Chasing After Rainbows

The 29th of February is something that happens only once every 4 years. Even in the other years, February is still the only month that has less than 30 days. Seemingly coincidental is that the summer Olympics takes place in every leap year, though the event itself is a few months after February. I somehow see the summer Olympics as something more significant than the winter one. The timing of this summer Olympics signifies how much time has passed. The Beijing and Athens Olympics are still fresh in my mind, but those were in 2008 and 2004 respectively! This tells me how fast time has passed, and I feel old.

1st Daughter: "Mum, have you seen where my notebook is? I don't remember where I left it." Kotomi: "Oh, how could my son be so careless? You would have a hard time finding a girlfriend if you don't remember things about her. I think I saw it next to the phone." The daughter can't correct her mother that she's a girl and not a boy, so she just played along with her.

People usually don't see me angry. When I do, it would be because of the frustration of things I dislike built up over time. My tolerance is high, so that means it would take a lot for that to happen. Of course, understanding the situation is also a contributing factor too, but it does built up faster if the anger of others are directed towards me. If it to someone I had known for a while, it is usually for the things that has been accumulated over time that I had previously tolerated, but the most recent being too much. Example: once in a while is okay, but too much of it is unacceptable. Maybe I'll let it slide if enough time has passed, but if done again before then, my tolerance level is pushed closer to the limit. In other words, try to tolorate, but if if kept pushing towards the limit, let them know. If enough time has passed, but still no improvement, it would be better to move on instead of still holding on.

( Author's note: Mentioned in " Alternate Dimension Part 82 " are 4 children in the family. Only the second eldest child is a boy, while the rest are girls. This part is describing the eldest daughter, 1st child, about how good she is that she could do exams that are above her current grade quite well. From the mother's point of view of course.) Me: "My what?" Seems that my own ears is preventing me from hearing a particular word of what the teacher said. It only happens when a gender-specific term about my first two children, whose gender even I don't know, is being talked about or shown. Don't know why myself, and neither can I do anything about it. I can't ask someone to help cure something only me in the whole world experiences and there isn't any medical evidence that proves that I'm suffering from it except suggestions that I may be mentally unstable, which I'm not. It's a mystery as to what caused it, as I could see my...

Having grown up overseas and travelled to different countries, I am used to having people to be talking  loudly on their mobile phones, and on a packed train on top of that. I wouldn't mind if people were to be talking loudly on the train, but that doesn't mean that others won't. Of course, having an otherwise quiet train to be disrupted by someone talking loudly does bother me.

Having come across many things in many different languages and culture, I got exposed to several languages. Being exposed to at least more than two languages, I saw that words could not be translated directly, different sentence structure, requiring context that needs to be understood to be able to translate properly, and things that are just not normally used. When thinking of what to say in a language, it would be different in an another. However, language proficiency and knowing the words to use does affect what to say. If you're seriously thinking of learning a new language, don't just learn "hello" or "where is...?", learn how to say things like "The rental rates seems expensive" and understand what the reply would be. I've experienced the language barrier while I was in Shenzen (深圳市; a Chinese city north of Hong Kong). Every sign there is in Chinese, and there isn't any other language besides terrible English. Roughly being ab...

No matter where you go, you can't really escape people mentioning things relating to the recent major earthquake, which happened in mid-march, when there is no school besides the graduation ceremony of the final years. This was a month before the start of my college. I felt the quake happening at that time. Although the buildings around me seem to be structurally unaffected by it, those closer to the epicenter and the eastern coast suffered larger damages. What I'm more worried about are the children of one of the supervisors, Isaka-san, as they live in a town quite close to the cost, and not too far from the epicenter. The husband, however, is fine. Isaka-san could not contact her children as communication lines are either jammed or cut off, and what's more worrying was that her daughter mentioned the day before to her that she was heading to a neighbouring coastal town to buy some seafood. According to the data we have, that town in question has been annihilated by th...