Audacity: powerful tool
Today, I used an application- software, “Audacity” for the first time in the lecture of Paul and found that it is a quite useful tool to review my pronunciation and my speaking habit. Soon after the lecture, I downloaded this free software to my personal computer. I will play with the software in my spare time as much as possible and hope that I will be able to improve my English speaking ability some day. But at this point, this software made me quite miserable by letting me recognize my poor English , which depressed me a bit but I will try out.
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Memory in a hospice : III
About eight years ago, I got acquainted with a patient in a hospice, who was suffering from lung cancer and was in early eighties. At that time, I studied the social welfare in a university and asked her various things about nursing in her room, since she had worked as a nurse for more than 30 years. In addition to the knowledge of nursing, she was well acquainted with constellation and had sent her essays about stars to a local newspaper in Kumamoto Prefecture for more than ten years after she retired from her work. She told me many stories about stars and she taught me a very romantic story like this: on December 25, Christmas Day in Kumamoto, the Northern Cross can be seen just above the Kinpo Mountain. The Northern cross is part of the Cygnus in the Milky Way. It is just between her and me that I had a date with her on the veranda of the hospice on the Christmas Day.
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Great Adventure: KANPEI Earth Marathon
Can you imagine Kanpei-san is running and sailing around this planet without using machine power? He started Osaka on Dec. 17th, 2008, and he and his partner, Hiki-san left finally Japan on Jan. 1st by sailing bound for U.S. I assume that many people know his unprecedented challenge, for being covered many times on TV since last December. I’m really impressed his brave challenge and am watching him everyday on his Youtube, which gives great energy to me. I do pray for his safe sailing to U.S. Please visit his official blog and cheer him up.
P.S. The picture attached is nothing to do with Kanpei-san’s yacht, “Aeolus”.
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Patrick Swayze’s fight against cancer
Patrick Swayze, a 56 year-old well-known actor, spoke out publicly that he was diagnosed with pancreatic caner last spring. I learned his battle with the life-threatening disease by watching the interview with Barbara Walters aired on ABC news on Jan. 8. In his first interview since being diagnosed with cancer, he said, “There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, I’m scared. Yeah, I’m angry. —You can bet I’m going through the hell. And I’m only see the beginning of it.” You can watch part of the interview via this site. Even though I cannot find his homepage, I’ll try to follow the fight of his life from now on.
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A memory of going back to my hometown this autumn: IV
While I stayed in my hometown in November, I ran the 10km race held in Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture, which is my wife’s hometown. For about ten years, I made it a rule to run at least one full marathon and one 100km marathon a year. But I stopped running from February to September this year since I felt a light pain in the right knee in early February . So this race was a kind of rehabilitation for me and I was relieved that I could finish the goal without trouble, even though it took about 50 minutes. The guest of the race was Masako Chiba and luckily I had a chance to take a picture with her. In this race, the eldest person who finished the goal was 87 year-old man, which is really amazing for me.
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A memory of going back to my hometown this autumn: III
The pictures above were taken on my way home to kumamoto from Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. We were quite lucky to have a chance see a beautiful sunset on the sea when we almost gave up to find a good place for taking pictures of the sunset. They were taken at seashore between Masuda City and Tsuwano Town near Yamaguchi Prefecture and we stayed about half an hour to see the sun sinking into the Japan Sea, which was very fantastic time for us.
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Show of the moon- Venus-Jupiter
[The below left is Venus and right is Jupiter]
←(click for larger image)
Did you see the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus with the moon, a waxing crescent, clearly visible in the west in the evening this Monday and Tuesday? TV said we wouldn’t see its kind for another 44 years, which means this was last time for me. The above is the picture I took at the condos where I live at 7 pm, December 2, 2008.
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Horticultural Therapy
Have you ever heard the term, ‘ horticultural therapy’? I didn’t know this word before I visited the ‘Fure-ai kan’ ( Love community) on the ‘Maruyama’ Highland in Yamato Town, Kumamoto Prefecture on November 19, 2008. Katsuko Nakamura, an organizer of the institute talked about her dream and what ‘ horticultural therapy’ is. I was quite impressed her enthusiasm and energy for creating the community for the disables, retarded persons and the non-disables to live together cheerfully. She said, “Horticultural Therapy uses plants and gardening to improve the social, spiritual, physical and emotional well-being of individuals who take part in”. Please access to the web, Maruyama Highland, and visit the ‘Fure-ai kan’.
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A role of volunteer in hospice：Listening
“Listening” is most basic temperament for all hospice staff including volunteer members. But “just listening” is very difficult for most people. Why? That is because all of us have our own intentions or preconceived ideas when we listen to someone. In other words, we intend to judge or evaluate what the person is saying in relation to our own opinions and our standards. So we do not listen to what the person says as it is but listen to only limited part of it through our biased prism. Our perceptions are actually distorted by our experiences, opinions and values. The most important thing when you listen to the person is to get rid of all our preconceived ideas, to clear our mind and to just listen from our heart. “Just listening” is something that we must work on with our full efforts, which is quite difficult for ordinary people like me.
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