Procrastination

TV exercise?

September 2 2008

I got an interesting email today from another lecturer, who quoted Da Vinci as saying that he wanted to apologize to God and humanity for wasting time. I guess we all need time to think, but I suppose some of us are better at using our ‘down time’ than others.

Just like a fellow teacher who works out 6-7 days a week. He said,” Well, I use the time you probably spend watching TV”. I hope he doesn’t work out that much!

I tried to convince my wife to buy another computer (2 down, 1 hanging in there) instead rather than a new wide-screen digital TV, but now instead I am living my life vicariously in different police and sci- fi dramas too much. No wonder I have stress, mentally dodging all those bullets and aliens.

Then again, exercising with the TV can be fun. Just think, you don’t need Wi sports!

Missing the boat with the pc explosion

I’m reading a book on Microsoft that features people who work and have worked there (though some may have left by now, the book is dated 2003). It’s amazing that some things you considered true are (long hours, a demanding tech world, some young millionaires), but some things are not (Microsoft’s products are  lot more complicated than Apple’s because the Microsoft products have to work with many different PCs, whereas Apple’s only works with their own machines. But also they talk about the pressure to ship when things are still buggy (something I curse Bill for that every day) and some of the unfairness in the company when it comes to sharing credit and giving blame for cancelled projects (sound familiar).

Missing the boat

Of course, being a non-techie, it’s difficult for me to envision some of the difficulties, I just see the result and judge that. But the Microsoft culture also changed as they became a bigger company, so that also is a chunk of the story you don’t always see published. Several of the people talked about that, and of course with growth comes bureaucracy and  an unhealthy distance between departments. Communication becomes more labored and time intensive, and after a while the company atmosphere is probably colored by which department you’re in and where on the food chain you are.

Another thing I got out of the book is how money does and doesn’t change your world. The people away from Microsoft mentioned that the money (or lack of it in some cases where people had been gasp, laid off) made a difference in that you could decide if you wanted to continue to work and had a safety parachute to possibly do things you had always dreamed about doing. Working for a small company that may take off is a dream. When I worked at one young company, it seemed it would take off, but it didn’t happen. They asked us to work long hours, and we didn’t get any stock options. Some things are just luck, and what you know and what you do with it.

Losing that ‘country’ feeling

Losing my country

I’ve run into a weird phenomenon with some coworkers. When asked about their country, in their profiles they have listed places they don’t seem to be from! Now in one case, a person says one nationality, listing a country as home, but it turns out it’s near there, but not quite the same place.

Now the second case is odder. This person claims one nationality, family living in another country, father and mother from different places.Won’t say where in that country the family lives, so I have to wonder, which flag is on the passport?

Is there some reason people are embarassed to state where they live?  Haven’t a clue. It seems people think it’s difficult to explain, but I don’t think so. Maybe I’ll start telling people I’m from the Americas or that I live in Asia close to China!

In the waiting zone

Recently, as another semester waits to kick off, I feel more and more like just kicking back and not thinking about much. Sometimes those are the best times when something actually gels in your head. Now, how to best use a blog with my classes…zzzzzz

In the zone

Feeling blue oceans

What customers really want

I’ve been reading a book about tapping ‘blue’ oceans in the business world. The concept is not entirely new, tapping unseen markets, but the approach and methodology behind it is well researched with case studies and examples over a 30 year span. Every industry has companies competing for the same customers, yet some companies change the playing field by pursuing new customers with an innovative look at what customers and potential customers really want.

I’m wondering what is untapped in Japan and how do you find it?

Expanding minds want to know

Where’s the box?

I keep harking back to a time in my dreams when I wasn’t living here, and certainly didn’t dream of Japan. Was that a simpler and easier time or just a less expanded time? Seems like when people don’t think much beyond their neighborhood, the ideas that they have are really simple, but are they any less useful? People really do make their own realities, and it does take some doing to change the one you’re in (or seem to be in). Experience is just that and everyones’ is different. One of the Russian expats that I know was commenting that her town is considered pretty backward in Russia, yet these supposed Moscow cosmopolitans that have never left Moscow know very little beyond their metro backyard.

So who is the bumpkin and how do you tell if one is sophisticated or not?

Is it clothes, words, thoughts, or something else? I meet people all the time, and they judge me by what I say or don’t say, and perhaps by the nationality they think I carry in my accent. But do they really know who or what I am? Well, probably they know as much a I know about them, which is often very little. People seem so guarded nowadays, that very little real substance seeps through. You get occasional flashes of reality, bytes really, and then masks slide back into place, and you wonder, what was that really about, that brief exposure.

Oh well, mustn’t think too much about it, or I might get too real myself.

Or would I? Or would I simply be who I am now with an added mask?

Though I have to say I’m not one to usually consider pretending to be a clown, but I suppose we all have our moments for drama, whether high or low..

So who am I ? Well I guess I am who I think I am, but sometimes it feels like I am who other people think I am. But to be honest, who people think you are might be miles away from who you really are (which could be a good thing or not).

Cleaning as a hobby

Well today was tiring, from the point of view where we did a major laundering of all our curtains. probably long overdue, but you have to wonder, what is the real price of dust?

Dusting for a living

Many a time I think it’s annoying how cleanliness seems to take a priority over forming real relationships and actually taking time to communicate. But then again, it could just be me who feels this way when I see people washing the sidewalk or sweeping their driveway daily.

I suppose they could be doing worse things like writing about it.

Busy is as busy does

Recently I feel I’m busier and busier, but to what end? Recently someone I know is talking of moving out of Japan to find work, whereas her spouse is being told to stay here as he has work and may find it difficult to find comparable pay in another country. But this woman doesn’t seem to consider about the price of keeping two households. Sounds like a Hollywood marriage in the making.

I keep wondering, how tied to work is our self-esteem? I know for myself it is difficult to imagine if you don’t have money, then shouldn’t you look for work somewhere rather than keep lamenting how every job just doesn’t fit your ideal job list? But what should we do when our dream job doesn’t seem to be available? You’d think one would look for something comparable to do, or just find something else you’d like to do.

I guess I need to remember the last time when I felt depressed because I couldn’t keep the job I wanted. Wait, that day may be coming sooner than I thought! But it is hard to divine what would be the ideal job. For now or at that time or until you know something better? I suppose you could call me a restless American, but how would you know? Of course, probably deep down you might feel it is as good as it gets.

Almost ‘German’ atmosphere

Feeling German?

I went to the Asahi Oktoberfest in Hibiya Park tonight. Talk about the worst parts of something being copied. A German festival with no German beer, wait, they did have German-Canadian beer (I’ll let you figure that one out)! And music, but the marching type, repeated each hour, with techno crap in between sandwiched with Asahi beer ads.

It was nice to drink beer outside in a park, but I could do that without eating bad German food (oh, did I forget to mention that, American hot dogs with sauerkraut). Yes, when the Japanese copy something, it’s always better (according to someone)!

Really, doesn’t Asahi know how to do a beer festival by now? They did have pictures of the festival in Munich, and it looked so much better (and much more crowded). Oh well, can’t have everything, can we? Guess it’s time to head out to Germany again with my stein!

About moi

I grew up in Bristol, Connecticut in the US. Not the most exciting of places, but sometimes dead calm does lead to strange consequences.

I lived in Hong Kong and Taiwan before surfacing in Japan. I miss Hong Kong the most, not sure why sometimes, more the energy I guess.

Anyhow, I’m living in Tokyo in Japan. Have been here since the summer of 1997, but have hardly mastered the local language. Oh well, can’t have everything, right? I suppose it’s a matter of laziness and a case of the coach not being the best athlete so to speak. In other words, sometimes the best teachers are not the best students.

I keep myself busy teaching at a language school and 3 universities. How busy depends on the amount of homework I give and the economy.