I haven't updated here recently - but then again, I haven't updated anywhere else recently, either. Still in Japan, still unemployed; I'm planning on sticking around here until September at the earliest. Past that, if I can't find an acceptable job here, then things are up in the air (and would probably mean moving back to the SFBA.) I'm realizing that I really need an office in order to do worklike stuff in any expedient fashion; being holed up in a single room just ain't cutting it for me. Too difficult to concentrate, doesn't have the right kind of work surfaces to do things, etc. It's remarkably difficult to find cafes with WiFi access, too; it seems that role has mostly been assumed by the manga cafes that charge by the hour (and offer individual little rooms, so I infer.)

I've sent my resume to Google for a couple of positions in Tokyo, but I dunno how much interest there is in a niche geek who doesn't speak much Japanese. Ah well.

Today, I got a big package in the mail from San Jose, California; when I saw it, I thought "Oh, fuck no, they didn't..." but no, they did: Yahoo! (which laid me off four weeks ago) sent me a five-year anniversary gumball machine.

Here's what's happened to me over the past month or so, this time in non-short-cryptic update form. About five weeks ago it was decided that my group would be merged with two other groups. My then-manager knew (because he was going to no longer be a manager) -but unbeknownst to my then-manager or coworkers, the last week of April would not only be the announcement of the group merger, but also when a good portion of Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale employees would be laid off.

I flew to Sunnyvale and started scheduling meetings as best sas I could; my new manager was being a bit coy about what our schedules look like. Around noon on Tuesday the 28th, I was called into a conference room by my new manager and told that I did great work but I was being laid off anyway. No explanation was given as to why. Later, when my former coworkers asked WTF, he still didn't give much of an explanation but intimated it wasn't his decision. I was then in the south bay for a few days without much to do - but I wasn't really in much of a state to do a whole lot, regardless. To top everything off, on the flight back to Japan I got food poisoning and barfed at least a dozen times on the plane; some nice people from the airline pushed me around in a wheelchair to the open infirmary (it was a federal holiday, so the closer one was closed). I got a saline drip and rested for a few hours; while I was able to catch the last train back to downtown Tokyo, I missed the last subway back home and had to spring for a $60 cab ride (which Yahoo!'d better pay for, dammit.)

In the aftermath of my third layoff, the primary things occupying my time are going around Tokyo and being tourist, and wondering "Well, what the fuck now?". The latter consists mostly of "Do I want to stay in Japan? Can I stay in Japan? Can I find a job at an acceptable pay level that doesn't require me to speak much (if any) Japanese? And if not Japan, then what?" I'm lousy at taking vacations unless there's something specific I want to do, so this isn't exactly the most relaxing of times. Given that I had two months of vacation time stored up and I'll get three months worth of severance pay, however, I don't need to rush things excessively.

It appears the reason Yahoo! flew me out here was to lay me off in person. I think I'd have preferred to stay in Tokyo to find this out.

For some reason unknown to me, my boss, or my coworkers, on Thursday we were informed we have a mandatory on-site meeting from April 27 - May 1. This means I have to haul my ass from Tokyo to Sunnyvale for about a week; I'll get into town Sat 25th, fly back out at early-o'clock Sat 2nd. I have absolutely no fucking idea what I'm going to be doing during the week, but presumably my corporate masters will allow me at least a little free time; I'd like to see y'all.

I'm going to be so royally pissed if this is some fucking teambuilding/morale boosting exercise.

Yesterday, in the grocery store, I thought the Muzak sounded familiar... and then I realized it was Dragostea Din Tei, aka the Numa Numa Song.

I've started getting used to the notion that I'm getting older and creeping towards middle age; however, I still haven't adjusted to the thought that my parents are getting old; Dad's 68, and Mom's 67 - not that far away from their seventies.

Still haven't gotten my taxes straightened out yet, either. Bah.

This year, March is like February part II. Bleah.
I'm still rather freaked out by the "please pay the first installment of your taxes - $17,500 more or less - on Monday" surprise I got on Friday.

It's grey and overcast, which makes me not very inclined to go out and about or do much of anything. I've also had a cold for the past week, which has kept me from going to the clubs, for that matter. It's like this last week has been an extended form of February.

God exists; good souls... taste better.

Haven't been reading livejournal much lately. Spent New Year's Eve delirious with flu-induced fever. Was there some political thing that happened recently?

Anyhow: I've realized that it's a good time to send out postcards for no particular reason. Want one? Leave a [screened] comment with your snailmail address.

I didn't go up to the city on Saturday; my mood crashed, and I ended up sneezing and dozing in bed for most of the day. I'd thought that it was due to cat exposure, but as the symptoms have gotten worse since then, it now seems like I've come down with a good old-fashioned cold. Bleh.

The flight to Chicago was nice and boring. Today, rather than go out, I stayed at home and sneezed and read and dozed; since the high temperature for today was 13F, I don't think I was missing too much.

So many people I didn't get to see while in the SFBA. Wah!

I'm here in the lovely southbay; yesterday, I pretty much got in the car, drove straight to my hotel, and crashed until this morning. My stupid Cingular phone no longer seems to work, and my good Japanese phone doesn't either... but the stupid Windows Mobile one does. Since the phone's number is Japanese, anybody wanting to get in contact with me would probably be best off mailing my pager address: page dash moof at yahoo dash inc dot com.

And I should go to sleep soon so I can be at the office at a reasonably normal time tomorrow....

I'll be in the SFBA this Saturday the 6th, and fly to Chicago the morning of Sunday the 14th. Other than this Sunday, my schedule is pretty much wide open. I'm staying in the southbay, but could probably be fairly easily coerced up to the city. Anybody want to Do Stuff?

My mom sends me double-edged razorblades as gifts; does that make me emo?

I'm at the point where I'm running around, trying to assemble crap to bring with me to the US in two weeks...

So, like, was there some political thing today?

I'll be in the SFBA Dec 6-Dec 14, and Chicago Dec 14-Dec 26.

Weird Japanese food I'm eating tonight: a chocolate-covered blackcurrant and acerola (I think) ice cream bar.
Weird thought I had while trudging up the hill to my house: is there some kind of biological reason for why people get more conservative as they get older? i.e. something in human biochemistry changes as we get older to make our thought patterns change?

I tried withdrawing my usual 50000yen from the ATM today; it kept on saying "card invalid". Finally, it dawned on me that I should try a smaller amount - and lo and behold, my invalid card worked. Guess the bank is serious about the $500/day limit.

Thanks to the dollar going down the poohole in the past three weeks, I've had an effective 10% pay cut.

It's coming up on the time when I should make travel plans for the Xmas holidays; this calls into question whether I should visit the SFBA (and presumably, whomever would care to see me) before or after Xmas. I figure "before" would be something like the 7th-14th, and "after" would be... well, after. So:

Poll #1284319 US trip
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

When should moof be in the SFBA?

As it turns out, the Japanese food which closely resembles General Tso's Chicken is called チキン南蛮 - "Southern Barbarian Chicken". "南蛮", pronounced 'nanban' can mean either 'southern barbarian' or 'food cooked with welsh onion or chili peppers'.

I'd love to know that etymology.