God is good

It's 2025. I can't believe it. I'm 36 years old, all too rapidly approaching 40, and there are so many aspects of my character and life that are less mature than they should be at this point. I have to hold on to the promise that "He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ."

As mentioned, I started applying for a new job in the new year. In particular, after looking around, I decided that I was only interested in working at ABB, and I felt that with my connection there, I should be able to get my foot in the door without great difficulty. Well, after 3 weeks I was rejected from the job I had applied for. Internal investigation revealed that I had applied for a position that was already filled, and thus had to reapply for a different position. (Even though it was technically the same position, the number which identified the position in the system was different). After doing that, the job offer came within 10 days, and I gave notice of my resignation at my current job shortly thereafter.

The new job offered several perks that excited me. It involved wiring, which I enjoy--following diagrams to wire equipment was one of my favorite things about electrical work, and that was the bulk of what I would be doing as I understood it. Of course it was a manufacturing job, which means to me consistency in hours, location, and expectations. I was looking forward to being able to move to Mebane as well as knowing my exact route to work every day. Also, it was a second-shift job. That meant less traffic on my commute, the ability to go to school in the mornings, and less crowded outings on mornings when I did not have school. On the other hand, I was a bit intimidated by the promise of overtime. As much as I enjoy wiring, I know that it can be tough on hand muscles and frustrating in conjunction with considerable fatigue. The possibility of doing it ten hours a day for multiple days in a row certainly inspired some trepidation.

Nevertheless, I was excited to begin this job on Monday, until I received a call about 5 PM yesterday (the Friday before). I was offered a position at Toyota, nine and a half months after my application, and after hearing nothing from them for about six months. In my surprise I nearly had second thoughts, but I did end up accepting the offer.

The delay in this offer caused me considerable frustration and uncertainty in the last eight months. There is an obvious practical reason that Toyota waited this long--they needed to get the first production line up and running, and I didn't have the experience to be on the first line. Why couldn't they have told me that I might have to wait until January or February? I'm not sure, but I believe that God used it for my good. I don't believe in pigeonholing His reasons with my narrow understanding, but here are some thoughts I had for why it might be for my good:

• I used some of the time to take classes at ACC, which was a tremendously edifying experience, one that I believe will serve me to great advantage in this position.
• I was able to work at Brady, which I regard as a great company. Despite all the company's good qualities, though, I became convinced that field work was not amenable to my disposition, leading me to renounce my ambition for an electrical license. I may not have been convinced of this by working at a different company.
• Perhaps God was able to use me at Brady in some way for encouragement of others. I feel that this might have happened.
• If I had known that I only needed short-term work, I probably would have worked in general contracting. While I might have learned more, I would have been paid less and, as implied above, held on to a dream of getting an electrical license and always wondered what working for a proper company would be like.
  
  

In other news, I have been attending church regularly since the beginning of the year, and from tomorrow I plan to start going to the evening service as well as Sunday School, which I have attended for a few weeks. I had fully intended to join this church, but now I'm a little hesitant given that I won't be living in Mebane anymore. I think I should probably go ahead with it though. There is plenty of possibility that I will move to a place within a reasonable distance from Mebane.

Some updates on my gaming: from mid-September until the new year, my free time was principally consumed by Factorio. I started three different games, and though I never beat the game, I got close twice. After the first and second games, I found ways to optimize my building. By the end of the third game, I was just tired of Factorio. I may return to it someday and beat it, but honestly I hope not. In other video game news, the book club finally beat Baldur's Gate near the end of January. We started playing an action RPG, which is less serious and easier to break off from early in the evening.

Since leaving the obsession of Factorio, I've been reading more. A good bit of webfiction, but also more edifying texts, including Jonathan Edwards, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and as of yesterday, Brave New World. I've also done better with my scripture memory, and I think I might be ready to begin learning new verses again this coming week. If I manage that, I will speak more about my new methods in the next post.

Speaking of next post, I will have 3 weeks before I begin the new job. I have volunteered to sub at school, which I'm excited about, but I doubt they will need me every one of those days. Hence, I should have no excuse not to write something by the time I start the new job. Or perhaps I will start one and finish it soon after beginning the new job. That does sound risky, but we will see.

As promised, the 2024 finale

2024 was the year of leaving education. Now that I've written that sentence, I'd like to go back and do the past years.

2023 - the year of moving back home for the last time (hopefully?)

2022 - the year of the master's degree

2021 - the gap year of electrical work and Christmas decorations in Florida

2020 - the year of leaving Japan (and COVID)

2019 - the year of parents visiting Japan

2018 - the best year in Japan, working in Narakawa

2017 - the year of finishing programming and moving to Japan

2016 - the year of the first apartment (in the US)

2015 - the year of variety (Russia, UNCG classes, Food Lion, Wendy's, NC State, RCC, ACC)

2014 - the year in Russia

2013 - the year of job search frustration

2012 - the year in Vietnam

2011 - the year of the CELTA

2010 - the year of graduation and moving to France

2009 - the year of trajectory horror (multiple failures and reconsidering my goals)

2008 - the year of England and literary exhileration

2007 - the year of college reality

2006 - the year of high school graduation and the ideal college experience

2005 - the year of tech support and programming

2004 - the year of having high school friends

2003 - the year... that the band started? I don't quite remember, and nothing else comes to mind.

2002 - the year of mission trips and Greek and Lord of the Rings figures

2001 - the year of the Washington DC visit

Trying to go earlier would require some research and discussion to give appropriate names to the years. As it is, I'm sure that I forgot something more important. Regardless, that was fun, and I think it will be good for future reference.

I have worked at my current job for nearly 4 months now. I believe that I do understand it more, but compared to two months ago, I am enjoying it less. I've found that for the most part, there isn't much comprehension necessary to get the job done. About 90% of our work is pulling wire or making a path for the wire. It gets monotonous. Still, I think I would be okay with it if my coworkers were less inclined to take every opportunity to avoid working. The job also does not seem to contribute much to career advancement. I'm still listening to sermons during my commute, but it's frustratingly difficult at times to understand the words through the heavy rattling of the van I drive. Furthermore, the 50+ minutes of driving through heavy traffic is getting on my nerves, especially when it gets even longer on the way home from the Raleigh area. I'm planning to actively look for a new job starting next week.

An interesting thing happened two weeks ago--an HR person contacted me. Normally I ignore contacts through a job searching site, but she was looking to hire someone to translate/interpret Japanese in a manufacturing environment. I talked with her on the phone and then I had an interview with the hiring manager which included a brief test of my Japanese skills. He felt that I did well enough to be a good candidate for the translator/interpreter position, but I felt that a job which relied on me talking most of the time in a high-pressure environment would be a nightmare. They had a more technical role available, but he said I didn't have the experience for that. Overall it was a positive, though slightly disappointing event.

Otherwise, not much has happened since the last post. My routines are mostly the same, and I still have not joined a church. Also, I mentioned gaining 5 pounds in my August post--I've decided that that was mostly muscle, given that it has since disappeared and nothing has obviously changed except that I have not exercised. I have thought a lot about things mentioned in my last post, particularly related to the transience of life. I have not acted on my thoughts, though. I hope that by my next post, something will have changed in that regard.

As the new year is approaching, I have to consider my goals. I would say that they have barely changed since last year, except my fitness goal would be more modest while I'm in my current job--once or twice a week. I'm not inclined to retry journaling on a regular basis, nor do I have any DIY projects that I would like to do. There is one thing I think I have improved this year--I haven't spent as much time on webfiction. My current pattern of reading maybe an hour of that type of fiction per week is acceptable. I intend to reduce my video game time to spend more time reading worthwhile books, though.

Careers and Consequences

Before the updates on my life, I have to bring up the fact that half the reason I have continued to blog for as long as I have is because of my grandfather. He has now passed away. I was never close to him--I sent him emails two or three times a year, and visited once or twice a year when I was in the country. He was an interesting person, though it was seldom apparent to me. He was very strict in his household and didn't have great relationships with his children, but he seemed to have a lot of charisma elsewhere. He had interests in many different fields. To be honest, I don't know how he continued living as long as he did. As far as I could tell, he lived for people. He had a couple of relationships after Grandma died, and they seemed very important to him, but I don't think there were any special ones in the last four years. I don't think I could do that. If God gives me the strength to live that long, I think that I would need a cause to sustain me past a certain point. Anyway, although I was not close to him, I doubt that I will ever write a blogpost without thinking about Grandpa. I do miss him.

I have now been at my job of HVAC controls wiring for 7 weeks. The job is not difficult, but there are many things I don't understand. I've been hopping around to many different jobs in various phases of completion. I'm hoping that if I come on to a job and see it from beginning to end, I will have a much better idea of how everything works--that is mostly what happened when I was doing electrical. I am eager to get to the point where I am less dependent on the job lead to assign tasks--I want to be able to look at what needs to be done and be able to do it. Also, it's a little frustrating that we don't get to see the effects of what we do. We wire up the HVAC systems so that they can be controlled through thermostats and such, but they don't work until the technicians come in and troubleshoot them, which is usually after we have left the job (apparently). In electrical, we got to see lights come on and outlets work if nothing else.

There are many positives about the job, though. The company is dedicated to giving us the tools and support that we need. My coworkers are easy to get along with, and I like working with them for the most part. There is a good deal of flexibility, if it is needed. Our default schedule is four days a week, ten hours a day. I would prefer to have more time to spend every day on tasks outside of work rather than an entire free day, but being saved a 2 hour commute is easily worth the deficit of free time during the work week.

Outside work, life is quite different from how it was when I taught school. On workdays, I generally get home after 6 PM, and by the time I have showered and eaten, it is 7 PM. The book club has been playing Baldur's Gate 2-3 times a week for about 2 hours, so that has eaten some of that time. Otherwise I generally play video games for an hour, and then I read until I fall asleep. On the weekends, I have mostly cooked or played video games. It has become very apparent how easy it is to live by myself and for myself. I'm not sure why this sense was less apparent when I was teaching. Perhaps I felt too busy, or perhaps I felt that I was contributing sufficiently by being a teacher.

Given that I no longer feel obligated to devote almost every waking hour to improving my lesson plans, I have come to re-evaluate where I find value in my life. Relevant to that--since I generally commute around 45 minutes to work each way, I've spent that time listening to John Piper books and sermons. I've been continuously convicted that my way of life is self-centered and short-sighted. What should be done to change that? I need to be involved in church. I've got a church, but I don't know how to get involved, except for asking outright. Why am I so afraid to do that? The reception can only be positive. I don't know. Outside that, I need to get back to studying Bible verses. It's an easy thing that could be done even during breaks at work. I'd like to get involved in some sort of volunteering activity, but I might just become a substitute at school--that would be sufficient, I think.

Although I'm not fond of the commute length, I do like having my thoughts refocused by the sermons that I hear. I wish that I would stop passing judgment on the value of the sermons and instead pass judgment on how well I heard the message. I would like to pray more. 

I am still drinking a fair bit. I thought I was doing better, and my unofficial rule was that I would only buy straight gin or rum. But it's difficult to go to a store (looking for a particular rum) and not buy anything, especially when there are things that I want to buy. This past week I went buy a store that had almost everything I have heard of, and many things that I had never seen. I bought way too much, so now I'm back to thinking--"Wow, I have too much alcohol."

Next Friday, I hope to work on investigating morgage preapproval. I have been looking at houses to purchase for several months now. On the other hand, I realized that cooking for Mom and Dad gives me an excuse and a reason to enjoy cooking more as well as veer away from video games. We shall see. I intend to update again at the end of the year. I will recap, report on church and service involvement, and express hopes for the year 2025.

The future is not as it seemed

Here we are at the end of July, overdue because I was hoping to have a more concrete idea of what was coming next. Alas, I do not.

After school finished, I began taking three classes at ACC: motors and controls, fluid mechanics, and quality manufacturing assurance. Overall it was very fun. Motors and controls was especially interesting. I ended up dropping quality manufacturing assurance because while it was interesting, the class content wasn't very cohesive, I didn't like the forum posts, and I felt just a bit overwhelmed doing all three classes (10 total credits in a half semester). My last day of class was two weeks ago.

I went through the hiring process at Toyota starting at the beginning of May. The interviewers and the proctor of my assessment were all encouraging about my chances of being hired, but I have heard nothing relevant for over six weeks despite attempts to contact them. So I finally bit the bullet and started applying to other places on the Friday after ACC classes ended. I was quickly rejected from the mechatronics jobs which were similar to the Toyota position, and I think that was for the best. I only felt good about applying at Toyota because they insisted that they would train me. So since then I have been applying for jobs as an electrician's helper at big electrical companies. I have yet to hear back from any of them, so I think my next step will be to apply at more local electrical companies and use contacts or go to their offices in person.

The opportunity at Toyota got my hopes up, I suppose. Somehow I started thinking that I could be looking into getting my own place in the next few months. Although come to think of it, that was my plan when I originally moved back in with my parents, too--to be out sometime in autumn of 2024. Now it's looking like I will need to be an electrician's helper for at least another year, which means low wages. Actually, looking at the requirements for a license, it seems that I need at least one year of primary experience, which does not include being an electrician's helper. That means it's more likely that I would need two more years of experience before I can get my license. Lovely. I'm not sure where that leaves me in my direction. My natural inclination is to say that I just need to do everything I can to get on with a bigger company so that I can work up through the ranks there. If I start at a smaller company, then I might have to jump ship within a year, and that may or may not be beneficial.

In other news, I went to Hendersonville about a month ago and did some work on my aunt's mother's house, where they are staying now. It was fun, and the next day we did a whirlwind tour of fun (TM) involving hiking, whiskey tasting, pie tasting, mobile home visiting, and restaurants. I also visited Grandpa again. I think that's all the traveling I have done in the past few months?

With regard to my goals, I have not been doing well, especially lately. Losing my regular schedule led to a falling off in June, which slid into July. That goes mainly for Bible reading/prayer/scripture memory. It's time to get back on that. Also, I didn't join a church, which continues to discourage me. I told myself that it was too much of a commitment if I end up moving. I've continued to read for book club and webfiction outside of that. I would like to get back into doing more normal reading--I'm convinced that most fanfiction and webfiction are detrimental. I haven't done any DIY, and obviously I've done very little journaling. I've continued to be consistent in using my calisthenics app about twice a week. I would like to increase that, especially when I'm not doing much else physically.

This year I have gotten really into making cocktails. It has been fun, interesting, and exciting. However, this past weekend I pulled out all the bottles I own, and it made me a little sick to think about how much I've spent and how much needs to be consumed. I don't drink to excess, but I really want to cut down on how much I drink. I think it might be affecting my sleep and possibly my weight as well (I've gained about five pounds). On the plus side of all that, I have hardly been even tempted to eat candy ever since March or so.

Hopefully I can update this again within a couple of weeks to give an update on my job status as well as a few of these other issues.

Approaching a new era

 It's the first Sunday in April, and I am overdue to update on how things are going this year. In my last update, I was still coasting on momentum that I attribute partially to the beginning of the year and partially from talking to a girl. I subsequently met with that girl, and she stopped speaking to me afterward, which blew out some of my momentum.

Since J-term, it was mostly a grind until the Philadelphia trip. That trip was little underwhelming, but that's not a bad thing--there weren't any disasters or great frustrations. I was hoping for more interaction with the students, to be honest. They were mostly interested in their phones or friends, though. I did get closer to the teachers, so that was nice.

The first day of break, I helped Jordan build a shelter on his deck. That was an all-day affair. It was a bit sunny but overall quite fun and satisfying. At the weekend we visited Grandpa. On Monday I finished my taxes. Thursday I spread mulch, fixed caulk, and rewired some lights. Friday, I renewed my driver's license. Saturday, I finished assembling two wave models, went out to eat for my birthday, and visited Dad's place of work and got a tour of the factory. Obviously I did a few other things, but those were the highlights. One thing I didn't do but had intended to do was apply for jobs. I did some research, but did not begin filling out any applications.

As far as my resolutions go: I was doing well with Bible reading and prayer until break. Returning to that habit shouldn't be difficult when I'm back on a schedule. I've been using another fitness app called Calistree, and I subscribed to it for a year. It's great. I've used it at least twice a week February and March. A few days I did other types of workouts, like with the track team. I haven't read much more of the Chinese history book. I may have to give it up actually--it makes me think of the girl that I met. Instead I'm continuing to read Desiring God and the book club book (I picked): Snow Crash.

We've only got two more weeks in Spanish in World Languages, and I haven't actively studied it at all. Furthermore, we've canceled our trip to Colombia for the year, so the incentive to improve has significantly diminished. On the other hand, I have been playing my guitar on and off. I eventually ordered replacement strings. The string was really easy to replace. I felt silly for procastinating on it.

These next three months should be interesting. I expect that by 7/1, I will have a new job. I'm going to join a church, too, unless I have reason to suspect that I will be moving for the new job.

Post J-term

In the past week, the madness known as J-term took place. Overall, it was a good experience--much better than last year. Woodworking was great fun. We nearly finished the chairs we were building, and got close enough that we could sit in them. Japanese went smoothly even if it wasn't as exciting or fulfilling. I didn't get anything prepared for the first week of the new semester though, since it was really hectic and I had to prepare something for the next day every day, without having a planning period in which to do it. I slept really heavily all week.

Related to that, my reading has not progressed significantly. I'm still struggling through the BC era of the Chinese history book. Apparently I am 20% finished, but this week I have been skipping entirely or reading just a few pages before falling asleep. I did a lot of driving yesterday and listened to Desiring God for most of the trip. It was so good, I came home and started over reading it on my Kindle. It has all kinds of important reminders, and it also inspired me to return to Jonathan Edwards in the near future.

I only did my fitness routine four times this week, attempting to catch up with work on the other days. Also, yesterday I only did half of a workout because I was shaking--caffeine maybe? Anyway, I have become frustrated with the HabitNest app. It has several bugs, the workouts are too long, and the routines and goals are too randomly generated for my liking. For example, the In and Out Push-up is one of the most difficult exercises I have ever done, but because it is a type of push-up, the goal is 10-20 reps just like the other push-ups. If I do 10, I'm nearly worn out for the day. Well, there is no shortage of fitness apps. I'll do this one until the end of the month and then try a new one.

Reading and praying have continued to go well. Bible memory has continued to be a struggle, but I'm not falling behind. If I up the ante a bit and try to go for 30 verses a day, I think I could meet my goal of starting new verses by February.

No progress on the guitar string. I think I will have some time after school some day this week to go and pick up a replacement. Actually, I need to buy something else from Amazon, so maybe I'll just buy them there. As for Spanish... I'm thinking that I might want to hold off for a month or so until we get most of the way through the French unit in World Languages. That way I'll be less likely to be confused. Regardless, I still haven't developed a plan for that. I expect it will at least partially involve listening to podcasts or watching movies. Maybe I can rope Mom into watching movies or shows with me for some accountability.

First 2024 Check-In

It turns out that journaling on Sunday morning is not as easy as I had hoped. The past two weeks have been somewhat abnormal though. I have made it back to this resolution, although it has turned into afternoon and evening. How am I doing so far?

Reading the Bible and praying has been consistent. Bible memory has been more difficult. I have only gotten over 50 verses one day. Right now I'm averaging 20-30. I'll try to keep over 20 for the next week--at the moment, I don't have a plan to do more. I do it for 10-15 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes or so at night, but when I'm fighting uphill against verses that I can't remember, it goes more slowly.

Bedtime reading has also been satisfactory. Sometimes I have gone straight to sleep, but mostly I have been reading a book surveying Chinese history. It's dry, but I am still in BC. If it doesn't pick up near the end, I just won't buy the second volume. For my other books, I have the book club book, Jonathan Edwards, and I'll probably re-read Desiring God again if I feel inclined to avoid the other options. I have barely read any webfiction since the beginning of the year, and then only my favorite two stories. Fanfiction hasn't had any appeal.

Although I have several gripes with the HabitNest app, I have been using it to good effect. I have been tremendously sore everyday since last Tuesday. I do feel stronger, but I should be stretching more. It's hard to do that when it isn't built in to the routine and I already feel like 30 minutes of exercise is more than I want to spend.

It turned out that the welding class is not available at any community college within driving distance. So, I think I will dedicate some time to regularly studying Spanish. I just made this decision today, so I don't have a plan in place yet. This is not only to help me do a good job teaching World Languages this semester, but also to prepare me for going to Colombia later this year.

I broke a string on the guitar, so I haven't been able to practice recently. Hopefully I'll remember to pick up a replacement sometime this week. No progress has been made on the social front. I'm going to visit Grandpa during Easter vacation, so I think that fills up my travel plans for the year.

Nothing particularly interesting has happened these past two weeks. Last weekend we did have a big book club meeting at Jordan's house. It was fun. However, hanging out with those guys incites me to spend money on alcohol. I really don't need to do that--I certainly can't justify it. In other news, I got all the wood cut yesterday for the J-term woodworking class, and I'm looking forward to that. I guess that is all for this week.