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Many miscellaneous things today. At work now, and I’m writing this while my students do their homework. It’s strangely quiet in here for what is usually a pretty rowdy group of elementary school kids.
I’ve only recently finished learning all their names, and next Wednesday is my last day with them for the foreseeable future. Another franchise in the same group has a teacher headed back to England, and with hiring apparently being hard right now, they don’t have a replacement for him, so they’re transferring me there. I don’t want to go, but I don’t really have a choice in the matter. It’s also unclear whether I’ll be there for good or only until they can hire someone else. I certainly hope it’s temporary. The other school is much busier, and so it’ll be a more stressful work environment. Every school does things differently, too, so I’ll basically have to train all over again.
It’s crap, I tell you. But oh well. Just have to try to make the most of it. There’s always a way to leverage a given situation.
On to other things.
As of today, I have 51 posts up on Somewhere in Japan, which means that next Friday I’ll be over the halfway point of this project’s first phase (105 posts in 2021). The project will continue after that, but the format will evolve somewhat. I’m working out the details of that right now, but I can say that it will still have the short “dispatches” I’ve been doing, but probably just once a week, but it will also have long-form content, experimental posts, etc.
Since my last post here, I’ve moved Somewhere in Japan to a new host. I’ve had my photography site hosted by Kinsta for a couple years now and have been extremely happy with them. The performance is great, but what‘s really kept me a very happy customer is the quality of their customer service. I’ve been wanting to move more of my sites there, but it is more expensive than the cheap shared hosting I’ve been using, and I haven’t been able to justify the added expense for sites that aren’t making me enough money to cover the cost of the upgrade. However:
My Patreon page for Somewhere in Japan is up and rolling, and I’m pleased to say that my patrons are already covering nearly the whole cost of hosting. I’m really excited about this. The fact that I’ve already written and published more than 50 posts on the site has really done a lot for my confidence as a writer, and the fact that I have these people who are willing to offer financial support just because they believe in me, makes me feel a lot better as a creator out in the world. A glimmer of self worth? I think so.
Also since my last post here, I sent out my personal newsletter for the first time in six months. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about it, until a conversation with a friend jogged my memory. I’m still not quite sure what the point of it is, but it’s something to play with, and play is as important as it is fun. You can see the last newsletter here and sign up to receive the next one here (if that’s something you feel like doing).
Overall, I’ve just been in a really creative/productive place recently. In a sense, I’m starting to feel more like myself again. I’m writing probably 10-15,000 words a week right now, making photographs for projects, building websites like a maniac, cooking ambitiously on the weekends, restoring things from the flea market, and whatever else my brain wants to do.
It feels really good, and I think it’s going to lead to big changes in my life overall.
It’s also an important factor in my finally getting to work on a site that will pitch a business/community model that I’ve been thinking about for more than a decade. I want to make it happen, and what better time than now to finally start trying sincerely to do something with it? I’m hoping that the site will launch in a basic version within the next week or two. I’m building it over at thecreative.place.
That’s about it for today. I’m feeling encouraged by the creative progress I’ve made this year, and with the potential I see for the future.
