I’m only writing because you force me to
Done are the days where I have care free moments reading through piles and piles of fun Google Reader joy. Now I’m merely updating you people on the happenings of my quasi-exciting (in that lame and aging way) life that I’ve got with me and my mutt.
Work is ever impending, requiring that I throw not one but like 5 events on simultaneously. Incidentally, if you’re in the LA area and wish to learn a thing or two about fluid dynamics, make sure to pop by to this. It will be a real hoot, and there’s always plenty of beer and my lost face in the crowd to greet you.
It seems like these days are blessed with good intentions and motivations with little to show for them. I’m really trying to get into some sort of DIY with my newly purchased glue gun, but when I start thinking of what I want to put together I look around the apartment and realize the whole damn place needs such a face lift, the single project in hands/head would be like glitter on dog shit. Except, not nearly as stinky.
Oh, and I recently joined Twitter … in case you wanted a play by play of how dull my life really can be. It’s usually updates on my cooking and hanging with Little Man, but I swear I tend to go out from time to time. It’s just, lately I don’t have the motivation. I know I’m getting older, but am I really that OLD?
Meh … at least there are always shows. And not to mention a few awesome friends who seem to endlessly keep me occupied.
Happy belated birthday to Jason, who made me dress up for his birthday.
work and stuff
You know, I hate to blame my lack of activity on work, but I’m going to blame it the after effect of work on my brain and body.
I travel, I do meetings, I set up more meetings , and I process things for future meetings. Then I come home the next day, load up my email and read more emails asking me to set up more meetings. It’s really a never ending cycle, but there are moments where I stare at the blinking voicemail light on my phone and think “fuck it”. Then I realize if I don’t answer that now, then it’ll turn into a screaming person on the phone.
Honestly though, work has been eerily satisfying. In that way where I feel like I’m contributing on a bigger level, in a way where I feel like people are being helped, kind of like a bigger helping feeling. Yeah, that’s it.
So lots of people have no clue what I do. And honestly, I don’t have the typing power to cover it on this blog. But look at it like this, I work for a company that develops cutting edge high end technology for 3D animation and visual effects in film. This company is comprised of under 50 people, and I help most of those people, our R&D team mainly, try to understand what our customers , the FX artists and technical directors, need in production of really terrible high budget movies that milk our paychecks and make us feel unfulfilled in the end.
Yeah, I enjoy it. Because the only thing more amazing than listening to endless technical meetings discussing pixels and rendering power, mico-polygons and and dynamic simulations … is learning this is all because Mr. Un-named Fancy Director wants to see it just a little different when the jeep blows up on the mysterious alien planet.
It’s all a part of life’s work.
in Deutschland
Ahhh, jetlag … can anything be any more useless in life? On my second day back from German, I crashed out at 8pm and woke up at 5am. I am officially on my grandmother’s schedule.
Stuttgart was an amazing city, highlights including the land of Porsche and Mercedes … and naturally, all things German like beer. Though, I’ll tell you one thing that really annoyed me about this trip. I arrived on Saturday night, after flying next to about 9 Greek people from Los Angeles who ignored me the entire time while they shouted over me the entire 11 hour flight. Also, I had a lovely 7 hour layover in Frankfurt airport, which was mostly used to sleep. And after a good night’s rest, I decided to go shopping on Sunday, trying to make use of my only free day the entire trip. This was useless, because in Germany NOTHING is open on a Sunday. Even more shocking, people still go out. Weird, I know.
The FMX conference was pretty interesting, far smaller than anything like SIGGRAPH. It was however lacking in many things as well … such as say… air conditioning. Hosted in the Haus der Wirtschaft , the building used to be an old stock exchange place. Loads of cool marble all over the place, and where I stood it was roughly around 90 degrees.
Apparently, in addition to air conditioning, elevators and anything besides 7 flights of stairs are also considered a German cultural barrier. Who knew?
And now for your viewing pleasure, a very brief video of the techno klub place the FMX party was held. The same party that was held about 8 floors down below, like a friggin’ German bunker with no ventilation, thousands of computer graphics nerds with no deodorant, permitted smoking, and contained mostly people over 6 feet in height. Asides from having Gulliver’s Travel syndrome, I felt uber Euro cool!
FMX Party in Stuttgart Germany from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.
trip alert: ‘bot going to Germany
I’m not bothering apologizing for a lack of blogs lately. Mainly, because I think you should have gotten used to this by now. But secondly, because I’ve just never figured out how to make my FlipCam work with the latest version of QuickTime on this Mac. So whatever… moving on!
I’m going to Stuttgart, Germany in a few weeks! Yes, it’s for another work conference, this time FMX. Now, I took German in high school, and I got bumped a year because it was easy to me. I even graduated with German Honor’s Society tassles. All this naturally means I’ll barely be able to say “danke” and “ein bissien”.
Either way, I’m stoked I’ll be there for the kraut. In the mean time, a little cultural learning for the week.
How Americans and Britons differ… besides dental care. Interesting article in the Economist. Here’s a snapshot of their results founded through some research.
On five of the six groups of issues selected, American opinion is far more polarised than British (only nationalism seems to unite America’s left and right). Gone are the days when it was British politics that embraced political extremes and Americans looked on bemused. The gap between Republicans and Democrats is almost always far greater than that between Tories and (usually) Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem supporters are to the left of Labour on every broad category except the role of the state.
But really, is this shocking?
Tokyo - day 7
Well, we’re winding down our last few days here in Tokyo. Today, we actually get a free day and are spending it with David’s good friend Hiroko, a Tokyo native and her Finnish fiance, Juha.
The past couple of days have been busy at the Big Sight convention center at Tokyo Bay. We were presenting at TAF 2008, or Tokyo International Anime Fair.
Here are a few videos:
Tokyo Anime Fair - 2008 from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo. weirdness at TAF from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.David played for a prize and won. Later he returned it because we can’t read Japanese. Playing with Pea Pod critters from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.Hiroco the artist, at the Creator’s World exhibit. Amazing work by award winning Japanese artist. She’s one of my favorites, and she loves birds. Hiroco the artist from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.Today I’m going shopping FINALLY in Harajuku, and later we’re having a Haname party at Hiroko’s and attending a Saonara party at a very unique fish restaurant. Details to come :).Domo!
Tokyo - day 6
I know, I know. I skipped a day. But come on, I gotta leave a little mystery. Otherwise you’d never call.
So I’m way too exhausted to do any real writing or thinking. But here’s a video of me playing Rock Paper Scissors , or Jan Ken Po as they call it here, with our usergroup tonight in order to give out prizes.
That’s just how we roll.
PS: Tonight, my clothes and hair smell like shabu-shabu.
Jan Ken Po! from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.
Tokyo - day 2
What can I say, it’s been a really interesting trip thus far. Yesterday, David and I had to meet with our resellers to do some work for our upcoming meetings this week, but from about 5pm on we had the night to ourselves.
In trying to get to them, we learned a few “fun facts” about Japan.
- No where really takes American credit cards
- This includes anywhere that sells a Suica Card, which is a multi-ride card for easy transportation in Tokyo
- Suica means melon. Why this cards is named this, I have no clue.
- The only places which does allow you to withdraw American money from your inferior American ATM card are bank machines located a the post office. The post office is CLOSED on Sundays. Wooo!
- Jet lag is hidden until about 6pm, then it hits you like a bulldozer.
- It’s rude to have your chop sticks face someone at the table when you rest them.
Well that’s about it. Today we have meetings and we’re still trying to confirm travel for Kyoto this weekend. Though it’s looking less and less likely as the Japanese have their Spring break now, and it’s such a popular place hotels are all booked.
Here’s a video from our dinner last night. It’s Teppan, and it tooks us 40 minutes to find. Remind me to brush up on the Hirigana and Kanji.
Teppan Meal in Shibuya at Ten Restaurant from Leyla Tirgari on Vimeo.domo arigato miss roboto
Ok, taking off for Japan tomorrow to visit the clients we have there and participate in a few things. Mainly, I’ll be attending TAF 2008. Never been to an anime festival in my life, but hey … first time for everything.
Sorry for the scattered and rare postings. It’s been naturally chaotic pulling together the right combination of clothes, books, adapters, electronics, heels, jewelry and toiletries to take across the Pacific for my 10 day whirlwind trip to Tokyo and Kyoto (for fun).
Apparently it’s cherry blossom season, so I expect there will be lots of tourists. Of course, I’m used to this. I only pray I will have energy and sanity to enjoy everything. Also, that I will overcome my fear of weird foods that are raw to enjoy more sushi than my current capabilities allow.
Oh, and before I forget. Happy Noruz everyone!
leave of heart-sense
I’m beginning to do a lot of learning about the Japanese culture lately. Obviously, this is mostly in preparation for my trip to Tokyo, but also because I want to learn like I always do about cultures I know little about. Never mind that I did actually take a full semester in the language and didn’t do too bad at all. Well, it was a “B+”, the only less than “A” grade I ever got in a language class. But that’s because I had a friend in there who never let me study… naturally I blame her. It was stupid, truly. I was like 20 and big into my Tekken 3 phase on Playstation. So you could imagine the wonder and awe that came upon me when I found out that “Mokujin” meant “man of wood”. (That may be the nerdiest reference on this blog EVER).
Anyhow, I recently came across an article that talked about the Japanese work culture, and how a certain Japanese marketing firm gave a “heartache leave” on Valentine’s Day.
Man, I really wish I had this for 3 or 4 Valentine’s Days in the past. I have this returning pattern of always ending relationships RIGHT before the worst spotlight on romance day historically. (Case in point - this year… again).
Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed. “Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick,” CEO Miki Hiradate, whose company of six women markets cosmetics and other goods targeted for women, told Reuters by telephone.
It’s interesting that of all more traditional cultures, a place in Japan is less biased about singles. And even more to the point, they do this based on age and proportion the time accordingly.
Staff aged 24 years or younger can take one day off per year, while those between 25 and 29 can take two days off and those older can take three days off, the company said.
“Women in their 20s can find their next love quickly, but it’s tougher for women in their 30s, and their break-ups tend to be more serious,” Hiradate said.
Wait… why am I at work today? I could’ve cashed these days out EASILY.
