document check

An update on my 2do checklist!

The latest news is that, just today, I got both my sealed transcripts (two copies for each university) and my FBI background check, which proudly displays my arrest in 2010 (see the ugly story here) but also notes that the charges were dismissed, which allows me to say any number of things to a hiring committee, including

• That was so long ago.
• The charges were dismissed because it was nothing.
• It was a misunderstanding.
• Come on—I'm a heart patient now. You think I'm going to get into any fights?
• Hey, he got charged, too (that's actually not true).

I can get a background check done locally; it'll show no criminal activity by moi because I've committed no crimes in Korea. But that document has to be specifically requested by the university, and it must be sent only to that university. In other words, I'd need to have the local police office print out a background check for every university that requests one.

Below is my updated 2do checklist. My uni stuff is almost all done. Just one more thing—send a copy of my FBI background check to Monument Visa to get apostilled. Monument's turnaround time is pretty quick, and their staff has been very helpful and responsive to my befuddled-old-man questions, so I expect to have an apostilled FBI document in my hands within just a couple of weeks.

Job stuff:

✓ 1st diploma copy, converted to PDF & apostilled (arrived)

✓ 2nd diploma copy, converted to PDF & apostilled (arrived)

✓ FBI criminal background check

☐ FBI criminal background check, apostilled (no word yet)

✓ 2nd letter of recommendation, converted to PDF

✓ 3rd letter of recommendation, converted to PDF

✓ copy of 4th certificate of employment (2005-2008) (SMU)

✓ sealed transcript from Catholic U. (grad school)

✓ sealed transcript from Georgetown U. (undergrad)

✓ health check; scan form and convert to PDF

Personal stuff:

☐ colonoscopy scheduling (maybe not happening this year)

✓ completed (& uploaded) first movie-review ebook ms

☐ get listed on Soomgo

☐ sample lessons for universities that prove interested in me

✗ sample lessons for KMA (which probably won't hire me)

✗ lessons for private tutoring (lower priority)—test prep & various subjects

☐ more Substack material to last through September

☐ more interactive quizzes for Substack (w/different question formats)

✓ ebook version of the first movie-review book, published

✓ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, ms prepped

✓ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, cover prepped

☐ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, published to Amazon (almost there)

☐ ms for the second movie-review book—start working on it (low priority)

So life remains busy, but things are getting done. I probably won't know until August what my fate will be. Will I be working at a damn hagweon again? Teaching at a university somewhere inside or outside of Seoul? Packing up and moving back to the States? 

I guess we'll know soon enough.

In other news: I also finally got my long-delayed shipment of tees from Spring. It's not everything I had ordered back in March, though: I had ordered two more tees plus a coffee mug and a printed glass (that shows a walk map from 2023). I'm debating whether (1) to send what I have to France and to tell Dominique Sorry about those two tees or (2) to wait a bit for the other items to arrive, then send everything together even if it means that the package will arrive after July 4 (the day of Auguste's wedding). Choices, choices.