Hunkabutta Archives
04.08.2001

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I have been a total and absolute bookworm this weekend. As I said before, it looks like I might be transferred upstairs to work as a Java software engineer, and I have TONS of brushing up to do.

First thing Saturday morning I went to Yaesu Bookcenter and bought O'Reilly's "The Java Enterprise CD Bookshelf, Version 1.0," 7 best-selling books on CD-ROM. I love O'Reilly books, but talk about information overload!


04.06.2001

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Good news! Good news! Good news!

A manager from upstairs in the design department finally approached me with a concrete job offer. They need me to work as an engineer on their Blue Martini project. Allll Riiiiighttttt!!!

Party time tonight at Scruffy Murphys.

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Happy birthday to my favorite blogger, Laura.


04.05.2001

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The first picture is of a tombstone from the graveyard behind the office building where I work -- even in death the Japanese are crowded.

The second I took the other day when I went to our local ward office (kind of like a local city hall) to sign Karen up for National Health insurance. Out front there's a little park-like area where lots of senior citizens, the infirm and the homeless gather to enjoy a wee-bit of open space and quiet.


04.04.2001

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Karen and I took time off work today to go down, for the first time, to the clinic where we are planning to have our baby. Yesterday we had our Japanese speaking friend call the place and tell them that we were coming. We wanted to set up an appointment, but they said it was on a first-come first-served basis. So, we show up today and the woman at the desk tells us that the doctor is on vacation until next Monday.

What the rock? Man, we just called yesterday and they didn't say a thing.

Typical Japanese screw up -- They absolutely HATE saying "No" here.

Anyway, Karen is having an "I-hate-Japan" day. But don't worry, I'm sure it will pass, because actually, Japan is a pretty great place.

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Found this pretty cool site the other day. It's a program that uses U.S. census data to map the frequency of any surname that you type in.