Words of Today (Hiring a Hitman)

ESL Podcast 475 – Hiring a Hitman

discreet: (adj) keeping a secret.
make oneself scarce: disappear oneself.
a thorn in my side: He's been a thorn in my side for years.
down payment: money paid before starting the task.
prerogative: right/privilege.

(6:50 - 6:58)

Hakone

I went to Hakone last weekend with my family to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday. 60th birthday is called Kanreki (還暦). People who become 60 years old put on something red at the ceremony. Something red is usually a hat, a vest or both. No bouquet toss.

(8:32 - 8:38)

Words of Today

• stimulate: raise the level of activity
  
• inferior: lower in rank
• pantry: storage for food or dish

(8:07 - 8:13)

Wii Fit

I've borrowed Wii Fit. Correctly I've borrowed Wii Balance Board for Wii Fit - the white flat scales-ish gadget. I don't have Wii or Wii Fit software.

I'm thinking to use the hardware with my PC to log my weight. Wii Balance Board can connect to a PC. Via my PC, my weight can be recorded in an internet server. I can track the history of my weight.

I don't care my weight actually, but connecting Wii gadgets to the network is fun to me.

(8:21 - 8:28)

Words of Today (Making Business Contacts)

ESL Podcast 448 – Making Business Contacts

• this side of the fence: I’ve never been on this side of the fence before.
• out of my comfort zone: I’m a little out of my comfort zone.
• cold calling: calling to someone you don't know without an appointment.
• prospects: posibility to happen nice things.
• woo: meet nicely - A young boy wants to woo a beautiful girl.
• tag along: go with someone - Can I tag along when you are dating?
• quid pro quo: do something for you if you do something for me - Sure, but there’s a quid pro quo.

(8:28 - 8:36)

Tax

I filled out my tax form last Saturday. It was very boring task.

It was not the first time for me to do this paper work, so it was a straight forward task. I also admit the task is becoming much easier every year thanks of the software developed by the department. Anyway, the task took my several hours and it was like a digging my own...

I'm a patriot!

(9:05 - 9:13)

Good morning.

Woke up 6:30. Did radio taiso. Walked to the office from the station in advance of two stations from the nearest station. Wiped my desk. Washed my hands. Gargled. And writing this post morning.

Good morning starts from good habits :) I forgot about it.

(7:48 - 7:54)

Every Monday.

I come late to the office every Monday. It's not intentional, but the result of my unhealthy life of weekends...

(9:45 - 9:46)

Monday morning

I couldn't wake up early on Moday in these days. Thus, I couldn't take advantage of early birds. Hmm, I have to sleep Sunday night in time...

(9:09 - 9:16)

Nodame cantabile

I'm reading comic books "Nodame cantabile". The one of main characters is Megumi Noda. She is a student of a college of music. She has a special gift of piano, but she doesn't want to be a top pianist or complete at contests. She'd rather play a song of fart.

My wife did not want to read it at first, but now she's looking forward to reading the sequel as well as me.

(9:40 - 9:48)

Two math fields I want to train

Through reading some math books, I realized that it's worth for me to study linear algebra (線形代数) and probabilistic logic (確率論).

Studying them is very easy. I already did many times.

The problem is understanding the essence. It's hard to me... I studied how to calculate characteristic number (固有値), but I'm still wondering what the characteristic number is.

Anyway I see what I should do next :) That's great.

(8:55 - 9:04)

Restudy of Mathematics

I'm recently reading some books about Mathematics. The level of the books are kind of high school level or beginning of university. Topics are like:

• quadratic formula (二次方程式の解の公式)
• arithmetic progression (等差数列)
• geometric progression (等比数列)
• golden ratio (黄金比)
• derivation (微分)
• integral (積分)
• trigonometric function (三角関数)
• logarithm (対数)
  

etc. Yes, I need to relearn these words in English too.
(9:09 - 9:17)

Pollenosis

The season got started. It stops me from logical thinking.

This is an evidence of evolution theory. We finally achieved the six sense to detect invisible micro objects. Darwin was born on Feb 12 and died on Apr 19. That also overlaps the season.

(9:09 - 9:18)

Birthdays

Today is my sister and grand mother's birthdays. Congratz :)

I usually just call them to say "get old!", but I sent presents to them this year. It's rare as well as cherry in winter. These gifts are kind of a recognition and a sympathy card.

My sister was willing to arrange a travel with our family on next March. My grand mother is now in a hospital.

(9:01 - 9:09)

Words of Today (Problems with Drugs and Medical Devices)

ESL Podcast 445 – Problems with Drugs and Medical Devices

• one in a million: Contaminated drugs are one in a million
• birth defects: The drug causes birth defects.
• defective: problem / This drug is defective.
• over-the-counter drugs: drugs available without prescriptions.
• litigation: claim to a court of law (訴訟)

(9:00 - 9:09)

Cherry blossom

I saw cherry blossom today. I was surprised.

One, blooming cherry in winter is unusual (although there're some sort of cherries blooming winter). Two, I was able to find it. I was just walking on my usual way. Three, I finally found a topic for this blog of today :)

(9:10 - 9:15)

Re: ECRS: methods against your tasks (4)

The last character S of ECRS stands for Simplify. The kiss mind. Keep it simple, stupid.

Some tasks can be simplified and it saves your time, cost or both. Where the 80% quality level is acceptable rather than 100% quality, we should consider how much cost and time to end the rest 20% tasks. People says the cost and time is four times as much as the previous cost and time.

(9:19 - 8:29)

Re: ECRS: methods against your tasks (3)

R of ECRS is replace or reorder. Some people say it's replace, other people say that's reorder. Anyway changing it with another thing.

Asking people to do it instead of doing it myself can be the best solution. Postpone (or move up) to do it as prioritization is always a good strategy.
(9:47 - 9:53)

Words of Today (Using Coupons and Rebates)

ESL Podcast 434 – Using Coupons and Rebates

• cut corners: save cost or time
• That’s what you think.
• putting me on: cheating me - Are you putting me on?
• worth the wait.
• mess around: I’m too busy to mess around with coupons and rebates.
• penny-pincher: A person who saves cost very much / stinginess.

English Café 166

• Brown v. Board of Education
• landmark decision
• enroll - join (to a school)
  
• desegregate - stop distinctions
  
• hairdos - hair styles
  
• down to the wire - hard even till the last / He kept studying right down to the wire (eijiro)
  

(9:12 - 9:25)

Re: ECRS: methods against your tasks

C of ECRS stands for combine. There might be some routines you can combine. I read a book on a train to the office. This is a combination of commuting and reading. I get off two stations before the destination station and walk to the office listening an English podcast. This is a combination of exercise, study and commuting :)

I think everyone is already doing similar things. The point is naming and recognizing it.

(9:27 - 9:37)

Re: ECRS: methods against your tasks

ECRS, these are four methods save your time against your tasks.

E of ECRS is eliminate. If you can stop the task, this is the best way to save your time. The bottom line is to ask yourself if the task is really necessary or not.

(9:32 - 9:38)

ECRS: methods against your tasks

Just like BERI, I will try to describe ECRS. It's an acronym and stands for ... I will mention one by one :) These are four methods save the costs of your routines.

OK, I moved my hands as Body of BERI for reraising my motivation. It works!
(9:30 - 9:35)

Words of Today (Using the Copier)

ESL Podcast 432 – Using the Copier

temperamental: easily change one's mind/behavior - This machine is really temperamental.
tear: rip apart to two pieces - I’m afraid if I pull too hard, it’ll tear.
collated: ordered by pages - I need to make 20 collated copies.
tempt fate: be fearless - Don’t tempt fate. It could be worse.
(9:17 - 9:26)

Re: BERI: Techniques to encourage motivation (5)

BERI is an acronym and it stands for body, experience, reward and ideomotor. These are techniques to encourage your motivation.

Ideomotor: Ideomotor means thinking an ideal goal/person what you want. I felt this is a kind of image training or shadow boxing. Setting the goal and thinking about it is actually a typical and effective technique.

This is the last post about BERI. I found describing a book was a good combination for training English and reviewing books. I might be going to describe another acronym, ECRS.

(9:33 - 9:42)

Words of Today (Low-Cost Airlines)

ESL Podcast 442 – Flying on Low-Cost Airlines

• a small price to pay: Not having assigned seats is a small price to pay for low fares.
• no-frills: I don’t mind a no-frills flight
• hand it over / taking over: Hand it over. I’m taking over the planning for our vacation.
• be my guest: go ahead

(9:27 - 9:30)

Words of Today (English Lesson)

Come of age: You can brink beer after come of age
yard cup: (Beer) glass whose lengh is a yard.
rigid: unable to bend / not flexible
slick: smooth and glossy
fertile: The area is fertile of vegetables. (肥沃な)
raunchy: ひわいな / 汚い
prevalent: widespread in a particular area at a particular time (oxford)

(10:09 - 10:21)

Re: BERI: Techniques to encourage motivations (4)

BERI is an acronym of body, experience, reward and ideomotor which are techiniques to encourage your motivations.

Reward: as carrot for house, reward is a good motivation (or excuse) to do something. We can sponsor the activity by ourselves such as buying cake or beer after the task.

(10:21 - 10:26)

Reward: as a carrot for a house, rewards are good motivation (or excuse) to do something. We can sponsor the activity by ourselves such as buying cake or beer after the task.

Re: BERI: Techniques to encourage motivations (3)

BERI is an acronym of body, experience, reward and ideomotor which are techiniques to encourage your motivations.

Experience: New experience is a good source of your motivation. We really enjoy anything at the first few times, but we get used to them soon. The book said two methods about experience. The first method is to try doing the accustomed things as a new experience. The second one is to make the accustomed things as your good havits.

To be continued.

(11:10 - 11:19)

Experience: New experience is a good source of your motivation. We really enjoy anything at the first few times, but we get used to them soon. The book spoke about ( / mentioned / recommended / said there were) two methods about experience. The first method is to try doing the accustomed things as a new experience. The second one is to make the accustomed things as your good havits.

Re: BERI: Techniques to encourage motivations

As I said, BERI is an acronym of Body, Experiense, Reward and Ideomotor. The book said these four actions eventually make us get much more motivations.

Body: Moving your body makes your brain awake. A brain makes the body move in general, but this book said it's vice versa. I have ever had similar experiences.

To be continued.

(9:16 - 9:25)

Body: Moving your body makes your brain awake. A brain makes the body move in general, but this book said it's vice versa. I have had similar experiences.

Words of Today (Buying a home)

English Café 171

• to reenact: to present by acting
• down payment: large payment of the beginning (頭金)
• mortgage: properties as security to rent money (抵当)
• on the side: I'm a president. On the side, I'm Batman.

(9:07 - 9:15)

BERI: Techniques to encourage motivation

I read a short book about how to get motivations in terms of the brain system. That was not an academic book, but a half comic half essay. However, what that said was very useful for me.

Our brains have a part to get motivations and we can send pulse to it by some actions, although we cannot directly access to the part. The book called BERI for those actions. That is an acronym.

B: Body
E: Experience
R: Reward
I: Ideomotor

10min ran. See you tomorrow.

(8:57 - 9:08)

There is an area of our brain that controls motivation levels and we can send pulse to it by doing some actions, although we cannot directly access to the part. The book called BERI for those actions. That is an acronym and stands for.

Words of Today (Health in Developing Countries)

ESL Podcast 431 – Health in Developing Countries

• acute: there are countries that have a lot more acute problems than we do.
• malnutrition: less nutrition disease
• infectious diseases: diseases to be able to transmit
• no question about it
• tuberculosis, and measles: 結核 and はしか
• immunizations: injections of vaccines for example.

(8:44 - 8:56)

Blogger error

This is the first post to this blog, so I was wondering how a nice article I should have wrote. However, I've been getting errors of Blogger and I could not post any articles right now. I'm writing this arguement on the Gmail composer. I will save it in Gmail and copy it to Blogger when it is fixed.

By the way, I might be going to write about Android or BERI. BERI is an acronym of techniques to encourage motivation.

(9:05 - 9:11)

This is the first post to this blog, so I was wondering how nice an article I should have written. However, I've been getting errors from Blogger and I could not post any articles right now. I'm writing this arguement on the Gmail composer. I will save it in Gmail and copy it to Blogger when it is fixed.

By the way, I might be going to write about Android or BERI. BERI is an acronym and it stands for techniques to encourage motivation.

Words of Today (Do you think we can afford it?)

Yesterday's lesson.

• Do you think we can afford it?
• We simply have to get rid of it.
• We cannot afford to go to Miami and buy a new car.
• If we buy a new one, we won't be able to go to Miami. (first conditional)
• We've got no choice but to get a new car.
• It costs a fortune (a lot of money).

(from business one:one)

• I'm fanatical about YouTube.
• retain - hold on
• accounting for - constitute / make up

(from "Online video viewing jumps 34 percent")

(8:23 - 9:02)