A Happy New Year!
My two-year-old daughter keeps me busy.
I have moved to Kyoto University (this department) from October 2012.
A Happy New Year!
New Year's Resolutions (English version):
Feeling busy.
Obama has been chosen as the next president of the United States. Excitement all over the world (according to the BBC Radio).
Rather peaceful weekend. Wondering if it has something to do with the fact that my wife is away from home on a business trip.
Feeling very comfortable sitting in the office at the campus. Gradually learning to be an armchair philosopher...
Life is too serious. It could be funnier, more humourous.
Feeling exhausted. Frustrated, perhaps.
Be composed. Take a deep breath.
Decided to stop reading the lines when I'm with people. It's too tiring and not just worth it.
Four-year absence. Alive and kicking in Tokyo.
Might as well change the title of this English diary. From now on, it's `Kodama's World: Very Briefly in English' (formerly `weakly news').
A happy new year!
Forgot to mention, I've started working in Tokyo University since last October. But I haven't finished my PhD thesis yet, so I still feel very much like a student. Well, I guess I'll always feel like that.
Oops, long time no see.
Came up with some possible band names.
If you like any of them, you can go ahead and use it without my permission...
Why is it that books get interesting just before it's time to sleep?
Hmmm. Lots of things to do...
Will turn to twenty-nine tomorrow. How many more years?
Moved to Tokyo. For the time being, I'm doing a research fellow at Yokohama National University.
Chill-out weekend.
A Happy New Year!!
Had a good Christmas break. Been to Kinosaki, a famous Onsen (hotspring) spot close to the Sea of Japan (whose name is under dipute by the way).
I definitely need 36 hours a day, 10 days a week (5 working days), 500 days a year.
Now I teach: bioethics, history of ethics (western tradition starting from Socrates), english (news from BBC and current social issues in Japan)
Watched Once and Forever (Starring Mel Gibson) and Spy_N (Starring Norika Fujiwara). The former is very serious, and quite a good film. The latter, I bet it's gonna be a big flop...
Studying about ethical aspects of sex education. A hilarious article from People's Daily (also reported in the BBC News). To increase their sex drive, panda bears have been given Chinese medicine, Viagra, toys to stop doing stereotypies, and now videos.
Changed the ISPs from NTT flets to YahooBB!. Faster and easier. Reinstalled Windows 2000, because there was a sound problem, which cause(s) I couldn't track down. Now it's working well.
V. busy.
Am going to check TIME every week, in addition to reading The Guardian Weekly.
Below are sort of my emergency sites which operate when this web server (www.ethics.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp) is down. Please bookmark them for a rainy day...
Gave a presentation on the issue of illegal parking bicycles. Gonna write a paper on it, which may well be the first academic paper in Japan on this issue :)
Postponed one reading group session, due to the hectic schedule these days.
Got a headache. My left eye hurts too. Must be due to too much gazing at the monitor.
Afterwards loose bowels too. Better take a rest.
Bought the Rutles's DVD. Such a rip-off, this DVD thing. Don't know why it's so expensive.
Also bought: Bonnie Raitt's new album Silver Lining, George Harrison's masterpiece All Things Must Pass (2000 Remastered Edition). Too much online shopping.
Lazy Wednesday. Yesterday's class was all right. Couldn't make students laugh much, tho.
The weather being fine, I'm beginning to take up walking, and watching the river flow... A sign of ageing?
Got a bit drunk in Osaka. First time to visit Kitashinchi. Could be the last time.
I was in Tokyo over the weekend. Went to Shibamata and stayed at an expensive hotel just in front of Shibuya Station (Of course I didn't pay -- somebody else did for me).
Today was my first time to teach ethics to university students. Couldn't make them laugh very much. Pity.
V. busy. Also short of cash. Why?
V. concerned about teaching ethics.
Some philosophical papers are very difficult to understand. But so are abstract paintings, or even some pieces of classical music. Sometimes it's me who have to strive more to understand, or cultivate my taste (but sometimes it's these papers that should be thrown away from the window).
Metaethics reading group. Studied Mackie's Error Theory. Summary: We are all duped into believing the existence of objective values out there, but that's wrong.
V. concerned about teaching ethics.
Gonna teach an ethics class at a certain university from next week. Planning to use How Are We to Live? by P. Singer for the first semester.
Restructured my website, but not so radically. Continuity is the key of personal identity.
Not to self-regulate the flow of thoughts in your mind: a necessary condition to be creative.
Two weeks of my self-imposed holiday has ended. Now back to work.
Haven't written for a while, have I? Better update this page weekly. I promise.
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Kyoto now.
My host family visited me from Ohio the other day. Showed them around Kyoto. Had a very pleasant time.
Instances of Freudian slips include: incest instead of incense; sleaze instead of sleet, etc. Not that I said these words, in case you are wondering.
Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope.
It is an image of the condition of men.
---Blaise Pascal
No, I'm not thinking about suicide or anything. Just trying to figure out how existentialism works.
`I know! It's an audition!', exclaimed one man. `That's got to be it. It's an audition. Somebody's watching us on the stage and checking out how well or badly we act. In due time he'll call us to his office and say if we've passed or failed. That must be it.'
`But how,' I asked, `how do you know if this is an audition? I mean, there isn't any soul out there watching us, as far as I can tell. Isn't that ridiculous?'
`Well, perhaps he's hiding somewhere, you never know.' He replied. `Besides, isn't that the only rational explanation of our situation? I mean, we are up on the stage, with no role assigned, with no script handed out - I mean, there are some scripts scattered around on the floor, but we don't know if they are authentic or not - perhaps they are some kind of trap. Don't you think somebody is out there testing us?'
`Well, that's a good explanation but it's just that I don't know if it's true or not. I just don't see any one watching us. Perhaps there isn't any rationalisation behind our - how should I describe - ordeal. Perhaps we are thrusted on to the stage with no particular reason and in due time we'll be shoved out of the stage with no particular reason...' my voice trailed off.
`That's nonsense. It can't be like that.' he said sharply.
`That's it. I don't buy any of your stories. I quit. I'm off.' said another man and then he jumped out of the stage. Two girls followed him.
`O, they're absurd,' the man murmured with disgust. `They just made sure they are failed. They are bunch of fools.'
`Perhaps this is an audition, or perhaps not,' said a third man. `But in case it's an audition, don't you think we should try to act nicely rather than badly? Anyway I too think it's foolish to get off the stage until we have made sense of our situation on this stage.'
`I don't know. I have to take some time and think about it a bit more carefully...' I answered.
To maintain your active command of English, you have to speak and write as well as read something in English. Similarly, to keep up your active state of mind, you have to have some sort of output other than watching the telly and reading books.
Enjoying Monty Python, though.
Went to the cinama the other day and watched Rat Race. Had a good laugh, but no plot really. C+.
The friend I went to the cinema with lent me the complete DVD set of Monty Python's Flying Circus. What a blessing. I'm going to waste the rest of February laughing to death!
Been to Tokyo again. Took the same night coach but this time I hardly slept because these days I sit up late till the morning comes. Was fun travelling to Tokyo anyway.
Kyoto is colder!
Am supposed to write an article review before the dawn (self-imposition), but, funny I cannot get myself started.
The other day I finally got the complete DVD set of The Fawlty Towers. Quite funny. Ha, ha, ha.
Days go so fast. Three study groups in a row. The day before was metaethics, yesterday was bioethics, and today, liberalism. But it's good to keep myself busy in this way. Otherwise I'll never study.
Want to read novels, though. Watch films as well.
Now you can search this site easily by using Google.
I lost my digital camera!
Hope this year will be a better one for all.
I've been travelling in Japan. This is the proof.