My head has been filled up with a novel idea. Well maybe it's hardly a novel one.

My online class, American Short Stories, began yesterday. So before that, I decided to clean up all the unnecessary files in my laptop.

Then, I found a file named "writing." The name didn't ring my bell; I just didn't remember what it was about.

So I opened it, and there I saw three paragraphs of writing I now remember typing when I was living in the dorm last summer.

There are only three paragraphs with all the grammatical errors I can think of. It's not quite a good draft.

But since the moment I found it, I've been feeling like that I should start something new.

Not that I think it's novel, but even the draft with three paragraphs makes me want to write more; I want to see how this novel ends.

I just figure that it's been a long time, but the time has long come.

I want to write a novel.

Even if I end up writing a sucky novel, it's fine because I know that everything in the novel is from me. Everything is in me.

I have six months left to leave for college again. Through those six months, I'll at least try to finish something I started.

novel：新奇な; 斬新な hardly：全然…でない Even if：たとえ～でも

One of my favorite actors passed away.

"Brokeback Mountain" and other great films actor, Heath Ledger, age 28, was found dead in his apartment.

I was half-asleep when I read the Internet news on yahoo, but it quickly woke me up.

"It must be a joke," thought I.

I've been devastated by this news since the morning.

I have seen many movies in which he acted, and he was one of the actors that my classmates and I often discussed in our "What is courtly love about?" class and that I have always liked.

It's really shocking and sad that he died so young.

But I hope he'll rest in peace.

今日、中学二年生に不定詞の復習をしていました。

不定詞といえば、toプラス動詞の原形です。

名詞的用法、「～すること」（want、hope、decide、start、expectなどが代表的な名詞的用法を使う動詞です）、
副詞的用法、「～するために」
形容詞的用法、「～するための」　というのが一般的な訳し方です。

不定詞を使っている文でよく生徒が間違えるのが、justやonly、又は他の単語を toと動詞の原形の間に入れてしまうケースですね。

アメリカにいた時、よく僕もwriting tutorに、

"Don't ever put any word between a to and a base-verb!"「toと動詞の原形の間に何もいれたらダメよ。」と言われました。

それを参考に、僕の生徒にもtoと動詞の原形の間には何も入れないようにと説明したら、

ある一人が、「ほなtoと動詞の原形は結婚しとると思ったらええんやな！」と言い出したんです。

まぁ考え方によっちゃそうやなぁーと話をしていたんですが、

数分後、その子の口からとても興味深い言葉がでてきたんです。

「ほな、もしtoを夫と考えると、不定詞って一夫多妻制でぇーー！」と言い出したんです（笑）

さすがに僕もこれには笑うしかありませんでした、ハハハ。

確かにそうかもしれません。toは変わることがないんですからね。

恐るべき、中学二年生の頭の中・・・

What kinds of dreams do you often dream? Is it colored or in black and white?

I do have both colored and monochrome dreams, but yesterday, I experienced something pretty bizarre.

It was a very weird one to me.

In the dream, I was in a bathtub, full of water. The bathtub was the one we had in an apartment where my family and I lived for 17 years.

I always liked to take a bath with the window half-opened because I liked feeling the wind coming in with different scents of each season.

Anyway, through the window could I see the sky which was separated into two colors; whitish-orange and black-and-white. The window looked like a frame, and the weirdly-colored sky was comfortably fit in there.

I just kept staring at the sky, and there I saw an enormous fish flying. Yes, this was the beginning of my strange dream.

This gigantic fish had some bag hanging from its tale and was just swimming in the sky. Another funny thing was that this fish was colored in grayish-white, but its side was shining so brightly that I thought that the sun lays were going through. Only, the lights weren't coming from the sun but from the Mr. Big fish.

The fish kept on flying, or maybe swimming I should call. And there's something funnier; it was smiling.

In the half of the sky, whitish-orange colored, there were huge clouds through which sun lays were piercing. The fish went behind the clouds, and I thought it was gone, but soon it came out of there.

But this time, it was differently colored. The fish at this point was vividly colored in red and orange; the sun lays were being reflecting on its body. It was very beautiful, I recall.

The Mr. Big Fish looked so energetic. It resumed its journey in the sky, but this time, it decided to come toward me.

It became bigger and bigger as it came close to me. I could see and feel it within 10 meters, and then it began to open its mouth. I thought I'd get eaten, I shut my eye tightly.

And the next time I opened them, the dream was over. It was 6:37, my laptop said.

It was one of the weirdest dreams I have ever dreamt.

Good morning weirdness.

去年の夏に日本に戻ってきて、早くも六ヶ月目に突入しました。

残すところ後八ヶ月で、日本をまた去ることになりそうです。日本が嫌いというわけではないけれど、めちゃくちゃ楽しみです。

後八ヶ月すれば、またまた英語での生活が始まり、もっともっと勉強したいことに挑戦できると思うと、正直ホッとしています。

以前大学の寮でしていたＲＡ(Resident Assistant)の仕事も、辞めたくて辞めたわけではなかった、というのを大学側が察してくれて、履歴書と書類さえ送れば、電話でのインタビューを考えてくれているそうです。

あー良かった。

大学に帰ってからの仕事をどうしようかと本当に悩んでいたので、朗報でした。まぁまだちゃんと受かって、取り戻したというわけではないので、安心は出来ませんが、少しは希望が持てそうです。

皆さん、明けましておめでとうございます。どのような大晦日、元旦をお過ごしになられたでしょうか？

僕は、２２年の人生で、初めて自宅で年を越すことができました。アメリカでいた三年間を除き、大晦日、三が日はいつも祖母の家で過ごしてきたんです。

今年は徳島も積もるくらい雪が降ったので、山の祖母の家に行くことは無理だろう、ということで、

父の作った年越しそばをすすりながら紅白をみて、クリスマスで残っていたシャンパンを頂きました。

今日でもう三が日も終わりです。仕事は来週の月曜日までお休みを頂いているので、まだのんびり出来ます。どっか行こうかな。

さて、今年は留学していた間の話も少し復活させながら、中学生がよく疑問に思う文法や、僕が発見した文法ネタなどをご紹介していきたいと思っています。英語でのエントリーもどんどん書いていこうかな。

それでは、皆さん、今年もよろしくお願いいたします：）