Happy (Lunar) New Year!
It is now 2022— February 2, 2022, that is. And it’s the brand new year. Although New Year’s Day is a month ago (1/1/2022), there’s also the Asian New Year, that is, Lunar New Year. I get that Chinese New Year is still the common term to call the Lunar New Year, however, the Chinese aren’t the only ones who celebrate it. There’s also the Mongolians, the Vietnamese, the Koreans, the Taiwanese, and basically anywhere where there’s a huge population of Chinese and those countries mentioned. It was changed from “Chinese New Year” to “Lunar New Year” so that those who do celebrate them who aren’t Chinese won’t have to feel discriminated. You know how it is nowadays, we all have to try to be politically correct, especially here in the U.S.
I’ve been very busy during January, settling down to start fresh and settling down in my new full-time job. I’m also looking into reaping the benefits of my company, especially for full-time employees, such as medical, dental, and vision insurance and investing in company stock, 401k, etc. I’m still not finished dealing with those yet. But the biggest benefit that I’m trying to reap right now is their career advancement program, where we get to enroll in different universities and learning institutions for career advancement In my case, I’m trying to enroll/get accepted in a software development bootcamp. I wrote a little bit of this on my code-learning blog.
While I’m writing this entry, in about less than thirty minutes, my bootcamp interview will take place on Zoom, so I may not be able to finish this blog entry before then. However, when that happens, I’ll probably write about it here or in my code-related blog.
For us Filipinos, we don’t really celebrate Lunar New Year as a whole, with the exception of those who are Chinese-descent or those living in areas where there are a huge population of Chinese (and Koreans… I heard that there’s an increase of Korean immigrants in the Philippines lately). But nevertheless, we still acknowledge the occasion and when we’re invited or introduced to the holidays, we don’t mind celebrating it too.
For the year 2022, it is the Year of the (Water) Tiger. My youngest sister was born in 1986, which makes her Chinese Zodiac a tiger too. But to be specific, she is a Fire Tiger. I was born in the Year of the Dragon1 and according to my Google searching, 2024 will be my Lunar Year. Wow, looking forward to that year then. I hope I start my hopeful prosperity this year and that life would be so much improved by the time 2024 hits.
What have I been up to as of late…?
I took a break from writing my fanfic, A Pocketful of Miracles back in mid-December because of my new job. As mentioned, that’s a 10-hr shift for 4 days a week with 3 days break2. Today is a Wednesday, so I have some time to draw something quick for this entry and write this blog entry.
I’ve had a little bit of an addiction as of late: watching gacha animated videos on Youtube. It’s hard to find really good ones with really good story plots and I’ve been trying to avoid the ones with plots that don’t make sense, but sadly, they’re everywhere. If I could and have the time in the world, I’d like to make at least one gacha animated video with a story that makes sense, however, working full-time and having very little time of break3 simply makes it a lot more difficult. Besides, I don’t have the right equipment and software to make the videos anyway. During breaks at work, I try to watch them, and just before I head to bed, I watch a little bit too.
I only about fifteen minutes left before the interview, so I’ll end the post right here. I didn’t have much to write anyway, or maybe I just type pretty fast. I’ll update again (probably on this same entry) with the results of my interview.
Till then!
February 6, 2022 @ 9:22 am
Good luck on your interview.
Eek 10 hour shifts. I used to hate working 9 ones at work. Thankfully don’t do those anymore.
February 16, 2022 @ 7:22 pm
The first few weeks were a struggle for me, but I’m glad our company puts safety first before anything else. We get two 15-minute breaks (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and one 30-min lunch break. For a standard 8-hr shift, most jobs only have one 15-min break and one 30-min (some 1 hr) lunch break, that’s it. And eventually here, you get used to it. I admit that I do get really exhausted by the time I get home, but luckily the distance commute isn’t that far. We also get a fresh pair of work/safety shoes once a year as mandatory dress code and also part of the perks. I got one cute Timberland sneakers (specifically designed for physical work) on the week I got hired (Dec. 2021) and I got a new cute Skechers pair just last week for 2022. We also get a chance to have career advancement training for free too (you can attend college/university, trade school, bootcamp, etc. and the company pays the tuition for free)… and a lot of other perks.
Planning to transfer/advance within the company in the near future, which is why I enrolled in a bootcamp as mentioned in this entry. This also means that if I do land a direct tech job (which is what I’ve been trying to get back into for years now), I can also work at home too☺️