Welcome to the next level

I`d say last week had some pretty bizarre moments, but what week doesn`t? Whether that`s my fault or Japan`s, it is hard to determine.

I was complaining about that contractual garbage earlier, so I`ll try not to go off on that again, but it presented a problem last Wednesday when [Corporation Z] told all of my agencies that I couldn`t accept a role as another baseball player until October, when the contract I have not yet seen/signed expires (how can the contract expire when I haven`t signed it yet??) .. they did this 30 minutes before the audition I`d been waiting all day for. So I couldn`t go. I asked them where the hell this contract was, and what would be the point of me signing it when they didn`t have any more work lined up for me after this (last) weekend, and the response was "we`re still drafting it," and "we`ll give you money for signing it, and we`ll probably have something else for you to do this summer." Whatever. Screw that; Friday I went to a job fair.

Since I still have a bunch of money, and don`t particularly want a real job again just yet, I mostly used the job fair as an excuse to update my resume, dry-clean a suit or two and feel like a legitimate adult for a few minutes (hah). I went with some very specific things in mind to look for: Translating work in Osaka. Hmm, I guess that`s only one thing. I went to look for a translating position in Osaka.

The job fair itself immediately brought me back to Drexel -- minus the sense of urgency and doom. I remembered this one time I went to a job fair looking for my third co-op job, and got interviewed briefly by (I think it was) the Inquirer after talking with some guys at Cemex, some company that did something with concrete, and I got quoted in the newspaper with something like, "Of course I don`t really see myself working with something like concrete for any extended amount of time; this is all just temporary." That was the winter I ended up building cubicle walls.

Anyway, there were only something like 20-30 companies at this thing, plus some universities offering MBA programs (including Temple and McGill), and a bunch of recruiters (quick note about recruiters -- this is what a bunch of my friends are doing lately, and it`s not a line of work I`ve dismissed entirely, but I refuse to be at the other end of it because I know how much money they get from your salary if you get a job through them), so after I (surprisingly) found 1 or 2 companies with translating positions in Osaka, I was feeling good enough about that, considering I didn`t think I`d find any, and I was doing a final walkthrough, considering hitting on some of the Indian women there, when I get stopped with a guy asking, "Hey, aren`t you Mr. White?"

Next thing I know I`ve got a small crowd around me, wondering what the hell I was doing here and laughing at the idea that I`d originally come to Japan as an engineer (I know, funny, right?), but more importantly, giving me their cards and getting my info, telling me they "think they might have something for me," in a way which implied that that might actually be the case. Of course it`s unfair to others that I should receive special attention for being the Baseball Guy on TV 4 months ago, but not something I`ll beat myself up over ..

Now that I look at it, that`s not so bizarre after all, but this is: Wednesday night I got a woman`s phone number while sleeping on the train. Seriously, it woke me up when she pressed the little piece of paper she`d written her number on into my hand before taking off at her stop. Not to brag but I don`t even know what level that is.

Agh damn it, is it raining again?? Stupid rainy season. I didn`t mean to cut this short, but I`m hungry and need to go scavenge for some satisfying breakfast food, kind of a rarity in this country. So I`ll talk to you later.

Also, I saw Live Free Or Die Hard (called Die Hard 4.0 over here and in Europe apparently) Saturday; it was like Die Hard without the blood, cursing, sense of urgency or realism, or coolness (with the exception of any scene involving the Parkour guy). The "I`m a Mac" guy was actually pretty entertaining, too. When he`s one of my favorite parts of a movie, you know something is amiss ..