What the?

I really don't know whether I should be blogging about this. Its almost like I'm fishing for sympathy, but I'd rather not get any extra because of it.

The day goes like a normal day now. They're longer because I happen to be both getting up earlier and doing more with the time that I have. That is, I'm not just coming home and sitting on my arse. Theres things to do, like walk the dog, do the chores, make chit chat with relatives. Computer games have become only a small part of the evening, but I often wish I could spend more time playing them. It makes the time go a bit faster, or slower, depending on what I'm doing or if I'm doing anything.

Half of me is quite unhappy at the moment. The other half is actually quite confused as to why that is so. It really doesn't make any sense at all. Its quite a constrast to my sister at the moment who is completely smitten and quite enthusiastic about everything she can put her hands on. As I mentioned to Tez the other day, a couple of weeks ago I couldn't have really complained about anything, and nothing has changed since then, but I just don't feel the same. Some things have just become meaningless, and I don't enjoy some things as much as I used to.

One of those things would have to be conversation. I'm sorry if I'm anti social in the near future or have been recently. Its quite deliberate, and I'm really not thinking about anything else, I just don't feel like saying anything. Yes, thats probably exactly what I used to be like at school, and its relevant because the last time I felt like this was probably at school. Even then, I haven't even changed much. Its not that I think nobody wants to hear what I have to say (I've already known that for a while), its almost as if I can't be bothered saying it.

I'm not quite embracing my irrationality as of this moment.

Bit of a downer

Haven't really been myself recently. Somehow I don't seem to be enjoying things as much as before. Theres a bunch of things I guess. *sigh*

One quite big possbility at solving this rut is to get out more.

Short and sweet

For some reason, last night turned into one of those huge D&M conversations even after getting back home around 2:30am. Some of what was said will remain unsaid, but theres one thing that I think I discovered about myself which I thought warrented some attention. Somehow it just evolved came from a bunch of rather unrelated topics we were talking about and kind of thinking about it on the way home.

You'd like to think that humans are rational. In many cases, it would be quite safe to say that they are. The whole basis of economic theory is on that assumption, and we normally live our lives thinking that we are relatively rational, with the odd exceptions. E.g. Drunk, homeless people mumbling profanities on the way to where ever it is they go to when they're drunk and homeless. We see these outsiders as crazy and at the very least, a little hard to understand.

I realised that we're actually not all that different. For periods in our lives, we're quite irrational. Its part of what makes us human, and if you try to suppress that, then you're probably not going to get the whole 'experience' thing out of life. Theres some things you can only really do if you're not thinking straight. Somehow to me, they can be the most interesting and enjoyable things you can do. We shouldn't be shunning away from our illogical side, we should be incorporating it into our lives. This is not to say that I endorse crazy people, I'm just saying that we should live with and make the most of what we've got.

Basically, its irrational to think that we're rational, because we're not. Now thats a pretty paradoxial statement, but I'm sure you'll understand what I'm trying to say if you stare at it and run it through you head enough times.

Something of note

Office chicks are HOT.

I think its the suit that just does it for me.

Visit to the new place

The company I'm working at is going to move locations in about the middle of the year. I won't even be there when they move, but they had these tours on. So a bunch of us went down to the new place and scoped it out. The views there are a lot better than what they have at the moment, which is nice. The other plus thing about moving is that theres a lot of new things that come in. For example, furnaiture, err... new places, new security passes. Its nice.

In addition to that, I went to see 'Memoirs of a Geisha' tonight for Grace's birthday thing. It was actually quite good. I went in not knowing what it was going to be about (except maybe a geisha) and without reading the book either. Normally when I see films based on books, it turns out quite disappointing, but since I hadn't read it, the movie didn't have my imagination to compete against, so it did pretty well! Probably a 4/5 stars.

Last night

Yesterday was the last day at work for one of the people at my old work place, and he had a going away thing. I'd known Owen since I'd started there and I think its been almost a whole year. Its sad to think that I probably won't see him for a very long time, if at all.

There was the usual drinks thing, then got transferred to a small club again, just like the Christmas breakup. It was also an oppurtunity to catch up with SK, one of the guys who left the company a while ago to go to India. He's back, and being his usual self, just kinda wandering around and being as lazy as he can be. I should be one to critisise someone about being lazy, but hey, I understand where he's coming from.

I left pretty early, because getting public transport home is next to impossible for me after 10:20. But Justin had come down from Sydney and was doing kareoke in the city as well soo....

After I hurt everyone's ears, we went home.

- All this after forgetting to bring my wallet. This post brought to you by Terence and Justin.

The past few days

Its been an interesting time at work. The whole corporate culture thing hasn't really been a thing at the last place I worked at. Its probably because all I really talked to was my direct line manager and the people in my team. At this vacation work place, theres a lot more interaction with other teams and so forth. Its probably because we're more a supporting role rather than in actual operations, so we're responsible for a bit more.

Meetings are a new thing for me. My last job only had team meetings that really didn't accomplish much at all. All we talked about was how the team was going, and only a couple (out of about 10) people actually said anything constructive. 'Real' meetings on the other hand have a bunch of agendas, set things as goals for further work, and even have a printable agenda. I went to one of these and it was actually quite interesting. It involved the IT people supporting a system, and the manager of the people who used the system. I didn't really know what they were talking about most of the time, but I guess thats what kept it interesting.

So guess what? I organised my first meeting the other day. It was about the project I've been given to work on. It involved the HR lady (the business owner of the system), and a couple of IT people. We worked out quite a bit and it gave me some more work to do over the next couple of days.

Politics at work isn't all that prelevant either. I guess being an intern for two months kind of excludes you from that aspect of it. However, I'm not really looking forward to any increase in politics. Its just really annoying, but I guess it helps to keep the lunch break with people interesting :)

Oh Damnit...

I knew I shouldn't have done it...


You're My Little Pony!! Sweet and innocent and
happy, you make people want to spew burrito
chunks. Even a Care Bear could kick your ass.


What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Thanks Michelle!

What I've been up to.

New years eve:
Eat - drink - eat - play xbox and cards

Since the 4th of jan:
Work

Just this last weekend:
Singstar on Friday night (I'm a hopeful)
BBQ on Saturday (as per pics)
Hung around with Terence on Sunday (Yes, we were bored)

Tonight:
Dad's birthday celebration
Its the first time I can actually remember where dad actually got into the whole celebrating thing, even though short lived. It was actually really suprising

Other news:
I need to go on a diet.

Saturday BBQ

Words may come later...
Incriminating Photos.

My first day... and second day

I probably should have written something about my first day of vac work yesterday, but there wasn't really that much to say, and I clearly had more pressing issues to write about. On the first day at my previous job there was a lot of talk about public transport. Theres less about public transport lately because all I do on the bus now is just go to sleep. I almost missed my stop on the way back today, but I'm just lucky that I only get off at the last stop on the way in to work. Anyway, theres nothing more to say about public transport in this city.

Yesterday was just an induction day. Somehow I'd convinced myself that there were a few IT interns starting alongside me, instead theres actually only one intern per department. That sort of thing does things for the ego :) There was just the usual meet and greet, OH&S stuff, harrasment and discrimination stuff, and then the legal and compliance stuff.

Near the end of the day we all got dropped off to our relevant departments. I'm kind of removed from everyone else. IT seems to be stuck in the corner somehow. Oh well, its not too bad. At least I don't feel like I'm in a big chicken farm. The others just have rows and rows of desks and stuff.

I also found out a lot more about what I'm meant to be doing over the period. There is a lot of BCP so I'm helping to do some stuff that will help in the event of a catastrophe involved. It looks a little exciting, but then, not really.

All us interns seem to be getting along pretty well. We've been to lunch the past couple of days. Most of us don't really seem to be doing much. Others seem to have their hands completely full.

All in all, its going pretty well.

P.S. I started writing this yesterday, but only finished it today (6/1/06). Sorry.

The redistribution of funds was never so complicated

It seems to me that the Australian Welfare Agency (Centrelink) has gone mad.

This is what happened:
- I applied for Youth Allowance.
- I gave them my TFN.
- They say that they're gonna use this TFN to do all sorts of stuff.

In addition to that, they want something to verify my previous year's income (which should have been lodged with the ATO) in addition to some payslips (which is fair enough).

However, they also want "proof of birth". What I want to know is why someone who doesn't exist want to work, study, and pay heaps of tax. Moreover, why would someone go to the trouble of working that much, and studying that much just to claim a measly few hundred dollars from Centrelink. They might as well just keep working.

On top of that they also want other documents to make that 100 point ID check. This doesn't include the birth certificate. Chances are that if you don't have a bank account, you're screwed in this department. Theres not too many students I know which have defence discharge papers, shooters licences, or security licences to make 70 points. Nor are students likely to have children's birth certificates, divorce papers, educational certificates (thats why they're studying), mortgage papers, a registration certificate from a professional board (another reason why they're studying), and also unlikely to have participated in any Australian Defence Force tours of duty, thus denying themselves access to a Veterans' Affairs Gold card (all worth 40 points).

They don't make it easy for people who don't have time to pop on by their local Centrelink customer service centre. For some reason, only original documents are acceptable. I'm certainly not going to mail my bank/credit card, Medicare card or driver's license to them. If I do, in the off chance that I find myself with measles on the weekend, its going to be a nightmare. Firstly, I get pulled over by cops on the way to the hospital/doctor without a license. Then when I walk the rest of the way to the doctor/hospital, I don't have a Medicare card so I don't get reimbursed the exorbitant amount they charge. Finally, to top it all off, I can't even pay that amount because I don't have any cash left in my wallet because I'm unable to withdraw any funds from the bank.

I'm delaying my application for Youth Allowance until semester starts again.

Reflecting on the year gone by...

So its 2006. Normally people would say something about happy new years around about now. But I've already missed it by a few days and it doesn't feel any different being now that I have to write 2006 instead of 2005. I like using it more as a milestone rather than anything else - kind of like birthdays, but thats a whole other story.

2005 kind of went like a blur. I don't really remember anything extremely significant. Whether that reflects on what I feel is important or that nothing really important actually happened is probably up to you to decide. I suppose I should do some sort of list as to what happened. Lots of other people seem to be doing the same thing.

Lets see...
- I turned 20.
- I got a nice job.
- I found out that working and studying sucks.
- I have money!
- I bought a laptop
- I did pretty well at uni
- After a very harrowing experience of rejection after rejection, I finally found some degree related vacation work at the first place I applied to.

Thats about all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to add to it if you feel like it.