So, what's everybody up to nowadays...

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May 2012

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		HOLIDAYS
May 28 - Memorial Day

Guardian Angels
Kia Purity's Site
Surtur's Fuge of the Damned
Malachit Room
The Nisan Sanctuary

[Nyuna]

What about doing free-lance work? Not a real option?

[Myaru]

For shits n giggles, I'm still unemployed after 10 months. Fucking economy.

Fuck, really?  That sucks. 

Freelance seems pretty unreliable, so far as I've seen when Zach is looking.  People aren't willing to pay very much for web or logo design; you'll see someone list their budget at "up to $500" and give the job to someone for $55 instead.  It's not like they want quality or anything - or that they'd even know quality if it bit them in the ass.  It's the same for writers, because "anybody can write!"

/bitter

A lot of posts on the subforums still date back to 2006 but are on the front page.

The board was hacked, or crashed, or something a little while ago, wasn't it?  We lost several threads, but I guess that's negligible. 

Well, I'm not employed either.  I just stopped trying.  New graduates don't have a chance when there are people out there with years of experience that are desperate for a job, any job, even the entry-level ones.  I'd really like to be able to pay my student loans off, but hey, now I get to join the rest of the USA in being deeply in debt for no good reason!  That sense of solidarity has to be worth something.

[Franz]

What about doing free-lance work? Not a real option?

Not really, nor does it solve my need for (paid) medical insurance. Since I'm on unemployment and get to

sit on my ass and do nothing for minimal cash

, not only is it cheaper than most basic 10-13/hr mindless grunt jobs that I could do, but any income I get can take away from my unemployment if it exceeds $999.99.

[A.C]

The board was hacked, or crashed, or something a little while ago, wasn't it?  We lost several threads, but I guess that's negligible. 

Actually, that was sometime right before Xenosaga III was released in the middle of 2006. I was archiving some threads for my Xeno website a few months ago when I noticed all of the Xenosaga III trailer and pre-release discussions were missing, including the whole leaked database fiasco with the Xenosaga III demo CD that Duckroll posted in 'Takahashi's Mind' subforum.

[kostjan]

not only is it cheaper than most basic 10-13/hr mindless grunt jobs that I could do, but any income I get can take away from my unemployment if it exceeds $999.99.

Aha!!! So it is YOU who PARASITES off my fourty-something percent salary TAXES, doing NOTHING!!!!! *starts the chainsaw*

...

...

Oh, wait..  umm... Wrong country... You're good, sorry, my mistake.... Umm.. here, take back your left hand.. er..

...

On a more serious note, being out of work (especially for such prolonged time) sucks big time - I wouldn't be able to do it (mortgage, car loan, etc). That being said, the IT market here in Montreal has been treating me nicely so far: when I left my last job, after 4 days of looking I had 10 companies interested in me, and 3 concrete job offers (one of which was slightly better than what I had when I left, which I ended up accepting)... 

[Raine 3.0]

Hello everyone.

Every now and then I get all nostalgic about Xenogears and come to troll Leamonde a bit. This was such an important community for me. It was my first internet community, and it was filled with some crazy memories. I don't remember exactly but I think I was in like 9th grade when I first found these boards, so it's been about ten years-crazy. I'm 25 now, argh! It's always nice when I randomly do find my way back to Leamonde to see a post by TC, Myaru, Kostjan, or whoever. Good to see you guys doing ok for the most part.

As for me, I finished up my BA in International Relations with Economics and Asian Studies minors this May. Now, I'm in South Korea doing the English teacher thing for a few years and then hoping to have saved up enough to do grad school here, in Taiwan, or in Japan. On a mission to learn all three of these languages! The Chinese and Korean are giving me little trouble, and that will hopefully make Japanese click easily once I get to focusing on it. Of course, nothing is set in stone. My first contract here is ending in January, and I'm currently going through the hassle of getting a new contract and then visa renewal. My plans could be cut short if anything goes bad in the next few weeks, but everything looks on track right now. Things are great though. I am really happy being here. So many foreigners here just seem to hate being here, but I've really been lucky. My city is great, I've met lots of cool Koreans, my school treats me well, and my students are amazing.

No access to gaming here at all though as ironic as that seems for Korea, but I have no consoles and don't do the online game thing. I so want to replay Xenogears. Only series I really get excited about now are Suikoden and Persona. Suikoden seems dead though, but Persona is alive at least. I've become one of those people who plays flash games at my office at work.

Congratulations to all who are now married, and to all of you working in your dream jobs. Thanks for the community and memories.

[BlurYamaneko]

aw yeah a fellow East Asian langauge-head.  I'm still studying Japanese (second year at uni as a "mature" student, and yes, it's still in inverted commas), and fingers crossed I will be studying in Tokyo or Yokohama from next September.  Can't wait for that !  Just got to pass my exams and like, get some money.  I've been dabbling with Chinese too and will focus on that after Japanese, and then do some Korean after that probably.  I mean if my enthusiasm stays as high as it is now  Either way I definitely think relocating to Asia is on the cards once I get my degree.  Though other stuff such as like, a job, might interfere with these grand language-acquiring plans.

I actually got offered a job in Taiwan teaching English last year... went for a quick holiday and could have ended up there forever.  But I chose uni instead.  Hmm !

Nyuna: to respond to your comment from a year ago (aha), I did meet a few people from Ritsumeikan!  Probably not such a huge  chance we knew the same people, but if you knew a girl who was heavily into Spain called Hitomi, or a guy called Saimon who grew up in Brazil and is calm, relaxed, and extremely popular with the ladies, then I guess we did !  I was quite interested in going to Ritsumeikan too but my Tokyo fetish won out in the end.  Still, my teachers make the final call on where to put me for the year's exchange so we'll see.

[Nyuna]

Heh, well, I'm okay with late replies.
Unfortenately, I do not know these people after all, I was wondering if you know a Polish guy that also studied something like Computational Linguistics, or a girl named Sophie. Rits is actually not so good for bettering your Japanese, as far as I know, "province" universities are way more effective in that matter. But Rits is awesome for having a good time, partying, connecting with people from all over the world - and also if you like Kyoto. Kinkakuji is just around the corner! But if you have a Tokyo fetish, then that won't help, hm?


As for the update on my current state, I'm just back from Japan, have been there on a two week vacation over the winter holidays, and damn, I want to go back. I am also officially regsitered for exams and have to write my thesis in the next two months now. Not being a Native English speaker makes it twice as hard for me, but I want to move to Japan, too, after graduating.

[Xylix]

Just poking my head in to say hello.   Apparently the last time I posted here was July 2007.

I suppose I should give the obligatory 'what are you up to now?'.   Answer:  Working.  Eating.  Breathing.   Unless someone here has a experience with DO-178B software testing (or frankly, even knows what I'm talking about) I'll leave it at that.

Oh, I'm back in Kansas, living with my parents because I'm too cheap to pay for an apartment or cook my own meals.  Believe me, it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds, and makes for a nice savings rate.

Oh, I don't argue on the net anymore.   I banned myself from that activity. 

Hard to imagine, I know.

In any case, hey.

[TheContact]

Haha, good to hear from you Xylix.  Kansas? Crazy.  Where were you before? I can't recall.

As for DO-178B... software for planes?  I"m sure someone who lives in my neck of the woods would know about it, what with all the boeing people around.

Also, why would you stop arguing on the Internet?  You were so good at it!

[Kia_Purity]

Wait, someone else in Kansas? O_o

Also; I got my computer upgraded, unfortunately I forgot my password for leamonde.net email and I forgot to import stuff over from my other hard drive.

I need to shoot myself.

(ETA: On a good note, I didn't lose my FTP information! Auuugh, I should have known that firefox and thunderbird stores their stuff separately!)

[Franz]

A few months later I thought I'd mention I have a full time gig working for Deluxe Digital...its not glorious, considering I took a production artist position, but its a stepping stone to better employment.


(Everybody do The Franz!)

[TheContact]

Congrats dude!  That's great! You're part of the reason unemployment is down! 

[BlurYamaneko]

Congrats Franz

I'm currently dodging multiple disasters and inconveniences in Tokyo~

It's... not boring.

[Franz]

This is hilarious: I'm unemployed again
I was fired for applying for 2 open designer positions. I wasn't aware that was a good reason to fire somebody especially when its within the same department. But, at least I took advantage of all the mobile and gym discounts online before it happened. Oh! and that I didn't tell unemployment insurance to fuck off.