some ideas in making films. Another side of Hayao Miyazaki is where my partner sits on. He is a big fan of him and his works, and also interested in their talk.

An adventurer, Naomi Uemura sits on Makoto’s left. Makoto actually do not know much about him but Makoto is strongly attracted with adventurous stories that he has never experienced, such as climbing Mt. Everest, rafting Amazon, and traveling through Greenland by sleds.

The person who sits across from my partner, Galileo, was not so rich in his lifetime, similar to Theodora Also, not only in science, probably Galileo had an interest in music because his father and brother played lute, and known as a composer, so we think Galileo can be open with Theodora and John Lennon easily.

John Lennon’s seat is on the next to Galileo and Nobuyuki Tsujii. Those two people are both concerned with music in some way; especially Nobuyuki Tsujii is a worldwide blind pianist. It would be great if John Lennon and he play together at this party.

              And Taro hopes to sit down between Michael Moore and Theodora. Taro watches many Michael Moore’s movies and has been influenced with them. He especially desires to know how he made “Bowling for Columbine”. Also he wants to know how to put up with hardship and overcome it. So he wants to talk with Theodora, who was very poor when she was young.

              A man who will be seated across Taro is Chistiano Ronaldo He won’t have so many opportunities to talk with him. However, he may want to know how the athlete is like. He’ll observe what and how he eats and try to get the idea about improving great muscle.

              And Cristiano sits down between Nobuyuki Tsujii and Naomi Uemura. They have totally different jobs, an athlete, a pianist, an explorer. But all of them are known as hard workers. We expect them to share their efforts on their jobs and try to improve their skills more by acquiring the different perspectives on efforts.

              Talking about meals, we need to take some care. Theodora and Galilei may be surprised at current cuisines or they may not like it. Naomi Uemura’s favorite food is kiviak, but it smells so bad that all the others won’t eat it. Cristiano Ronaldo may refuse to eat foods with many fats as an athlete. So we’ll prepare for some breads and mild soup at first, then we’re going to let each person decide which he or she’ll eat for the main dish, fish, meat or vegetables. We may let some challengers try smelly kiviak, too.

After watching the script from Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

              Our Earth is already so big that we cannot discover everything by the time we die. And now we’re getting ready for going out for the space and explore our solar system or keep going further, seeking the end of the boundless space…

              Of course, you must have never been to the space unless you’re a member of NASA or an alien. But why do we sometimes think of going in the undiscovered space. We know few things about it, there won’t be a good environment for human beings. We may never get back to our home.

              In this video, many of movies and pictures are out of my imagination in my opinion even though most of them are REAL. As long as they really exist, we have chance to go there and see them, a gigantic red storm on Jupiter, an enormously high cliff on the moon or the ring around the Saturn. 

              I personally think we still have our nature where we seek new lands. Our ancestors pioneered our Earth by taking many risks. And we still want to see the new world in spite of the risk of losing our striving lives. 

              However, you may not want to go to the space so much. But I’m sure more people will agree with the tendency that we’re likely to get bored when we get stuck in one place. Nothing is new, we’ve got to know almost everything around us, we know what’ll happen, what we will see… How vain it is!!

              Exploring, traveling and wandering… they’re ways to escape from these meaningless lives. This video aroused my desire to travel whole the world again. Unless I’m satisfied only with pictures, I wanna see everything new to me. The only problem is I’m not in the training of NASA.  

How to improve good muscle for long distance runner

     Some long distance runners underestimate the importance of muscle training for their better performance. Actually, it is often said that sprinters need good muscle in order to show their best in one moment and long distance running is more likely a mental sports where runners need to keep their high (not best) performance for 15~30 mins, or sometimes more than an hour.

     However, good muscle can enable us to run in a good shape easier, which let runners continue their races with less effort and prevent us form injury. Especially, for cross country runners and trail runners in the mountains, good inner muscle is essential to keep your balance even on the dirty unpaved road.

     So, here is how to improve your muscle.

     First, as I mentioned before a little bit, inner muscle is very important to keep you body balance while you run. Apparently, you use only your legs to run, but actually, we can say we run with your upper body. You never need to strenghthen it like a lift up athlete because heavy upper body can damage your legs. (Muscle is rather heavy. It's three times as heavy as fat in the same volume!!) But appropriate inner muscle can decrease the damage to legs and you'll have less chance to get injured or falling down during your race.

     I recommend you to do core training for your upper body. For beginners, first, fall prone to the floor, and try to keep your body in the air except your arms and feet. Your body should make one line, so not to put your butt too high or too low. Your abs should hurt. You'll keep this form for about 40 seconds and do it twice or three times.

     Also, you should train your muscle on the side. You lie on one of your sides and try to put your body in the air except one arm and foot. Make your body a line again, and do this training on both sides.

     You won't need strong shoulders for running, but waving your arms in the appropriate form can enhance your performance. You'd better improve your shoulders to achieve it, not arms themselves because you'll use the conjunction of your body to move your body as well. 

Prepare dembbells which weighs 1~2 kg each. Have them in your hands, and keep your arms parallel to the ground. It'll be tougher training than you think. Keep this form for 30~40 seconds, and do this exercise twice.

     And don't forget your legs training of course!  Squat is a well known training, however, wrong squat can cause knee injury, which is difficult to cure. When you squat, try to bend your knee in the same direction as your toes. It prevents you from twist your conjunctions of your knees.

Biking and daily running will be good, too. And strong calves will absorb the damage to your legs. Repeating putting your heels up and down is the best way to strengthen your calves. You can do this exercise even on the train.

     I hope you'll be a good runner by having a good training and an appropriate rest.

Dialogue

A dialogue between a married couple

“I’m home…,” said Arnold.

“Welcome back, Arnold. You are too late coming home these days, aren’t you?” said Maria.

“Oh…, I’m sorry, Maria. I had to work overtime.”

“You must be tired. Have you had dinner yet?”

“Already, I have.”

“Hey, Arnold. I told you many times to call me if you eat out.”

“Sorry… I was invited unexpectedly by a coworker.”

“Hmm…, OK. Next time call me ahead.”

“OK. I’ll be more careful from next time.”

“It’s already late. The bath is ready. Why don’t you take a bath?”

“Thank you, Maria. I love you.”

“I love you too, Arnold.”

Zzz. Zzz. Zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz!!

“Oh, I have a phone call… Maria, you can go to bed ahead,” said Arnold, and he tried to leave the room immediately.

“…WAIT!! …Arnold, who is calling?” said Maria.

“Well…, the c,c,coworker I told you about!”

“What’s his name?”

“…T,Tom!”

“…Are you cheating on me?”

“No!! You are misunderstanding! Please believe me, Patty!”

“…Hey, Arnold. WHO IS PATTY?”

“S… sh… she is… my coworker, too! What’s wrong with…”

“Stop, Arnold!! Show me your phone and tell me the truth!! Don’t hide anything!” said Maria so angrily.

“Ok…” said Arnold weakly.

“Well… So who has just called you was not Tom but Patty. And according to the data in your phone, you’ve talked to her on a phone almost every day recently.” said Maria with anger.

“Ok. I’m really sorry that I told you a lie. But trust me! I’ve never dated with Patty and she and I are not in love. Seriously, I love you and I never cheat on you!!” said Arnold.

“Never mention it again!! It’s now obvious that you don’t love me most. You are cheating on me. There’s no escape because ironically, not you but your phone has told me the truth.”

“No! Absolutely no! For evidence, you haven’t found any photo or video which she and I are in!”

“Shut up!! If you don’t stop lying right now, I’ll get ready to divorce you!”

“…….. ok….. I’ll tell you everything…”

“Come on!!” Maria shouted to Arnold.

“I’ve known Patty for a long time. And her full name is Patty Rebecca O’brien.”

“What…? O’brien is our family name!!”

“Yes. Now I’m sorry that I haven’t told you that I’d divorced once before I married you. And Patty is my daughter with my previous wife.”

“Why have you made such a thing secret?”

“I do apologize, but it’s my sad memory and I even don’t want to remember…”

“Hmm… Then why do you talk with your daughter so much even though you don’t take care of her now? Do you still worry her?”

“That may be one reason. But recently, I got a call that my previous wife, who’d taken care of Patty, was killed in a traffic accident. Patty is still 10. She needs a guardian. And I thought if I can be her father again. So recently, I’ve talked with Patty about it and she now agreed with it.”

“Arnold…”

“But I’m sorry. You know I’m a shy person. So I couldn’t talk about it with you because I thought you may feel bad with it…”

“Arnold… Apparently, your shyness caused my misunderstanding. But I recognized your hard life in past and your kindness. And I sincerely want to accept Patty to my home. I’m sorry for doubting you. But from next time, feel free to consult anything with me.”

“Maria… I love you!!”

“Me too. Arnold!” said Maria and she hugged Arnold.

Zzz. Zzz. Zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz!!

“Oh… now I have a phone call… Goodnight, Arnold.” said Maria.

“Hey… Excuse me, but your screen accidentally caught my attention… Your phone says `John❤’ called you! WHO IS JOHN?”

My major research and summary

              Now our environmental problems are serious. This is why solar photovoltaic energy attracts people instead of previous conventional generations. Today more than 3500 MW of solar systems have been installed all over the world and the price has been decreasing since 1970, according to the Earth Policy Institute.

              Mainly these systems can be installed in the roof of house or any building. This means people can generate their electricity by themselves even if they live in rural areas and disconnected from life lines. Also generation by these systems is a good business where small amount of electricity has high value. We can distribute electricity the individual generates as well. These are main reasons PV energy is now preferred.

              Companies’ attempts to sell solar panels to people in high income countries have contributed to the growth of PV energy. Sharp has been on the top of the race of PV energy selling and they thrive by encouraging high or average rank people to install small solar panels to their houses. This satisfies people’s willing to stop the destruction of our Earth and they can be benefited by generating their electricity in the future. This circulation makes everyone and the Earth happier.

              The governments all over the world have tried to intervene in this market and boosted it, too. It sustained their economies. And what’s more, many developed countries signed in the protocols about setting a goal to decrease the emission of carbon dioxide, which is generated when we burn fuel or gas.

              Considering the fact that we have now 20 times more PV energy than we’d had in 2000, our industry of PV energy systems will still improve. We estimate in the near future all buildings are with solar panels and it replaces for traditional conventional systems.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148105001990

Austrian cuisine and a recipe for Tafelspitz

1.    Popular Austrian cuisines

・Wiener Schnitzel

              This is a beef fillet steak in Vienna style. Today you can see these types of fillet steak in many other countries as well.

・Wiener Tafelspitz

              It’s a type of beef stew. The Emperor Franz Joseph Ⅰ loved this and many citizens used to try to eat it for lunch although it’s a pretty expensive cuisine.

・Salami, Schinken (slices of ham)

              Austrians consume more pork meat than any other kind of meat. These foods are also inventions to preserve rare meat longer.

・Wiener ausgebak-kener Karphen

              It’s a piece of carp fish (very popular in Austria today) with dices of vegetables.

・lobster

              Lobsters had been imported from Czech or Hungary. But today they’re pretty rare in Austria.

・potato salad

              Austria is a big consumer of potatoes.

・Klare Rindsuppe

              It’s Austrian traditional soup (tasted with beef and consommé)

・Schlagobers

              Whip cream is not only essential for Austrian sweets but also popular delight by itself.

2.Today’s recipe

Tafelspitz

Ingredients (for 6 people)

Beef・・・As much as you want

Chives・・・As much as you want

Consommé・・・One block

Spinach・・・One bunch

White sauce・・・As much as you want (not too much)

Apple・・・half a piece

Horseradish・・・Some (as much as you want)

Lemon juice・・・a little

Salt and pepper・・・a little

Carrots and potatoes・・・These vegetables are optional. If you like, you can use them as much as you want.

1.      Simmer blocks of beef meat with consommé soup for 5 hours on low heat. (If you are to use a pressure cooker, it’ll take only 2 hours.)

2.      Cool these blocks meet off in a fridge for 2 hours.

3.      Cut these cold blocks meet into a size of a steak

4.      Put salt and pepper on these blocks. Put prepared meat on a plate and heat them up with consommé soup.

5.      Put meet on your dish with cut chives and following 2 sauces. Don’t forget to put consommé soup, too.

Spinach sauce

Puree boiled spinach well. Mix it with white sauce. If you like, you can arrange the taste with salt and pepper.

   Apple sauce

              Grate an apple and mix it with lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. Simmer it and put a horseradish in the end.

              I recommend you to use a pressure cooker for this recipe. Also you should make 2 sauces while you’re simmering blocks of meat so that you can use your time more effectively.

3 What’s Austrian cuisine? Why Tafelspitz?

              Although many people may think Austria is extremely influenced by Germany, there was an era when the empire prospered and their own culture was widely popular. Also surrounded by many neighbor countries like Germany, Czech, Hungary, Balkan peninsula and so on, their cuisine has been improved in many ways. Especially, variations of soup and delights are notable.

              Sadly, today Austria no longer has the cultural impact on the entire world. Traditional beef dish has been replaced by cheap pork meat and they don’t import much fish and many lobsters any more like they used to. Of course, their traditional foods are still alive, however, we may not see them so many times in our daily lives.

              That’s why I choose Tafelspitz as an Austrian representative cuisine. Tafelspitz used to be an Emperor’s favorite and known as an expensive food. As you see in the recipe, it takes about 8 hours to make this cuisine if you don’t use a pressure cooker. And Tafelspitz includes an aspect of old good Austrian beef dish and tasty and nutritious soup culture.

              What’s more, Tafelspitz is known as a healthy dish. Originally, Tafelspitz means a part of meat of a cow’s back which contains little fat. This dish also has good chives and other vegetables. And having hot soup heats you up from an inside of your body. This shall keep you healthy especially from now, a cold winter.

              If you have it for lunch, you may feel being the old Austrian nobles.

References

Tikyu no arukikata.jp

http://tokuhain.arukikata.co.jp/vienna/2012/10/post_543.html

cookpad

http://cookpad.com/recipe/2468463

hankyu travel

http://blog.hankyu-travel.com/kaigai/europe/east-eur/2013/120759.php

http://wikipedia.db.ss.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/wiki/%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E6%96%99%E7%90%86

And my Austrian friend