A Minor Complaint about Air Conditioners

There is a small thing about the remote of my air conditioner.

I'm worried about whether I can convey it correctly. It's such a small complaint I'm not sure you'll even understand it.

My question is: why can't the remote be synchronized with the main unit more easily.

Generally, the remote is handy. It lets me turn the AC up and down from a distance, set an off-timer and on-timer, and see the temperature setting.
However, when I use the remote, I have to point it towards the AC unit precisely. If the remote faces another direction, the signal travels the wrong way, and it doesn't work.
It happens especially when I use it while doing something else. The required angle to point it at the AC is like archery and I always have to shoot the second arrow.
Why does the signal last only for a moment?
Why can't control the AC on the first try?
If the signal lasted several seconds, not a moment, I wouldn't have to aim it so exactly. Moreover there should be a better way to sync it.
My previous AC had the same limited features, it never improves.

It's such a small issue that I feel awkward to bring it up, though.

Thanks to Brian, MauricioEiji and SY's correction.

Candylipz: Way to Make Your Lips Bigger

Candylipz.

It looks questionable but the development of these kind of beauty instruments never ends.

A lady put a squishy rubber apple-like stuff on her lip, and squashed it to absorb it into her lips. Afterwaiting a minute, voila! Her lips became plump and more attractive.

I found this interesting product, Candylipz, by chance.

I watched a demo video on Instagram and first thought "what's the difference?" but maybe it's just because I'm a guy who is not particular about lips. I could tell the difference by comparing between before and after. 

The application is simple and easy. I have no idea how popular it is, but it seems it was a hit in 2015. I didn't see it in Canada last year, though.

The appearance is neat enough to sell (perhaps) but I'm guessing it will be hard for it to become a big hit in Japan due to the difference in the sense of beauty in regards to lips.

It's interesting that this simple product is created after people invented lip injection to plump. It should be the opposite but I know sometimes it's tougher to create simple stuff. The simpler you make a product, the tougher it is to invent.

According to the official web page, lips will stay plumped for up to 2 hours. Users might use before going out...but how do they do after 2 hours?

Is her lip going to shrink while hanging out?

Anyway, I was somewhat impressed that there is still possibility to develop such a simple product.

Thanks to Dillon and CthuluFett's correction.

Hey guys, Do you polish rice?

I'll write about rice again, but this time the topic is more about rice itself.
Yesterday, I did rice polishing.
It occurred to me later that I didn't know whether or not this procedure existed abroad. Actually, I'm not sure what do they do about rice in other area of Japan, not to mention abroad.
In which condition do you buy rice, polished or unpolished? Furthermore, do people even know if rice needs polishing before you wash and cook it?
Oh no, doubts beget more doubts, I'm way too skeptical.
I know rice is everywhere and unpolished rice is not edible, so, for this reason, people polish rice everywhere. I shall not doubt.

Anyway, I went to a rice polishing facility with 30kg of rice. There are dozens of facilities like this in rural towns.

When you pour unpolished rice into a hopper and insert coins in the slot, rice is then sucked into a machine and polished automatically. After waiting several minutes, polished white rice comes from an outlet port. Then you have to bring 30kg of rice back home. 

It's laborious.

What is interesting is that you may not be able to find that such a normal thing exists, or doesn't exist, if you live in a different region. For example I couldn't imagine that people didn't have to polish rice.

Thanks to Dylan and Brian's correction.

You’ll succeed on the third attempt

There are only two ways to plug in, true or false.

But you'll succeed on the third attempt.

                                                  ―――――USB

Don't give up until your third try.

Recently I had to make a graduation speech in front of students at my ESL school's graduation ceremony.

At the end of the speech, I wanted to prepare something smart and funny but I was reluctant to cite others' aphorism so I decided to coin my own proverb-like saying.

Later on, when I was about to give it up before long and I was browsing 9GAG, I found something that hit the spot. Eureka!

That was the joke about USB. Then I added some encouraging words and remade it to pretend to be a real saying like above. I was supposed to be ready to say it.

Finally, when it came to mentioning the fake proverb in my graduation speech, I don't know whose fault it was, there was no laughter. They were so silent that I could hear their nods. It looked like that my sham saying was taken as a real maxim.

I really wondered whether I should let it pass as I pretended not to notice. However, I overcame the shame and tried to repeat it and explain it.

(I was seriously relieved that I didn't have to implement my aphorism, the third attempt.)

Luckily, some people laughed but if no one had laughed with even repetition, I wouldn't have gotten over the psychological shock.

Thanks to ReneeCole and CthuluFett’s revision.

In Rice We Trust.

In Rice We Trust.
Under the name of the marvelous staple food, let us all unite!
...I got carried away.
I saw the motto " In Rice We Trust " on a wallet I bought in a souvenir shop in a Filipino airport. It's a parody of the USA's motto.
Filipino people like rice so much that they likely will say the motto. I was awestruck to see a hamburger with rice and spaghetti with rice as a combo in a fast food chain. Rice is essential staple food of us, Japanese, but we never eat hamburgers with rice, so they've got us beat there.

Aside from the motto, I'm fond of this wallet which is composed of recycled tarpaulin like Freitag, and sliced old tires or some other recycled rubber product.
The inner part is made up of vibrant colored tarpaulin, and the outer part is rubber material so it's durable.
I like the contrast between the vivid inside and rustic outside. I usually don't buy souvenirs at airports, but I've never seen the wallet anywhere else, so I made an impulse purchase.
There were some other types of wallets made with the same material and they looked new and cool.  Considering how new they are, they should have a web page, but I couldn't find one at all.
I'd like to know where can I buy it in the Philippines and get something besides wallets next time, though.

Thanks to Annyali93, SY, and Craig's revision.

Trouble is your business; Shazam for something else

What is troublesome for some is someone else's bread and butter. But that will make our life butter better.
Sometimes people need to know what fonts is used on a book, poster, or web page. It's not necessary for me but I feel it would certainly be fun if I could recognize what the font is. Of course it's not only fun, but efficient for designers, adpeople and the like.
That kind of service, like font-version of Shazam would probably be enjoyable.
I think it probably exists already, but I only found a service for the Roman Alphabet, no Japanese version. Here it is.

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/matcherator

If someone makes a portal for fonts that enables customers to search and get them, it would be beneficial for both the business and its customers. Maybe the needs are too specific so it's not worth the effort to make a font pattern recognition system.

Japanese letters are far more intricate than the Roman Alphabet but I hope that service will be introduced in Japan for the sake of some people.

In Canada...
My friend's jaw dropped when I said I have memorized about 3 thousand sorts of letters, Kanji. We were drunk, so we couldn't help laughing after saying "3000 seems too many, but you don't have to memorize such a number. You can read a newspaper if you know 1000 of them. 1000 is enough."
We had a laughing fit for "1000 is enough".
Compared to Alphabet, it's totally insane! Please reduce it to 26!

Reading and writing are far harder than speaking and listening Japanese.
Due to the enormous numbers of Kanji, searching for Kanji themselves is quite difficult for people who don't have knowledge of radicals or the numbers of strokes, not to mention how to read it. It would be useful if there was a Kanji-version of Shazam.

Oops there already is.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/kanji-scan/id418823916

Kanji-scan

Rikai-chan 

Thanks to CthuluFett and Raw64life's correction.