On pretty much everything, including blog posts!

I did blog about the most important thing - which was the birth of my daughter. Some have thought that I was behind because of her being here the past 2 months, but that isn't the reason at all actually.

As always, I have to try and keep up with the orders on dv8CAG.com and, they increased unexpectedly by about 60% in November and December.

Now, when I say unexpectedly, of course, I expected a small increase for holiday shopping just like I had last year, but last year's increase was not nearly as big as this years. I suppose the Lightning Ver. 2 PS3 had something to do with it, but I had thought that with the value of the dollar continuing to drop off a cliff, that people would not be so willing to buy into anything with the super strong yen. Guess I was wrong!

Anyway, that's still not the reason.

The real reason that I have been falling behind so much on work at home, dv8CAG, random chatter on CAG, and even forgetting to respond to PMs and Emails here and there is because I have had so much going on at work the past few months.

Anyone that has read my blogs more than a few times has most certainly come across some of my earlier efforts which typically include the universe bending me over and loving me not-so-gently.

Finally, I found a job in which the people actually seem to care about the people around them and also seem to excel at rewarding positive behavior.

I just completed my 7th month there, as today is our first day off for the New Year break.

Within this 7 month period, I have moved up as follows;

Month 1: 6 month contract at 20 hours per week
Month 2: new 12 month contract at 28 hours per week
Month 3: new 12 month contract at 40 hours per week
Month 4: new 12 month contract at 40 hours per week, bonus and OT options. Given title "Head Teacher".
Month 5: new 12 month contract at 40 hours per week with increased salary, bonus and OT options. Given title "Assistant Manager" and put in charge of hiring/HR for the two schools I work at.
Month 6: Same as above, but was contacted by the CEO and told that I may be hearing from the Area Manager sometime soon about a new contract.
Month 7: Offered new contract to begin in month 8. Will be an unlimited contract setting my own schedule and will once again include increased salary, bonuses for both schools and OT options. Will become Manager of the two schools and have been given authority to "change things as I see fit" and told that there are "big plans" in the spring if I can make these schools succeed. (Which I have already started doing as November and December were the best two month period for these schools since they were acquired from the previous ownership.) Also, "air quotes" if I were speaking. Come on, you know you "love" them!

So yeah, that is where I have been spending my time and placing most of my energy these past few months.

Hopefully some really good things will come of it! We already have plans to move into a bigger apartment by this spring because we only have a living room, kitchen and one room in which we all sleep right now. One of the places we are saving for has three separate rooms aside from the living room(+dining room) and kitchen. That will give us a kids room, our room and will finally give me an office!

Basically, the office is going to allow me to completely overhaul the way I do things for dv8CAG right now and I can finally stay organized as I typically like to do.

We simply don't have enough space here for me to implement the inventory system I wanted to, so everything either gets put in boxes and stacked up (3 stacks to the ceiling right now!) or, if it's smaller, it gets put on some shelves I hobbled together with parts from the ￥100 Shop.

The point of this blog is absolutely not to be in the face of those that don't have things going well for them right now. It's to show that there is hope if you keep pushing forward and doing your best. If you have the time to go back and read some of my blogs over the past 3 years or so, you can certainly see that I had my fair share of misery, but things have finally turned around.