11:11 p.m. New Year's Day but cannot celebrate openly since am in mourning period and supposed to be grieving for Obaba's death. It's not that I am not grieving at all. It's just that I've gotten so used to her empty room and her not being in the house, because she's been away at the hospital for more than nine months. Still, I found myself envying the happy crowd on the TV news, enjoying the New Year celebration at the Madison Square Garden. Must get back to normal life.

Have started to work on Python. Numerals, literals, variables, list, index, hmmm... so far so good. The now distant knowledge I'd absorbed from Python Tutorial is backing me up well enough. I'll start from slicing tomorrow, then move on to more practical programming if poss.

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3:43 p.m. JoOusama is trying to win my sympathy over a headache she's having. She's complaining it to be so painful that she could hardly keep herself upright. I wasn't sure how bad it really was, but suggested her anyway, to drink herb tea which I had my friend buy and bring it from Germany, because I'd found it so effective when I tried it for myself. I dropped the teabag in JoOusama's mug, poured hot water over it, then sent her up to her room with the mug, to take a nap after driking it up.

6:36 p.m. JoOusama says herb tea has been very effective and she's feeling a lot better. Good, good. Told you it really works. Might as well import and sell them in Japan. I have a hunch it could bring me more income than my current job.

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4:09 p.m. The quadrans meteor shower is going in to its peak around midnight tonight. Have missed the last meteor shower, so am determined to watch this time. Though unfortunately, it's overcast right now, with bits of blue barely emerging from the clouds, and the moon tonight, is also said to be too bright. Never mind.

I should have brought my digi-cam home, come to think of it. Not that my old Nikon could produce a beautiful picture with streaks of light running across the dark sky, nor have I got any tripods to steady the Nikon, but still I could have gave it a try if I only had it with me.

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11:30 p.m. Tears flooding after watching "Departures (Okuribito)" on TV. Wonderful movie. No wonder it won the Academy for the Best Foreign Language Film Award. Very emotional and touching.

When the owner of the communal bath dies, her old friend appears as the cremator and says that death is not an ending, but a gate to go through before entering the next stage. I feel exactly the same way. Oh God, someone get me another box of tissue.

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3:43 p.m. Cow rang Mr. N-jima yesterday, to call off our gathering for Kinpai however, the old man himself had something coming up and couldn't make it either. Eventually, I stayed home to watch both Nakayama Kinpai and Kyoto Kinpai on TV. Good thing they're broadcasting the two races although it's not Saturday nor Sunday, I thought, as I watched Cosmo Phantom slip into third place. I killed some time before settling myself on the heating carpet again, to watch Kyoto Kinpai. It was two minutes before the horses were supposed to have sprung out of their gates.

Whaaaat? The program, after reviewing last year's Arimakinen and Iwata's interview, started to spit out the credits, and was suddenly finished. What happened to Kyoto?

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9:44 p.m. Am totally dent with my lack of maths skills. Have been trying to write some simple scripts in Python for practice, but am stuck because cannot understand how to calculate the square root of a given number. Both disappointed and frustrated with myself, I was watching the evening news blankly when the topic moved on to a toy? musical instrument? called "Keromin."

"Keromin Amagaeru (Japanese page)," is "a musical instrument in a puppet frog form" according to the manufacturer, which you can play intuitively by opening or closing Keromin's mouth, just like he's singing. Interesting. I'll put it on my list for next Christmas. Well, under iPhone 5 perhaps.

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11:56 p.m. Many of you might have seen the TV commercial of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" during the New Year holidays. Yes, it's finally going on screen here in Japan! From the trailer have seen on TV and the Web, I'm pretty sure the film won't disappoint me. Very excited.

Can't wait till it comes on TV.

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Cannot go on. Have been struggling with Python script all day. Interpreter has been returning a series of errors. Can't tell what is wrong with script. Realize I do not have enough skills to deal with what am tackling yet. Should not be waisting time on this, since must send replies to greeting cards. However, cannot get myself to start.

Perhaps should go over the tutorial step by step but feel so helpless and weary, might as well cheer myself up with Cold Case video have saved up for such occasion.

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7:40 p.m. Have reached a breakthrough. After all the struggle, I finally found out what was wrong with my Python script. Turned out that I was trying to hand two different elements to a single argumet. No wonder it didn't work. As is always the case, once you realize where you'd took the wrong turn it seems so plausible that you feel like you're stupid. Anyway, have corrected the script now, have run it and got just the result I've been wanting for the past couple of days.

I also finished writing replies to the greeting cards from my friends except for three, which I couldn't write because I'd run out of cards. Have already dropped the written ones in the nearby post box. Am feeling goooood.

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2:37 p.m. Before the Year-end-New-Year vacation started, I'd signed out two English books at the library to read during the holidays. One was a V. I. Warshawski book, and the other was a Dan Brown book, Deception Pont.

Have finished V.I., however, have been too caught up and absorbed in Python programming the past several days, that I haven't had time to read Deception Point yet. As a matter of fact, have merely finished about one third. I've already extended the date so must return the books by tomorrow. What to do? Would I be able to finish the book by tomorrow?

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1:48 p.m. Am reading Deception Point frantically.

Must finish reading before I leave the office for the day, so hopefully can drop the book at the library on my way home. Have just finished about half. though...

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4:06 p.m. I couldn't finish reading the book.

But it turned out that there were no one on the waiting list which made it possible for me to return the book once and then sign it out again, right on the spot. I was lucky. Though I wonder why this book isn't so popular. After all, it's one of the newer stories from Dan Brown. What happened to all the fans of Da Vinci or Angels and Demons?

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3:44 p.m. While Cow and I have been talking about how uninteresting TV drama was these days, the conversation somehow found its way to a Korean drama we saw, several years back. It was a drama called "Super Rookie," which we both agreed that it was enjoyable.

We've been searching for a website where we can watch it for free online for some time with no success, especially because Cow had missed the last episode. If any of you know such a webiste, I'd be more than happy to hear from you.

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2:04 p.m. Am veeery sleepy. Couldn't sleep well last night. The UTCE (University Testing Center Examination) is held today, by the way.

Am sure the applicants must be as sleepy as I am by now, after they'd had lunch. The classrooms where the applicants take the test would be comfortably heated with no doubt, especially in this cold weather. I can almost see those eyelids sagging. Hang on, guys. You've worked hard for the test. Don't give in to temporal temptation. I'll do my best to stay awake, too.

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11:37 p.m. Have been writing Python script. Am currently working on a simple word game program for practice, only on Sundays, since I can't spare such chunk of time to struggle with it on weekdays.

Have finished the first three steps of the game so far, and got at least three more steps to go. Am tackling one step every weekend, so that means I'll have to keep working for at least three more weeks to finish this program... Who said it was a simple word game program? Patience, patience...

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4:07 p.m. I picked up a call which turned out to be just a sales call. But I didn't recognize the fact until I'd put down the receiver since they mentioned NTT's name.

Sales phone calls are going too far these days. Can't tell the difference between fraud and sales because sales talk are sounding much like fraudsters.

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3:22 p.m. Cow is playing a free online game provided on the JRA. It's called Umadonna. Looks like they've poured in a lot of budget.

3:24 p.m. A loud alarming buzz coming from Cow's lap-top. Looks like it hung up. So that's what happens when you play Umadonna. Hope there's no damage to the computer.

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I had this strange dream. Whether it was because I was threatened by the salesperson on the phone that he was going to send in someone or not is uncertain, but I had the dream Monday night and woke up with a creepy feeling yesterday morning.

I was standing naked in the dressing room of a Sentou (communal bath) or a Kenkou Rando (health spa) with a bath towel wrapped around my torso. Apparently, I was either going in or getting out of the bath, talking with someone, when I suddenly realized hair bursting out from my armpits and was thrown into a panic. Very weird. Wonder what was that all about.

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3:47 p.m. Darvish is going to be a Ranger. He's a great pitcher, one that we could be proud of, and I think he could win twenty or so games even in the major leagues.

The biggest question though, would be whether he could adjust smoothly to his new surroundings. I've heard the mounds are harder in the States, which is rumored to be one of the main reasons Matsuzaka busted his reputation. It's also crucial for him to get used to the training patterns in the big leagues, which is said to be almost dramatically different from that in JPB.

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4:24 p.m. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on the radio. Weird name, really. Explain to Cow that the word "Tsukema" from the title of her song is a short term for Tsuke-matsuge (false lashes).

Cow says he can't understand why girls call false lashes Tsukema instead of Tsukematsuge, so I gave him an example. It's like calling Never Bouchon, Nevabu.

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1:09 p.m. Speaking of Never Bouchon, the horse is going to run the AJC Cup tomorrow. What a perfect timing.

Come to think of it, Nevabu has scratched off from Arimakinen because of nasal bleeding. That means his crew had enough time to pull the horse together. For Neverbu who doesn't like to be pushed around among other horses, the sleety weather would probably be a blessing. He also performs very well in Nakayama. Perhaps he'd make it to the third place.

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2:33 p.m. Have screwed up. As I was viewing the barrier draw for today's AJC Cup on JRA's website, I realized it was Meiner Kitz who was scratched off from Arimakinen, not Nevabu...pathetic.

If I applyed the abbreviation of "Tsukema" to Meiner Kitz, what would it be? Meiki? Nah. It'd probably be simply Meiner. Well, assertive crowns in a name can lead to tragedies.

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2:58 p.m. Just read the great news that Kei Nishikori has made it to the best eight in Australian Open 2012. Wonderful. It's been already seventeen years since his predecessor, Shuzo Matsuoka, has been in the top eight in Winbledon.

Yeah, think it's time the baby-boomers become more quiet and hand this country down to the younger generation. It's time we give them their chance. Perhaps the same applies to Espoir City who finished in a pitiful loss to a long shot yeterday in Heian Stakes.

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Last night we had a snowfall in a while here in Tokyo. It was pouring and not so cold to be snowing when I got on the subway, but by the time I got to the nearest station from my house, snow was falling in large flakes already piling up on the streets.

As a result, it has brought a mess on the sidewalks now still partly covered with ice-encrusted snow and creating a mountain of injuries from slipping and falling on the streets. According to Tokyo Web, Tokyo shinbun's website, more than 120 people have been carried into hospitals in Tokyo. That's quite a few. Good thing I stuck to my rubber boots.

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4:21 p.m. Andy Murray has beaten Kei Nishikori in the quarter-final of the Australian Open. I wished Nishikori would make it to the top 4, espacially because Andy Murray was on the other side of the court, but I'll have to admit it was a one-sided game from the scores.

I was let down a little, to be honest, since I wished for Nishikori's hard work to be rewarded, however, I guess that works both ways. I mean, Murray also must have strived to win the match. Well, it probably has been a good experience for young Nishikori. He'll get another chance in the near future.

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12:24 p.m. Have seen an incomprehensible woman this morning. A Japanese woman of about sixty was walking on the sunny side of the street, wearing sunglasses, gloves, covering her mouth with a mask, and putting up what seemed to be an ultraviolet-proof umbrella.

Totally impenetrable. Why doesn't she walk on the shady side of the street if she's so concerned about getting exposed to ultraviolet rays?

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3:43 p.m. They say the temperature has droped down below zero this morning, which is very rare these days here in Tokyo. No wonder I felt like my soles were burning when I stepped barefoot on the Tatami of Obaba's room, to refill the small cup on the Butsudan (family Buddhist altar) with fresh water.

Cannot even imagine what it's like in places upper north where the temperature goes down as low as fifteen or twenty degrees below zero. How can one survive in such an environment? Do they have some special gears to keep them warm enough? In any case, perhaps I should consider wearing socks inside the house.

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1:51 p.m. Oooh, my neck hurts. I don't know why, but my neck has been aching for some time now. Think it started around October or November, come to think of it. A sharp pain runs through the sides and back of my neck, every time I tried to turn my head.

Have pondered the reasons that might be causing the pain though I hadn't come up with a plausible explanation so far, besides the possibility of twisting my neck in my sleep. Dubious, have tried the orthodox procedure of slowly turning my neck as to stretch the muscles, and was pretty surprised to find the pain subside considerably. The remedy worked after all. So why hadn't I done this earlier?

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Am wrapped in blanket on my heating rug. Can't think of nothing but cold... Brrrr

Ah, they're doing the final of the Australian Open on NHK right now. Nadal versus Djokovic. Ooh, electrifying. Must make sure won't watch or read the result in sports news.

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2:50 p.m. I was climbing up the stairs in a station when I heard two women talking to each other, assumingly about their colleague. "I don't remember her taking day-offs for paid vacation," one was saying. "I wonder if she have any friends to spend the vacation with," she continued, while the other woman just listened.

Hey, some people can't even take a sick leave because we have to earn a living. Wish I could have told that woman, though I doubt if she'd understand the sarcasm.

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3:03 p.m. Jesus! Had Cow print out some important documents for my meeting coming up at four, but have dropped and scattered them on the concrete floor. Hurriedly, I gathered and picked up the papers as carefully as I could though they all had smudges at the top corner, by the time I laid them out on the table. Was panic-stricken since these documents were the ones I was going to hand out to my clients.

Cow reminded me of a quick remedy to get over such critical situation. All you need is a plastic eraser. First, make sure the eraser itself isn't smudged, if so, clean the surface by rubbing the smudge off on a table or a piece of blank paper. Then gently rub off the smudge on your documents, and presto! The documents look like they've just been printed! Thank God.

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Caterpillar