Been A While...

Just over 3 months to be exact. Haven't been very diligent about this whole blogging thing. I've tried writing an entry on a couple of occasions, but every time, I deleted it. The things I was writing about didn't feel "profound" enough to bother posting them on the net. Hell, they weren't even important enough for me to even remember what I was thinking the next day... why should anyone reading this blog care, either?

So... what's happened since August? A lot, I suppose. Trip to Japan, started kung fu, girlfriend got hired at the same company I work at, and we have a new dicta... I mean president. Let's start with Japan.

It was an action-packed trip, that's for sure. I went over to Japan for business reasons; for some meetings with all of our global partners, and to check out the convention in Japan. I was there for about 10 days or so, but from about two weeks in advance, my schedule was *packed*. I had dinners planned with so many goddamn people, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see my (aging) grandparents. Luckily, I managed to be able to stay for an extra couple of days without extra cost, so I stayed with my grandparents and spent some quality time with them. Grandpa's getting on, and he was hospitalized shortly after I left Japan with pneumonia, but according to my grandma, he's doing much better now.

I spent a lot of time with a new group of friends in Japan, this time. They all work for the same company as I do, but I hadn't met most of them simply because they work in areas that I don't usually interact with. But, one of my good friends introduced me to them, and we drank several nights away. It was a blast. I'm really looking forward to heading back to Japan simply to spend some more time with them. Great group.

Not so sure how I feel about this whole simultaneous-translation-for-seven-hour-long-meetings-by-myself deal that I seem to have landed, though. According to my coworkers, most places that use simultaneous translators pay a lot of money, and they only translate for 10 minutes at a time before switching. Sure, I'm more familiar with the material that they're talking about in these meetings, but I have no formal training in simultaneous translation, and frankly, seven hours is a bit long. By the end, I could hardly even speak, my brain was so fried.

But, that brings me to my next point: do I really want to be known as the translation guy? I mean, for the last several years, I've been trying making great progress in working my way into a much more general field, but recently, I've been feeling like I'm being pushed back into the role of translation monkey. My boss was the other resident translation monkey, but being an executive now and all, it's not really a great use of his time to be translating at meetings. And our other bilingual is intelligent, but not nearly a native speaker. I doubt he could hang. That leaves me. So, I feel a bit trapped. If I leave this department/company/position/whatever, it puts them in a world of hurt. But is it really my business to care? Damn my twisted sense of loyalty! This last meeting, they paired me up with a new girl from our Japanese branch (rather pretty too), but she froze when she was put on the spotlight. (She can probably do it, but I think she has a bit of stage fright. We went out to dinner later to just chill, since my grandparents live near her house, we were going in the same direction anyway.) Hopefully, if she can do better next time, I won't have to handle it all by me onesy.

So what do I do? Do I just get up and walk, despite the fact that my boss takes good care of me, even though I might not be doing exactly what I want? Do I stick it out, and continue to try to prove myself? Tough call, really. I don't plan on shutting my eyes to the world, though.

Crap. I'm rambling now. Back on topic!

So, yeah. Enough of Japan. I started kung fu!

I managed to lose about 10 pounds over the last couple of months, but I've been having trouble losing more. And frankly, 40 minutes of exercise 4 times a week wasn't cutting it. While the treadmill is definitely better than nothing, it doesn't compare to the full body workout you get with martial arts.

So, on my first day, we stretched for an hour. And I'm not talking pansy-ass, I-just-wanna-get-my-blood-pumping stretches... these were *intense*. I was sweating harder than I've sweat in a long time. In fact, I didn't even make it to the kung fu portion of the class, I was so exhausted. I don't know if the sifu was just being nice, but he said everyone dies in their first couple of classes, and told me to just observe. It was awesome, though. Of course, I was in pain for about 4 days afterwards (actually, today is the 4th day... and my second class), but it felt good to hit those core muscles. I hope things will be a little easier for me today. It feels good to be getting back in shape, that's for sure. And I'm doing it learning Shaolin kung fu!!!

As for the election, well, there's nothing about the election that I can say that already hasn't been said in every blog, every newspaper, every forum in America. But, I will say that even moreso than the decision to re-elect monkeyboy, I'm extremely disappointed in the 11 states that banned gay marriage. "Disappointed" is a bit too soft of a word... how about "extremely fucking pissed"? That's a little closer. Repeat after me, people: equal rights. E. Q. U. A. L. R. I. G. H. T. S. Can you say it? I thought so. Dicks.

Inspired by a few friends, I'm debating whether or not I want to take part in this whole "write a novel month" ordeal. I had started writing a few stories a while back, but got busy and never had a chance to pick them up again. But, given my workload, kung fu, guitar, *cough, cough*worldofwarcraftbeta*cough, cough*, etc., it's hard to find the time, to be honest. Though, it'd be nice to finally finish a work that's longer than 10 pages.

Hm... I really need to be a little more concise in my blog. I tend to just ramble a bit, without really much to say. Maybe if I did it more often, I'd get more used to the whole thing.

Well, there you have it. several pages of almost absolutely no content. I hope you enjoyed it :P