June 17: Have I entered the Twilight Zone?
This morning I had a little trouble getting up, since I didn't actually get to sleep until quite late. I still caught the 8 5x bus though, so I was "early" to work (early in quotes due to my unbelievably late start time). I had dorm breakfast of an omlette with ground beef inside (gee, I wonder if there were leftovers...) and tororo.
I got to work pretty close to 9, and I noticed on the sign-in board that there was like, NO ONE there. I didn't pay it much mind, as the project or team or whatever I'm in seems quite casual, in dress, in their taking time off for handiball, and pretty much all else. I started Rubying for a while, and when I went to the washroom at like 10:30 I looked at the signboard and there was still no one there. >_> hmm... I wondered briefly if there had been a drinking party gone wild last night or something, but shortly after 11, Kabutoya-san showed up and informed me of the situation. There was apparently a big NTT group meeting thing in Tokyo today, so that's where the majority of the people in my neck of the office were. Kabutoya-san then explained that there was also to be some "ecological" (first he said economic, but then I was like "ecologic?" and he liked that one, before I realized that it probably should have been environmental) plan people showing up to ask questions. He said that because he didn't know anything NTT's ecological plan, so he had to "escape to second floor". XD Have I just become an acccessory to something I should know about!? I didn't end up getting questioned by ecological plan people throughout the entire day, so I might be alright. If I could sleep with one eye open, I would.
At lunch time it was very strange having only Uchiyama-san there (I haven't mentioned him yet). He and I chatted a bit, and I found out that he lived in Los Angeles for two years (fifteen years ago), he has two children, 10 and 13, and he likes skiing, but he hasn't been in a while because his wife doesn't like cold places, and his children don't like skiing. I again went for the curry rice but was stopped along the way by katsu with some roux. It was called "katsu hayashi", though the hayashi was in katakana, so I am totally stumped as to what it's supposed to mean. Maybe me living in Hayashi is a company wide joke now? In either case, it was good enough, but was the first meal that I skipped curry for that I feel I would have rather had the curry than the experience of eating the replacement. Oh well, I'll have a few more chances yet hahaha.
After lunch we didn't play handiball because there were only two of us. Uchiyama-san complimented me on my handiball skillz, which I found hard to respond to, because I'm pretty sure I'm terrible haha. I went back upstairs with Uchiyama-san and alone coded in the dark for the rest of my lunch break haha. My monitor apparently has temperature adjustment? I don't know if it's just a setting simulating different colours, or if it's some thing I've never heard of, but my monitor is now on "text" setting, and the whites are tinted orange, and I'm finding it to be quite pleasant, actually.
Kabutoya-san eventually reappeared in the afternoon from hiding (he had actually had a meeting during the lunch hour), and we went over what I'd be doing next. I'll be doing one more chapter of the Programming Collective Intelligence book, and then he's going to tell me about his plan for me. I'm wondering what said plan will be, as the group I'm in seems pretty research-ey, and I'm not having much luck idly fishing around in my brain for things I might want to look into. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself trying to think up a direction though, as I haven't heard the master plan.
The afternoon went unusually slowly (maybe my monitor has a relativity toggle I accidentally threw while setting it to text mode), but that was fine because I got a decent bit done. I made my transliterated Python->Ruby code look a little more respectable, and increased the generality of some of the methods, which makes me happy. I'm noticing that the author of the book has a certain style of code that seems ill-suited to pedagogical purposes. I've more than once had to sit down and peruse single lines of code armed with a pencil to make annotations to decipher what precisely is going on. To someone coding in Python wouldn't have any trouble copying the code and seeing what happened, but Ruby doesn't appear to have an equivalent syntactic pattern to Python's array construction things (are they list comprehensions? I was always fuzzy on what those actually were). I can't help but wonder why the author might choose to write a book not intended to teach Python, and then use Python-specific syntax to sometimes obfuscate details of the algorithm he is allegedly trying to demonstrate the structure of. I haven't run into any big trouble yet so far though, and the book is highly readable, which is very nice (not to mention Python code solutions are better than no code solutions).
At pretty much 6 on the dot, Kabutoya-san appeared at my desk and said that I could leave now. Which means he waited for me to pack up and then walked with me out of the building. It's a nice gesture, but it's a little surprising to me how little opportunity there is to put in extra time in my lab's work culture. That and leaving at precisely 6 means I then wait at the bus stop for almost half an hour. >_< Oh well. It was actually a little chilly waiting. We're beside a very heavily forested area and up on a hill, so I think that contributed. Of course it was too hot in the office, but I don't think that'll ever get better; it's probably mostly body heat (ooer).
Back in Ikkidzuka I went to the Yokosan to kill time before the dorm dinner time started, and ended up buying a box of biwa, along with like 3 bags of senbei and a bunch of SOYJOY bars, which I really hope are not laxatives or carb blockers or amphetamines or some such junk. I had some earlier in the week and I don't recall any blackouts, so I think I might be good. The senbei thing is a different matter though. I unfortunately do not have too many places to hide the bags from myself, and so I kind of demolish a bag pretty quick. It's pretty dangerous, because they don't make you feel gross like chips if you eat a ton, and they're sooooo gooooood.... I especially like the slightly sweet little chunky cup ones, and some I found today which are kind of salty and boxy.
Oohashi-san supper was udon with vegetable tempura in it, with lotus root and some unidentifiable patty on the side, as well as kimchi. I'm very lucky that I don't have to spend any effort after I get off work in order to eat a relatively balanced and tasty meal (OK tempura isn't the greatest vegetable, but at least there is always SOME vegetable or other). I ate some biwa, justifying to myself that I hadn't been having enough citrus fruit lately, before looking up how to eat them and realizing they're actually related to apples and pears. They're also called loquats, if I haven't mentioned that already. They're very pleasant to eat, but you get basically nothing, as the fruits are very small and most of it is the seed compartment. Tasty nonetheless, but worth the cost? Maybe not. There are also mangosteens for 99円 each at the Yokosan, which I will probably have in the future.
Anyways, I'm going to get to bed now, as I've got to get up in the morning to wish Dad a happy Father's day (one of the earlier ones he's gotten, to be sure!).
Night night!
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