One Schlock’s Requiem is the personal website of Jim Hendricks. That’s me. I am a former software developer from the Midwest of the United States now living in Central Japan teaching English and other things.
This website has existed in one form or another for 20 years now. In that time, I’ve written about various things, such as games, movies, music, and Japan. Some years have been on. Some years have been off. But you’ll find most of it collected here. Plenty of photos, too!
Overall, theschlock.com is mainly written in Java using Tapestry and Hibernate, but it’s been statically generated so it can be viewed from anywhere. View the code on github.com/theschlock.com/.
Portrait by Blkk Hand
My family lived in the outskirts of Minneapolis near Lake Minnetonka. Throughout high school I excelled at Mathematics and Art, so when I graduated I followed my first passion of art. I went to the Arts Institute of Minneapolis and studied Computer Animation. It was an amazing time to think about digital art as video games and movies continued to push visual effects. The Matrix had a huge impact on me, as did Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion. But, I’m not really that great of an artist, so I quit school.
I moved to Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin Platteville. I studied Mathematics initially, and then added a second major, Computer Science. I joined SPAMM, the Society of Platteville’s Anima and Manga Maniacs, and eventually became a 2-term president of the club. This led to the creation of The Secret of Crystania. Times were pretty amazing in college. Lots of drinking. Lots of game tournaments. Lots of anime. And lots of Dance Dance Revolution. Prior to graduation, I finally fulfilled a life-long dream of going to Japan, and studied abroad in Nagaaki at the Nagasaki University of Foreign Languages.
Upon graduation, I moved to Madison and worked as a software developer for a company developing and maintaining web applications using Java, HTML, CSS, SQL, and plenty of open source technologies. I learned how to manage a massive codebase and build strict tests to ensure everything always worked. Throughout this time, I started running marathons in my spare time, and spent many nights in the clubs of Madison, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Every year, I still went back to Japan for vacation, and eventually decided that I wanted to move here.
After 6 years as a software developer, I moved to Japan as part of the JET Programme. As an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), I taught English in 3 elementary schools and 1 junior high school. I developed a full English curriculum from all years of elementary school. In my last two years, I became a Regional Prefectural Advisor (RPA) for other ALTs, and led discussions and presentations on lesson planning and ideas at conferences. My favorite event of the year were the English speech contests, and I spent a lot of time training students in how to perform them well. Additionally, I started practicing kendo with students, and have achieved the level of 3-dan.
I have found teaching to be the most rewarding job that I’ve had in my life. Software development is full of interesting challenges and meeting interesting people, but the challenges that I was able to overcome were really in service of myself or my team. As a teacher, the challenges that I overcome are for my students. The best teachers are the ones that are able to give their students challenges and show them how they can complete these challenges by themselves.
So, after completing 5 years of the JET Programme, I wanted to stay in Japan and continue teaching. With connection that I made as a teacher, I was hired by the private high school in my town. I continue to teach students English and train students in English speech contests. My high-level classes focus on English composition where students write long-form English reports about a specific subject. Also, I teach Japanese language and culture to our foreign exchange students. My Japanese isn’t perfect, but you always need to try.
Portraits by Blkk Hand
These days, outside of school, I’m usually running marathons, playing video games, or watching movies. Unfortunately, it’s been a while since I’ve gone to a club for music or done kendo.
(Mar 2023)
