2:13 p.m. Although heavy rain is causing serious damage in some parts, it is a blessing to our water resources in the northern Kanto area.

According to the Regional Development Bureau of MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism), the storage of our drying up dam has increased by 1780,000 cubic meter since yesterday, as of this morning. And the storage rate has now recovered to 57 percent, from forty-something percent. The average storage rate is 89 percent so we need 32 percent more to catch up.

The forecast for today has been predicting heavy downpour this afternoon. Maybe it would add a bit more to the storage, if not cover the 32 percent. Hope the rain turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

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Caterpillar

2:21 p.m. The subway got delayed and I had to run to make it in time for my appointment with a client. As I got to the office, it turns out that the meeting had been cancelled and rescheduled. Well, better than being late.

The distance from the nearest station to the office is a little less than a mile. Somehow it's getting harder to run out this distance every year, and I feel like I'm losing my battle against time and gravity. As a matter of fact, I thought I was going to throw up by the time I reached the office today.

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Caterpillar

1:22 p.m. Media artist Kazuhiko Hachiya, the president of a company behind the popular Japanese mail software PostPet, has succeeded in realizing another one of our dreams; bringing out into the real world, Möwe, the gliderish aerocraft that Nausicaa flew in the anime "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds." OpenSky3.0 trailer

I've come across this video this morning and it brought shock, amazement, and excitement. I'd do anything if I could fly in one of these over the skies of Tokyo.

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Caterpillar

11:26 p.m. I tried setting up my Virtual Wifi Mini Adapter again, but with no success. I expected the device driver that I've updated to do a miracle, but seems I was wrong.

For those who are let down (just like me), I've put a link to Scaredy Cats Hope this would cheer you up a bit.

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Caterpillar

3:39 p.m. Every time I run into a deadend struggling to set up a virtual wifi access point with my Windows7, I search for and eventually come across a solution.

Last time I was suspecting the firewall preventing me to enable the device, while yesterday I suspected that the device driver wasn't the latest. And now, ladys and gentlemen, I've come to think that it could be the power saving setting, which automatically turns off the wireless lan card to save power.

I'm not giving up. Not jus yet.

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Caterpillar

5:17 p.m. As I've been failing all along with the virtual wifi adapter and since Cow had the same model lap-top, I asked him to try creating an adhoc network and bypass his local area network with the wireless network by making a network bridge.

Yes, we did have a struggle or two as I'd expected, such as not turning on the wireless adapter before creating the adhoc network, and being intimidated by the error message that the network couldn't be set up successfully. But by the time we've managed to create the network bridge successfully, I felt my excitement literally blowing up like a balloon.

I turned on my iPad mini, turned on the wifi, and... it's picking up the network! Yess! Yeeeesssss!!! It worked! If this could work, then there's no way I could fail to do the same thing at home.

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Caterpillar

2:33 p.m. I tried setting up an adhoc network and bridge my wireless and local area network this morning.

All went well, so I tapped on the wifi of my iPad mini. It immediately picked up the SSID I just set up, so I tapped in the password and Ta-la! It was connected to the Internet! Simple as that? So where was it that I'd took the wrong turn?

The most likely step I'd missed when I failed, is actually that I hadn't turned on my wifi adapter before going through all the set-up tasks. Unfortunately, there aren't any LED indicator lamps for wifi adapters on my lap-top, which makes it difficult to see visually, whether it's turned on or off. Besides, I was rather thinking that I should turn it off until I finish the setting up.

Since this worked and I finally got a wireless environment at my place, am more than willing to go over the process of setting up the virtual wifi miniport adapter once again this weekend, this time though, with the wifi turned on.

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Caterpillar

2:28 p.m. It's pushing 94 degrees again. Heat wave is back. They say it went over 104 in Shang-hai yesterday. Gees.

Can't understand why some people dare to walk around in jeans in this heat. It makes me faint just thinking about wearing them.

As I am sensitive to heat, am wondering what would be the most coolest outfit during this hot season. Send me some ideas if you will, and I'll try out the top three.

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Caterpillar

3:46 p.m. It's sweltering. Should stay indoors until sundown.

Last night I realized that I haven't lighted Katori Senko (mosquito coils) this summer. True, I lighted it once or twice during June, but not after July. Even the mosquitos can't stand the heat.

As it is so terribly hot, I wrap a blue ice pack with a cotton towel and put it under my neck when I sleep at night. You can also get one of those cool towels, a towel to strap around your neck to keep you cool, which usually come with a small ice pack at any 100-yen shops. Try it. It really helps to get over the sleepless nights.

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1:09 p.m. Heat wave alert! Do not go out before sundown! I repeat. Stay indoors until sundown. It's murderous. The temperature is going over that of our body.

Oh my god, the high school baseball tournament! Call off all the games for today! Get those boys into an air conditioned room! What in the world are they thinking, making teenagers play in this heat?

Hey! Japan High School Baseball Federation! Stop the games right now! What are you risking those young lives for? Yes, it's a matter of life and death. Haven't you seen the news? People are actually dying from heat! So get those boys in a cool place right now! Please...

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Caterpillar

9:41 p.m. It didn't work. I've deactivated my network bridge that I'd once set up, for my umpth attempt to set up a wifi access point using my virtual wifi adapter, only to be let down yet again (I told you I'm not giving up).

But this time I've learned something about the "WHY" part. According to my smart operating system Windows 7, there's something wrong with the device driver of my wireless card. Does that mean I could set up the access point if I updated my driver software successfully? Even after I'd checked out the microsoft Web site and couldn't find my wireless LAN adapter on the authorized device page? Hmmm. Finding answers to these questions would be my next step, I guess. Meanwhile, I could set up the network bridge again and access the Internet from my iPad mini when I need to.

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Caterpillar

3:40 p.m. Did you know that sweat don't lower your body temperature when the air around you is over 86 degrees?

Many of us know how sweat works to lower your body temperature. It takes away the heat when evaporating. But when the air surrounding you gets closer to your body temperature, it makes evaporation difficult because the gap between body and air temperature is small. Thus the heat remains in your body. Imagine how a cup of coffee grows cold quickly in the winter, while it stays hot for a longer time in the summer.

Tokyo has been experiencing extreme heat for a couple of days. Heat going over our body temperature. Since sweat is no longer keeping us cool even if we sweat a bucketful, it may be a better idea after all, to take a cold-water bath or eat something cool to keep ourselves at least a bit more cooler.

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Caterpillar

4:02 p.m. Perhaps because of the heat and perhaps not, I've been struggling to keep myself awake during the day for the past couple of weeks.

The unbearable sleepiness attacks sometimes while I'm on the subway. One minute I am sitting on the seat, the next minute I suddenly come to and realize that my body is bent forward in an awkward angle. I must have been swaying back and forth in my sleep.

In this terrible sleepiness, I'd forgotten completely about the Perseide meteor shower last night, though I couldn't have seen it anyway since it was raining around midnight here in Tokyo. Maybe I could still catch a few meteors tonight if it clears up.

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Caterpillar

4:30 p.m. Day 1 of this year's summer vacation. Good, good, don't think I can be of much use at work in that terrible sleepiness and this heat.

Since I have no plans to go on an exciting trip during my vacation as usual, I've decided that I'd clean up my room a bit. My goal is to get rid of as many things as possible from the mountains of things invading my room, during the next four days. This is going to be hard. I've been a pack rat for so long, that I don't even have a clue where to start.

5:21 p.m. Okay. I've thought for a while. Why don't I put everything into garbage bags first, and then take out only the things I want to keep? Right. Let's get to work. Suupose, from the closet?

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Caterpillar

5:24 p.m. Day 2 of summer vacation. I'd better start today's cleaning. But am exhausted after my fruitless trip to BookOff, which rewarded me with a mere 275 yen for 8 magazines and 11 English paperbacks. It can't even buy me an iced cafe latte at Dotour Coffee.

5:30 p.m. Think I'll go and wash my face and my glasses before I get back to the cleaning.

6:14 p.m. Guess it wouldn't hurt to have a mug of nice iced coffee before I start...

8:00 p.m. I skipped the second but finished cleaning out the third shelf of my closet. A bunch of old mails came out. Can't believe I kept letters from when I was 10 years old. No wonder I'm running out of space.

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Caterpillar

6:19 p.m. Day 3 of summer vacation. Have done mostly nothing except for taking out three fat garbage bags and washing the cover of my heating carpet. There are still tons to do but can't put myself to it.

Maybe if I had a duck like this, it might help to raise my motivation to vacuum more frequently. Vacuuming My Duck.

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Caterpillar

5:23 p.m. Day 4 of summer vacation. It happened by the living room window.

Tono has witnessed an UMA (unidentified mysterious animal) as he opened the livingroom window, early yesterday morning. According to his recollection, he saw what looked like a cat at first sight, when he opened the window of our living room, standing in the bushes of our tiny garden. As he looked closer, though, it turned out not to be a cat, but a cat-sized creature with black spots on its white coat, tail most unlike a cat. He claims to have seen nothing like that before. I'll leave it to my fellow viewers' imagination about how it looked like.

I heard this through JoOusama's mouth since Tono is still ignoring me (after all these years). The credibility of his experience is uncertain because he is old and I suspect that his eyesight is weakening. I wish I'd seen it myself.

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Caterpillar

6:54 p.m. Last day of summer vacation. Room cleaning unfinished except for the two shelves of my closet. What have I been doing for five days?

Feeling dreadful thinking about going back to work tomorrow. I came across this hearing test, so I tried it to cheer me up a bit. How Old Are Your Ears?

The result was devastating. My ear age was "average under 50" Oh, brother. Isn't there any way to regenerate my ear nerve cells?

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Caterpillar

3:45 p.m. Am back to work in this crazy heat. Reluctance to work is overwhelming.

In order to get through the day, I tried searching for animals with black spotted white coats. Who knows? It might lead to something.

All I came up with, however, were photos of dalmatians, cats, cows, zebras (though what they've got are stripes, not spots), and an occasional panda or two. Hmm... A fat black spotted cat seems to be the most likely to be the UMA Tono had seen so far. Especially, considering the circumstance that the neighborhood cats including strays, walk around our tiny garden as if they owned the place.

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Caterpillar

3:52 p.m. Finally. I've been on the waiting list of the library to sign out Casual Vacancy, the novel that J. K. Rowling had written for adults. I got an email telling me that the book is now ready, at last.

So I've dropped by the library on my way to the office to pick up the book I've been itching to read for months. I'd even brought a plastic bag with me today. Can't risk getting a library book wet. Just in case, because a downpour was expected sometime later.

Very excited to be holding the book in my hands. Hard cover. Heavy. But who'd complain when you get to read the latest novel by J. K. Rowling for free?

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Caterpillar

3:13 p.m. Have only read the first few pages of Casual Vacancy, and the pages are filled with complicated small community relationships. Ooooh, nothing more horrifying than relationships gone sour.

As I was about to get to sleep last night, I saw a TV commercial of Udo Artists Inc., announcing the concert date for Bon Jovi's Because We Can Tour. I dragged myself up this morning to launch my pc and check out the details and oh, dear.

The date set for the prioritized reservation was in July, more than a month ago. Performance in Tokyo as well as Osaka, seems to be a one-night stand. Meaning, I missed my chance to buy the ticket.

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Caterpillar

4:00 p.m. A one-night stand? At Tokyo Dome? Surely, they're going to have at least an additional performance.

I've pored over Udo Artists' Web site and decided to get free mebership. My sister had been a member of Udo Soundmate Pia for more than twenty-five years, I think, which almost always assured good seat tickets for foreign artists' concerts. Unfortunately, though, the club has been closed in March, 2011. A good reason to gain new membership at Udo.

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Caterpillar

4:41 p.m. Sale! Sale! Kinokuniya bookstore is holding a 20% off sale for English books, starting from today to Sunday.

I've been plotting to buy The Willpower Instinct by Kelly Mcgonnigal on this occasion because only harcovers seem to be available for now, which of course is too luxurious a treat for myself.

Have also been waiting for a chance to make use of a 500 yen UFJ Nicos gift card that I got from Cow a couple of years ago. So I searched the shops where I can use them and tried to purchase a Tosho card (prepaid card to buy books) with it. But...

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1:13 p.m. Nnngh. I had too much for lunch, my stomach is bursting, help...

Before the deadly sleepiness takes over, I'll put a link to this helpful video that I came across the other day. How to Coil Cables

Since I've started practicing this How-to, it's been helping immensely to reduce my frustration whenever I take out my iPod with the earpods attached.

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Caterpillar

6:06 p.m. Perhaps because I've started watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that I'd recorded earlier in the week late last night, it was in the small hours this morning when I finally finished. That and the exhaustion of my first week back at work combined with the terrible stickiness of the past week, must be the reason for my sleeping way past noon. It was 2:30 by the time I got up.

Very rare that I sleep this late into the day, but something even more rare has happened.

6:16 p.m. JoOusama has somehow given me some money, in appreciation for the trouble I'd gone through to set up her new pc. What is wrong with her? Is she getting weak because of age? What? What?

Am horrified that some terrible fate might await me in the near future, but I just thanked her for her generosity and accepted the money. It wouldn't hurt to have just a bit more.

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Caterpillar

4:48 p.m. Temperature has dropped a bit and we're doing without air conditioning at our office today. We're always ready and eager to save energy.

I was checking out Karapaia as usual, and found old monochrome photos colored to look like color photos. It seems like a project on Reddit to restore historic black and white photos in color. Historic Black and White Photos Restored in Color. I don't know what kind of technology they've used to restore the photos, but they're amazing. They seem so real when the colors are applied.

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Caterpillar

4:42 p.m. Thanks to the short but heavy rain last night, it was unexpectedly invigorating this morning. Though I didn't have much time to enjoy it before the sun started to burn my skin again.

The cool wind this rain has brought along, surely must be a sign of the coming change in season. Which automatically turned out to be a reminder for me, that I'd better start patching up the lining of my coat, and to start thinking about the autumn race season. September is only three days away, come to think of it, with autumn grade one races starting at the end of the month.

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Caterpillar

2:44 p.m. I've discovered a brilliant place. I can catch public wifi there, so I can net surf as much as I want there, there's a bench so I can sit there for as long as I want to, it's close to a convenience store in case I got unbearably hungry, and it's not far from a clean toilet.

The place is air conditioned, so I wouldn't have to worry about weather. There's also a smoking area within 5 minutes' walk, although I have to go outside. The bench is hard so it's not so comfortable to sit on for a long time, but then, what more can I ask of when the place is FREE!

Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the wehereabouts of the place, because I don't want any competitors against me. Sorry.

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Caterpillar

5:54 p.m. Am exhausted after two sessions of meeting in a row.

Was going to go straight to my secret cubby hole (though it's not actually a hole since there's a bench and it's air conditioned and...) to read Casual Vacancy, but might just fall asleep on the way.

Might not even wake up.

And might miss the stop. Aaaaargh!

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Caterpillar

4:14 p.m. Heat back again with 97 degrees.

A vendor walked in carrying a box while I was attending a client (who told him he could come in?). It annoyed me that he didn't seem to have the sensitivity to leave us alone but I spared some courtesy to tell him that we didn't need anything.

But the young man blatantly dared to step furhter inside our office which ignited my fury. I ignored him and put my full concentration on my client.

He retreated out the door as Cow came out from the back room. Whoever doesn't have the quick wits to sense that he or she is unwanted, will only be met with cold defiance here. Hope that taught him a lesson, though probably not, judging from his obtuseness.

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Caterpillar

2:37 p.m. Who said anything about the change in season? It's a scorching afternoon and I feel like a fish in the fish roaster despite the air conditioner.

An Indonesian woman tourist was responding to an on-the-street interviewer on the TV screen, while I was getting ready to go this morning. She was telling the interviewer that it was more hot in Tokyo than it was in Jakarta.

Hey, we're beating Jakarta these days. How's that for a change? Well, to be honest, it really brought me down. I mean, it's getting hotter than the tropical zone. It dragged my feet for more than 10 minutes, before I braced myself and stepped out under the fierce sun.

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Caterpillar