Tim’s Ramblings

So, today was the opening day of what I believe is the biggest comic/manga convention around. For anyone that knows or has some vague interest in anime/manga culture, you may have heard of Comiket, short for Comic Market.

It’s a gigantic convention held twice a year, once in August and once during the last 3 days of the year, at Tokyo Big Sight. You may remember the location as the place where I was at earlier this year around October for a work trade show. It’s the bulding that looks like 4 inverted pyramids on stilts. When people say this convention is huge, they’re not kidding. I don’t really know how many exhibitors there are but the Comiket catalog that lists all of the exhibitors along with some ads and such is the size of a phone book…and weighs that much too.

The main bulk of the people setting up booths are what they call “circles”. They are groups of artists, all amateur, that make basically fan art and fan mangas. They are known as doujinshi and the genre ranges from anime inspired ones, to video game inspired ones all the way to original stories. Of course, within each genres are sub genres such as basic fan fiction, boys love, hentai, parody, mashups, CG, cosplay, software, and many many many many more (some descriptions of terms will follow). In the US, the term doujinshi tends to go hand in hand with hentai, or adult comics…many with subject matter that may be HIGHLY inappropriate in the US…but keep in mind…we’re a pretty repressed country when it comes to such things….

Over here though, the doujinshi movement is far wider than that. You can find stores, Mandarake for example, that has thousands of these thin 20 to 30 page fan comics in shelves for you to browse. And people will spend hours going through them. Most of these artists have web sites and some have some rabid fans. Some of these artists have eventually broken through into mainstream manga and some of their original works before they got big are worth hundres of dollars. Some of them are pretty crude but some have some amazing artwork. Due to this being in manga form, many people, even here, scoff at it and label it an “otaku” thing…and…well…it is. But the level of devotion and hard work is the equivalent of people with day jobs who write fiction at home. They then spend lots of money printing the books and paying for a table and setup up web site to advertise and try to at least break even.

But anyway…moving on to Comiket itself…

The thing is, each of the 3 days has different exhibitors coming in. The first day consists of hundreds if not thousands of stands selling doujinshi based on video games and specific anime franchises such as Gundam and Full Metal Alchemist. The second day tends to be more focused on shoujo comics (comics for girls…mostly romace stories and romantic comedies and so on). The third and final day consists of other anime and manga inspired works along with a good group of hentai (adult) works and also some home brew software as well…and these consists of games, art work cd’s, photo collections, and even sound tracks and demos.

Today my sister and I went to see what it’s all about and I will go back again on the final day on my own so I can browse at my leisure without worrying about whether my sister is enjoying things or if she’s dead tired from the crowd :)

When I say it’s crowded, I mean it. I personally have NEVER been somewhere so crowded before. My sister described the lobby in the west hall as looking like the airport during the holiday travel season when the planes are grounded and people are just milling about. Not that bad of an observation as most people are carrying gigantic bags FULL of comic books and other things they have bought and they all look tired as some of them has lined up since 5am. The only difference being, at an airport you don’t see people dressed up like anime girls and characters from video games like Vincent from Final Fantasy VII. (^_^)

The halls are also packed with people but the biggest crowd….the BIGGEST CROWD…is on the roof top plaza where the cosplayers are (that would be “costume play” for the layman). There is an enterance for people in costume and a different enterance for the general public and “photographers”. The is the only place photos are permitted anywhere in Comiket. Probably a good thing since you can barely move….people are striking poses, people are snapping pictures…if they allowed this on the convention floor it would be chaos…and it’s just surreal….you see some dude with a high end digital SLR camera and turn around only to be greeted by a guy in full armor looking like the character from Full Metal Alchemist only to turn around again and almost run smack into a girl dressed up like Chun Li from Street Fighter with her friend looking like Rikku from Final Fantasy X. Craaaaaaazy.

I have pictures but with it being a dialup connection here, I will wait to post the pictures until later…maybe I’ll take a trip to a neighborhood Starbucks one of these days to use their wireless. For the time being, here is one pic of the crowd on the rooftop plaza where the cosplayers were. This is only like 10% of the crowd….

Once inside, not only is there the 2 gigantic exhibition areas, there is also a floor for companies to put up a booth. These include manga stores like Tora No Ana and Melon Books but also anime companies and such. And yeah…once again…the crowd is horrific.

Now I know why people have told me that the Comket in the summer is literally “hell” or jigoku. Imagine if you will….tens of thousands of people all coming to the convention center after being packed in trains and walking for a good 10 minutes under an unrelentingly bright and hot sun where the average temperature in August can be in the 90′s with 80+% humidity….they all enter the convention hall that is airconditioned but not enough….and let’s be honest…as anyone who have been to conventions like GenCon can attest….the gaming/comic book/video game crowd is not known for hygene….. And the cosplay area…yeah…..see that crowd up there? Imagine that crowd with no shade under the hot sun and humidity. Oh…dear….god…..

But the winter one is bearable at least. I’ll see if I can get some pics again when I go back…we’ll see if I have the guts for it.

Now for some defintions…granted you can probably find all of these in Wikipedia but well…here are my own personal probably a bit biased definitions.

Cosplay – Short for “costume play”, it’s basicaly the act of dressing up as your favorite anime/manga/video game characters. This can be as simple as walking around in your old HS school uniform with an arm band to act the part of a HS drama anime or go all the way to desigining your own dresses or outfits, doing your hair as well and also creating the props. Some are quite elaborate and impressive. Some…well…let’s just say just because Lum from Urusei Yatsura wears a tiger skin bikini…so should you….. *ahem*… Oh…and you tend to see guys dressed up as girl characters too…it’s like Halloween…but with a theme.

Hentai – Japanese word for “pervert”. Sometimes called “ecchi” which is actually the Japanese pronounciation for the letter “H” which is…well…the first letter of the word hentai… Typically when not used against a person, it describes the adult genre for anime, manga, and video games. Of course, the sub genres are many…. The “naughty tentacles” type anime got infamous in the US due to some early anime imports (thus equating Japanese animation with deviant sex for ever and ever in many people’s minds….) but of course there are the school girls, the big girls, the incest, the teacher/student, and since many of these are in doujinshi form, characters from video games like “Tudus and Rikku (Final Fantasy X)”, “The Gundam Wing Boys with that one female character who’s name escapes me….”, “Goku and Buruma from Dragon Ball Z”, etc…. Oh…and one final genre…there is the “lolicon” genre… Basically underage stuff. As long as it’s just drawings it’s perfectly legal both here and in the US. Unlike the US, here it’s more tolerated and actually out in the open. The pros and cons of this is beyond the scope of this post….

Boys Love – This is a new genre that’s puzzling to me really. This is for the female audience and it’s like a direct response to sooo many girl on girl action happening in many of the hentai doujinshi out there for men. This is…as you have probably guessed by now…boy on boy… More specifically…pretty boy on pretty boy. Soooo we have the Gundam Wing boys “relaxing with eachother after a hard won battle”…the pretty boys from…well…choose your favorite Final Fantasy game as they’re all just full of metros anyway….so all the boys from Final Fantasy getting it on (for the readers in the know…I saw today a doujinshi of Cloud and Sephiroth in a loving embrace….ew ew ew)…and so on and so forth. For some reason certain girls dig this stuff. Ah well.

Anyway, more after my next trip out there in 2 days. Woooo.

So…I know there are people that just loooooove to dress up their dogs and cats. We’ve all seen those pictures of the cats in various costumes like a frog or a chicken or even Harry Potter. Personally they bother me…it’s just not right. I’ve never ever seen a dog or a cat that “looks” happy when dressed up like that. It’s just not right….

But today, while walking through an underground shopping center called Azelia, my sister and I came across what, to me, would be a store from hell for little dogs. Granted…it was mostly for those small annoying yipping rat-like dogs…but as much as I hate those types of dogs, I would still feel bad for them…

Yup…a store entirely devoted to clothes for your pet…

Inside, it’s just FULL of pictures of poor dogs in various costumes. The clothes are like designer wear though. Not cheap either…especially the Disney branded ones.

Here’s an example of what, to me, is an example of pet abuse…

See…next year is the year of the boar. Soooooo there you go. Dogs dressed up like wild boars. Do they look happy to you? Really? Poor doggies…

And of course, some more closeups from the 2nd shot for your enjoyment.

Here in Japan, it’s difficult to own a big dog like in the US. Many of the dogs here, especially in the city, are smaller. A shiba is probably as big as it can get. So you see all these little dogs in little dog carriers that look like hand bags and such. But really…dressing them up like this?

Ah well…

I know they have these in the US…just never seen an entire store devoted to it. So that’s why it gets its own post :)

Well, it’s past 10pm on X-mas day and I have to say, Christmas in a country that’s not…well….let’s be honest…the US is predominantly Christian…so in a country that’s not really Christian is…different.

Literally it’s just like any other day. No different than any other. Sure, there’s X-mas music playing everywhere and on TV they say “Merry Christmas!” but other than that, it’s truly just another day. Dad went off to work as per usual. No shops were closed. There’s not lights really anywhere in the town. And it’s not like we have a Christmas tree here either. So yeah…pretty underwhelming.

I suppose though, for anyone from Japan, they would be taken aback but how lightly we treat New Years Day. Typically you get drunk on the Eve, then the day after is off due to hangovers, tiredness, laziness, and football. Here in Japan, the 31st is nothing special but come the 1st, the country shuts down until the end of the 3rd.

So…for Christmas 2006, we got up relatively early but mom, my sister, and I ended up loafing around all morning. Around 10:45 I got another phone call from the Japanese partner. Getting kinda tired of this frankly…. They wanted a conference call on Wednesday morning but I had to put my foot down. I already had plans to show Tokyo to my sister. I’m already losing a day on Thursday due to them since I’m going to go into the office while I leave my sister with my mom. The other day…I guess it was Friday night/Saturday morning, I had to inconvenience my entire family since I was working all night and on the phone all night so all 3 of them had to sleep in the other room….and it’s not big. It’s cramped. They were literaly side by side in a tiny room due to me and my work.

So yeah…not this time. I’ll give them Thursday but that’s it. Enough is enough I say…. Not that I won’t keep doing work…but still. This is truly testing me. This is a special case though…..and they’re working their butts off too…but still. If I were truly immature, I would call them on January 1st and demand that they round up the people I need to have a conference call with NOW!!! It’s the same as them asking us in the US on X-mas Eve and on X-mas. If I were immature that is. And I try not to be. Really.

So what did I do….yes yes….so after I take the call, we headed out to see if we could find a DVD/VCR combo for mom and dad. Sister’s thinking we should get them either a DVD recorder so they can burn TV shows onto DVD’s or a DVR…but frankly I don’t think they’ll be able to figure it out….we’ll see. The thing is, I’m not sure if a normal VCR can record HDTV images….will have to ask about that…

But alas, we didn’t find one. We had lunch, played some games at the arcade, and walked back home. Loafed around some more and then my sister and I took off to meet dad at a train station near his office for dinner. We ended up at an unagi restaurant. That would be “eel” in English. It’s soooo goooood. They fillet the eel and then cook it over charcoal sloooowly while dipping it into a soy based sauce repeadedly. It’s then served along with the sweet soy based sauce over rice. Called unaju and it’s typically very popular in the summertime, especially in the hottest part of the summer, as eels are thought to give stamina and energy. But hell…it’s good any time of the year.

I suppose in western terms, it was a Christmas Eel…or something….

Other than that, we stopped by some bookstores. I picked up another comic book (I now need about 4 more volumes that I’m missing) I was looking for and I picked up a Gundam parody comic book. Funny stuff.

Tomorrow, as I wrote, I’m off to Tokyo (Kawasaki actually but close enough) with my sister. We got a room at a hotel so it’ll be easier to get around. Unfortunately with only tomorrow afternoon and all day Wednesday and Thursday now shot, we only have a day and a half. Bummer. So much to do too…or at least alot of potential. It depends on how tough my sister is or if she’ll end up dying from the hard schedule. We’ll see :) We have temples to go to and palaces to see…shopping to do…sightseeing and of course eating. Ooooh boy we got some good places planned out. Korean BBQ place, sukiyaku, shabu shabu, ramen, yakitori, sushi, okonomiyaki…the list goes on and on. Not enough time to eat it all though…bummer that….

For now I’m going to take it easy and probably go to bed early. I’m really sleepy all of a sudden.

So yeah…a pretty underwhelming X-mas. But it’s ok…New Years is going to be INSANE.

Hope you all have a wonderful wonderful X-mas…and even if you don’t celebrate it…then hell, have a wonderful day anyway!

(^_^)

Yes…more of the boring details of “Tim working while on vacation” BUT there are some informative information about this time of the year in Japan sprinkled through the post. It’s a bitchy post with some knowledge thrown in! And knowing IS indeed half the battle!!

*ahem* Anyway….

Yeeeaaah….. Maaaaaaaaaaaybe thinking that I will be able to spend a minimal work involved vacation in Japan was a pipe dream…. Then again, I’m currently experiencing a special case where we have some issues that I’m directly involved with so…maybe not. But then again…there’s always some sort of issue isn’t there?

Ah well.

Yesterday the whole morning was shot as I was up at 5:30am doing work well past noon. At that point my sister and I headed out to Akihabara mainly so I can get the hell away. It’s not like I am near Tokyo as even to Akihabara it took taking a bus, then a 42 minute train ride and then anoter 8 minute one not to meantion the time in between waiting for the bus and the trians so it’s a good hour+ away. But it was quite crowded and the X-mas rush was well underway. X-mas is celebrated here in the materialistic way. But as a religious holiday, Japan being pretty secular, it’s not that big of a deal. In fact, if I lived here, I would be working on Monday.

Actually there is a major meeting that our partner is going to be dealing with on Monday…but in Japan New Years is a big big deal and most companies are closed from the 29th (Friday) straight through the 4th. January 1st through the 3rd is called sanganichi and is officially a time to rest, relax, spend time with family and friends, etc… It’s basically a national holiday. This is also why the big traditional meal eaten on New Years, osechi ryouri, is made of dishes that can easily last for 3 days so, traditionally, the wives and daughters can also enjoy the New Year.

Of course, this makes conducting business very difficult. My company has the 25th and the 26th off. But with Japan being 14 hours away, by the time US starts back at work on the 27th, it’s already the 28th here and is the last day of work until January 4th even though in the US we typically only get the 1st off and on the 2nd people are back into work. Aaaaarrg…. Of course, just like here we also have people taking the rest of the year off from a week before X-mas and such sooo it’s a big rough. But my coworkers back at the home office are also working their butts off for me to support me here so I do appreciate it. I just wish I didn’t have to do this on my vacation.

Last night the calls started at 9pm or so and from there I was working ’till past 3:30am since once the Japanese partners went home, I was working with the home office back in Cleveland. I got about 2 hours of sleep and I was up again at 5:30 doing phone calls once again and then at 8am I passed out again only to woken up with a phone call from our Japanese partner at 11am. I think the rest of the day is fine though…hopefully…though I’m not sure about tomorrow. Now I’m still lounging around at 1:30pm but I’ll take a shower soon.

Poor sister is sick…I think it’s a combination of jet lag, exhaustion, and such…guess she had a nice little nausea issue this mornin and she’s still passed out in the living room.

At 4pm we’re supposed to go visit my grandmother though so seeing my sister will be a nice surprise for her. She hasn’t seen her in 6 years. The unfortunate and harsh side effect of living in a totally different country so far away…

Gorgeous day today though. Blue sky and sunny…though unfortunately I won’t be able to enjoy it much. Might go take a walk but really…in this apartmet complex there really isn’t much to do and the trian station/main part of town is…well…teeny. But still…this is the first real relaxation time I’ve had in a while so I’m going to enjoy it. Next week it’s going to start all over again…I have a distinct feeling it will only be after New Years that I will be able to relax for a few days with the rest of Japan before work starts up again.

Would this have happened if I stayed in the US? Absolutely. But it just seems like it’s hard to deal with it both mentally and physically when I’m here….

Anyway, my eyes are getting tired and I’m starting to feel sleepy again….going to start to get ready to take a shower and such and start my day a tad bit late.

Most likely I will continue to update but just in case, to all of my readers, have a wonderful X-mas whether you celebrate it or not (^_^)

Helloooooooooooooo readers.

Finally an update. And it’s already been a long long trip. It doesn’t feel like a vacation really…and there’s a reason for it…I was at the office all day yesterday, was up ’till close to midnight calling the home office, and I was up at 5:30am this morning to call to the office and have been on the phone off and on and I will have another call probably around 9 or 9:30 or so with the Japanese partners.

Wooo.

I love vacation…

*sigh*

But anyway, update…right. Well…the flight was long. Long long long. Felt much longer than usual this time around. It didn’t help that the 13.5 hour flight turned into 14.5 due to engine issues at Newark…something I could have lived happily without knowing. But in the end the flight was uneventful and fine…though alas, once again, no hot supermodel sitting next to me. Instead, as per usual, I had a middle aged guy who smelled a bit funky. *sigh*

Met mom at the airport and by the time I got to their apartment, I was already on the phone with our partner figuring out the current situation and what time I was going to make in the next day. Then after a few hours I promptly passed out.

The next morning it was my first long distance commute to work. Got in my suit and headed out around 7:40am. Earlier than I thought but I figured just in case. Good thing too… The bus was packed on the way to the station and once at the station the train was pretty damn full. After being crammed in for 20 minutes, I got out and moved on to the next station where I found out, much to my dismay, that there was a mechanical issue and the train was delayed. Not good. Especially since this is a rapid to Tokyo so it only makes 6 stops to Tokyo in about 30 minutes. Needless to say the platform was unbelievably crammed with people and the train conductors were out in full force pushing people into the already packed cars.

I got on and I was promptily crammed in with my arm in one odd direction and my other arm probably somewhere inappropriate against the woman next to me though who knows really….it didn’t really matter since it was hard to breathe anyway. And on top of it all, because of the delay, there was a ripple effect all down the line so on at least 3 different occasions the train had to stop to give space to the train in front…typically it takes only 30 minutes but instead I was on this train crammed like that for a good hour.

Then from Shinagawa it was onto another train which was not that crowded in comparison and then a walk to the office where I was there past 5.

Got home, (took 2 hours…), ate, and then started to do some work in preparation to the phone calls I had to make. Talked ’till 12 and then went to bed and got up at 5:30 to catch up on e-mail and then from there it has been steady phone calls. It’s past 10am now and I’m still in my sweats since I haven’t had time to even take a shower and I’m waiting for at least one more phone call before I can start the day.

It doesn’t matter since my sister hasn’t even taken a shower yet either. Eh…whatever. All I know is, I have been working for over 5 hours now on my second day of vacation. (well…3rd…but the first day was spent on a plane). Fun…. You know…this won’t be so bad if I could roll these days over to next year but I can’t…and I’m already burning 4 days anyway. Crap…. Oh, and I’ll be on a conference call most likely at the partner office next Thursday too….. I know this is just part of the job and thus part of my life but I can’t help feeling a bit annoyed. Oh well… :(

Well anyway, once this is done, this afternoon, my sister and I might do some sightseeing. Well…mostly for her since I’ve been to most places already but it’ll be nice. The weather is in the 50′s and cloudy but we’ll see how the weather holds up.

I will write more about everyday life once…well…once vacation starts :)

Sorry for such a downer or a post from Japan…I AM officially on vacation though…really…..

Sleepy….

With juuuust about 4 hours of sleep in me. Woo. Nothing like getting up at 3:15 in the morning.

Yup. Off to Japan again. This time the trip was booked personally for a vacation. Here with my sister and sitting at the President’s Club lounge in Newark. Since she hasn’t been back in Japan since 2000 and haven’t seen mom and dad since they left, we decided to come out here for X-mas and New Years. Gonna be a long vacation and won’t be coming back into the US until January 6th.

Unfortunately for me, this has become a working vacation… I mean, I would have still checked my work mail and all that stuff. That’s nothing new. But with the current issues and such, the day after I land in Japan, I’m going to be putting on my suit and heading out to Kawasaki to go visit our partner’s office. Fun. Partly a technical visit. Partly a political one. But in the end it means a 2 hour commute. I’m going to truly feel what it’s like to be a real worker in Tokyo. I’m going to TRY to miss the main part of rush hour but it’s still gonna be crowded. I get on a bus then a train, then another train, then finally one more, then I walk for about 7 minutes. Woooo….

But anyway…whatever. Part of life. Nothing I can do anyway.

I still plan on having fun. At least I plan on relaxing though. Been running haggard for a while now so I kinda need this. Sure there will be family obligations and such but it’s ok….I’m not in the office :)

Once at my parents I won’t have internet access but I do have a wireless card so I will still check my mail and such so feel free to write. I will also update my blog as per usual. The day after X-mas my sister and I will be heading out to Tokyo proper to do some sightseeing so I will have internet access then. Maybe I can upload some pics and such. We’ll see.

Hope you all have a good week!

…I’m leaving for Japan on Tuesday. That realization hit me today when I was being lazy. Holy crap….

So I’m doing laundry now. I have to pack tonight since I think I’m going to be spending tomorrow night at my sister’s and her BF’s since they live closer to the airport and we have like a 6am flight…not ready at all…AT ALL.

For the past 3 weeks it was early morning conference calls and late nights at work…even on weekends I was taking calls and then last week I had meetings half of the week with out of town business guests. Next thing I knew I was at the company X-mas party (more on that some other post…left early anyway so I didn’t see any “badness”…which is probably for the best anyway) and then here I am today.

I even managed to snag a Playstation 3 but I guess today is the last day I can play it since I’m not going to be home really tomorrow night.

I’m not panicking really. I mean, I can pack pretty damn fast. But it just really didn’t occur to me or it didn’t really hit me that I’m gone and I’m not ready. I still need to go to the bank to withdrawl at least a grand for spending cash…I have to get to the post office to ask them to hold my mail…and I KNOW I’m forgetting something else too. And tonight’s the last night I’ll be sleeping in my own bed for a while. *sniff*.

But anyway…yeah….where did the time go? I have no idea. All I know is, I have a 7:30am conference call again tomorrow morning and probably a call at night too but I might not take that one…not sure. Gonna be a busy day tomorrow…and I haven’t even done any X-mas shopping. Crap….guess it’ll get my sister something in Japan.

Well…off to check on the laundry.

Anyone want anything from Japan? (^_^)

…it’s the end of the goddamn world…

Holy crap.

This has GOT to be a joke RIGHT??? RIGHT?????

…but apparently not…

Happy Holidays (A Very Special Christmas Album)

Dear god.

He’s supposed to sing White Wedding not White Christmas!!!!!

What the hell happened??? And he’s not even doing a remix either! And the Product Description is just as weird.

Product Description
2006 yuletide platter from the ’70s Punk/’80s Pop superstar. It’s a nice day for a ‘White Christmas’ here on this delightful collection of 17 Christmas favorites including ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, ‘Let It Snow’, ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, ‘Oh Christmas Tree’, ‘Silver Bells’, ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ and many others. Idol does not dress up the songs to fit his over-the-top Rebel Rocker image, but instead remains true to the original, joyful nature of the season. Grab a cup of eggnog or mug of hot cocoa, relax in front of the fireplace with a loved one and let Billy Idol help usher in the holidays in style. Bodog.

Gah!!

(>_<)

No…not some charity organization. But last night I got to play the role of “doting father” for an hour or so :)

See, last night was S’s 6th grade winter concert. She’s the girl I taught violin to and the daughter of a coworker of mine. I’ve known her since she was teeeeeeeeny and after watching her mom play the violin with me she said she wanted to play so about 2 years ago I got her started. This year I’ve been a bad teacher since I was frequently out of the country but she joined her school orchestra last year and has kept it up. Alas, with all the traveling I’ve missed all of her concerts until yesterday.

So, as her stepdad is home watching the new baby, I went with S and her mom H and headed out, camera bag in hand, to the local HS’s performing arts center. When I was in school, since it was so small, it was the entire middle school or high school orchestra and we never had more than 8 violins or so, 2 violas, 2 or 3 cellos and 1 bass. Here, it’s just 6th grade and they had a pretty big group!

S stood out from the crowd due to her new pink highlights in her hair and, for the first time, I saw her dressed up in a nice blouse and slacks and I was surprised how much she’s grown up. *sniff*….

We first sat in the back so we could make a quick getaway after her set but eventually we sat down in the second row from the front so I can take good pictures of her and….well….as H said, it’s our duty to embarrass her in front of her friends :)

When the concert started, I was expecting the worst…mainly due to my own personal experience. And I was there not just to cheer her on and take pictures and such but also as kind of payback for all those years of making my mom sit through our orchestra concerts where the sound must have made her ears bleed (*ahem*..I was good though…it was the rest of the violins…really!…I think…). But honestly, they were pretty good! I mean…this isn’t the Cleveland Orchestra but they far far exceeded my expectations.

S did great. You could tell when she was kinda faking it. Or when her bow was going up when everyone else was going down. But hey, that’s par for the course. And as a substitute dad, I took lots of pictures. It was also a way for me to test out the new digital SLR that I got as well. As I couldn’t take flash photos I had to adjust the ISO and the aperture and the shutter speed to try to get the best pics I could. Some came out really good. Some too dark. Some too blurry. But altogether I was satisfied.

Now…next year…maybe it’s time to pull out the camcorder (^_^)

Afterwards, we went back to her house to view the pictures and I took TONS of UNBELIEVABLY cute pictures of her new sister J. She’s…so….CUTE!

I can’t post pics of her here but if you know me, then most likely you know where I sit at work so come see me and I’ll show you the pics on my laptop or if you know me, then contact me and I can send you a pic once I get permission.

So….cute!!!!

Anyway, I have to say…one day I’d like to become a dad for real. Right now though? Being a temp dad like this was fun. Besides…it’s only a matter of time before she starts to shun me and threaten to hurt me if I come to her recitals right? Let’s see…she’ll be 12 in January sooo…maybe in another 4 years? :) I’ll enjoy it while I can!

And I’m starting to feel the hurt..

Right now I’m at my sister and her BF’s house dogsitting while the two of them are over in Niagara Falls. It’s not bad actually…of course it’s not home per se…but I’m so exhausted I don’t think I’d be doing anything at home either anyway.

Without going into detail, since last Tuesday I have been getting up at 5:45 every morning working on a customer issue. Once in a while this also concluded with another conference call at night as well. The joys of dealing with people living where there is a 14 hour time difference. And the pressure is on. This morning I was actually up at 4:45am for a 5am conference call after being at work until past 10pm on Friday night due to an 8pm conference call that lasted over an hour.

Needless to say, I am tired…. I had to be here at 8am so I didn’t really sleep after my call this morning so…yeah….I have a feeling it’s going to be an early bedtime.

Today I did at least do something fun. I went out for dim sum with a bunch of people from work. It was mostly a Japanese crowd with the obligatory one white guy. But he took some Japanese in college so…he kinda understood us when we didn’t translate. But hey, the food was good and we ate lots. I think I’m pretty tired though since it’s almost 7 and, with dim sum being chinese food, I should be hungry by now…but oddly not really.

I did have some invitations to go out tonight too but I really can’t…there’s the doggy (he’s old and so I have to keep his routine) and I also have a conference call at 8pm. Wooo. *sigh*….

We’ll see if they ask for a call tomorrow morning. I have to get up early to take care of May (the doggie) anyway. But still…I hope this doesn’t go on for a third week….it’s really starting to wear on me….I’m not really even tech support either. But oh well…what can you do eh? I am the international liason….but unfortunately this is taking up almost all of my time to the detriment of other issues that’s falling behind. Though I have to thank all of the QA and Developers that I have sucked into dealing with this issue.

Anyway….guess I’ll go back to realizing there’s nothing on TV.

…sleepy…

(-_-)