lingqi's Journal: July 6th, 2004

July 6th, 2004 (5:45pm)

Nothing interesting these days except maybe the weather, which is incredibly hot. To combat the weather I bought another watermelon for 1,000 yen. Trying to figure out exactly how much I am paying, I (while eating the watermelon) derived the formula for calculating spherical volume* by doing some integral calculus magic, and figured out that the watermelon is ~4L - figuring out to be about a dollar per pound.

* 4/3*pi*R^3 = Integral[ pi*(R^2-h^2), {h,-R,R} ] (mathematica expression)
** Integrating for surface area seem to be a pain, though. Better to derive the above to get 4*pi*R^2.

(yes I am very proud that I still remember how to integrate)

This year being the 50th anniversary of my company, we are getting some special treats, one of the more expensive ones is two tickets to Tokyo Disney Resort. The tickets are worth maybe 45 dollars, and are valid up to June 30th, 2005 - however if used on any of the non-designated days a charge of 1,000 yen extra applies. Still a good deal, considering usually Disney passes are around 50 dollars or more. I am thinking about selling mine.

Other little things we get are free 50th-anniversary special edition privacy stickers for the mobile phones. These blocks the phone screen from being viewable from greater than 45 degrees. The only caveat is that a 50-th anniversary logo is imprinted on the bottom of the sticker, making it a tad unpleasant to look at.

I really wish they'd just give us some money instead of spending it on silly things most people don't want.

In one scene of "Lost in Translation," Bill Murry picks up the phone and answers "moshi-moshi" except he gets it wrong and says it as "mushi-mushi" instead. Two tiny comments about that:

1) It's a very bad idea to answer a phone with moshi-moshi in japan if you do not speak the language, because the other party will start talking in japanese. Many first-time travellers have made this mistake and vows to never do it again.

2) Apparently "mushi" means "bug" (like an insect) in japanese, but its meaning is far less innocent in German. Don't answer "mushi-mushi" in Germany.