Archive for October, 2008

I lost 5 pounds in 7 days

October 10th, 2008
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No, I am not taking some diet pills. Rather, I’m 5 pounds lighter since joining the current company.  Honestly, I’m a little bit delighted for losing this much without a sweat.  If I just have enough rest and sufficient food intake, I could gain weight in just a few days.  If subjected to stress, I could lose weight in just a couple of days but in return, the ever persistent pimples are now back in action accompanied by dark circles under my eyes.  Doing a lot of overtime plus the very long travel time are the main causes but I love my current project so I don’t mind the overtime work at all.  Like many people, I could be a workaholic if I really love what I am doing.  I just hope I would always be given interesting and varying projects.  Above all, I wish our company had a better overtime work rules. ;)

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At work, Lifestyle

Missing the Insects?

October 9th, 2008
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Since I came to Japan, I seldom see insects. So, there’s no need for us to buy spider traps, mosquito nets, or insecticides. There’s no more need to refrigerate almost every leftover because I haven’t seen a single ant here.  I can just leave the food in the table without any cover on because not a single fly has been able to enter the apartment.  Insects are troublesome but I admit that there are times I miss seeing them.   Sometimes, living in this extremely clean environment feels weird. After all, I’m used to live in an environment where lizards chasing small insects is a frequent occurrence.

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Extras

My Coin, My Problem

October 8th, 2008
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I do have a coin purse. But when I’m in a hurry, I just shove the coins into my pocket.
Last night, my train ticket and some coins were in my pocket. When I took out my train ticket, I’m pretty sure a 100-yen coin fell down. It was so silent inside the train so when that coin fell, it caught almost every passenger’s attention. Some looked at me, some followed the direction of the coin rolling to I don’t know where. I tried to search for my coin but it was almost my stop. Not one soul moved. Nobody tried to help me. I’m grateful that they chose to be indifferent because that was really embarrassing. But, that’s a 100-yen coin! I could buy a bottle of canned drink with that!

Well, I have no choice. It’s my fault, it’s my coin, so it’s my problem. ;)

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Experiences in Japan

And I thought

October 6th, 2008
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I thought that the transfer to the new company would give me more opportunity to blog.  But I was wrong.  Accessing my blog is not problem but, we’ve been very busy since the first day.  And, I’ve been constantly working overtime. I can access my blog alright, but I’m not comfortable with that old guy sitting behind us.  He’s acting like a supervisor, constantly looking at our computer screens.

My schedule is pretty tough, getting up early and all, but I enjoy what I’m doing right now.  I’m finally doing what I’ve always wanted to do:  getting my hands dirty with Java web development!  And I’m lucky again to have kind leaders.  Hopefully, I’ll get used to not eating something during work hours.  Indeed, it is really hard to concentrate when you could hear your stomach doing all kinds of noises.

Thank you all for the encouragement.  I hope to drop by your blogs soon.  Stay healthy everyone!

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At work, The Geek in Me

Choose Wisely

October 6th, 2008
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No, I am not going to talk about elections.  :)

Many TV commercials I see on the television here in Japan are of different insurance companies.  Many of the Japanese I know say that the senior citizens here are living a very good life because they had a very good social security system.  But they’re a bit worried now because the number of older people is higher than the working ones.

So, with all those news about insurance problems, insurance companies going bankrupt, and with the rising life insurance rates, one would have second thoughts on getting insured. But for everybody, especially for bread-winners like me, getting a life insurance is a must. It is a risk even if you get an insurance from a big company, but these would really come in handy.

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Extras

Will I Survive?

October 1st, 2008
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It has finally started and I have to get used to waking up at 6:30AM, squeeze into packed trains, and travel for more than two hours to and fro.

But yesterday, I’ve faced more than one “luck” and I admit that everything was my fault. I was supposed to prepare 3 pictures for my ID but I didn’t know that the nearest photo printing machine in our apartment closes at 8:30PM! Though the quality isn’t good, I was more than grateful to have bought my printer.  It has really been serving me well. I intended to sleep early but I spent almost the entire night installing the OS and other applications to my work PC. So, I dragged myself to work as a half-wit.  Only 3 hours of sleep could really degrade one’s brain performance.

So, What happened today?  We had to endure an orientation for about half an hour.  I was really surprised by the rules. One of the most peculiar one is – putting your hand in your pocket is prohibited.  Sadly, my Japanese isn’t good enough to understand the reason.  As usual, we spent the whole day setting up many softwaress, most of which are security-related applications.

The day ended with a welcome party for us, the 6 new members in the group.  It was rather very uncomfortable for us, the only three ladies in the team of about 30 people.

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At work
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