errand/task update

Stymied by a lack of thumbtacks, which I just found out are called apjeong/압정 in Korean (is that ap/압 as in "pressure"? so a bit like a pushpin?). I went to our building's admin office to get permission to slap up an ad. I asked the guy whether I could do that, how long the ad could stay up, and whether I'd have to pay to keep the ad up. He stamped a Post-It note to give me permission (which I found weird since that can fall off or be ripped off) and told me the ad could stay up for free. At first, I thought he'd said "for a week," but in looking at the date the ad is to come down, I see "6/25/26" on there, so I guess I missed the "one month and" part. He said I could hang the ad up on the side of the bulletin board for residents (the board's other half is apparently for more official, formal announcements by Those in Authority).

So that left me with the problem of how to hang the ad up. I got to the lobby and dimply realized: no tacks. Like the idiot I am, I hadn't gone down to the lobby with thumbtacks, but I was pretty sure I had a box of tacks stored on one of my bookshelves. So I went back to my place, found the container I'd been thinking of, and... it was full of mini binder clips, all tack-colored. Age makes the brain play tricks on you. I did know, though, that I've got plenty of legitimate tacks in one of my office-supply boxes, so I'll be rifling through those boxes soon (didn't I just do that last week?).

Otherwise, I successfully mailed off my diplomas to Monument Visa, located in Fairfax, Virginia, relatively close to where I'd spent my childhood. Small world.

Still to do: (1) scan my employment certificate from Dongguk University (still haven't heard back from Sookmyung after answering their request for more information; I bet they gave up), (2) scan my F-4 visa (both sides), (3) look into putting some tutoring ads up on Soomgo, and (4) look more closely into whether I really want to teach for eight hellish days in a children's English summer camp. The money is tempting.

I also need to get back to finishing up my movie-review book, after which I have to start creating various materials to tote along with me if a university should ask me to teach a sample lesson, and I need to create sample lessons to shop around to KMA and to use for various forms of private tutoring (I'm putting myself out there for SAT prep, TOEFL prep, accent reduction (nebulous concept but somewhat in vogue), listening, grammar, conversation, reading, etc. Before June ends, I need to create another raft of Substack material as well as generate more interactive quizzes, maybe using different formats this time (fill in the blanks, sequencing, matching, etc.), and at some point, I need to start creating the second movie-review book in the series (going from 2016 to 2018). I've got enough shit to keep me occupied until my second heart attack or stroke. Which reminds me... I still need to schedule a damn colonoscopy, and maybe next week, assuming I'm more or less stable after the pizza orgy, I need to get a standard health check that I can then scan as part of my ever-growing pile of university job-application documents.

Good God, that's a lot of crap to do.

Just a little at a time. A little at a time.

And now... to find those damn tacks and hang up my ad.

UPDATE: Surprise! Sookmyung just wrote to say they still can't find any proof I'd ever taught there, but that I'm welcome to keep contacting them if I find more information. Well, I've got one old coworker in my email address book, and maybe a former supervisor, too. Together, they might be able to give me the email address for our department head, whose name utterly escapes me after almost two decades (and I doubt I have recommendation letters from 2008 still on file). So—more to come. Also: I'd written two contacts from my time at Daegu Catholic University, but neither has written me back. One moved back to the States; the other seems to be teaching on DCU campus, but I'm not sure. Maybe she's dead. I do hope I get some sort of proof of employment from somebody soon.