My old Toshiba, which lasted almost five years, is so ancient, I can take a nice hot shower while it loads Word.

The bad thing is the data migration of course. I don't particularly enjoy it, but it has to be done. I can't believe I have so much !@#$ on my laptop!

May told me that oiling will keep long hair soft and healthy. Her hair is very long (waist-length) and so is mine. What I hate about my hair is that the tip gets drier and drier, no matter the length. So I usually do some treatment, etc., but it never seems enough.

Anyway, I decided to oil my hair tonight. We'll see how it goes. I'll report the result tomorrow morning after I shampoo my hair.

BTW — I wonder if I should use conditioner after I wash out the oil. My hair tangles very easily. Hmmm.

Update (August 20): I had to shampoo three times. My hair's finally dry. It's very soft and silky. Much more manageable than before. I like. I used sesame oil last night. Will try olive oil next.

…I finally caved in and bought myself an iPod Touch. I bought it specifically to use it as an ebook reader because I don't have one yet, and I thought it'd be nice to have one so I can crit stuff, etc. The thing is I don't need anything else fancier — I don't need a calendar or anything. PDA is nice, but I just use my Outlook instead. (esp. because I'm usually home)

Now, I need to wait until it arrives. To be honest, I had my boyfriend buy it for me in the States because it's just too expensive where I am. (Almost all electric gadgets cost more in Japan.)

First, I want to start by saying … THANK GOD JULY IS OVER.

This July has been one of the most difficult months I had to go through. Let's just say that I was in excruciating pain until July 15 or so without any medication to relieve any of my symptoms — that's just not the way doctors around here work — plus heat exhaustion and insomnia until recently. Or…at least I think insomnia will continue.

Now mind you, if I don't feel any effect of insomnia (meaning I feel refreshed every morning) I wouldn't complain. But I feel absolutely terrible in the morning. How many people can live on 3-4 hours of sleep per night for an entire month?

Anyway…I was looking forward to a better August until this morning I got woken up by very very loud shouting and singing from people outside. Then I remembered, “Oh crap! Peace demonstration.”

Every year around this time, they have peace demonstrations and so on in Japan to protest the atomic bombing. Although I feel a great deal of sympathy for civilians, especially children, I don't feel much sympathy when the demonstrators shout how Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki without any good reasons, how American did it out of malice / evilness, and how Japan was a helpless victim. The demonstrators conveniently forget that:

1. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor without a declaration of war, hence dragging the U.S. into the Second World War.
2. Japan also invaded Asia during WWII. Japan to this date claims that it just wanted to “liberate Asia” from the evil western influence. Ask any Chinese or Korean or Filipinos what they think, and they'll probably turn red in the face and say something extremely derogatory about Japan.

As a Korean American I sometimes wonder what would happen in Germany if Germans got together and claimed that they were the victims of evil pro-Jew Americans or something. I'm sure it wouldn't go over very well.

I think this is one of the big reasons why there will always be some hostility (overt or otherwise) among Asian nations. There are many countries and people who think that Japan got off too easy and they still feel angry about it.