New year, new job

To continue from my last post, I ended up finding a Honda Civic '11 at a dealer in Graham as soon as he put it on the market. I went down to look at it, found it good, and bought it less than a week later. The price was a little lower than I was expecting to pay, especially after my first excursion. The car looks really nice and has a reasonable number of miles on it. I've had it for nearly two months and I've only gone through one tank of gas.

I was supposed to do student teaching this semester, but there was an early deadline that I was not aware of until too late. Hence, I needed to find a job. I've been wanting to try my hand at a trade for a while. Of course getting into software development is much more lucrative, but I haven't had any success in that area yet. So my dad's friend got me set up with a job as an electrician's apprentice (outside of union circles, this is apparently known as a electrician's helper's helper). Tuesday was my first day, and aside from the mud, I rather enjoyed it. We mostly dug trenches and put conduits in these trenches. On Wednesday I didn't do much of anything except watch work being done, so that was less fun. On Thursday I was in a similarly spectating mode, but I did do a few things--maybe forty-five minutes' worth of easy work altogether. Hopefully I'll get to a point where I can do more very soon.

One unfortunate part of this new job is that everyone goes out to eat. I did it too, but then I had a terrible stomach ache yesterday which we attribute to something I ate from a restaurant. So I'm going to need to take my own lunch, but there won't be a microwave, so whatever it is I will have to eat it cold. Mom makes a curried chickpea salad, which is decent but not something I want to eat often. Thus I need to figure out some meals that I will enjoy eating that do not need to be heated. That's goal for the new year, but I need to do it quickly.

Another consequence of not doing my student teaching this semester is that I no longer feel justified in staying with my parents. So I've started looking for a new place to live. Fortunately, my brother's circumstances also changed recently so that he too is looking for a new place. Unfortunately, our finances are a bit sketchy at the moment--he doesn't have enough money for a deposit and I don't have much of an income history. His situation could be remedied easily, but my income may be unsatisfactory for three more months. Ideally, I would stay with my parents for that time, but according to my brother the best time to get a new apartment is between December and March, and plus I'm not sure that he can live where he is now for three more months. Some of these worries are presumptive, so it could be that we can move in soon after all.

I worked some more on the compost bin and I now have the frame more or less put together. The wire is giving me a headache, though. I was planning to work on it today since it's supposed to be fairly warm without rain, but I'm not sure yet if I will feel like it.

Since I don't have to think about school all the time any more, I need to make some goals for the new year. I want to improve my skill in playing guitar. I got new guitar strings for Christmas and they sound so much better. For a couple months, I think I should devote a little time to learning electrician work. I want to read decent books again--I have very little patience for most fanfiction nowadays. I want to keep up this journal, though I think every day will be excessive when I'm working full-time away from a computer. I want to go back to working on calisthenics, and I might do aerobic exercises later. Then of course there is cooking, and I might make an attempt at having a social life if the impact of COVID-19 ever diminishes. That's probably a decent number of goals for now, and tomorrow I will try to quantify them and set objectives and/or deadlines.