2016-09 summary

In September 2016 Daniel recorded a Japan retrospective. He described an intense anime-driven interest in Japan, an online relationship with Sayaka, five months in Osaka, a working holiday and years of travel between Japan, Korea, the UK and Taiwan. He said his obsession had ended and he preferred England. He lives at his parents' house and has a 40-hour contract job after five years without work. He recorded the history so he would not forget it.

Much of the month concerns petrol station and shop work: night and weekend shifts, uncertain training and instructions, customer incidents, and the wait for pay. Daniel also described disliking quiet till shifts and expecting full-time night shifts after training.

Daniel spent a lot of time on gear: an iPad Pro bought via his father and later enjoyed for drawing, a Samsung Tab S2 purchase in another recording, Panasonic LX100 vlogging tests, a camera resale problem, and stress over expensive purchases. The sources do not reconcile the tablet purchases.

Recurring personal themes were loneliness, unhappiness that purchases did not fix, social isolation and bullying memories, and former classmates not recognising him. Daniel reported anxiety over an unresponsive Taiwan contact and feeling down despite acquiring things he wanted.

Japan, anime, language study, relationships and loss of interest

Petrol station work, customers, training and shifts

Tablets, cameras, video editing and vlogging equipment

Loneliness, past bullying, relationships, mood and parenting views

YouTube output, past videos, privacy and monetization

Criticism of school curricula in favour of practical skills

Recording dated 2016-09-04: Daniel reviewed a year of his YouTube videos, noting changes in hairstyle, confidence and equipment, and deleted about 700 videos he considered bad and boring.

Recording dated 2016-09-01: Daniel built a cardboard and tape contraption over the camera's microphone holes, recorded an outdoor test vlog and compared the Panasonic LX100 with other cameras.

Recording dated 2016-09-10: on a day off Daniel tidied boxes, lit a broken gas oven manually with matches, baked a spicy pizza and ate it with chopsticks.

Recordings dated 2016-09-17: Daniel told his Japan story, covering anime, Sayaka, Osaka, a working holiday, years of travel and a 40-hour contract job, and said his obsession with Japan was over.

Recording dated 2016-09-17 (camera test): Daniel dealt with slow internet, bought a Samsung Tab S2, described returning from Taiwan on August 27 and starting a new job with a training period.

Recording dated 2016-09-19: Daniel cancelled a camera sale to a buyer in France and relisted it, played Left 4 Dead 2, tested iMovie on his father's iPhone and found a dead rabbit outdoors.

Recording dated 2016-09-22: Daniel resolved a bank fee query as a SWIFT transfer fee, awaited cash pay from the manager and planned for his father to order an iPad Pro.

Recording dated 2016-09-25: Daniel received and set up his iPad Pro after clearing a payment authorization error with Apple support, worked a weekend shift and drew with the Pencil until 3 AM.

Recording dated 2016-09-26: Daniel applied Prisma filters to drawings, described retail shifts including a two-card payment problem, and criticised iMovie on iPad.

Recording dated 2016-09-27: Daniel finished an eight-hour petrol station shift, saw former schoolmates who did not recognise him, and ate an expired burger from work.

Recording dated 2016-09-29: Daniel dealt with a customer dispute over a fuel receipt, tried an unripe avocado and emailed YouTube after monetization was disabled on a video.

Daniel was unsure of his age (16 or 17) when he first heard Japanese, and whether the UK return and GCSE retake were in 2010.

Daniel was unsure whether the Korean connection was an official relationship, and whether Sayaka saw or ignored his job message.

Daniel questioned whether his job would be long-term, support independence, or become easier or duller.

A bank deduction was initially feared to be fraud; it was later explained as a transfer fee.

The cause of the Taiwan acquaintance's silence is unknown: typhoon, outage, accident or avoidance.

Daniel was unsure whether former schoolmates recognised him, whether school caused his struggles, and whether to confront them.

Daniel did not know whether a customer's advertising comment was flirting or whether a child customer's family was wealthy.

Daniel was unsure what gear he really wanted, whether cameras and drawing relieve or cause stress, and when the Samsung tablet would arrive.

Reasons for YouTube monetization changes and for Daniel's skin changes remain unknown.