Fire

I woke up with a sound of alarms that I could barely hear from outside. I assumed that a dormitory's fire alarm has rang and the students must be kicked out from there, what a poor. However, every dormitory students have ever experienced it quite a lot, like I also did, so I even appreciated that it is not us.

It was 20minutes before I usually get up. In the morning of April Fool. It was too early to get up, but also too late to go back to sleep. Therefore, I chose to get up. I prepared for the morning class and I went to eat breakfast. When I was walking to the dinning hall, there were about 40~50 people walking from my direction. It seemed very weird; I have never seen that many people are walking in the morning. Here is America, I thought, a super big joke that involves many people might be planned for this day.

After I ate breakfast and came back to my dormitory, my roommate told me that Student Union Building had a fire. He seemed little giggling and sort of happy. I was confident and proud of my self that I was not tricked. This is April Fool, he must be joking to me. However, I pretended that I was tricked. What a kind and gentle man I am......

Before I went to the morning class, I had to receive a mail, so I went to the mailing center which is located next to the Student Union Building. I saw some fire trucks stopping around the Student Union Building. It seemed very serious, but it might be a joke for the April first. I just ignored and went to the mailing center.

When I arrived the mailing center, I checked my name on the board. When I checked the name and the date that listed on the sheet, I realized that I was making a big misunderstanding. It was a Wednesday morning, March 31st 2010. April Fool was the next day.

Living in the Virtual Reality

I gave a presentation about Virtual Reality yesterday's Listening and Speaking class. The topic was too "Sci-Fi" and too fantasy, but all I wanted to say was that the world is going this way as the technology is dramatically developing. According to the CNN News, Brown University has got $2,000,000 stimulus for the investigation of the Virtual Reality. The concept of virtual reality is very interesting and anticipated its possibilities in many areas by many people.

The great success of the movie, AVATAR makes the electronic industries to make plan to producing 3-D displayed TV for living room. This is very innovative because 3-D TV can make you feel exactly you are in the story by affecting the viewers sight. In addition, if the views have the surrounded sounds system in the living room, they will feel like they are in the virtual world even more, due to the two of five senses are stuck in the virtual reality.

The concept of the virtual reality is that create a different world that people can be in, and also can feel five senses. Just like the movies "Matrix," "Star Trek," and the Japanese animation "Ghost In The Shell," if your brain just receive some signal, you can feel it as a real even it is not happening in real. For example, if you were given some signals which was informed about he taste, warmth and feels of cigarette, you think you were smoking cigarette even you actually didn't. However, the fact that you smoked would be remain in you memory.

Our technology is not getting further enough to actually have the virtual reality. However, this 3-D innovation is the process of our technological development.

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are very scary because of its uncleanness; nobody can predict accurately when natural disasters happen. There was a big earthquake happened in Chile last week or so. It killed over 700 people. Although there was a further distance, quite a big Tsunami came to Japan. In the last month, there was also a huge earthquake that killed a number of people in Haiti. If the natural disasters can be predicted, huge number of people could be alive. However, the science is developing more and more to be able to predict the natural disasters some day.

U.S. Geological Survey researched and showed the date of the risk of the earthquake in America. According to them, the west coast, especially along the Northern California to the north border in Washington, is at the very high risk. There are plates that colliding together under the ground along the west coast. Although it is not accurate enough to be prepare for the big earthquake happen, people can just keep in mind about that and try not to be too panic when the earthquake actually happen.

The earthquake happen basically for the plates colliding together far under the ground. When we think about "ground," we usually think it is only one "ground," which we think as the Earth. However, just like there are several continents around the world, there are a lot of plates which actually make a continent and its movement. If there are two plates pressuring each other, it can make a huge mountain. For example, there are Indian Plate and Asian Plate pushing each other. This is the reason why the Himalaya Mountains appears.

There are four plates under Japan. That is the reason why there are so many earthquake in Japan. About 20% of earthquake happening in the world is in Japan. However, there are high Archaeological technology to prevent the earth quake collapse the building. I think this is one of the thing that Japan can help the world.

In conclusion, there are so many natural disasters, not only earthquakes. we can say that all of them are very dangerous because nobody can predict exactly when it happen and how. However, there are many ways to prevent and lessen the number of victims and injured. Those scientific report might help people, also some archaeological technology might help. I think the most important thing that people has to remember when some natural disasters happen is not to be panic. Therefore, people also have to prepare for the natural disaster not only physically, but also mentally.

The Olympic Games

As soon as I woke up today, I checked my computer to see weather the class has been canceled or not. When I saw outside through the window, it was snowing hard. I felt lazy and disappointed. I wanted all the class would be canceled and I wanted to go back to sleep. However, I also wanted to go to the library. If the classes would be closed, the library might also be canceled. Thus, I was a little happy when I see the class were not canceled.

The reason why I wanted to go to the library is that I wanted to see the Olympic games. In my dormitory, the Wi-Fi system is not very good and it is hard to use the internet to watch TV. Also, we do not have TV except for the one in student lounge and I do not know how to use it accurately. Therefore, I just wanted to go to the library and see the Olympic games safely.

The Importance of My Field of Study / Career Choice

I haven't chosen any major yet. I am not sure what I am really interested in or what I like learning about. Last summer, when I arrived in New Paltz, I thought I was interested in International Relations due to my background of being a biracial, bicultural and binational. I was interested in learning the power balance in the world and how it affects to the society.

As I started to think about the power balance in the world, I thought that the Economy is one of the most important thing to be "powerful." Therefore, I started to think that I wanted to be in Economy major.

In the end of 2009, I read a book which was written by Cognitive Psychologist. I started to think that Psychology should be the one that I will learn in college. Psychology is very broad. It related to so many field of study. For example, Psychology can be related to Economy to know how people react with the prices or economy itself. Therefore, I should study Psychology to know the basic of how people think and behave.

I also thought that Sociology is very broad. It can be related to Politics, Economy, Psychology and Philosophy. I am also curious about subculture and it's effects to the society. For example, in our generation, Information Technology is very developed. Obviously, this affects people's relationship, no matter it is good or bad.

I think Sociology is the study that I can learn variety of things view from real world. However, Psychology is the study that I can learn many things view from what people think or behave. I think there are both important and I cannot choose one at this point. However, I think learning variety of studies is the importance of mt field of study and career choice.

Introducing myself

Hi, my name is George. I have been taking ESL course here in New Paltz since last summer, June 2009. New Paltz is a wonderful place to live, study, and play. There are a lot of natures and animal that haven't seen before and it is very quiet to study. Also, I can go to New York City by using bus which takes only about 1.5 hours.

Before I came here, I was born and raised in Japan. As you know my name, it is not a common name for Japanese. It because my father is American who came from the United States due to his profession. Therefore, I was born and raised in Japan until when I was eighteen yeas old.

I am planning to study in college in United States. Thus, I am preparing and studying English that I can adjust easily in the college in America. I am interested in psychology and sociology. I also want to study some economics, music, international relations and philosophy. I might change my mind after a while, but these are the areas that I am interested.

My hobby is reading books, listening musics, surfing the net, playing some "intelligent games" such as mah-jong :P I like reading mostly Japanese books. However, I listen variety of music from various places in the world. I listen classical such as Wagner or Bruckner, I also listen rock music like Nirvana or Radiohead. I am also a "Queen Freak."I know a lot of songs from 60's and 70's rock music era including The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Queen, King Crimson and so on.

These are my brief self-introduction. I would like to be known a lot about my self and I hope that you are going to have a nice time during this semester taking a same ESL Reading and Writing class.