睡眠無しの夏の夜

考えなさい、考えなさい、考えなさい。ほとんど毎晩私は健康上の問題の人々について考える 。時々私は眠ることができない。最近、私はcerebellar失調症と外科手術の介在が考えました。あなたは1リットルの涙 がみましたか。それは非常に重要である。それは私にとって非常に重要である。

だから、毎晩私はこれらの事について考える。困惑の部分。どうして。そして私はいかに解決を加えるか。人はいかに生命の少数のより多くの年を与えることができるか。人はいかにほんの僅か幸福を与えることができるか。

寢るとき接するどう思いますか。

- Just a peasant

Photo: 実験室の外の夏の雨雲 (summer storm clouds outside the lab)

伊東 美咲 - まだベスト

3年前に、私が電車男（テレビドラマ）をみました、伊東美咲さんがすごいいでした。私はうっとりした、今日何も変わってしまわなかった。伊東美咲さんは日本でいちばん美しい女優です。その上に、彼女は非常に才能がありますね。伊東美咲さも非常に頭が良いらしいです。もちろん、それはすきです。

私は私達が伊東美咲のクローンを作ることができることを望む 。That would be AWESOME!! 伊東美咲のクローンがいくらですか。高いでしょう。彼女が風邪かインフルエンザを経験するとき彼女の好の食糧は何であるか。私の質問を理解したか。

私は実験室のそれに今日取り組む。Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ 冗談です。

でも - 日本は伊東美咲のサイボーグを作るか。 :)

- Just a peasant

English:

Misaki Ito - Still the Best

Three years ago, I saw Densha Otoko (Television drama), Misaki Ito was wonderful. I was spellbound and today nothing has changed. Misaki Ito is the most beautiful actress in Japan. Additionally, she is very talented. Misaki Ito also seems very intelligent. Of course, I really like that.

I wish we could make a clone of Misaki Ito. That would be AWESOME!! How much would that cost? It’s probably expensive. I wonder what her favorite food is when she has a cold or the flu? Did you understand my question?

I’ll work on it today in the lab. Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ That’s a joke.

But - does Japan make a Misaki Ito cyborg yet? :)

The Vibrant Earth

Of course, when I’m looking across the ocean or out into space, I’m not forgetting our own backyard. One side effect of chemistry and physics is Life. Biochemistry gives rise to organisms. There are planetary tide pools in the universe, where the downward flow of energy is temporarily interrupted and Life thrives for a time, before that energy is gone. But during that time, billions of years sometimes, all sorts of organisms arise and disappear. Our planet is the only example we have so far.

I saw an episode of some reality TV show where some men and women were taken to a tropical island and they would attempt to seduce each other or some other nonsense. I don’t remember the name of the show because it is not important. Anyway, they spent their time strategizing, plotting, laying around, drinking, and wearing bikinis to gain the affections of someone. What a total waste of time! To me, the sad part was that they were on an island that had three species of very interesting bats and a huge coral reef. Yet these beautiful, but rather boring people, seemed totally oblivious to this fact. Yes - the fact that the island was far more interesting than they were.

If I had been there, I would have gotten a flashlight and headed out into the jungle at night to find some of these nocturnal animals. They are flying mammals after all and I think that’s pretty interesting. I wonder what fruit trees they visit or help to pollinate. I wonder if there were any cool and dangerous snakes too – they love the night. You can also attract some pretty strange insects with your light. Another place to investigate at night are the coral reefs or tide pools. All sorts of creatures come out at night to go about their routine of survival and propagation. If you can, use a red light filter. This planet is alive and interesting day and night.

And why is it people hate the rain at the beach? I think it’s romantic. It’s even better when you can smell wood burning in fireplaces.

- Just a peasant

Photo of some starfish in a tide pool on the Oregon coast 2009.

The Brilliant Sky

“We are simply an accident of physics with all the biochemical trimmings.” – from Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness.

Out there, stars are living and dying, entire galaxies are colliding, and somewhere planets are falling into black holes. I guess if you had a civilization on one of those planets it would be quite discouraging. There are also comets, asteroids, quasars, pulsars, and supernovae. Indeed, the universe is as chaotic and violent as it is beautiful and vast.

And here we are, on this tiny planet, watching it, studying it, and dreaming of its mysteries. Did you ever realize that pieces of stars are touching you every time you look up into the sky? Not metaphorically but as a physical reality. In the nuclear furnaces of stars, energetic reactions create photons which then travel across the immense distances of space, in an ever aging stream, until they strike visual receptors in the cells of your eyes. When they strike the cell membrane receptors, there is a conformational change in the rhodopsin proteins which then generate a nerve impulse and this nerve impulse is registered in your brain. So now you are connected by a very ancient thread of light to every star in the sky and, at that point, I imagine you really could consider yourself a part of the fabric of universe.

While I was out on the Oregon coast this summer I was also going out in the middle of the night just to look out into space. There’s not too much interference from city lights and, since our moon was not present, the Milky Way was clearly visible. It was a vista somewhat different from the pulsing ocean but just as awesome. I also saw two man-made satellites and two small meteors skipping across the atmosphere. And I remember thinking how our lives here are so short and what a tragedy it is that our personalities, that we have struggled so hard to construct, will be extinguished upon our death. Yet, I thought while looking out into the sparkling veil of the night sky and past the subtle glow of our own galaxy, what a spectacular universe we live in nonetheless. Wouldn’t you agree?

- Just a peasant

Photo from our planet looking towards the center of our galaxy by Richard Payne. Can you see that the plane of our solar system is almost perpendicular (actually about 60 degrees I think) to the plane of the Milky Way? Tilt you head to the right.

That Fool (그바보)

“As we live, making irreversible decisions or overcoming bad things doesn’t make it a sad life . . . a sad life, is when nothing ever happens.” - Goo Dong Baek from the Korean drama That Fool

That Fool (그바보) is a really sweet and fun Korean comedy/drama and, as the storyline evolved, it just got better and better. I suppose I really liked it because I completely identified with the main character’s personality (Goo Dong Baek). I’m like that sometimes.

On another level, for my self at least, comedy is no good without serious elements to set up contrasts, and that’s why I like Japanese and Korean dramas. Comedic characters, at some point, should evoke serious pathos in the viewer – a profound moment that we all recognize and none of us laugh at.

Anyway, there are also two nice renditions of the song Over the Rainbow in the series. In fact, there might be a third but I have to listen to the ambient soundtrack more closely again. Oh, and Minji’s story about the monkey totally cracked me up!

- Just a peasant

You can see the show here at mysoju.com - the showed aired this year not in 2004.