graded.
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These past two months have been extremely busy for me. Between managing the network design and implementation of this project and the people working under me and being involved in various other projects, I just haven’t had time to blog.
So a quick update..
It’s hot as hell here. Summer is here and rainy season is all but over.
The job, well it is going awesome. Any doubts that I had about both the company and my abilities are all but gone. Everything I have encountered so far I have been able to solve, via my own ability or via delegating throughout my team. All in all, it’s good. The only problem I have is working with some central european country peoples. Italians, Irish, French Spanish, Tanzanian, Nigerian, Nepalese.. no problem.. others, not so much. And I am not the only one, so I don’t particularly feel like this is a weakness, but I need to try and figure this out.
Aikido is going, bjj is going (perhaps I will have to do some shiai if I want rank..), sabar still going. Japanese is increasing..
As soon as this project is over, I will get a long vacation and a huge bonus.. Planning on going to Nagano and camp in the mountains with girfriend and her friends that live there and then after that perhaps go to a music festival outside of kyoto that lasts for over a month. Also laying plans for a winter trip to Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam if anyone feels like joinging, around 14 days.
Interesting times all around.
At the Enterprise 2.0 conference (which I didn’t attend), Don Burke and Sean Dennehey from the CIA gave a talk on Intellipedia, the CIA’s internal wikipedia. As part of their talk, they cited a manual, including, this from page 28:
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
This is pretty much the way all business run in japan….
Or something like that.
Things have been busy lately.. Busy with work and back to enjoying Tokyo. Having moved to a more clean and green area of Tokyo, I have to say it is quite refreshing. I have two huge parks within 10 minutes bike ride from my apartment, fabulous view from my balcony, and huge cherry tree’s all around.. (Sakurashinmachi), Sandan test coming up soon if I decide to take it, super bonus coming up also. A friend from canada is coming to visit, again, and possibly moving back. All round, it’s going great.
That’s why updates have not been so frequent.. there is only so much time in the day. My schedule goes like this..
m-f 9-6ish work
tth 830 1030 jujutsu
fr 1830 2000 jujutsu
sas aikido and sabar
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Outside of that, studying japanese and a decent amount of partying with friend… japanese summer.
Since I moved, my judo dojo is just to far away and there is a bjj dojo run by some high ranking bjj guys close by.. (and cheap!) so I started that..
I had my first embassy party last weekend. It was a event at the Canadian embassy in support of Hope International. A charity that builds wells and lends cows to families in need. Right now they are doing a lot in cambodia. It was an interesting time, a lot of politician and “power” players in the Tokyo international scene, or so I was told. The food was pretty good and the open bar was great. Best part was, I didn’t have to wear a tux.. cool biz summers in japan.
I was able to meet and talk with the head of Hope international for a few minutes. Interesting guy. If I go to cambodia, I can help build a well now. Maybe around christmas.
ehhhhhh!
banana phone. Caught on the first day of work as I was leaving my apartment.
Well it’s been around a month, give or take, since I have posted any updates. If for any reason, because I have been busy. Between trying to recover from jetlag and family induced stress, to starting a new job and getting up to speed on projects..
So I will give you all a quick update.
First and foremost, thanks to all those of you that inquired as to the health of my mother. She is doing a lot better now. They put two splints in one of her arteries and performed angioplasty on another. They were able to remove the blockage from the 85% and 95% blocked arteries and on the angioplastyied on they were able to clear it to 40%. She is up and moving around very happy now. It was a good 20 days in St. Louis except, again, I didn’t get to see as many people as I hoped to.
Continue reading ‘A month of updates..’
Sitting at the hospital, waiting for my mom to come out of heart surgery… In the waiting room, there are 19 other people ranging in age from 17 to 70. The 17 year old kid is the only one in here that could be considered a good normal weight. Everyone else is supersized and overly annoying.. for example..
The 45 to 55 year old women sitting next to me, on skype, chatting with a friend about the latest Britney Spears pictures. Literally, she turned the news down so she could talk to her friend. Even after I asked to be considerate of others she is still being annoying as hell. If she wasn’t using her edge card for access I would be up in her shizznitaz. SO ANNOYING.
Next, there are is a gaggle of fat women here discussing their exercise routine. Which I think really consists of them making laps around the buffet during lunch… and dinner. *sigh*
Back in St. Louis for a few weeks.. hit me up if you want to meet up.
On a side note.. things here are now as expensive as they are in Tokyo. It blows my mind. Recession anyone?
Since I am sitting at work on my last day, with nothing to do.. I upgraded the ole blogaroo and a few other things.
I went to the embassy this morning to have more pages added to my passport. I have to say I was impressed with the efficiency of the citizen services group. Perhaps the visa group isn’t so efficient though.
Not looking forward to the flight back…