Monday, October 31, 2005
Random thoughts...
-Theo Epstein resigned from his GM post in the Red Sox today. Wow, this is huge. All I can say is, before he became the GM, the Bosox didn't have the swagger it has against the Yankees now. On top of that, he was the one guy who had the cajones to trade away Nomar, reject the A-Rod deal when it became too expensive, bring in Schilling by going to his place for dinner, and assemble the team that ended the World Series drought. Is he perfect? Heck, no! He brought in Renteria, broke up the championship team by letting go of Pedro, Derek Lowe, Orlando Cabrera, and last season's hero Dave Roberts. Was Epstein getting too confident in his own abilities as GM? Maybe. But it still can't be denied, Boston's losing one of the key guys that made the Sox relevant again.
-Manny looking for a trade, again...Man, it never ends with Ramirez does it? I know that everyone in Boston wants Manny to stay because of his bat, but is it really worth it to put up with this never-ending BS? Nevertheless, until the Sox can find a trade scenario that gives them back equal value for Ramirez (his contract pretty much scares the bejezus of anyone except for maybe Steinbrenner), he's staying put.
-Tedy Bruschi- Oh, how I wish I could have been in Boston and watch his return game with the guys. Comparison to Willis Reed? Reed's knee was messed up completely, definitely a huge inspiration for everyone. But, it was in fact, just a knee. Try coming back from stroke and heart operation to tackle guys head-first? Yeesh, I think just recovering from minor stroke and living a normal life is miraculous enough, let alone playing football again! If the Pats are going to win the super bowl, Bruschi is the main reason why, no questions asked!
-Manny looking for a trade, again...Man, it never ends with Ramirez does it? I know that everyone in Boston wants Manny to stay because of his bat, but is it really worth it to put up with this never-ending BS? Nevertheless, until the Sox can find a trade scenario that gives them back equal value for Ramirez (his contract pretty much scares the bejezus of anyone except for maybe Steinbrenner), he's staying put.
-Tedy Bruschi- Oh, how I wish I could have been in Boston and watch his return game with the guys. Comparison to Willis Reed? Reed's knee was messed up completely, definitely a huge inspiration for everyone. But, it was in fact, just a knee. Try coming back from stroke and heart operation to tackle guys head-first? Yeesh, I think just recovering from minor stroke and living a normal life is miraculous enough, let alone playing football again! If the Pats are going to win the super bowl, Bruschi is the main reason why, no questions asked!
Friday, October 28, 2005
The dynamics of office politics...
Recently, I've come to the realization that the company in which I'm working for is currently mired in office politics. This isn't your usual, typical office politics however. In the normal form, co-workers typically compete against each other in order to climb up the power ladder, creating a rift in the team and becoming completely counter-productive. As I said in the beginning however, this is not your usual office politics dynamic.
In this case, the team is fully united and committed to accomplishing a project. There is no in-fighting amongst the peers. Everyone on the team looks out for one another and we don't try to make others look bad for the sake of personal glory. There is one glaring weakness to this team however, the lack of a good leader.
A good leader should possess at least these qualities: organizational skills, experience from the ground-up, flexibility, accountability for their own actions, and loyalty to their team.
Apologies to my colleagues who are reading this, because I know I promised not to rant as much about the job anymore, but believe me, this rant has more to do with standing up for our team rather than just bashing the boss. The current leader of our team does indeed possess organizational skills, experience in the field, and flexibility (to a point). However, accountability and loyalty are qualities that he does not seem to view as important.
Imagine my surprise and disappointment when our leader delivers a speech to the entire team and begins by saying, "Currently, I am working on a major project to be finalized in..." Amazing. He has single-handedly taken all of the credit for the hours and effort that our team put in to the project without acknowledging that we even had anything to do with it all. The truth is, 99% percent of the project was written, created, tested, and edited by our team. Our leader puts in 1% of effort, and the project is his now.
On the subject of accountability, our leader has shown great skills in avoiding blame when things goes wrong with certain projects. For example, last year's project went very well and everything was clicking smoothly, with the exception of one mistake in the transportation of essential materials. Our leader's response? "Well, you should have taken the materials with you earlier last week." Although he said that, he forgot to mention that the materials were not completed yet at that time. Secondly, he promised us that the materials would be delivered on time. Still, not one apology was issued and he managed to put the blame on our team for his shortcoming.
First and foremost, I would like to express my graditude to our team for being exceptionally classy in the face of a classless leader. My loyalty goes to our team and I truly feel that our team does not get the respect that we should. In the meantime, let's keep taking the high-road and don't let things reduce us to the level of our leader.
In this case, the team is fully united and committed to accomplishing a project. There is no in-fighting amongst the peers. Everyone on the team looks out for one another and we don't try to make others look bad for the sake of personal glory. There is one glaring weakness to this team however, the lack of a good leader.
A good leader should possess at least these qualities: organizational skills, experience from the ground-up, flexibility, accountability for their own actions, and loyalty to their team.
Apologies to my colleagues who are reading this, because I know I promised not to rant as much about the job anymore, but believe me, this rant has more to do with standing up for our team rather than just bashing the boss. The current leader of our team does indeed possess organizational skills, experience in the field, and flexibility (to a point). However, accountability and loyalty are qualities that he does not seem to view as important.
Imagine my surprise and disappointment when our leader delivers a speech to the entire team and begins by saying, "Currently, I am working on a major project to be finalized in..." Amazing. He has single-handedly taken all of the credit for the hours and effort that our team put in to the project without acknowledging that we even had anything to do with it all. The truth is, 99% percent of the project was written, created, tested, and edited by our team. Our leader puts in 1% of effort, and the project is his now.
On the subject of accountability, our leader has shown great skills in avoiding blame when things goes wrong with certain projects. For example, last year's project went very well and everything was clicking smoothly, with the exception of one mistake in the transportation of essential materials. Our leader's response? "Well, you should have taken the materials with you earlier last week." Although he said that, he forgot to mention that the materials were not completed yet at that time. Secondly, he promised us that the materials would be delivered on time. Still, not one apology was issued and he managed to put the blame on our team for his shortcoming.
First and foremost, I would like to express my graditude to our team for being exceptionally classy in the face of a classless leader. My loyalty goes to our team and I truly feel that our team does not get the respect that we should. In the meantime, let's keep taking the high-road and don't let things reduce us to the level of our leader.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
It's official...
...As of yesterday, I turned in my resignation letter to my current employer. Rather than dwell on the specifics on what happened, I'm just gonna list the things that I have to get accomplished in preparing for the big move to Tokyo. If you do want to get the specifics, feel free to email or call me:
Things to do within 1 month's time:
-Find an apartment. Yikes, this part scares me the most. I remember moving into my current apartment about 2 years ago and the thought of all the moving and packing isn't leaving a good taste in my mouth. Just gotta remember to do things in steps and leave plenty of time to do it.
-Need furniture. For those of you who've visited my joint, (and it really IS a joint, at best!) you'd no doubt noticed that I don't have any furniture other than my futon and table. Fortunately, this part has been 75% resolved all thanks to my good friend Mark, who's bestowing me with his stuff as he prepares to move out of his current apartment. The biggest prize? A kick-ass queen-sized bed with drawers under it!
*on a side note, I'd like to take a moment of silence in mourning the loss of THE perfect apartment (Mark's). I mean, the apartment has everything! Great view of Yoyogi park, safe and quiet (despite it being in the middle of Shibuya, I still have no idea how it manages to be that quiet! Absolutely mind-boggling!), random celebrity sightings (I happened to bump into the main actor from 'Battle Royale' just across the street), a legendary-great restaurant in the vicinity (seriously ranks up in the top 3 restaurants I have ever eaten in, and I've eaten in a lot of great restaurants), and a GIGANTIC balcony. I'm not kidding, it was like having 2 full-sized balconies joined together in an L-shape. You could invite 20 people over and have a real bbq party and still not feel overly-crowded! That apartment will be sorely missed.
So far, that's all I have on my "to-do list", but it's still gonna be insane for the next month or so, at least until I get settled in. For now, I have to start finding a good apartment, among other things.
-There's gonna be a Halloween event where many foreigners dress up and go nuts on the JR loop line (main Osaka train line). I've been asked to go by a buddy of mine and I have to dress up in a costume. Fortunately, I just realized this morning that I have the perfect costume. I'm going as a Boston sports fan, decked out in Boston sports teams' gear. You saw it here first! If anybody else goes like this, they've stolen my idea!
Things to do within 1 month's time:
-Find an apartment. Yikes, this part scares me the most. I remember moving into my current apartment about 2 years ago and the thought of all the moving and packing isn't leaving a good taste in my mouth. Just gotta remember to do things in steps and leave plenty of time to do it.
-Need furniture. For those of you who've visited my joint, (and it really IS a joint, at best!) you'd no doubt noticed that I don't have any furniture other than my futon and table. Fortunately, this part has been 75% resolved all thanks to my good friend Mark, who's bestowing me with his stuff as he prepares to move out of his current apartment. The biggest prize? A kick-ass queen-sized bed with drawers under it!
*on a side note, I'd like to take a moment of silence in mourning the loss of THE perfect apartment (Mark's). I mean, the apartment has everything! Great view of Yoyogi park, safe and quiet (despite it being in the middle of Shibuya, I still have no idea how it manages to be that quiet! Absolutely mind-boggling!), random celebrity sightings (I happened to bump into the main actor from 'Battle Royale' just across the street), a legendary-great restaurant in the vicinity (seriously ranks up in the top 3 restaurants I have ever eaten in, and I've eaten in a lot of great restaurants), and a GIGANTIC balcony. I'm not kidding, it was like having 2 full-sized balconies joined together in an L-shape. You could invite 20 people over and have a real bbq party and still not feel overly-crowded! That apartment will be sorely missed.
So far, that's all I have on my "to-do list", but it's still gonna be insane for the next month or so, at least until I get settled in. For now, I have to start finding a good apartment, among other things.
-There's gonna be a Halloween event where many foreigners dress up and go nuts on the JR loop line (main Osaka train line). I've been asked to go by a buddy of mine and I have to dress up in a costume. Fortunately, I just realized this morning that I have the perfect costume. I'm going as a Boston sports fan, decked out in Boston sports teams' gear. You saw it here first! If anybody else goes like this, they've stolen my idea!
Monday, October 24, 2005
Big update coming Thursday...
Haven't written for a while, but I'll get back to it as soon as I wrap up a few things on Thursday first. :)
Thursday, October 13, 2005
"Pop quiz, hotshot!!!..."
...You're given 2 great opportunities, but you need to choose one of them. Choosing either opportunity will greatly affect the outcome of your career.
First choice: The first company is a consulting firm. It can guarantee a lot of money assuming that I can meet performance targets. The drawback is, that field will be the only thing that will be available to me in the future, though I would like to go on to that field as a career.
Second choice: The second company is one of the biggest investing firms in the world. I would gain experience working the global market as the front line support and have great connections. Drawback is, the money is much less than the first company and my true goals will not be realized until one or two years later.
"What do you do!? 'Shoot the hostage, take them out of the equation.'"
Ok, enough corny quotes from a movie. But seriously, this is a really tough decision for me coming up. If I take the first company, I can be making a ton of money and be on the fast track to becoming an HR guy, but I'm pretty much going to be set on being an HR guy, nothing else. If I take the second company, I can learn so much and make some killer connections with the hotshots, but the money's gonna be a lot less and it will take more time to realize my career goal.
First choice: The first company is a consulting firm. It can guarantee a lot of money assuming that I can meet performance targets. The drawback is, that field will be the only thing that will be available to me in the future, though I would like to go on to that field as a career.
Second choice: The second company is one of the biggest investing firms in the world. I would gain experience working the global market as the front line support and have great connections. Drawback is, the money is much less than the first company and my true goals will not be realized until one or two years later.
"What do you do!? 'Shoot the hostage, take them out of the equation.'"
Ok, enough corny quotes from a movie. But seriously, this is a really tough decision for me coming up. If I take the first company, I can be making a ton of money and be on the fast track to becoming an HR guy, but I'm pretty much going to be set on being an HR guy, nothing else. If I take the second company, I can learn so much and make some killer connections with the hotshots, but the money's gonna be a lot less and it will take more time to realize my career goal.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
...on being enlightened. (Or at least feeling like it)
Last month has just been wearing down on me. So much so, that I even seriously considered buying a one-way plane ticket home to Boston and leaving all my belongings in Japan behind. First off, I've worked in IT for 7 years (as I've told all of my friends) and I wanted to go back into it. Unfortunately, I'm not qualified enough to really do anything other than being a helpdesk techie unless I go back to school and learn programming. Originally, I intended to go to Temple University in Tokyo as soon as my contract with my current employer expires to enroll into the IT certification program while working full time to support myself. Unfortunately, the IT program was shut down right before I was going to apply for the program. That situation really only left me with 2 options. 1. Just apply to any IT company in Osaka in the hopes of getting a helpdesk position; or 2. Go back to my alma mater and study for 1 year. The 2nd option seemed to be the best choice for me because while the IT job market in Osaka is ok, 99% of the positions required both high Japanese language fluency and programming skills. The bad thing is, my gf is currently going for her lawyer's license, which means she can't go to the states with me, resulting in being separated for 1 year and leading to breakup status. I didn't want to breakup at all and I intend to marry her sometime in the future. However, this also meant that my career would never grow to it's potential. I struggled with that situation in my mind for a good 2 weeks, along with increasingly frustrating arguments with my gf that had no peaceful resolution in sight. In fact, I had been averaging roughly 4.5 hours of sleep for 2 weeks and my motivation was gone. By the end, I found myself awake at 3:30am with only one thought in my mind: Go back home for good. Later that morning, I was in my high school feeling like an absolute wreck when it finally hit me. I'm not cut out to be an IT techie. I never was and I never will be. If IT really was my thing, I never would have struggled to find that kind of job in the first place. Then all of a sudden it hit me - I can still be involved in IT without actually being a tech. I decided that becoming an HR guy in the field of IT would be the best fit. People have said that I'm one of the easiest going guys, coupled along with experience in the field and having good instincts in reading people - it all made sense! So, as my next career move, I'm aiming to become an HR guy in the tech field. Since coming up with that decision, I've been excited and nothing really seems to bother me much anymore. (Even being late to my elementary school in Ashiya didn't bother me much.) Anyways, sorry for such a long rambling journal entry. Hopefully this answers the "what's wrong with Jason?" questions. By the way, me and my gf are doing well again.
