2009/02/14

From a Cafe with Free Internet

It seems that the winter is over already here in Osaka, although it never really got started. It only snowed once, and I only noticed it below zero once or twice. It's been up around 10ish for a while now, with lots of rain and some thunderstorms. I guess now begins the run-up to the dreaded Osaka summer. I suffered through the three summers that I have spent in Japan so far, and none of those were in places as hot and humid as I'm told Osaka is.
I know those in Canada don't want to hear me complain about how hot the summer is going to be; I've checked in a bit on the weather over there, and it does not look nice. The only nice thing about Canadian winters is that the insulation in houses and buildings is so good. They mostly use small space heaters or air-conditioning units here, and turn them off at night. So, even if it only goes down to 5 degrees, compared to minus dozens in Canada, inside your Canadian house is much warmer than inside my apartment when I wake up in the morning.
My three-month training period at work finally ended and I went to my actual desk at the start of January. I haven't introduced my job yet, other than to say it's at Panasonic, so I'll go into a bit more detail. I work on the Europe/America Marketing Team at System AV Business Unit, which produces cameras, monitors, and other broadcast and professional video equipment. You can see our products here or here. My responsibility is going to be doing marketing and sales for the lower-end product line-up to the North American market. Even at the lower end, though, they are very expensive and complicated products, not your simple camcorder or point and shoot camera. I've been studying a lot about the technology and workflow involved with the equipment, and I can tell easily that it will be quite a while before I have a good handle on it. It's interesting, though, so I'm looking forward to being more conversant about the products. Right now I'm borrowing a camera and shooting footage of Yul at home. I'm hoping to have time to edit a short video at work on one of the pro systems and post it online.
Yul is growing up fast. Just two weeks ago Yuki and I were talking about he was not crawling yet, that he always went in reverse when he tried. Well, now he can crawl. Fast, forward, causing lots of trouble for Yuki when she's alone with him. He loves playing with things he shouldn't, like wires and the VCR. It's alright when we're both around, but it's impossible to watch him and cook, do dishes, etc at the same time. And he can stand up by himself if he has something to grab on to. I find it amazing that standing, something he couldn't do two weeks ago is now something he does all the time, and can stand for tens of minutes at a time when he wants to. One thing he doesn't seem to interested in is eating solid food, though. He doesn't like mushed rice, pumpkin, apples, whatever we've tried to give him. Just this week, though, he's been eating these baby candy that we got as a free sample. They're kind of like Corn Pops, except not as sweet, and they get soft very quickly in your mouth. He's been going through them like candy, but still doesn't seem interested in much else.