Earlier this week, I received an offer from the same company as my previous internship, signaling the near end of my little break of a few months. Unemployment was not how I imagined it to be. There were many small problems which I did not anticipate while working. Simply put, I suffered initially from the shock that retirees sometimes find themselves in, suddenly not having anything to do. But, I was actually glad for this, because it afforded me some time to pursue a few things I had been putting off.
First, I went to work on an Animenfo Radio theme. Having started listening to this online radio station back in February of this year, I had been meaning to design a theme after one of my favorite anime series: Initial D. Being out of a job gave me the time I needed to concentrate on this. This kept me busy for about one and a half weeks.
Simultaneously, I was backing up all my data into a master copy, stored on a 2TB external hard drive. Some of the stuff I have go all the way back to my High School Papers in 2004. I wish I had my work from before then, but unfortunately, due to the cost of storage at the time, and my general ignorance, those files are long gone. This project took about 2 weeks.
Another endeavor I then proceeded to tackle was in writing a mobile app. This is when the lack of enforcing a regular schedule started to take a toll on me. Due to less motivation, progress has been slow.
Finally, my last project has been to create a LED suit for a friend. That has consisted of mainly planning, ordering parts, and waiting for the parts to arrive. A few days ago, I put together a DIY fume extractor, and soldered together a shield for the Arduino Mega, which will be the brain for controlling the LEDs. Putting the stuff I learned in school to good use!
On the other hand, being out of a job also gave me an opportunity to travel.
I visited a friend I met through the radio, and went to my first anime convention, up in Toronto, Canada. This involved driving 24 hours straight, which was fun, though a bit dangerous, especially since I did it alone. On the way up there, I stop by in Michigan to have lunch with a friend I met at the internship. While in Toronto, I also went to a fair, and I also got to pet some ferrets, which are surprisingly cute. Very nice creatures.
Without a job as an excuse, I went down to Corpus Christi with my dad to go fishing. It was not exactly fun, but was peaceful. Having caught some fish, I asked my mom to make it, and I ate it. One of the few times I've eaten fish. I tend to avoid them because of the bones.
Finally, coming up, I will be going to China for almost a whole month. Hasn't happened yet. It is planned to take place from October 13 to November 12. I'll probably be making an entry on that once I return.
Looking back, for being as demotivated as I was, I actually did accomplish quite a few things. Lifestyle-wise, though, I'm in bad shape. Still, when I was working, there was a nagging question at the back of my head: am I wasting my time? When unemployed, I thought I would be able to use this time to do something meaningful, but surprisingly, the question was still there. Whereas when employed, my time was being translated directly into a monetary sum, when unemployed, it was hard to gauge the value of what I was spending my time on. So, it's not a matter of keeping busy, but of creating value, I suppose.
Written on September 28, 2012