it's not life that matters but the journey...

Wow. I've gotten some weird emails since I started applying for jobs online, but this one really takes the cake:

Dear candidate

I would like to congratulate you as you have been chosen as 1 of 3 candidates to move forward in our selection process.

You will be working in one of our client's offices and your assignment will be to work with via phone and email, along with doing typical office tasks. This company is growing rapidly and provides a tremendous career opportunity to you, with a great hourly rate and heatlh benefits (even for part-time employees!).

All employees are paid via Direct Deposit with our preferred banking instituion - no additional cost for you, so please go here and sign up: Direct Deposit

After receiving your Direct Deposit confirmation, kindly let me know via email your ideal interview date/time. The current openings are as follows:
July 27 @ 10:30am
July 27 @ 3:30pm
July 27 @ 4:30pm

Remember, you MUST have the Direct Deposit confirmation and account information prior to your interview, as we will be processing your payment information at that time. If you haven't done so already, go there now, so there is no delay with your first direct deposit.

Good luck with the process!
Mary

"Today is Monday and I will be in and out of the office today"



I haven't tried replying to the email, but it was not in reply to any application or email from me. And it doesn't mention the name of the company, or contact information - and it went to my bulk mail folder.

But answer me this: what kind of idiot would fill out a direct deposit form for a job they haven't even interviewed for, much less even applied to? Where it says please go here: Direct Deposit is a direct link for a site (which I didn't click for obvious reasons), but I wonder who would be silly enough to do that?? I guess in this economy people might do anything for a job.

Would you?

so how do you like my new blue layout and my new Hello Kitty icon, which was designed for me by my friend serialbathera?

I've been feeling a bit lost and emotional lately, which is why I haven't really updated very much. But after a busy weekend, and a very positive email today regarding a job, I'm feeling more like joining the world again. I can't say for sure yet that I have the job, but I had a good feeling about it after I talked to the recruiter on Friday afternoon, and he sent me an email today telling me that he received "unofficial" word from Fuji city about the number of contracts they will get; if this number holds true, then I will have the job! I'm waiting for an "official" job offer and contract - and until I get that official email, I won't be buying any champagne... but it looks very promising!

The weekend was quite busy, though not necessarily very productive. We went shopping Saturday afternoon, and then in the evening we went to a "Sobetsukai", which is a farewell party. We actually went to another of these a couple weeks ago - seems like lots of people are leaving Fuji these days! This party was for a young man named Yusuke who will be moving to Tokyo next month to attend university. We were invited by Masahiko's good friend Shimura-san, a piano player who is friends with the Yusuke's father. Masahiko was invited to jam with Shimura and others, including Yusuke and his father, who both play trombone; in fact the father is very talented, and supposedly used to play in the orchestra for a famous Japanese comedy show back in the '70s. The party was held at a small ramen shop run by the Yusuke's family, and there were quite a few people there, many of them musicians. I was most impressed by the really young musicians, especially Yusuke's friend Yuhei (I think that was his name), who is already an amazing jazz drummer and he hasn't even finished high school yet. We also had the treat of seeing this old guy (who actually owns a very large water refinery in the Izu Peninsula, and who used to be Shimura's boss) play a washboard! It looks like a home-made contraption with bells and a horn, and the old guy wore these gloves with knife-like contraptions on the fingertips for making noise against the washboard. I've never seen anyone play a washboard before, and this guy had a great personality too! The music was great, and went on until about 10 p.m., and then Yusuke's mom prepared food for the musicians (and their significant others like me), so we got fried chicken and ramen and apple pie! it was great! The shop also has two resident cats, one of which took a great liking to me and Masahiko both; she's just the tiniest little cat, though already 6 years old, named Komomo (which means small peach). I took a couple pics of her, including one when she was sitting on Masahiko's shoulders - she was adorable. I think Masahiko wanted to take her home with us!

Here's some pics from the party: ( clicky here )

Last week we had our one and only snowfall of the winter, it was on Thursday morning I believe. I took pics early in the morning while it was still falling, but it melted by about 10 a.m. here's a pic:



Masahiko's temp job is supposed to be done this week - he's glad to have some more time to study for his English proficiency test, and then after that (mid-March), he'll start to figure out his next plan. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with his friend Machi-san, who's a monk. There may be something coming up in the future with regard to a career path... but I can't talk about it now. When we learn more, I'll write more.

If I get this job, I'm going to get really busy starting at the end of March - so I've got a month to do some writing, planning, researching (like how to get a green card in Japan, how to get a driver's license, etc...) and also my last bit of relaxing and serious studying. When I join the ranks of the working world, my free time will be relegated to nights and weekends like everyone else...

and though I've got more to write, I'll leave you for now, with these pictures of my lovely Leo:

( meow )

happy week everyone!

Wow I'm tired. It's unbelievable how tired one can get after taking the train for 2 hours and then walking 15 minutes, and then having a 90 minute job interview, which includes a 5-minute video demonstration and Japanese introduction! Thankfully I opted for the more expensive (much more expensive!!) option of taking the bullet train back home, so I cut the commute time from 2 hours to 45 minutes. Gotta love the Shinkansen!! But the whole day's worth of train rides cost me about $60.00 round trip! What an expensive job interview. Plus I was hungry because all I ate for lunch was a small egg salad sandwich from the train station convenience store and some chocolate.

oh and something funny. My bullet train was number 666, and I rode in car number 6. And 6 has always been my favorite lucky number. good sign? I hope so!

But I'm home now, tired and dizzy, and ready for some wine and maybe an episode of White Collar... if I can stay awake.

more on the job interview and other stuff later...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I feel like I should post more often - it's just that I don't feel like I've much to say that I haven't already said. Not much is happening these day really. I have sort of started my job search again, which is stressful and depressing. I hate job hunting because it just makes me feel so inferior. sometimes I wish I would have just stuck with teaching - by now I might have had enough experience to get an actual full time job. But who knows... we are always faced with decisions in life, and sometimes perhaps we make a wrong decision, or choose a path or direction that isn't right. What then do we do? Do we regret it and ultimately give up hope, or do we just try to learn from it? Whenever I look for a job, or try a new career path (like I'm doing with the paralegal thing), it makes me feel like I'm under a microscope - and perhaps I don't like seeing myself the way others do. Does that make sense? Probably not - I'm probably just rambling... Anyway, I do need to really focus on finding a job - not just for more money, but for my own mental and physical health. I go to work and I get headaches. That can't be good.

Luckily for the next few weeks I do have more free time - before school begins on January 23rd. I started a new knitting project (a muffler to match my cute green hat) - i'm not sure if I'm happy with it though - the color scheme I chose looks somewhat like an easter basket! I'm reading "The Golden Compass" - though I haven't gotten very far because I'm always too tired when I sit to read. Last night, for example, I was going to read but I fell asleep by 10 p.m. how boring is my life?! I've watched a couple movies lately: Next and Fracture .

( cut for mini movie reviews )

One more thing - if you remember, I mentioned that my cat was sick a couple weeks ago - he couldn't poop. He's doing much better, no thanks to that stupid vet who took my money but didn't even help my cat. That vet never even suggested that my cat might have been throwing up because he was constipated - instead he took x-rays which didn't show anything. Of course not! And he never suggested anything for the cat's diet to help the situation. My husband and I have nursed Leo with simple enemas, lots of water, and a diet of more canned food and less dry. But also I bought some native american herbal medicine from an online site called Native Remedies (the pet site is Pet Alive), it's like metamucil for cats. it's helped so far! I'm not going back to that vet again - and I'm considering writing a letter of complaint to that office.

It's getting late so off I go. I hope everyone's new year is going great so far!