Might be a sign of age, but my lower back has been hurting recently. it happens just after i wake up, and the pain is severe enough that i take almost a minute to go from lying down to standing up. actually, i've noticed that this happens maybe once or twice a year, when i have long breaks (and thus spend more time in bed), and not during times of activity. could be that lying down too much produces some sort of muscle strain, and/or there's an imbalance in muscle strength/flexibility somewhere. it's a sign to be more active. hopefully returning back to work next week will go some way to speeding up my recovery. seriously though - getting injured while doing nothing!

the main goal next week (aside from zoom with the IP firm) is operation konnyaku. you might wonder why i'm making konnyaku for japanese people, seeing as it originates from japan. well, the konnyaku that most people are familiar with here is savoury - they add it to stews in cube or noodle form. and while sweet versions do exist, they aren't as widespread. furthermore, i'm using ribena as flavouring. i don't think it's very available here? anyway, i have 8 packets of konnyaku powder left, and this will probably be how i allocate them. each packet can make approximately 72 pieces (depending on how big you cut them), so that's about 3 groups of people per packet.

1: board of education office, volleyball team and band in the bigger school

2: the rest of the first floor in the town hall, maybe accounts department as well

3: second floor of the town hall

4: third floor of the town hall

5: teachers and kids in the smaller primary and secondary school

6: teachers in the 2 other primary schools

looks like i'll need fewer packets than i thought. well, maybe i'll save the last 2 for backup or experiments. before i forget, i think i should record my process for reference.

ingredients

750mL room-temperature water

30g sugar (adjust accordingly to your taste)

200mL ribena concentrate

1 packet redman konnyaku powder (10g)

steps

1. add sugar and ribena concentrate to water

2. add konnyaku powder VERY gradually, stirring all the time (goal is no/minimal lumps)

3. bring the mixture to boil over low/medium-low heat, with stirring

4. when mixture is simmering and konnyaku has dissolved (completely smooth but thick mixture), take it off the heat

5. stir gently, ensuring no air bubbles are in or on the mixture

7. while the mixture is still liquid, pour into a mould (i used an 8-inch square baking tin)

8. chill in the fridge for 3 hours minimum, or overnight

9. cut into desired serving sizes

as far as my recipes go, this is one of the simpler/faster ones. takes maybe 15 minutes of active work from start to finish, excluding the setting and chilling time, of course.

other things that happened in the past few days...met my JET friend, his wife, and a japanese teacher that we both worked with for dinner. my friend is finishing JET and going to fukuoka for another teaching job. not for the first time, i felt envious of him. not because of his new job or anything like that, but because he's one of those people who genuinely loves teaching. i'm sure that if i applied to a university or science-type high school, i'd be able to find a position. but it wouldn't bring me job satisfaction/fulfilment. anyway, we ate at an izakaya down in shimanto city (down for me, up for him). i think my favourite dish for the night would be the gyu-suji miso. it's beef and konnyaku chunks braised in some kind of miso sauce. it had a distinct cheesy flavour which i really enjoyed. my friend's wife said she managed to recreate it, so i'm looking forward to trying the recipe that she shared with me.

shimanto city is the other major city in kochi prefecture, apart from kochi city. while it's more modern than my town, it's still far from what i'd call a "city". i regret going down so early! thought i'd find fun things to do there...sadly, no. i ended up having to kill about 3 hours before dinner. there was a dragonfly park, but the admission fee into the linked museum was 880 yen. no thanks. still, i managed to fulfill a sidequest objective, and got bonito sticks for scary JC friend. the way you use them is, you put them in soy sauce and let the whole thing marinate for a week or so. then, the soy sauce gets an extra umami kick from the bonito. i did consider getting a set for myself, but no point at this time, i think.

have you heard of the term "planned obsolescence"? it's the practice of designing/manufacturing products with a limited (short) lifespan. of course, everything has a lifespan, but things made with planned obsolescence fail within 3-5 years, as opposed to 5-10 years or even longer. one side of my sennheiser wireless earphones died sometime last year, and when i wrote in to ask if they could be repaired, the company said that they were discontinuing service for the product line. considering i paid about $300 for them and used them less than 50 times, i feel it's kind of a waste. to be fair, the other side still works, but having only one side isn't much good, is it? i don't know what i'll do with it...maybe since i'm treating them as gone anyway, i'll try to open them up and see if i can get them working again. would be a bonus if i could. the service centre staff said that given their age, a battery problem was the most likely reason for failure. wonder where i can get spare parts?

it's back to work tomorrow. i know i have a lot of 4-day work weeks during summer break, but i can't remember if next week will be one of those. operation konnyaku aside, my other goal for the week is to settle my leave allocation for next term, as well as to pin down an end-date. i'm currently leaning closer to end-november, but we'll see.

-random thought of the day: Need to use more ingredients!-

Zoom with the principal from the australian IP firm didn't go through - he had to travel last-minute. he offered to reschedule though, so that makes me feel relieved. unfortunately, it also means that i'm making another decision with less knowledge. see, the lekker bicycle is only on sale until 31 july, and our rescheduled call is in august. so, it could be the case that i buy the bicycle in singapore, and he offers me a job in australia. but realistically speaking, the probability of that happening is low enough, and the sale price is so good (50% off - 4-figure savings) that i'm going to confirm the bike first. if i do end up in australia, i can make alternative plans for the bike, like giving it to someone, putting it in storage, or whatever else.

scary JC friend continues to give me learning moments. yesterday, she messaged to ask me to get a machine of some sorts for her. according to the description i read on the website, it lets you get professional salon-level facials at home? i'm not into beauty/cosmetics stuff at all, so i don't know how good it is. anyway, i saw the price as 15000 yen on the website, which translates to about SGD 150. oddly, my credit card got declined. i called rakuten, and the customer service guy on the line said "15万円" when confirming which transaction had failed. i was half-asleep before, but woke up in a real hurry after hearing that! yes, so it turns out that the price was 150 000 yen, or about SGD 1500. the lesson here is to check the number of zeroes carefully. i don't understand why she wants a machine with that kind of price, but hey, it's not my decision. had it been other people asking, i might not have agreed after seeing the correct price! lucky i trust her.

operation konnyaku is underway, the first batch is chilling in the fridge now, and will be for the maths teacher and the basketball team (which he is in charge of). he told me that they finish training at about 5pm all days this week, so i'm going to head down to the school later and see. worst case, i'll give the already-made stuff to the teachers and make a fresh batch tomorrow. lesson learnt from this afternoon's attempt...add the powder a little bit at a time, while stirring constantly. my future batches should be better!

-random thought of the day: Need to go out more.-

Don't exactly remember where i heard this saying, but it went something like "time wasted doing something fun isn't time wasted at all". i tend to believe that. also, i sometimes replace the word "fun" with "new". so today, i drove about 100km each way to the neighbouring ehime prefecture, to a trek bicycle dealer. the goals were to see if they could order the trek district 4 into japan for me, and to get a bike fitting, which was advertised on their website for free. since there was a sushiro nearby, i had a nice lunch while waiting for the staff to come back from lunch break. another win for me!

sadly, my requests were met with nos on both counts, so i'm 0 for 2 today on my requests. they said that that particular bike is not available to japan, and ok, i can believe that because the trek japan website doesn't advertise it. but the bike fitting...it was advertised quite prominently on their website, and when i asked about it, the guy said that they stopped doing it 3 to 4 years ago. maybe it's me being suspicious again, but i smelt a rat. considering how updated their site is, it feels odd that they didn't remove a service that they no longer offer. could be that the shop person saw the english version of the trek website loaded on my phone, and due to perceived difficulty in communication or some other reason, decided not to offer the bike fitting service. i could ask a colleague to call in to their shop and check, just to get to the bottom of it and to give myself peace of mind. but no point - just going to give them benefit of the doubt, and move on.

even though i didn't get positive responses for the things that i hoped to get them for, it was still an interesting trip. i drove past a town in the mountains, which despite being further from the capital than my town, looks somehow prettier and more developed. went to the (famous-ish) library to have a look on the drive home. it was beautiful. all of the books were in japanese, of course, and their selection didn't really speak to me. might have been my imagination, but i don't think i saw a fiction section? anyway, i intend to go back there again within my remaining time here, this time for the onsen. i hear it's quite scenic!

while at the library, i heard a mother and son (i presume) speak chinese to each other. now, the town that the library is more ulu than my already-ulu town, so i was caught by surprise. to confirm that it wasn't my ears playing tricks on me, i actually hovered around their general vicinity for a few minutes. don't think i creeped them out...at least i hope not. i'm aware that there are some chinese people in kochi, just from hearing chinese at the airport a couple of times, but i'd always thought that foreigners would stay in the city. granted, there are a few indonesians in my town, but they're here to learn about the fishing industry or something. not sure what a chinese mother and son? family? would be doing in that mountain town. farming? maybe they're just passing through, doing a road-less-travelled tour kind of thing. as i was leaving the library before them, i felt a stab of regret. like, was i going to leave without reaching out to them? they might be pleasantly surprised to hear their native language in a foreign land. unfortunately, my fear/shyness won out and i left the library without saying anything. kind of regret it now. hopefully i'll bump into them again when i go back for the onsen.

in going to the bike shop, i got to experience driving long-distance along the country back roads. my trip to osaka was 2.5 times the distance, but i finished it in only double the time because i used expressways basically all the way then. the small roads are surprisingly well-maintained! and i saw an example of road maintenance - a section of road on the way to the smaller secondary school was being resurfaced. the works would last the first 50 minutes of each hour, during which time traffic would not be allowed to use the road. and that's how i got stuck in a traffic jam on a small stretch of country road for the first time ever. small victory though, it started raining and they let us through 5 minutes early because they couldn't work in the rain. and my thought remains the same: driving super long distances like that once in a while is fun, but i wouldn't want to do it every day as a commute.

bicycle situation once again: trek - no go. canyon - lower on the list of options now. lekker (the one that i found about last post) - currently #1 choice. problem there though, is that it's a limited-time sale item, and i can't physically try it out before committing. well, the worst case is that i buy the size i think is right, and have it delivered to someone's house (either my aunt or one of my friends who'd be willing to hold it for me). the staff i chatted with on their website told me that the sale ends on 31 july, so i will have to decide by the end of this week. it's basically 90% in the bag at this point, just need to think about the payment plan and logistics.

-random thought of the day: Mildly sprained my right index finger.-

Canyon (the bike company) got back to me and told me that i had to pay in the destination country's currency when ordering a bike off them. was quite a bummer, until i decided to try placing a fake order to test that hypothesis. by "fake", i mean not entering any credit card info, and stopping short of confirming the order, nothing fraudulent. at least before confirming the order, there was nothing stopping me from opting to pay in yen and selecting singapore as the shipping country. so...that's something i'll try to push through, after getting accurate measurements for what size of bike i should get. i mean, the worst case is that they manually cancel my order and tell me to do it again.

the dinner party thing with the bigger school was nice. made some conversation with the new principal, which i don't usually get to do during working hours. i found it quite sad that due to the venue configuration, we were separated by gender. seems that it's still old-school japanese thinking. food-wise, it was great. in a rare instance, i found myself stuffed to capacity...but it wasn't the venue's fault. see, the dinner was the usual multitude of small dishes. and i usually feel underfed at these kind of parties. so, i arranged with the maths teacher to go for ramen after the party. he even paid for me! i felt quite bad, really...will make it up to him with operation konnyaku. back to the story...i ordered a large sized ramen, as that was my usual order. but i didn't count on the bowl being quite that large! i have no idea how the maths teacher managed to finish a large bowl of ramen plus a side order of rice. for me, the last few bites were a bit of a struggle, and it was probably the first time i didn't finish the soup as well. to be fair though, the ramen was overall average. the noodles were nice, but the soup was a little too oily. 

since i'm only due back in the office on the 31st, i should figure out what to do with the remaining 8 days of free time i have. my JET friend is busy with moving, so i'm not sure if meeting him and his wife (and maybe a japanese teacher that we've both worked with) for dinner will materialize. apart from that, i want to go to the neighbouring prefecture for a bike fitting, as well as to enquire about the trek bike. i am 85% going with the canyon, but more info never hurt.

speaking of having more info, i just saw a bike on sale in singapore. it's going for $1050, which is about 60% of the canyon bike's price. the only downsides are that there isn't a rear rack nor a dynamo (generator) headlight included. but i figure even if i buy a rear rack and headlight, i still won't incur $750 (the price difference) in the costs and battery changes over the life of the bike. more googling has told me that dynamo lights are available from third parties as an add-on, so that's something i might think about. aside from the cost savings, another upside is that i have the freedom to choose a rear rack. this is important because different brands support different mounting systems. it's a bit messy, but nothing some reading and firm decision-making can't handle.

apart from all the bike stuff, i also want to get in a spot of gardening (weeding, really), and cleaning. although i still have about...4? 5? months left, i should get a head start on putting things away. the dishes, for starters. don't see myself hosting that many people, and my dish rack is overflowing. should also start looking into buyers for my current bicycles (the grocery bike first, then the commuting bike later) and the car. apart from those major things, there really isn't anything that i MUST sell. i do want to get rid of some things, like clothes and maybe some frivolous purchases that i've made, but i can mull those over as they're less important.

-random thought of the day: There's something else I wanted to blog about, right?-

Having a puzzle/problem i can't solve drives me up the wall, especially when i think that it should be within my capability to solve it. this particular puzzle involves my air-con, and it's been bugging me for the past 2 years. let me tell you what the issue is, and what i've tried.

the issue is that my air-con stops responding to the remote. notice i said "stops responding" and not "doesn't respond". background: i use my aircon for 2, 3 months a year, in the summer. there's an on/off switch on the main body, in addition to the remote. for the remaining 9-10 months, it remains turned off at the on/off switch. there's no switch at the mains (japanese wiring), so i can't control it there without unplugging it.

every summer, i will turn the air-con on using the on/off switch, and operate it using the remote. this works for a day or two. after that, the air-con refuses to acknowledge the remote (no beeps when i press the buttons). it's not the remote's problem; i've tested it with the other wall unit in the living room and it works fine. i thought that it might be due to the summer heat and/or humidity, making the wires expand and short out, or water condensation inside the air-con body obscuring the sensor that detects the remote's signal. but these things don't make sense either. i only started using the air-con later this summer, with identical results. earlier this year, i also used it for one night in the winter when E came...same thing, although it stopped responding faster.

right now, my last hypothesis is that it's something else electrical, maybe a capacitor that gets charged as the air-con is in the "on" state. and when the capacitor is fully charged, the circuit somehow bypasses the sensor. i tried turning the air-con off when i'm not using it, and i think i got an additional day where i could use the remote. i won't know until/unless i ask someone to come check it out, but at this point, i've learnt to live with it. good thing my air-con comes with physical buttons on the wall unit, so i can use it without the remote! if i couldn't...i think i might just end up sleeping in the living room where the air-con that works fine is.

today was the last day of term 1. i didn't realize how much tension i'd been holding until i got home, sat down, and felt a sense of profound relaxation wash over me...or it might just be cold air from the air-con. whatever it is, i'm going to spend the next 10 days(!) relaxing. got a dinner party thing tomorrow, and i'm thinking of using the opportunity to go to aeon mall in the city, or maybe have a nice sushiro lunch. don't think i need to drop by the stationery shops, but i figure no harm taking a look. seriously considering shipping a canyon bike to singapore now, after they replied my questions. once they say i can pay in yen and ship to singapore, i'll go for it.

don't feel like doing anything now. think i should call it an early night, especially since i have rubbish disposal tomorrow and i haven't prepared.

-random thought of the day: Recharge over the break!-

Pro wrestling (WWF/WWE in particular) used to be something i was quite heavily invested in - following the storylines, keeping track of who were "bad" and "good" ("heel" and "face" respectively, in wrestling lingo), never missing a single episode up till JC or so. one of my earliest memories was watching wrestling with my maternal grandmother at her house and talking about who the "pai lang" and "ho lang" were. yes, i'd had the whole "wrestling is fake" reveal in...secondary school, i believe? but still, it was entertainment. i only stopped following it closely in NS, when i had to be in camp without cable TV...and i never really got back into it after that.

nowadays, i think that it's a different era. i'm not very interested in it any more, so i only sporadically search for wrestling stuff on youtube, or go to a wrestler's wiki page when i find out that they've passed away, or if there's some other big news. i know i'm a little late with this, but i only recently found out that the undertaker was inducted into the WWE hall of fame last year. at this point, i should mention that the undertaker is my favourite pro wrestler of all time. i think it was the character he played (the "gimmick")...lord of darkness, supernatural powers, etc. maybe kid/teenaged me wished i had those powers. and after that, him riding a motorcycle to the ring was all sorts of cool. anyway, people were saying that his hall of fame induction speech was brilliant, so i went to have a listen.

in the speech, his overarching theme was "live your own life for yourself". and between paying tribute and giving thanks to people, he shared 3 of his "mental moves" that helped him do that. they were, (1) perception is reality; (2) respect and loyalty go a long way; (3) never be content. all three points speak to me, but i think 1 and 3 are particularly important in my case, as things that i can improve on. perception being reality can be phrased another way - people judge you based on your actions. the undertaker shared a story about how, as a new-ish wrestler, he was impatient with a rookie who was messing up, and went harder on him than necessary during their match. when he got backstage, everyone thought he messed up and wasn't a good example. in my context, this would be tied to how i present myself during job applications and interviews. after all, the employers don't know much about me. so i've got to make myself look good in the interview.

the third point, never be content, strikes close to my heart. ever since year 1 of JET, i've been struggling with whether i could make a career out of teaching in general, be it english in japan, tuition, or even in a university. and i've always thought (for my specific case, at least) that teaching as a career is settling below my full potential. while i am physically capable of (and dare i say it - fairly decent at) teaching, i think that my soul would die. so, the idea is to try for something that makes me feel like i'm spending my time well/doing something worthy. at this point, i still think that it's scientific IP. i don't know if it will change in the future, but for now, this is what i want to do. perhaps i should consider alternative routes, like going for the masters in australia first. that'll be something i have to ask the principal during our scheduled zoom call. it will basically use up all the money i've earned in japan (and more), but if i really can't find work anywhere, that might be the best course forward. the worry i have though, is that that will specialize me even further. once i finish the masters, it's basically going to be IP or nothing. quite a big gamble to be taking at this point, i think. still...it's a tad premature to be worrying about this.

made easy pickles on saturday, and have been munching on them to get my vegetable intake in. what i did was cut cucumber and daikon into large-ish chunks, add fish sauce, then put everything in the fridge. i should have used half fish sauce/half water, because the cucumbers were too salty. or maybe i should have left the cucumbers whole and only cut them when i wanted to eat them. i realize that daikon lends itself excellently to pickling! the crisp bite becomes a bit more...resistant? like, a bite through the pickled daikon doesn't snap cleanly through as it would if the daikon were fresh. instead, your teeth kind of sink into the flesh for a bit before the snap. this pickling thing is great, because i have something cold to eat on these hot days.

did some bicycle research too, as part of my plan to commute to work in the future. currently, i've narrowed my 2 choices down to the trek district 4 or the canyon commuter 7. from a logistics point of view, i'm leaning heavily towards the canyon. it seems easier to ship to singapore, and i think that i get more tech for about the same price. i just saw that the canyon commuter 6 (the previous version) is essentially the same as the commuter 7, except for having 3 fewer gears and being $300 cheaper. might think about that too. assuming that goes through, my plan is to place the order by end-august using my rakuten card, so the the points will come in in time for me to use them while i'm still in japan.

by the way, today's a holiday here. sea day. that's why i'm not in school. the smaller school (that i'm due to go to tomorrow) also has tomorrow off, and in combination with leave on friday, guess who's only working 2 days this week? better yet, i'm taking the whole of next week off, too. had to clear my leave before august. i've got summer leave in august too, so the majority of my weeks should be 4-day work weeks, which will get even shorter due to all my unrecorded time off from eiken practice. i'll probably take like, 1 or 2 hours off and go for afternoon cycles or something. should also think about cleaning up! the countdown timer says 167 days, but that's to the end of december. if i leave at the end of my visa, that's actually closer to 140 or 135. my friend, who's leaving in about 10 days' time, says that it doesn't feel real. i think i would hate to leave at the end of july...the humid weather would make it so horrible to do cleaning and all that. at least it should be cooler in october, when i start cleaning in earnest.

just a quick look at upcoming events...got to print out and distribute holiday homework to the kids. each level is getting 3 worksheets, and the idea is for them to do one worksheet a week, with 2 weeks left for an actual holiday. i'm also due for an end-of-term party with the bigger school. probably not going to do the afterparty thing if they have one planned...my old bones can't handle it. apart from school, i want to go to the next prefecture (2-hour drive!) to check on whether i can import the trek bike to japan, then take it with me back to singapore. just writing the plan out already makes me want to go with canyon. but the more important thing is, that shop offers free bike fittings. i'm not sure if they do it manually or with the high-tech system like in singapore, but if it saves me about $150, spending about $50 on the round trip will be worth it. my JC friends were planning to come over, but schedule incompatibilities means that it's not going to happen. it's ok; we'll have chances to meet up, be it in singapore or abroad. oh - i also have to change notes to coins and wash my thick winter blanket tomorrow. might wash my chair cushions too, while i'm at it.

-random thought of the day: Do the WIPO courses!-

Rather than continue charging headfirst into the fray and bombarding IP firms with job applications, i think i should pause to take stock of what i've done so far, and consider my future steps based on that.

to start, i'll list the IP firms on my list, and my thoughts (rating? ranking?) for each one. going to just use letters of the alphabet and no fixed order, as a safeguard just in case they actually background check me. although this blog isn't listed on the google search index, i wouldn't be surprised if companies had more thorough methods than simple googling. the trouble is going to be remembering which firm is which on the list. hopefully i give myself enough details and references.

firm A: the firm at which my junior works. i haven't made contact yet...not since the last time in 2020, anyway. she told me that there aren't any vacancies, but i see job ads up. granted, those are for non-newbies, so not exactly suited for me. if possible, i would really like to end up here. rating: 4.5/5. i will probably give them a try closer to october.

firm B: the one with the nice principal, and whose HR said that they weren't hiring. i've got a positive interaction with them, which makes me want to join them. but for all i know, that could have been a well-disguised GTFO. the principal did say that i could contact them again, so i plan on doing that in november. i figure that should reduce the uncertainty enough. rating: 3.5/5.

firm C: the firm which my junior suggested i try applying to. i wrote to them, but they told me that they didn't have any vacancies suited to my skills. i don't feel particularly torn up about this; it was more of a backup "mai hiam buay pai" option. rating: 2.5/5.

firm D: the only firm i've contacted so far which has its office outside of the CBD. the principal who wrote back said that they weren't hiring. this was another backup, so...whatever. it seems to be a small operation (the singapore office, at least), and as such, i don't think that it's the best place to learn. rating: 2/5.

firm E: this one is not a specialized IP firm, but a law firm with an IP branch. the department head was nice, and even asked for my resume. i have an amazing impression of this firm, because of their website. they give me the impression that they really take care of their staff. but yes, it could all be a front, and i won't know until i experience it first-hand. rating: 4.5/5

firm F: this firm also has singapore and australia offices. the principal who i wrote to even agreed to speak to me on zoom (reminder to self: the following thursday; prepare questions). i see that as a positive thing at this point. not sure about the singapore-side staff, though i know that someone from my senior's graduating cohort is working there now. rating: 4/5.

firm G: i actually came across this firm while looking for IP firms in japan. they have a singapore office! i'm...lukewarm about this firm, because they don't seem to have many (any, really) technical staff. still, i figure no harm writing to them to get to know them a little better. rating: 1.5/5 for now.

firm H: someone from the same intake as me in the accursed IP firm is working there now. in addition, the principal i spoke to last time was quite kind, too. i plan to get in contact with them again. rating: 3.5/5.

firm I: this firm has good reviews on glassdoor, although a common thing people said in those reviews was that there was no/slow progression. still, if my aim is to get qualified, progression probably won't be as important in the short run. rating: 3/5.

firm J: i wrote to this firm back in 2020 too. at that time, they were interested in taking things further beyond the initial contact, but i'd committed to JET by the time they got back to me. i'm not particularly keen on this firm for the main reason that they used to be related to the accursed IP firm. the reviews aren't all that great, either. perhaps i'll make this a backup as well. rating: 2.5/5.

firm K: another australian firm which i'd written to last year. no reply yet, so either the principal is busy, or they're ignoring me on purpose. rating: ?/5 until i hear a reply, 0/5 if they don't reply at all, 5/5 if they can sponsor my australian work visa.

didn't realize that i had 11 firms on my list! feels like fewer. let's see...out of the 11, i've had hard nos from C and D. by that, i mean just simply "sorry, we're not hiring". soft nos/maybes from A, B, and E, defined as "not now, but we'll keep you in mind/please contact us again in the future". no contact/nothing heard yet/uncertain from F to K. i'm heartened that the firms that i'd most like to end up in haven't given me hard nos yet, although maybe i'm being too optimistic. the grey area is big enough for things to swing either way in the future. i'll just choose to be optimistic until i hear otherwise.

what has this exercise shown me? that i have more choices than i realize. that people may be willing to help - provided that you (i) ask. that timing is important - i think i may have started this ball rolling too early. looking at it another way, i'm getting my foot in the door earlier. whatever the case is, i'm sure that there's a grand plan somewhere, and things will fall into place. of course, i can (and should) do my part to make sure that the plan has the best chance of working out too...starting with the zoom call. while i'd optimistically wish that he'd agree to sponsor my visa and offer me a place in the australian office, probably what i can realistically hope for is some advice, and if i'm lucky, for him to put in a good word with the singapore office.

-random thought of the day: So humid!-

Borrowing a phrase from the youngsters (man, that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) to describe my mental state, i'm low-key panicking. the reason for that is 2 more IP firms have written back to say that their vacancies have been filled. i wouldn't be as upset about it, if one of their job ads wasn't still on the internet, and if the HR person hadn't contradicted the science team lead! i read the email replies while at school, and on the cycle home, a line from bruce almighty popped into my mind. it goes, "i have no bird, i have no bush. god has taken my bird and my bush". although i was (am still) somewhat panicking, recalling that line made me laugh. i realized that i haven't been laughing much recently. i mean real laughter, not the polite little (mostly fake) laughs that punctuate japanese conversations. should do something about it.

let's take a step back and ask - is the panic justified? objectively looking at it, i'd say no. or not yet, at least. after all, i have 4-ish 5 months to go before i become available. asking a company to confirm my hiring now is like chope-ing a place way way in advance. i can understand their reluctance to commit at this point. perhaps i should ask later? i'm torn - i want to secure something as early as possible for peace of mind (aka. to soothe my kiasu spirit), but companies are less likely to respond favourably at this point. and yet, if i wait to do it when i'm close to leaving japan, or worse, when i'm already back in singapore, i worry that there will be a long downtime. i'd like there to be about a week of free time max between getting off the plane and my first day of work. that should be enough time to settle any admin stuff, housing, meeting old friends, etc.

i think what i can do now is to establish contact without worrying about the outcome - making myself known, so to speak. that way, at least the companies will have some idea of who i am, and that i've made contact before when i start applying in earnest. i don't know if hiring works in this way exactly, but i'd like to think that applying early gives me some sort of priority - at least my CV is waiting once an opening is available. with that in mind, i will write to a few more IP firms, both in singapore and australia. i don't want to get my own expectations/hopes up, but it sure would be nice if a firm replied positively. by that, i mean something along the lines of "you seem like a great fit for us! sure, we'll wait 5 months for you."...but let's get our head out of the clouds and back to reality.

today, there was an odd twisty feeling in my heart while i was at the bigger school. i feel that there's an imbalance somewhere. and as someone who values reciprocation, that doesn't sit well with me at all. i wonder if i'm expecting too much; that might be the case here. well...i just have to remind myself, with increased frequency and intensity, that these aren't my kids, and their lives will have basically no impact on mine after JET. put more simply, i should just let things go.

-random thought of the day: Fruit flies are back!-

When debating whether to leave in november or december, a small voice inside me always says, "you'll get an extra month of pay if you stay for a month longer!" and that has, to some extent, made me want to stay until the end of the year. but i was just thinking yesterday, while i was writing to some IP firms, 'why make one more month of JET salary when i could be making IP professional salary sooner?' and it made me realize that i should be smarter about how i spend my time. granted, the act of going on JET itself already wasn't very smart, if we look at it from a purely dollars-and-cents perspective. but i think that at least for my first 2 years here, the intangible benefits made up for it.

i made contact with 3 australian IP firms, and 3.5(?) singaporean firms. i'll explain the 0.5 first. it was actually my #1 choice, and because my junior works there, i was able to get some insider info. she tells me that the chemistry team is full, and they most likely won't be recruiting anytime soon. so that's a bummer. i could hope for a miracle (ie. a spot opening up), but i figured that i should also explore other possible avenues.

which leads me to the 3 australian firms. i'm actually double-counting 2 of them as singapore firms too, simply because they have singapore offices. one of them got back to me already, telling me that while there are no vacancies in australia, there is an opening in singapore. i've asked to be considered for it, so with luck, that'll work out. a principal in the second australian firm mentioned that i should try setting up date and time to chat with him over the phone or zoom, and i've proposed a few dates within this month. i suspect he will tell me to apply to their singapore office, but the issue is that i don't see any vacancies on their site. the third australian firm said that sponsorship was possible for exceptional candidates, so that gave/gives me hope. i think the best thing to do now is to just wait for their replies.

the last possible avenue is singaporean firm #3. this one is a full-service law firm, and that means the legal training should be good. not too sure about the technical part, though i guess i can take a more active role in self-teaching due to my scientific background. in terms of image, this firm wins by a mile. if you ask me now, i'm hoping to end up here the most. but if another firm were to give me an offer sooner, i might just take the other offer instead. you know, birds and bushes. that's looking too far into the future though. i guess i should remind myself that my main goal is to reduce (or eliminate, if possible) the duration of unemployment between JET and the next thing. and to do that, i should cast a wider net.

a quick google has shown that all of the firms i'm looking at are in the CBD area. two of them are even in the same building! i'm thinking of commuting to work via bicycle...assuming i get a job at one of them. while it IS possible to commute to and from sengkang, i kind of want to start off easy and travel for a shorter distance. my idea is to use my aunt's house as a base instead, but that's also contingent on receiving her permission. i've also started looking around bike shops' websites for belt drive commuter bikes with rear racks that can hold a bag. considering asking a bike shop to bring one in, or in the worst case, buy one in japan and pay to ship it back.

one more big piece of news i heard over the past week is that a prominent-ish lawyer passed away. apart from the whole lawyer thing, he was also a prolific writer! i'd actually read a speech he gave as a commencement address, without knowing it was this particular person who'd written it. i didn't know him personally, but i still feel a sense of loss. could be that he was an IP lawyer, and i regret never having the chance to talk to him. i think he'd be a great mentor (for the legal stuff, anyway)! good thing is, he posted quite a lot on linkedin, and his profile is public, so i can slowly digest his content.

-random thought of the day: 5 more schooldays until summer break!-

Each of my schools has a school year forecast. in it, they mark important school events, test dates, breaks, etc. while looking at one of them for exit planning purposes, i realized that i am actually looking forward to getting out of this town. even sticking to the end of the year might be difficult; i might opt to stay just until the end of my visa, a month earlier. the difference is basically just that one month's salary. it's actually not that much, especially with the horrible exchange rate. well...that'll be for me to decide on next month.

although i took monday off, this week still felt incredibly long. i guess it's because of my change in mindset? also, i'm just not having fun in the bigger school any more, which makes the days drag. it's not all bad - i still have good interactions, but that number is decreasing with time. even if i exit in november, i will still be in time to help any kids prepare for the second term's round of eiken. i will be sorry to leave the kids in the smaller school though, because they've shown so much growth in the last year! and the teacher is literally the best japanese english teacher i've worked with, out of the 6 total in secondary schools in my time here.

i've also come to a conclusion about what to do with the blog. i don't know who exactly is reading it, but i do know for sure that information from here is being passed, directly or indirectly, to someone i want nothing to do with. and...i don't like it. so, i'll be making this blog private sometime soon. i think blogger allows people to request access? have to mess around in the settings to figure it out.

more than once this passing week, i've found myself counting down to summer break (7 more working days) and to the end of my term (5 or 6 months, depending). it's starting to feel like the countdown to ORD, which is something that i was trying hard to avoid it becoming. see, it means that i've already mentally checked out. i think that had i made plans in january to end in july, it would have worked out perfectly, as far as my feelings were concerned. less so for the exchange rate, which i'm hoping will get better so i can exchange some money now. would it be asking for too much to see the exchange rate raech 1:80 by november? it probably would. fingers crossed...i wonder what the JETs who plan to go home in july are doing with their money?

-random thought of the day: Haircut tomorrow!-

FOMO strikes again! my former lab junior posted a photo of her winning some award. upon closer inspection, it was a book prize for having scored the highest for one paper (out of 4) in the patent attorney qualifying exams. shows that she's making progress towards becoming qualified...and i'm not. don't get me wrong, i'm happy for her! also, if i end up joining the company she's in, it means there'll be a familiar face. although the roles will be reversed - she'll be the senior while i'm the junior. i'm not too hung up on it. after all, she's put in the effort and deserves it. and hopefully she'll look out for me when/if i join!

seeing that on my linkedin still gave me a wave of...not-good feelings, mostly centred on myself and what on earth i'm still doing teaching english in this rural town. so yes, it's time to move on. the kancheong part of me is now thinking that even december is too late, and that i should be moving on like NOW. but i know that that will do more harm than good. although the exchange rate isn't doing wonders for my heart, either. we're at what, 106 yen to 1 SGD last i checked!? looks like i'll leave most of my money in japan until it recovers, or until i desperately need it.

i was already on the website anyway, so i went to do a bit of browsing. i saw that a few more people had left the accursed IP firm, including a senior trainee who had been there for 7 years. there's another senior who's been there for 9 years, and is still going strong. since i first knew about the place in 2019, they've only turned out one qualified patent attorney, who worked there for another year, then left. makes me wonder if the training there is really that bad, or if the exam is just that tough. i know that they offer in-house exam prep courses, but i can't speak for the quality as i've never attended. maybe it depends on the individual mentor. well...i had minimal (basically zero) interaction with the person who left, so i don't feel too strongly about it. i'm happy that they're out of that toxic place though. my target company also saw at least one departure, in the form of a qualified attorney. he was UK qualified, then got his singapore qualification sometime recently, i suppose. he was one of my 2 interviewers, and i would probably have been learning under him had i been accepted! in fact, i would guess that my junior actually worked with him. but i felt a little...cheated? that he left. it's irrational, especially it's none of my business!

also, i saw that my mentor in the tuition place had also left. she's now in the civil service, apparently? not sure how that links to her old job, but well. she must have had a good reason for the switch. it got me thinking, that unlike in schools, where you see the same old classmates until graduation, people don't have a fixed schedule for staying in a workplace. that sounded awkward. what i mean to say is, they can come and go at any time with basically no restrictions and minimal advance notice. so i guess we should try harder to strengthen the workplace friendships that we value? not saying that it's ok to neglect friendships from school or anything, by the way.

well...it's july. i'm working for 3 weeks, then clearing a week's worth of leave. thought of visiting my JET friend in kumamoto during that time, but he told me he was ending his contract and going back. so that's a no-go. regrets. well, i can still go to kumamoto, just that i won't have my accommodation covered. i also found that getting to kumamoto isn't that straightforward. i mean, they have an airport, but there are no direct flights to or from kochi. the plane route involves landing at fukuoka airport and taking a half-hour train ride to kumamoto city. not bad, by any means...just slightly inconvenient. no overnight buses, either, and driving is just...no. due to the geography, it's more hassle than it's worth. maybe i'll plan to travel a little during my long leave just before leaving?

looking further ahead, one month of no school in august, then term 2 from september to december. i'll probably start clearing leave at the start of december (start of november if i'm lucky, but let's assume the worse case), so officially i have july, september, october, november - 4 months of school left. term 2 is the busiest in terms of school activities, since both sports day and the culture festival are scheduled. in terms of english teaching load though, it's fairly light. just the usual textbook content, and a couple weeks of eiken prep in october-ish. i'm a little worried about how i'm going to occupy myself deskwarming during summer break, but i figure i'll have things to do. from preparing my handover notes for my successor, to doing some WIPO courses, to writing the remainder of the birthday letters that i won't be in time to give to the kids personally, among other things that may not be coming to mind right now. i figure it'll be fine. worst case, i'll take a few more days' leave. doubt it'll be necessary, since i've planned my summer leave such that i'm working 4 days a week for the majority of the break. for now, let's look forward to finishing term 1.

-random thought of the day: Considering getting rid of Facebook.-