Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the start of this new year.

As for me, I am still in depression and struggling. Had to cope with JoOusama's make-believe family get-together for 3 long hours, a painful ritual every year. But I managed to keep myself busy and less depressed by playing with my nieces and nephew.

Now when am safely secluded in my room again, I realize I don't have a clue how to deal with myself. And find self searching for information about Kinpai.

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Caterpillar

How is it that every year, I discover yet again, that the barrier draws for Kinpai wouldn't be uploaded until Saturday to my enormous disappointment? Seems everyone wants some time off for New Year eh?

Well, being lazy don't earn you a dime, so why don't they start uploading the data NOW? I've been feeling terrible since year-end, and it's time something popped up to cheer me up. After all this pain, I deserve some good.

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Caterpillar

Was finally able to check the barrier draw for both Nakayama and Kyoto.

So far my key horses are Klan Montana and Grandezza for Nakayama and Kyoto, respectively. I am not going to announce the other horses here, as I still have to narrow down the runners. Besides, who would be interested in my calling the race when I've lost all races last year? I'm just writing to keep track of what I was going to buy, in case I forget.

Will convince myself that the main reason am going out tomorrow is to drop by the library, and the off-track betting is just a leisurely side trip.

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Caterpillar

Okay. It took a looooong time, but I think I've finally hit the bottom of my depression. My mind is cleared now, well, at least clearer than a month ago. Am going to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

Work starts again tomorrow, and I am determined to raise my sales in order to live a happier life. Just wait and see. This Christmas, I'll be the happiest person on this planet.

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Caterpillar

2:17 p.m. While I've been down, there actually have been some inspiring and encouraging things going on. One of them was the messages that my friends have sent me. Even a short "Happy New Year" assured me that I still have friends who care about me, and gave me strength to not run away from the situation I was in. I truly thank them from the bottom of my heart for just being here in this world and, reaching out to me when they also must be facing a lot of ups and downs.

Another thing was the Ekiden that I watch every year. The performance of the winning team, Aoyama Gakuin University was awesome, not to mention. But what moved me most was Yamanashi Gakuin University, known as YGU. Following last year, again their team was met with unexpected accidents. But they never gave up. From a critical position, they've won the seed for the next year's Hakone Ekiden. My respects to all the team members, and most of all their captain, Hiroto Inoue. The team might not have been able to achieve this goal if it weren't for you.

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Caterpillar

4:42 p.m. Cow and I were having a meeting about future marketing and management, but we got side-tracked, thanks to Siri.

It never occurred to me to play with Siri since I'd bought my iPad, so we thought why not and tried asking some questions, to which Siri answered perfectly. Cow was amazed at the quality of this system, recognizing words, sentences, and how fast and well Siri responded. As is often the case, we went a step too far as to ask Siri to say a tongue twister. To this, my Japanese version Siri responded with a super fast tongue twister as if forwarding a cassette tape, then boasted something like,"Yeah! That was smooth, wasn't it?"

Hmmm... Might as well ask Siri wich horse to buy next time.

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Caterpillar

2:10 p.m. Someone I know had her purse stolen. Luckily, she didn't have much cash in it, though she had all her Reward Cards and drivers' license in it. So she had to make calls to various shops to prevent the Reward Cards to be used, but the perpetrator was a step ahead and had used up her Matsukiyo points, Nanaco points and Fancl points, kindly taking the trouble to use these points in several different times. Annoying.

That reminded me of the time when I had my library books stolen in NY. My family and I went out for a dinner at China Town with a friend one Friday evening, where we left all our school stuff and some books signed out from the local library in our friends' car's trunk while we ate in a restaurant. By the time we returned to the car, someone had picked the lock and taken everything in the trunk, including a spare tire. The eerie thing was, when I went to the library the next Monday to report about the incident and pay for the books, the librarian told me that there was no need as the books were already returned. I must have been dumfounded, since the librarian took me to the shelves to show me that the books actually had been returned. That happened more than thirty years ago, but I still remember that it sent a shiver down my spine when I saw those books neatly put back in the shelves.

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Caterpillar

4:23 p.m. I saw this video yesterday, but something else popped up such as the purse theft so had to wait till today. Perhaps many of you might've already seen it, since it's been all over the Internet but I'll put a link to it anyway.

Kei Nishikori - Samurai in NY The video clip is a TV ad for Nissin Cup Noodle, but they're not using any computer graphics. Samurai Kei "Nikkori" Nishikori performs Air K with not a racket, but a wooden sword! Awesome!

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Caterpillar

2:46 p.m. It was last autumn when it transpired that our bath piping was leaking somewhere. And because JoOusama has learned it costs almost as much as the whole house renovation to fix the leak hidden in the wall, it seems she has completely lost interest in fixing the leak.

What happens is that even if you filled the tub with hot water, it doesn't stay for longer than 30 minutes due to the leak. It's a huge damage for me not being able to take a good soak in the bath especially during this cold season, so I've decided to make use of town Sentos (bathhouses), preferably the ones that are Onsens (hot springs). It would consume too much expenses to go to a Sento every day, but perhaps I can get by if it's about once in a week.

The one near Omotesando was nice, but bringing my own towels and shampoos and stuff can be quite a nuissance, considering that I have to keep them in my bag all day. So I'm planning to drop by the one near Sasazuka today after work, where they provide twoi-in-one shampoo and body-wash. Will report the details tomorrow.

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Caterpillar

5:21 p.m. Speaking from the result, the Sento near Sasazuka was... renowned and very clean, but well, a common Sento.

The ingredients of the Onsen must have been quite different from the one closest to where I live, since it didn't have as much effect in moisturizing the skin, but kept me warm for several hours after I left the place. Every Onsen has different effects depending on its ingredients. So I'd say the one near Omotesando was better when it comes to the Onsen quality and convenient location. Though the big difference is the towel and shampoo, body-wash. You don't need to bring your own to Sasazuka. It's really hard to decide, but I'd give them 3 and a half stars out of 5, if I were to judge.

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Caterpillar

7:56 p.m. Oh, god. Have deleted the reply to my friend by accident.

Have been tapping an e-mail reply to a friend on my iPad while I ran a scheduled scan on my lap-top, but I've accidentaly touched the trash box button when I tried to move the unfinished message to a draft folder, so I could finish it up later. It took me more than an hour to tap in the message on the small keypad, and now the consequence is another wasted evening.

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Caterpillar

7:07 p.m. I put off taking apart my old Mac to dismount the HDD, just to watch�@our national team play their first match against Palestine in Asian Cup 2015 held in Australia.

Yes, I enjoyed the match in fact very much, but now I have to do the dreadful task of taking apart my Mac this weekend. Grrrr.

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Caterpillar

2:12 p.m. Crushed by the mountain of losses last year, I've been seriously considering about stopping to buy betting tickets for a while. But then I find myself looking at the members of Nikkei Shinshun-hai and Keisei-hai for this weekend.

Oh, gees. Am helpless. Am I addicted to gambling? I think not, because I don't spend all that I have. Guess I just want something or someone that would make me feel less worthless. Hawker Tempest seems tempting to me, by the way. Keisei-hai, I can't say anything yet as the barriers can largely effect the results. At least that's what I think.

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Caterpillar

2:01 p.m. I was determined to buy a smart phone by this summer, so I've been checking out sim-free smart phones for a while. However, yesterday I came across an article of a sim-free mobile wifi router, that might satisfy all my needs.

Around this time last year, I was caught up in the thought of buying a mobile wifi router Aterm MR02LN, in less than 20,000 yen. The article I read yesterday, was about its later modelMR03LN which seems to have become a sim-free device. I'd made up my mind earlier to get a smart phone, because they might come in cheaper than the newest mobile router, but now I discovered that the situations have changed, I will have a hard time choosing between the two options, smart phone or mobile router?

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Caterpillar

2:07 p.m. As of 2 PM, it's raining quite heavily. The forecast said there's going to be snow piling even in the western parts of Tokyo, such as Hachiohji. 30cm of snow is expected in the northern mountainous regions of Kanto, while in the northern Kanto plains and Tama, Chichibu area is predicted to have a snowfall of 8 to 10 cm.

They're not expecting snowfall in the central parts of Tokyo, but if the temperature drops down the rain might turn to snow. So, is it going to snow or not?

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Caterpillar

2:03 p.m. Cow says this is not the kind of flying car he'd imagined or wanted when he was a kid, but I'd love to have one of these. Flying Car - AeroMobil 3.0 demonstration

It was introduced in Karapaia's article as one of the technologies that might be used in real life in the near future, as compared to the tecnologies which appeared in the 2nd series of the movie, Back To The Future. If I could get an AeroMobil now, I could have the wide sky all to myself. Though I'd prefer a lighter model that you can ride like a bike (or broom) or, a backpack type so I could carry the device on my shoulders and fly alone, just like the rocketman who appeared in the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics.

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Caterpillar

3:19 p.m. Cow is infuriated. He is enraged about Microsoft not mounting e-mail softwares on Windows 8.1.

He's been helping out a woman from the neighborhood set up her new pc, when he came across the task of setting her e-mail account. Cow usually uses Windows 7, so it seems he has simply clicked on the "Mail" icon to get on with the setting. But he only got a screen telling him to "sign in" without any visible entry field to log in. It was only after some time when he finally discovered by accident, that the log in entry field became visible with a mouse-over action.

Windows 8.1 didn't actually have any e-mail application on the drive, instead they'd left a sort of a short-cut icon to log in to the user's web mail boxes. Cow has dicovered that after much struggling which of course, mounted his fury.

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Caterpillar

1:47 p.m. Phew. Just fitted the CRT monitor inside a cardboard box together with an old lap-top top without a CPU chip, to send them all to a recycle shop. It must weigh at least 20 pounds, though. Daunting, considering I have to carry it downstairs.

2:08 p.m. Hah! Have got the stupid monitor down. The problem now, is the Mac. I've taken the cover off, but have no idea how to dismount the hard disk drive. Oh, god. The screws all have those star-shaped heads... How am I supposed to unscrew those? Need a break anyway.

4:40 p.m. Hmmm... The disk drive can't be screwed onto the frame, come to think of it, that takes too much time and trouble when assembling. Then the logical conclusion is that it must be either snapped on or slid into the frame, which means I don't have to unscrew those weird headed screws. They're probably not supposed to be unscrewed. Why else would they use unusual screws that you can't take out with normal drivers?

5:08 p.m. Yesss! Have finally got the HDD dismounted! Now my Power Mac is safely packed in another cardboard box, together with all the cables, mouse and the SCSI keyboard. Bye-bye, Mac. And with it goes my old memories of struggling with horse race articles and HTML.

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Caterpillar

2:43 p.m. I've ordered a pick up service at Kuroneko Yamato this morning to have my computers sent to the recycle, and what remains of my Mac is the hard drive wrapped in air caps. It didn't have to be treated with such care since am drilling holes into it, but the fact that it still was a hard disk drive made me do this without thinking.

Looking at the empty space on my desk, I realize how much I've been controlled by my past. It's time I moved on. To the future!

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Caterpillar

2:15 p.m. Kei "Nikkori" Nishikori has won his first match in Australian Open by 3-0. Many people might be relieved to hear the news. I am too, but I didn't watch the game because I was pretty sure he'd win.

Instead, I've been searching for a stool to use in the office. A stool with casters so I could move around sitting on it. But the good ones are too pricy while the cheap ones either don't have the height adjustment or too big to fit in. Why is it always hard to find what I want?

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Caterpillar

2:16 p.m. Had thought I couldn't adjust the heights of the stool I wanted however, Cow has discovered from a photo on Amazon's page that there seems to be a ring handle beneath the seat that can adjust the height. Good job, Cow. Things do need to be seen through different eyes sometimes.

I'd confirmed earlier that a DIY chain near my work place has been displaying the same model, so I dropped by to make sure if the product really was what I wanted. And yes, it was perfect!

There are countless times I've suffered because of my perfectionism and stubbornness, but this time I'm glad I stuck to it. It takes a lot not to waver or bend, but it's worth the trouble to be true to your heart and be happy.

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Caterpillar

2:37 p.m. Kei has won his second match in Australian Open. He seemed to struggle a bit at the first set, and apparently it wasn't an easy game for him but eventually won by set counts 3-1. I wish I could have seen the match live, but I had to go to work. Anyway, his win is encouraging in a chilling rain as today.

And it's almost pay day! Cheer up, folks!

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Caterpillar

2:08 p.m. The rain has stopped and am released from rain boots, back into my usual Converse. Felt grateful for the warm sunshine this morning, especially after 2 days of chilly, drizzly weather. Quite hard to imagine the heat in Melbourne, where the tennis and football matches are taking place.

Cow has gone out to get himself a new pair of glasses. His previous pair with the plastic frame has been cracked and split in two from the middle earlier this week, so he's been seeking a chance to go to the glasses shop to get a new pair. As usual, he took his time debating whether to buy bifocals or not, though in the end he seems to have decided to get two pairs, one that cut blue lights from computer displays, and the other normal. The 10% discount the shop offers for a second pair must have pushed his back. Hmm... better yourself by observing others. Here's something you can learn from others about marketing and promotion.

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Caterpillar

2:00 p.m. Gold Ship is running his first race this year tomorrow in AJCC, and some of you might be concerened which includes me, of course. He is the most favored by the odds 1.4 to 1 as of this afteroon, which seems very natural considering his career, and the odds is probably going down to 1.2 or less.

The question is whether he will win or not. Well, thinking back there was a horse named American Boss that came in 3rd for the previous Arima Kinen and won this race, plus, he's in a post where he doesn't have to swing around the outside, so there's a high possibility he could win. But then, you never can be sure about Gold Ship. As far as I can see, there doesn't seem to be a horse that has to take the lead, so am guessing the lap might not be fast, average at best. That means it would be easier to win if you stay up front rather than in the back. Perhaps Mitra would be nice.

I've been asked to pick up Cow's glasses at Zoff by the way. They were giving away hard or soft cases for free per each pair of glasses and I had to choose two. Looks like Cow liked the design of one of them very much. I'm glad he did. The shop staff has also been very nice and polite that I was able to run Cow's errands without any trouble. :-D

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Caterpillar

7:54 p.m. Gold Ship has lost miserably in AJCC and the reason is clear. How many times do I have to say that that horse should not be swung around the outside unless the lap is murderously high? I am very sad to see such a good horse, tough horse being wasted its talents.

Will have to cheer up watching the recorded game of Kei Nishikori. He has won his third match and made it to the top 16 in Australian Open. He's into his 2nd week in the grand slam! Go Kei, GO!

7:59 p.m. Have just seen an ad of Australian Open on NHK. They're broadcasting Kei's 4th match against Ferrer tomorrow from noon. How am I going to watch it?

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Caterpillar

2:03 p.m. Even Iwata, the rider of Gold Ship has admitted in his post-race comment, that the horse might have lost its concentration by swinging around the outside. Hope he now knows what to do.

I have been frustrated with my own problems until I nonchalantly looked up at the ceiling on the platform in a Tokyo Metro station. As I raised my head, a box like figure on the ceiling caught my eye, and by reading the letters printed on it, I recognized it was an access point for public wifi networks. Two businessman in suits were sitting on the bench about 5 yards away, busying themselves with smart phones. I felt like shouting at them, "Hey, you can get strong signals if you stand right here, there's an access point right over our heads!"

Sometimes, small discoveries can light up your seemingly plain life. Pity I wasn't able to take a photo, as the subway slid in to the platform while I was trying to pull out my iPad.

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Caterpillar

3:10 p.m. The new stool has arrived!

True, we failed to fit the plastic cover on the right spot where the five piped legs of the chair join the main pipe that supports the seat, so that it makes a clicking sound when we move the stool on its casters. But that's nothing as it doesn't effect the quality.

Have been pestered with daunting incidents yesterday, though the arrival of my new stool made me happy enough to believe that tomorrow is always a new day.

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Caterpillar

1:26 p.m. Kei's 5th match against Wawrinka has started from noon. Flash report on the Internet tells the game count as 1-2 in the fourth game, service by Nishikori. Seems like a quiet start and they're both keeping their service games. Ooooh, getting excited!

NHK is broadcasting the game live on channel 2 (e-tere), and also going to broadcast the recording from around midnight on channel 011. Can't wait to see it!

1:38 p.m. Oh, no. Wawrinka has broken the 4th game and the game count is now 3-5 in the 9th game. Wawrinka is serving for the set! Come on, Kei! You can do it!

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Caterpillar

2:02 p.m. Unfortunately, Kei has lost the match against Wawrinka and couldn't make it to the top 4.

Very sad and also frustrating because I thought Kei had his share of chances to win. Well, we'll accept the consequence as it is and look to the future. As his coach Michael Chang says, "If at first, you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try again." Kei is still young and it's only his third time in the grand slam!

Besides, think I'd still be around a little bit longer to witness his win when the time comes around.

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Caterpillar

1:04 p.m. Despite the railway companies' curtailed schedule, the slight snow has turned into rain by late morning. Thank god it didn't pile up. Shiver at the thought of clearing the streets.

Have been unfocused and careless since last year, and have bought a single pack of a certain product, when I was thinking of buying the 2 in 1 package for a bargain price. I went back to the SEIYU to get a refund so I could buy the package I wanted at first. The customer service staff there, two young men, one seemingly a trainee, were very nice and helped me get my original shopping done in a mattter of minutes. Tired as I was after a tough day, I rewarded them with a heart-warming "thank you" and my best smile.

They say that smiles are contagious. Hope someone after me would get that smile.

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Caterpillar

3:59 p.m. I bring my own lunch to work on weekdays, but Wednesdays and Saturdays are the special days when Cow cooks lunch. The menu mostly stays the same and on Saturdays, he's been making yakisoba for the past several months.

Today as I was getting ready for lunch, my yakisoba plate came out with a fried egg topping! Cow told me later that he had lots of eggs left in the fridge, but how a single egg can cheer you up! On the other hand, I've always felt like being robbed when I passed by yakisoba yatais (food stalls) in local festivals, and discovered that the pack of yakisoba with fried egg options cost 1.5 times more.

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Caterpillar