Happy Sunday! It’s been another long week. This week’s thumbnail image is a joke t-shirt I mocked up while I was at the gym on Wednesday. I’m thinking about getting it printed professionally at a local embroidery shop. Let me know if you’d buy one!
For the rest of the newsletter, I’ll mix things up this week by reviewing things chronologically.
On Monday, I received a package from Japan. My friend SunnyDay mailed me a personalized jersey for Sanbai Ice Cream, a popular DDR score-tracking app I’ve used and helped beta test over the last seven years. He always makes great merchandise, so I’m excited to wear it to the arcade and show off. I took a short video and uploaded it to YouTube.
Tuesday, June 4th was dj TAKA’s birthday. TAKA is one of my favorite artists in DDR, so I visited the arcade to get high scores on his songs. The arcade was super crowded with kids, but I still recorded a few videos for YouTube. Here’s one I uploaded:
On Wednesday, I went to board game night with some close friends. Usually, my friends are out swing dancing every Wednesday, but our local dance studio switched to holding them biweekly. So we hung out, played Cranium, and drank a few bottles of wine that my friend brought back from his trip to wine country last weekend. It was fun!
On Thursday, I played even more DDR at home and experimented with different editing styles for my DDR videos. Here’s a video I uploaded using a style that more closely matches CowEye’s (a popular DDR YouTuber). I was a bit shy because I played with my shirt off, but the new editing style got a little more views than normal. So, I’ll probably edit together some more videos in this style to release next week.
Friday was a mostly quiet day, and then I learned that my dad was in the hospital on Saturday. I spent most of the day there with him. The doctors think he has pneumonia, but he’s been having some kidney pain, so he might be there a bit longer as the doctors run tests. He plans to go on vacation with his fiance next weekend, so I hope the doctors will discharge him soon. I’m going back to visit him today.
Job Hunt Updates
Throughout the week, I’ve been stewing on whether or not I want to return to Korea and teach English. If I do, I’ll leave for Korea in about 8 weeks. I’m waiting to hear where my school placement will be (Seoul or otherwise). It’s an exciting idea, but since my dad’s health is declining, I’m not sure if I can take the job offer. I’m worried that he will fall sick and I won’t be able to visit him.
I have three interviews next week — luckily, the applications I did in April are finally picking up momentum.
Tomorrow is my interview for the coding boot camp with NYS. I talked about that in my last blog post, but they pay $31 an hour, and it would be a great way to break into doing software development for the government.
Then, on Thursday, I have a follow-up interview with a community organization for the web developer position. The web developer position has many great benefits, including 4 weeks of paid vacation in the first year, a pension, the opportunity to work remotely up to 4 days a week, and more. State jobs always have great benefits. The pay is a bit lower than I wanted, but it would be stable with a guaranteed pay raise each year, and I could stay until retirement if I wanted to.
The final interview I’m awaiting, which is unscheduled, is for a support desk position with a local grocery store chain. I had previously interviewed for the lead position in their division. The recruiter called me back on Tuesday and said they’ve filled the head position, but he still wants me to interview to join their team. I’m waiting to hear back from their manager about a time to talk. That job’s pay would be closer to my previous one (hopefully around $28 an hour).
My current ranking in terms of job prospect enthusiasm goes as follows: English teaching in Korea, the web developer position, the coding boot camp, and finally, the support desk position.
Looking Forward
Next week will ultimately determine my job plans. Many factors are influencing my decision: my dad’s health, where the teaching agency wants to send me, and the outcome of my tech interviews. I hope to have a solid idea of what to do by next Friday. Until then, I’m going to try not to worry.
