Long time no see

Haven't posted a single word for half a year. This is not good.
I even forgot I had this blog.

Recent news:
Visited Papua New Guinea and Bali in June-July: this was fun. Made me think about moving to some southern island (Bali?) some day.
Changed my job: Programmer --> PMO (employer calls this management consultant)
Started learning Chinese: so far just keep listening to the same audio tracks from a book called "Chinese through pictures".

Jump rope

This morning went out to try my new jump rope.
This was way harder than I imagined when ordered it at Am***n.
In total jumped 4-5 hundred times but failed to jump even 100 without
stopping.
Suprisingly my back didn't hurt at all after the training.
Is it a good sign?

what should I do to find some time for studying

I feel really tired of this job. But it is extremely hard for me to quit
it.
One guy that joined the company the same time with me has told me today
that he is leaving in the end of this month. He is going to prepare for
the public accountant or tax consultant exam for half a year and search
another job afterwards. What a luxurious plan! Half a year for studying
something new is no doubt great. I cannot keep learning anything for
longer than 1-2 weeks because after work I simply haven't enough power
to make myself study for an hour or two.

attitude to the job

Yesterday I was told by my wife that my attitude to the current job has
changed dramatically recently and it makes her feel anxious.
To tell the truth I do realize this by myself as well but cannot help
losing interest to the job that exhausts me day by day. Working 10-13
hours every day, having to wake up as early as 4:30 - 5:00 am just to be
able to see kids in the evening, all this can only make me tired more
and more. And furthermore it doesn't allow any time for efficient
studying, no matter whether the subjects are related to the current job
(e.g. SJCP) or not (e.g. Finance, etc.).
The wind of change is supposed (by me) to come this year.
I really need to summon all my abilities to make a pathway for this wind
in the rocks I am now surrounded.

going to Papua?

Today I'm visiting the Tokyo Immigration Bureau for registering Roma in
my passport and obtain the re-entry permissions for us both.
The next step is to set the appropriate dates and buy the tickets. And
then, if everything goes right, we can go to Papua for a week or so.
Sounds so exciting that I can't wait.
I really really hope everything will work out.

HP PC

Our new HP PC has been delivered this morning. Hooray.
Can't wait for going home and open the box.
Repeating myself, I hope that this notebook will work as well as my
previous used to work. And that one was a tough guy. :)

Just Do It!

Да! Теперь решено. Без возврата...

This is year is to be a year of learning something very new. Not IT.
I really want to change my job, but I decided that the new one must not
be "developer or IT specialist" which I have aimed at so far.
Something related to finance would suit me better.

Here is my plan for this year:

1) Japan Securities Dealers Association Exam L2
2) Securities Analyst Exam L1
3) (as an immediate task) Start seeking junior positions in the finance.
Find out all possible "start" positions and list them up.
4) Also try to check the big Trading Houses, which can be a good
alternative.

HP computer saga - update

They finally managed to comprehend and admit their mistake and we
settled this matter.
Now I get the 20,000 discount though with a three days delay in the
delivery.
No changes for the internet connection. Thanks for this at least.

HP computer saga

HP Japan seems to be packed with idiots.
I must have spent a fortune on calls to the HP support center. And all
this only for being said that I can't even have the 20,000 discount of
the So-net campaign.

My story:
2/8 - found a model. Saved the configuration.
Applied for the So-net (morning), got a reply and officially
made the contract (pm).
2/12 - As HP was supposed to contact me on 2/10 I decided to enquire
when
to expect it. This time the operator told me that I had first to
complete the order and only after that apply for the So-net.
He had me tell my card number over the phone so that he could
complete the order for me.
2/14 - Got the order notification mail which had no discount info.
2/15 - Called the support to ask why I hadn't got the discount and was
told that I wasn't eligible for it because "I myself completed
the
order before HP contacted me and offered the discount".
I told them my story and got a promise that the person in charge
would
call me back the same day. And complete silence afterwards.
Only got an e-mail reply for my enquiry sounding like all this is
my fault and I now have to cancel the order and re-order again.
2/16 - Waiting for any progress on their side. Hopefully they will call
me soon.

spec doc ability

Writing technical documentation seems to be the most difficult part of the current job for me.
I really need to improve this and develop ability to quickly comrehend data flow and then write it to the spec doc in an easy to understand way and without any mistakes.

yawning

Feel damn tired. Missing work during workdays is not good because too
many things to do afterwards.
***************

I wonder if they check the online applications at Morgan Stanley at all.
Got "No" for the recent graduates programme, which is expectable, and
haven't received an answer on two other positions of junior developers.
These are even more attractive to me.

update on job search

Failed to get the Technical Consultant position at Mu**x.
Damn!
After two months of waiting for any reply and keeping just a little bit
of hope in heart I finally got my "No".
Well, hopefully this will make me work harder to get an even better job.
Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley will do. It must be difficult like hell
to get there, huh.

Back to work now. I guess I should be trying to avoid firing from Future
at the moment.

feel so good

Last night after all these busy days had a good rest. Went to bed at 9:30. I can hear my body saying "Thanks, dude. This is what I needed."

Getting up so early is OK, but only when you sleep enough. Should be more careful about this.

very very sleeeeeeepy

Wanna go to bed! Right now!

Feel as if I were out of my body. Quite weird and makes me dislike this work. This company to be exact.

a new day

5:05 am. Good morning.
Just left home and walking to the station.
I need a vacation... badly.

-------

And this company where I applied for a position of Technical Consultant (Mu**x). What the hell is going on there? Two months of silence after the interview. Have already called them twice but they just don't reply.
Looking forward to the result of this quest

frustrated

Damn!
How many people feel that their current job isn't what they shoud do?
I mean, I like being a programmer. It sounds good, it makes me feel
good.
But I can't help being afraid that this is not where I can succeed and
that I will eventually end up fired because of not satisfactory
performance.
Looking at my colleagues makes me nervous because everyone but me seems
to be so good in comprehending the spec, coding, testing, etc.
...
Oh, forgot. This is my desktop background. Keeps me in mood for trying
my best. Always.

«Instrumental» — интернет радиостанция, слушать онлайн на радио 101.ru

«Instrumental» — интернет радиостанция, слушать онлайн на радио 101.ru

this is really nice.

since Pandora is not available in Japan, this is one of few available good web radios.

i hate arrays

In the first project I participated in this company collections were widely used. But at that time I didn't understand the benefits of this at all.
Now I can say I do. How come that the system we are preparing has not anything but the arrays. Every time you change the initial SQL for getting data from DB you have to rewrite the Java code.
Isn't this dumb? :
String dataForThis = inputDataArray[0];
String dataForThat = inputDataArray[1];
...
String dataForSmth = inputDataArray[119];

Why not define all the keys, put the key/value pair in a collection?
It would make lives of many people much easier.

And the worst thing is the leaders decided not to alter anything because the current system is already 8-9 yrs old and it works fine. This means any further development must follow these techniques.
The Japanese would say 負の遺産 (negative legacy)

struggling through some obscure Java code

I think I really like programming. In Java, of course.
But sometimes I fell kind of frustrated when I can't understand what
exactly the code is supposed to do. This is why the Javacode was
invented: to help those who read your code after you understand it
clearly.
For some reason, those who wrote the code I am modifying now either
didn't know how to write a good Javacode or didn't want to make the life
of others easier.
Just for example, how a Javacode like this can possibly help anybody? :
/**
* someCalculationMethod <br>
*
* @exception SomeException
**/
public void someCalculationMethod throws SomeException(){
}
Why couldn't you write in what it does, when and how???

on the way home

It is so good to be able to leave work at around 6pm. Even though I have to leave home at 5am.
So nice to see kids after another day in 'hell'.