hello and goodbye

I've just sent off an application for a job at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology), a university based in Ulsan (located in the southeast, above Busan and just south of Gyeongju) that focuses on business and science—the practical stuff that I should've gotten into had I had any brains when I was younger. The UNIST website had a page for submitting job applications, but one drop-down menu at the very beginning refused to show me any menu items, and after I'd filled out the rest of the form, that one thing prevented me from sending the application. So since the job ad provided an email address, I very nicely put together the file-attachment packet of PDFs that UNIST was asking for, apologized in my email for sending my information in an alternative format, told the school I had tried to fill out their online form several times with no success, then thanked them for their patience. Along with the PDF attachments, I sent all the other information that the online form had asked for—name, address, employment history, education history, etc. So the UNIST app is now in the hands of the gods. I suspect the lady who receives my email will just trash it because it didn't come in the proper form. The bureaucratic mentality at work. But to be fair, it's easier for her to do things that way. Meanwhile, my thanks to Daniel for letting me know about Unijobs.kr, the site where the UNIST job appeared. So that was my hello to UNIST.

As for my goodbye, well... my ad in my building's lobby got taken down, so I guess I hadn't misunderstood when the admin guy had said the ad would be up for only a week (not 1 month + 1 week as I'd surmised after seeing the date he'd stamped on the thing). I don't really feel like putting up another ad right now, but I might in a few days. We'll see. I'm actually thinking of making a different ad to pawn off some of my current possessions, especially now that I know how to print QR codes that can lead people to emails or web pages or whatever. I can take photos of all of the items I want to sell (and I'll be selling them for very, very cheap), then instead of listing those items on a sheet of paper, I can list them on a particular webpage (probably just a webpage from one of my blogs... I never use the webpage feature for anything, anyway), then set up a QR code to print on the ad so that people can go to the webpage, figure out what they want to buy, then email me about meeting up to buy the desired item. Meanwhile, I can easily update the webpage as items sell and as I adjust prices.

I'm going to have to get rid of stuff, anyway, if I end up accepting a job outside of Seoul. I seriously doubt the above UNIST thing will result in a job. But one never knows.

In other news... I've had six ebook purchases since advertising the new ebook on both Instapundit and Substack. I think I'm becoming a bit of a known quantity on Instapundit; my comments there never earn me huge "like" responses (i.e., in the 50s and 70s; I usually get 6-10 upvotes) such as what happens with the big-time commenters, but I've apparently got enough people who know and trust me (and who trust that I can write) to have the tiniest of audiences now. So this new book is starting small, but it's already selling better than both versions of my homeschooling book (English-only ebook and English/Korean dead-tree book). We'll see what comes of all of this. I've been advised by some commenters to keep on reminding people of my new book; I had originally intended not to bother everyone with constant, in-your-face adverts in the comments, but I was told that many people hadn't even seen the first or second time I'd left a book-arrival announcement, yet they'd caught the third one, so more advertising is better if I want to be seen. Instead of going quiet, then, I'll keep shilling the book, albeit modestly.

As always, I've got several things happening at once. What a life, eh? Always in motion is the future. One person on Instapundit asked me when I was putting out a walk book. I guess I'd better get working on that, too.