Happy Birthday

Finally, a relatively good Hong Kong movie! Wonderful song, too!

かわいらしい顔

Just something cute to grace the blog. I also have this picture at my work cubicle.

I'd love to spend days playing with this puppy if I could. :-P

仕事仲間

Unlike in Hong Kong which on average, you will bump into someone you know a few times a week, here in US, it's rather rare that you actually run into someone you know from long time ago.

Last night after taking a shower and watching some TV, I suddenly decided to go to Whole Foods to get some buttery croissants, fruity popsicles and fruits. It's already around 9:30pm and I figured what are the chances that I will run into someone, so I went out wearing my husband's baggy sweatpants and my Seattle Mariners sweatshirt from 10 years ago with the new onsen socks and flip flop. I swear I have never dressed so hilarious ever before going out anywhere, believe me.

After getting most of what I needed at Whole Foods and ready to walk towards the cashier, I noticed someone near the fruit section was "frozen" and smiling and staring at me. I looked and looked and there, my good old buddy from Apple!! He was with his wife and she was staring at him as if she was saying "Are you ok?" I had a big grin and I called his name with exclaimations!!!! It has been over 10 years since we saw each other or bumped into each other. I ran into him once but had completely forgot where. Anyway, he still looks the same and he has been with Symantec for the past 8 years. We used to do "Good Morning" hugs at Apple but it just seems weird now outside of Apple and after so many years. They also came out to Whole Foods wearing their home clothes :D so we were totally comfortable seeing each other. Haha. Anyway, it's always good to see old friends and we quickly exchanged work email address. I wonder if I should email him... but I think I should keep in touch.

Picozoo

My younger brother just came back from his business trip to Korea. And he bought one of these Mini Beanie cell phone straps as a souvenir for me. It's really pretty cute and I can't help smiling everytime I see it.

I wonder if we'll ever grow tired of things that are cute?

最近特に...

I have lost interest in everything and I really mean everything. ( 理由がわかりません。) I don't read the new posts in my Google Reader anymore. I don't care about delicious food or taking pictures. I don't exercise. I don't do anything or go anywhere. Work completely bores me. We have our annual work performance review due today, May 21, and I have not even attempted to start working on it. There are tons of meetings and new projects to work on but I don't feel a part of it. I am helping to beta test one of our own products at home and it crashed after a month and I don't even take a look at it or try to debug it. I just rebooted it.

I think I need to live in another country for a while!

Cool Tennis Game

Too lazy to go out and play a real game of tennis? Try this flash game.
Just use the space bar to hit the ball and the arrow keys to move around.

味の素スタジアム

I have not heard of the Ajinomoto Stadium until I saw this Japanese commercial on YouTube today. It's pretty funny!

散らかった

I am no Einstein but yup, that's the kind of desk I have at work and at home and I don't like to straighten it up. All the important and most recently used material on top with the previously read but unfinished stuff on the bottom. My notes are also messy as such that only I can read and make sense out of it. I don't like to write neatly line after line. I write it all spaced out and slanted if necessary.

Today I taught the "class" of 20 at work ignoring the guidelines of having to prepare slides and handouts set by my manager, and just went through the book section by section. The feedback was great! They like the fact that I went through so much useful material in 90 minutes without letting the class tangent off with questions not exactly related to the subject. I don't like to be restricted on how to teach, how to mentor, or how to do a presentation. We should be allowed to be creative and deliver information the way we want to express. Anyway, a quite happy day at work today.

黒ひゲイ危機一発 - HG version

Would love to get this toy which is still available on Amazon.co.jp but they are not shipping to US. :-(

Please Go Ahead

What is the Japanese phrase for "Please go ahead" or "After you"?

お先にどうぞ。

I have not been reading anything Japanese for a long while. Work has been crazy with non-stop meetings and presentations. Next 2 weeks, I have to teach a study group of about 20 people at work on 2 chapters of wireless technology. I am not going to prepare any Powerpoint slides but just use the book and go through all the important concepts. My teaching style has always been super fast and efficient, tailor mostly to the sharper or well-prepared people in the group. I don't allow slackers to hold back my class. And it is usually through these kind of teachings that I differentiate the diligent and smart ones from the crowd. And that's how I end up picking them to work on my projects, whenever possible.

Yes, I realize I am a very bad teacher. Completely biased, impatient and always have high expectations...