1978 Is Also Known As the Year 53

Today at work, we were testing new CCL-creation methods (if you don't know what a CCL is see my previous post, which also offers no explanation).  We had to adhere some sort of goo to 100 meters or so (about 10 billion feet) of extremely thin copper foil.  This copper foil was about 6 microns thick!  If you don't know how thick a micron is, think about a human hair.  I don't know how many microns thick a human hair is, but if you think about it long enough you'll decide to keep reading instead of wondering how thick a micron is.

This morning I went to finish getting a bank account.  We went a couple of days ago, and the bank said they wouldn't issue an account to an alien resident who had been in Japan less than six months.  They also said they wouldn't issue an account to an alien resident whose visa was valid for less than six months.  By my calculations, that would have given me approximately a 24-hour window to set up an account sometime in late June or early July, or approximately the time I will back in the U.S. for summer vacation.  Fortunately th bank gave in and said we could open an account if the company provided a certificate stating exactly when I was starting and for how long I'd be working there.

Next on the list was getting a cell phone.  The office secretary volunteered to go with me to help me with the transaction and picking out the right phone, and we were all set right up until about 5 minutes before we left when the office manager decided to volunteer instead.  I thought that was really nice of him until we got to the cell phone store and the only help he was able to offer was "which phone do you like?" and "that coffee over there is free."

I think I got a decent cheap phone and cheap service, although I'm currently trying to get my phone set up without incurring data charges and the like, so I'm a little apprehensive.  Rather than being super excited about my brand new cell phone like a Christmas kid in a Christmas candy store on Christmas, trying to navigate these instructions all in Japanese makes me feel like Garry Kasparov versus Deep Blue.  Luckily, there are a lot of pictures that don't match what my phone looks like or acts like at all.  That way, if I run across someone whose phone does what's in the pictures, I can help them get it set up and then ask for their help with my phone in return.

My work friends did tell me that they're excited to learn my cell phone number so that they can all text me "Hey Nic" (in English) every morning.

Now even though I put this together quickly in a free online version of Photoshop, please love this picture:












PS - I realize that I don't often explain the title of my blog entries with the content, so if you ever are curious about the title feel free to ask!