TC Media Studio closing

[Drunk Monk]

Your years working at TC. That’s a deep well of human contacts.

True. Maybe one of them has a job for me...

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Networking is key, my friend. If they don’t have a job, they’ll have an idea, or a confirmation, or a contact...

[Drunk Monk]

Yes, I'm moving in that direction for sure. Once the announcement is public next week, I'll start reaching out. Tomorrow I'll start on my resume, and tuning up my LinkedIn. Funny thing, I realized my LI was registered to my gene@kungfumagazine.com work email, so I transfered that today. Jonny says he'll keep my kungfumagazine.com email through the end of the year for sure, but I spent some of today transferring certain key addresses. I'll transfer more next week. A lot of people can get me on social media too. Plus I'll start getting a personal blog site going to link through all my social media - a hub site. 

Stacy was talking about how everything I do collasped this year, not just my job, but also the concert scene, the comic-cons, and my Kung Fu Academy. It's reminiscent of '99 when my world completely flipped, but that was in a positive way - new job, new house and most significantly, new kid. Impermanence, man.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Yeah, but was your work life sustainable? You were workin’ harder than anyone I know — and I know a lot of crazy hardworking people. Publishing, writing, music, traveling for writing/Kung Fu tournaments, cons, the odd TV show now and then.

I may be projecting (what a surprise!) but I know my working life was punching me in the balls since August and slapping me around in general since 2012. Shit wasn’t healing and new and medically interesting things kept appearing. A lot of stuff that could have used some therapy (physical and mental) went ignored due to time and money constraints. It was constant burn-out with periods of horrible sanity (thanks, Lovecraft!). This time off sucks, but a major realignment hopefully means more quality time for you and your quality family.

[Drunk Monk]

It just looked like I was working hard, but on the whole, it came so naturally. Sure, the job had it's pitfalls - it was a job - but it was a great job for me and I had gotten to the point where I could pretty much do what I pleased in terms of research. That was such a luxury which I shall miss so much. A lot of the burnout phases I post about was from the music festivals - and that was self inflicted. Plus I may have elaborated for dramatic effect here. Nevertheless, point taken. 

I was enjoying the SIP immensily until losing my job. Now it's terrifying. Entering the job market now will be insanely tough. So many people are out of work. Now all my energies must focus upon this. All that idle writing that I was going before has to be targeted to cover letters. 

Stacy reminded me that all the jobs she saw me get, I got through friends. You got me the AFS job, PPFY. Lam Kwoon came because I had trained there since childhood. And I was headhunted by TC thanks to a friend there who did me a serious solid, Andy Ching (last I heard he retired to run an ice cream shop in downtown Oahu). Prior to that, LB got me the job at Lab services and ED got me the job at MQ6. The only significant jobs I got by myself were TAing at UCSC (which came with the graduate program) and the Svale Library. But I used to be more freelance, especially when transitioning between AFS and Lam Kwoon. I don't know if that'll fly anymore - that was so much hustle. That was working hard.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Past a certain age, like post graduate age, most of us rely on our networks for jobs.

[Drunk Monk]

I suppose this is true. Stacy never does. She just goes out and gets jobs. But now, she's out of work too. Spas are going to be the last business that opens, after hair stylists and tattoo parlors. She could start doing private clients, but even that is a little tricky. Can't keep 6" in that line of work. For a while, she was thinking of applying at Santa Cruz Bookshop. They're still open, doing curbside and web orders, and apparently doing okay. Too bad she didn't follow through on that at the time.

[Drunk Monk]

I did some work for TC today, cleaning up the social media which had been dormant since St. Paddys. I also checked in with Jason and Kevin. I'll be interacting with Kevin to get some of the images working - all via telecommuting. Jason sounded good over texting, but you can never tell. I wonder if I'll ever see him again. 

Doing the social media was relaxing, like old times. Then I overheard the radio show Stacy was listening to - news about the unemployment rates - and started to stress out. It's borderline anxiety attacks. I ate some granola and part of a croissant, and Stacy just made a delicious smellling stir fry, but man, my stomach is crazy with adrenaline.

[Drunk Monk]

Talked to Matt, our ITish guy. He didn't know his status and I didn't tell him. I just told him that TC Media was done and Pat, Jason & I were laid off. As much of a millennial as he is, he is a friend. We cross paths at shows occassionally, and he kept me abreast of who was who in EDM (his taste in music sucks but there's a barometer in that too). I wished him goodbye and good luck, although I suspect I'll see him again at some concert... assuming such things ever happen again and I'm able to afford going.

[Drunk Monk]

Now my new Surface Pro, which I got at xmas, is glitching. The cursor isn't displaying properly. I can work around it using the touch screen. Dammit.

I got to sleep around 10ish after a hot bath and a nitecap watching the finale of Enterprise

I woke up a little after midnight and have been awake ever since. It's the same anxiety cycle. I'm tired, very tired. My eyes pull me towards sleep and my mind drifts off into some exceptionally random thoughts like the wire stems of fake flowers or the names of people I don't know. Then there's that adrenaline dump, punching me in the gut. So much adrenaline - I don't know how my body is producing so much. The brain circus starts again, full volume. I toss and turn, shaky and sweaty, trying to flatten my mind and control my breathing. Usually in under a half hour, I'm back at the random thoughts and the cycle starts again.

I need to get some sleeping aids.

---

The cursor issue is only in chrome. Figures. I'm a gmail user and all my settings are there. It's probably trying to get me to switch to Explorer,

Dammit.

[Greg]

That can't be any fun at all. It will all work out. You've got lots of mad skillz that will aid you in the coming hunt.

[Drunk Monk]

Thanks. There's a lot of letting go of KFTC. The job has become such a part of me. It's like the yeti leaving the fencing world. There's a part of me that can leave - tired of all the politrix and shenanigans. But there's so many friends, and I have such noteriety in that circle. 

I'll still practice Kung Fu, maybe even get back into teaching a bit - I need to sort that with the Academy. I don't pay tuition there because I give them ad trade and lots of favors. I talked to Ted's wife - they have another essay I did to publish and I pushed them to do it by Monday, because the cease of publication will be Tuesday. They're actually super busy with work. They had originally planned a vacation for next week, to go on a trip to celebrate Ted's birthday, but that's not happening. They don't know about KFTC yet. Only you and my immediate family know. Tuesday's going to be really tough, dealing with the community reaction. I imagine my phone & social media will blow up.

Coincidentally, TCEC was scheduled for that weekend, May 16-17. There's a chance TC may still try to hold that again next year. We have all the trophies and medals. If so, they've offered to bring me back freelance. But it's too early to tell.

More so was the freedom I enjoyed at TC, something I earned by delivering there so consistently. My schedule was flexible. They allowed me to telecommute, first to avoid hwy17 so much, and then to caretake for my mom. I could take time off for my festivals and adventures and get comp time from work weekends. If I go back to a 9-5, that will be hard.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

COVID is making workplaces more flexible, so that might be a positive for you.

[Drunk Monk]

Fair. Here's to hope.

I just finished drafts of the end announcements for our social media, our freelancers and advertisers, and our subscribers, plus one for me for my personal social media. So fucking heartbreaking. My lord...

When Sifu Lam died, I had just got on set for Man at Arms, and spent that night writing a remembrance. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to write. This was harder. 

When this goes live on Tuesday, I'm anticipating a massive response to blow up my social media and my phone. I'm hoping I'll be psychologically stable by then, but probably not.

[Greg]

Wait. We're supposed to be psychologically stable? I don't remember that in the bylaws.

What happens with the KFM forum?