UncleKen's Blog

A couple of weeks ago, I heard a new Whitney Houston tune on my car radio. It sounded okay. I had been wondering what she has been doing. And finally, she released a new song! She came back!

Today, I read an article on the net about her comeback performance in New York's Central Park. It said that it was disappointing. Her voice was hoarse and cracked. Oh, My God! What a shock! Her recent picture was not like her before. Old and not beautiful..... What happened to her?

I know about her tumultuous marriage with Bobby Brown and an arduous battle with her drug addiction. She still hasn't recovered from them?

She had a incredible beautiful high voice. She was decent, not like Mariah Carey. However, she is already 46!

More disappointing to me is she said the reason for her bad voice that day was because she talked with Oprah Winfrey too much on her show. That might be one of the reasons, however, to me it just sounds like an excuse.

I believe she can sing. I hope she will come back to the scene as a diva again, it doesn't even have to be like her heyday.

This morning my wife and I were watching videos of Istanbul and The Versailles Palace. That made me feel like visiting museums. I decided to go to a nearest museum that I hadn't visited before.

We headed to the museum. Before visiting that, we dropped by a famous whiskey distillery very near from the museum. It is called Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. We could participate the guided tour. That was fun seeing inside the factory especially the huge whiskey storages. There were tons of wooden barrels with strong nice smells! Did you know that whisky is transparent when it was distilled? It becomes amber after being matured in an oak barrel. The color of the whisky comes from oaks!

At the end of the tour, we were served some whiskies distilled in there. That was really nice.

Then we moved to the museum. It is located on the small hill. Very beautiful scenery. It has beautiful chinas and paintings included some Monet's works. We could enjoy not only the arts but also the beautiful garden. 

It was like a small trip, but just within 30 minutes drive from our place. Great Sunday afternoon!

A villain orders a murder from reading the Koran in a scene of a Japanese cartoon. This leads to a huge outrage from the Muslims. The Japanese publisher apologized and stopped printing the cartoon.

I have heard many other incidents like this. The scariest one was about a book called "Satanic Verses" over a decade ago. Muslims wanted the author of the book given the death penalty because the descriptions offended Muslims. The Japanese translator of the book was killed by someone.

Muslim's beliefs are very strong. I don't blame holy devotions.
However, sometimes it is hard for me to understand. They kill their own daughters when they have sexual intercourse before or outside of marriage. Suicide bombing is beyond my comprehension.

This cartoon is just a fiction. No one thinks all the people who read the Koran are terrorists. There's no malicious intention by the author.

If these kinds of objections continue to be accepted, how can spy stories be written? If The Da Vinci Code was about Islam, it surely would have been impossible to publish.

Some Muslim terrorists justify their extreme actions by the Koran. How the people who were offended by this Japanese cartoon reacted should then make this acceptable? I don't think so!

You should not get married to a computer expert if you are not confident with not fooling around!

A computer expert sat at his computer. A woman sat at a different one. She typed three words on the search window of Google. Within a few seconds, the expert showed on his computer screen exactly what she was typing and browsing on her computer. It was a piece of cake for him!

This was what I saw on TV last night. How easy to browse other people's computer screens for some people!

This program was introducing the guy who had pointed out how easy it is to browse information on the Net and had developed a super security software when he was just 18! Most big Japanese companiess are using his software to protect their information. Now he is 23 years old and the representative of his own software company.

When it comes to computer software, the US is dominating. He is trying to take ahold of it.

The ABC news said that the price of rice in the U.S. was soaring to almost double. The situations are the same in some Asian countries as well.

Japan depends its big ratio of foods on other countries. However, rice is 100 percent self-sufficient. This is our government's policy because rice is Japan's staple food.

Many things have been liberalized , and as a result, the replacements of domestic products has accelerated to foreign ones.

Liberalization can't be helped to some extent. However, what if foreign countries suddenly said "no" exporting to Japan? We would quickly be in a panic. We should be rethink the degree of our liberalization and protect domestic producers.

Working abroad

The job demand is less than the supply in some countries. That causes working abroad or emigration. Most people work as blue collar workers and have hard times.

When Japan was very poor, many people emigrated to Hawaii, South America, and so forth as farmers. They never failed to have harsh lives. They were told that they were going to have good lives there. It was a lie. Some of them died because of poverty. They were forced to work very hard and kept on being poor.

Now, Japan is richer than before. Working abroad no longer means poverty or choosing dirty jobs. People seek far more adventurous and ambitious jobs abroad. Working abroad is cool now..

On the other hand, some people come to Japan to seek better lives, mostly from Brazil, the Philippines, Iran and China. Some of them are really qualified but the problem is sometimes their positions are beneath their abilities.

The Japanese economy is declining now. It is sometimes hard to find a good job even if you are a young college graduate. Seeking jobs is really hard for people over 35.

The guy who stole $20 from his toddler's piggy bank was arrested in the U.S.

His wife noticed a light on in her 2-year-old daughter's bedroom when the girl was sleeping. She opened the door and saw a guy shaking the daughter's piggy bank in the dark. She called police. The guy fled before police arrived. The guy was identified the toddler's father from the blood on the window blind he left on the way.

His penalty is up to 9 1/2 years in prison and his bond was set at $10,000!

How funny and very embarrassing!

New year is the good time to make the resolutions and turning over the new leaf. Many people make the ones. However, the funny thing is most of the people can't achieve them! The commitments deteriorate soon. I am not the exception!

However, I made ones this year as well.

First off, I am going to exercise more for staying healthy and losing weight. I want to get rid of the spare tire! I have chronic stiff shoulder. If I would exercise more, I believe I could get rid of it!

The second,  I am studying English little by little. I want to understand the US TV dramas without subtitles.

The third, I am cutting back on the brooze especially before hit the sack.

This years ones are not dramatic. That's because I learned the large goals are not be achieved. I thought I should be realistic and choose manageable things!

I caught a cold on Saturday evening. I went to see a professional soccer match with my family. The first half was no problem, but when the second half was begun, it started raining. It never stopped. We totally soaked.

I was not good whole Sunday. I stayed at home for resting. Gradually, I was getting better.

However, tonight, I seem like not very good. That is because of the too low temperature of the room in which I worked in the afternoon. Some places are really cold because of the setting of the thermostat. It is already the second of November. I wonder why people are wasting electricity and make other people get cold. I should have brought a jacket.

In fact, I am going to the movie theater tomorrow. Theaters are always cold. A jacket or a sweater is a must in the theaters.

I'll see the movie which is the story of French legendary singer, Edit Piaf's "La Vien Roses".