Thunderbird Bug + Taiheiyo Club Goes Bankrupt

Last night I was transferring some photos from an SD card to the external hard disc drive. It seemed to take forever to finish the job, and the drive started making ominous beeps. The whole computer got stuck. I didn’t want to do it, but I pressed the power button to turn it off. Then today, Mozilla Thunderbird was not showing folders… They are nowhere. Received messages couldn’t be read. Quite scared, I searched the internet and after some time managed to find the cause (a bug with the latest version) and a solution. This solution asked me to delete a file and it took me to find where the file is.

読売電子版が「かつては球団保有…太平洋クラブが経営破綻」との見出しで、「太平洋クラブは１９７１年創業。「三井住友ＶＩＳＡ太平洋マスターズ」が開催されることで有名な「御殿場コース」（静岡県）などを開設し、１８のゴルフ場を持つ名門クラブだ。７３～７６年にはプロ野球球団の「太平洋クラブライオンズ」を所有していた」と報じている。「太平洋クラブライオンズ」を保有・所有していたのは、中村長芳がオーナーの「福岡野球株式会社」であって、太平洋クラブではない。何でこんな基本的な事実誤認が編集の過程をすり抜けるのだろう。情けない。

Lunar New Year's Day is Approaching

Most parts of the country may be in some celebratory mood as the lunar New Year's Day is approaching. I am taking no part in it.

I'm going slowly with The End of the Affair. One reason is that I started “マレー蘭印紀行” of Kaneko Mitsuharu (金子光晴) yesterday and the bigger reason is that I have been spending many hours almost everyday on my renewed attempt to learn Russian.

I feel the synapses in my head are activated. I even had a dream last night in which I was struggling with words and phrases. Woken up and unable to go back to sleep, I checked my dictionary. The dream was reflecting the reality faithfully. Oh so tough. I don’t care much about stuff like “asking for directions” or “at the hotel.” But those seemingly now irrelevant words and phrases may come handy one day… And this flash-card program does a superb job to make me feel that I should not move on unless I have learned the current topic. And the program collects things that I have not seen for a few days, and looking at the number of the “stale items,” clearly shown on the screen, raises the desire to conquer, an emotional effect, I guess, similar to that with computer, or any kind of competitive, games.

Language study involves, but of course is not restricted to, memorization work. As I sometimes get frustrated with my power of memorization and I do understand the importance of learning grammatical points, also yesterday I got a Russian grammar book, which I hope allows me to connect dots and transform them into lines and planes.

Another Greham Geene Book, Boring Jpn News Writing Here, New Defence Minister + "Ronin Makarito'oru"

In bed last night, I reached the last page of The Human Factor. Maurice Castle ended up in Moscow, now deeply wondering if or when he can be joined by his wife and son, Sarah and Sam.

As I couldn’t sleep, I randomly picked The End of the Affair, also by Graham Greene. Maurice and Sarah again.

以前も書いたような気がするが、某日本語媒体「Ｎ」では、マレーシアを「隣国」と表記するのが定着してしまっている。そもそも語数が限られる見出しに「マレーシア」が長すぎて使いにくく、また「マ」も「馬」も使いたくなかったことから始まった「隣国」表記なのに、 語数に余裕のある場合でさえ、また「マレーシア」と書いても何ら差し支えない場合でさえ、「隣国」と表記されていることがある。まったくの本末転倒だ。また、同媒体のコラムがやはりおもしろくない。（これも以前書いたか……）転勤してきたばかりの記者が観光客のつもりで書く感想文のようなものが目立つ。「あっ」とひざを打ったり、「う～ん」と唸らせるような内容を期待しているのに、これは何なのか？

新しく就任した田中直紀防衛相。これまで閣僚になってなかったことには、それなりの理由があったのでは。義父とカカの存在を排除すると、この人の政治家としての意味は何なのだろうか？「テレビ向け」でもないし、初入閣させるなら、普天間基地移転問題を抱えてよほどの技量が要求される防衛相ではなく、カカと同じように科学技術庁長官相当がふさわしかったのでは。

土曜日の夜、仕事上仕方なく付き合った店で、「浪人まかり通る」を発見。歌ってしまった。

When "SCDF" and "ITE" Are Translated into Japanese...

当地で発行されている日本語媒体には、「Singapore Civil Defence Force」に「民間防衛隊」、また「Institute of Technical Education」に「技術教育研究所」という訳語を充てているもの見られるが、やめてもらいたい。「民間防衛隊」とすると、正規軍ではない民兵組織みたいやろ。SCDFは消防救急レスキュー組織やないか！また「ITE」は「学校」で、技術教育について専門に研究している団体やない。

不正確な訳語に記者や編集者は気付いてんのか？気付いてても、過去記事との関係上変更するのをためらっとるんか？そうやったら、怠慢やわな。

Unceasing Reading and Russian Study

Burt-Out Case (again) > Stamboul Train (again) > The Human Factor (again and ongoing)

I hate festive seasons as business goes down almost inevitably, doubling and tripling my anxiety. This time, it is less worrying because it was hectic and frenetic from late November to early last month. All the same, angst is here with me. However, bent on or listening to my inner voice, which usually gives me better counsel, I’m attempting to bring my heavy legs forward with my Russian study in this slack period. And for this reawakened enthusiasm, I thank the engineer from Belarus with whom I worked for six weeks altogether.