怖い話

The title reads "kowai hanashi", it translates as "scary story".

Today, a co-worker came to tell me about what happened to him last night.
He stayed overnight at the company, catching up some work.
It was 3 am. He was alone...or at least, he thought he was...
All lights were off as he likes working in the dark (like the good nerd he is).
He had some music on but didn't had his earphones on his ears.
That's when he suddenly heard footsteps scratching the floor mat, like someone dragging his feet......and that was just behind him.....
He suddenly turned yet there was no one to be seen. It was all dark except for the light coming out from his monitor.
He pricked up his ears and waited....*scrriiisshhh**scrriiisshhh* !
There it is again ! Coming from the entrance ! Just behind that partition separating his seat from the entrance !
He stood up and looked at it ! No one !
"Goddamnit ! I'm not staying here !" he thought !
He quickly took his keys, closed the office and headed for the combini to take his mind off things.
Afterwards, he couldn't go back to the office so he spent the night in a manga cafe.

Today, when he told about it to everyone he could, many people trusted him.
Others also shared their own experience, whether it was at the office or not (yes, it's not the first time it has happened at the office it seems...)

That's when I remembered few years ago, when my Japanese teacher told me about ghosts in Japan.
They are omnipresent in everyone's life, many people trust their existence as they trust their own.
It's not uncommon to hear about people, even on TV, even coming from famous people, talking about what they had already experienced regarding ghosts.

Even though I don't believe a single word of it myself, it's quite frightening when you think about it.
Yet, it could still be an exciting experience (yes, you read it well).
I'm going to try it someday, staying overnight at the company, all alone.
The co-worker told me the ghost would definitely be there. It could even start speaking French to me !

Avatars from work

At work, like most companies, we have an intranet.
It includes the most commonly used features in a company, such as news, calendar to keep track of your meetings/appointments, room booking (if you need a particular room for a meeting for example), a wiki (for various uses, both technical and management), the list of people present etc.

We also have a page where we have to write our tasks for the day, things to do and done. It helps other people know what you're doing and also helps you keep track of your tasks over the days/weeks.
This page lists each person with an avatar of their choice.
It's kinda funny what people come up with (artists sometimes make their own avatar, I use gaijin pictures, those likely no one will ever have a clue about here yet so famous back in Europe).
Here are a few picks:

Mine (until next change)


The one from a co-worker (animator and hardware admin)


A slimey stuff from the chief animator, I think she did it herself


An artist wishing us Happy New Year


A freaky one (the one above is freaky too, I know...)


A picture from a programmer playing eroge (Japanese erotic games)


A lead programmer who loves cats


Look at that for a few mins...


Typical Japanese style


There are also many screenshots and pictures of what planners/game designers/artists do with the current projects, like the main characters wearing strange outfits and saying weird things, sometimes in strange positions (yea, you read that well, tolerance is rather flexible).
I won't post those of course, in case someone actually reads this blog and start spreading rumours in gaming forums.
Well, at least you have an idea what it's like around here :)