minami100w

Feature Story Broadcast

2009-12-08T03:34:00.001+09:00

Here is a broadcast version of my feature story

IMHO#2

2009-11-23T01:08:00.000+09:00

Some American conservative commentators are criticizing President Barack Obama’s deep bow to Japan’s emperor on November 14th, a second day of his Asia tour, accusing the US commander in chief of groveling to a foreign leader.

Obama greeted Emperor Akihito, whose father ruled when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, with a simultaneous handshake and nearly 90-degree bow.

Los Angels Times compares Obama’s unusual greeting to the past presidents’ ways of greeting for other nations’ leaders. Pointing out the differences between them with a history of Japan and the U.S., the author gets at his “inappropriate” action as the U.S. leader. Basically it says, “Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior,” so the U.S. leader should not act like this because his position (the U.S.) is superior to other countries.

When I found out about this news, I was like “so what?” I seriously couldn’t believe that American media made a big deal out of Obama being polite to Japanese emperor. It’s really not that unusual for people in public office to observe the cultures of other people these days. For me, it's always been my policy to respect the cultures of countries I visit.

Bowing is actually a common social gesture in Japan. That’s just how they formally greet each other. The writer of this article seems to be confused with respect/courtesy and submission. Asians actually differentiate between the two clearly. When one wants to submit him to another person, he goes down on his knees and spreads his arm unto the ground (an act called kowtowing). American media should know the real meaning of body languages in other cultures and cultural difference.

I’m not saying that Obama should bow to Japanese people or to any other Asian people who have this culture. Japanese people know that shaking hands is the American way of greeting and they don’t even expect him to practice it as they do. But I’m sure that his behavior reflected his positive attitude to make the relationship between Japan and the U.S. works and that made a favorable impression on Japanese people.

Fish out of water

2009-11-17T02:16:00.000+09:00

I attended a Bible study of the International Friendship Group, which is organized by a multi-ethnic, community-based group of people who enjoy helping international students. They have some kind of event every Friday night at their Church in San Jose. Although Christian people run this group, they help students of all religious backgrounds (or not at all). However, they occasionally have a Bible study that provides students with knowledge about the Bible. You can attend this meeting whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian. Since I know nothing about the Bible or Christian, I thought that it would be a good cultural experience for me to know about it.

The topic of that day was the existence of God. We started off with expressing our opinions about this topic. Most of the attendees were Christian and there were couple of people who were not, including me. During this session, I saw some people who were passionately telling their personal experiences with God and I felt awkward to see that. I’m a Buddhist but I don’t practice it much. I even avoided involving religious activity since it seems suspicious to me, so I never had an opportunity to deeply think about this stuff before. Although I’ve been to church several times since I came to the U.S. to see how it’s like and enjoyed their music, I wasn’t interested enough to go there again. Thus, it was quite strange experience for me to discuss about this topic without any knowledge about a religion. And it was really uncomfortable for me to tell my experience and my feeling about Christianity in that situation.

Trying not to be offensive as much as possible, I told them that I’m not sure whether God exists or not. I also told them that believing in God itself is not troubling me, but I don’t like to see people having argument over what they believe and causing hatred. Although they seemed not very happy to hear what I told them, they still enjoyed sharing opinions with non-Christian people.

It was first time for me to officially express my feeling about a religion and I didn’t like that experience. I think people should believe what they believe and you don’t have to show your disagreement on their faces. But it was still nice to know more about what Christianity is, and I noticed that the bible had some parts that I could agree on.

The word of this week#10

2009-11-16T08:14:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:discernment

(2)Source: article "The Intuitive Genius of Your Being" by Lynn Scheurell in divine caroline.

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

That’s exactly the point … when you rely on the intuitive genius of your being, you will have greater discernment about who to share your time and energy with and what to spend it on as well as being aware of who is in best vibrational resonance with you.

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

noun: the ability to judge well

(5)It is important to exercise discernment when choosing a lawyer.

(2)Source: The Japanese Today Change and Continuity

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

The Japanese have strong aversion to most open displays of feelings, whether of anger or love, though like most rules this has its exception in their toleration of maudlin drunkenness and their unabashed sentimentality.

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

noun: a strong dislike or distinction

(5)They made plain their aversion to the use of force.

Japanese Interment Memorial

2009-11-04T01:02:00.000+09:00

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Japanese immigrant in California and history behind it until I researched for this assignment. Of course I learned about World War II when I was in Japan, but I never had chance to get to know about Japanese immigrants who were kept in concentration camps in the U.S. around that time. Reading about the history of Japanese interment, I felt sorry for them as same Japanese, and I appreciate the city of San Jose for reserving the memorial like this to remind people the cruelty of such history.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”

^{However, key U.S. leaders claimed that all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast of the U.S. posed a risk to national security without evidence. A year earlier, Roosevelt had authorized incarcerating more than 110,000 innocent people based on their ancestry, in what he called “concentration camps.” Although two-thirds were U.S. citizens, they were targeted because of their ancestry and the way they looked.}

Justifying it as a “military necessity,” the government forced U.S. citizens and their immigrant elders to leave their homes and live in camps under armed guard.The United States government feared that Japanese Americans would commit acts of sabotage against their country. Although Japanese Americans never committed such act, some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the Western United States were removed from their homes and made to live in internment camps. Of these, almost 80,000 were United States citizens; 40,000 were children. Ruth Asawa, the artist who made the memorial in San Jose downtown, was one of these citizen children.

Ruth was only 16 when she and her family were interned. It was upheaval experience for her and other Japanese people to lose everything— most importantly their right to freedom and a private, family life— that caused irreparable harm. For Ruth, the internment was the first step on a journey to a world of art that profoundly changed that she was and what she thought was possible in life. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she reflected on the experience, “I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am,” she said.

The memorial contains two sides of extremely detailed vignettes in a sort of time line layout portraying Japanese American life. One side of the panel depicts their peaceful life doing agriculture while the other shows their painful experiences being kept in concentrate camps. Each vignette tells story with emotion that reflects their suffer and power to live for their future. The one sight that really grabbed my attention is Japanese guys sitting in the circle in front of graveyards. I’m not exactly sure why so many people died there, but thinking about their life ended up dying in the camp makes me grieve.

Walking around the SJSU campus, I noticed that there is a building whose name is Japanese and was wondering the story behind it. According to Spartan Daily, San Jose State University's Yoshihiro Uchida Hall served as a midpoint for evacuating residents from San Jose and Santa Clara.

In December of 1944 the Japanese internment policy was revoked. By 1947, 40 businesses and 100 families had re-established themselves in this area.

As a Japanese, it was a great opportunity for me to know other Japanese people who experienced that hard period of time in California. Knowing that there are many Japanese people around this area, I’ve never thought about their backgrounds and history. I really hope this extreme tragedy will never happen again, and we should keep this memory in our minds that this unbelievable thing actually happened at the place we live not long ago.

Word of the Week#9

2009-11-02T01:04:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:aversion

(2)Source: The Japanese Today Change and Continuity

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

noun: a strong dislike or distinction

(5)They made plain their aversion to the use of force.

Word of the Week#8

2009-10-27T01:04:00.002+09:00

1)The word of the week:blunt

(2)Source: PR Week, September 2009

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

He adds that a great year from another NBC University division, such as motion pictures, could blunt the ill effects of bad year for TV entertainment.

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

adjective:not having a sharp edge or point/ uncompromisingly

verb:make or become less sharp

(5)Constant use blunted the feather's point.

IMHO#1

2009-10-26T08:38:00.001+09:00

The recent news that caught my attention is a suicide issue on Caltrain tracks. Reviewing the past articles about this issue, I found out that suicide by train is not a new phenomenon in California as well as where I’m from, Japan. However, it must be a rare case that the four teens from the same high school committed suicide within a half year using same method. Sadly, throwing one’s body into a running train is indeed getting be a disturbing trend among teens. According to the article, Caltrain has spent more than $17 million for pedestrian gates, fencing and signs to improve safety at their street crossings and help keep people off the tracks. However, no matter hard they work on physical prevention, it won’t solve the root of this problem.

Caltrain officials said today that the best way to discourage teen suicides on Caltrain tracks is to address mental health issues on a community level and tone down news coverage of the deaths of several young people at a Palo Alto crossing since May.  I totally agree with this approach, but I also think that giving them an ethical education in terms of suicide is also important to teach kids how important their lives is or how committing suicide can affect others. Some kids might think that committing suicide is only a matter of them, but it is absolutely not true. They should also be able to consider how this experience could affect to the rest of the people such as operators, passengers, local residents, teachers, their classmates and their family member. Especially, it must be very upsetting for the engineer and the conductor as well as the passengers that are on the trains. Although they have no responsibility, technically they were part of the objects that killed kids.The article says that the engineer and the conductor can get counseling and even talk to peer counselors, people who have been through the same kind of situation, who can talk with them about what it feels like.

It is indeed a community’s responsibility to take care of their kids and educate them to prevent these disasters. Adolescent mental health is already a sensitive topic and mental illness makes it more complicated. I really hope the prevention plans that the city made will work out well and won’t see a new case regarding to suicide on Caltrain again.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Analysis

2009-10-19T16:18:00.001+09:00

I read the first piece called "Brownies," which is about a Brownie troop of fourth-grade African American girls from suburban Atlanta, Georgia, who go to summer camp. And they decide to creep up on a troop of white Brownies who are "ponytailed and full of energy, bubbling over with love and money" and "teach them a lesson" for a racial insult they inflicted.

Growing up in Japan, where people don’t have as much conflicts about racial and religion as here, I didn’t expect to be able to imagine how the people involved with those issues really felt. But Packer’s descriptive writing style enabled me to vividly picture the scenes and even made me identify myself with the characters in the story (although it still took me a while to fully understand). Packer has a strong voice and the ability to convey surreal situations plausibly. Being loyal to a deep, beautiful, and painful honesty, she also describes how human beings behave and lets me experience that knowledge.

In her story, Packer touches with sensitive issues, such as race and religion that play an important part in her story. Yet these concepts seem to line periphery and never intrude on her central concern that illuminates lives that are instantly familiar to us.

Word of the Week#7

2009-10-14T08:36:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:derogatory

(2)Source: “Charles Strouse’s Big Scores, From ‘Annie’ To ‘Birdie’” from NPR Fresh Air

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

You know, a lot of rock music, in those days particularly, was very - I don't want to say simple because that wouldn't - that would be a little bit derogatory, but there were certain patterns. It became patterned, in a way, and I did model it on that

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

adjective: showing a critical or disrespectful attitude.

(5)She tells me I'm fat and is always making derogatory remarks.

NPR Analysis

2009-10-14T08:34:00.001+09:00

I didn’t know that this kind of website exists. You can see the transcripts as you listen to the radio and even download stories into your mp3 player! Wow that’s impressive! I choose a story “Charles Strouse’s Big Scores, From ‘Annie’ To ‘Birdie’” from Fresh Air. Although I didn’t know much about this famous music composer and the musicals he worked on, it was still interesting to hear how this talented guy, Charles, worked on pop music, having his background as a serious musician, of classic music. And I also enjoyed some pieces of music from the musicals played during the interview. Playing these songs during the interview would make audiences who knows about this old musical remind the old days, and it would be also entertaining for the audiences who are not familiar with musicals.

Ok, back to the assignment.

Obviously the host, Terry Gross has watched the original musical “Annie,” and I bet she was a big fan of this play since she told Charles that she remembered words to songs when she listened to the songs of this play for the first time in a long at the beginning of the interview. She was not only naturally prepared to this interview, she also had some insights about his music and the musical. As she did, showing one’s interest to an interviewee is a good way to start off an interview. Since she actually saw the play at that time and was really familiar with it, Charles must have thought that she was not a rough- and-ready interviewer.

Reading a transcript briefly, I noticed that Terry really didn’t speak much. She just let Charles talk and talk, and picked up some interesting episodes and asked more details about them. I think that’s her strategy to make this interview more interesting. Rather than just keep asking a set of questions, hearing more about what he says made it more interesting.

Even though some of his answers were little off track, she took advantage of it and formulated new questions promptly. For example, she asked him how his classic music teacher responded when he worked on pop music for the musical. After he answered this question, he suddenly started telling his episode that that he has made some songs for his family and his ex-girlfriend. Then Terry asked him to play one of the songs he played for her (his ex-girlfriend). Charles hesitated to do it so but he eventually enjoyed performing it, and he even told Terry that it was the most interesting interview he has ever had! That must be the greatest compliment for an interviewer.

Overall, I enjoyed this story as the listener and I could tell Terry and Charles were having fun as well. And I now understood how important it is to “shut up” as an interviewer.

Word of the Week#6

2009-10-12T01:20:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:periphrasis

(2)Source: Long Time, No see: Why We Dream of People from Our Past (The article of divine caroline)

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

We won't have seen or thought about someone in ages, and then suddenly he'll appear as a central figure in a dream, or someone in our peripheral awareness will come to the fore at a seemingly arbitrary time.

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

noun: the use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing

(5)This expression is a favorite journalistic periphrasis.

Mystery character

2009-10-12T01:18:00.000+09:00

She is the lady who dresses pink the best in the world. She is thoughtful, kind, positive and has guts to conquer any difficulty she faces. She is driven to do her best, no matter how ridiculous it may be. She gives hope for women everywhere to emulate her persevering character by believing in what may seem like the impossible. Many would have doubted her success, but she proved them wrong by working hard while still staying true to herself. She firmly stands up for what she believes in and encourages others to do the same. One of her exceptional characteristics is that she does not care what others think of her. She does as she pleases, and she does not let anyone get in the way of her pursuit of a dream.

Word of the Week#5

2009-10-05T23:56:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:intermittent

(2)Source: Being and Nothingness by Jean Sartre

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

"Let us understand indeed that his original necessity of being its own nothingness does not belong to consciousness intermittently and on the occasion of particular negations."

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

adjective: occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady

(5)California had an intermittent rain today.

Fly on the wall

2009-09-30T11:25:00.000+09:00

I go to café for no reason. Just being in the room filled with smell of coffee and sweets makes me relax even though I’m not a huge fan of coffee.

Monsieur Bean in Willow Glen is my favorite one. This place has colorfully painted chairs and unique pictures that seem to be painted by kids, under the warm orange lights. There is no music but I can hear people talk, laugh, type their laptop keyboards, and grind coffee beans.

People do what they love to do or have to do. They do things that they can do at their home, but they choose to be here because they simply love to be in this place where just has coffee and some other stuff. I often come here when I have a lot of homework to do. I don’t like to spend much time in school library because being surrounded by people who do their works with serious look makes me uncomfortable sometime. In this cafe, however, there are still some people who look pretty serious, and there are also people look so happy as well. I like to see those people and wonder what they are thinking or talking about, then I come back to my work. There are some people practicing French pronunciation, or playing their guitars, which sometimes make me annoyed. But other time I like this noise because it makes this café filled with the warmth of a happy home.

Word of the Week#4

2009-09-28T23:47:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:rekindle

(2)Source: Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

"Even though in our time we deem it progressive to give our approval to 'metaphysics' again, It is held that we have been exempted from the exertions of a newly rekindled --------."

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

verb: relight, revive

(5)He tried to rekindle their friendship.

Word of the Week#3

2009-09-21T23:34:00.000+09:00

(1)The word of the week:perplexity

(2)Source: Meno by Plato

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

"Well, did we harm him any by numbering him like stingray and making him aware of his perplexity?"

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

noun: do deal with or understand something

archaic an entangled state

(5)she paused in perplexity

Comparing media

2009-09-21T14:20:00.001+09:00

The story I choose for this assignment is protester marching on the U.S. capitol on September 12^th. This news is about thousands of conservative protesters from across the country converged on the Capitol Saturday morning to demonstrate against President Obama’s proposals for health care reform and voicing opposition to big government, what they say is over-the-top spending. I checked TV, print, and online news to compare how this story is delivered.

TV:

I watched FOX NEWS. It was approximately six minutes long news showing pictures and videos of massive crowds in front of Washington at the beginning of the news. This visual approach tells how big this event was. Those pictures were constantly shown as a newscaster, who was in a studio, talked with a reporter, who was in that scene of this marching. They first argued the number of people who attended the marching to clarify how big this event was. Then they wondered if these voices of angry people were heard by President Obama, who was in Minnesota at that time. Then they discuss the prospected following actions by White House and concluded that this number of people is too large to ignore.

Print:

Los Angels Times put this news in a top page asserting a big picture of tens of thousands of protesters marching in Washington D.C. And the story continued to another page for more detail. In continuous page, it had another picture of a large number of people standing in front of White House. Since this is two pages long coverage, it had a well-descried background story with some comments of politicians and protesters. Also, at the previous page (left side of the page), there was an article about President Obama delivering his speech about his healthcare. Obviously these two stories are placed next to each other purposely to be compared.

Online:

ABC News had an article online titled “Tea Party Protesters March on Washington.” The article itself isn’t that long, but it had a minute long video summarizing this news and showing a bunch of people marching in Washington D.C. and some angry comments of protesters.

Each type of media seems to be emphasizing how big this marching was since they all shows pictures of a large number of people booing and accusing President obama.

Library scavenger hunt

2009-09-15T15:21:00.003+09:00

(1) What type of system is used to organize the books in the MLK Library? Briefly describe how it works.

In MTK Library, the systems called “The Dewey Decimal Classification” and “the Library of Congress Classification” are used to organize the books.

The Dewey Decimal Classification system organizes books on library shelves in a specific and repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its proper place. And once you have found a classification number for books useful to your research, browse the areas surrounding that number, as you may find other books related to your subject close by.

The Library of Congress Classification system organizes material in libraries according to twenty-one branches of knowledge. The 21 categories (labeled A-Z except I,O,W,X and Y) are further divided by adding one or two additional letters and a set of numbers.

(2) What is in the “Browsing Library” on the first floor?

This area has English language following materials: new novels and nonfiction titles, feature movies and TV series in DVD and VHS formats, educational DVDs and music CDs

(3) What types of electronic databases are available in the MLK Library?

There are so many databases available especially for SJSU students, such as ProQuest and SJPL databases are available:

(4) Briefly explain how to access the library's electronic databases.

Logging in to the page. You need to make your own account in advance.

(5) List 10 daily newspapers that are available in the MLK Library.

The Mercury News, SF Chronicle, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fresno Bee, The Financial Times and The Dispatch.

(6) Give the title and call numbers of a video, DVD and CD.

Video

Title: Surprising studies of visual awareness by Daniel J. Simons.

Call number: XD0796

Title: My Name is Chicken Joe

Call Number: PENDING

DVD

Title: Anchoring Home Fuel Tanks, A Presentation of FEMA's Mitigation Division

Call Number(s): HS 5.120:F 95/DVD

(7) Find a reference book; give the title and call number, and briefly describe the type of information found in this book.

Title: Communication research measures : a sourcebook. Volume II

Call number: P91.3 .C623 2009

This book belongs to categories of research and methodology so you should be able to find how to conduct communication research.

(8) Find a DVD, CD, newspaper and book in a foreign language. Give the title and call number for each.

DVD

Title: Kids return

Call number: JPN-ENG DVD Kids

Title: Glay-drive: complete best

Call Number: JPN CD POP Glay

Newspaper

Hokubei mainichi

Book

Momoko no omoshiro kenkō techō

Call number: JPN 613 Sakura

(9) List five magazines available the MLK Library.

COSMOPOLITAN

TIME

VOUGE

PEOPLE

NEWS WEEK

(10) Locate a scholarly article on John Steinbeck. Give the call number, title and author.

Call Number:

Title: The Last Knock Knock

Author: Hall, Donald

(11) Locate a book about Steinbeck. Give the call number, title and author.

Call Number: PS3537.T3234 Z715496 2009

Title: A John Steinbeck reader : essays in honor of Stephen K. George

Author: Barbara A. Heavilin.

(12) Find a book on farm labor in the California Room. Give the call number, title and author.

Call Number: REF CAL 331.89283

Title: FARM LABOR PROBLEMS

Author: Sherry, Gerard E.

(13) Find a book on San Jose in the California room. Give the call number, title and author.

Call Number: 133.1097 Lee

Title: Haunts of San Jose, California

Author: David Lee.

(14) Find a book on California minorities. Give the call number, title and author.

Call Number: Thesis HM 2004. H843

Title: California civil rights initiative and underrepresented minorities in education

Author: Qiana Houston.

(15) What is in the MLK's Cultural Heritage Center collections?

This center offers the collections including the Africana, Asian American and Chicano collections.

(16) List three things you'll find in the Center for Beethoven Studies

1. The largest collection of Beethoven materials outside of Europe

2. A variety of educational programs and projects

3. The Guevara Lock of Beethoven's Hair

(17) What is the difference between a scholarly journal and a popular magazine? How can you tell them apart? (2 pts.)

A scholarly journal is written in the jargon field for scholarly readers and more structured while popular magazine is written in non-technical language for anyone to understand and does not necessarily follow a specific format or structure.

(18) List five mass comm (journalism/PR/advertising) journals available in the MLK Library.

1. Monaural speech separation and recognition challenge.

2. Speech separation using speaker-adapted eigenvoice speech models.

3. Speech fragment decoding techniques for simultaneous speaker identification and speech recognition.

4. Super-human multi-talker speech recognition: A graphical modeling approach.

5. List of reviewers.

(19) How many art installations are there in the library. Briefly describe your favorite one.

I like pictures of Snoopy on the entrance (San Fernando side).

It’s really unique to put cartoon characters on public library entrance!

The word of this week

2009-09-15T01:34:00.003+09:00

(1)The word of the week:exquisite

(2)Source: Jean Paul Sartre's NAUSEA

(3)The entire sentence in which I found this word:

"It's finished: the crowd is less congested, the hat-raisings less frequent, the shop windows have something less exquisite about them: I am at the end of the Rue Tournebride.

(4) Dictionary definition of the word:

adjective: extremely beautiful and delicate

noun:literary a man who is affectedly concerned with his clothes and appearance; a dandy

(5)This artist has an exquisite sense of music.

My favorite Writing

2009-09-09T01:10:00.004+09:00

"According to one study, 15% of Fortune 500 companies maintain an external corporate blog. That number will likely grow rather than shrink. PR professionals need to realize a blog by itself is not a strategy. However, A blog that work in conjunction with other avenues can effective."

Editorial page 24

"Blogging alone does not make up a communication strategy"

By Erica lacono

PRWeek August 2009

I chose this conclusion part of an editorial on PRWeek magazine. It was my first time reading it and I really enjoyed its fresh topics. This article is basically saying that using an active blog can engage various stakeholders; however, failing at having two-way communication is not effective. For example, it shows an example of Twitter using its blog exclusively to explain its latest security breach, mentioning media to a blog posting when they had questions. Author thinks that an important issue regarding to security deserves more attention than a simple post. Although there is nothing wrong with company using a blog for as a communication tool; however, you have to reflect public opinion (such as media) on your posting and cease to be the two-way communication. Indeed, the very last sentence of the article well expresses that a blog can be used as business strategy only when it links to its stakeholders.

Word of the week

2009-09-02T14:13:00.004+09:00

The word I picked for this week is (1)"despair."

I know that it's not an exciting word and we do not want to hear or use it as much as possible but I learned this word in a book called (2)"The Sickness unto Death" by Soren Kierkegaard.

This is actually an assignment book for my philosophy class and it made me really confused and disappointed. Because he thinks that people can't avoid facing despair and without despair, we can not be the self.

Here is the very beginning of the sentence of this book.

(3)"Despair is a sickness of the spirit, of the self, and so can have three forms: being unconscious in despair of having a self, not wanting in despair to be one self, and wanting in despair to be oneself."

Hummmm...

He explains what exactly these mean in a story, but here are definitions of despair that I found in dictionary.

(4)

noun: the complete loss or absence of hope

verb:lose or be without hope

I'm not a logical type of person but learning philosophy is fun....as long as I understand.

So here is a new sentence that I make using this word.

(5)"I despaired of ever finding the lost cell phone last year."

You know what, it's a real story.

I was so sad that I lost my phone during final week of last fall semester and I also lost my wallet that my sister gave to me during winter session!

I couldn't believe that these things could really happen!

They were all my faults but losing these things really crushed my spirit out of me.

about me

2009-08-27T03:07:00.002+09:00

My name is Minami.
I'm an international student from Japan majoring PR.
I've lived in the U.S. for 4 years, and this year is going to be a last year of my stay in this country.

Quick summary of my life in the U.S:
2003-2004: Banning High School
2006-2008:Butte Community College
2008-Now:San Jose State University

I stayed in Banning which is in Southern California as an exchange student when I was junior in high school. Then I went back to Japan to finish high school and came back to the U.S. for school.

My life in bay area has been great since this is my first time to live in a big city.
I grew up in Nagano which is surrounded by mountain, and Chico, where I stayed for first 2 years for community college, is also a small city which is isolated from another big city.
Of course I loved to live those small, mellow places, but I wanted to have different experiences while I'm here in the U.S. What I love about bay area is that I have a quick access to other cities such as SF, SC. This is so exciting to me because I've never lived close to beach. San Jose doesn't have a beach but it's close enough to me!
Also, I like that this place is so diverse and I can see people from many different back grounds.

I would love to enjoy rest of my stay in this country and most importantly, finishing college on time!!