It finally happened.
Digital Photograph, 2025
“Red Team at Yacht Rock Night, Squirrels vs Senators W 8–3”
Corporate Aftercare Series
I woke up and I don’t know what to do today.
My projects are stalling.
The last job application confirmation email I got said they’d get back to me in… ~3 MONTHS.
The next steps on my projects feel too heavy to tackle on empty.
Daddy needs a win.
I’ve been good at keeping myself busy in this downtime.
My AI game isn’t flawless, but it spans from automations to image/video gen.
I’ve got 4 raised beds in the backyard - tomatoes looking like a snack.
A fire pit (currently just for mosquitoes, but it looks great from the window).
A front lawn and hedge that bely the chaos of the house behind it.
None of this existed 3 months ago.
But recently I did a thing:
Applied for a role at my old company. One I should’ve been a shoo-in for.
Overwhelmingly qualified. Already familiar with the culture.
Background checked, onboarded, ready to go.
And I got a thanks-but-no-thanks email in under 24 hours.
Happy not to get the job, but… what’s on my record that weeds me out in round one?
I sat with it for weeks. Then finally reached out.
And maybe you do this too: I rehearse conversations in the shower until I’m 20 minutes deep, shouting, “No, *I* had the right of way!” to an invisible audience.
So I did that, running through all my wins
Performance awards.Crushing metrics.
Leadership training they invested in me and the returns on that investment:
Special projects. Department-wide trainings. Mentorships.
Hell, I co-designed the outro animation that goes on every piece of media out there.
Peer, team, and director recommendations hot like fire.
"If I had the opportunity, I would rehire him without hesitation." Feeling particularly germane.
It’s probably my super snappy, viral posts here.
But isn’t that the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face?
Feels thin-skinned for a place that’ll eliminate half a department with zero warning, then shrug and say: “That’s just business, babyyyyy!”
Until I hear back, I’ll be here.
Scratching my chin.
Migrating my ComfyUI setup to a persistent GPU on Vastai (something I couldn’t have even explained 3 months ago).
Anyway:
Happy Monday.
Keep your chin up.
The job market *is* brutal right now.
I don’t know what’s next, but you’ll hear about it here.
...maybe it’s the hat.
