tiredofsametab

I’ve mostly heard ‘yanks’ in English. I don’t know if Japanese slang specifically has a word for USian foreigners as most situations don’t really care about which country and, if more specificity than ‘foreigner’ is required, it’s usually going to be some adjective/descriptor (loud, rude, skin_color_here, etc. in the case of people being those things).

Unfortunately for my sanity over here in UTC+9, I can’t just sleep through the whole thing. I’m hopeful that work will be busy enough tomorrow that I won’t have time to think about it. What I also know is that it’s most likely going to get drawn out longer, so I won’t likely be specifically watching anywhere, but just picking up occasional US news somewhat accidentally along the way (either here or via fark). I voted as soon as I could print my overseas ballot and get it in the mail so I’ve done all I can do.

I live on the ENEstern cost of the main island of Japan and the rain this year was crazy due in no small part to typhoons (and their remanents) either heading up the east (pacific) coast or crossing over from the west coast.

I’ve always liked the name Ruben for some reason and only ever known one that I can recall (whose brother was called Robin).

I also am partial to Ezekiel and they can have Zeke as a nickname which I think sounds pretty rad.

generally one at a time, sometimes 2 if I decide to grab a cup of coffee.

A decade ago, I interviewed at a FAANG company. It was basically an all-day affair and a bit grueling, but they did at least try to make it as pleasant as possible. I did have to do binary search on a whiteboard. Also write code to do something on a whiteboard (I had initially been told not to bring a personal laptop and the third or fourth interviewer said that I should use my personal laptop since it would be easier than white-boarding. Uhhhhh…)

A couple companies ago, I ended up at like 5 or 6 total interviews, including the initial HR/fit screen. There were some extra steps including background screenings and the like (healthcare IT). I started the job and almost nothing was what they said it was (though apparently that was because of a change in course between when I started and ended the process). It was actually a decent enough gig and taught me a fair bit, but the interview process was rough in terms of sheer number of calls/meetings and timing. I could swear at one point a guy was typing code I was telling him on the phone to verify that it worked (then again, nearly anything is valid Perl which is the language I started in there).

Another previous company was a clusterfuck of time zones, weird interview times from people in multiple countries, poor communication, etc. Still, I was desperate and went with it. Ended up being the longest job I worked, but boy were there shitstorms that came out of the chaos. It was a start-up spun off an existing entity and just weird in a lot of ways.

My current job was an HR fit check and some basic screening questions about tech stuff, interview with peer, interview with a manager, and interview with head of IT. No projects nor coding tests. I’ve happily been working for them for quite a while now. Pays well enough by Japanese IT standards and, perhaps more importantly to me, is fully remote (though I’m heavily encouraged to bop down to Tokyo for a couple company events per year).

As the interviewer, especially before I was in development and was leading a helpdesk (developing stuff for that job actually got noticed and got me my first developer role), I was heavily into the weird questions (from a book called something like ‘how to move mt fuji’ IIRC), but at least part of my job was assessing people’s approach to situations and questions, how they explain things, how they react under pressure, and so on. Still kinda cringy thinking back to it, but I was in my early 20s at the time in the early 2000s.

As an interviewer for developers, I never gave any assignment I expected to take more than 2 hours in the worst case and only gave those if the person didn’t have something already online to submit (i.e. a github repo or whatnot). I would ask them about choices they made, flow, and anything that stuck out to me. I did ask plenty of questions to make sure the applicants weren’t full of shit and to assess experience; so many people who have SQL on their resume apparently have no idea WTF the EXPLAIN functionality is and have no idea about indexes which is frightening. I always tried to strike a balance between finding out what I needed to know and respecting the time of my interviewees.

Even before AI, I definitely encountered people writing things on their CV with no actual idea about them. During phone interviews, I could definitely hear people furiously typing away (presumably into some search engine) whilst stalling with non-answers. I was not expecting anyone to know everything about everything, but I’d rather they tell me they aren’t sure and give it their best shot than search and give me the same thing one of the first few hits in google or Wikipedia would give (this happened way too often at a previous company that never really screened anybody before taking up engineers’ and managers’ time for interviews).

I’ve also had a couple people be confidently incorrect and either refuse to get the hint or acknowledge this when I gently tried to ask questions that should cause them to realize that what they said was wrong or contradictory. People make mistakes, especially under pressure, but I definitely had some answers that left me in disbelief.

When I give interviews, I’m more concerned with the process than the results for some questions. I don’t really do it any more, but I’d sometimes ask one question not related to programming or anything on their CV just to see how someone works through a situation given a little bit of a curveball.

My primary job is that of a software engineer, but I also run a small farm business. Out in the dirt, greasing equipment, repairing equipment, etc. all make me long for the Lava soap I remember as a kid.

I use it for a couple of communities specifically for foreigners living in Japan as it’s a great source of info from people who’ve been here longer than I have or have dealt with situations I have not. It’s also useful for info on dealing with the obscenity that being an American citizen trying to invest for retirement while overseas brings (I can’t use the ISA here or other tax-advantaged things because the US government considers them all PFICs which removes any tax advantage and causes even more pain after that).

I keep wanting to buy a 500 or something a bit newer for nostalgia, but that’s hard (a) from Japan where they never really got off the ground and (b) as time goes on they get fewer and more expensive. Not a furry, however.

I’ve lived in shared housing. Never again. I’m way too introverted and can’t stand how poorly some people clean nor how badly the behave to others (loudness, using resources inconsiderately, etc.)

I’ll be social when I have the energy. I help out my neighbors when they need it. We do have community events about monthly where we cut grass, clean up, etc.

I can imagine it in the sense that I can understand what happens. There is nothing visual at all for me. My assumption was that it was roughly-tennis-ball-sized absent any other info, but it wasn’t even a person, just a hand pushing a ball (and again, just the idea and nothing visual) as no other info is relevant.

Mine have all given up. I’ve always entertained the idea of adopting later (I had a vasectomy at 35 with no children prior for a number of reasons), but it’s looking less and less realistic as I creep closer to 50.

That’s actually really tough in this global age. I live in Japan so things like tea ceremony and Shinto practice come to mind, but there are Shinto shrines and practitioners in many places and people do and teach tea ceremony in other places now. Many would call it the home of sushi and, at least for the common types today, it’s probably true (though certain methods that led to sushi are thought to come from Viet Nam in the past).

Tanuki exist in other parts of Asia. I assume onsen (hot sprint) monkeys do as well. Maybe something with Wasabi, but I doubt it. I’m not sure, really.

Edit: thought of one: seeing the Iriomote cat in its natural habitat (although that’s really hard since they were nearly hunted to extinction for their pelts at one point). Speaking of Okinawan islands, you can also see Taiwan on a good day from the westernmost point of Yonaguni. That was neat. I took a picture with my phone at the time and it’s really hard to see anything, but I could see land with my eyes.

Different times and companies, but I’ve seen people fired for

• being in his 30s and sleeping with the 14-15 year-old worker (I forget exactly how old she was). This was working in a movie theater and he was the GM.
• found CSAM on their computer
• many for sexual harassment (a few different jobs in IT)

I think that’s it for the NSFW stuff.

Either classical or metal (typically Deathklok and/or Machinae Supremacy). Never any music I haven’t heard many times before as that has the opposite effect.

Mostly racism, sexism, bad-faith arguments, and some religious stuff. I often double-check a person’s post history to make sure I’m not just reading it wrong. I also do so to make sure I’m not blocking someone for a single bad day or bad take.

I think younger me would have argued more or tried to convince them of things by showing evidence, but I just don’t have the time or energy at the moment; I have a full-time job, a small farm, and home maintenance on the (used) house I moved into 6 months ago.

Ah, I forget that part of it, heh; I haven’t read that in at least 20 years, probably more.

I live in a humid subtropical climate. That hand towel does a lot of sweat wiping. Also hand drying after washing hands more rarely in public toilets with no towels/dryer

Front left: phone

front right: wallet + hand towel

keys are clipped to belt loop and also generally tucked into back right.