4:20 p.m. I felt so happy about the U-23 game, that I went out and bought some place tickets for both Negishi Stakes and Silkroad Stakes yesterday, using the otoshidama Ogi had given us.

Negishi Stakes had been a failure as I chose Protocol where I should have picked Grape Brandy or Tahltan, darn! But they were both old horses and that sort of held me back.

On the other hand, Dance Director came in 1st in Silkroad Stakes, though I should have bought some wins too, instead of wasting on Big Arther. Still, that's a 200 Yen plus. Better than losing all.

The End

Caterpillar

3:28 p.m. February has started since yesterday, and following the adjuration from MIC (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), cell phones and smart phone devices that were sold by the copy of 0-Yen keitai has disappeared from the mobile shop windows.

When I first thought about getting a smart phone, my initial plan was to get a cheaper old sim-free model, and later use it to switch to a 0-Yen iPhone with docomo's NMP plan, hang on for 6 months or possibly 2 years, unlock the sim in the meantime, and then terminate the contract and switch back to cheap sim plans. But now my plan wouldn't work since they'd stopped selling 0-Yen phones.

The End

Caterpillar

3:59 p.m. I have to bring lunch tomorrow. Wednesdays and Saturdays are no-lunch-preparation days because Cow cooks instead. But tomorrow is a Thursday, so better decide what to cook before dropping by the supermarket.

At any rate, it makes me want to eat something like nabe (pot dish) in this cold weather. Though I'm not sure how I can turn it into a lunch menu, as it is usually cooked over a gas burner in a ceramic pot, and eaten directly from the pot.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. I've been to Animate for the first time in my life to get a pen holder and some pen nibs. Ran back home as I was terrified with my first experience.

From impulse, I've been plotting to write original manga and, for that reason I've been trying to improve my drawing skills practicing pen strokes, while pondering the settings, characters and story structure. Have been wondering if I should start a blog about my progress. Would people want to know how a middle-aged caterpillar turn into a manga writer?

The End

Caterpillar

2:41 p.m. Our office has a glass door through which the sun comes shining in the morning hours, and keeps it warmer inside without much heating. But in the afternoon when the sun sinks lower than the nearby apartment buildings, the room temperature drops and in a matter of minutes, it turns into a fridge brrrrr.

The long-term forecast I saw this morning announced that we will be having a high of 18³C next Saturday, while snowfall is expected on Monday and Tuesday. What kind of turbulent weather is that? Having a hard time adjusting to the ups and downs!

The End

Caterpillar

12:29 p.m. The cloud that was supposed to bring snow seems to have accelerated over the night, and either rain or snow is expected late tonight.

Despite the cold weather, I have struggled hard to get up earlier than usual this morning, so I can drop by the off-track betting before work both to collect my 200-Yen pay-out from last Sunday and, to bet on two grade races that are run tomorrow, Tokyo Shinbun-hai and Kisaragi-sho. As I've made it my private rule to only buy places and wins, starting with the pay-out of Oggy's betting ticket, my bet was placed on a win of Roi Absolu for Kisaragi-sho and on a place for Smart Layer running in Tokyo Shinbun-hai FYI.

As you might have already guessed, this win-place game will finish when I run out of Oggy's pay-out, which currently have run down to 230 Yen.

The End

Caterpillar

9:23 p.m. Roi Absolu turned out to be a blunder and it only seemed to emphasize how good the winning horse, Satono Diamond was. I was right about Smart Layer, though I should have bought a win on this one instead of Roi Absolu.

Anyway, the payout for Smart Layer's place was 340 Yen, so I finished 140 Yen plus this week. Still I'm 60 Yen short of where I started...

The End

Caterpillar

4:24 p.m. Am thinking about replacing the hdd of my lap-top.

My computer has been behaving strangely since New Year, refusing to launch without running a start-up recovery program occasionally, so I've tried running the diagnostic program mounted onto my computer by the manufacturer. The program pointed out that there must be something wrong with the hard disk drive, though I couldn't quite be sure if the error was the result of a physical damage to the hdd or some other reasons, such as power circuit problems or simply if the connection was loose. Taking in account though, of how long I had been using the lap-top which I'd bought in 2010, I thought it might be better to replace the hdd.

Will have to open the back panel anyway first, to secure the cables and then try running the diagnostics again to see if it detects a problem. If it doesn't, the problem would be solved, but in case any problem has been detected, will try a full recovery of the hdd and see if that works. If everything fails, will have to go to Akihabara to get a new hard disk drive. Ah, both time-consuming and energy-consuming.

The End

Caterpillar

2:53 p.m. A bit heavy though it was, I carried my 15.4-inch lap-top to my office to have Cow help me check with the hdd.

Former to that, I'd dropped by the post office near my house to close my fixed-amount postal savings account and remove the money to a bank account. I didn't think I had that much money in the account, I just kept it there because I had no near future plans of using them, but I was unexpectedly met with a refusal, that they needed a couple of days to get the money ready. Perhaps it was in the attendant's manual to refuse any requests of withdrawal at least once to make us reconsider?

Whatever was printed in the manual, it only gave a bad impression and now I'm determined to carry out my action on moving the money although it's not much. How dare they refuse my request when their interest has dropped down to a puny 0.02%!

The End

Caterpillar

3:56 p.m. I pressed the power button of my lap-top half expecting to see the start-up recovery showing on the monitor, and it launches without incident... Well that's how things go. You have some trouble when you're alone, and try to demonstrate what exactly happened in front of someone else and it never happens again, humph.

Just to make sure, I took off the back panel, losened the screws and took out the hard disk drive and mounted it back on again. Also checked the memory cards but there seemed to be nothing wrong with the connections as far as I can tell. Put it all together again and started up the computer and again, it launched normally. So what was all the fuss about? Still, the manufacturer's diagnostics program which I'd run for one last time, reported that the hard disk had some kind of trouble.

Because my lap-top started without trouble twice in a row, I decided to use it some more and see how things turn out. Meanwhile, I'll search for a new hdd for a reasonable price so I can click-buy one if and when I need it.

The End

Caterpillar

10:42 p.m. Have spent national holiday idly. The weather news has announced the beginning of cedar pollen season in Tokyo, and that reminded me of a middle-aged businessman I saw on the subway platform a couple of days ago.

He was wearing a gray business suit with one of those face masks you wear when you have cold, along with... ski goggles! Wierd. Almost to the point of excentric. I guessed that it might be a necessary precaution for him against the coming pollen allergy season, but ski goggles with a business suit... Well, it sure was new.

The End

Caterpillar

4:17 p.m. Although it feels like Monday since yesterday had been a holiday, it actually is Friday. Time to call the race for Sunday.

From my past couple of results, I thought it would be better to place my bets only on older horses races rather than 3-year-olds', however, I have been apalled by the members competing in Kyoto Kinen. Would there really be a winner? I mean, there will be a winner, but I have no idea which horse might even have the chance.

Considering that this is a win-place game, perhaps it would be good to bet on Touching Speech's place? Will decide later.

The End

Caterpillar

1:35 p.m. Considerably warm today, as the forecast had predicted. Might have to ditch my jacket.

I had a good pondering last night and settled for a win-and-place for Admire Deus instead of Touching Speech. Touching Speech always goes from far behind which is a big risk when the lap drops to a slow. Kyoto Kinen annually becomes a slow race and together with the rider who tends to lag behind, I decided Deus would have a better chance.

Admire Deus hasn't been performing well lately (as well as his rider), but that I think, owes a lot to the barrier. He's drawn an inner barrier this time fresh back from recess, and the shortened distance could be a good stimulation for the 5-year-old. Besides, he'd already won G2 races twice last year, both around this season. It won't come as a surprise if he beat all his competiters.

The End

Caterpillar

4:23 p.m. My computer has turned back into a stubborn old machine after the Microsoft update that took almost forever to install, and spitted out another start-up recovery log. Humph. And then, it tells me I'm bound for another update grrrrrrr.

Kyoto Kinen turned out to be thrilling, at least for people like myself who had the place ticket of Admire Deus. He barely beat Historical by a neck and brought me a payout of 240 Yen. Still, I'm 20 Yen short from the start. But as I always say, that's much better than losing all.

The End

Caterpillar

4:01 p.m. Unbelievable. Although it's just a win-and-place game, have been winning 3 weeks in a row now, come to think of it! If I win this weekend, it's going to be 4 weeks in a row. My new record.

However, the race that would be run this week is the long awaited first grade 1 race this year, February Stakes, and to tell you the truth, I've only won this race once in my whole career as a horse race fan, which happened more than 15 years ago, I think.

Isn't this what you call a ":win-or-lose situation?" If I win, I will establish my new winning record together with the payout. If I lose, I lose the whole win-and-place game and my money.

The End

Caterpillar

3:06 p.m. I'm seriously considering about taking out the magnetic HDD on my lap-top and replacing it with an SSD now. Though I need to search and learn more about it.

My lap-top has been bought in 2010 and with a quick comand prompt check, I confirmed that its HDD was a legacy 512-byte sector-based drive. Have found and read a number of articles switching legacy 512-byte sector-based HDDs to Advanced Format drives, in which many people report that you need to download and install Intel Rapid Store Technology if you have Intel chips in your computer in case you're replacing the HDD with an Advanced Formated HDD.

Unfortunately though, no one says anything about replacing a legacy 512-byte sector-based HDD with an SSD. I'm thinking of physically replacing the magnetic disk with the SSD, then recover the SSD to a factory default since I have backup of the data I need. I think the installation of IRST is unnnecessary in this case, but just can't be sure because no one says anything about it. Anyway, I'll have to start saving up for the SSD.

The End

Caterpillar

5:05 p.m. It's three days after St. Valentine's Day but two people has given me chocolate in the past three days.

One of them was a man in his 60s who happened to be on diet former to his medical check-up next Tuesday, and the other was a wife of someone who has been under medication due to daiabetes.

Hmmm... I enjoyed the chocolate anyway.

The End

Caterpillar

4:38 p.m. One of my clients have discovered that Ethiopian New Year is called Enkutatash in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. She was searching about the Ethiopian calendar, and seemed to have got glued to the term.

Unfortunately, this term Enkutatash written in Japanese katakana included the combination of characters to scribe the Japanese word for "poop." I'm pretty sure that the Ethiopian language is not pronounced in the same way, but I thought this must be notified to all Japanese to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

The End

Caterpillar

I've opened my schedule to take a day off since am seeing an old friend for luch today, the first time in several years now.

Which means, I can spend some time after lunch pondering about the coming up February Stakes. I hadn't had time this week so it would be a blessing. Well, hopefully.

The End

Caterpillar

2:45 p.m. Have stared a whole into the racing form of Februrary Stakes after a wonderful time with my old friend and decided, that Nonkono Yume and Moanin would perform better than Kopano Rickey. So I've already bought a win for Nonko and place for Moanin.

Since we're expecting heavy rain later in the evening, the track might not dry off before the race which might turn out to be a blessing for Rickey. But still, losing 2 races in a row is something that hadn't happened in his career, except for the time when he came back from injury. To me, the previous 2 races of Kopano Rickey seem to be showing signs of decay.

The win odds for Moanin was 1 to 13.9 when I made up my mind however, sensible fans have dropped it to a mere 1 to 5.4 overnight. So my wish now, is for Corin Berry to come within 3rd place so that the place payout would increase!

The End

Caterpillar

9:26 p.m. This is what you call "tori-gami" in Japanese betting terms. You won, but your payout doesn't cover your expenses.

My bet Moanin, has swept away an easy win with record time. The dirt track was wet and firm thanks to the pouring rain yesterday, in which I got drenched and shivered. Thought it might serve as an advantage to Kopano Rickey, but it seems that wasn't enough for the horse. Putiing aside the fact that there were several other front runners and that the lap became quite tight, Rickey's performance is a clear sign of decay. He is now past his prime. So I was right about avoiding him from my tickets.

The only thing I did wrong this time was that I'd bought a win for Nonkono Yume, while I knew that Nonko has a risk of not reaching to the top. Well, learned another lesson. Next time I'll buy a place for such horses instead.

The End

Caterpillar

4:25 p.m. Well, in a matter of speaking, I did win February Stakes which means my consecutive winning record still goes on. That's something, isn't it?

Come to think of it, my key horse has performed relatively well throughout last season. The fairly well results of my win-place game up until now seem to back that up too. So from now on, I will have to find a solution to which horse I should choose to put on my wheel. And I will have to come up with an answer in another month, preferrably before Takamatsuno Miya Kinen run at the end of March, in order to get better results this year.

The End

Caterpillar

2:28 p.m. As I was getting ready to get off the train, I noticed two 500 Yen coins left on the seat near me.

I remembered that a long-haired guy was sitting there and wondered if he'd accidentally dropped the coing from his pocket or something. But the coins seemed to lay a bit apart from the place he'd been sitting, so perhaps they were not his? I heard the voice of the devil whispering into my ears, "take them! No one's watching! Besides, you don't even know who left them!"

But then, I recalled the time when a generous person had turned over something I'd dropped at the station. It wasn't anything valuable to others though to me it was something precious, and I had been so grateful of the caring action, that I'd swore to my heart on the spot that from now on, I'd turn in anything someone has accidentally dropped or left. Now is the time, I thought and went running after the long-haired guy grabbing the two coins in my hand. As the guy turned around responding to my call, I realized he was wearing a moustache and nearly freaked out but held out. When I quickly dropped the coins into his hand though, he greeted me with a faltering "arigato" in a sall timid voice.

I think I did something right. Even if the coins weren't his.

The End

Caterpillar

1:56 p.m. I've just checked the netkeiba news and discovered that Curren Black Hill and To The World had secretly retired last year.

I've been following Current Black Hill since he was 3 years old, and as he's often been entering mid-range grade races, I'd somehow expected that he'd always be there in such races. I'd forgotten that he was just a horse.

To The World seems too young to retire. I thought he could win another race or two after he came in 2nd place in Arima Kinen in 2014. He's a club horse owned by the members, so perhaps they thought it better to make him a sire, rather than have him run.

The End

Caterpillar

1:27 p.m. Our coffee maker has stopped to pour hot water into the dripper.

Well, we've been using it for some nine years so there's no surprise there, but it suddenly let out a hissing noise, "psss, pshhhh," and stopped pouring hot water into the dripper. It seemed as though it revived when Cow has tried that old remedy of banging the machine, but after a few seconds it became silent and all action has stopped.

2:30 Cow has just bought a new Zoujirushi coffee maker at the nearest DIY. Wonder how long this one would last?

The End

Caterpillar

2:32 p.m. Okay. So the barrier draw for Nakayama Kinen, the come back race of Duramente that has been gathering attention has finally been announced.

However, there is a risk betting on a horse running for the first time in 9 months, even though it's Duramente. He is a remarkable horse and if he hadn't had the injury, I think he could have won the triple crown. Still, the horse has a rather bad temper and tends to get uncontrolable when the lap slackens. Besides, he would be the most favored, no doubt. Will have to consider my options well tonight.

The End

Caterpillar

1:58 p.m. I finally decided to put my place bet for Nakayama Kinen on Real Steel, not Duramente.

The low payout didn't bother me so much since I'd expected it. Rather, it was the risk that kept nagging at the back of my mind. I mean, nine months' blank is a big risk. Even Grass Wonder sank in 5th place in his come back race, Mainichi Ohkan. Thus, I settled for a place of Real Steel.

And because it seemed to be too safe a choice, I ventured to also buy a place for Let's Go Donki running in Hankyu-hai. If the rider Iwata could take the lead at an avrage lap, there's even a chance she might win! But I've learned my lesson from February Stakes and stuck to place.

The End

Caterpillar

4:33 p.m. I just made my wound deeper.

I thought Real Steel's place payout would be at least 150 Yen even if the race ended with the top 3 favored horses, but if I thought Real Steel was a safe place bet, so would everyone else. The payout only came to 130 Yen and now I'm losing 80 Yen, because Let's Go Donki had sunk in 6th or 7th place. My winning record continues though, since I've won a race.

Additionally, I finally admit that Duramente is one of those special horses that can win big prestigious races. Mirco backs it up saying that Duramente is the best horse he'd seen in his 22 years of riding career.

The End

Caterpillar

2:27 p.m. looks like we're in for another drop in temperature.

Today's high was supposed to be 17 ℃ and the low 5 ℃, while tomorrow's is predicted as the high 10 ℃ and the low 3 ℃.

Oh please, please, can we stop these ups and downs? Don't know how much longer my body can stand it, especially when I'm sleep deprived because all this manga I've been following, has come to an abrupt break lately with no further information on restarting so far, and although I tried searching desperately to come up with a substitute I couldn't find a good one, eventually wasting my time while eating up my sleeping time.

The End

Caterpillar