I did quite a bit of legwork today. Walked to uni with my kendo gear, then legged it from uni to Wynard in 40 minutes flat. We were down there to visit Lang Technologies, having never been to their offices before. When I got to the reception of the building, I looked in the directory (A touch-screen device) but nothing was listed. Asking the professional looking receptionist, she told me that they were listed under a different name, and directed me to their tenth floor suite. I got there and called the others who were coming, and we met up in the tenth floor lobby space before going into the office space.
Interestingly, they shared the suite space with a lot of other companies, quite a few really. I think it means they must have a rather small space, or that these companies share common staff or something since it was very quiet there.... We used the meeting room that was out the front and met their new CEO. He's a rather tall fellow, european accent present, seemed very keen and very laid back about it and had a bit of humour about him too. He did present himself as someone who was confident about taking charge of company direction. We had a chat about the work done, the work to be done by the other PhD student and how the company direction is moving too.
The point of discussion in regards to hiring me was also brought up, and the CEO guy seemed genuinely interested in having a discussion with Tim Lang about it, and my supervisor gave a prodding comment about shortages of engineers and how much demand there was, and the fact that I was currently working four casual contracts, and I said that the only reason why I was working four was because it wasn't enough pay LOL, and he said he got the hint haha.... Who knows when they'll have their chat, it seems that they will be in Japan in the next week or two for business purposes, damn them... I wish I could be going too haha. So that was pretty much it for the meeting.
The rest of the morning/afternoon was pretty uneventful. Walked back from their offices and sat around a bit.
Kendo training was back on in H.K.Gymnasium since exams had finished. It was actually quite a good turnout of people today. We had seven bogu players, and quite a few beginners. Since Founders Cup was coming, we started preparations for it today with some Shiai practice. We did warmup (I led because someone was late), then we did footwork and kiai practice. Then splitting off to bogu/non-bogu. In bogu, we did kirikaeshi, then big cuts and small cuts before the shiai instead of jigeiko.
One of the guys brought his digital camera to video the practice so it could be looked at later.... I think I'm going to look like crap on the camera like last time haha. I played three shiai matches, one a draw with no points, one a win with one men point, and one also a draw with no points. It was quite tiring actually even though they were only two minute matches, but the energy, concentration, intensity to play hard is incredible. I also did some shimpaning too, and I feel that for some of our players, more work has to be done on kiai and zanshin. Plenty of good hits, but weak ass kiai (one of our best players has this problem.... c'mon, get out of that shell and let your voice rip) while other players hit, but don't use proper zanshin when they could earn the point easily with it by body crashing into their opponent or other. It was really fun and good practice though, I think I am enjoying it a lot more than I used to (shiai/jigeiko that is) and it is providing more of a challenge/stimuli for me now that I feel I have some better skills. I used the kyoto eizen shinai because it is the only one that is competition legal, and would give me how it would feel in competition to be using a proper weight shinai... it did well I think, fast enough to get some ok cuts in. I still lack explosive power and speed, and I still lack reaction speed when there are openings, but at the moment, that is fine because I'm just taking things at my own speed.
Walked to the station with some of the guys and we just talked the usual crap and paying out one of our friends because he's such a soft target with some of the stuff he says without thinking LOL. I said to him, take a shot at me then, and well, he stopped after one attempt because that attempt at paying me out failed =P Ah, it's good to know I can still deflect stuff eh.
Got to the station, bought my ticket and legged it down the platform with my bogu flying because the train had just pulled in... Puffing while standing in my suit boiling inside this cramped vestibule space was not fun... I eventually got a seat about four stops later, and fell asleep..... I woke up thirty minutes later and though, oh crap... did I miss my stop? Thankfully it was two stops before mine and I got home fine LOL.... Would not have been fun to get off and have to wait for another train in the back direction if I had missed it cos I fell asleep..... ~tired~
That, my friends, was my day.
Interestingly, they shared the suite space with a lot of other companies, quite a few really. I think it means they must have a rather small space, or that these companies share common staff or something since it was very quiet there.... We used the meeting room that was out the front and met their new CEO. He's a rather tall fellow, european accent present, seemed very keen and very laid back about it and had a bit of humour about him too. He did present himself as someone who was confident about taking charge of company direction. We had a chat about the work done, the work to be done by the other PhD student and how the company direction is moving too.
The point of discussion in regards to hiring me was also brought up, and the CEO guy seemed genuinely interested in having a discussion with Tim Lang about it, and my supervisor gave a prodding comment about shortages of engineers and how much demand there was, and the fact that I was currently working four casual contracts, and I said that the only reason why I was working four was because it wasn't enough pay LOL, and he said he got the hint haha.... Who knows when they'll have their chat, it seems that they will be in Japan in the next week or two for business purposes, damn them... I wish I could be going too haha. So that was pretty much it for the meeting.
The rest of the morning/afternoon was pretty uneventful. Walked back from their offices and sat around a bit.
Kendo training was back on in H.K.Gymnasium since exams had finished. It was actually quite a good turnout of people today. We had seven bogu players, and quite a few beginners. Since Founders Cup was coming, we started preparations for it today with some Shiai practice. We did warmup (I led because someone was late), then we did footwork and kiai practice. Then splitting off to bogu/non-bogu. In bogu, we did kirikaeshi, then big cuts and small cuts before the shiai instead of jigeiko.
One of the guys brought his digital camera to video the practice so it could be looked at later.... I think I'm going to look like crap on the camera like last time haha. I played three shiai matches, one a draw with no points, one a win with one men point, and one also a draw with no points. It was quite tiring actually even though they were only two minute matches, but the energy, concentration, intensity to play hard is incredible. I also did some shimpaning too, and I feel that for some of our players, more work has to be done on kiai and zanshin. Plenty of good hits, but weak ass kiai (one of our best players has this problem.... c'mon, get out of that shell and let your voice rip) while other players hit, but don't use proper zanshin when they could earn the point easily with it by body crashing into their opponent or other. It was really fun and good practice though, I think I am enjoying it a lot more than I used to (shiai/jigeiko that is) and it is providing more of a challenge/stimuli for me now that I feel I have some better skills. I used the kyoto eizen shinai because it is the only one that is competition legal, and would give me how it would feel in competition to be using a proper weight shinai... it did well I think, fast enough to get some ok cuts in. I still lack explosive power and speed, and I still lack reaction speed when there are openings, but at the moment, that is fine because I'm just taking things at my own speed.
Walked to the station with some of the guys and we just talked the usual crap and paying out one of our friends because he's such a soft target with some of the stuff he says without thinking LOL. I said to him, take a shot at me then, and well, he stopped after one attempt because that attempt at paying me out failed =P Ah, it's good to know I can still deflect stuff eh.
Got to the station, bought my ticket and legged it down the platform with my bogu flying because the train had just pulled in... Puffing while standing in my suit boiling inside this cramped vestibule space was not fun... I eventually got a seat about four stops later, and fell asleep..... I woke up thirty minutes later and though, oh crap... did I miss my stop? Thankfully it was two stops before mine and I got home fine LOL.... Would not have been fun to get off and have to wait for another train in the back direction if I had missed it cos I fell asleep..... ~tired~
That, my friends, was my day.
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