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I am going to go to American Physical Society meeting (APS) next March at Denver. I am writing the abstracts of my presentation. I am a kind of exited because I have never been to Denver and I may have chances to talk my study in front of the most appropriate audiences. I am going to give 2 presentations. One is old system about orbital ordered material, the other is also old system about magnetic structural analysis.

I am pretty enjoying study now, two of my projects are close to conclusions. One of the projects, I spent 1 year and almost 9 months to analyze. This system is so complex. And since this system has been studied  extensively around 2000, so many experimental results and theoretical interactions which I have to, of course, be familiar with are published already.

I am thinking about the curiosity. How and where does it come from? As a Scientist, curiosity is one of the most important component (I could not find right word). I want to study harder as much as I can, and I want achievements, promotion, and grants. But I can not work until I am mentally broken. So then hardest working  working harder just before mentally broken state. No. The hardest work as a Scientist should be work hardest not enough to be able to keep abandoned curiosity.

By the way, I have to write something about me. So let me practice here.

I am an experimental physicist studying magnetism. As you know, physics covers wide range of science, such as Space to Particles. But, do you know how we categorize our field? We use “Scale”. Yes, of course you know it, don’t you? The scale is an object defines a set of point for measuring something, such as length, height, temperature, and so on. Our fields are classified the scale of length (more precisely, the scale of distance which interactions matter. ) For example, people studies larger that earth ( > 10^6 m ) I recognize they are studying Space, Also there are physicist studies particle physics studies smaller than ( < 10^-8 m). What I am working on is something like (Sometimes 10^-15) 10-8 m to 10-1 m, it is pretty wide range.

So, I am studying magnetism. Magnetism is a main issue in Physics. For the study of magnetism, basically there are two jobs. One is to know what the magnetic structure looks like, and the other is to know how the magnet becomes magnet. To do these jobs, I use neutron scattering which is produced only by a reactor or positron accelerator. Neutron have been used more than 50 years, still the strongest tool for studying magnetism. Why? It is because that a neutron has no charge and a neutron spin (which is the smallest unit of magnet in the material), which means a neutron has no interaction with electric charge in material but has interaction with spin in material. So we can directly see magnetism in the magnet.

Does it make sense? I have to go today. I would love to write again. I have a lot of things I want to write. Anyway, bye!!

Shakespeare wrote this title in Julius Caesar.

My enthusiasm for the cognitive science is still going on. I have learned a lot Shawn Achor’s books. I am going to review some of books I ever read and I want to look at some of books from references of “Happiness Advantage” and “Before Happiness”. I just finished reading “Before Happiness”, I did not want to finish. This book has changed my life completely. Some of this idea is not new at all, some of them are my beliefs actually, but he explains better, prove with the data. I would love to read relevant subjects and books, There are too many books to read!!

Let me review a bit, I learned the cost of fear. Fear has trapped our mind though out our life. Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar,

“Cowards die many times before their deaths”

Also Tupac says,

”A coward dies a thousand deaths, a soldier dies but once.”

The fear we are feeling prevent us from actions. But we tend to fail to estimate the real cost of fear. Like Dale Carnegie said, ’95 percent of event we imagine never happen’ Do not worry so much. We have to know how to manage our fear. Will Smith also says, ‘The danger is real, the fear is a choice’

Let’s change the subject. I would like to talk about Paraphrasing. When I was in Japan, one of my teacher told me if you want to write paper, you should imitate someone native speaker’s writing. To be honest, this is wrong. We should not imitate other’s writing easily. Actually , paraphrasing is good excise. You have to rewrite sentences without changing meaning with using as much as possible different words. I will write some examples later.

And we are working on Adjective and vocabulary with my writing tutor. To learn new words and vocabulary, following lesson is good.  

For example: Write a paragraph which describe your favorite place in detail as possible as you can with using 5 new adjectives (adverse). Mine is like this (before editing), 150 words??

My favorite place in Charlotesville is Mille Joe coffee. When I go to this coffee shop, I always order a latte. At Mile Joe, Lattes are always made with elaborate patterns. (I do not know how they make it ) Sometimes, the pattern looks like real leaves, sometimes looks like an adorable cat’s face. I love them. Mille Joe is full of cozy furniture, which makes the place fabulous. What I am really into at Mille Joe is their bookshelf. There is a lot of stuff on it: a chess board, books, and an antiquated coffee maker, and so on. And Mille Joe is not only the place for coffee. They have two more booths in the shop. One sells chocolate, the other sells cheese. In each booth, a neatly dressed sales person is talking to their costumer. We can taste coffee with cheese or chocolate at the coffee shop. Sounds fun, doesn’t It?

Those who are English learner as a 2nd language this cite also helps you. This web site teaches us “Adjective Order and Punctuation”. I have never worried about the order of adjective because I did not notice. I just have used adjective with random in the way I feel right.

http://www.esl-library.com/blog/2013/03/07/adjective-order-and-punctuation/

I finished reading ‘Happiness Advantage’ by Shawn Achor. Also, I am currently reading “before happiness” by Shawn Achor. He is a psychologist studying the science of happiness at Harvard. He also gave presentation on TED. You had better watch TED talk first.

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

If you are interested in more, you can start reading his books. As far as I know, there are two books “Happiness Advantage” and “Before Happiness”. Both are good. I actually am inspired by these books which is categorized as cognitive science or psychology (I don’t know how we can define it). This kind of studies have been so active lately. For the general people, the tipping point is “Predictably irrational” by Dan Ariely (2008). He describes how cognitive science is important when we make decisions.

For me, “The Grouped” by Paul Adams (2011) was great. This book is a nice summary of recent extensive survey on the human relationship on the web. This study was surprising, even how information technology has advanced, human connects with strong small ties, like family, close friends, but also there is the importance of weak large ties which is the advantage of SNS.

For me also “The Habit” was another. I believe that most important job in 20’s is making good habits. Good habits make our life easier, but people have bad habits which is difficult to remove from our daily life. My question was how we can build the habit.

So so many cognitive science studies came out lately. So science start to understand how we are looking at our world, ourselves and how we make decisions. I have read a lot of books about this. I want to review these books one by one. If you are interested in, I think the book ‘the Grouped’ is good start. He wrote good summary and left us good references.

I am also reading ‘Every day’. I like this story. The main character wakes up as different person (I believe always he is a high school student.) every day. Girl or Boy, attractive or not attractive, does not matter. He has lived like this from when he was born. But one day, he was someone boy who had been liked by a girl. He eventually fell in love with her. He could not forget about her. The story sounds ridiculous, but make us think. And finally, I bought “Harry Potter” series. I would love to read these. I am excited. To be honest, many people suggest me to read, but I did not start reading because I did not think I have time to read. Yes, it is time to start reading.

Oh, by the way, I am planing trip for thanksgiving. I am thinking of going to Boston, NYC, Philadelphia or around. I have not decide which city and places we are going to stop by. Could you tell me if you have recommendation?

As a scientist, I am studying pretty creatively lately. Of course, I can not write what I am interested in. But I am obsessed with a project. I want to start the experiments soon. These concepts are not new, but its combination seemed rare. I am surveying the literature, paper, old textbook. So far, there is no extensive study of this system. I am thinking of spending several months to find out.

Have a good week!!

Why did I start playing a electric guitar? I have to confess I wanted to be popular in school and among friends. Of course, this ended in super success!! (<- Who knows??) To tell the truth, I started singing first and I realized that playing guitar suited better for me. So I just started playing a guitar only. I would say I have enjoyed playing. But, but, but, oh my gosh!! Why didn’t I started playing a classic guitar!!! Classic guitar must suit the best for me. I deeply regret now. Oh my god.

As you know, learning instrument and language has a lot of analogies. Both need a lot of time to become a certain level of player (speaker). Both need a kind of grammar. Rhythm is important for both. And you have to confront with the fear to be embarrassed and to make mistakes. You should play in front of real audiences to be better ones. I want to emphasize here, reading is most fundamental skill for both. For a long time, I can’t read pieces. I can read TAB (which is made for special pieces to easy to understand for guitarists) though.

So, in short, I started to practice reading pieces. It is hard, really. But I am exited!! How long does it take to read without thinking? 10 years?? Maybe. But I do enjoy reading and playing now. Music is addictive. And for Classic guitar, I started to use finger picking. I still feel hurts, haha. But, it is fun.

I finished rereading “Presentation Zen”, this is one of my bibles. This book reminds me how presentation is becoming important in everywhere in the world. One thing I learned most is the concept how to use the time. Presentation is precious, because at that time, every person in the room is listening your talk, even they are working at much higher position, they would listen your talk. If your presentation time is 10 mins, and 20 audience, you are using 200 mins in total, including the time that the audiences have.

I have not watched TED so much. But I happened to listen one of TED presentations. I have never thought about listening TED, because I did not think that listening is not time efficient. But, like classic guitar. I just realized how I missed a lot of fantastic presentations. I like a lot “The happy secret to better work” by Shawn Achor. I am reading his book now. Honestly speaking, the book looks not so good though, presentation is very nice. I hope I can find more interesting presentation on TED. The problem is how I can find interesting presentation. My schedule is fully packed now. If you wanna to try to watch this presentation, just google the presentation title. You will find the presentation by Shawn Achor.

As for writing, we (I and tutor) are working on adjectives. She gave me the homework. I need to write about the place. I need to write as much elaborately as possible to improve my vocabulary. I though this is good idea. I am going to write this homework. If possible by end of the day.

I have been busy, mentally. I have been in Charlottesville, VA, U.S. for I year and almost 7 months. I really like to live here. But I am thinking of getting a job at some other place from, at latest, next March. When I am thinking of planning application, I do realize, I do not want to move out from here. Anyway, I have to say to myself “do what I can do right now.”

I am practicing writing with a tutor. She is a very good teacher. She has many ideas for practice writing. Last week, we worked on a writing method, something like, “sprint writing”. The method is just 5 minutes’ keeping writing and 5 minutes’ editing, (If possible) and again, and again. This is hard practice but good practice. For example, I wrote about the book which I currently reading.

The book I am reading is called “Looking for Alaska”. In this book, the main character is a college student. And he is kind of a weird guy. He is collecting people’s last words. Do you know Thomas Jefferson’s last words? Jefferson’s last words are “This is the Fourth?” Since the author did not mention what that means, I am so curious about it. I would love to find out before leaving the Univ. of Virginia. I also am reading the “Price of inequality”. This book is written by a famous American economist. He is claiming that inequality is growing in the U.S. Because of it, people lose the right of free choice, which is one of the best virtues of America.  

So, the time is limited. But sometime we need some kind of constrain to be creative. Someone also mentioned “Writing marathon”, his method is just keep writing without editing for 3 hours. I think I should do that sometime after I finish my real marathon. I should spare the time for it. Also, this is a version of 10 minutes’ writing and 5 minutes’ editing, writing about the education system,

One of the most viewed presentations on TED is about education. The presenter, I forgot his name though, presents the story titled “How school kills creativity”. The presenter claims how the standard education system in the world prevents children from being creative. Honestly, I was strongly against him. When I came to the United States, I could see the difference between the American and Japanese education systems. I understood the American focus on people’s talent, but the Japanese focus on perseverance. Of course, both have good points and bad points. In an education system, when we focus on the talent, because I believe the talent is given, it may lead to the state of, what is called, the winner takes all. When we focus on perseverance, we sometimes make talented people do boring training. In my opinion, we should focus on making hard working habits.  Since we actually know little about people’s talent, we should focus on the method….

I could not finish though, still I could force myself to finish which make me efficient. Why don’t you try this method. You had better be with a good teacher though.

When I am asked “which place should I visit in Japan?”, I always ask them in return “Are you a runner?”. If they are runners, I would suggest them to go Imperial palace.

The imperial palace is located at Tokyo Chiyoda and very close to Tokyo station. Tokyo station is one of the oldest and biggest stations in Japan. I believe it is worth visiting. You can get to Imperial palace by walking. You will see full of runners around there. Imperial palace is the place where Japanese emperor lives now and was the place where Edo castle was. It has a spectacular garden, history museum, and a good course to run. It is not too miscellaneous, is it? You can also find the place to change your clothes. Why not running at Imperial palace? You can learn history and see beautiful garden while you are running.

In addition to these, if you are lucky, you can see Japanese emperor. He greets people twice a day from imperial residence. You can listen speech provided by exalted personage, it would be nice if you understand Japanese.

I am teaching Japanese who want to practice Japanese. I am also a Chinese learner, I need to practice Chinese if I could find the time. My second foreign language is Chinese, but I totally forgot everything about Chinese. And I always am shy when I speak Chinese. Learning foreign language is fun if I have more time to learn.    

Since Japanese is my mother tongue, I have not cared about grammar. The student asks me “Why do you say so? other than ….” my answer sometimes “I did not notice that” or “I do not know”. When I say so, this is actually my fault. I should have prepared better.  

I need to know more about Japanese grammar, so I often open textbook and learn Japanese sometime. That is funny. When I teach Japanese, I realize that I do not understand Japanese. At least, I did not think about my mother tongue logically. My student often says “That is weird” , “You should say …” But I actually I do not say so. Sometime I do not have answers from “Grammatical point of view”.

Anyway, today is Friday. My study was going well for this week. I have still so many things to do before I turn the paper in. But I am pretty much enjoying the process. I am becoming the better and the better for Science. I would say I am enjoying study physics. 

I will run 20 miles tomorrow, I need to sleep earlier. I will finish today’s blog here. I am having good time lately, but to tell the truth, I need more reading time. I think I could keep some for Saturday and Sunday. I will pretty much enjoy this weekend as usual. I am still reading “Why nations fail” which is long book and serious theme. I am looking for something fun book for the next.

You have a good weekend.

I started my blog 02/03/2013, finally I am going to write 100 th post. As my rule, I write 300-500 words at least. So, I think I had written around 40000 words. Normally, the written books are around 40000 to 300000 words, It seems I need to write more, if I want to be a serious writer.

The one of most famous contemporary writers in U.S. Steve King said on “On writing”, if you want to be writer, you may start 1000 words a day. I am not going to be writer, so 500 words a day is enough to practice English, other than physics. Anyway, I just finish 100 post. When I reach 1000 posts, maybe, I would be able to write more.

On training marathon, there is running “junk running” which just adds our running experiences, normally, just jogging for hours. But, it is important to have just running experience. While running, I can teach my body enduring work, tell my body ”I am going to run. I will run, O.K.?” For me (thank you for reading this blog though.), to write this blog, sometimes “junk writing.” I am serious writing about scientific writing though, the writing experience is especially important for me.

I used to take a diary. Someone’s saying in Japanese “The person who has taken a diary everyday for 3 years is going to achieve something, and the person who has taken a diary everyday for 10 years had already accomplished something.” I believe this is true.

By writing every day, I can log my thought, consolidate my thought everyday. Unconsciously, I am talking to myself and confirm ”what is the achievement today, what is my goal for my life, did I walk some to my goal?”  When I do not have to write something, I have to come up with something meaningful. To write this blog, firstly for only me, but I would like to write something meaningful for readers. So I have to observe ”Is there anything I have experienced something meaningful for readers today?”

Living in the U.S. is so much fun. I have been in the U.S. for 1 year and 5 months. I have truly experienced meaningful for my life. We have 2 eyes, both eyes are important, because seeing by 2 eyes, we can see the things 3 dimensional. For me, the first eye is made in Japan, the second eye is going to be made in the U.S.

It seems today’s writing is junk writing. By keeping writing, I will come up with something, Thank you very much for reading this blog. You have encouraged me everyday. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

I love to read the books, but life is short. As describe similar discussion here before, if I can read 30 books a month, I would be able to read around 360 books a year, therefore I may be able to read only about 3000 books before I turn 40, including rereading books. I have to work and will have family, children. My life is going to be busy, it will be much harder to save the enough time to read books.

However, the one of recent technological innovations helps a lot, as you know it is called “The audio books”. The benefit of reading audio books are following.

1. We can listen the book with doing something else (e.g. driving, cleaning, walking and so on)

2. We can build listening skill.

3. I believe, from my experience, the audio books work on our emotion, while the physical books work on our logical thinking.

4. Since you listen the book, you know how these words are pronounced, so you can easily talk about the book with your friends.

But also, the audio book has disadvantages, such as,

1. Sometime listening is interrupted by our random thinking. So that, listening audio books is not suit for reading the book first time. You may lost the some part of book when you are thinking different things, which happen almost unconsciously, like “What is today’s dinner?”

2. It is said that comfortable listening is around 160 wpm, so about 10000 word an hour. Normally, the number of words written in the book is around 40000 to 300000. So that we need 4 hours to finish shortest book, sometime 30 hours is needed to finish a long ones.

I am listening faster than normal speed like 2X normal speed, if I can focus on listening I use 3X mode. The audible apps in my smartphone has such function fortunately. Firstly, I thought listening faster speed is hard, but finally I got used to.

You know life is short, I estimated how many hours I spend listening books for a month. I am listening the book around 50 hours a month, which means I do sacrifice my time for listening music for 50 hours. I do listen music, I love music, I play music. But, I chose to listen the books, most of my niche time. Yes, I know time is invaluable.

I am currently reading “why nations fail”. Honestly, I have not followed the author’s claim so far. There are many cases are shown by author, such as French, Britain, Japan, China, the U.S., and so on. I could not see the consistency of what the author claiming. I think the centralization of power in the nation is key, but I am not sure that only this parameter can explain everything. I will have questions about this matter next several days, maybe weeks. I am thinking of reading related books about this matter.

I had heard from one of Physics journal. They sent me the referee comments on the paper I submitted in July. The comments are positive, I believe the publisher is willing to publish the paper. So, I am reading the critique for my paper as deeper as possible, I am planing to revise paper. The referee thought highly of the data, but he has some qualms about my paper, especially for interpretation of the data. I need to address my clarification to publish paper. This is good news. I hope this paper will be published.

To do writing homework for “Paraphrasing”, I was reading the article from the Economist called “No loopy idea”. This article described the possibility of next new train system, which run in large vacuumed tunnel in California area. Unlike the other Economist article, my impression about this article is “not well written”. I am not native reader but I felt so, so that the next question I have to answer is “why do you think so?” I need to have this sense, why this English is “good” or “bad”.

Why is the key. Someone said “The person who know how to do always has the job. The person who also know why is always his boss.” I could find this saying in the book “How life imitates chess” written by Garry Kasparov who is the strongest chess player in history. He explains that this “why” can make turn bad tactics into good tactics. Therefore, only the strategist who always ask himself “why” can have good tactics to his goal.

And now, I am reading books in University library. I like reading here, because they open until late and they serve coffee. I can just focus on my reading. I like it. The Univ. of Virginia has several library, they compete each other, most of them open until midnight, some of them open 24 hours. That is surprising. The university gives the student at least the opportunity to study hard. The students can ask themselves why they need to study hard, can’t they?