Writing Papers

It is true that you cannot please everybody.  However, in order to be successful in just delivering your ‘message’, you have to at least be ‘understood’ by everybody.

So here’s the dilemma I encountered:

1. Person XX wants me to explain things in such a way that it will look complicated (complete with equations).  This way, my ‘paper’ will look very academic and ‘theoretical’.  In a sense, it seems like the more I describe my point through formulating definitions and creating equations, the more it can be understood.
2. Person YY says that sometimes, ‘theoretical’ papers are very hard to read, thus, unattractive.  The more the person reading a paper understands how the ‘method’ it proposes can be applied in actual situations, the better!

How do you go in between? (?_?)

NAIST Reflection

NAIST Reflection, originally uploaded by engelene.

The sky that should have been
To watch the Leonids ‘falling’

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Photos of the Day (11/16): Scary Moon on a Night Sky

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Meteor Garden

No, this is not about F4.

Tomorrow, there is an expected series of Meteor Showers!  Check this out.

“The Leonids meteor shower is one of the better meteor showers to observe. It produces an average of 40 meteors per hour during their peak. The shower itself has a cyclic peak year every 33 years where hundreds of meteors can be seen each hour. The last event like that  occurred in 2001.

The shower peaks this year on November 17th and 18th, but you can normally see some meteors from November 13th through the 20th. The moon is set to be totally out of the way this year, granting an exceptional viewing experience for the Leonids.

Look for the shower radiating (where they appear to start)  from the constellation Leo after just after midnight.”

From the above statement, I wonder… if the cyclic peak occurs every 33 years and the last event like that occurred in 2001, then how can it happen now?   (Eng tries to be funny.)

Anyway, nothing to lose to find out for ourselves.  I don’t sleep too early anyway.

It is quite cold to go outside after midnight these days so I hope constellation Leo is visible from my balcony and not from the other side.  Wow!  I wonder how many wishes I can make if I see them (meteors) fall out all at the same time.  Falling stars.  Well, I guess we call them as such because it’s cooler, rather than calling them, ‘Falling meteors’.  They are just, by the way, falling from our perspective.

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PS.  Why meteor garden?

Well, it is because, if I am to view from my balcony, the meteors will be above ‘my garden’.  If you want to know how it looks like, here it is:

Wide view version:

Yes, I have a mountain in my ‘backyard’.

Fall and Food

It’s really getting colder and the wind is also getting stronger.  Of course, back in the Philippines, these could just be signs of a storm coming… or Christmas.  But here in Japan, before the multicolored lights are turned on, people enjoy viewing the turning of leaves from green to red/orange/yellow/brown (depends on what tree) first.  Yes, Autumn Air is back!  And I’m still arguing which season is better?  Spring or Fall?  What about you?  Which season do you like best?

Anyway, since the temperature is nearing the 10 degree drop as each day passes, I decided to cook some Nabe.  I remember Mao and I watching anime together and dreaming about eating Nabe on a cold winter night before.  Spon, we bought a Nabe pot and portable stove!!!  Weee!!!  (Sidenote: I told Mao before, if I was in an anime, my character would be the one who would always say, ‘Ara!’  He said, ‘no way!’   And that I’d be the one who’s always spaced-out. XD)

Anyway, Nabe is usually eaten around this season until winter (or perhaps until spring).  It is, as they translate to English, the ‘hot pot’, wherein you simply place a huge pot on fire/IR stove, pour in water or ‘flavored water’, and throw in anything you like (as long as it’s edible)!  Some people mix in veggies, tofu, fish, ball stuffs (fish, crab, squid, etc), meat, and beans.  Others create it weirdly.  Sometimes they add kimchi.  Once, I also saw a curry flavored Nabe.  Some are too spicy.  Some doesn’t taste anything at all.  There are also too many sauces to choose from in the supermarket for Nabe.  They all come out like mushrooms around October.  But, I never realized they’re all for Nabe, until I’ve seen them being used in one of the Nabe get-togethers in our lab.  They called it: “moon viewing party”.  Thing is, we did not look at the moon at all (we were in the lab!).  We did not even look at moon pictures from the huge flat screens.  We simply ate Nabe.

The Moon is Special during Autumn

For this Nabe I prepared, I simply chose a random ‘flavored water’ from the supermarket.  From my limited Japanese, I read that it has miso, soy sauce, sugar, among others.  Then, I placed thin beef slices and the fish balls (bangus).  Yeah, believe it!  I found a way to buy such Pinoy food like Lucky Me Pancit Canton from the internet c/o Nyaw.    Then, the veggies.  Just cover the pot and wait for the water to boil.  Mix the contents inside, if you want, later on… but no need.  Some people want to remember where certain ingredients can be found in the pot. Mixing messes everything up.

Eng's Nabe

I placed the stove near the window so that the smoke alarm won’t go ‘pit!pit!’.  Just a precaution.

It was soooo great!!! <3

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Anyway, I love Japanese snacks too.  Panda, Koala (animal-shaped biscuits with choco inside) are my favorites.  But Pocky is on top of that list.  Why?

Because there are so many types of it.  In China, I saw Pocky that is spicy flavored.  What?!?!

Anyway, here’s winter season’s special.  Haven’t opened it yet ‘coz it’s so cute in my cupboard.  Plus, it’s still autumn!  About you? What Pocky is your favorite?  For some reason, I like the one with double coat choco (the second coat twirls around the stick).

冬Pocky

I think, since it is winter’s special, each stick will be thickly covered with so much chocolate.  You know, the biscuit stick might feel cold once it gets out of the foil.

–out–