Office observation 4/27/2005

I've been away from my blog for awhile it seems. I've lots the blog itch a little bit, mainly because I haven't had anything that seems worth telling my able-to-count-on-one-hand readership.

I did get a new supervisor, which is good. The old one was a crazy christian guy that swore like a sailor and was angry at everybody because of company policy making him retire at age 60. The new guy is from Kyoto, laid back gregarious, fun to work with.

Golden Week is coming up, and I usually take that time to go to the states to see friends and family. This year though, I have a release to do just before the holiday, and prices are sky high after that, so I'm going to Taiwan for a little bit.

I've always thought I should go visit somewhere 'china-ish' for a long time. I studied Chinese in high school, and I've always wanted to see how well I could handle myself over there. Shanghai would be cool, and I was even thinking about Hong Kong or Macau, but the opportunity to go to Taiwan opened up, and so off I go.

The interesting thing about Golden Week is that they are just a few scattered national holidays that don't really consist of a whole week of vacation. May 2nd is not actually holiday, but my company is forcing everyone to take paid vacation on that day. The thing is, people don't take work off to do things, so I think that most employees appreciate being forced to take a holiday because that means it's ok.