Entries this day: Dream_dad_clock Forced_meditation Got_a_job!! zzz_walked_Ami_home

Dream dad clock

5:40am JST Monday 20 August 2007 (day 13662)

Crouched over a smattering of gears and axles, my dad and I were working together to build a clock, using no plans, and no experience. We both believed we had the best ideas on how to do it, and we ended up sorta fighting over techniques and resources. One of the axles was actually an ink cartridge from a ball point pen, and it had little flared points to hold the spring in place. We needed to add a gear between two gears on it, so my dad used pliers to pull it out, but upon extraction, it got bent at the flared points.

I was grumbling, "dammit, it fucking got bent," as if the project had been ruined by that one point. I realized in fact, that axle would need not just to have a gear in between two gears, but to allow one of the gears to spin freely. I decided we needed to take this even more slowly, so I suggested we just get the three gears that needed to go on this axle and see if we could get them aligned and spinning

My dad's response was along the lines of, "do you think you can put your cup on a coaster for me?"

I shook my head like, "wtf?" and then just tossed the cup outside, but spilling cola on the clock project in the process. "Why do you care about the drink? " I demanded. "It means nothing compared to this project, and working with you."

"Now," my dad soothingly replied, "we just need to be careful about this surface and not get stains or marks on it."

That pissed me off even more. "Dad, working with you is more important than any cup or table; I didn't even think about the cup being there." Then I wondered why we were fighting. I cooled down a little bit and was like, "I'm sorry we've turned to fighting, especially considering I don't even know why we started, though my best guess is because I got pissy when that axle got bent.

Dad disagreed it was that point, but didn't offer any further suggestions.

Forced meditation

8:11am JST Monday 20 August 2007 (day 13662)

Okay, I've been awake for 3 hours, and gotten a bit done: wrote an email to Kristen (*), ate a bowl of cereal, started laundry, put in my contacts, wrote a dream, a summary of yesterday's game, and now I'm practically dying for an excuse to not get started job searching.

Gotta gotta gotta just sit and chillfully plan.

(*) email to Kristen:

Hey Kristen!!

I hope your birthday brings all sorts of good to your life and the
world around you!!

I am still based in Tokyo, right now in the job searching department.
I was just in the US for a month and didn't get my ducks aligned
quickly enough to find *you*, but I'll just blame it on Catherine for
not giving me your contact info before I left.  :-)

What's up with you?  Kickin' it law-style, I assume.

Oh, I was in the US for a month, so I had to give up my job here to do
it, so now I'm headed for an IT job, but just don't know with which
company.

I have a girlfriend: a Japanese woman named Ami (Spanish / French
pronunciation) who was one of my students at my previous job.  She
actually came to the US for a week during my trip.  Fun times.

If you have no free time, click here to see Ami and me
http://robnugen.com/images/travel/US/Texas/2007/summer/zoo_and_museum/

Otherwise, more pics are here:
http://robnugen.com/images/travel/US/Texas/2007/summer/

    Hugs
    - Rob!

ps: Francois is my stuffed rabbit with which/whom I went around the
world twice via Peace Boat: http://peaceboat.org

pps:
In the unlikely event you have nothing but free time, here are some of
my pics from my (first) Peace Boat voyage(s):
http://robnugen.com/images/travel/Pb/49th_May-Aug_2005/first_month/Page1.shtml
http://robnugen.com/images/travel/Pb/

--
The love that you give is the pain that you release.

Got a job!!

2:31pm JST Monday 20 August 2007 (day 13662)

I got a job!

I'm semi-shocked at how "easy" it was.

I emailed my resume to a few people I know.

Separately, on Friday I set up an interview with one of my ex-students (Akira).

I didn't remember who he was, but his card clearly said IT Recruiting.

He remembered me and set up an interview for today.

I thought I would just be meeting him, but he came in with another guy.

I remembered who Akira was.. He buys and sells companies for fun and profit.

I started talking to the one guy he brought in, and then three more guys came in.

My previous introduction was recounted in Japanese.

They asked a couple questions, talked for a while, and I caught almost nothing besides what I'll translate as , "do you have anything you can leave with us?"

ちょっとはずかしいんだけど、プリンタがないので、USBキーでresumeがある。

They were like, no problem, and produced a laptop onto which I copied my resume from my USB stick.

They all had a gander, talked some more, then, "do you want to work part time or full time?"

"Um.. part time, because there are other projects I'd like to work on."

"Okay, can you start September 1st?"

"Yes.

Wait that's a Saturday."

"Okay, September 3rd."

And that's how I got my first IT job in Japan.

zzz walked Ami home

12:59am JST Tuesday 21 August 2007 (day 13663)

Watched Die Hard 4 tonight. It was an all English version, so we paused it often to make sure Ami was catching all the good parts. She fell asleep about halfway through the movie, though.

After the movie, I was in a hanky panky mood, but she requested waiting until tomorrow so it won't be so late. Fair enough.

Walked arm in arm to her bicycle and I figured out why I didn't recognize the street to Satoko's house from the station. It's a different station. (I had thought we were on the opposite end of the same station, but.)

Ami waved b-bye as I walked to the other end of the station, and then she chased me down on her bicycle for one more kiss.

Finally left her, but with lots of waves as the distance grew, until out of line-of-sight.

Noted a train engine labeled RIC, with small letters RAIL INSPECTION CAR below the logo. Hmmm. There was a guy inside, but the train wasn't moving. Not sure how long it inspects a given part of the track. I thought it would be cool if the train was slowly slowly rolling along the track in an inspective type way.

Transcribed some of Book 2 of my diary, and now it's time for sleeeeeeeping