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Net Galley Challenge

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Sunday, April 19, 2026

ロッキ

 私たちの一日はロッキーにえさをあげることから始まります。

Watashitachi no ichinichi wa Rokkī ni esa o ageru koto kara hajimarimasu.

Our day begins with feeding Rocky.

彼は食べるのがとても早く、初日に食べすぎて吐いてしまいました。
それから私たちは、空気を飲み込みすぎないように、少しずつえさをあげるようになりました。

Kare wa taberu no ga totemo hayaku, shonichi ni tabesugite haite shimaimashita.
Sore kara watashitachi wa, kūki o nomikomi suginai yō ni, sukoshi zutsu esa o ageru yō ni narimashita.

He eats very fast, and on the first day he ate too much and threw up.
After that, we learned to feed him little by little so he wouldn’t swallow too much air while eating.

歯が生え始めているので、食べる以外にもいろいろなものをかみたがります。
ある日、ソファの後ろに行ってコンセントのプラグをかんでしまいました。
そこは狭い場所だったので、後ろずさりして戻ってきました。その様子がとてもおかしかったです。

Ha ga hae hajimete iru node, taberu igai ni mo iroirona mono o kamitagarimasu.
Aru hi, sofa no ushiro ni itte konsento no puragu o kande shimaimashita.
Soko wa semai basho datta node, ushiro-zusari shite modotte kimashita. Sono yōsu ga totemo okashikatta desu.

Because he is teething, besides eating he likes to chew on many things.
One day, he went behind the sofa and bit the electrical plug.
Since it was a tight space, he had to back out and walk backward to get out. It looked very funny.

家族でテーブルを囲んで食事をしているとき、彼は自分だけ仲間はずれになりたくないようです。
ソファにもたれて私たちのほうを向き、家族の楽しい時間に参加しようとします。

Kazoku de tēburu o kakonde shokuji o shite iru toki, kare wa jibun dake nakama hazure ni naritakunai yō desu.
Sofa ni motarete watashitachi no hō o muite, kazoku no tanoshii jikan ni sanka shiyō to shimasu.

When we are eating together as a family around the table, he doesn’t want to be left out.
He leans on the sofa and faces us, trying to join our family fun time.

新しい家族の一員は大変なことも多いですが、とても楽しいです。

Atarashii kazoku no ichiin wa taihen na koto mo ōi desu ga, totemo tanoshii desu.

Our new family member is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Our day begins with feeding Rocky.
He eats very fast, and on the first day he ate too much and threw up.
After that, we learned to feed him little by little so he wouldn’t swallow too much air while eating.

Because he is teething, besides eating he likes to chew on many things.
One day, he went behind the sofa and bit the electrical plug.
Since it was a tight space, he had to back out and walk backward to get out. It looked very funny.

When we are eating together as a family around the table, he doesn’t want to be left out.
He leans on the sofa and faces us, trying to join our family fun time.

Our new family member is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.


Vocabulary List (Grouped by Parts of Speech)


🟦 Nouns (名詞)

  • 家族(かぞく) – family
  • 一日(いちにち) – one day / day
  • 食事(しょくじ) – meal
  • 初日(しょにち) – first day
  • 歯(は) – tooth
  • 餌(えさ) – animal food
  • 空気(くうき) – air
  • プラグ(ぷらぐ) – plug
  • コンセント – electrical outlet
  • ソファ – sofa
  • 場所(ばしょ) – place
  • 様子(ようす) – situation / appearance
  • 一員(いちいん) – member
  • 時間(じかん) – time

🟩 Verbs (動詞)

  • 始まる(はじまる) – to begin
  • あげる – to give / feed (animals)
  • 食べる(たべる) – to eat
  • 吐く(はく) – to vomit
  • 飲み込む(のみこむ) – to swallow
  • 生える(はえる) – to grow (teeth)
  • かむ(噛む) – to bite / chew
  • 行く(いく) – to go
  • 戻る(もどる) – to return
  • 囲む(かこむ) – to surround
  • 参加する(さんかする) – to join
  • 向く(むく) – to face
  • もたれる – to lean
  • かみたがる – to want to bite
  • かんでしまう – to end up biting (accidentally/completely)
  • 飲み込む(のみこむ) – to swallow

🟨 Adjectives (い・な形容詞)

  • 早い(はやい) – fast
  • 狭い(せまい) – narrow / tight
  • おかしい – funny / strange
  • 楽しい(たのしい) – fun
  • 大変(たいへん) – difficult / hard
  • 新しい(あたらしい) – new

🟪 Expressions / Grammar

  • 〜から始まる – to begin with
  • 〜てしまう – to do something accidentally / completely
  • 〜ようになる – to start doing / come to do
  • 〜ようです – it seems that
  • 〜ようにする – to try to do
  • 〜たがる – to want to do (someone else’s desire)
  • 〜以外(いがい) – except / other than
  • 少しずつ – little by little
  • 自分だけ – only oneself
  • 仲間はずれ – being left out

🟧 Adverbs (副詞)

  • とても – very
  • いろいろ – various
  • ある日 – one day
  • すぎる – too much (as part of grammar)

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Tiny art contest

 I wanted to draw a white cup with green tea in it. Oh boy! is it hard to paint a cup.

A pet

 Just like we bemoan the childhood days lost of our little children and their acts, its true of puppies too, they grow fast. 3 days and 3 weeks in.

A pet tunes us to the farmer schedule of beginning with cleaning up and feeding in the morning. In Japanese class, we learned a lesson that esa is pet food and the mom calls on the son to wake up early and feed the pets.

Sunday, April 5, 2026

General knowledge

 Wealth building and gratitude

http://www.lmschairman.org/2017/11/the-psychology-of-military-incompetence


The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest

 

The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest


How good are you remembering the titles of a book? While reading it or having juct come across it. I have been looking for this book as "The Perfect Rain" or "The Great Rain".

The language is so beautiful. It has me inspired to follow the land and the river on google maps.

Through the land description, you also get a sense of the history of the land and the people who influenced it. It is amazing how far reaching Muir's influence is. Pen is mightier than the sword. Indeed!!

Funny take on Winthrop Glacier naming as a tourist perk of the yore.

Ironically The Canoe and the Saddle by Winthrop is a northwest book like this.

"fish that is synonymous with the land"
Resource towns
"I wonder.. if the river.. will become a tame centerprice of the next Western theme park"
fathometer


Kachess - More Fish

Friday, April 3, 2026

The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion

 


The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion


Recently I came across the term neutral habit while looking up about the benefit of something.

Subjectively satisfying vs objectively good ways of value responding presented in the book, reminds me of that anchoring.

Truth, good and beauty reminded me of six great ideas book on philosphy by Adler.

Walking underneath the eucalyptus tree in the afternoon, I found bleached leaves on the soil and what a dead checkered butterfly (at that time I did not know its name) but I showed it to my friend and as we were walking on, I wondered if I should have taken a picture of it and I knew I would write about it but only should I let my writing speak of it or go back and take the picture. After few steps, I forgot about it but when my friend had to cut the walk short, I had an opportunity to go back to the scene and take a picture, wondering if the wind took the dead butterfly to an unfindable spot. With the pitcure in tow, I did not have to mention that the butterfly was dead. Like the author said, beauty makes a claim on us.

"Courage was now muscle memory".

The book connects an individual self, their self and how they interact with the world, where politics intersects group and self tension. Burgis uses the example of his life and the risks he took which give you some idea og what it takes to be the 1 out of 99. I cant help but relate this to The sheep detectives movie.

By showing the moment he was about to give up connecting with people who have closed themselves off, I was reminded of an incident in a book about say something like supercommunicators where the author convicnes a lady to spy for him. When do people trust to cooperate with you.