Tuesday, June 5, 2012

It can't possibly be JUNE!

I guess I'll just pretend like my last post wasn't FIVE months ago and keep on. Hahaha.

So much going on, not sure where to even begin. The photo above is from a hike in April, I think it was. The monthly hike with Jenny, that time to Big Santa Anita Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains. It was starting to get warm so hiking by the creek definitely helped.

A funny thing happened on this hike. I've done this hike before but I guess it was much later in the summer or even in early fall, so there wasn't this much water in the creeks. Some parts were nearly or actually impossible to cross without endangering ourselves. There was one part of the creek that was difficult to cross. We saw some guys jumping rocks so I thought I'll just follow them. I don't know if I didn't see correctly which rocks they were jumping or the guy I saw had much longer legs than me, but I tried to jump some rocks and didn't quite make it, so I slid one leg into the creek. And, because I had to bend forward to catch myself on the rock so I didn't completely fall into the creek, both my water bottles fell out of my pack's side pockets and floated down the creek. I was going to just let them go but a really nice guy leapt across some rocks and logs toward the middle of the creek to retrieve them! There sure are some nice people on those trails.

In other news, I'll be getting a new boss in July. I realized that this is actually the first time in my professional career that a direct-report boss departed, so I'll be working for someone I didn't interview with. It should be interesting.

Kind of a sign of the times, I guess - as soon as the new boss was announced, many staff went online and looked him up on LinkedIn and Google. It's a C-level position so the guy's definitely got some online history and presence. I haven't read any of it but the office is abuzz. Nothing scandalous or scary, apparently. I think some people are getting a bit nervous just because of the change.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more frequently, though I'm sure not nearly as much as in November. Maybe my goal should be once a week for now. We'll see!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Happy 2012!

A belated happy new year! I had some special projects I was working on at year-end so I didn't quite have the energy to keep this blog updated. One project was making this new year's feast, "osechi ryouri". Each of the dishes have special meaning, like wishing for prosperity, happiness, good health, etc. It was really interesting to learn about the history and significance of each dish, how some vary from region to region in Japan, and the naming of each. Some are very punny :)

Work's been quite stressful lately so I haven't been able to keep up with news and politics and all. Hopefully I'll be able to have more to write about soon.