The Tagline Part 2
So the week before Memorial Day weekend, I was in Japan to attend a meeting with a US company. Though the meeting was in Japan, pretty much everyone there were Americans. The only exception was one other Chinese guy Lau ... who had just immigrated from Chengdu. And while Lau spoke perfectly good English... he still had trouble understanding [American Sarcasm].
"All right everyone, let's get the meeting started so we can all get the hell out of here ... " yells Ken the Sys Admin Slob...
The meeting was to discuss getting a Japanese client's data center into the "cloud" in this case, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or (OCI).
"Is Lau back from Starbucks yet?" asked Ryan the project manager. "I'm starving."
We each rotated to get coffee and cakes from the coffee shop, and on this morning, it was Lau's turn.
"I just got a message from him." I replied I think he's coming up now.
Lau runs in with a two giant bags from food. "I'm back." he says with a smile.
Being that these are Americans ... basically everyone got portion sizes for 2-3 Japanese folks. Ken ordered two Frappacinos and two cakes. Ryan ordered a coffee, a muffin, a breakfast sandwich, and a salad ... you get my meaning.
"Here you go Ken." these were the last two cakes at the shop." said Lau.
"Oh thank you." replied Ken.
"So you like them?" ask Lau with a smile.
"No, I hate them!" replied Ken.
Lau looks at Ken in confusion. "You hate them?" he asks.
"Yes. I hate them SO MUCH that I asked for two of them!" replied Ken with a smile.
Lau looks at Ken in confusion. "Wait if you hate them, why did you buy two?"
"他在開玩笑 [he's kidding]" I replied. "He likes the cakes."
"I'm just messing with you, Lau!" replies Ken with a smile.
Lau looks at me confused. He clearly doens't get the humor. I shake my head and just tell him to forget it.
Everyone gets their food and drinks. Then the meeting starts.
"All right ... so let's talk about the OCI migration plan ... " said Ryan. "So here's my proposed timeline ..."
The meeting goes without too much of a problem. I find that I need to migrate the Oracle database on Saturday 5/25 between the hours of 6AM to 6PM Japan Standard Time. This is then followed by Ken with the apps, then Lau with the firewall rules.
"Everyone ok with the timeline?" asked Ryan.
"Yup" we pretty much all say in unison.
Now that the meeting is more/less done .. it's time for the closing taglines.
"So are you people staying here after the migration?" asked Ryan. "I'm actually going back on June 1st. Since we have Monday (5/27) off, I'm just decided the take the entire week off and enjoy myself."
"Wait a minute... you came here alone didn't you? You're wife didn't travel with you?" asked Lau.
"Yeah, Lau ... like I said ... I thought I'd ENJOY MYSELF a bit!" replied Ryan.
Everyone except Lau laughed.
"Lau." said Ken. "He's just kidding. Sometimes don't you just want to get away from the old [ball and chain]?"
"My wife left me for my best friend last year in China. I cried every day. I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH HER." replied Lau.
And with that ... the meeting just got WEIRD!!!!
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