Floaters

So I ended up scrubbing my customers name off the technical paper that I published last month. I put a co-workers name on it as a "co-author" so that it wouldn't look so naked on the masthead. The customer was pretty bummed about having his name stripped off the paper, but I opted to give him the gift that I had selected anyway. Good deal for him, I suppose....No work and he receives a nice watch as a thank you gift.

I was given an I-POD touch by my own company (from my manager’s manager, who neglected to tell my manager of the gift). I had the pleasure of selecting my own gift, then acting surprised later when someone else gave it to me wrapped up nice and pretty. "Wow, how did you know I wanted this?"

I've recovered from my jet lag, and I seem to be sleeping through the night ok now.

I'm home this week and I'm kind of running around and trying to take care of all that stuff that I never do (like visit the doctor!) when I'm traveling all over the place. I did manage to clean off my desk at home, but I'm going through my usual confusion about being at home and trying to work again.

I wandered into my official office one day this week, and one day was enough to last me for the next few weeks.

I was laughing with a co-worker about a floating holiday I took off a few years ago. The company I work for has a seriously wacky time off request procedure. I may request the standard holiday or vacation day with no problem. I also have "floating holidays' that I may request to take for any day that falls into a category of "birthday, hire anniversary, any day falling before/after a company designated holiday in December, any day falling pre/post a standard vacation day at any time during the calendar year, OR any day that has special religious or ethnic importance to me. I put a bookmark on a world holiday calendar web site, and I would request a floating holidays for non-traditional holidays, such as Ananta-chaturdasi.

Predictability my manager would flip out, call me, and ask what the f--- Ananta-chaturdasi "is" and how in the world it's a significant holiday to me. I would (having done my homework) be prepared to tell him all about the holiday, and how my family and I would gather around the water pot each year in celebration of Ananta-chaturdasi and sprinkle the water with coconut shavings and flowers in honor of Lord Ananta Padmanaabha. I picked different holidays each time I used a floating holiday. I tried to dance around the ethnic food chain too! The guy I reported to slowly went insane trying to trap me into somehow admitting that the floating holiday I was requesting (say the Feast of the Annunciation, AKA waffle day) was somehow not important to me. In the several years that I played this game with him, he never seemed to realize that I was yanking his chain.

Anyway, we're laughing about this the other day, when one of my co-workers said "We should do it again, but pick obscure American Indian holidays." Co-worker #2 goes into instant huff and says "I find that offensive. I find that really offensive. My wife is an American Indian and that's just plain offensive."

We all stopped and looked at him like he had a penis sprouting from the center of his forehead and then resumed our discussion.

It's ok to laugh about obscure holidays from India, China, Tibet, or anywhere else so long as long they don't fall into your own backyard? (Or would that be it's ok to laugh as long as it's not outside your own teepee?)

Dum de dum dum dum

I snatched five hours of sleep last night! Yeehaw! I've been awake for a few hours, trying to tip toe around the house quietly. (I may only make it a little while longer before I'm forced to break into song to wake my wife.)

I have a pile of work that I need to do, but, I'm not doing it this weekend.

Yawn!

I'm playing my usual game of not sleeping well after returning from Japan. I went to bed yesterday at 10PM and woke up (for the day!) at 1AM. For thoes that dream of the excitement of travel, this is the payback that you don't see. Alone, bored, and killing time in the middle of the night as the body clock returns to normal. I believe that I watched five (1, 2, 3, 4, 5!) episodes of House back to back.

Bon appetit!

The other night at dinner I had to query my host, “What exactly IS that???”



“Organs” he said.



“Organs?” I said



“Organs” he replied.



They tasted exactly as one would expect them to taste.

Arriving in Mito

Mito is just a little smaller than Tokyo.

Train out of Ueno

Ueno Park

It's the start of Cherry Blossom season in Ueno. Not that many trees are in full flower, but this tree sure was! Notice all the people taking a picture of the tree. This is serious business.


It's difficult to explain how serious the Japanese are about the Cherry Blossom. It's considered good luck to pass out drunk underneath a Cherry Tree, so many Japanese will stake a claim to a cherry tree early in the morning for a picnic later in the day.




I enjoyed watching this guy painting. He seemed oblivious to everything that was going on around him.






A juggler. Personally, I thought he wasn't that good. I can't juggle at all, so he was better than me. But still....



Portable snack shop service baby squid encased in a corn bread like coating.

Tokyo

I shot this out my hotel window this morning in Tokyo. It's always fun for me to look out the window at the ants below! (It's better to watch with a cup of coffee.)

You never know what you're gonna run into