The day got off to a good start, with Marin’s Amazon Japan package arriving before lunch. This was notable because the package also contained the new Maaya Sakamoto CD, Nikopachi. Boo yah. I ripped that sucker straight to my iPod and had new tunes to bop along with at work.

Apparently there’s quite a bit of stuff going on at work: a coworker has gotten into some trouble (can’t go into detail there, but it has potential to have larger ramifications), and was talking of quitting; some big talk from others about telling the boss where to stick certain issues (much macho posturing occurs when my coworkers talk in small groups, but very little actually survives until a staff meeting); an additional automation program will be utilized in short order…and an Extremely Rare Thursday Meeting has been called. Last time we had a meeting on a day other than Tuesday (the officially blessed day of meeting) was over a year ago, when the building was surrounded by ATF agents a fairly crucial coworker gave her two weeks notice. I guess I won’t be pulling my traditional late night tonight; tomorrow’s festivities should prove entertaining enough to warrant getting up early.

Another one of my coworkers actually described the ongoing office events as drama-rama. I wonder if she sidelines as a copy writer for Tokyopop—with her work most notably featured in Marmalade Boy. (Brian knows what I mean; both of us cringed quite strongly when we read the events around Miki’s life classified as drama-rama.) Outside of Marmalade Boy and work today, I have never heard the term used; I think I’m thankful for that.

Ate Arby’s for lunch today. Apparently we’ve been doing that too frequently, because the cashier (who I didn’t especially recognize) joked that he was starting to recognize me. He theorized that soon I’d be able to drive up during lunch hour, say “It’s me,” and then pull forward to exchange predetermined amounts of money for food. (Along the same lines, I’m also apparently a buddy of the guy who mans the drive-thru at A&W. It was news to me.)

Last note for the evening: I’m currently undergoing a crisis of faith. I swore that I would never support copy-protected CDs—not a big deal here (yet), but a practice that’s now commonplace in Japan. I’ve now discovered that the current schemes used are mostly ineffective, and that I would probably be able to rip and copy these “copy-protected” CDs as any other CD. There are some songs I’d like to have that only exist on copy-protected CDs…but should I buy them? Even if I could rip them and burn copies of them? At what point should we, as consumers, draw a line and say this is unacceptable? Wouldn’t buying CDs marked “copy protected” just tell the industry that it’s OK to restrict our fair-use rights? Or does that only matter if the copy protection schemes actually work?

Opinions?