Thursday, April 14, 2005



I got home from work yesterday and went on a cleaning frenzy. Even Grandma just sat there and watched.
Why?
We had city insurance baby check type people (I have no idea what you call them) come to the house this morning to check JiXiang.
Li has a holiday today, so he was there to greet them. I just phoned home and they have left.
JiXiang was given a clean bill of health and weighs a much more respectable 6kilo when you remember to remove all her clothes and diaper. Hehehe. Something like that never really entered Li's and my brain. Hehe!!
She is still on the large side and totally healthy, so no problems.
Li was given a list of vaccination dates and the typical health spiel.
I can now relax as I am a total freak. Hehe

...

So this weekend Li and I are going to go pricing and maybe buy a video camera. They are way tooooo cool now. First they are soooo small they can actually fit in a small woman's hand and weigh less then my film camera. Some are actually smaller then my film camera. Second they are digital now and that is way cool. I can down load straight on to my computer (when it works) and create movies and burn them onto DVD! YA! This means I will have to also buy a DVD burner but fun..... And third they now act as a digital camera and a video recorder together, so I dont need to buy a digital camera only a video camera. YAA!! And fourth, the battery life on these things now is amazing!
The other great part is that I can then put short movies onto my picture web page and you guys can see more cool things about JiXiang and our life here in Japan. I want to make a memory video of all our friends that are left here. So many are moving that I have to catch them quick before they are gone. Sniff!

......

It is April and in Japan that means all the companies are giving tours to wide eyed freshmen straight out of university with no job skills what so ever.
We have 30 little boys walking our halls right now. No girls this year. Hmm. They have all been recruited as engineers and accountants of various kinds and will begin formal training in about a week or two. Now they have to sit through boring lectures and read a million different books on safety and company structure. Their training program consists of all of them rotating through the different sections on one month stints. They get to meet the different people and it helps them to understand the basic workings of the company. By September they should be finished their training and they will be spread about the country to the different plants and labs. I think this section is getting two idiots.
I say idiots because they generally are. They have ZERO job skills and no work ethic. About 90% have never had a part time job like McD's and they have been slacking off at the non motivating universities for the past 5 to 6 years. Now they have to work a 9 to 5 job that is really 7 to 9, and many look like zombies through the first months. About half never get rid of that zombie look. William, you would go mental on them and they would give you a major migraine attack. Sean would probably turn red and walk away. The other half get the stamp of approval from me. Some I would have fired before their training was up. I watch them over my computer screen and shake my head. They are putting their university class room skill of 'sleeping while appearing to read' to very good use.
Last year we got two and one is an idiot the other a real go getter. The year before exactly the same thing.
I feel a bit sorry for the gogetters. This company is still run by the old system of seniority. You progress to the next level only because of the years you have put in and not because of your abilities. A couple of these guys would be general managers at a young age back home because they are so gungho and motivated. Yet because of their age they have to bow and bit their lips in front of some of these managers that should never have existed in a company that long. Here their wage goes up every year even if they sleep in the bath room every chance they get.
I would like to see performance based wages in this company. I could see it benefiting many and waking up a few slackers.
Mind you I am saying this while writing this because my student is on a business trip and I have nothing to do. Hehe
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Posted by (Top)Andrea::4/14/2005 :: 0 Comments:

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