Winter and Time

Well, it's winter again already. With winter comes cold weather, but it also means the holiday season is upon us. What holidays are around now? Practically every religion around the world has a holiday around now. Even if there are not strong religions involved, there are other celebrations at this time of year, mainly due to the new year season. As time evolves, seasons change, and one year changes into the next. One second passes, one week passes, one month...one year...ten years...one hundred years. This is an interesting phenomenon that we know as humans. When you stop to think about it, it seems rather odd, doesn't it? What exactly is time? It moves ahead, taking us with it. I like to think of it concretely, like a long, invisible line directly in front of us, that's moving along second by second. We don't know what's on the other side of that line, but we keep moving along with it. Eventually we'll come to the next second and the line will move again. The line will keep moving like that, every second moving forward, never stopping, never slowing, endlessly marching into eternity...until when? Well, that's the question, isn't it. It's a question no one will be able to answer any time soon. Perhaps never?

The Future of Education

Many researchers, psychologists, and university teachers believe that education will change drastically in the next twenty years. Some believe that students will be able to choose to learn more of they want to learn in more of the ways they want to learn. Students will be able to get credit for studying things directly, in a more autonomous fashion, rather than taking many irrelevant courses in school. Some people believe that there will be less need for teachers, because students can learn directly on the Internet, anywhere, anytime. In the far future, perhaps students won't need to write things down as many things will be on a computer chip that can be installed in the brain. This is probably very far in the future, though, and we probably won't be experiencing that, but you never know! In the case of languages, in the near future we may have an ear device that immediately translates the language you are hearing. We still may have to study for tests for awhile; technology that enables us to upload information directly into our brains is not quite here. And we probably won't develop photographic memories, have thousands of volumes of information in our brains that we can draw from, or become musical virtuosos or geniuses of physics any time soon. Having said that, however, we'll definitely be able to at least access a plethora of information on the Internet instantly with a few clicks on the keyboard. Isn't that leading us down the pathway of having immortal minds?

Social Problem

A huge social problem in America these days is gun control.

Goals for Fall, 2018

This year is flying by sooooo fast. It's already October, and Halloween will soon be on our doorstep. This is my favorite time of year, just before it gets cold.

With the fall semester comes preparing for English classes, making activities and quizzes, planning for tests, and teaching classes. There is so much to do! Of course, my goals include teaching classes smoothly for students, and having students move upward and onward with confidence into their own future lives.

I have several other goals for this fall. I would like to finish my novel. I won't write the name yet, because it's not quite finished. I just to have to revise some parts following comments from my proofreader. Then hopefully it will move on to the publishing stage! Will you buy a copy?

I also hope to have another academic paper published, but I need to finish writing it first! I have one during this year, but I would like to achieve at least one more this year. Another thing I have to do is to supervise my 4th year students on writing their graduation papers, so they can prepare for the mid-term presentations in mid-November.

One definite thing I will do is present my research at a conference at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu on December 1st and 2nd of this year. Then I'll keep writing, teaching, revising, and moving upward and onward, too!