Jenglish

I just booked a hotel room in Japan for an upcoming trip. Here's part of the automated email confirmation.

"Thank you for an inquiry.
A receptionist did the following contents.
Please confirm it. In addition, this email is served automatically.
When this email contents have case without memorizing or any questions, sorry for your inconvenience but please refer to follows."

Humm...I may be forced to pick up the phone and call, which at times is an exercise in futility with my lack of Japanese language skills. Hotel operators generally aren't that intersted in my ability to order a large draft beer, which at times is the extent of my Japanese language skills.

I should just get off my lazy arse and learn Japanese. The last time I made a serious effort at learning Japanese I determined (days and days into my studies) that my course work was actually teaching me how to pick up Japanese women.

"Hello. My name is Steve. I am an engineer for company XXX. Would you like to dance with me?" I was a slow study. The dancing was odd to me, but I was kind of like, well, whatever...The next phrase, "would you like to see my hotel room?" really woke me up.

Now I stick to ordering cold draft beer. Which is great until you want to order a hotel room!

Who am I anyway?

I was signing one of the children’s birthday card (or some other holiday!) not so long ago. I found my fingers moving towards signing "Steve" instead of "dad". The kids want my involvement when it involves writing a check to pay for something they want. School tuition. Wedding expenses. They don't want my input when it actually includes my being involved in how that money is spent, they just want the money.

Last night was the youngest daughter’s senior prom. I was surprised at how out and out shitty (is that a word?) she treated us. She completely rearranged her schedule so that she wouldn't be here during the weekend and would instead be at her mom's. The older children at least made an effort to swing by our house on the way to prom.

This is just…shit.

A week in the Mid-West

I realized that I spent an inordinate amount of my time on this blog speaking of the places in visit in Japan. I visit more places in the US than I do in Japan, yet I never write about them. I’ll try to start incorporating more tidbits from domestic places that I visit. (Quite honestly, I find most of my travel in the US to be mind numbing, so I don't have that much to write about!)

This week I was visiting Missouri. I had some work to take care of near St. Louis and a bit of work in Rolla.

St. Louis: St. Louis is a strange town to me. I’ve driven through areas that look like they were firebombed. I’ve driven through areas that look quite quaint. Overall, I think the city is suffering a serious decline in the general population over the past several decades. This leaves the city with too many houses and not enough residents to fill them. Enter decline. I missed my exit on the freeway while talking with a colleague and ended up near the arch one afternoon.


Rolla: The folks are friendly, but I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s just a little too small town for me. It’s a college town with a plethora of fast food joints. While driving to Rolla I had to chuckle a little bit. It seems like the mid-west can be all about the extremes.


Jesus or Porn! I had high hopes to find a single billboard with two signs, one for Jesus and the other for porn, but I haven’t found it yet. I’ll keep looking.

Since I spend a lot (LOT) of my time traveling on the West Coast, it’s always a bit odd to run into these kids of billboards in the middle of the US.



I suppose I could count the billboards to see which side has a higher tally!

Liver quivers

So.....

I had dinner and drinks with my new boss and a few close colleagues. It was kind of a “going away” dinner for my old manager, so later during the post meal drinking, I jumped up and gave a impromptu speech. I thanked the departing manager for being my manager for the past several years, talked about how much I’d learned from him (which is actually true, I suppose) and then toasted him. It was very, very, Japanese.

I then also provided toasts for nearly everyone else sitting at the table and explained that I don’t know who my next manager will be, so I’m going to toast each person and say something nice about everyone. Big laughs from almost all.

Fade a few hours and I’m sitting in a bar with my new Scottish manager. We’ve had a lot to drink, but I paid close, close attention to my alcohol intake so that I would be (nearly) sober when we finally had a serious discussion.

The serious discussion finally came, and my new (temporary) manager asked for my input on myself replacing my previous manager. I said that quite honestly I’m not sure that I’m interested in the job. The department is a total mess and (my judgment) over half of the group needs to be terminated for cause. I’m just not that interested in promoting into a new job so that I can turn around and flush half the folks. The new temporary manager said that he’s going to be doing some of the clean up in my group himself, and we’ll see where we end up in a few months. In the mean time, I should bring my “A” game and show him what I can do. As an added bonus, I’m theoretically supposed to “take control” of the department and lead it. The only trick is that he’s not going to tell anyone else.

A recipe for failure if I ever read one.

Where’s my hotdog stand?

The beat of the new Maestro

April 1st equates to.....management reorganization! Historically it's been a once a year exercise in moving warm bodies to and fro on the org chart in the hopes that upper management won't realize that nothing has really changed except everyones job titles.

Except this year, with the economic meltdown, things are changing. There's blood in the water. An entire department has been axed. Bodies out the door, bodies on the floor. I didn't even have the opportunity to say goodbye to the co-workers that were terminated. They're just missing in action. The semiconductor industry is in a gigantic meltdown, so there's no where for these folks to go. Just out of work, with no job prospects.

In my department, the manager has been replaced with...no one. The manager has been moved to a different department, and I now report to the next level manager(my managers manager).

Other folks in my group seem quite concerned, but I'm a little more relaxed about it. I've been with this company for about eight years, and I've worked for seven different managers. Managers come and go in this department, and I remain. This may say far more about me than it says about those that I've reported to.

Yet this year, there's an air of desperation. We aren't loosing gigantic amounts of money, but nor are we making gigantic amounts of money. Breaking even isn't good enough. Profit is a must, at almost any cost.

Now that I have learned to sway to the baton of my hardworking Japanese Maestro, I must now learn to sway to the baton of my hardworking, hard drinking, Scottish Maestro.

My liver quivers in anticipation.