10:59 p.m. Spent all evening slaving for JoOusama's smug eat-all-you-can New Year's dinner. Wonder why she has to do it every year, call over my unwilling brother-in-law and his starving family just to make sure they know she can cook. JoOusama seemed to be socializing, ‘entertaining’ in her words, while I washed, dried and put away a mountain of dishes she'd used. And Cow, who somehow seems to be unbelievably good at sliding our plans either a day before or a day after the day I wished it to be, has kindly left this New Year's Day free so I could slave as usual for JoOusama. It's one of the reasons I don't like New Year. I don't have enough time to rest, relax or refresh myself.

11:10 p.m. Have decided not to make any goals this year since am sure I haven't achieved any for the past several years. Think I'll try to take things one at a time without making any plans this year. Who knows, it might work out.

The End

Caterpillar

8:47 a.m. Feel a lump in my stomach. Am not feeling well. Think I ate too much Kazunoko(herring roe, a typical New Year dish) yesterday. Perhaps I worked myself too much. It's like the dull pain I get in my stomach when I'm stressed. Anyway, what am I going to do? Am supposed to go to Cow's for a Sukiyaki party.

9:58 p.m. The pain was getting unbearable by noon so I took some medicine. After a while the pain subsided. Cow and I were planning to go to Kameido Tenjin for our first shrine visit, but since NHK had showed the shrine on TV along with some Sky Tree information, there were endless rows of people which made us change our destination to a much smaller local shrine in the neighborhood. As small the shrine was, they offered Omikuji(fortune paper) for a reasonable 100 yen so we each drew one with Cow getting Daikichi(great blessing) and me, Kichi(blessing). Not so bad, I guess, except that it said, "Stop. Before you ruin your life." on the ‘gamble’ fortune section... Thanks a lot.

The End

Caterpillar

11:53 p.m. Since I had spent the year-end cleaning and putting new paper on Shouji(paper sdliding door), the first two days of this year slaving for JoOusama then going to Cow's, today was actually my only free day. So although I was planning to do things systematically during this holiday, I had to cram everything in this one day. Have spent all morning writing replies to the greeting cards I'd recieved. In the afternoon, I started working with organizing the data for this website which had been left untouched for five months since last July when my former lap-top went dead. I worked until now and still have three months of data left... I'm sick. Was going to go to sleep real early tonight, so as can get up before dawn tomorrow to watch this year's first meteor shower, the Quadrantids, then get a head start on the day to prepare to meet a friend for lunch, but now that seems impossible... Haven't even checked out the drawings for Kinpai yet. Wonder why I always end up like this.

The End

Caterpillar

11:34 p.m. Was going to meet a friend for lunch which I did, but as we came out on each other over the years, we found (at least I did) that we shared a lot in common and our Jiao-zi lunch summit expanded way into evening since I almost forgot that work started tomorrow. I just got home and in a real rush to finish this off in order not to be late for tomorrow's morning session...

The End

Caterpillar

11:27 a.m. Subway got delayed from the first day of work this year but I made it on time and have already finished first session. So far so good.

2:56 p.m. Handicapping Kinpai races for both Nakayama and Kyoto. Cow has called Mr. N-jima as he was instructed so the old man can tell him which horse to bet on however, Mr. N-jima himself had been tied up at work and couldn't make it to the off track betting. Too bad for him since he can't buy tickets for his first race. Though sometimes that turns out to be rather lucky.

3:22 p.m. Have just bought Kinpai on the Internet. Keying 4 on the trio wheel of 2, 7, 8, 1 , triplet with 2 for 1st, 4 for second and 7, 8, 11 for 3rd place for Kyoto. For Nakayama, trio keying 4, 12 on a wheel with 8, 10, 15. Don't have TV in office and with JRA refusing to put the race on live streaming, all we can do is to strain our ears to the radio.

3:36 p.m. Nakayama finished with 4 in the first place, 3 in second, 12 in third, 15 in fourth... Still got Kyoto.

3:52 p.m. Kyoto finished with 2 in the first, 5 in second, 4 in third... Sigh.

The End

Caterpillar

4:15 p.m. I was on the subway to work reading a John Grisham paperback. It slowed to a stop at a station and the doors opened. A middle-aged lady stood up from her seat and walked hurriedly out the door when I noticed a brown paper bag at the foot of the seat where she had been sitting. Hey, lady! You forgot something! But then, what if she intended to leave it there? What if it had a bomb in it? Or some toxic chemicals? Oh, no. I'm the nearest to the bag! What if it blows off? Arrrrrgh! Aarrrrrghh!

While I was being obsessed with terror the doors closed with a thump. Oh my God! I started inching away from the paper bag through the sparse car, never able to take my eyes off it. Then a subway crew came by and stopped at the brown bag. I froze. The crew carefully pulled out the bag to the center aisle and despite my silent scream of ‘Don't! Don't!’ he peered into the opening of the bag. The handle of a plastic grocery bag emerged from the paper bag as I watched it and the crew with horror. Then in a matter of seconds, the crew nonchalantly picked up the brown paper bag and walked away... What an alarmist.

The End

Caterpillar

2:39 p.m. Our desktop PC hasn't been working well. According to Cow, it has froze several times during the New Year holidays, and he suspects AVG, the anti-virus software we use. He's apparently switched to the former version from the latest to avoid more freezing which could lead to more serious troubles.

2:48 p.m. I was about to jump from a link when an AVG mesage window popped up on the screen, threatening me to reboot the computer within a certain amount of time which was being counted down on the timer... Cow peered in from behind and nearly screamed. He said it was something known as the ‘reboot loop message from hell,’ that would throw the receiver into an inextricable loop of rebooting and getting the same message or getting the blue screen, so you cannot actually boot the computer properly. Oh, my God. What should I do?

3:04 p.m. Cow has immediately pressed the ‘notify later’ button at the bottom of the message, denied all access from AVG probably within 0.8 seconds.

3:10 p.m. Oh, no. It popped up again! Cow is shivering with horror.

The End

Caterpillar

3:07 One of my clients have payed me a visit in the morning. It's been three months since she became pregnant and stopped coming in for sessions. My, it was nice to see her. She said she'd been through her terrible morning sickness and that she's doing OK for now. Hope she has a healthy baby.

4:03 p.m. Cow has come across a trailer of the movie "Kick Ass" and his head is filled with it ever since. He's been showing me a number of trailers, interviews and the such, so I suggested going to see it though he usually doesn't like to go to the cinema, and now he's busy searching for cinemas where they run it.

The End

Caterpillar

10:30 a.m. Have managed to get up while the sun is still up and shining. Good.

4:49 p.m. Watched the Shinzan Kinen on TV. Personally think it as not so imporatant race, but then it's a grade race for the 3-year-olds and although it seldom leads to a classic winner, thought I'll watch it anyway to see if there were any unknown good horses. A daughter of Deep Impact called Donau Blue was the most favored. I wonder how many of those 3-year-olds have Deep Impact as their father. I mean, Deep Impact was a Japanese triple crown winner, but that doesn't give him license to succeed as a great sire. No one knows whether a grade one winner would come out from his children or not until that horse actually wins. I think the media are casting too much attention.

Donau Blue nearly ran free and eventually sank in the fifth place. See? That happens.

The End

Caterpillar

9:30 a.m. Got up even earlier than yesterday! What a progress considering that I used to sleep past noon.

11:58 a.m. Have spent the morning washing dirty clothes, doing some research and preparing tomorrow's lunch. Feel good. In fact, much better than sleeping the day away wasting time. Am going to go to Nihonbashi library to pick up a book I've reserved. I'll leave when I finish lunch and maybe buy some betting tickets on the way. Have done a good deal of thinking since yesterday and have reached a conclusion to nail Dance Fantasia on the first palce of trifecta, with Admire Sector on the second, and Speed Ripper, BB Bakara, Meine Idylle, Pure Brise on third.

2:34 p.m. Oh, no. Am running late. Wonder whether the race is run from 3:25 or 3:45?

10:42 p.m. The horses were already running and swinging around the third corner when I reached the off-track betting, so I had to give it a miss but I watched it anyway to see the outcome. Dance Fantasia won as I had thought, though Admire Sector was beaten by Speed Ripper for a nose or a head... Guess I was lucky. Phew, that was close.

The End

Caterpillar

4:34 p.m. Cow has been fumbling with our printer. He has been cleaning clogged ink for a number of times since we've bought it say, about three and a half years ago. This time the problem seems to lie somewhere else, and he's been stuck to it all day. We have another printer, laser beam, and that has been working fine after we've replaced the toner cartridge. So we've been printing black and whites on the laser beam while we used the troubled printer for color printings.

4:42 p.m. Cow has finally put aside the printer to go shopping for tonight's meal. As a matter of fact, I have a color document waiting to be printed. Though I dare not say under this circumstance...

The End

Caterpillar

2:25 p.m. Cow has succeeded in making the printer work again. An ex-engineer comes in handy sometimes.

3:31 p.m. Cow and I have been having an argument about what kind of dog Patrasche, Joseph and Jolly that appeared in the Anime "A Dog of Flanders," "Heidi, Girl of the Alps" and "JOLLY The Good Dog," respectively were. Cow seemed to have been thinking that Jolly was a white Saint Bernard, to which I laughed out loud and informed him that the dog was a Pyrenean Mountain Dog. He seemed to think that every dog with a tiny barrel around its neck was a Saint Bernard. I wonder if he thought Jolly was an albino Saint Bernard... Additionally, Patrasche was a Bouvier de Flandres(a French name, I guess) and Joseph, of course, was a Saint Bernard for your information.

The End

Caterpillar

4:09 p.m. My earphones broke. The lines must have got caught somewhere when I took off my jacket, and the left earphone was violently yanked out from my ear. Didn't know what happened at first, since I still felt something in my left ear though the earphone seemed to be dangling in front of me. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was only the tiny speaker unit of my left earphone that was hanging, revealing some colorful wires. I put my finger to my left earhole, felt something, pulled it out to see it was the plastic cover of the speaker unit which automatically meant that my earphone that I bought at the 100 yen shop was now broken to pieces.

4:23 p.m. Have put the cover back in place with a bit of struggle. Am not sure if the earphones would wrok all right. I sure hope so...

4:25 p.m. Oh, no. Not a sound emerging from the left earphone... I'll have to get a new one. I've only used it for a couple of months. What would the expenses be if I keep breaking earphones every two or three months? I'll have to stick to the 100 yen shops, I guess, not regarding the quality...

The End

Caterpillar

4:10 p.m. AVG, the anti-virus software has popped up a window ordering, "Analyze the computer." Reluctantly, I followed its orders.

4:14 p.m. A window opened up on the screen displaying the results, saying that the detected errors should be properly taken care of, leading me to the "correct/repair" button. As I clicked the button grudgingly, a pop-up window opened at the right bottom of the screen, asking for permission to access the Internet. Okay, okay. I had a hunch that this could be just another advertisement for a new version of the software. Shortly after I allowed access, the browser launched and displayed a page from AVG's site... I knew it.

The End

Caterpillar

2:36 p.m. Got some reactions from friends about Patrasche. It seemed that most of them didn't know what breed Patresche was, some regarding him as a German shepherd or a collie, others never suspecting him of not being a Saint Bernard.

2:44 p.m. Again, Patrasche is, or at least is supposed to be, a Bouvier de Flandres. The reason for the misunderstanding may lie in the slight(?) changes of design in the character Patrasche appearing in the Anime of "Heidi, Girl of the Alps" which is said to have been made by the now world-famous, Hayao Miyazaki. He seems to have changed the design because the appearance of the real Bouvier de Flandres did not match his interpretation of the ‘Heidi’ world. Here's a link to the REAL Bouvier de Flandres for your information.

The End

Caterpillar

12:38 p.m. Have stayed under blanket until noon. It's too cold to get up. Brrrrrr.

4:03 p.m. Have made myself spaghetti with basil and tomato sauce for late lunch, but it went cold less than a minute I served it on a plate... Geez.

5:37 p.m. Cannot move away from electrical heating carpet. Going out to shop for tomorrow's lunch is unthinkable. Right now, I even hate the idea of going out on the veranda for a smoke. According to Japan Meteorological Agency, it has been the coldest day this winter, recording 1.1 degrees below zero even in Otemachi, the heart of Tokyo. It's hard to recall the last time we've experienced temperatures below zero around here. no wonder it's so cold. BRRrrrrpprrrrwww.

The End

Caterpillar

3:46 p.m. It seems that rich wives living in the latest trendy high-rise apartments in Toyosu area are called ‘Canaliese.’ Oh. I didn't know that. Wonder who comes up with those weird names like ‘Shiroganese(rich madams living around Shirogane)’ or ‘Komazawanne(similar to the former, except residence is around Komazawa, Setagaya-ku).’

4:01 p.m. Come to think of it, I have a friend living in Toyosu, and another friend living in Kiba. Are they considered as ‘Canaliese?’ Why don't we all settle for Tokyoites?

The End

Caterpillar

4:13 p.m. Am shivering in office. Have been turning the heater off, trying to save heating bills. It was tolerable in December but since the start of this year, it's gotten unbelievably cold especially after noon when the sun begins its descent. Am trying desperately to come up with something nice to say, though my brains won't work and cannot come up with any. Perhaps I could come up with a good idea if I opened the door and took in some fresh air.

4:33 p.m. Realized it was much colder outside... Perhaps it was much warmer inside the office than I thought it was. Perhaps...

The End

Caterpillar

1:52 p.m. Cow has told me that he'd seen the questions and answers of the university entrance examination(a.k.a. center test) in the papers a couple of days ago and suggested me to try it. That reminds me of when I took the exam twenty-something years ago.

2:26 p.m. Am tackling the questions. Hmmm... It seems the questions are harder than in the old days...

3:16 p.m. Have finished the test. Am pretty tired and frustrated having been forced to attack the questions in a disturbed circumstance, with trucks roaring right past the door, phones ringing and clients(Cow's) visiting. Think I did good despite such terrible condition, though there were actually two questions I wasn't sure if I got them right.

The End

Caterpillar

4:16 p.m. Cow has checked my answers for the center exam and graded my scores. I missed two. Not bad for twenty-something years after cramming for the exam.

4: 20 p.m. The two questions I missed were the ones I wasn't perfectly sure about. They were both from the listening tests. I was to listen to a conversation between two people, and choose one answer out of four which was presumed to be the most suitable if the conversation went on... What kind of question is that? I mean, no one can predict exactly what one might say in a conversation. Some of the choices I think, were so general that I just couldn't narrow down to one... What's the point in asking such a question in an entering exam? I wonder what the test giver was aiming at.

The End

Caterpillar

3:08 p.m. When I opened the package after cradling my first iPod home from the retail shop in May, I found this little white plastic tray with a slit in the center, in the package along with a pair of earphones and a connecting cable. I wondered what it was and how I should use it for a long time though eventually giving it up as both hopeless and meaningless. Today I've finally discovered what it was and how it should, or was meant to be used.

3:13 p.m. The tray seems to be called the ‘Apple Universal Dock Adapter’ and is necessary to connect the iPod to a ‘Universal Dock’ which under its name ‘universal,’ enables various types of iPods to be connected to the accessories or audio devices. The ‘Universal Dock’ also has a terminal socket like the ones on the bottom of iPods, so if you have the other end of a plug-in adapter plugged into a household wall outlet, you can charge the battery by simply placing your iPod on the ‘Universal Dock’ with the ‘Universal Dock Adapter’ between the dock and your iPod to stable it.

3:36 p.m. I remember my iPod cost 17,800 yen. And the ‘Universal Dock’ seems to cost about 5,800 yen. Who would buy one if can charge battery without it?

The End

Caterpillar

2:21 p.m. Cow's head is filled with things to do for our late little New Year party tonight. Since Momma Cow seldom cooks meals any more, Cow has took up cooking instead, taking care of meals for his family. And it seems that cooking has become his latest amusement. Well, that's much better than his former one which was mainly online games, since it's much more creative. I've been secretly thinking that this New Year party was mostly intended to show off his gained cooking skills.

2:29 p.m. While Cow has been fluttering about in and out of the kitchen with glee, I've been preparing dutifully for Monday's meetings. I wonder if it has ever occurred to him that the party was actually consuming a lot of my time. How am I supposed to squeeze out enough time to handicap tomorrow's American's Jockey Club Cup? Come to think of it, I have a hunch that Cosmo Phantom would earn himself a grade two title, or at least finish for second considering his competitors.

The End

Caterpillar

6:37 p.m. Am tired. My back is aching. Have just finished renaming 316 files... I wish Cow had told me earlier that the numbers of the files weren't correct. If he'd told me two weeks earlier, then twenty-eight files didn't have to be renamed. Not that it makes much difference. And there are still things left to do, such as mend the shoulder linings of my coat which must be at least forty years old already, since it's a hand-me-down from Obaba. The thought of it makes me even more weary.

6:49 As for the AJCC, my respected horse, Cosmo Phantom sank in 4th place although Never Bouchon has performed to my expectations of 3rd place. It's been a tiring Sunday. How could anyone expect me to come fresh-faced Monday morning?

The End

Caterpillar

4:26 p.m. Have finished two meetings and am exhausted. The bad news is that I still have one more session left... Gees, it's beginning to feel like torture. Especially after little sleep.

4:33 p.m. Well, at least the lining of the hand-me-down coat is now mended. It took me much longer than I'd thought, but it's sewn to the bodice lining and together in one piece all right. If it tears again, then I'd probably have to go and buy some cloth for lining at Yuzawaya or something, take off the old lining and attach a new one... Hope the old one would last until spring so I don't have to go through such trouble in the near future.

The End

Caterpillar

3:06 p.m. The semi-final match of the Asian Cup of Japan against Korea will be aired tonight on TV Asahi, I think. Pretty excited. Park Ji-Sung is a good player no doubt (and he's a fluent Japanese speaker, too! Wonder why these topflight athletes are gifted with so many talents... Perhaps they're not gifted but sort of grew up with painstaking, and they could put in as much hard work to anything they set their minds to, as the sport they play), though I'm sure our team would not give in easily. Can't wait to sit in front of the TV. Must not forget to go to the bathroom before that, though.

3:16 p.m. Wish I could work as hard as these top athletes. But then again, I wouldn't be sitting around here tapping the keyboards if I could.

The End

Caterpillar

2:51 p.m. Have been freezing whipped by cold air coming in from the door. Cow has been cleaning an oil fan heater that his parents are using in the house. And that stupid Cow has mercifully left the door of the office wide open, to avoid stirring up dirt while cleaning... So I'm shivering in my down jacket, hoping he'd close the door before I catch cold.

2:59 p.m. The semi-final of the Asian Cup last night eventually went into a penalty shootout, after Korea had caught up with Japan with a goal worth gold at the end of the half extra time and tied by 2-2. Our keeper, Eigoh Kawashima, stopped the first two kicks and with the miss of the third kicker, Japan had earned a victory. It was a breath-taking game. Both teams had fought hard and I think they should be rewarded with respect. Though it's a pitty that Ki Sung-Yeung has proved on Twitter that his performance after his goal was in fact, intentional. I hope he'd learn that his behavior is not only upsetting for us Japanese, but also humiliating his own people, regardless of the flag issue.

The End

Caterpillar

3:52 p.m. Cow and I were talking about the environment and global warming, when the conversation took its natural course and came across the rise in sea level. As we were talking, it suddenly struck us that the common knowledge of islands being swallowed up in sea water due to global warming and seal level elevation was in fact, nonsense. Imagine a glass containing water. What happens if you float an ice cube in it? It would surely melt if you leave it on the table for a certain amount of time, right? That is, unless you're in some place where the temperature is below zero... What happens when the ice starts to melt? The water level would probably rise within the glass. Will the ice cube be swallowed by the water and disappear sinking down to the bottom?

The answer is ‘No.’ It will stay on the surface of the water. Now that we've realized that the common knowledge we'd believed to be true have no credibility, we shouldn't be worried about those tropical islands vanishing into the sea. Well, if they're actually sinking, then at least it's not caused by the rise in sea level.

The End

Caterpillar

3:53 p.m. Have discovered another function of iPod nano. If you used the disk mode, you can carry text files in it. Wow. So iPad didn't just pop out from nowhere, I guess. If I can carry text files in my iPod, I can read all the information I want to on my iPod in a nice cozy cafe free from the interruption of JoOusama or Obaba. How nice would that be.

4:00 p.m. Must do a thorough research on how to take in the files, though. And I probably have to be ready to spend some time on Sundays, putting whatever information I would want to read later into text files. Another thing that am concerned about is, do I have to switch from disk mode in order to listen to music after reading a file? If so, I must find out how to and learn the right procedure. Seems like I've got a long way to go.

The End

Caterpillar

1:42 p.m. Ogghy has dropped by with some good information. Acoording to him, it is very likely to be able to read text files on iPod without switching over from disk mode. Right. Got that. I took advantage of this chance to ask him a few more questions about iPod because his answers are always reliable. Do you think I could read the text file while playing music? Probably, yes. Would it consume a lot of power to read text files? Because you need to display the files on the screen, yes, it would burn battery power. Though it's easy to assume battery will last long enough for commuting. Thanks, Ogghy. You've been very helpful.

1:54 p.m. Think I'll spend some time on searching and gathering more info and how-tos, until twelve midnight when the final match of the Asian Cup starts. Japan versus Australila! Many people would be up late tonight, no doubt.

The End

Caterpillar

1:11 p.m. The happy moment came around two o'clock this morning, when team Japan became the Asian champion after struggling against Australia for 120 minutes. There were many scenes when our goal was threatened by Kewell or Cahill who shook off our defenders however, Kawashima stood tall through the fierce attacks. Endo and Honda became the game maker with an occasional touch of Hasebe, while Iwamasa, Konno, Yoshida were busy trying to somehow keep the ball away from our goal. Okazaki throwing himself at balls up front, Uchida zapping up the right side whenever he had a chance, with Nagatomo running nearly ten miles on the left side yet never late for cover, the only thing we needed was a goal which was eventually earned by Lee who had been warming the bench after the group league match against Jordan. The team, reminded us once again that soccer was a team sport.

5:43 p.m. It was also a good job well done by Zaccheroni who trusted his players, payed respect to them, and drew out the best from them. It seemed to me as though this Italian coach was showing us Japanese how important these things were in our lives, some precious things that Japanese once took pride in as our virtues though are quickly being forgotten through our too busy lives today.

The End

Caterpillar

5:56 p.m. Have took in text file in my iPod nano. Hmmm. It would be easier to read if the display was a little bit larger, but then again it would surely consume more power so forget the idea. It's impressive already to be able carry text files in it. Let's not ask for too much.

6:00 p.m. Through research about taking text files into iPods, I've learned that iPods can read some tags such as title tags or link tags. As a matter of fact, the text file I'm looking at now on my iPod seem to have a couple of links, because that part of the text is displayed in different color. I've lived and learned to use the click wheel to scroll down or up, but how can I step on the link? Must go through more research, I guess.

The End

Caterpillar