xanithofdragons | Entries tagged with work

This week so far and last week have been better, but lately I've had plenty of moments of wondering what the point of it all is. Like, why we even work? Or why people make companies (so much work??)? Or why people advance technology? Where are we going? What are we doing? Although that's probably because I was reading lots of anti-capitalist posts, lol. Politics making me existential~ Although I'm kinda bummed I'm missing the deadline to register to vote so I can vote in the presidential primaries, oops. I haven't bothered getting a new driver's license for Illinois yet, and apparently online voter registration (and also online tax filing I've discovered) requires you have an Illinois license or ID. All I have is my weird Wisconsin driver's license where people in other states can't figure out where to find the birthdate! Maybe that's all different states' IDs, though, who knows. Ah well, I'll have to register later I guess.

But anyway, work actually has been okay-ish last week and so far this week? Although last week it helped that I took Monday off for a family trip, so I got a short week. But the week before last week we had our averaging-once-every-other-week meeting with my supervisor, my supervisor's supervisor, and me, and because accounting is really swamped 'til about April, I was asked to help them when I have time. Last week I helped a little making copies and it helped me so much to just have something to do with extra time. ^^ This week so far has been pretty busy with a lot of stuff happening even though normally things are really quiet for me early in the week, so that has been kind of nice, although being hit with a bad cold was not at all nice. T_T I do seem to be doing better now so hopefully it's all up from here.

Maybe it's weird, but I'm always looking forward to things like meetings and mandatory trainings. Like there's mandatory harassment prevention trainings coming up and I'm thinking, like, oh how interesting xD I mean, that could go well or it could go terribly, but I'm hoping it goes well ^^; I think a part of it is just because meetings and stuff mean anywhere from a half hour to multiple hours I can look forward to just have something scheduled to do and not worry about it. Maybe I'll start to think our monthly safely trainings are boring in a year when I've been through them all, but idk. Because I also just like learning about things, even things I've learned about before. Mandatory monthly meetings mean I get to hear how the company's doing and other announcements, and mandatory trainings mean I get to learn something new maybe or at least hear things explained in a new way.

But I am a little worried about next week because my supervisor is taking a vacation part of the week and most of her work will fall to me while she's out. orz At least I probably won't be bored? ^^;

One thing I really wanted to do after I got an office job is paint my nails more, and I'm working on that! My company's annual holiday party is tomorrow and I painted my nails for it:

Maybe if I paint my nails more and more often it'll get easier to paint them without getting polish all over the surrounding skin ^^; I had bought a few new nail colors and I was holding back on painting my nails even though I was excited about it because I wanted to have it fresh to show off at the holiday party. I also bought top-coat and used it for the first time. I feel like such a beginner when it comes to nails. I'd never used a top-coat before and so it would always start to chip off in a day or two orz. But the top-coat I used made my nails look really finished and polished! I'm also really stretching myself and using an effects top-coat for an accent nail. It was a lot harder to work with than I was expecting! I'm also afraid that the stars will come off the first time I wash my hands or something; I'm so nervous.

I am excited for the holiday party itself, for a chance to hang out with coworkers a little casually (?) and to see them wearing fancy clothes and stuff o(^^)o But I'm also a little worried about it because it's 5 hours long (?!) and that's a long time to spend socializing with people, most of whom I don't really know all that well... I don't understand why it's scheduled for so long. Is there really gonna be so much going on that I won't feel bored or stressed? I'll see. >_<

Pretty much ever since the DVD for A.B.C-Z's Early Summer Concert came out and I watched it, I've been in a big Ebi mood. ♥ Ebi always puts on such great performances and puts so much work into everything they do. It makes me even sadder that they've been kind of neglected. :/ But they still make the best of it and do their own thing and ugh they're so good. T_T But it got kinda bad last night when I was struck with inspiration for Ebi fanfic and couldn't sleep. I stayed up like 3 hours later than I really should have, as if I don't already feel inexplicably sleepy most days and have trouble sticking to my self-set bedtime. ^^; But I guess the good part is that I actually started writing some stuff down, including bits of Fuuma/Fumito fic! I've actually had a plot in mind for a Fuuma/Fumito fic (yeah I ship that and yeah only half of that ship is Ebi, I know) for months now, and it'd be great if I could be struck with inspiration enough to even write a full draft for it xD I also thought of an idea for a HashiTotsu fic, but man...

I feel like I need a fic writing cheerleader/light beta? Sometimes I want a sounding board for my fic ideas and I often feel like I have an idea that I think is really cool only to doubt most of it shortly later. But at the same time I feel like my stuff isn't worth it because I pretty much just write ficlets and drabble-y stuff... Which is just more of me devaluing my own work, huh? :/ But primarily English-speaking Johnny's fandom is small and it gets even smaller when you narrow it down to people who like the same groups and ships you. IDK

I also got my copies of the new JWEST album this week, and I'm really enjoying it! I miss posting thoughts posts about Jpop releases and stuff on here, so I'll try to write a post just about it. For now I'll say that I really like this album for the most part. ^_^

Current Mood: nervous

So we have a date for the Johnny's WEST debut. ^_^ April 23rd. I know they originally announced the debut was going to be in April, but with the members increasing and the notice on Johnny's net saying the were going to debut "this spring" I was worried it had gotten delayed to May or something. And the debut song is going to be Ee Ja Nai ka after all. With as hard as they were pushing the song, singing it at Countdown and Shokura and it being in the news clips for their butai, it's not surprising. ^^

It's pretty impressive that with all versions together, there'll be 6 songs total. ^^ It's really exciting. "Rainbow Dream" for a song title kind of makes me want to laugh because it's such a Johnny's song title. It's cool that they come with bonus posters too, and cute that they named them "W" "E" "S" and "T" but... more posters I don't have room for. xD But anyway, I've preordered the RE with the three LE versions and sprung for faster shipping for them, and... done what I could to order 2 copies of the MY BEST CD version through a shopping service. A lot about the MY BEST CD version(s) feels a little weird, like picking one of two extra coupling songs with them and picking from the 7 members for the cover yet only allowing two copies per person? Like, buying all of them would be expensive, but at the same time if you wanted to you could find a way... IDK.

In non-fandom news, I feel like I've had a lot less free time in the past few weeks because I've gotten increased hours at work, partially because business is picking up again after the post-Christmas slump (so many holidays and events in March o_o) and partially because I'm one of the few people who actually (kind of) wants/can work more hours. So recently I've either been working 4 days a week with longer shifts 1-2 days or working 5 days a week with shorter shifts 1-2 days. But I still always work closing shifts. orz There's the "yay more money" part and the "ugh, more tired and stressed and less free time part".

As in, I've been so busy over the holidays that I haven't posted much. orz So happy holidays and happy New Year and all that, although it's late. xD

Working retail, ugh, if I didn't already have reasons I wanted to be in a different job by holiday time this year, the Christmas rush would've sealed it. Ah well, I've worked Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and I've heard that means I can handle the worst of it. I was scheduled 5 days in a row up to Christmas Eve, and before knowing that I agreed to come in the day before and ended up working 6 days in a row. And that was the second time I accidentally worked 6 days in a row because of agreeing to pick up an extra shift.

The Christmas present I got this year that I'm most excited about is a Nintendo 2DS. I bought Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, although I haven't played it much yet because there are some DS games I never got around to playing that I'm working on. I'm going to lock this post, so I'll put up my friend code if anyone wants it: 4441-9908-0553. It'll help if you comment or pm me when you add me so I can know who you are. ^^

I also got to visit my brother's house the weekend after Christmas. That was a lot of fun although I ended up calling off from work for the first time because of it. Oh well.

I guess my biggest New Year's excitement was Johnny's WEST 4's debut announcement. \(^_^)/ I've been waiting for it, a Kansai group debut. After that rumor last year that there'd be a Kansai group debuting with 7-8 members, a four member group wasn't at all what I was expecting. And it's sad about 7 WEST, but honestly, I haven't been a Kansai Jr. fan for very long and I'm probably not as attached to them as other fans might be. I was kind of expecting them to throw together BAD and 7 WEST (all of them) and maybe add an older Kansai Jr. or two, but I was also half expecting them to pass over BAD too and throw together 7 WEST and Kin Kan or something. So I'm mostly glad that with BAD, most of my favorites from the Kansai Jrs. are there and that there actually will be a Kansai debut this year.

Watching You Conte Shichaina yo was also really fun. I laughed so much and the BL Gakuen thing was so hilarious. I also really loved the Hanseizawa Naoki konto and the Barter konto. xD Miyacchi really does look so much like Sakai Masato. I'd be really happy if they could work together in something someday. The only segment I didn't really get was the idol tryout one. :/ But the rest of it was really good. I hope they do it again. I also watched Johnny's Countdown. I thought it was really good this year, even though they had fewer groups there. I liked that they still sung a lot of senpai songs. Overall it seemed a lot smoother than last year's. Last year, it seemed that there were some people who blamed the vtrs and relays, but I thought the biggest problem was them not knowing how to film last year's set in a way that looked good on tv. The set this year was a lot simpler.

Hello new friends from the Johnny's friending meme! It's nice to meet you all. ^_^ I never really know what to write for intro posts, so I'll try to cover some information that I think is important about me, do something I've been thinking about doing for a little while, and then open the floor to questions.

I recently graduated from college with a BA in Japanese Language and Culture and am currently working part-time as a bakery clerk in a grocery store. The kind of job I want to do in the future is pretty much anything where I can use Japanese in my work, maybe as a translator or an interpreter or just someone who works in a company that does business in both Japan and America or other English speaking countries and occasionally has reason to use her bilingual skills.

I studied abroad in Japan my junior year of college and left my heart in Japan, in that I fell even more in love with Japan. I want more than anything to have a reason to go back in Japan and live there at least another year. I'm applying to the JET program and maybe to one or two similar programs. As for my Japanese fluency, I passed the N2 of the JLPT and am going to take the N1 this year ~~and haven't studied nearly enough yet~~.

I think that's pretty good as an introduction of where I am right now in my life. The other thing I want to do in this post is a list of how many Johnnys singles, albums, and DVDs I have, by group and then total. ^^ When I have multiple versions I'll include a count not including multiple versions of the same release.

( Cut for the count )

And that's just for Johnny's groups... And just the current count... xD I have other Jpop CDs, too, but not quite as many. ^^;

And lastly, I'll open the floor for questions. My introduction may have left out a lot of things you'd like to know, so ask me about what you want to hear about. Ask me any questions and as many questions as you like. New friends, friends who've been here longer. If I get enough questions, I'll make another post answering them. ~~If I don't get many, I might just answer them in comments~~. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) my favorite x, how I got into x hobby or activity, what other hobbies I have, personal questions, stories from Japan (do not expect me to be a good story-teller), whatever you can think of. If it's something really personal, I might post about it in a locked post, but I definitely want to know what you all want to know about me.

It's been a while since I last posted, over a month already. I have a lot less free time because of work, but there's also a limited set of things I feel like doing when I have time off.

Work started out a little rough, but I'm starting to get more comfortable in the job. My coworkers are pretty fun and friendly for the most part, so that probably helped settling in. There's still a lot of things I don't know about the job yet though, and I have trouble answering customers' questions without asking for help from someone else. >_< There's some pretty funny things too. There was one customer who made a Star Trek: TNG reference out of nowhwere. For some products, but especially for pies, since many of them look similar, people'll write on the baking sheet which one it is, and on one pie sheet, one of the pies was marked "Rupaul". It was a strawberry rhubarb pie. xD

With Arashi announcing their next album (I have a limited edition preordered ^_^) and the Arashi ni Shiyagare renewal and then hearing about Arafes going on and watching news clips about it, I'm in an Arashi mood more lately. Also, watching A.B.Chan-Zoo reminded me of Mago Mago Arashi, so I've been watching some episodes I've had sitting around unwatched for a while. ^^;

It's been a while since I last did one, but here have a random video of the post. ^^

Today I had an interview for an receptionist/administrative assistant job. I've never driven on the high-way much, and it was in the Chicago area, so my brother drove me. >_< The interview was pretty early, so we left really early and arrived like 40 minutes before the scheduled time. ^^; I can't really tell how the interview went. I feel like I answered all the questions adequately, but I couldn't figure out what they were trying to figure out about me with the questions. Ah well, I got business cards this time though! Two guys interviewed me and they both gave me their business cards.

So my brother and I had decided to go to Mitsuwa afterwards since it was close to the company I was interviewing at. I bought a few magazines.
( Cut for images, one NSFW )

I keep forgetting to set my camera back to a lower picture quality, and then I end up uploading larger image files than I meant to. xD But I set it back after realizing while writing this post.

Current Mood: horny

I got hired for a part-time job this week! I'll be working as a bakery clerk at a grocery store. My brother works there already, and he recommended it as a good place to work part-time. After a phone-screening, I got called to the store to sign off on a background check last week, and on Tuesday I had an interview and was hired. I had a sort of training/orientation yesterday which was mainly sitting at a computer and watching a bunch of videos for like 3 hours. ^^; At least it was a paid training. It seems like I'll have on-the-job training starting from next week, though.

But timing is weird. >_< The day after I got hired, I got a call from a recruiter from a bilingual recruiting agency I've been in contact with, and I now have an interview set up for a week from Monday for a full-time entry level position. The company apparently wants to hire someone very quickly, and were thinking about setting up an interview before the week ended, but there was no way I could get down to the Chicago area with only a day or two's notice. ^^; And then because the person interviewing would be out next week, the soonest time is the week after that.

I was really excited to hear about Fujigaya doing a nude in anan. So excited that I had to order it the day I heard about it. It's shipped out, so I'm waiting for it to arrive. Waiting... I figured if anyone from Kisumai would do a nude shoot, it would be Fujigaya, but I didn't expect it to happen this soon. ^_^ But, the page where I bought it says it comes with a DVD. Is it going to be like the last anan sex issue I bought (2011's) and come with a sample of AV? xD There's more than just Fujigaya's naked body to look forward to here. >:3

Also, because I like to buy more than one item when I'm ordering things online from Japan, I also decided to get the September issue of Duet since I saw pictures of Kisumai being super-cuddly and talking about the distance between their hearts (not even exaggerating), and I also decided to get A.B.C-Z's 5stars DVD because I only have one of their DVD singles and where better to start adding than the first? I also really wish A.B.C-Z could hurry up and release an album (an actual album, not a mini-album that only comes with LE's!).

Current Mood: happy

I finally ordered V6's latest album, Oh! My! Goodness! and Arashi's Popcorn DVD. ^_^ CDJapan was having a clearance sale, and both of the limited editions for OMG were there on discount, so I bought the one with the music videos on the bonus DVD. And since I was ordering something anyway, I figured I may as well go ahead and order Popcorn since it was another thing I wanted to be sure to buy eventually.

I'll finally get to hear the full studio recording of Supernova. ♥ When I'm very seriously planning on buying a CD, I avoid listening to it before getting it, so I actually haven't heard the other album songs yet. xD And for the music videos, all I've seen is the short version of Supernova and some gifs of the other one. I've been waiting so long. I guess it shows my determination to buy it more than anything. ^^;

And Popcorn! I'm so excited! I can count on Arashi to have amazing lives and amazing DVDs. ♥ I'm such a Johnnys otaku that when I mention a release to my family, they ask if I've bought it/when I'm going to buy it. ^^;

I had my first job interview on Friday. I was pretty nervous and they asked me questions different from what I was expecting, so I had trouble answering a lot of them. Overall, I got the feeling that I wasn't really the type of candidate they were looking for anyway, though. They gave me the sense that they wanted someone with more math/science experience or something. Ah well, it was a worthwhile experience. I may have gotten a little bit better understanding of the kind of work I want to do, though.

I don't feel like I'm very different between online and offline. I guess the biggest difference is the type of things I talk about online? But that's more a matter of them being things I'm comfortable talking about only with other people who I know are okay with those types of topics. Like, I'm okay talking about fandom and BL and stuff on LJ because I seek out people with the same fandoms and people who like slash and things like that on LJ. I'm also okay talking about them with people offline who I know have the same interests.

But I'm just as shy online as I am offline. I don't tend to talk much or even if I have something I want to say, the conversation will move on before I've said it, but online there's time to sit and write thoughts out. So I guess another major difference is just the difference between speaking and writing. It still takes me a long time to reply to things though, so I'm sorry if that's bothered anyone. T_T But whether online or offline I'm shy and bad at making the first or even second contact with people.

Recently I've been interested in trying to make friends with Japanese Johnnys fans on twitter, but even when I find some who seem interesting, I never get around to trying to contact them or follow them. ^^; I'd noticed a little that on breaks from school I'd get lonely after a while and want to interact with people online more. And it's rare to find Johnnys fans in America at any time, so I want to find more Johnnys fans to talk with. Even when I was still in school I felt that way.

Maybe it well be easier once I've found work and have more opportunities to interact with people again. But the job search is going as slow as ever. :/ I did get a call from one of the recruiters I've spoken with before who wanted to forward my resume to a company, so I'll see if anything happens with that. I'm starting to think that if I want to do part-time or temporary/seasonal work, retail may be the way to go, since I have too limited work experience to fill the requirements for much. T_T

Recently I've been listening to BABYMETAL a lot. here's their new video. ^^