Hey! How ya doing? I seem to be chiming these comments so often these days... my colleagues are teasing me back with my California accent. I never knew that I had such a thing... as to me... and I reckon to everyone else... the world spins around California... how else should things spin anyhow... right?

Well, sunny beaches and ocean breezes are -- alas! -- an element of my now distant past... but as I seem to always reiterate... cherry blossoms have now blossomed in full glory... and starting today... we're hitting the high mark of 20 degree celsius in Tokyo... after a week long folly of single digit Celsius and perrenial drizzles that irk one's sanity and patience.

My working situation... I don't know how to summarize, but has been toned down... only to be lifted to run crazy hours again as I am in the office preparing for a speech in one hour... or at 8 am on a Thursday monring. I bet all of you can imagine how pumped I am in this speech. (grin) The scary thing is -- which is all to my good fortune -- I'm heading up numerous projects alone, and I'm getting the recognition to move people around in this HR office. I got a casual invitation to move to the Hong Kong office... but all in all, it's a bit wacky as I'm learning that a few heads are in line to roll... and ironically... they have to still...

Taking this a step further, I'm in debate of a separate offer I have received... I have now been approached a couple times from Merrill Lynch Tokyo HR to do undergraduate recruiting... and replace the current VP recruitiing manager in 3-5 years. I've now turned it down twice... as timing is not right... but he's promised to come back once more in May/June... I'm in wonders....

Aside that... work is work... and das is dat. weekends run faster than a landslide... and I'm just catching flicks after flicks after flicks... It's seem to have grown to become a ritual thing for me... hopefully, I can catch one this week: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars... The simple pleasures one gets..