Skype

Yesterday I installed Skype to my laptop. Today I got my colleague's address. After the dinner I made a call to him and I was surprised to hear its very clear sound. It's also very easy to make a call. During my stay in the U.S. from next month I will use Skype. As I will live in the U.S. alone, I asked my family to install skype to their PCs too. But it's a bit sad that they don't have any interest.

Samsung YP-U2X on sale in the US - Engadget

Samsung YP-U2X on sale in the US - Engadget
Samsung Japan started selling YP-U2 through Samsung Direct. I have been using Toshiba gigabeat for more than 2 years. 20GB gigabeat is very good for me because I am on the train for about 3 hours a day to my office in Saitama-City. I can keep hundreds of CDs on gigabeat. But actually I usually listen to selected CDs such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan or other classic rock. Samsung YP-U2 has a built-in USB plug and doesn't need special software, I can just drug and drop music files. Now I think I'm OK for 1GB only. So I bought one, which is my first gadget in a long time.

Living in Atlanta

At the beginning of this year I planed to read at least 50 books this year. I have done 32 books so far. Last week I have read two, both in Japanese. One is "Living in Atlanta" by JETRO. I can go to Atlanta anytime as I got visa yesterday. I have to have information of Atlanta as much as possible, but this book was written 5 years ago. The other is "English for Sales & Marketing" by Hisamichi Yajima. This is not bad for me because I will be a sales manager in Atlanta.

What is mixi?

Mixi is a social networking serivice opened in February 2004 for the first time in Japan. Now it has more than 5 million members. I wondered why nobody invited me to mixi before, but last week finally a friend of mine in my company invited me. I still don't know very well what I can do on the site. There are too many people. Too many.

firehills got L1A Visa to the United States

Just a few minutes ago around 8:50pm I have recieved a mail from U.S. Embassy in Japan. I thought it was too early to receive my passoport because on Thursday's interview the consul told me it would teke about a week to recieve the visa. But it was my passport coming back from the Embassy. On page 14 on my passport it was there, my L1 visa!

Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan

Maria Muldaur was born and raised in Greenwich Village. She appeared in my favorite book about Dylan "Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan". I didn't know exactly about where thier ways came across. But I know now. We can also see her in Dylan's "No Direction Home". She wrote in liner notes of her new album "Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan", "Bob's song were different. Very Different. With great poetic skill and prophetic vision he brought a deep, fervent, compassionate, and amazingly perceptive overview to the many social issues he addresses". She fell in love with a song called "Moonlight" in Bob's "Love and Theft" and she wanted to record it. It takes some time for recording but finally it released. There are hundreds of covers of Dylan's songs recorded by various musicians like Byrds, PPM long time ago. I am surprised again that Dylan's songs are so beautiful when somebody else sings them. People may easily misunderstand Dylan's songs due to his throaty voice, but I believe his love songs themselves are so lovely and have eternity.

Dylan tops worldwide charts with new album - Music - MSNBC.com

Dylan tops worldwide charts with new album - Music - MSNBC.com
I went to Bob Dylan's concert at Compaq Center in San Jose, California (HP Pavilion now) at October 12, 2001. At that time I found that he actually became old, to be honest. But now he still records the album and performs live. He is now 65!

firehills went to the Embassy of United States

I went to the Embassy of United States Japan this morning for the first time. I got E2 visa before in 1999 but I didn't come here because travle agent submitted the application on behalf of me and there was no interview at that time in 1999. This time I have to get L1A visa to stay in Atlanta for my new assignment for the subsidiary of our company in United States.

They had a heavy security. I had an appointment at 9am and arrived at 8:40am at the gate. But there were already long cue there before the gate. We had to take the pet bottles out (I didn't have), mobile phones out, MP3 players out (I bought Samsung YP-U2 this week, the second MP3 player for me after Toshiba gigabeat). It was almost same as security check at the airport. It took almost 15 minutes for me to get in. Then I submitted the documents and entered into the waiting room, where more than 100 people were waiting. I was called at 9:40am to fingerprint both of my forefingers. What the hell was 9am appointment? I was called for an interview just 5 minutes later. I expected the consul would ask something to me but he didn't say anything at all. Anyway my application was approved and the consul told me my passport with visa would be sent out in one week.

Shinchiba Country Club

I played at Shinchiba Country Club Tsukumo Course yesterday. This course has 54 holes, huge golf course. It is said Asagiri Course is a championship course and very good. Today's Tsukumo Course has out of bounds lines on both side in most of the holes at back nine. I hit 4 out of bounds. Yesterday's private tournament was arranged by the owner of a bar in Shinbashi. I donated a winner's trophy and alarm clocks for prize. My tee shots was terrible yesterday but I scored just below 100 with extreme difficulty, and my net score was around 79, 21th places among 32 players. More than 30 degrees celcius, still very hot, but breeze through the course was fresh and I could feel Autumn approaching for certain.

The Early Asimov Book 1-3

I have finished reading "The Early Asimov" Book 1-3 in Japanese. The stories here was written from 1939 to 1948. Last story is " Mother Earth", which looks like prototype or model of " The Caves of the Steel" in 1954. I have read Asimov a lot in these 5 months. So I will take some rest for a while, start to study English again and read books about the United States, etc.

PS: Yesterday I had a dinner with my friend at a bar in Shinbashi, Tokyo. This is my favorite place to have a drink. Very small (counter only, full if 7-8 customers) and cozy bar where I can enjoy good beer, Japanese sake and Japanese shochu. Tomorrow I will attend the golf tournament which is arranged and organized by the owner of this bar.