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Since I had been out my home town for experiment for a week, I did not realize the fall semester at the Univ. of Virginia started. Full of Students!! I can feel my life is going to be crazy busy in this semester (My work does not depend on the semester though. ) But this busyness helps me to work harder.

I am currently working on writing skill. I hired my writing tutor, because I know, among the several language skills, the writing is hardest and difficult to teach myself. My ultimate goal in writing is publishing my book in English. I do not know whether or not that would happen. Anyway, I will have written the scientific papers in English throughout my career. Why not practicing my writing?

Let me share my experience with you on writing, especially for English learners. My teacher asked me to write “summary” and “paraphrase”. I thought I did not need to practice, because my objective is writing the book. I wanted to work on the longer writing, like 10 K words more. But, once I have done several assigned works, I just realized these skills are very important.

Both practicing “Summary” and “Paraphrase” helps you a lot on reading. Both skill need you to understand the text fully. You have to understand what author is saying. For summary, you need to catch main author’s point and describe clearly and shortly. For paraphrase, you had better use the different vocabulary and structure to describe what the author explain. These are hard jobs.

And I just finish reading “Blink” by  Malcolm Gladwell, and started reading “The art of thiking clearly” by Rolf Dobeli, and also am reading “Why nations fail” and “The romance of three kingdoms (Chinese classic literature)” These are very fun. Let me write here soon. I am sorry, but time to go for today. Let me write later. Have a good evening.

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.

 

 

 

Friday night. Usually, I clean up my room in Saturday morning, but I did it today. I actually could not finish cleaning up my room. It is because I started playing a guitar. Anyway, today is on Friday. No one complains. I can not stop playing once I start.

Interestingly, I have not enjoyed playing music so far. I did practice, I did perform, but I did not play for myself. When I was in 20’s, I was so afraid of not using time efficiently. Since, the music is not first priority of my life, I can not spare time enough to play well.

As I wrote here before, I started playing guitar with tutor. I have been playing the guitar but I have taught by myself. I did not think I needed to hire tutor for guitar. It is because, firstly, playing the guitar is just my hobby, I do not want to pay any extra money for it. But as I wrote review ‘The practice perfect’, it is much better if we have tutor because they know what to practice, when to practice.

For me,  I have faced with the problem. I could not find way to next stage. I have lost my way. What is my goal for music and playing guitar? What should I practice or perform? I may be able to play if I was asked to play something, but, I have no creativity. This is because, I think, I had no vision for my music life.

So, now, we are reviewing the scale. You know ‘Scale’ is part of music theory. The scale itself is very simple. But applying the scale on playing in appropriate way is not so easy. Especially for jazz, fusion, the codes change so rapidly, ‘which scale should I chose and how to play, how to make story with melody?’ is always in question. Yeah. We need to think so much before getting used to.

I do not know how much I need to practice. It seems that this is long way to get out the flood of ‘scales’. But, I am excited to find the way to be better player. I believe this scale training and our discussion is beneficial to my music life. I want to be much better player today.

So, Physics, English, Reading, Guitar, and Running seem to be my central issues. Life is simple for me, haha. I am already full. Let’s invest my time for them.

 

I started training for marathon for Richmond marathon which is held at November 16th. Last year, I ran 2 half marathon and 1 marathon. I have been running every Tuesday (Speed training ) and Thursday (Pace training) on the Univ. of Virginia track at 6 am, and running on Saturday (10 miles and more) and Sunday (6 miles for easy) at 7 am. Those running are with our running group. And when I can spare my free time, I jog in the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

I just finished reading titled “what I talk about when I talk about running” by Haruki Murakami. That book is very inspiring. So, my motivation for running is maximum now. I will review of this book later, but one thing I would like to mention is one quote from the book. The quote is something like this,

“The pain is inevitable, the suffering is option.”

Yes. I can apply this quote to everything in my life. But anyway, let’s talk about running only today.

My goal for marathon is 3 hours and 40 mins. I have 5 months for the race. During summer, I am going to focus on the speed training and after the summer, I am going to long distance training. I have time to train. Most important thing is not getting injured. I should be most careful about injury.

I have several small goals to get there. If you are interested in, why don’t you join me?

1. Charlottesville Man’s 4 miler (Charlottesvile, VA, June 15th). The goal is 32 min (under 8:00 mins/mile).

2. 5K race (Charlottesvile, VA, July 4th). The goal is 23 min (under 7:30 mins/mile).

I am looking for chance to run race in August. I have found any of them so far.

3. 10K race (Charlottesvile, VA, September 14th) The goal is 46 mins (under 7:30 mins/mile)

4. Half marathon (Charlottesvile, VA, October 13th) The goal is 1 hour and 40 mins (under 7:40 mins/mile)

5. Marathon (Richmond, VA, November 16th) The goal is 46 mins (under 8:30 mins/mile)

The goals are all set. I would like to break my best this time.

I am running with the running group. That is fun. And that running group has instructor who help us buying new shoes and giving us advises.  I have really enjoyed running with group.

Running marathon is enduring work. We need plan, rest, training, knowledge, sometimes buddies, will, healthy diet and mentality. I am proud of having finished running marathon last year, I will break my record this year. This time is second time for marathon. I will train harder and efficiently. I know I can do that.

”Shoveling snow.” A Japanese fiction writer called ”Haruki Murakami” describes  the work using this word. My understanding of this words is something like, we have to work, but working is like shoveling snow. Everyone needs to do that but that does not mean easy. Of courser hard. However, do not take seriously so much, but why not, let’s do work.

Yes, Friday is gone, weekend coming. This week pasted so fast. I did work like shoveling snow. I have been thinking these things in this week.

1. Paper

I have been working on countering argument of the paper I submitted. So I read a lot of paper carefully. By doing this, I could find something to do next. I have to admit, I need to do science more. I know only few things. Because I am working for Univ. of Virginia, work needs time to spend for achievement. That is fun, But I believe sometimes I have to learn for the future work.

2. Guitar

I am practicing the guitar. I hired someone who can teach me how to play. I have been playing a guitar for 12 years but I always taught myself. From teacher I could learn a lot of things. For the first lecture, he mainly focus on the music theory.

Music theory is interesting. Actually, like a language, the earlier you start, the better though, still it is fun.  However, this is like the vocabulary for writing. Most important thing not to memorize the theory, but actually how you play. I need to learn so many, but I will do that. I would like to be a good player.

3. Teacher

Why did I hire the teacher? Because I would like to raise the qualities of practice. Basically teachers do these 2 things.

(1) Telling the student what to practice.

(2) Telling  the student when he needs that practice.

For practicing something, it is important to focus on what are you practicing. These 2 things can help you practicing intentionally. It is difficult if you teach by yourself about these 2 things.

To raise the quality of practice or performance, playing in front of people is also important.

4. Writing.

I have been watching DVD course about writing. That course is very useful. Each lecture is 30 mins, teaches us something.  Today, in the course, teacher says ”respect audience”. I would love to do that. But I am sorry, I need time to be better writer enough to respect audience.

Thank you for reading this. Have a good weekend.

We submitted our paper for Physical review letter, this April. 2 referees commented on the paper, and having seen that comment editor decided not to publish our paper. Basically, this is not good news but this is normal. The more paper I wrote, the more our papers would be rejected. That is O.K. Let’s move on resubmit and the other studies.

As for this paper, we are going to resubmit. The given comments are strict but very helpful, so that I read carefully these comments and I read papers which are related to our paper. I actually, disagree with their comments. So, yes, we are going to counter their argument. I have been thinking and writing about it. That is fun. But, you know, this is also hard. I am a postdoc, I want to publish papers as many and soon as possible.

The study of this field has long history. So that, there are so many calculation and experiments have been made. I have been studied this system for 1 year, still I am not sure I am familiar with this study. But this time, by writing paper and countering argument. I am getting familiar with. This reminds me the process of publishing paper is very very important to my career. Of course, publishing paper is achievement though, also the chance to learn and understand physics.

The science has been made by humans. The humans make mistake. So that this review process is important. Someone gets results and writes the paper, that paper is reviewed by the other scientist. If they approve the paper deserve to publication, that paper comes out. We can share the knowledge. That is how science works.

I would like to increase the chance to write the papers and If I had the chance, I would like to  do referee. I need these experience a lot more. I have to learn how these work, but I am already 30 years old, time is limited. Let’s write paper more, counter argument (sometimes, we don’t need), and do referee. Let’s move on.

I have spent a good weekend. I could use time for myself. Thanks to this, I could have chance to think about something.

1. Writing.

I was thinking of writing. I have been working on writing, by reading books, watching DVD course, and hiring writing tutor. We can always find the hint of improvement. I actually am thinking that I may not be able to write to my heart content, like playing a guitar and music. Anyway, let’s practice. Read a lot, write a lot.

2. Friendship.

The definition of friendship can be different among people. I was told that I am lonely. But I have never felt my loneliness. I have a lot of friends but I do not hang out with them usually. Because I think that is wasting times. Of course, we meet once or twice a year, and sharing achievement we did. But I turned 30. What is purpose of my life?  I know how to invest my time. I can not be friends who I can not respect in some points. I am always thinking like this quote,

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche

3 Practice and Reading

I love reading books, but why do I like reading? Reading is something like “Practice” for living life. I can see myself on the character in the book. For example, this is from Great Gatsby which I reread lately,

Nick says “We can not repeat the past”, Gatsby says ”Why of course we can.’

Can we? I do not think so. If so, what can I learn from this book? Can I accept the fact that I lost the girl? Even Gatsby could not.

4. The difference between Ph.D student and postdoc.

Student studies much slower than us. Because they need to learn a lot, besides studying. That is why they need hard work. I have never looked down them because I was one of them. We are different stage.

This is like marathon. Ph.D course is like running marathon 1st time. Postdoc is like running marathon 2nd or 3rd time. The difference between 1st time and 2nd time is experience of finishing tape. Both are hard but, for the 2nd time, we have strategy and know the goal which is required to achieve.

Students sometimes mistake. That is normal. The point is how he behave after he found the mistakes. That is very important. His integrity is called into question.

I have been so busy recently. Also for me, there were several thing happened. I am sorry for not writing this blog lately. I was back. I have tons of topics I would like to write, these are a part of it.

1. I visited NYC

I went to New York city during 4/26 – 4/29. I took 2 paid leaves for staying NY. My friend from Japan happened to come Washington D.C. and NY. I had never been to NY, so I decided to go to there with him. He brought the Japanese sake for me, by the way.

It was so much fun.

On the first day, I drove to Dulles international airport to pick him up, and then drove to NYC I do not hate long distance driving, I really enjoyed driving and talking with my friend. I pick him up at around 12-1 pm and we got there around 6 pm. However, it took 3 hours to enter Manhattan island. Finally we arrived at hotel around 9-10 pm.

2nd day was the busiest day. We went to Times square, museum and theater. And we tried to go to Jazz bar “Blue note” which is my favorite in Tokyo, but show time was too late. So we just hang out some bar.

3rd day, we went to statue of liberty. I could meet Japanese friend who is working at NYC And I could eat Japanese food and buy Japanese books. And we went to empire state building, And we finally went to Jazz bar.

4th day, I just went back to Charlottesville. It took 6 hour to drive back. That is not so bad. I realized how I can go to NY better for next time.

2. Watching student video

I watched videos which was made by student who is studying Japanese in the last class of Japanese for 2nd year of undergraduate student. I have watched 8 of videos. Each video was so great and funny. Some of video succeeded to imitate Japanese culture very well. I was surprised to see.

One of student’s group made video based on my interview. That video’s story is something like this :

The physicist who is working for Univ. of Virginia. Actually he was pretend to work, he was obsessed with looking for alien. One day, it happened to come to the earth. It was looking for someone who can fix his spaceship. They met and became close because they both like Deep purple (which is my favorite), and finally, space craft was fix, and alien left. Kind of sad. This movie  should be parody of  “X-files” (which is my favorite).

I really enjoyed that story.

3. Presentation

I made a presentation. Allocated time for me was 45 min. Recently, I read the book called ‘Presentationzen’, I will write a review though, that book helped me a lot. I am going to summarize the book. Soon.

4 Writing.

I read several book for writing. I will write reviews but, the most impressive books was “On writing” by Steven King. I learned a lot from this book. He said ‘Read a lot, Write a lot’, this phrase push me back to this blog.