BR:2-13 Dead Man's Island

"“I was drunk and-and I hit somebody.”"

17-year-old Carol Sanders was happy at school in England. She had lots of friends and enjoyed listening to English, especially pop music. One day, a sudden tragic accident happened to her family. During the business trip of her father, unfortunately, a plane crash took his life. That accident made them into mentally desperate situation. Then they decided to get a new job in order to mollify their broken heart. They found a job at a mysterious island. They got a job at a big house in the island, and the master of the house gave them room each. A couple of weeks went by, the girl found that locked room. Then she realized that someone uses the room frequently.

At first, in the first half of the book, I thought that the person is their father. It is because that the title of this book is "Dead Man's Island" and the lord of the house looks always sad, so I thought the man must be the one who knows something about her father's death. However, as it turns out, there are no relationships between them. As a matter of fact, the unknown person who uses the room was the master of the house.

His true identity was that one of the most famous and rich singer who was thought to have died due to a car accident. Carol was really surprised of that, and she requested him to spell the truth out in exchange for keeping secret of him. He confessed that he killed a girl with his car while he was in a state of stoned, and that's the reason why he hid in the remote island.

In the end of the story, he told her what he did for the girl, and Carol heard the truth and decided not to tell it anybody. However, I think nothing is solved. The man is a murderer and he didn't atone for his crime as well. I don't understand why the author came to the end of it. I can't  stand it.

Escott John. (2000). Dead Man's Island. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

［349/10141］

Nephew

The day after tomorrow, correctly speaking, on December 23rd, my older sister's baby boy is going to visit us. Last time I met him, about a year ago, he was able to stand himself and chased after my dog around in the house. The dog was really tired of take care of him. He couldn't speak a language well at that time, he was just smiling and saying "au-au-ba-" or something like that.

However, according to my sister, he recently started to speak "Mom" and "Dad". He mad a good progress. I'm really looking forward to seeing him in ages. Does he remember me? I hope he will. Anyway, is it better to prepare something fun for him? In accordance with her, he loves "Thomas the talking steam train", so I'll get a toy or something as soon as tomorrow. I hope that it makes him happy.

［153/9792］

BR:2-12 Martin Luther King

"“I have a dream,” he said."

I have never read a book, even children know, which written about this world famous person. Since I entered this university, I have heard his name many times every English classes. A professor said, “He is one of the greatest orators in American history”, and another said, “He is the greatest person who fought against the segregation for African American for a long time.”

I had known him when I was a junior high school student because he appears in English and History text books as the leader of the civil rights movement. There were lots of opportunities to learn about him more closely so far, but I haven't. Perhaps I had no particular reason to know about him or just bothered to find out what he has done. However, "at last", I started to know about him to read this introductory book.

In those times, in the early 20th century, African American people living in America were exposed to harsher racial criticism than today. However, how many times racists tried to intervene him and his companies, they resisted such pressures. He had a belief. Belief that it is possible to change the unfair world, even if someone who has a difference in skin color, they have a right to be treated exactly the same was as "usual" American citizen.

About 50 years have passed from his death, it seems that racial discrimination for African American people has decreasing, but a couple of months ago, the incident that an African American boy was killed by a white policeman triggered a riot all over the country. Despite Martin Luther King insisted that making anti-racism campaign without violence, it seemed some part of participants didn't follow his lecture. Will people be able to solve this problem? I have a strong hunch that it never disappear. 

Lloyd Jones Rob. (2006). Martin Luther King. London : Usborne.

［306/9659］

Wedding Ceremony

About a month ago, I went to my friend's wedding ceremony. I intended to post this article the next day of the ceremony, but I totally forgot about it. As you can see, I couldn't prepare the small photo. I don't like Blogger's degree of freedom of picture settings, I wonder if I should complain it to them. Anyway, I enjoyed that bridal. It was a beautiful early winter day, gentle sunshine kept visitors warm.

 

The groom was a friend from high school. He was in another faculty, but we belonged to the same tennis club, and built a good relationship. When we were in the club, he was one of the strongest players of us, and in Kumamoto as well. According to him, he hasn't played tennis recently, and plays badminton insted.

 

Because it was a tennis club member's marriage, some members gathered from around the country. Most of them came from Kumamoto, but rest of them came from Aichi, Tokyo, and Fukuoka. There were friends I haven't heard from them recently, so we enjoyed having conversation about memories of high school days.

 

The ceremony went well, and an after party as well. However, every time I attend my friends' marriage party, the happiness atmosphere put me into desperate situation. If I were they, would I behave just like them? In the first place, would I able to get married someone who loves me? Does god know?  

 

[238/9353]

Movie Review 6: Men in Black 1

In 1997, when MIB was shown in Japan, I was just 10 years-old. I remember this movie

well because it was the first time I had watched a movie, and I resisted going to a theater and was crying. In those times, I saw the advertisement of that movie many times, and I was afraid of seeing it since the characters appear in the movie looked really gross, and both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in black suits wearing black
sunglass made me scared too.

Therefore, when my dad invited me to go to the movie, I strongly objected to the idea of watching this movie. However, in the end, in exchange for buying "Pokemon game", I accepted to go there.

 Since then, I haven't seen it for nearly 17 years. Before watching it, I tried to remember

the details of the story, but I totally forgot about them. However, when the movie starts, I began to recall the story. It wasn't a bad movie, I could see many kinds of aliens such as one who can regenerate its own head even if blew his head off, one who operates
someone's body (or it may be a robot) sitting in his head, and a speaking dog-like alien,
made me enjoy myself.

 Although the CG technology that used in it was not good in comparison to the current CG technology. I understand that it can't be helped, but it seemed cheap. In the meantime, I enjoyed lots of scenes. For example, in the first part of the movie, at the trial to decide who would be the best agent, J, performed by Will Smith, shot a target with a girl painted on it while other participants shot monsters. Also when J and K,

Tommy Lee Jones, went to autopsy room, K introduced J as a doctor "White". J turned
on K surprisingly, so K must have used the word as an irony.

 As I criticized about the CG, but in the movie, the scene of Will Smith being attacked by baby alien was so funny. The combination of seasoned cool agent and fresh hot newbie were making good atmosphere. What's more, the performance of the bad alien was really good. His ugly appearance, the creepy accent, and the constrained weird behavior gave me a feeling of ominousness.

 Lastly, according to web pages which written about MIB, the DVD version of MIB2 and

MIB3 have already released, so I'm going to borrow them while praying that they aren't bad movies.

[419/9115]

Movie Review 5: School of Rock!

While I was watching the movie, I had been thinking about two things. First, the first half of this movie, I wondered if these are really students and can the main characters really sing a song or playing instruments by themselves? It was questionable whether they are truly playing the guitar, the bass, or the drums. However, as the story went on, I became sure that they were playing instruments on their own, and were really singing the songs. After watched it, I confirmed about it on the Internet just in case.

Second, I felt the difference in ability of actors' performance between American and Japanese movies. I was just thinking the same thought when I was watching American TV dramas, such as C.S.I series and Dr. House. Not to mention, there must be well-financed companies in Hollywood, and also people who want to become a famous, rich, and great actors or actresses who get together at that place from around the world.

In the Japanese movie industry, as long as using bad actor, I mean, for someone who belongs to a major talent agency like Johnny's, it isn't possible to make excellent movies equivalent to the ones in Hollywood. In this movie, the main actor, Jack Black, gave an excellent performance. He played a struggling rock musician. The first part of the movie, he acted as a bad guy who troubled his friend, and also he screwed up his friend's good opportunity to become a teacher at a prestigious elementary school. 

At the same time, he played a passionate teacher, more than his friend. Although his motive was corrupted, as the story went on, it seemed that he started to find the fun in teaching. It was true that he deceived students, parents, and teachers, and messed up study hours for students for a couple of weeks. However, he built a really good relationship between him and students, he found good points of each student. In order to achieve his goal, he gave an important role to each of them, and boost them up. 

Even if you are a true teacher, it is difficult to motivate them, and have them to be united.

There was an interesting lecture, "History of Rock", he taught pupils during the work. It

seemed really interesting, I would take it.As for me, aiming to be a teacher, this movie made me think about how I should stir students up when they are depressed or in such a situation. Of course, I’m not favor of the fact that he ruined the class partially, but actually there were some good motivating methods. I'm not good at communicating with people immediately, so I want to learn from his ability of communication. 

[454/8696]

Tumblr



This time, I would like to write about Tumblr. It is a kind of twitter, but the difference from the famous communication tool is that it is mainly used to post images. When people start Tumblr, first they need to follow someone's account which seems interesting. Then you can find images, gifs, and texts you like the most from their posts, and quote them. If you want to, you could communicate with someone, and they usually respond to your questions and perhaps someone asks you one day.

I met this site about...I'll check it, please wait. Well, according to archive, I started Tumblr in August, 2013. Accurately speaking, I had known this site before 2013, but I didn't feel like making an account because I felt it wasn't necessary to make it to collect pictures. I mean I didn't understand the utility of making an account. However, I noticed that if I registered it, accounts which followed by me send everything they collected every minute. After I got an account, I don't need to browse the Internet spontaneously in order to get images. It is really convenient.

The reason why I use Tumblr instead of Twitter is that my beloved Tumblr doesn't required activeness. It seems that if someone gets an account of Twitter, they must post texts or it doesn't make sense. On the contrary, we Tumblr users are rarely post texts, instead we quote from other users or lots of websites on the Internet. The best thing of this SNS is that has diversity. It is really fantastic feeling that knowing the different way of thinking or seeing pictures which I have never seen them.

I think there seem to be a change between the beginning posts and the current of it. However, fundamentally, my penchant for beautiful women, naked, fashion, and other kinds of splendid images will never change. Viva Tumblr!

［323/8242］

BR:2-11 Changing Places

“Let's do it!”

This story is about two men who have almost the same face each other. A man, Hal tanner works at the zoo, and he was tired of spending humdrum life. At the same time, Tim Hawkins, who is a famous actor in the world, was sickened by being attacked by fans and people almost every day. One day, Tim went to the zoo where Hal working at in order to shooting a film, and the two men met there as it happens. Then they decided to changing their places.

This story is just like a something movie. After they changing their places, they went well showing their talent that they acquired many years of experience. However, their relationship had revealed in the end. I used to dream that changing places. If I were a famous actor, I would  date with many girls, but come to think of it, even if changed the role one another, personality haven't changed, so you should not put yourself into unfamiliar position.

Hines Alan. (2004). Changing Places. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

［168/7919］

BR:2-10 Let me out!

“I'm not just a robot. I can feel. I feel angry.”

30-year-old John is a scientist. He finally made an artificial-intelligence robot which name is "Nolan". John made the robot every chores instead of him, such as clean the kitchen, bathroom, wash his clothes, and everything he doesn't want to do. However, one day, Nolan thought John's attitude is unfair to him in comparison to his dog, Sam. Then Nolan began out of control.

This book is really scary. In the end, the robot killed John and Sam because the master didn't treat Nolan the same way as Sam. He just wanted to be loved by John. I think Nolan was perfectly incompletion. He didn't any feelings, such as sadness, happiness, and madness except for jealous. He was jealous of the dog's  situation. He thought "Why does John only take care of the dog? Why doesn't he take me outside? Why? Why?". 

The robot doesn't understand what the feelings are and what the human being is. However, his cold-bloodness, jealous for something, and thoughtlessness were as if real human being.

Moses Antoinette. (2006). Let Me Out! Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 

［180/7751］

Second 5 favorites 1-05: My favorite sport to watch

My favorite sport to watch is tennis. It is because when I was a junior and high school student, I had been belonged to tennis club. I had not contract with WowWow(if you contract with a pay TV channel, you can watch a wide range of TV programme), I couldn't watch major 4 tennis competition, such as French open, US open, and Australian open. However, there is an exception. That is Wimbledon champion matches. In the summer season, NHk broadcasts that competition, and me and my friends got together someone's house to watch it. Stars in the court gave a brilliant performance. Pete Sampras, Andre Aggasi, and Rodger Federer. As for Rodger Federer, he still playing tennis, I think it's insane. I remember one greatest mach between Rodger Federer and Rafael Nadal. In 2008, I was watching their desperate battle. They gave extraordinary performance for us, and they fascinated me.

[154/7571]

Second 5 favorites 1-04: My favorite animal

My favorite animal are dogs. I have an 8-year-old miniature dachshund with cream hair. With ages, he is getting calm, but he still energetic and eat lots of food. I love him and probably he loves me. Dogs have several good points for people who having dogs as a pet. First, maybe 100 percent dogs are really cute, some have so cruel face. Anyway, it is really helpful for people when they go back home, and dogs waiting them in front of the door. They welcome and heal our worn-out mind. As for my dog, he is not only smart but also fool. He can distinguish bad person and good person, he understands a person who hates dogs. I love to watch his sleeping face holding my arms, and playing with toys in my yard. I also like cats, so if I can afford to have cats as a pet, I want to have one, and have he or she play with my dog.

[164/7417]

Second 5 favorites 1-03: My favorite shoes

My favorite shoes are sneaker shoes, leather boots, and running shoes. I love to wear and look any kinds of shoes. I have lots of shoes in my home. In total, I think more than 15 shoes in my closet. Maybe half of them are casual shoes, and rest of them are leather shoes or boots. In summer season, I usually wear sandals because of the temperature, so I rarely wear shoes that season even sneaker shoes. However, in cold season, I usually wear them. Especially I like to wear leather boots. Their brown color and smell makes me fascinating. In casual shoes, I love to wear New Balance shoes. Their cushioning performance is incredibly good. As if I were in clouds. In running shoes, I love Minimus series, produced by New balance, the shoes fit my feet perfectly. They are very thin sole, but I prefer them rather than another comfortable thick shoes.

[154/7353]

Movie Review 3: Rocky

Rocky Balboa was in a bad circumstance. He's been boxing since he was 15, but because of his left-handedness, most of boxers didn't want to fight him. As a result, for a living, he had to run an errand for a loan-shark. One day, a surprising rare chance came to him suddenly. The invincible heavy-weight champion, Apollo Creed requested to fight with him in order to liven up the bout, and Rocky was willing to accept it, so then he started to do hard training.

Not a few people recommend you listen to the famous theme song “Rocky theme song” when they want to raise their spirits. Every time I see something challenging or moving on a TV program, this music is often played in it. I do agree with their opinion, this music is stimulating and stirring. However, at the same time, I couldn't agree with what they said from the heart. It is because I believe that songs or music has to have a background as part of it. To raise my feelings up, it is necessary to have something moving or or some other attracting factors in the music itself while I'm try to overcome some difficulties. So, that's the reason why I hesitated to listen to the theme. I mean, I didn't understand what kinds of messages are included in it.

Although, I may understand why people recommended this music, and now it encourages me a lot. I love it, and also this movie. It is not just an action movie, that movie succeeded to depict not only a success story but also the story of of getting-his-life back. He had a dream to become a famous, strong boxer, but his dream didn't come true until he received a super chance. If people put them into bad circumstances, and everything doesn't work well, most of them would turn to crime.

Nevertheless, he wouldn't do that. He loves little things. He takes care of a street girl. He is concerned about even a man's fingers in debt. He must be in the doom-and-gloom of his life, but he had kept his pride and integrity. Before the bout, he was in a bed with his girlfriend, Adrian, and he says “If I go fifteen rounds, an' that bell rings an' I'm still standin', I'm gonna know then I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood...”. In the game, the champion punched Rocky's nose, and knocked him to the mat over and over, but the Italian Stallion rose each time. Rocky couldn't beat the champion finally, but winning or losing isn't important any longer. He retrieved what he wanted.

[440/7199]

Second 5 favorites 1-02: My favorite high school memory

The school I was studying was really strict for students. For example, most of the students must not have long hair except for girls. We always have short hair even winter. There are a lot of clubs such as soccer, baseball, tennis, and so on. I belonged to tennis club, and most of the students in it was stronger than other school's students, so we beat them and participated in a convention held in Fukuoka. It can't be possible in this current educational situation, we often slapped by teachers in our classes or during club activity. One day, on the way school, a car hit me. Fortunately, I was no injuries, but after that, when I arrived the class, and I told my class teacher to the accident. Then he punched my forehead several times because of my violation of the road law. Since then I decided not to be such a teacher.

[155/6759]

BR:2-09 The Garden Party and Sixpence

"“Isn't life,” she hesitated, “isn't life-” But she couldn't explain what life was."

Standing in front of the book shelves, I was wondering whether I should choose this book or other one because I had known about the books' author. I learned that Katherine Mansfield is one of the most famous short story writers in the world, also is known as a writer using stream-of-consciousness technique. 

Stream of consciousness makes me depressed. In spring semester, I had to watch a DVD-version of "Mrs Dalloway" in order to write a essay of it. It was a bit difficult to grasp what the meaning of the movie. Because of it, I hesitated to read this book, but after I finished reading it, I realized  it didn't make me confusing than I expected. 

The main character, Laura, is a pristine and warm-hearted girl. One day, when she was preparing a garden party, she heard an accident which killed a man who lives in near her home. She felt sorry for the man and his family, she asked her mother not to hold the garden party. However her mother refused to the request, and eventually, the party ended up as a great success. 

After the party, her mother came up with a good idea. That is to send leftovers of the party, such as sandwiches, cakes, and puffs to the poor family. Laura nodded her idea with doubtfully, and she headed to their home. At that home, she met a weary-looking the man's wife, and a family member of him had her meet the body. When she met him, she regret that her extravagant appearance. She was wearing beautiful nice hat and dress. When she saw the man's peaceful sleeping face, she felt beauty and happiness from him.

It is difficult to understand what the meaning of the story, but I want to try to express what I thought. I think this story is criticizing people's thoughtless. In this story, her mother doesn't care the man's death, and Laura was enjoying and showed off her gorgeous dress and hat as well. However, in front of him, she found that she is as mindless person as her mother or family members. Taking advantage of genuine girl's movement of mind, the author may tried to depict having respect for the indignity of one's death. What's more, the writer wanted readers to think about how they are going to live. 

Mansfield Katherine. (2007). The Garden Party and Sixpence. Helbling Languages. 

［404/6604］