“Tanaka’s curious return”   He’s back! For those of you that don’t remember, back in August 2004 I recieved an email from MR.TANAKA (not his real name), a recruiter looking for japanese speakers (Click here for the entire sordid tale). Well, last night I recieved this email:

Apparently I did not make much of an impression on Mr. TANAKA the first time around, since he has forgotten my name and doesn’t recognize my email address (probably deleted it right after we spoke 🙂 ). In any case, I sent him a reply email reminding him that he contacted me once before, but to call me tomorrow morning if he wants to speak with me. I probably don’t have the qualifications they are looking for for this particular job, since I haven’t ever done any real accounting… but nothing worse than what happened last time can come of it.

As an aside, I’ve lost my atm/debit card (5 days running so far) and have been trading emails with a previously somewhat-estranged acquaintance. Lets hope it doesn’t come back to bite me as it has before

Word of advice: Do NOT eat any food at the Panda Express located at:
PEACHTREE & HOLCOMB PANDA EXPRESS
3200 HOLCOMB BRIDGE RD. SUITE #650
NORCROSS, GA 30092
PHONE: (678) 969-0028.

After eating some chicken, rice and an eggroll from there last night (~6:45pm), I woke up with food poisioning. A slightly milder case than I have had before (McDonald’s & Burger King), but I am still sick from it.

Being as I only got 4 hours of sleep i got last night, I’ll have to relate the details of my latest goings-on at another time.

One (inner) complaint I have always had about many of my fellow Americans is their propensity to consume. By that, I do mean the materialistic desire to buy/acquire things… but mostly their apparent need to define their identity or individuality based upon what they consume (what music they buy, movies they see, clothes they wear, car they drive, teams whose games they watch). One would think that the content of one’s character, their personal history, ethnicity, geneaology and personal quirks are what set individuals apart from one another. Not to sound *too* much like a geeky-nerd, but the erosion of this more traditional method of setting oneself apart from another is probably the greatest triumph that advertisers and manufacturers of goods could ever hope to attain.

That being said, I very recently made two very frivolous purchases for two things that I probably won’t even have much time to enjoy (guilty as charged!)… though the reasons that I bought them were a little different than a psychologically-driven urge to consume. I got them at really good prices! (That sounds pretty lame, doesn’t it).

My first purchase was that of a ping-pong table (picture is forthcoming)! I was browsing a GT newsgroup where students post ads of things for sale when I saw that someone was selling their full-size (9’x5′) ping-pong table for $50, complete with paddles, net, and two ping pong balls. Any way you slice it that’s a good deal. I arranged to purchase them (easy) and somehow through provenient grace arranged to borrow a pick up truck to transport it (difficult and time-consuming). Here’s the embarrassing part… there isn’t any room in the townhouse where I live for a ping-pong table! There might be except for the fact that there are 2-3 extraneous pieces of furniture in the dining room that nooone uses. As a result, I transported my new ping-pong table to the parents’ lounge in the gym, where it will hopefully keep siblings of students off the floor. I plan to provide paddles and sell ping-pong balls (to cover costs of people stepping on them) so that the table will get use. Reed and I played a game after work the night I put it up there. He’s a big ping-pong fan (and pretty good), so I’m sure that I’ll get to use the table regularly after work should I wish to.

My second purchase is even more frivolous than the first. After subsequently browsing the same GT newsgroup, I arranged to buy a pair of snow skis. It is important to note that I have been skiing the grand total of ONE time in my entire life. However, I have turned down invitations to end-of-year skiing outings and trips due to the cost and lack-of-equipment. I still need boots, poles, and the appropriate pants in order to ski… so for now they will sit in the downstairs closet. The skis I bought are a pair of 195cm Rossignol M46 ‘racing’ skis. I got them for $12. It is true that I have no current use for them, but I couldn’t pass them up at that price! Apparently, the guy I bought them from got them second-hand from a shop/store somewhere. The edges are in decent shape (according to my roommate, who just got back from a ski trip), save a light layer of rust over. Also, the edges do just out past the width of the rest of the skis, so they can still be sharpened. My roommate also said that the bottom surface was in good shape, which made me happy. Maybe I’ll get to use them one day. If I’d already had ski’s a few months ago, then I might have been able to take my friend Sarah Burgoyne-Carl up on her offer to go skiing with her in Colorado where she was living at the time. Pity!

Anyways, here’s to hoping I can curb my spending until after I raise the $$ for the GRE 🙂
Here are pictures of the skis and the ping-pong table.

Happy new year, folks. I wonder what 2005 will hold. Its presented one surprise for me already, even after a somewhat slow, unremarkable start. I was told about 3 different parties (I wasn’t sure whether Nicole had invited me to hers or not), but I opted to stay home since I didn’t have a burning desire to party the night away. When the clock struck midnight, I was relaxing in a chair in my room.

The surprise came in the form of an impromptu trip to Piedmont park with my friend Natalie (on the right, not to be confused with Natalie-the-dancer). I was running an errand or two to in Buckhead in order get myself out of the house, and it was such a nice day that I called her to see if she would meet me at the park. Luckily, she was free and met me there about 30 minutes later. Footballs were tossed, and soccer balls were kicked (once again, Natalie proved to be a very quick study). We also sat and watched some bikers, skaters and skateboarders showing off tricks by the front of the park. Its the second trip with her to Piedmont park in about 5 years. It was a good outing, so there’s a fair likelihood of another such future trip.

Other friends that I called were out of town, nursing hangovers from partying, or not answering their phones. No worries, though… in this case all was well that ended well. It turns out that I might be attending fusion at Northpoint, per Natalie’s invitation. Hmm, I wonder whether I would better fit with the early 20’s crowd or late 20’s/early 30’s crowd? I have a feeling its the former even though i’m 27! (dang, i’m getting older for sure… wiser seems to be another story, though).

ETA for fusion is early February. In the meantime I need to make arrangements to take the GRE. 2005, here I come.

-EDIT- I just found out that one of the folks who didn’t answer their phone failed to do so because they threw their cell phone in the water. Deep water, apparently… and on purpose! Heh, having a bad temper can be an expensive habit 🙂