Konichiwa!

I received an e-mail from a friend today which said, among other things, "Nice effort with the blog, by the way. Shirky Words is more like it."

Piss off, Dogbert. Stop complaining about a free form of entertainment (or lack thereof.)

Here's what's up. As many of you know, I work at what could loosely be called a school. Like most academic institutions, it follows a seasonal pattern. September marks the arrival of new students and all that that entails, which is a lot. Students, as a rule, are a very needy bunch - particularly Japanese women who have never lived outside of their parents house, much less the country. So, they get here completely shell-shocked and all the employees, so as not to piss off our overlords back in Tokyo, bend over backwards for the first few days to make them feel comfortable and get them settled. For me, this involves taking all their laptop computers (yes, their personal computers), running virus scans on them, and outfitting them with wireless cards to connect to the schools wireless network. It is a very long and boring process, but one that the higher-ups have deemed necessary for reasons I won't get into here (largely financial... but then again, everything is.)

Over the past week we've had close to 300 rosy-cheeked cherubs arrive on our shores, almost all of them with laptops in hand. In addition, this semester I've also been commissioned to help make the student ID badges, due largely to the fact that the person who used to do them betrayed.. um, sorry....I mean left us for another job. My bosses, brilliantly deciding that student ID badges and systems support were like two peas in a pod (along with front desk lunch coverage), figured I was the most logical choice to assume those duties. (Coincidentally, the guy who used to make the badges? The same guy I mentioned at the beginning of the post who took me to task for not updating the blog.)

To further complicate matters, the British School of Boston (which leases space on our campus) is having their brand new building dedication ceremony tomorrow. It is an event of high prestige and magnitude, and the board members of both the British School & Showa (my school) will be present. All low to mid level employees are expected to run around and kiss their asses, and to this point I have refused to do so, but not in any overt sort of way. I simply do my job the same way I have always done, and don't stand at attention and salute when I get a request relayed to me by a board member. It DOES mean that there a whole lot more work to do, though. The school has been cleaned top to bottom and many of us were told a week ago that we had to work on Saturday, during which a board meeting will take place (They did hear from me about that one. My beloved nieces and nephews are turning 2, 2 & 4 and the family is having a birthday party for them on Saturday.... which I will now miss .)

Lastly, you may remember my bitching in an earlier post about how my computer at home has become intolerable. Things have not improved in that regard, although hopefully they will soon (i.e. I'm about to bite the bullet and purchase a new one.) But for right now, I only have one machine in which I can post updates - the one on my desk at work - and while I'm there I simply don't have the required time to devote to the "creative process."

So no, I haven't given up on the blog. I haven't run out of things to say. I haven't even run out of links to post. I just need TIME, man...... and a bottle of No-Doz. And yes, I know I'm fully expected to throw you a bone here, so this is a good time waster. Seems some gentleman in NYC (creepy place. The Yankees play there, you know) decided to place speech bubbles over all sorts of photographs, billboards, and advertisements. He let random people fill them in and then went back to photograph the results - located here. Enjoy. I'll check in again soon.

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Oh, and the next person who criticizes my effort will be looked at askance while I make mental notes to badmouth them in the next post. Toodles.