Free as in Jobless

Dear Reader,

It's been a bit of an anxious time for me, as the grant-funded project I've been working on for nearly a year recently came to an end and I face the uncertainty of what may come next. The relationships I've built in the last year mean a lot to me, and they've been fruitful—I may have the opportunity to work at HNEI in a full-time capacity—but it remains to be seen whether a new offer to work with them will come.

Meanwhile, I am making sure not to squander the extra time. This week, I began a certification "nanodegree" program in front-end development on Udacity. I've gotten through its first project, which is a simple exercise in mobile-responsive design that you can see here. The program emphasizes JavaScript, a language at which I'm a beginner. I'm planning to use it to redesign the KTUH FM website, which is much in need of an update, and anyway, JavaScript is a very useful language not taught at the UH ICS program.

I'm continuing to study Japanese. I also finished the statistics course I'd been taking.

Look, a shiny.

I hope to avoid landing a job that puts me to work on an obsolescent toolchain, ie. a dead-end job, as well as one that undercompensates for my labor. It seems that avoiding these traps might not be possible without a move out of Hawaii. In any case, I'll be happy working in a socially beneficial line of work, and I'd be more willing to compromise on the tech stack or compensation if I am doing something that does social good.

Honestly, besides a bit of nervousness, I'm happy and thankful to be free, and it feels great to begin to catch up on some of the things I've been wanting to do for a long time.