Holizz versus the Web

今日ね、いいことあった。道を歩くながらOxfamを見て「あ、行こう」と思った。外国語小説の部分あって「日本のはないはずだ」と思ったが一書あったよ！このブラッドフォードのOxfamはBordersやWaterstonesよりいい本屋だ。Oxfamの外国語の部分は多分リーズのあるBordersとWaterstonesの外国語の部分より本が多いだった。ある日リーズのBordersで「外国語の本はどこにあるか」と聞いた。外国語の本は一棚だけだった、そして一杯じゃなかった！

Today, a good thing happened. While walking down the street I saw an Oxfam and thought “ooh, let’s go in!” [where “let’s” is singular]. There was a foreign language fiction section, but I didn’t expect there to be any Japanese books, but there was one! This Oxfam in Bradford is a better book shop than Borders or Waterstones. Oxfam’s foreign language section probably had more books than Borders’ and Waterstones’ put together. One day at a Borders in Leeds I asked where the foreign language books were. The foreign language books only covered one shelf, and it wasn’t even full!

I like the Google translation of the final sentence:

最後の文のグーグルの翻訳は好きだ：

The book of foreign language was just one shelf, and all the way it was not!

The service is not currently available using Macs or other Unix based systems even though you may be able to input information.

From: DWP - Services and benefits online - What do I need?

Well, I’ve input enough information from this RHEL machine in the lab for it to work, and somebody apparently will phone me about my Job Seeker’s Allowance. Since I the service wasn’t available to me, I just input information.

I noticed I could apply online, so I did that rather than locating the Job Centre (Davina says it’s near the T&A, and although it’s in the centre of town I have no idea of the street names so Google Maps was no help).

FFXIIはとてもいいゲームだが、一つ問題がある。

FFXII is a very good game, but there’s one problem.

バルフレアがショットガンで始まったが今、バルフレアの一番強い武器は剣に成っちゃった。もう、フランしか皆が剣を使うんだ。このライセンスシステムは確かに面白くて楽しいけれど皆が同じ所で始まって、皆がずっと同じだろう？

Balflear (Balthier?) started out with the shotgun, but now his strongest weapon is a sword. Now Fran is the only one who doesn’t use a sword. The licence system is certainly interesting and fun, but everybody starts at the same place, so everybody’s the same.

そんなに悪い問題じゃないけど、ちょっと詰まらなくなる。

It’s not such a terrible problem, but it makes it a little boring.

今日、あのフェニックスのボスを倒すために一杯レベルアップしたりした。チェインレベルが１３１に成った。あの大砂海オグル・エンサのプラットホームであのちっちゃい奴らを皆殺ししていた。チェインレベルが百位に成って２敵１個の白くて大きな宝が落ちた。すげぇ金持ちに成った。大砂海の店で土の石を売って一万ギル越えた。

Today, I did a lot of leveling up in preparation for that phoenix boss. I got a chain level of 131. On the platforms in the Great Sea of Sand (???) - Oguru Ensa I was genociding those little people. When the chain level reached around one hundred, I was getting about one huge white treasure per every two enemies. I became incredibly rich. After I sold Earth Stones at the shop in the Great Sea of Sand I had around ten thousand gil.

この後、ダルマスカへ帰って魔法や武器や武具を買ってあのフェニックスの奴を簡単に殺す積もりです。

Next I plan to return to Dalmasca, stock up on magic, weapons, and armour and then easily defeat that phoenix.

久しぶり、皆さん。

It’s been a long time, everybody.

１８日に卒業した。母とサマーが観に来てくれた。

On the 18th I graduated. My mum and Summer came to watch.

一昨日ファイナルファンタジーXIIが来て一杯遊んだ。最高に楽しいよ！

The day before yesterday Final Fantasy XII came and I played a lot. It’s so much fun.

母がブログを作った：Davina’s Crafty Cornerと呼ばれた。

My mum made a blog: it’s called Davina’s Crafty Corner.

ん、ロンドンへ行った。楽しかった。よく迷っちゃった。

ロンドンへ引っ越すつもりなので仕事や家を探しに行った。

火曜日は…忙しかった。Guardian Summer Graduate Fairに行って会社の人と話した。楽しかったといくことでもなく詰まらなかったといくこどでもない。会社の情報を一杯集めた。晩に二つ家にみに行った。一つ目は安くて駅から遠かった。二つ目は一つ目より高くて駅から近くてハウスメートが優しかった。

水曜日はひまだった。まずはピカディリーのJapan Centre。レストランの新装のようだった、二階の本屋も変わった、でも地下の食品の店はあまり変わらなかった。本屋で以下を買った：

何買ったって？もちろん、日本語の本を一杯買った。

• 風の谷のナウシカ１（漫画！）・好きな映画だもの漫画を読みたかった
• 昨日の朝日新聞
• まんが日本昔ばなし／Once Upon a Time in Japan（対訳）
• インストール・ソフトのインストールの小説のようだがまだ読んでない、電子計算機の術語は得意だし読み難そうし

読み難いと読みやすい本を一杯買った。大成功！私、帰る時に家を出る時より本があると成功だと思う。

そして、Waterstonesで和英英和辞書（Oxford Japanese Minidictionary）を買った。ローマ字がないし、かなと漢字があるし、コンサイスだし、常用の言葉が一杯あるし（そう言えば調ぶと「concise」がなかった）。それより小さいからかばんに入れる。これで旅行をしながら勉強できる。

勉強の本を買いたくなかった。すげぇ高かったから。でも普通な本を読むとすぐ読みやすくなるはずだ。

ある時、電車のドアが閉まりながら電車に乗って刺さってしまった。ドアがああという間に強かった。結局無事で乗った。一度やったからもうやる気が無い。

You know the old proverb: If you aren’t the first result for your name in Google, change your name.

I’m now the first result in both UK and Japanese Googles for “アダムズ富夢”. Also, I’m second in the Japanese Google for “Tom Adams”.

I’ve only really had a vague idea about wanting to do programming, perhaps with some internationalisation or localisation thrown in. But something caught my eye on the Jobs side bar while catching up on the latest from Slashdot this morning: Google: Software Engineer, Japanese Product Focus - Mountain View.

That’s exactly the sort of job I want. Only it’s Google, on the other side of the Atlantic, and they want fluency in Japanese. I’m going to apply for it anyway, my CV is nearly finished. Then I’m going to search for some other jobs, using keywords like Python, open source, Linux, internationalisation, localisation (and the American variants), Japanese, Japan, and such.

So the new plan, by the way, is to find a job (I’ll be getting a temporary job to pay the rent until I find a real job) because I have most likely passed every deadline there may have been for funding (I’ll still apply, if I can work out how). Next year, if my employment isn’t so fun I’ll either try the teaching English in Japan route, or see if I can get funding for a masters (perhaps I’ll be able to fund myself? I don’t know).

P.S. I’m going to PyCon UK this year. If anybody else is going, I’ve booked the hotel for the Saturday night, and I will have space for two more people (see also: RoomSharing). If you want to join me, it will cost you £11 for the privilege.

I was watching CSI:NY last night (I was babysitting and apparently television cannot continue its existence without showing CSI).

There was some evidence on somebody’s computer they wanted, so let’s go through their process of getting the evidence off of their computer and into their laps in a safe and reliable way:

• Switch the computer on (it booted very quickly, or perhaps the monitor was just turned off)
• A password prompt appears (the dialogue box looked a little like it was using Qt)
• Connect a USB device
• We’re in
• Go and find the document that was previously mentioned and read it
• The end

I think the proper procedure is something like take the computer to the lab, open it carefully (checking for tripwires), take the hard disk and image it, and use an image of the image for hacking. I’ve read up on it, because I’m interested in Bradford University’s Forensic Computing MSc.

I’ve heard people say they don’t like TV programme X due to ridiculous things that they know are wrong, especially crime dramas. I don’t really understand this way of thinking, because I see stupid things done with computers all the time in TV and movies and I sometimes laugh (the mention of a mainframe in Underworld: Evolution) or just groan silently (oh, they can zoom in that far and see this person’s reflection … again), but I won’t cite it as a reason not to watch the show. Of course I notice many silly things related to other subjects, but mostly computer science.

I’ve met two people who dislike Bones because of its fictional osteological practices. Pfft; it’s just a bit of sci-fi. I liked Bones so much I bought the first book in the series Bones was based upon (Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs) even though I’ve never been particularly interested in crime books (although The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was rather enjoyable). I haven’t started it yet because I’m reading Chocolat right now (I’m nearly half-way through, it’s becoming very exciting).

Other exciting things: today I finally defeated Evrae (FFX) on my fourth and final attempt, then was forced to play through perhaps half an hour or more of fighting minor baddies and watching FMVs before I got to a bleeding save point. I started out by self-destructing Kamahri (he’ll just be lying there dead, or somebody will be able to replace him, right?. Wrong.) and so I fought with only two characters for the rest of the battle.

Waaaah. I have to start doing things at some point in the near future or I’ll have no house, no job, and no (more) education.

Speaking of education, Bradford College appears to be cutting most of its classes that don’t directly relate to getting employment (and charging extra for the ones it doesn’t). I was very shocked that their letter actually expresses displeasure at this fact, usually people seem to get decisions handed down to them and then have to pretend to think it’s the best course of action. I’m happy that modern foreign languages are still valued (they used shock quotes in the letter too) but fewer choice of courses is always bad news.

Ah, enough of my rambling unstructured autobiographical writing, I must do something … something useful, or at the very least entertaining.

My relationships with women tend to be much the same as my relationships with men. They exist, I exist, on occasion we interact. Not much more can be said on the matter.

私と女の人の関係は私と男の人の関係の様です。あの人が存在して、私が存在して、偶に対話します。この件には…えっと、えっと…ごめん、訳せません。

So that was a paragraph rather than a book, but I’ve proved my point, Niall. Now I want to see your book on international relations.

I just found the worst kind of bug one can find while unit testing: a caterpillar. In my bowl.

Then I looked through the broccoli to make sure there weren’t any more… and ewwwwww!

Two boiled caterpillars in one bowl is too much for me. Eww. Really, just eww. I don’t feel like eating so much anymore.

P.S.: Firefox’s dictionary didn’t seem to include the word “anymore”, so I Googled it, and found that ocurrances of “anymore” are almost twice that of “any more”. I also found an interesting article on the subject which notes differences in usage between British and American English.