Board 8 > Whats going on in your life right now? [blogfaqs]

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MZero11 posted...

If you come to Japan again hit me up I can show you around some cool places!

Will do. If I come back it'll most likely be next summer.

SantaRPidgey posted...

How are you enjoying it there? How good is your mandarin?

It's alright. Like anywhere it has it's good and it's bad. Mainly adjusted to the big things by now so not a big issue anymore. My Mandarin isn't great. I can get by, it's weak conversational I'd say. I can understand most of what people are saying because I know the key words but because I don't know the connectors it's hard to answer sometimes.
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Follow up question, can your job get me an under the table work visa to teach English to kids if I dont have a degree
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bumpo
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I moved to Washington DC a year ago (ultimately from California) when both my wife and I found high-paying jobs that seemed incredible.

After a year, we are both burned out from incredibly toxic office cultures that we had not anticipated. I love the money but I'm not sure how much longer I can put up with the garbage that comes along with it. This is my first job in my field and I don't want to jump ship until I can turn my experience into another opportunity.

Outside of work everything is pretty fine. But I spend most of time at work so it's pretty draining
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While I'm not nearly struggling as much as I was several years ago, money is still super tight

I'm still livin in the house that b8 helped me save

I'm actually tryin to convince my moms to move in but shes being stubborn. we both live in the same town and we would save lots of money. Maybe she likes living alone. I feel her, I don't mind it either.

I've suspected I'm suffering from clinical depression. I just have no energy, I don't want to try new things, hell, I don't even indulge in my own interests anymore. I don't play games nor watch netflix very often. I definitely don't draw and I have lots of ideas of youtube stuff and other projects but I don't act on them.

Then my cat of 11 years passed away a few weeks ago and that didn't help matters. She is survived by my 2 other cats.

Work was murder during the holidays because we were understaffed and It actually started taking it's toll on me physically. I think I may have perma hurt myself because my stamina isn't as good as it was last year. Now everybody on my staff keeps calling in so I have to keep covering for them

I can work long hours, its fine, but my schedules are so weird and divided that I don't end up getting alot of rest. Thats whats screwing me up

my life is pretty plain and uneventful, I don't have time to get into shenanigans anymore. Which might be a good thing in a weird way, but it makes things a tad bit boring. I think I used to be known for my weird stories and scenarios but they just don't happen anymore. Like I said, maybe its for the better

I have no special lady and I haven't for awhile. But its fine, I don't really get lonely.

but like I said, I can't complain much because I'm no longer in the same position I was several years ago: Barely scraping by, no money in my account, and then having a bunch of debt dumped on me

I'm comfortable now. If I want food, I can actually go out and buy it.
I still have debts and if something major happens, I WILL have problems. Thats why I'm adamant that being rich will solve all of my problems

my problem has always been being poor
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why am i posting here

I've been working in the same place for almost 6 years. The pay sucks for what I do, but it's pretty easy work (for me, because I'm just that damn good at it). I think I should've gone for something that pays better, but I don't think it would make anything better for me. I have no debts and make more than I spend. More won't help.

I basically have no idea what to do next. I have a stable life that has no possible course except staying right where it is.

I'm going to go to SGDQ but I'm not sure why.
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Red Shifter posted...

I basically have no idea what to do next. I have a stable life that has no possible course except staying right where it is.

Kids? Marriage? Vacations?
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Im old af ughhh
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SantaRPidgey posted...

Follow up question, can your job get me an under the table work visa to teach English to kids if I dont have a degree

No but if you come as a student you basically don't actually have to bother turning up to classes and a lot of schools will employ a student to teach English.
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Oh interesting idea!
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Bumpo no purgin
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Bumpo countie talking about life
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Still divorced lol

But i guess we can keep this bumped until we find out if my chinese girlfriend is a scam or not (she arrives on thursday [])
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I dunno what sucks more, having to live with the stuff I mentioned

or that I went out of my way to list it all and nobody cared
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Pun I care
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How come you say things like you have no stuff. That's the common thing you hear in TV and movies and stuff. "She took everything in the divorce". " I live in a shoebox apartment with no furniture " "all I've got left are my bones"

But like... don't you keep roughly half of the stuff? Especially if the split was somewhat amicable?
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i feel like these kinds of topics are where 'reactions' would be helpful- i don't have any amazing advice to contribute, but i appreciate hearing how you all are doing

we have a real, if a little distant and non traditional, community here
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Also, i am not an expert, but if you're paying alimony that can suck big time

You can theoretically have the same bills and half the income

Or less than half - if you are forced to take a pay cut due to a new job or whatever, you might still have to pay the court ordered amount. At least, according to my friend who went through the process
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Punnyz posted...

I dunno what sucks more, having to live with the stuff I mentioned

or that I went out of my way to list it all and nobody cared

I care! I just don't have anything interesting/productive to add. I'm glad you're doing better even if it's still not a great situation.
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ClyTheCool posted...

How come you say things like you have no stuff. That's the common thing you hear in TV and movies and stuff. "She took everything in the divorce". " I live in a shoebox apartment with no furniture " "all I've got left are my bones"

But like... don't you keep roughly half of the stuff? Especially if the split was somewhat amicable?

If you have a no-fault divorce, you do a 50/50 asset/liability split. So you lose half your stuff - you don't get to keep half of the couch, half of the TV, half of the bed, half of the dining room table, etc. So you might keep the bed and TV but not have a couch and table. It can take a while to replace that stuff, and you don't have as much to spend/save. And you have to replenish your savings, etc. You might have to sell your house because that is the only way to split such an asset and remove the liability. You might have to give it up in exchange for other assets. And what you can afford afterwards is going to be smaller because of what you can afford. And you possibly got a job in a location under the premise of having two people making money or raising kids or whatever. It's a big blow if you've done anything dependent or jointly, even if it was amicable.

and heaven help you if kids are involved
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Punnyz posted...

I dunno what sucks more, having to live with the stuff I mentioned

or that I went out of my way to list it all and nobody cared

<3 you Pun!

I've been all sorts of up and down over the past few years, high point was living in Japan for a year and loved that (so I low-key have the same question Santa asked work Visas) and low point was depression kicking the shit out of me for a few years. Thankfully in a better place in terms of that now.

Besides that I finished up my design degree, decided I hated working in design so currently finishing up a CS degree while doing database work and still doing indie dev and weird side art projects in my spare time.
I kind of gave up my social life to work on those projects, but thankfully I've got some good friends that are alright with me dropping off of the face of the earth for months at a time.
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@Punnyz Same as others have said. I care and I'm glad you're doing better. Take it slow. Don't try running a marathon when your learning to walk.

If anybody IS actually looking to do some work in China and has a degree. Any degree. I can look into situations I know my school is looking for a new teacher for next term which starts September.
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ClyTheCool posted...

How come you say things like you have no stuff. That's the common thing you hear in TV and movies and stuff. "She took everything in the divorce". " I live in a shoebox apartment with no furniture " "all I've got left are my bones"

But like... don't you keep roughly half of the stuff? Especially if the split was somewhat amicable?

Oh I mean I didnt have any stuff before the divorce so

The only thing I have of any value is the house I live in, and my n64 collection
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No degree but Im at HSK3!

Thats like a degree in "kinda knows the basics of chinese"
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Also I wrote up a big response to pun but couldnt figure out a way to close it and left it on my computer in an empty tab before giving up.

I def am right there with you with just hanging on to your house because it feels like the only thing that tethers you to this world.
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Ainoxi posted...

(so I low-key have the same question Santa asked work Visas)

You said you have a degree though, so you shouldn't have a problem getting a work visa. There are quite a few IT jobs out here that want Native English speakers if you're interested in that. It's easier if you speak Japanese but some jobs don't require it I think
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True true, was thinking more about how it would probably be easier with some sort of connection. So over-the table Visa!
Used to be able to speak a bit but it's been ~5 years so I'm probably pretty close to zero on that. Never actually considered looking for a tech job, not a bad idea. Any advice on starting to search around a little?

Teaching in China is temping, but I'd probably want a bit more time to try to learn some of the language before trying that out.

SantaRPidgey posted...

No degree but Im at HSK3!

Thats like a degree in "kinda knows the basics of chinese"

If we fuse we've totally got this!
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Have you seen the Step Brothers interview scene. Just wear suits and sit in a straight line. Plus you already know the Head of English.
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Ainoxi posted...

Teaching in China is temping, but I'd probably want a bit more time to try to learn some of the language before trying that out.

I got this far in six months, and after watching how quickly you learn stuff over the years I'm p sure you could get to HSK4 in six months
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HSK4 in six months is ambitious unless you have some understanding of the language before you start.
1 and 2 are pretty easy but the difficult increases pretty quickly. The lack of pinyin in HSK3 is a big step
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yeah even the jump from 1 to 2 is p big

why even have a 1? So you can know what 10 words on a chinese menu are and count to ten?
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I think it's the first 150 characters or something it's essentially the basics if you are learning by yourself with no help from a tutor or Chinese speaker I guess
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GaijinPot has a good selection of job listings and will help you get an idea of what's out there. Dave's ESL Cafe is good for English teaching jobs around the world. I'd start there!
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