Like takoyaki, but with Tak

So, MS is starting a free blog service called Live Spaces, so I'm going to try it out a bit.
Not that I have anything against LJ, but I am working there after all :P

Live Spaces does give me one advantage though. I can post pics.
That should make things a little more interesting.

We'll see how this trial goes. URL:
http://cid-dc95c5b1ebf6c5c2.spaces.live.com

New flavor from Jones Soda!!
Now you can drink....

*drum roll*




"Natural Field Turf"
"Dirt"
"Prespiration"
"Sports Cream"
"Sweet Victory"

Whoo! Apparantly, it's pretty life like.
Only available in limited numbers.


link:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8RU4GP80.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtQMBCJ_GY

What am I doing at 3am....

Going to sleep....

My mom's in Japan right now, and for some reason, my mom and two of her friends, two random people she met going from Narita to Shinjuku, and I went to a MAID CAFE. Don't ask why.

I honestly don't know how to describe it. I think you all need to go at some point. It was hilarious. And somewhat embarassing? An interesting experience, I must say. Oh, Japanese culture...

A note on the two random people. One was from Malaysia and the other from Taiwan (I think), and this is there first night here in Japan, and the first place they end up going was a maid cafe. All because they sat next to my mom on the train from Narita. Man. What an experience for them. Haha.

A name I found today.

蔵人。 Read as くらうど。



....Cloud?


（￣□￣；）！！

Cheapest flight I found to NJ for winter break: $1300

....orz




someone find me a cheap flight......

Finished KH2 FM+! And by finished, I mean 100% Jiminy memo. There went 70+ hours of my life. Wheeee

And now it's time for...Halo 3! Got a 360. I couldn't help it!

God, writing this kinda makes me sad at my lack of life. Only for a slight moment though.
All this gaming though is seriously taking my study time away. Yes, I still need to study. I have to take these exams as a part of work. Boo.

Oh well. I'll survive.

I think I replied to about 30+ facebook wall posts today.
I lack the wit and imagination to say something original on each one.

On a different note.
Food eats up so much money. Arg. Need to cook more often....

On a further different note.
USD:CAD rate at 0.97!! Damn. Last I remember it was around 1.15.
Either Canada's doing really well, or the US is doing really poorly. Hmmm....
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=CAD&submit=Convert

The impact your emotional state can have is astounding.

I got a new computer! Bought a desktop, since I probably won't be moving for a few years. A customized one from Dell for a pretty good deal. Yay.

Anyway. The past two weekends have been pretty fun, especially since they were 3 day weekends. Mondays (17th and 24th) were off due to national holidays. Holidays are always good. Here's a quick summary of my adventures.

Last Saturday, I went to Hakone (1.5 hours from Shinjuku) with two other people. Generally a very scenic area. I randomly ran into a coworker there, which was prett bizarre. I also ate a black boiled egg. Well, the shell was black, the inside was normal. It was boiled in an onsen, and the minerals from it turns the shell black, or something like that. Didn't taste too different.

This Saturday was Tokyo Game Show. Went there with Ken, and met up with Mark and a bunch of his friends from his program. The day was spent walking through crowds of people, and looking at shiny things. Then went to Akihabara and walked around there a bit. They went to Shinjuku to go drink/eat, but I decided to go home. Ask Mark for stories about the night.

Sunday, I was supposed to go play soccer at 8:30am. I got up on time, but I felt really tired, so I told the people I wasn't coming, and went back to bed. I awoke at 2pm. Man. It wasn't like I went bed late either (around 1am?). It felt good though. Met up with Ken and friends from work, and went Karaoke-ing. Karaoke = always a good time. Came back around 12, and played KH2 for a while. I contemplated going to sleep around 3, but I concluded that being near the game + no work tomorrow means I stay up until I finish. Which, by the way, was around 6am.

And that's that.

Started case studies today at work. I made a mock phone call (one of the coworkers acted as the customer) today, and I totally had no clue what I was doing. Oye. Still a lot to learn.

Speaking of learning. The team decided to start having these study sessions once a week about Windows. There's this (text)book called "Windows Internal," and the plan is to go over a few sections per week. The plan is to read the section yourself, then someone will be chosen randomly to present it during the study session. Today was the first meeting, so it was an exception and we had our manager explain memory management. I think we covered about 5 pages in 1.5 hours. Granted, we kept sidetracking into topics that's not memory management. And he pulled out a debugger and memory dump, and showed us some of the memory layout and how it's divided. But man, this book is hardcore. Lots of background knowledge required. Which I lack. But it wasn't just me, so it's ok :P
It was, however, probably one of the most enjoyable meeting I've had here. It wasn't anything formal, so it was pretty relaxed, and the topic was interesting. And it's nice when there are parts you understand here and there. Haha.

Last night was the first time (I think in my life) that I had a (stereo)typical night life.

Went out to Shibuya with Ken to meet up with EW (CA for Mudge my sophmore year. I think most of you know her) and her friends close to midnight. Went to a few bars, then to a club. Yes, me at a club. I'm fairly sure this was the first time I went to an actual club. I danced the night away. Or something like that. Left around 5:30, went to eat since we were all starving. I came back to my place at 7:30. Bright and early. Then passed out.

A rough report of my first night life experience. Woot

Man. I always forget about this journal thingy. Alas.

I've settled in pretty well in my new place. I promise to take pictures of it and send it to whoever wants it. Maybe I'll do a video tour or something. Not too big, but enough to fit me well.

The first part of training is finally coming to a close. But I'm still in training for another few months. Very long period indeed. Before, it was classes about technical stuff. Now, I'm moving on to case studies and short assignments. Wheee. Just looking at that sentence makes it seem like I'm still in school or something. Ha.

There's a hurricane heading toward Tokyo right now, so it's pretty windy outside right now, and raining on and off. I can't keep the window open (since the wind keeps closing it, or rain comes in) making my room very stuffy. Not very comfortable right. Damn nature.

On a side note. I decided to move from gmail to hotmail. One, I'm starting to get too much crap on there that I don't want to deal with. Two, figured I should since I'm working at MS now. Hahaha. It's the same address, except it's at @hotmail instead of @gmail. So send me stuff to hotmail from now on. I'll still be checking gmail once in a while though. Oh, and I've also created a Skype account, so if you feel inclined, you can look me up and give me a call. :)

Kinda crazy that it's already September. How time flies.

Short post, since this is from work.

I'm still alive. Just without internet access from home. You'll see more of me once I get that fixed.
That is all.

Flying out to Orlando, FL tomorrow. I'll be there starting Monday night, to Sunday morning, so if anyone wants to give me a call, go for it :) I still have the same cell phone.

Now, why am I going to Orlando? Beats me. But it's a company-wide meeting. People from all over the world (who're working for Microsoft) are coming to this thing. Kinda like a kick-off meeting for the new fiscal year, which started July. I get to listen to a lot of speeches, things that happened last year, things that will happen next year, etc. Blah. Haha. Maybe there will be some cool demos of things that are being developed... On the up side, the last night is a big party at Universal Studios, from what I hear at least. The park all to ourselves from 10pm to 1am. Or something. That'll be fun for sure.

Also, as a change of topic. I finally have my own place! Moving at the end of the month. A little pricey, but the location is awesome. 5min walk to train station, 15min walk to the office. And there's a convenient store and grocery store within 2 blocks. It's a studio though, so not the biggest place in the world. But then, it's Japan. Everything's small. Regardless, it's a big load off my chest. One less thing to worry about.

Time to get some sleep so I can get up tomorrow. Ta-ta!



On an added note. The mood list. Way too long. I also never really know what mood to pick. Cheerful, good, happy... what's the difference???

I got my business card! It's nothing big, but it made me happy. Hehehe.

That is all.

It's Independence Day in the USA! Not that it means anything. I didn't even realize that until a friend mentioned it on the way to work. Anyway, an update on my life.

Work is pretty slow right now. Still doing lots of training, but it's slowly being geared toward what I'll be doing at work. There was a welcome party thing today, and I got to talk with my group's manager, among others. Apparently he's pretty tough. Wah. But, I have a desk now. And a computer. 3GB RAM and a 64-bit processor, which is kinda cool. I don't think I've ever had a 64-bit processor, although I don't think there's that much of a difference with 3GB RAM. Now, if that was 8GB.....

Speaking of training, I took this "skill assessment test" today. It was questions from multiple topics, like OS, network, database, algorithms, etc. Mad hard. Fortunately, it was multiple choice, which meant I was able to at least answer all the questions. Even if half of that were "educated" guesses. However, I did hear that they don't really expect you to do well. They use it to see if we can skip some parts of the training? Definitely not happening with me...haha.

Trying to learn people's names and faces, and not doing too well. I just cannot read peoples' names in kanji. It just doesn't work. I also never really had any skill in remembering peoples' names. I played soccer today, and met a bunch of people from work, but I've already forgotten all their names. Except for like, two.

Still don't have an apartment. Really need to find a place soon. Hopefully I'll find a place this weekend.

I never know how to end these entries. Feel weird just ending it, but don't really know what to say at the end. Oh well. Maybe I'll get used to it in the future.

Food is good in Japan. It's just better, at least to my tastes. Perhaps because I'm Japanese. But even stuff like the onigiri or bento boxes I can buy at convenience stores taste...pretty good. Much better than what you'd find at convenient stores in the states. I also enjoy Japanese snacks much much much more than anything I can find in the US. Except mabye Cheez-Its. I haven't seen those over here... But the others make up for it!

And restaurants! I've gone to a kaiten-sushi place, a ramen place, and two izakayas (add a pub and a restaurant and divide in two), and have enjoyed all of it. Not that I have that high of a standard in the first place, but still. I went to the ramen place with a friend of mine from CMU who's visiting, and he loved it. So not just me being oddly nationalistic. The second izakaya was with people from work. Apparantly, they go drinking about once a month, and me and the other guys starting work were invited to come join them. The food was fantastic there. And I didn't have to pay for anything, which rocks. AND it was all-you-can-drink day. I, being myself though, did not take advantage of that. Or more like, couldn't. :P

Haven written here for a while. Figured I'd start posting a little more frequently, now that I'm in Japan.

Not too jet-lagged, but definitely not ready to start working in 2 days. The place I'm at for now is pretty decent. TV, AC, fridge/microwave, electric stove, and internet! I think internet and the AC is key here.

I'm about a 10min walk from the train station, which is convenient. And there's this small shopping district right by. Makes getting groceries and what not so much easier. But, I still don't have pots/pans or plates for that matter. Need to get those soon. I can't even eat cereal right now.

Weather is hot and humid, as Japan is. We're entering the rainy season, so lots of rain coming soon. Speaking of which, I need to buy an umbrella...

Spent my first day here shopping for a suit. The rest of the day was spent playing games. Hahaha. I make myself sad. I should go out and walk around. But it's so hot. Makes me want to do nothing. But I'm supposed to meet up with Kat tomorrow, so that'll be fun.

I was supposed to meet up with Kentaro tonight, but it's hard getting in touch without cell phones. Which is another thing I need to get. Man so much stuff to buy. I haven't started working yet, and already all these expenditures. Not good. Not good at all.



ADDED: Didn't meet up with Kentaro that night, but hung out with him the following day. Kat had to bail out last minute. Booooo

Hey all.

Currently in Sapporo. I'll be heading back to Tokyo tonight via overnight train. I'm planning to go to the Sapporo Beer factory place later before boarding the train. Perhaps even drink a little! Oh my oh my.

Currently at this big internet/manga cafe. 1000yen for 3 hours. A bit on the pricy side, but apparantly you get free drinks! I just don't know where these drinks are...yet. They have a huge selection of manga though! A good way to spend time and relax. Haha. Kinda sad how I'm spending time reading comics when I'm traveling! But I've gone to most of the places close by, so figured I'll pay the fee and check the e-mail and such. And now posting. I'll refrain from listing out all the things I've done in Japan. But let me say that there was a lot of good food involved!

Currently planned to hang out with friends who moved back to Japan way back! I haven't seen, or talked to them in like, 10 years. Fortunately, my dad is friends with the dad of one of them, so I got in touch. We'll meet up tomorrow and go karaoke or something. And maybe drinking. Hahaha.

I'll be at my grandparents' place in Nara (next to Osaka) for New Years. Then back to Tokyo on the 5th to have lunch with people from Microsoft. Then back to NJ on the 9th! And Pitt on the 13th!

Speaking of Pittsbugh. I realllly need to figure out classes. I have a few that I'm going to take, but I need some more. Any suggestions?