Month: August 2013

I have been on business trip to Tennessee, Oak ridge national laboratory. The objectives of this time is getting local structure pattern using neutron scattering at SNS for Ni oxide sample and getting magnetization data using SQUID for the sample which we recently succeeded to make.

Honestly, I had a lot of problems. But finally, I could several data. I must confess, this is not 100 percent satisfied results, but I would say I did what I could do. For the local structure pattern, I can not get any positive result so far. I need to analyze data more carefully later. But negative result is also important.

When I was back to my office, I could get the journal from Japanese neutron society. I heard my Ph.D adviser got prize from Neutron community in Japan, because of his contribution to development experimental method for studying magnetism. I am very happy to hear that. On that Journal, he wrote invited paper. On the concluding remark, he said “The relation between Master and Follower is similar to the relation between father and sons. Some sons get over his father, others try to keep running away from his father. I am a latter” I am latter also.

And today, I could attend seminar which is provided by Univ. of Virignia physics department. The title is “When a theorist met an experimentalist or vice versa”, the theoretical physicist and experimental physicist do not communicate well, even they have same interest. One of reason is the theorist pursues “simplicity” but the experimentalist needs to worry about how every equipment works. But, if they communicate with each other very patiently, remarkable things can happen.

During the experiment at Oak ridge, I sacrificed my reading time. That is O.K. I am a Scientist. Instead of reading book, I was listening books. I write several short comments.

Show shank redemption : This is my text book sometimes. I learned a lot from Andy. The importance of habit, enduring work, the spirit of never giving up.

On writing : This is book about writing written by Steven King. Every American has heard his name. I learned from him a lot also about importance of serious writing. “If you want to be a writer, read a lot and write a lot, there is no way around.” This phrase is always in my mind.

Rivals : This books is written by Bill Emott. He is journalist at the Economist. We had been worked for the Tokyo branch. He is very familiar with Asian society. His most famous books is “The Sun also sets” which is published around 20 years before. But he anticipated the problem Japan faces, he wrote them very precisely. Sometime I feel disappointed with why Japanese could not prevented the problem now we face, even he pointed out much earlier.  This books is about India, China and Japan, the anticipation of future of Asia “big three”.

The other is “No planning on you” This book is just for fun. There is nothing to comment.

I wanted to listen more. Do you have recommendations of Audible books. Please tell me if you have!! See you, have a good weekend.

I will have been in Tennessee, Oak ridge this week. I will be back to Charlottesville this Friday. I drove 6 hours today, so I am tired. The experiment is going to be 5 days. I am excited. But a number of experiment are going to be made. I will be tired at the end of this week, because I came here only by myself.

Let me talk about books. In July, I read or listen 20 books. Among these books, I will write short summaries about what I was interested in. 

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

This book is about the pilot who fight world war II against Japan. During war, his plane was sunken. Fortunately, I could survive using the raft, but unfortunately, he was captured by Japanese. He was sent to a camp in Japan main island. He met terrible torturer called “Monster”. After World war II, he was back to Japan to find this torturer. He was also runner who has record of 1 mile. I was into reading this book.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo.

After reading “Unbroken”, I was interested in why people become so cruel. Since the “torturer” is from wealthy and elite family, I did not understand why he had behaved so terribly. This book is about the famous psychological experiment. In this experiment, normal students are asked to be “Prisoner” or “Guard”. Nonetheless “Guard” were normal students, they behaved so badly in the experiment. The mental condition of “Prisoner” became so bad, they are terrified by cruel “Guard” asked for help even during experiment. I heard this experiment already is prohibited to do. It is too dangerous to do.

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. 

This book’s title is ordinary, but the contents is important every reader whoever reads fiction, science, poem whatever, this book teach you how to read deeply. I will reread this book once in a while, this book teach me the attitude of reader. I am going to write review.

I just write about 3 books. I have several more books which I wanted to write here. I will write later. Lately, I am learning “writing” from tutor, I wrote several “Book review” here though. By learning writing, I realized that “Book review”  is difficult. But I will be back surely. I want to write “Book review” the way I do.

O.K. I have to confess, I was lazy. Here I am again. I got tired of writing, because, firstly my life has been busy, secondly, I have been obsessed with reading. A lot of thing is going on my life.

I started book club lately in the end of June. I read 3-6 books a week, however, since English is not my native language, understanding is poor. So, I asked myself how I can improve my understanding on these books and in English. My answer is “Let’s talk!!” So I start my book club. Sometimes, no one came, it is O.K. I can read on that time. But, now the quality of the member of this book club is so high. Even ex professor in English attended in August. I need to improve English skill as soon and much as possible to run this (is going to be) lovely book club.

I am a serious runner now. The “serious” means I run at least 36 miles a week. Now I am currently run 44 miles a week. The distance is increasing up to 55 miles to prepare to full marathon. Running marathon is part of my mental training. I will tell later. I always tell my body who is your boss. I listen the voice of my body though. I do not want to get injured, running is not my first priority in my life.

I am playing guitar again. I always am caring about music. I should have loved music. But, sometime in my life, I thought I was not enjoying music. On reason is because music takes time. I need to listen music, play music, find out the problems, practice to fix. If I want to play in the band, I need to find the place and partner. But I believe someday, the day I am totally satisfied my performance would come. Let’s play for the day.

I just write this during my lunch time, even there are many grammatical mistake. There is no useful information here. But I would say, I would write again.We have only 24 hours a day. Writing is fun, but takes time. However, I need to write to think what I think. Lunch break finished, the time to work on Physics for which I need all of my power to solve.