And there's the full rejection, one business day later when batch goes out at midnight, workday default. Blarrrrrgh. Knew this was coming and not just from the button going away, but still sucks. Well, not like I stopped applying, just the furthest Ive been in a while.

Trying to refocus. Ended up setting up an eight hour plus render session. Its not even updated to the latest Disgaea RPG set, but at this point Im just happy that I have an improved set to work with. Redoing all of the previous work doesn't sound as fun, though...

Today's rejection officially put me in the mindspace that I am likely not going to get a mainframe job ever again. No local IT work, either. Can't do much else. Logically, I know I'm panicking. But the card games will never make me anything, my wife is trying her best, and I don't know what to do.

...sigh, they found the other reject button. When Workday removes the withdrawal button and the listing itself closes, it is 99% of the time a rejection, the email will just show up in the next two days. Actually heartbroken. This was one I actually reached final interview.

#my9anime , actually formative picks just like the games one, because I followed the letter of the prompt both times. ...this explains a bit. I also didn't do half bad for being in actual backwater south US growing up (I am no longer even remotely near it now)

Well, one of the found the reject button, for the role I technically qualify for but knew I had no chance at. Since its workday the rejection will show up later tonight. Mondays are always slow for job hunting. I think I made a breakthrough in the Makai Wars art, though? Its not a 100% fix...

Sometimes this job search just feels like they forgot where the reject button is. Been two weeks since the positive final interview. Im pretty sure I didn't get it at this point. ...at least Im making progress in the Makai Wars art recovery efforts.

Did the #my9games thing. ...did you know I got into one of the biggest anime simfile collections of its day? My effort was awful... #10 would probably be one of the full YuGIOh World Championship games on the GBA.

...whoops. Triggered the discord anti-scrape and will be back online there tomorrow.

Basically, the remaining Disgaea Netherwar workflow is placing the art on each card (which cannot be automated due to source weirdness) and then placing the text content on each card (which also cannot be automated, I need to write it). So just, ya know, the bulk of it. Decided on art first.

So the project to try and improve/rescue the Makai Wars art is going surprisingly okay. ...but it also means Im going to have to redo the character art on the card. Thankfully didn't get *that* far into that part, and I can get better naming culture in there at the same time.

Another interview for a separate role today. Went alright again. Didn't help that there was a storm this morning that made everything miserable. Decided to work on the dumped Makai Wars art afterward to try and improve what Ive got for Disgaea Netherwar. Small gains.

Interview went alright. Managed to hold onto the conversation for a decent amount of time, so progress there. Don't feel that I got it, but Im getting better.

Got my first "we shouldn't have sent you that moving forward email, whoops" moment for this job hunt. Took longer than last time.

Not the best nintendo direct, not the worst, and once again Japan got the better direct. They actually showed Prinny Party. And a few seconds of touhou.

...Well, almost had the dryer, but on unpack it was revealed to have the bottom of it crushed. Exact replacement is another month... so non exact it is. Its the last thing we needed to replace for the lightning strike damage. Annoyed.

"We need proof you are able to work with AI tools." ...in mainframe? When that damn chip only really got announced last week? Not even the first time Ive heard this! Like, I get it, I really do, but what does that even *look* like right now? (And no, generative AI isnt touching the card games.)

Oh, its going to be *that* type of week. Recruiter that somehow broke my DnD by marking it as urgent before 8am, for a zVM role I was rejected for two weeks ago and the end client *really* wants the contractor to move to Cincinnati after the year is up. Neat trick, but now I'm awake and grumpy.

Ive been wanting to work on things today but its been a significantly aggressive "recruiter" day and Im drained. Pretty certain the focus for this morning just isnt real, and Im pretty sure the focus of this afternoon was one I was rejected for without feedback or interview two weeks ago.

Latest interview went fairly well! Ive even gotten more work done on the card game! ...Just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Disgaea Netherwar card game: Managed to automate another workflow part since TTS is giving me fits, but attach faces work now. Also, the setup shown is *technically* possible...

Job hunt continues... unfortunately for me, I managed to confirm that the tools these recruiters use to "score" resumes pretty much fail completely on my skillset. On the other hand, its catnip for a skillset I don't have! Like instant tip of list level for somwthing not actually in resume!

...honestly, my card workflow would make six years ago me jealous... let alone mlpdcg me. Alas, plugging things into a spreadsheet does not make for riveting entertainment, and I can't carry a stream on my own. It was the best way to keep me on task back in the day, though.

Tried adding a time value to make the foil shaders animate, since most are at a level I'm comfortable with. Ow.

Disgaea Netherwar: Tabletop Simulator holo foil card. Not the final form of this either, and solving one thing about this one took two days... ...but negative edge foil. It *might* have been a very rough week for the job hunt and I needed motivation.

Disgaea Netherwar: tabletop Simulator foil work continues, especially since a lot of these were crafted in the early hours of the morning in a delirious stress state. Oceanfoil is for the Beachside subgroup. I originally avoided these due to keeping it somewhat sfw... but meh.

There might be 13 different foil types after going a bit overboard. Columns, Menace, Gate, Confetti, Shatter, Fireworks, Valentines, Ocean, Halloween, Snowflakes, Damascus, Crosshatch, and Black Hole. ...not sure the last one actually works, it kinda removes light from the card and its *weird*.

A decent part of me working on card foils (and the game in general) is me just brushing up on my python because it came up in an interview. I don't think shadergraph counts as C#... Just want a job in my field. I know the card game will go exactly nowhere but it at least focuses me.

Disgaea Netherwar... this took 10 hours in unity to troubleshoot, but it is working, I have multiple foil types, it works in Tabletop Simulator, and I have a pipeline to update any of these in around five mouse clicks after the original card render. See, I can upskill, I swear it! ...I need sleep.

Upscale for card assets finally finished. Turns a 830kb image into a 155MB one in probably the most inefficient way ever, but keeps the quality during that step and gives it the "proper" color profile before Krita gets ahold of it, shrinks it to card print size, and turns it into a 6MB thing again.