8 minutes ago, Erik2.0 said:

Sounds interesting. Is it like a history of money in an area? 

I guess it could be described as such, since there is a lot of modern history as context for understanding today's situation. I like the overlap between geography and history.

Day 265:

I studied, took a nap, took the exam, read, wrote a big of my next article for the blog and worked out in the evening.

Day 266:

I read, visited my parents and wrote a lot, both in my blog and on another forum. I decided to skip the workout today.

Day 267:

I read in the morning, wrote here on GQ and put a few hours into both my blog article that I will finalize and post tomorrow, as well as the illustrative English lesson, as I have scheduled a couple of job interviews this week. Together with a workout, that took up my whole day.

Good luck with the job interviews! What kinds of jobs are you looking for? 🙂 

8 hours ago, ElectroNugget said:

Good luck with the job interviews! What kinds of jobs are you looking for? 🙂 

Thanks! I am looking for English classes I could lead as a lecturer.

Day 268:

Day 1/3 of the interviews. The one in the morning was fairly short and perhaps because of that lukewarm. The other one around noon was way better, perhaps because I had to show a short illustrative lesson and my interviewer seemed quite excited by encountering me. We'll see.

I ate and read a bit afterwards. There's two more chapters of Gulag Archipelago volume III remaining, so I should be done with it this week.

I went to the English Scrabble tournament afterwards. There were four of us in the end and I won, probably because I am the biggest nerd and I played a lot at home with mom! Three of us hung around afterwards, went for a beer and chatted throughout the evening.

Day 269:

Day 2/3 of the interviews. The one in the morning was strange. It seemed like the woman interviewing was afraid to talk with me in English directly and unless I misunderstood, the price they offered me was almost a half of what I wanted. It seemed like a firm for low-cost tutoring though, rather than a language school. The one in the afternoon was a bit different, as I am negotiating a pay raise and my contract with them ended at the end of the last year. Since they wanted feedback from the companies I taught at, to see if I deserved the raise, I told them I am OK waiting for now until they investigate this. What a war this is!

Other than that, I managed to work out and meet up in a café in the evening with one of the guys I met yesterday. I'm looking forward towards having more free time tomorrow.

Day 270:

Day 3/3 of the interviews. I had a Skype interview in the morning that went well, although I prefer personal ones.

The afternoon one was very interesting. I certainly proved my English is great and they mentioned that. But at one point, I got (at that point unconsciously) crept out at the implied level of cooperation they seemed to have with other language schools in the area. They said they wanted references from the schools themselves (not from me or people I actually taught?). I dug in afterwards and didn't tell them anything else regarding the topic, they likely took it as if I am untrustworthy (or not a "player") and rejected me.

I feel that as a freelancer, I am not obliged to give detailed info about my other ongoing employments, be it references from the "middle man" (what they said they wanted) or pay (what I thought they wanted). Could there be some kind of an oligopoly going on in the area, to keep the non-organized masses of lecturers on low pay? Or am I just paranoid? Maybe a bit of both. I'd like to escape the mire of language schools, but I have to make a name for myself first... What a war.

I finished reading Gulag Archipelago. What a book it was. I think Chapter IV from volume I and the whole second part from volume II were the ones that impressed me the most. I also went for a jog.

Does employment offer better pay conditions than freelance work Ikar? Wish you luck in getting the job.

Is teaching english your main practice area or is this temporary?

9 hours ago, Amphibian220 said:

Does employment offer better pay conditions than freelance work Ikar? Wish you luck in getting the job.

Is teaching english your main practice area or is this temporary?

I think the only comparable alternative to what I am doing is being an English teacher on state schools, but I'd need a uni diploma for that and I'm at least 3 years away from that. It would probably pay around the same, plus I'd have to deal with other things besides teaching. Since I study already, I don't even want a "normal" job. It's a hobby for me at this point and my university studies are unrelated to it.

Thanks for the wishes!

Day 271:

I had a slow and lazy day, although I worked out, visited my grandma and tried to sort some things out regarding my car. I also posted a new blog article.

3 hours ago, Ikar said:

Day 271:

I had a slow and lazy day, although I worked out, visited my grandma and tried to sort some things out regarding my car. I also posted a new blog article.

That's great. I wish you luck on the employment opportunities as well. I think you'll find something that meets your expectations of pay and hopefully exceeds your expectations of work environment.

Even on a slow and lazy day you still worked out which is something the majority of people don't do on even their best days. Good work. 🙂

Day 272:

I did my laundry, worked out and went out for a class of English conversation.

Yesterday, I managed to lock about a two second long gaze with a girl when I was standing at the till. I got chills up the spine instantly, as people do not hold eye contact this long and I play the game of looking passersby in the eyes quite often. Even though that is all there was to it in the end, I noticed this social interaction between me and her. I'm aware and vigilant.

Day 273:

I got up late. I worked through my mail, wrote, worked out, visited my father with my brother and had a very brief glance over a couple of Excel files for the statistics exam on Tuesday.

Day 274:

I got my events into Excel for the next week, worked a bit on a paper and studied, worked out, read, took a nap and watched Reservoir Dogs in the evening.

Day 275:

Today I cleaned my room, studied for the stat exam tomorrow, read and did some minor work on my webpage. I am also planning to get a gun license during spring; I talked and thought about it ever since I left the army and I think going to a shooting range from time to time would be a nice hobby for me.

I went to an intro lesson to a course of classic philosophy in the evening. What stuck with me was that the lady there mentioned that Socrates thought that "astonishment is a stance of a man who truly loves wisdom". I was actually astonished by her gesticulation as she was lecturing. I have recently found out that I am easy to impress by people in things I want to be better at myself and that I do not mind being a fool by starting out (badly).

4 hours ago, Ikar said:

Day 275:

Today I cleaned my room, studied for the stat exam tomorrow, read and did some minor work on my webpage. I am also planning to get a gun license during spring; I talked and thought about it ever since I left the army and I think going to a shooting range from time to time would be a nice hobby for me.

I went to an intro lesson to a course of classic philosophy in the evening. What stuck with me was that the lady there mentioned that Socrates thought that "astonishment is a stance of a man who truly loves wisdom". I was actually astonished by her gesticulation as she was lecturing. I have recently found out that I am easy to impress by people in things I want to be better at myself and that I do not mind being a fool by starting out (badly).

I used to go shooting with my dad when I was a kid. I really miss it. It was nice being outside and everything. Only annoying part was cleaning everything after lol. But it was good to do it. Don't want jams or misfires. 

5 hours ago, BooksandTrees said:

I used to go shooting with my dad when I was a kid. I really miss it. It was nice being outside and everything. Only annoying part was cleaning everything after lol. But it was good to do it. Don't want jams or misfires. 

That's right! In the army, they used to say that a gun is a soldier's mistress. If you treat her well, she won't give you any trouble.

Day 276:

I got up, got Russian done, read a bit of NMMNG, baked a chicken, worked out, went to take the stats exam, read a bit more, went to do the groceries, sorted some small things around my paper I need to do by Monday and meditated using Headspace somewhere along the day.

The exam went well and I felt overall quite happy about my day. I wanted to be social today, so I decided to get a beer on my own and hang out in the student's pub. I met a couple of people I already knew from before. It was an interesting experience to pick myself up and go somewhere to just primarily meet people.

Good job on the exam man. 🙂 And getting out to socialize is amazing haha, it's funny how much gaming took that skill away from us. 

19 hours ago, ElectroNugget said:

Good job on the exam man. 🙂 And getting out to socialize is amazing haha, it's funny how much gaming took that skill away from us. 

Thanks!

I generally socialize through my hobbies and interests, because the event itself screens for people who have at least a bit of a shared interest. Socializing on an event without a particular agenda is difficult for me, because there's no natural continuation to it, unless I really push for it. I'm not the guy to just crash into a group of 6 people and bring up a whole new topic. I feel a lot better when I can single out someone and talk to them on my own. 6 people in a group generally do not introduce one after another to the group 😄

Day 277:

I felt somewhat tired throughout the whole day, but I didn't let that affect me, except for getting up a bit later than usual and taking a nap in the afternoon.

I worked out, read, visited my grandma and went to one seminar called "What is happiness?" in the community center I've already been to a few times, so I already knew the people. I coined the idea I perhaps could lead some English classes there every now and then (like once every 14 days), though it is still in the works. First, I need to figure out how my schedule for the next semester looks like on the uni, then make that work with regular job opportunities and perhaps then try to incorporate this into my schedule.

I'm also putting in more work into the uni paper tomorrow.

Day 278:

Yesterday, I decided to fast for the whole day which is something I have never done before. I noticed that I wasn't feeling hungry in my stomach, however I noticed that I wanted to constantly chew something and that I got a few bursts of saliva in my mouth throughout the day. 

I went for an interview, got through emails, checked on my finances, worked out and put a bit of work into my paper. I noticed I could hardly focus in the evening, because everything I did during the day was productive in one way or another and it seems that I actually use food as a way to relax. I decided to go sleep very early afterwards. Fasting for 24 hours was definitely an interesting experience and I woke up before midnight to eat a normal meal.