Happy Sunday! Did you see the Northern Lights last week? It was hella cloudy here in upstate New York, so I totally missed it. I’ve enjoyed looking at people’s pictures on social media, though.
I was planning on visiting Round1 to play DanceDanceRevolution today, and I still might, but my shoulders and calves are killing me. Visiting the gym more often and attending a dance workshop over the past few days has totally worn me out (described below). It was pretty hard to get out of bed, but I’m drinking an Alani now! Yay!
Life Updates
Job Search
I received a few “Thanks But No Thanks” responses from the jobs I applied to over the last few weeks, including the web design and customer support role I mentioned in last week’s blog. I’m bummed because I thought I’d surely get it. Even though I wasn’t satisfied with the pay, I hoped to use it to pay the bills until I found something better.
However, I attended a “Virtual Career Fair” on Friday, which was sponsored by New York State. Twenty companies signed up to exhibit on the NYS Department of Labor website, and people from those companies were available to chat for a few hours. I applied to a few new companies and followed up with the hiring managers via chat, so I hope I’ll have a better chance of moving forward and scoring interviews. I also got free access to Coursera, sponsored by the NYS DOL, so I’m eyeing some programming and business development courses.
Another thing that helped me over the last couple of weeks was talking with the veteran employment representative that NYS assigned me. He’s followed up on a few job applications on my behalf and helped me get an interview for a lead support desk analyst job next week. I’ll likely give up on applying to jobs via LinkedIn, especially the “Easy Apply” ones. The pool of applicants is so high that getting a response back is relatively rare.
Anyway, I have two interviews and two job fairs next week. Wish me luck!
Business Development
On a brighter note, I printed business cards for Upbeat Web Services, my web design and digital marketing company.
I helped my first client, J & R Dance, get her Google Business listings in order, recover her Facebook account, and create an Instagram page to start promoting her events. She said she’d like me to manage her Wix site, so I hope she’ll be my first recurring customer. She also said she’d refer me to another local dance company that needs a website update.
I’ve listed some of my rarer vinyl records on Discogs to make some extra money. I’m also planning to sell some of the e-amusement cards I have stockpiled from when I used to unlock DDR songs for people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Partner Dancing
As payment for helping her out so far, the owner of J & R Dance invited me to attend a free dance workshop and dinner, so that’s mainly what I’ve been doing in the evenings over the past few days. John Lindo taught it. He’s an extremely talented and funny dance instructor.
I learned more about Country 2-step, Nightclub 2-step, and West Coast Swing dancing. I also made a ton of new friends there! Over the next few weeks, I’ll try to attend more (within my very limited budget) to meet new friends. Who knows? Some might even need my services or have job leads for me.
YouTube Channel Updates
I uploaded more DanceDanceRevolution Grand Prix videos this week! Yahoo! I will watch what kinds of videos do the best and adjust.
I uploaded a vlog-style video from early December. At the time, I had felt burnt out from spending hundreds of dollars on Round1 credits on the “Baby-lon’s Galaxy” DDR event that started around Thanksgiving. When I finally completed the event, it felt like a huge waste of time (besides having another backlog of videos to upload), so I moved back to playing at home for a while. I think the commentary was pretty funny.
I also uploaded this unboxing video for my Samsung Galaxy S24+, which I received early this week. I go into the reason for upgrading to a new phone in the video, but basically, I was unhappy with the fuzziness of the DDR videos I recorded on my previous phone, the Galaxy A52.
Anyway, since I’ll be paying for this phone over the next 3 years, I thought, “Why not record a video unboxing this stupid thing?” It’s already gotten 124 views, so maybe people are searching for unboxing videos like that.
I’m also uploading a lot to my social media pages! Here’s a reminder to follow them!!!
- https://instagram.com/sessu_ddr – An Instagram Creator account where I post DDR clips exclusively.
- https://www.tiktok.com/@sessu_ddr – My TikTok, where I post DDR clips and memes.
- https://twitter.com/_sessu – My Twitter
- https://www.facebook.com/sessunet
The last link is a Facebook page where I upload a mixture of vertical DDR clips (Instagram) and edited content from my YouTube. I don’t know if people watch reels on Facebook, but I figured there’s no harm in uploading them there since they’re already edited. Also, my dad seems happy that he has somewhere to watch my stuff.
DanceDanceRevolution (DDR) Updates
KONAMI just announced DDR WORLD, the next software update for the DDR series. There is no announced release date.
I’m not sure what this new version will entail. Surely there will be a new interface, but I’m curious whether KONAMI will massively overhaul the UI or character designs. It’s been years since they’ve made any major changes to the game, so I’m not expecting anything big. However, they just ended software support for the oldest standard-definition DDR cabinets, so they may be able to make more significant changes to the game.
KONAMI also released two new song packs for the DDR Grand Prix. If you buy both, you unlock access to CHALLENGE step charts for 恋愛観測 (Renai Kansoku) and HAPPY☆LUCKY☆YEAPPY. Buying both packs costs about $25. Here’s a link to the store if you’re into that.
Here are the current events:
- DanceDanceRevolution WORLD Original Goods Campaign (ends May 28th, 2024) – If you play on DDR A3 or buy the two newest DDR Grand Prix song packs, you can accumulate “DP.” Once you have enough DP, you can spend it on the official website to get a DDR WORLD-branded e-amusement pass or poster.
- COURSE TRIAL A3 (ends May 22nd, 2024) – Make sure to play the COOL DANCE! course in DDR A3 to unlock melody H4CKER.
That’s it for today! Wow, this was a long one. Sorry for yapping!
