The usual...

Things are back to normal again, kind of.

Dad rang at around 3:30 in the afternoon to ask me to come and pick him up. He seems to be pretty good now. Just gotta take some pills and go back for another consultation in a couple of weeks just to see how he's doing. So he's back at work again, refusing (as usual) to take the rest of the day off or anything like that. See what I mean about stubborn?

I had a pretty good day off as well. After submitting my assignment last night, I slept from about 1am till about 2pm. Ah it felt good. I'm not sure if it was actually any good or not though, but hopefully it will be up close to the standard that the rest of our software engineering submissions were.

Mum is still not back yet, but then we weren't really expecting her to be. I don't think she knows whats happening here yet either. We decided not to tell her since we felt that it would just make her worry unneccesarily. Its not as if she could have done anything to help while she's 2000km away. Its good to just have a holiday and not worry about anything.

Not much else to say really... All I need is a big hug.

Nappage

Had a nap between 7:30 and 9:30... then straight back into it.

Gotta get up at 5:30 or so to go shopping for fish and fruit. Fun. Anyone wanna come Vic market at 6am? hahahahaha. No? Didn't think so.

Yeah... its pretty bad

So everything seems to be going a little bit pear shaped. I slept about 2 hours last night. Well.. more accurately, this morning. The night before I only got about 3 hours, so that makes... 5 hours in total over about 2 days.

Dad was feeling quite crook last night, so we called the after hours doctor. He only came at around 12, way after we closed the restaurant up for the night. Apprently he has a really bad infection, so we went to the hospital. After the usual wait, they took some blood, injected some things, and put him on a drip. It was kind of scary and sobering actually. I've never seen my dad so vulnerable. He's always been strong (, stubborn and authoritative maybe) and stuff... but watching him writhe with pain and shake with cold while he's got a high temperature... its not really something you see everyday.

Fortunately, by the time 7am rolled around, he was feeling better. Not that much better mind you, just a little bit. Hmm... I feel the weight of responsibility now. Its not the kind of responsibility you have to keep to your team members in a project or assignment, but its a responsibility to keep your family going smoothly. It really is quite scary.

I had to come to work, other people had to fill in, and my weekend looks even more ruined than it already was. Oh well, I guess now I know what its like to be my parents. Maybe it'll help me appreciate them just that much more.

The outlook isn't good...

For the next couple of weeks, I don't think I'll have a life.

Now that mum has gone, it seems theres quite a lot more I have to do. In addition to house work (which hopefully Fi will take care of =)), theres things such as general bookkeeping, processing credit card transactions at the restaurant, cooking food (looks like pasta and toast dinners for me! hahahah), and other assorted things.

Dad is actually feeling really sick too. We're waiting for the doctor to come and have a look at him at the moment.

Of course, thats on top of what I'm normally doing, which is work, uni, and the general mucking around I do. It especially isn't good since its coming up to the end of semester, and that means that a lot of assignments are due. I guess that means I have to muck around less, do more uni work, and go out less too. So don't be suprised if I say I can't go out because I'm busy, or have too much work to do. Sorry.

I guess I'll also have to postpone that free movie thing :( I really wanted to watch Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy actually. Maybe sometime in swotvac when I'm really bored of studying and have finished all my assignments.

If this situation gets any worse, I think I'll be like... dead. Ah, so this is what its like to have a family and have two jobs and go to uni... I wish I didn't have such a strong sense of responsibility.

Way too early

As per the title...

Mum and grandma left for China today. We all kind of woke up at around 4:30am and left at around 5:30am. Not exactly the most convinient time to wake up and leave the house, but I guess at least theres limited traffic on the roads. Its kind of nice to drive on roads where nobody else is. You don't really have to worry as much about other cars, and it gives you a lot more freedom.

We managed to get there on time and I got myself some maccas for breakfast. There were no teary goodbyes, since they're only going for a couple of weeks to a month or so. Then we just kind of came straight to uni. We got here way too early - around 7am. I'm currently blogging from the union house dining hall after sitting in the car for about an hour. I think later I'll just get a newspaper and sit in my lecture theatre. Maybe I'll do another blog waiting for the lecture to start.

Audit

I forgot to say that our team got audited today at work. What that means I don't know, but some sort of manager dude (coincidently, the same guy who recruited me) came up to some members in the team and asked us a series of questions. I thought it was kind of silly, because all we did was bullcrap our way through it. He then sat through a few of our calls, which was fine. I didn't really do anything different though. I have a feeling its because the contract could be in jeopardy. Hey, not my fault, I'm being productive. I think its a bunch of people who are just slacking off.

Yeah... anyway he finished up with me just as I was going to knock off, which was nice.

Call of the month!

So... I got call of the month for April at work today.

The whole team came into our bay and kinda sat around. I didn't really know what was going on because I was still on a phone call. Yeah, was a little confused because the last time that happened it was a going away thing for one of the other staff who was leaving. Anyway, when I got off my call, I turned around, make my speeches, LOL.. Nah.. I only thanked my mum and my dad.

The quality officer said that she liked how I paraphrased stuff out of the script. Like, what the? I think its because I was fairly easy-going, and probably one of the most productive of the team. I don't like having recorded calls actually. Anyway, I win a couple of tickets to the movies, which is awesome. Maybe I'll go watch episode 3 with them, or maybe something else.

I also manage get my name stuck on a wall with a piece of paper. Awesome... Now people who walk past will be like.. woah... this dude made call of the month. No, thats just sad, nobody cares. Its just a morale thing, and an incentive to do good work, which nobody seems to care about.

I'm actually in a psych lab at the moment. We just did some thing about procedural safeguards for young offenders. Didn't really make much sense to me, the questions were all pretty silly. Maybe I have too strict a sense of justice. *sigh*

Walalalalalalalalala

I've been kind of struggling to think of things to blog about recently. I guess I just haven't been as thoughtful as I was a month or two ago.

Not much has changed in the past couple of months though. I'm still just going to work, going to uni, and sleeping. That seems to be about the extent of my life. I don't seem to be getting any richer though. The money just seems to find its way into the rest of the damn economy, and away from me. I think this week was the first time there was no direct withdrawal from my bank account for ages.

Anyway, last night was law ball. I don't have any pictures because I didn't bring a camera. Generally I had a pretty good time without even getting half drunk. In fact, this is probably the ball that I've drunk the least at while still managing to have a relatively good time. However, the afterparty was pretty crap though. So err.. yeah.

Yeah thats about it.

Ghost Rider?

Theres lots of things going on around uni. Lots of trucks, giant lights, utes, and trailers. I've just heard a rumour that its for the shooting of Ghost Rider, the new movie starring Mr. Jonathan Cage. Now if this is what shooting a movie is all about, I'm really not very impressed. Next time I'm at uni, I should bring a camera just to take a picture of a bunch of trucks with a maruqee in the middle of a park next to a bunch of drunks sitting in a middle of a patch of dirt.

Its rather distracting to an extent. Everyone that walks past just seems to stare in awe. They've also taken over a whole bunch of all day parking spots right next to a uni building, putting witches hats in their spot. Some people have been whinging about that. I'm not sure what they need all those parking spots for, since they have a big patch of dirt, but whatever...

EDIT - Should be Nicholas Cage, I was thinking Mortal Kombat.

Turnorama

Turnorama is a nice blog.

Apparently I'm in a funk

funk

n 1: a state of nervous depression; "he was in a funk" [syn: blue funk]

from www.dictionary.com

Just one of those months perhaps.

I think I get a lot more annoyed than I used to.

Most of the time, I just don't really care about things. Now I can be really picky about some things. Usually I still don't show it, but it still happens. Things that annoy me can range from someone not knowing how to do something to how other people that just don't seem to take any responsibility for their actions. Maybe its because now these sorts of things affect me more, but its also possible that because the 'other' friends I hang around aren't quite as tolerant as my usual bunch are.

I only kind of noticed this thing today, because I woke up all really happy, went to work, and progressively got more annoyed throughout the day. I think by the end of the night, I had a creased forehead and then the wind changed. Hopefully this kind of thing doesn't make me any more hypocritical than I already am :(

On another note, Kingdom of Heaven was pretty lame. Orlando Bloom always gets casted for these epic movies, and I think he sounds like too much of a pussy. In a nutshell, there wasn't enough story and too much romping around. Ridley Scott needs to make another movie like Gladiator. Thats a classic epic movie, lots of story, lots of action, and lots of character development. Or rather, its a really good mix of the three.

[--o-------]
I'm easily annoyed so watch out!

Impact analysis finished

Pretty glad I've already finished my impact analysis. Its not very good, but hey, what did they expect for soemthing they only give us a couple of days for and which most people would do in one night?

I also went to have supper with Soh and Age last night. Its been a long time since we've last gone, and I hardly see them anymore. Everyone seems to be busy busy busy. Ah, the innocence of childhood is lost :(

Going to go see Kingdom of Heaven tonight. I don't have very high expectations though.

Rifts at work and assignments

On the first day of training for this job, they emphasised the whole 'us and them' mentality was not what they were looking for in this workplace. However, thats what it seems to be turning out to be. The quality dominatrix, as our surrogate teamleader refers to her as, seems to be giving errors to people for the littlest of things. For example, I get a comment for writing 'send' instead of 'fax'. What difference does it make? Its not like the people picking up the documents and matching it to the applications will have first hand knowledge of where to look, it doesn't work that way.

Our actual team leader appears to be a bit of a coward too. She doesn't actually approach the person with which she has a problem with. Instead theres a general email send around the whole team which spells out the details, without actually mentioning any names where its obvious who she's talking about.

Anyway, I've got a 15% assignment due on Monday which we only got today for project management. Apparently its supposed to reflect workplace pressures, which is stupid because they don't put in all nighters without pay. In this case we don't get any bonus marks or anything of the sort. Another stupid thing is that its not like most people at uni just don't do the assignment the weekend before its due anyway, so its not like its a really small timeframe to do a 15% assignment in.

So I'm not going out drinking tonight. Instead, I'm going home to do the assignment, hopefully bum around on Saturday, go see a movie on Saturday night, and then work all day Sunday for Mother's day. Nice looking weekend huh. At least I won't be too bored.

Rip off from SBS

This week I have mostly been eating cow.

Asking a question without actually asking a question

I had kind of a bad day today, but i found a little bit to write about.

Asking questions without actually asking questions:

I was wondering if I could speak to John please.

I think the painting should go right here. (does not apply to females)

No, actually, I'm out of things to say, except that I had a bad one.

=|

Yeah its a little bit like that huh?

Slow day today. I don't even think I've got totally into it yet, and its the afternoon already. Still got uni after work, and going home to sit around. Life was so much more exciting when I had something to look forward to on the weekend.

SADD - Software Architechture Design Document

Its funny how many acronyms tech people can come up with. The other SAD acronym (Systems analysis and design) is kind of the same thing, but was actually a subject. However, I feel like I'm doing the same subject again. Actually, if you kind of combine project management with SAD, you get Software Engineering process and practice, which is the subject I'm doing now for computer science.

Its kind of a slow week this week. Nothing big due in, so its alright. Still have to do work however, and that means actually writing something down about things. Also, theres vac work for some investment bank to do. *sigh* Life kinda sucks at the moment...

I like reading books, its quite relaxing.

MUNNY!

Its saturday night, and I've got abosolutely nothing to do. Its quite sad really, so I've decided to blog to just err... find something to do.

A lot of people have said recently that they don't know anything about economic markets. They mention that they don't know what things such as CPI, dividends, capital, market capitalisation, and other related things mean. Most of them aren't suprised that I do. But the thing is, I don't really expect anyone else to.

While most people will skip the business section of the paper completely, thats usually the second section I turn to. I think its important to know whats going on around you, and after the things that directly affect you (recent happenings, the ongoing war, how many people died on our roads on the weekend, and of course, the odd spot), the business section is pretty important. Sure, its kind of weird and hard to understand, but since our western societies are based on the fact that we have 'money' which we can exchange for other goods or services of value, and the business section deals with money, its good to actually have a passing knowledge.

Maybe you can just do economics in high school, or maybe you can even do a couple of economics subjects in university, but it'll be better than nothing. These probably won't teach you what you need to know, since most of it is theory, but you need a good theoretical base to apply it in the real world, I guess.

It can be useful to know what effect interest rates will have on your own situation. Other things such as the effect of taxes, consumer confidence, growth in the economy can directly affect you. It can determine what happens in the job market, and thus whether your own skills will be in demand. Now that I'm kind of getting to that stage where getting a job is pretty high priority, I guess its becoming increasingly important. Actually probably most of the people who read this blog are in the same situation.

Another option is to just scrap money, and we wouldn't have to worry about that kind of thing. We'd just rip each other apart for the eggs.

Cousin: "Whats 6 x 9?"
I: "54"
Cousin: "Whats 7 x 9?"
I: "63"
Cousin: "Whats 6 x 6?"
I: "36"
Cousin: "Whats 12 x 6?"
I: "73"
Cousin: "Whats 9 x 12?"
I: "108"
Cousin: "Whats 3 x umm.... pi?"
I: "Three pi"

*cousin gets rice stuck up nose*

Moved desks at work

Today was moving day at work. I've gone from one corner of the desk bay to another corner of the desk bay.

We're getting really really busy as well.

Other than that, not much else has changed.

Obviously had enough to say...

Poor kid. May all your wishes come true! Unless it includes bad things that might happen to me...

Walkthrough / review - well thats what it was supposed to be about

Jeannie will not win an iPod in the next 30 minutes.

That is so sad.

ali likes to pop pills. panadol is his favourite. panadol with lotsa heroin in it.

Anyway, so its again been a while since the last blog, and they seem to be becoming increasingly irregular. Jeannie and Shaz are graffiting the desks of the law building, so if anyone notices that theres stuff written all over the desks, then you'll know who it is.

Now its all turning into smudges.

This is turning into one of those really mindless blogs. So mindless in fact that things about "Jeannie is a meanie" are becoming very amusing. Sticking old soft drink bottle stickers onto peoples' cheeks is becoming amusing as well.

Jeannie is a little teapot, short and stout. Theres her handle, and theres her spout. Tip her over and she probably won't be able to get back up again.

Ok, I think I'll just stop this before it gets any worse.

Knuckled down, and gettin fully jiggy wit it

So flat out today. After sleeping about one hour because I was procrastinating so much last night, I went to uni, went to class, did my Project management work (during class), walked around like heaps, went to get a quote for my psych lab report from the library, but they didn't have it so I went to the other library and we finally got it and then fixed up my lab report but couldn't find somewhere to hook up my laptop to the net to email it to myself so I had to borrow a friend of a friend's USB key and stuck that into it and then stuck it into a computer at the lab and then printed out my report.

*Breathe*

Then the friend of a friend who lent me her USB key gave me her psych report to hand in so I went to the lecture, listened to the thing and wrote down some more Project managment stuff, then I went to the twelth floor of the psychology building to hand it in and then walked to the car and came home while kind of doing more Project managment on the way. As soon as I got home, I emailed that off, and started doing my Software engineering assignment which is due tomorrow. Been doing that for ages, and then dinner calls but I don't go because I'm not hungry and then grandma comes and annoys me and tells me to get dinner for them but I can't so fi goes and then she comes back and then leaves again and I don't know where but they want me to do a delivery and I can't because I dont' have a car because fi has gone out again and then yeah.

Then I sit around and wait for my group members to email me things.

And then I put it all together and submit it.

Procrastination to the max

I think I've wasted enough time this weekend to do about 10 lab reports for psychology. In fact, I think I've gotten back into Rome: Total War, just to get away from doing the lab report. Its due in tomorrow actually, and now I'm procrastinating even more. Kerry has already finished her report, and I'm still sitting here procrastinating. At least I didn't have to go to work today.

So basically I've taken over all of North Africa, most of Greece, half of Egypt, all the holy places in the Middle East, and I've moving up into Western Europe and modern day Russia. All in just a few days, how sad.

I woke up late today, yesterday, and Saturday. Thats just because I could and then I wasted the rest of the day, just as I'm wasting tonight as well. Ho humz, maybe I should get back to work.

On a side note, heres me setting up a wireless network. NB: Its 12:06 and I'm still procrastinating.

Its been a while!

So much hasn't happened. Really, not much at all. The only thing remotely interesting was Anne's 21st. That was fun though.

There were lots of things such as nice looking people, talks about boobs, alchohol and other related things. So considering the people there, it was kind of normal. I figured I'd actually been to the place before, a long time ago for someone else's 18th birthday. Soh came, and he did some practicing of his social skills, among other things.

I've kind of lost my rythmn. After so long not writing anything, its like I really don't have anything to write about. Maybe I'll just have to ease myself into it again.

Weekender

I did pretty much nothing on the weekend.

The only thing of particular note was Friday night, when we had our going away drinks night for one of the people at work. I think we've been going every Friday night for the last three weeks. Its good to just hang out and chat though. We had this really big D&M while half drunk. That was kind of amusing to an extent. At least we didn't feel inhibited about speaking out. It turned a little heated, but I think we solved one of life's most intricate questions. I just can't remember which, or what the answer was either.

Anne wasn't on the bus :(

Slept in late on both Saturday and Sunday, played pool Saturday night at Soh's, bummed around pretty much the whole of Sunday. Yeah. Waste of a weekend really.

blah

This is probably not the most insightful of things to say or work out, but people judge others based on the people they already know.

So what does this unsupported statement imply?! Well, if you've had the oppurtunity to go out and meet lots of people, then chances are that you'll be more tolerant of others. Since you've seen the different perks and personality traits others may have, it wouldn't suprise you when others have the same. I think if you've just ever worked in retail, you'll know what I'm talking about.

On the other hand, if you've lived a rather sheltered life, then its really going to hit you when/if you go out into the real world. The majority of people are 'weird' and they don't really fit into your schema of things. Theres two ways to deal with this: avoid the 'weird' people altogether and don't change your "people schema"; or incorporate the weird people into your new and improved one. I think the avoiding the people can be counterproductive when it comes to having a decent understanding of the world and helps you be a little more content. When you think the world is weird, it doesn't make you feel happy about lots of things. I think it would suck.

Thats not to say that they'll never get over it, we all have to start somewhere. I just think its better if you start early, because the earlier you start, the less of a shock people will make later in life.

Another one of those work blogs

End of the working week, start of the weekend, almost.

I'm actually still at work, but I've got another drinks night. One of the full timers is leaving. He's been a constant source of amusement throughout my err... lengthy time here. But hey, he got offered something better, and good for him.

Sorry for yesterday's post, I couldn't really find anything else to blog about and well.. it kinda took the place of the daily blog. I'm actually amazed to see that I got a relatively distant comment from one of those random blog trawlers - which is good.

Okay thats about it for me tonight. Maybe I'll even have a bus buddy... mauahahahahha Anne.

Psych 221

I'm going to try something which may be better than writing no notes at all in a lecture. I think I'll just blog while in it.

We've just got this new lecturer in developmental psychology. She'll be focusing on mainly emotional and social developmental outcomes from a holistic perspective. We don't have powerpoint slides for this lecture at the moment, she's a little slow.

Today we'll be focusing on the family as a social context and maybe even the broad environment in which a child grows up in. We'll also be looking at how the interaction of family and environmental factors may intersect and the outcomes from that.

Just a little note by Kerry who sits next to Ez as he writes this: She is VERY slow at changing slides :(

Okay so ecological theories of development!

Basic principles:

How to understand the interaction between nature and nurture - Silly to think thats its just one of the two, we need to understand how they interact together. I.e. How genetics can interact with the environment.

Active child - How does the 'activeness' of a child affect their development? A child who is very shy will illicit a different repsonse from their environment than one who is very outgoing.

Kerry again: she repeats herself ALOT!

Continuity of development - Emphasised that the development of a child does not occur in stages, but is rather a continual and gradual development of things.

Bronfrenbrenner's ecological and biological model

Not all the effects on the development on the child are direct. They realise that the child is a active contributor to their own development.

This is opposed to the traditional view that you can shape a child from birth. That is, like plato or some other ancient person said, a child's mind is a clean slate on which you can write whatever you want. Or something similar to that.

A social address model
Where they are, and how that has an effect.

A study done on adopted children:

If neither the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 12% of men had a criminal record.

If either the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 20% of men had a criminal record.

If both the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 36% of men had a criminal record.

Wow... I think that says a lot...

Process-context model
How they learn.

Person-process context model
What kind of differences the kind of child makes on the development of the child.

MISO SYSTEM

Microsystems
E.g. School, home, childcare, family, etc.

The interaction between microsystems and how they influence each other. Apparently child care is bad for kids? (Kerry: she did not say that! Just that childcares have an impact on their development!) I heard it as a bad impact :) (Kerry: an interpretation issue here Ez!)

Kerry: it's been 15 minutes and the slide HAS NOT CHANGED!!! OMG!!!

So lucky I'm actually writing things down, or else I'd be screwed.

Exosystems
Basically things outside the microsystems which may affect the child. So the things that affect the child that are not directly doing anything? Less than proximal or something like that. *shrugs*

Work - maternity leave, parental leave, ability to work with some flexibility. Are you allowed to call your kid at work?! Basically how well the family can fulfill their role as parents or whatever.

Kerry: OMG too many questions asked about the environment!!! OVERLOAD. Cute guy sitting to Ez's right two rows in front. Chinese guy with glasses sitting next to this girl wearing purple! YAYA!

Cultural and Political factors - Examples: one child policy, childcare, capitalists, communists etc.

Kerry: OMG I get it! EVERYTHING BLOODY THING AFFECTS THE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT!!!

Chronosystem
Time affects everything, and everything affects the child's development, therefore, umm.. time is important and (Kerry) child is very easily infuenced!

OK that's it. Blah blah blah blah. Everything affects a child. DUH.

I can imagine a multiple choice question in the exam:

Which of the following affects a child's development?
a. Nothing
b. Something
c. Everything
d. None of the above
e. All of the above

I would be confused.

Music to my - "Oh hey!"

Funny thing happened to me on the way to work today...

Actually no, nothing funny really happens on the way to anywhere, its just something comedians say. Plus, this thing didn't even happen to me, I just saw it happen. Its not even funny.

So anyway, I'm taking the tram down into work, and I get off to catch another tram. Thats mainly because I can't be bothered walking so far. In fact, theres another topic for a blog post. But more on that later. While walking to the other tram, two people meet.

Theres a lot of people on public transport these days with things in their ears. Thats not to say that they have bugs, lots of earwax or even ear hair. I'm talking about earphones. They pass the time on public transport by listening to their favourite tunes. What happens though, when these people actually find someone to talk to? They have to pull out those earphones, and then talk. Whats worse is when they don't notice, they keep those earphones in, and just keep doing what they were doing.

Not very inspiring at all.

Its funny when two people with earphones in them see each other. The first one to notice smiles, pulls out the earphones, and tries to grab the others' attention. They can't talk you see, because the other person clearly can't hear much. When the other finally notices, they let out a suprised 'Oh Hi!' and then proceed to remove their own music excretion devices. So much effort just to say hello. I grin and chuckle at the ridiculousness of it all.

Mobile phone personalisation

I've always been against the whole personalisation of mobile phones thing. To me, it seems such a waste of time and money, not to mention effort, just to get something for your phone. Mobile phone personalisation can come in a range of different ways. There are things such as different mobile phone covers, things to hang off the little hole in the edge of your phone, ring tones, display pictures... I could go on for a while.

For things such as ringtones, I can see the point. When your phone rings, you'd rather that you can tell that its yours instead of around 10 people fumbling around for their phones until somebody realises that its theirs. Thats usually the person who last finds theirs. At least personalising your ringtone is practical.

Everything else just seems like a waste of time. Things to hang off your phone make it bulkier and more prone to sticking into your skin somwhere where it can hurt. Display pictures hardly ever get seen, phone covers... well.. maybe if you're worried about your phone overheating from having too dark a cover. Or maybe if you can't see your phone cos its too damn reflective.

I'm actually being kind of hypocritical. My phone is like one of the hardest phones to personalise. Theres no hole for things to hang off, you can't change the cover, its hard to change the ringtone from anything other than the presets, and the display picture is that of a couple of cows. However, I've temporarily managed to personalise it. Apart from all the scratches on it, it now has a rather striking blood stain. Don't ask me how it got on there, but I'm pretty sure its my blood. But hey, at least its original.

Romance novels

I went into Big W the other day while waiting for the bus. The past couple of times I went, I was on the hunt for a nice book to read while taking public transport for the next couple of weeks. This time, however, it seemed that all they had was romance novels. The last time I went, there was a bit of this, a bit of that. But no, recently they've decided to convert the whole wall (except for the new releases part) into a whole book section dedicated to romance novels.

To tell you the truth, I've never read a romance novel before. Neither is reading a romance novel on my 'to do' list. I figure that since chick flicks aren't really my thing, neither would romance novels. Also, I doubt that the romantic side of the books would ever get through the insensitive exterior of my personality and into what is traditionally known as the heart: the emotional nerve center of the body.

Not only that, it'd kind of look a bit funny to people on the bus. You've really got to love those corny romance novel covers.

This isn't really a gripe, I've just got to look elsewhere for something which suits my literary interests.

Laziness and the lack of...

Blogger seems to be down at the moment. Thats kind of a bad thing, so this is coming copied and pasted straight from a text document to the web interface. I might even change the time that its written, assuming that I can even remember.

I think I'm really lazy. Last night, I think I figured out the other main reason for me not having a girlfriend. (The other reason is because nobody wants me. Its OK, I've come to grips with that.) Its because I really can't be stuffed putting in the effort to get one. There have been girls I've liked, no doubt about that, but every time I make an effort, I seem to just kind of lose interest after starting. I suppose if you asked me whether I wanted a girlfriend, I'd probably say yes though.

I'm pretty sure if its because I find that the person isn't really all that I thought them to be. After all, its not like I'm fussy. Its just way too much effort. Too much time involved, too much thinking involved, oh yeah not to mention all the money involved either. Unless the girl is rich, then thats not a problem :)

Theres also something about how high maintainence some people are. Some people are high maintainence. That means you have to do a lot to please and keep them as your friend, or significant other. I really can't stand that. Even if I thought that person was really nice and all, theres no way I would eve consider them as a 'potential'. It just doesn't work for me.

Damn I'm really lazy. Or maybe I just don't really need someone. Single life kind of agrees with me at the moment, and I don't have too many complaints. Its fun just hanging out with friends and things. But yeah, I guess I agree with Soh when he gets annoyed with people who just talk to their SO instead of making an effort. Or maybe I'm just green with envy.

Little big adventure

I wasn't really expecting any calls tonight. It was too early for my mum to be calling to ask if I was hungry, and it was too late for somebody who just wanted to make use of yes time. However, I did manage to get one tonight. It was from Soh.

You can expect a post from the man himself tonight, probably covering something intricately related to the events which will soon be uncovered here.

He ran out of petrol, on the road. I guess I can't really blame him though, having a bad day from running late and driving into all sorts of trouble. I guess his mind was on different things at the time.

I had a jerry can, but no funnel. Instead, I sacrified the plastic cover of my computer fundamentals B notes to the cause. Eric came over to pick me up (I think he may have been not looking forward to studying tonight and wanted to procrastinate), and we went in search of the elusive Soh.

We found him having a nap. A nice way to pass the time if one is waiting for others to arrive. Found that he'd had a little prang on the way as well. Wasn't much of a drama getting some petrol into the tank. At least I know my notes cover went to a good cause and not in vain. Ah... to be a notes cover...

Yeah. That was my excitement for the night.

Popularity

I'm really hungry at the moment. Just got back from a long day at uni.

Starting a post with a question is usually kind of thought provoking. But I don't really want to provoke thoughts. 'Provoke' somehow seems to have negative connotations for me. I'm not really sure why. Somehow I always seem to relate it to provoking a fight or something of the sort. So instead, I think I'll just post about something else.

Its a little bit unclear as to when somebody becomes popular. Theres no actual line that distinguishes someone from the average person to someone who is popular. Dicctionary.com defines it thus:

pop·u·lar
adj.
1. Widely liked or appreciated: a popular resort.
2. Liked by acquaintances; sought after for company: “Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved” (Margaret Fuller).
3. Of, representing, or carried on by the people at large: the popular vote.
4. Fit for, adapted to, or reflecting the taste of the people at large: popular entertainment; popular science.
5. Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general: a popular misunderstanding of the issue.
6. Suited to or within the means of ordinary people: popular prices.
7. Originating among the people: popular legend.

I think the defintion I'd be on about tonight would probably be numbers one and two.

Today I had the rare experience of actually being called popular. It was kind of amusing actually. I walked into a lecture late (as usual), heard my name, and turned to see Kerry sitting there pointing at the seat next to her. So I start walking up the stairs, but then realised that there were way too many people in the way. It was a psychology lecture, so not one where you can easily move into the middle of a bunch of seats without telling everyone else to shove out of the way. So I kind of give up, motion to Kerry that I'm just gonna go sit somewhere else, and move along.

Then I see Karen on the other side, same situation.

Then I see Loretta, sitting on the edge. Easiest person to sit next to since the lecture is packed and all I get is to sit on the walkway. Karen gives me a funny look. Before she knew me in uni, she used to think I was a pimp of sorts. Apparently whenever she saw me, I was with some girl chatting away. She actually only told me about this last year, and its been kind of an on going joke since. Obviously this was one of those days where it would get full treatment. For those of you who read the Viking Mistresses blog, you'll notice that the link to this blog has me listed as Mr. Pimp. Well thats where it comes from.

Its quite funny really, because I don't think of myself as relatively popular. Its just that I go to places where people I know are. And the reason I know those people is because I go to those places. A cycle of knowingness.

So if you're liked "widely", it makes you popular. If you have friends who come from different places, and do different things, then you're popular. Its strange, because that means that if most or all of the people you know are from the same place, then you can't technically be popular. Although I guess, to the people that you know, you aren't popular because they know everyone you know.

That brings me on to something else. A lot of people judge others popularity on the amount and type of people whom the judgee knows compared to those that judger knows. While popularity is probably a relative term, just because someone you know knows lots of people that you don't know, it doesn't necesarily mean that they're popular.

Another thing is: Who really wants to be popular? If you ask me, I'd rather have fewer friends who are better friends than a whole crowd of people I only know by name and which course they do at university. Its kind of shallow if you ask me.

Closing comment: Popularity is a funny thing, don't mess with it.

P.S. Sorry for the post going up so much later than the specified time, I had to go on a little adventure.

Bloggin from the lecture theatre

You can pretty much blog from anywhere now. This one is actually coming from the middle of a lecture theatre. How very facinating. No, I'm just bored.

Somehow, we seem to be covering stuff we should have done in a previous subject. I don't know why, but hey, I guess it means I don't really have to listen to the lecture as much. It seems like a waste of time. Maybe I'll just bring some headphones, the laptop, and some stuff to watch next time.

work.. and stuff

Back from the weekend all fresh and stuff.

Again, nothing significant to blog about. Life pretty much sucks right about now.

Feelin' the same way all over again

Really not much to say...
Not much to say at all.

I'm kind of dazed these days. I started taking some antibiotics for some skin rashes and stuff. I think it must be that because apparently they're really strong drugs. Maybe thats why I've got nothing to say.

Feeling bad and such

Feeling crappy isn't the best. But thats how it was last night. Dizzy and with a huge headache. I don't really know what started it, but apparerntly some other family members felt this way too. Maybe its contagious! muahhaha. Nah its not really that bad I hope.

Anyway, going out for a drink while you're not feeling too good isn't that great an idea, but I did it anyway. Only one beer.. and an hour later I was feeling pretty bad. Bad enough that I only ate half of my serve of Hokkien noodles. Its kind of hard to be socialable when you're like that as well, but I tried my best.

I'm feeling a lot better now though. Bit hot, but much better.

work blog

Its been a while since I've blogged from work. Here we go. Its kind of funny how when I've actually got a time limit to blog, I seem to blog more and more.

Lets start:

Thanks to everyone who came to my impromptu birthday party, and sorry for those of you who decided not to or whom I didn't invite. I hope you don't feel TOO offended, didn't exactly want to fork out my entire life savings for a dinner.

Presents are always nice. I got a crumpler bag, a jumper and some booze. Actually I kind of needed all three, so thanks for putting an effort into that.

I was going to write something about friends, and what friends mean, and what happens when people become friends, and other related mumbo jumbo. But I've only got 4 munutes left, and that really isn't enough time. Perhaps I shall do so tonight. I'm actually meant to go to drinks with some work buddies after work, and then maybe to dinner with the group of soccer people. So yeah.. going out to do stuff.. and spend money I don't neccesarily have.

celebrate my 20th + 40 day on the planet

I haven't been stuffed to do anything recently, including blog. I can hardly even remember what I did on Tuesday, but it mustn't have been that exciting. All I really remember is going to lunch and eating. Yeah actually thats probably all I did.

Wednesday I had work. I actually woke up REALLY dizzy and stuff. Dizzy enough to fall back into bed, which actually doesn't really say much since I'd probably fall back into bed without being the slightest bit busy at all. In fact I'm in bed now.

I was kind of pissed off on the way back. Pissed off at relatives, and at Asian people in general. Pissed off at their prejudiced way of thinking, and of their arrogant nature. Perhaps I was being just like that by thinking that way, but I'm sure I'm not alone.

Dinner on the other hand, was enjoyable if not tasty. We had Mexican, just to be different. Very cheesy. Went back to PP afterwards and sat around as usual. Oh this was meant to be for my 20th birthday, which was err... 2 months ago.

bloggin from the bathtubtubtubtub

I love this wireless technology. It makes blogging so much different now. I can blog from anywhere in the house, and even from other peoples' houses.

Anyway, I've kind of noticed that I seem to miss out on the weekends a lot when I'm blogging. I'm sorry. Well, actually not really, its just that I don't really have th urge to blog when I'm just about to go somewhere, or just got back from somewhere. Or maybe I'm just lazy. I think its probably the latter.

So whats been happening? Quite a lot. Well, not that much actualyl, just more than usual I guess.

Another one of my second cousins (whom I've never met before) came from Hong Kong for a short holiday and to catch up with her family who are already here. A whole bunch of us went to Healsville Sanctuary. I think we even won the 'Who can bring the most people to this destination' award. There were about 3 cars full of us.

Its been a long time since I've been there. So long that I can't even remember going. It was enjoyable. Well, as enjoyable as any trip to the zoo can be. I quite enjoyed the birds of prey show they had on. Its amazing the kind of birds we have in Australia yet hardly ever see. I guess thats what civilisation does to the animals, makes them go further away from the rest of us.

I went to see Danny Bhoy on Friday night. He's a Scottish comedian . Rather conventional, but he was good. The only gripe I'd have about that show was that it was a little bit shorter than I would have liked, especially considering the price we paid for it.

When we got back, it was kind of still early, so I leeched quite a bit of stuff from Soh. One of the things I got was a sci-fi tv show. I've been watching quite a bit of that over the weekend. Actually, I've just finished the first season this afternoon. So maybe quite a bit doesn't really cut it. Anyway, its a good show, full of twists and turns like a sci-fi series should be. Also, theres a hot chick and a cute one there too, so that kind of keeps me hooked.

Saturday night was Chris and Eddie's birthday bash. Some of us went with the intention of getting pretty smashed. I think quite a few of us more than achieved our goals. There were some extended trips to the toilet, some nice walks outside, some new things to gossip about...

So overall, I thought it was really good... I learned from my last Xtreme adventure with alchohol, and managed to stop myself from going too far.

Adrian on the other hand, had a somewhat unpleasant experience, vastly contrasting what appeared to be a very successful night beforehand.

Sunday:More tv, poker night on westside.

I lost $10. Won some close ealry hands, and then didn't get a single good hand after that. *sigh*

But the company was good, and thats all that really matters.

Advanced db in 10 minutes

OOOooooooOoOo.

Time to learn some quality Oracle, the leading vendor in database software. So much so that I think we get to have a copy of it for free. Well its so hard to use that you wouldn't have a clue unless you did their course, so I guess they'll know if you'll be using it or not.

That didn't make much sense.

I'm just kind of typing randomly trying to kill some time before the lecture starts.

Yeah. Thats about it.

Wholesale bloodshed

Everyone is being mean, blogwise that is. Sam is being his weird angry self recently, Terence is being his normal intolerent self, Garry is making his presence known, and Soh is making some new friends. So Soh isn't actually being that mean, but its starting to turn ugly in a general sense.

On the other side of the fence, the VMs are being their normal selves. That is to say, I wouldn't really expect them to be any different.

So thats how things are in our little group of bloggers. One group of them have met the other, and the stage is set for a gladiatorial death match of err.. rather small proportions. But in my view of the world, its rather significant.

Maybe thats why mixing groups doesn't really work very well. Sure, individuals can join groups without too much problem, but when you have a whole bunch of them meet each other, theres almost guarenteed to be some sort of conflict/backlash.

I think I'll just give up on attemping to get groups to even KNOW each other groups, not that most people are very interested in it anyway. Peope have things to do, other people to see. I know, but I don't understand. Although I guess this time it wasn't even me who conciously went out and did this, it just kind of happened by association.

Just sit in your corner and think about it. Little brother does not approve.

Cravings

I finished uni early today. When I got home, I saw Em online. I think I did something very spontaneous and we went out for coffee / grocery shopping. We must have both been pretty bored. Em is actually one of those people who are really easy to talk to. They can talk about almost anything. That is, anything that is common. Obviously they wouldn't be able to speak to someone about the intricacies of the latin language (although I guess a few of them could), but they can talk about anything.

The thing is, Em is actually doing a course quite similar to mine. Although in a completely different university, she's also doing a Computer Science course with some psychology tacked onto the side of it. But the thing is, we hardly ever talk about the things we study. In the rare times that we catch up (every 3 months or so), study is just another thing that we do, not our topic of conversation. I think its kind of cool.

Anyway, she mentioned she had a craving for cheese. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I've never really heard of a craving for cheese before. I thought it was really strange. Maybe its because I'm not really fond of cheese, but then she said she wasn't either. It didn't really make any sense to me at all. So the question is, does anyone else just have random cravings? Am I abnormal by not having random cravings?

First blog from a lab

After all this time, I've finally written my first blog from a lab at uni. At least I think its my first. Its my first for this semester at least, and that'll do.

Now just to find something to blog about...

Doing some project management work today. I'm kind of sitting next to my team leader, he's working out our roles and stuff and just kind of asking me a few things. Jeannie and Andrew are in this lab as well, sitting in front of me just chattin about things... and people, and gossiping. Its kind of interesting eavesdropping, something about Pharmacy people hooking up...

Something I don't really understand.

Yesterday was also a good day, because we handed in our group assignment for software eng. Theres actually a lot more to it, but thats the first one. Another one not due for a while.

Ho humz. Psychology... boring lecture soon. Not looking forward to it at all. :(

Missed out a whole weekend

Indeed I did. Better write down what I did before I forget.

Friday night: RVS
Saturday: Yum cha and Nancy's Birthday
Sunday: Not much, but did some homework and went out to dinner with some family friends whom I did not know at all.

Sorry for the short posts, again.

Soz

Sorry I haven't written anything substantial for a while. I've just been really tired lately. I probably should have been playing Ravenshield until 1:30 last night, but I just couldn't help myself.

I haven't really been doing much either, just kind of sitting around a lot. Supposedly I'm going to Soh's place tonight to play pool. The other possibility is that I'm working at the restaurant. Um. I just want to sleep actually.

Announcement to make

Today, I lost my jacket, and then found it again.

That is all.

Eek

So tired yesterday. It feels like I'm more tired after 2 hours of uni than I am after a whole day at work. I wonder why that is. So, thats about all I did yesterday. Quite sad really.

Today I'm at work bright and a little bit late, but nobody seems to mind. Other than that, I've got Project Management later in the afternoon, thats gonna suck. Not looking forward to it at all.

Damn I'm hungry and egocentric.

Shaz

Shaz gets a mention in my blog. She was doing something interesting, I forgot now what it was...

OT!

Currently at work, 3 minutes into my tea break, and I've decided to blog.

What am I doing at work on Labour day I hear you ask? Well... I'm not really too sure. Public holiday rates (which I hope is either 1.5x or 2x rate) are hard to turn down. I've also got uni later in the afternoon, so had to come out anyway.

So I'm taking Tuesdays off work now. It'll be good to have a bit of a break now, so I can get back early on Tuesdays and err.. do some study.

Yesterday was Templestowe festival. According to the banners, its full of fun, food and umm... actually I can't remember the last one, but I'm sure it started with F. Not necesarily a good thing. Anyway, I was working, kind of. Didn't feel that good though, because I'd only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before, I was reading Dan Brown's Deception Point until around 3 in the morning, and I was supposed to get up at 7 to help dad set up for the day. Needless to say, I was feeling kind of bad the whole day. It wasn't THAT busy, so I didn't slip and hurt myself, and went to have a nap when I got home.

For those of you who don't know (and I suspect thats pretty much everyone who reads this blog), I've been playing quite a bit of Ravenshield lately. Its basically Rainbow 6, the 2nd sequel. I play with a bunch of friends from uni. I think we're starting to get it together now. We can finish missions just by ourselves and we're starting to get to the stage where we try different things, like attempting to clear levels with only pistols and machine guns. Still fun.

So yeah... I was up till about 4am playing that, and got up at 7:30 to come to work. Not a bad effort huh? I guess that nap earlier in the night came in handy.

Oh btw, anyone know any 4-6 year olds I can interview for a psychological study? I'm struggling.

Typing with my eyes closed.

I'm feeling quite tired at the moment, so I think I'll tr and type this post with my eyes closed most of the time. Yeah I'm just trying to show off. :) So what happened recently? Not really all that much.

Fi just came in to ask a question about shares. I think its rather silly that they're teaching stuff thats general knowledge. I mean, even I can answer her questions. Maybe I should have done commerce instead. *sigh*

Anyway, I've given up on trying to type without my eyes open, as people are trying to message me at the same time, and its not nice to keep people waiting too long.

The westies and the soccer bunch went out to dinner last night. I'm not really sure what I was doing there, as I'm neither a westie or a soccer player, but I had work in the city. I guess that'll do. I was actually on my way home from work when Sam called to remind me that it was on. He wasn't actually going to that either, but he was looking for someone to kill time with until he had his other Korean law students dinner. So I got off the bus and bummed.

Dinner was okay, but expensive. Not going back there again any time soon. Went to pancake palour after to bum and play cards.

That was my Friday night. So far this Saturday, I've done absolutely nothing, but its good to have a break, since I won't be having another break till next Saturday at the earliest.

continuation

He mentioned that having an industry perspective when he was at uni helped him a lot to get motivated. I think he also found that subject one of the most enjoyable he took. Its the same the other way round. If you're in industry, training is usually from that perspective. However, when you have a different thing, like have training from an academic perspective, then its like having the vice versa. I guess its kind of the same as something I learned in psychology the other day. I wasn't really listening that well, but the basic gist of it was that you pay more attention to things that are different to what you're used to.

Fi was nice enough to leave the car behind so that I could drive home. I was planning just to take the bus home, and maybe even visit Mel on the way, because I had to wait quite a while for the bus. Mel actually messaged me to ask whether I'd finished class yet, apparently they weren't all that busy and closed up early. So instead, we went to have some Viet noodles! Mel saw some friends there, and we all ate. Actually, by the time we got there, they'd already eaten, so its more like, I ate and Mel talked to her friend's Japanese friend. Its kind of funny, now I'm all excited about Japanese people because this guy was funny. His name was Kenji, and he had come to Australia in his 3 week spring break just for a holiday. He met Mel's friend Emma on the bus apparently, and ended up hanging out a lot.

After that, we all went looking around for chocolate. No such luck unfortunately. So we all trooped down to southbank for some drinks, chocolate cake and ice cream. Twas good.

Got stuck in traffic on the way home... strange that theres traffic at 11:30 on a Thursday night, but oh well, what can one do?

FULL days

It was a long day yesterday. I only started uni at 10, which is probably my latest start of the working week. It doesn't even feel that bad though, I think I'm starting to get used to sleeping less and waking up really early. We'll see how it goes when I wake up before the sun does. Maybe its just a sign that I'm getting old :(

So anyway, yesterday:

Had my first software processes tute. It was SOOO boring, the tutor doesn't really seem to have a clue what he's talking about, nor does he even seem interested in the topic. I don't know how he even got the job. After that, the usual lectures, labs (advanced database concepts), and more lectures.

Psychology does seem a lot less interesting these days. It seems like they're just regurgetating what other people have done. Normally academics do that on occassion, but psychologists seem to take it to the extreme. Most lecturers will credit a theory to someone the first time they mention it, and then very seldom after that. Psychologists on the other hand name their theories after each other. For example, Piaget's (1960something) theory on child development is contrasted by Kzovsky (1985) in his work on some other stuff. Its bad because you have to remember both the theory name, ideas and the person who made them up. Bored...

So it seems like its just a subject where all you do is remember stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. This subject (developmental psychology) even makes you remember it in depth because its not ALL multiple choice questions. Since when did they not have multiple choice questions for psychology? They've always had only multiple choice exams! *sigh* I may even have to read the book this year.

Advanced database on the other hand, is very good. I think its probably my first IS subject where I'm feeling I'm actually learning something. Its something practical, and comes from a different perspective. I was with Wayn after the lecture, and he decided to give some feedback to the lecturers while they were walking out. The lecturer (who works for Telstra) is actually kind of a guest lecturer. He takes the oracle component of the course. Its refreshing to have an industry perspective on some aspects of the course.

Will finish blog in next tea break.

No time to do anything

I feel like I have no time to do anything anymore. Its either consumed by work, uni, or both. The thing is, I probably worked more when I was doing full time than uni and work combined now. It feels like more though. Maybe uni takes a lot out of you. Its either that or public transport. I know public transport takes a lot out of you. Stupid trams, stupid buses, and stupid late public transport. Today I found out that the goal for 'on time' trams is 80%. Last month, the tram company failed that. How depressing. 80% of the trams that ran last month arrived within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. That means 1 in 5 trams were either late, or didn't even turn up.

Anyway. Met my project management group today. They seem okay I guess. Theres a lot of 3rd years in the group, it makes me feel old. They wanted me to be team leader. I regretfully declined, citing my previous employment engagements. Luckily somebody else indifferently volunteered. I think I'm going to try and get Tuesdays off work.

Perhaps I'm doing too much work.

I feel kind of tired recently. Lots of long days and stuff. Yesterday I did a 9am-6:45pm, got back to eat around 8:15pm and then sat around with Soh's family till about 10pm.

Yeah that was fairly long, Saturday was fairly long too. Everyone can see the result of long days: short blog posts.

I'm going to have a long day today as well. I had a lecture at 9am, came to work, then have another lecture at 5:15pm. So I knock off at 4:30, head up to uni, attend the lecture, miss my bus back home, and have to wait for another 45 mins for the next one, which I have to change on.

How do I know I'm going to miss my bus? Because of the stupid trams, so slow. Perhaps I should just leave my lecture early... that sounds good actually.

Another weekend wrapup

Work on Saturday, was good.

Michael and Angelo's birthday on Saturday night. Was good.

Went to Adrian's after that. Was ok.

Slept in Sunday morning (and a bit of the afternoon), was great.

Ate, fixed up Tez's computer, ate again, fixy a bit more, came home. Was ok.

Uni!

Again, I don't seem to have anything to say. There hasn't really been much going on. Syria pulling troops out of Lebanon, some woman who got eaten by a hippo...

Guess what? I'm working tomorrow. Thats a Saturday. I think I'll put in a whole days work with double pay. Yum....

I'm sorry. I feel obligated to write something substantial because I haven't updated in such a long time, but I've really got nothing to say. I think maybe I'll just talk about uni, since thats the only thing thats really changed in my life recently...

Lets see, Advanced database concepts looks to be a subject where I'll actually learn something this semester. This is as opposed to a subject like project management, where all we do is just sit around and listen to the same old crap told to us over and over again. Not the most enjoyable thing to do late on a monday or Thursday afternoon. In fact, I think I'd rather be sleeping, a lot. Maybe thats what I'll do next time, just sleep through the lecture.

Theres also a group project thing for software eng. Its a fairly big group, like 7 in total, although apparently in project management we have more than that... like 10 or 11. Not looking forward to them very much. *sigh*

Fire Drill

Currently in the middle of a fire drill. Just goes to show how seriously we take our workplace health and safety. Theres a siren, but thats about it really...

Uni woes...

I finally started uni today, (I actually went to work yesterday) and turned up to a couple of lectures. Whats good is that uni doesn't seem to have changed, so I can still find my way around. What wasn't good was my timetable. It turned into dog poo pretty much overnight. A prac got cancelled and stuck on at 9am on a Wednesday morning. Its not that I really dislike early morning starts, its more because it gives me lots of time to sit around doing pretty much nothing.

I'll just fill those of you who don't know what it used to be like.

Monday 4-5pm
Tuesday 9-10am, then 5-6pm
Wednesday 9-11am, then 4-5pm
Thursday 9-3pm with a lunchbreak
Friday 1-2pm

Now if thats not bad, I don't know what is. I think if I kept that timetable, I wouldn't have a job anymore. I might even have to go back to working at the restaurant. NOooOoooO. So instead, I decided to change subjects from Application Environments to Advanced Database Concepts. I'll have to do Application Environments next year anyway, so no big loss.

At the moment, my new timetable looks pretty ok. I've got Wednesday and Fridays off, which is great. First official days off uni that I've ever had, so its a bit of a novelty for me. Instead, I think I'll be working.

Other than that, today was a bit of a catch up and errand day. I got my concession card for public transport, went to a couple of lectures, tried to work out my subject change and pretty much bummed around the rest of the time.

EDIT: Muahhaha.

Same people part 2?

I think I will actually say a bit more about people, and different ones. I was actually kind of thinking about it on the bus this morning.

Some of us call people that we meet in ways other than through friends, randoms. While its probably true that meeting these people is fairly random, its used in a derogatory form, as if these people aren't really worth the time we spend with them. I never thought that people could really be random at all. Theres obviously going to be some sort of connection between two, otherwise they would never meet at all. So it just doesn't make sense to me... Its almost as if people outside our current circle of friends has rabies, or worse. I'm sure thats quite possible, but shouldn't we at least find out?

I think this kind of attitude exacerbates the problem that we have between social classes and circles being so enclosed. Not only does it make that worse, it can also stop people becoming closer in the same social circles. Anyway, thats my tea break, off to take a piss.

weekend wrapup

If I didn't mention it before, my teamleader at work resigned. It was her last day on Friday, so we had an afternoon tea. After work, everyone went down to the local pub for a goodbye drink. She's kind of funny when she gets drunk. We all had a good time I think, and yeah, it was good.

I was really tired, so I only had a couple of drinks then headed off home. Too bad the bus actually left early, the bastard, and left me behind. So I went to the train station and asked my mum if she could pick me up. While waiting, I decided to get some chips, and call Sam. It was more of a call because I was bored waiting for the train and because, I remembered that years ago, Sam used to call me when he was bored and half drunk at the train station while waiting for a train to come, and I thought I'd return the favour. However, he happened to be playing soccer, so I asked him for a ride home. HAHAH. Poor Sam, sorry.

Slept in Saturday morning, went to yum cha with grandma and auntie. Sat around at home for a while after that doing almost nothing.

Saturday night I actually had something on. Dinner with people. Wow... people. It was at an overpriced Japanese place. The food was slow, not that great, and pretty expensive. But the place was nice, I'll give them that. After dinner, we grabbed some ice cream from Chapel St and went back to Karen's. After playing some PS2, some pool, and picctionary, it was late, and Mel went home. The rest of us stayed for some quality lawn bowels on the pool table. One of the most entertaining games of the night. In fact, it was so entertaining, we were up till 4am playing it.

Sunday was pretty boring. Sat around most of the time. Nice to relax though I guess.

Does it ever seem like you're always meeting the same people, over and over again?

Sometimes, when I meet people for the first time, they seem to remind me of someone else. Some characteristics seem to crop up in disproportionatly in people who are not even distinctly related. One could argue that these characteristics may not be separate characteristics at all, but rather characteristics derived from a more fundamental feature. However, I would like to suggest a different, and probably very obvious reason.

When I think about the people I've met, and the spread of the population from which these people have come from, it seems that they are predominately from a small, distinguishable part of society. The majority live in good homes with relatively stable families, and have been brought up to believe that which is good. Yet statistics show that a large number of people actually come from households which do not have such high standards of living, nor the love and support a family can provide.

But how come I haven't met these different kinds of people? Are they hiding in the corner? I would suggest that in our lives, we tend to stick to those we know, and those we know tend to be the ones who are similar to us. Different people make us uncomfortable, no matter how tolerant we are. Sure, you can get used to them, and in time, they become as familiar as the back of your hand, but why would we waste our time in learning that which we do not have to? Instead, we allow our minds to be enclosed.

Just think about the people you see at school, work, university, whatever. Its probably more evident in education institutions than anything though. In primary schools and secondary schools, people come from the same area, and thus similar socioeconomic backgrounds. They meet people in similar situations, grow up in similar environments, and genereally just do it all together. At university, people are similar in their academic levels of achievement. While secondary school scores are not necesarily indicative of intelligence, we could probably safely assume that the majority of people who go to a particular university would be more or less of a similar level of intelligence.

In addition to this, people who don't do as well at school, and recieve a relatively lower score will also end up together. Whether that be meeting at centerlink to collect their fortnightly dole payments, or at the same psychiatric hospital due to insanity pleas to get off a serious criminal act, they're all together.

Sorry, I'm just practicing. We've gotta start writing crap for uni. It starts tomorrow you know... Look at all those relatively big words... I think I'm doing well. I probably could have developed this thought much better than I have, but at the moment, I really can't be stuffed.

Not much to say

Yeah... not much to say recently. Haven't really done anything other than work. Only two things come to mind. Timetables and a movie. Oh yeah, and lack of sleep.

I've kind of worked out my uni timetable. I don't think I'm going to go to Monday lectures. Instead, I'm gonna come to work instead. I'm also working Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings. Its good because its quite flexible. I think I'll just count the number of hours I'm working. Hold on...

Ok.. 16.5 hours next week of work.

Should be a relaxing week finally. No tutes/labs (I hope) and just some lectures. Fun fun.

I saw Constantine last night. It was quite Matrixy. Lots of paranormal stuff. It was about God, and the Devil, and stuff like that. Quite enjoyable I thought...

Yes.. and lack of sleep. I'm clearly not getting enough. Slept on the bus on the way to work today. Hehe. Tea break almost over... Laterz

untitled

Aww.. the time I manage to get lots of comments on my blog is when they're not even about me :( Jeez I'm self centered.

Anyhoo,

Lots of newbies starting work today. Its kind of funny because now they're asking me stuff. Hhaha.. I still think I'm the youngest person on the team by far. Getting started in the corporate world very early.

Remind me to actually get up when the alarm goes off next time, its not good to sleep in too much. 'Nuf said

Wow its been a while

It has been a while since I've blogged. All the way since Thursday, and it has turned out that I have actually been able to keep myself relatively busy, which is definately a good thing.

Thursday and Friday nights, I think I was playing lots of Raven Shield with the IS bunch. Its very enjoyable multiplayer, and its a fun bunch of people to play with. Yes... its good. For those of you who don't really know what it is, you can try check out Ubisoft's website for some stuff about it.

On Friday, I was actually asked to work on Saturday. I figured that since I've got nothing better to do on Saturday anyway, I might as well just work. So off I went on Saturday morning to work. It was weird with just three of us in the whole office. Everyone else was smart enought to take the weekend off. At least it wasn't JUST me though. I couldn't find anyone to hang out with after work, so I just went home. I probably would have preferred to just sit around in the city for the night, but alas, nobody else could be bothered. Instead, I just went home to bum around and watch some tv shows.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to the 21st that night. I thought it'd be another one of those boring ones where we just sit around with the usual bunch of people and eat all the food and drink all the drink we can. Granted, thats not necesarily a bad thing, it just kind of gets repetitive after a while. However, it didn't really end up that way. If you refer to Soh's two blog posts, you can actually see that we had a very entertaining end to the night, since we got to witness the whole thing. Twas a very entertaining ride home.

Sunday was a whole other matter. Adrian actually came back from Japan on Saturday, and spent the day with family, so Sunday was like his friend's day. Hoho. We went to the swap meet and didn't buy anything, had lunch at KFC, sat around cleaning up, went to Doncaster for Sam's lunch, went to dinner at La porchetta, and then went to Eric's house for a movie and dessert. By the way, thats not in any particular order, so don't comment and say we didn't do that in that order.

Its kind of funny how I write these in my tea breaks, you'd think I'd actually use them to stand up and move around a bit instead of sit here at the computer longer. But I'm used to it, its okay.

Oh hey, the post from yesterday did come up. Must've been lost in transit.

Dying posts.

You know, I acutally wrote something yesterday at work. But the network connection kind of died, and I lost my post. Don't really like it when that happens. I couldn't really be bothered taking my 2nd tea break out to write it again, and by the time I got back home I'd forgotten what I wrote. In fact, I still don't remember what I said, so it mustn't have been that important.

Right now I'm rather hungry. I think I'm starting to get my appetite back. Having longer days, doing more stuff (i.e. working) helps I guess. But it doesn't really leave me much time for anything else. Can't really play tennis during the night, so all I end up doing is going home to eat dinner, then just kind of lying in bed chatting on msn or whatever. Not the most exciting of lives. I wonder if it'll be like this if/when I start full time work. But I guess this is really full time work, so maybe it WILL be like this. How boring. Maybe I'll just do another degree just to sit around some more before I enter the real world.

In other news, I made 200 or so calls yesterday. A new high for me. Granted, I worked an 8 hour day (+ 1 hour break), but still, good effort.

Thats it, hopefully this post doesn't die.

Tea break time again

I just went and got a coke from the vending machine. Supposedly, I'm doing some overtime today. However, since I'm only a casual employee, I don't get overtime rates. I'm actually doing more hours than the job advertised, but I don't really mind. In fact, last week, (I just got my pay slip) I did 40 hours! Thats actual work by the way, because they don't pay us for our lunch/tea breaks.

Its pretty good though. At my current pay rates, I'm supposed to be earning a gross annual salary of 35k. Not bad for my first job kind of. But after tax, my stupid HECs debt, and so on, its not so great. I've already paid $500 of tax! and thats like.. in 3 weeks..

Oh well, back to work now...

Slow day...

Thought of the day:

It feels good to come back home from one job and then realise that you don't have to go to work at another job.

Ez's Customer Service Tips

I've decided to put together a few things about being a customer service provider that will probably help those of you who are working in the field. If you're working directly with customers, this may prove invaluable.

1. Feign ignorance
This is one of the most important, if not the most important quality in a customer service operator. You must pretend you do not know, and refer to the relevant department, even if that department is your own. In that case, transfer to the person furtherest away from you, because chances are they'll be the one who doesn't know you. (Note: Does not work for small teams)

Examples:
"I'm sorry, I'm unable to help you with that, I'll tranfer you through to the right department."
"Sorry sir, you've contacted the wrong department. I'll put you through to someone who can help you."

Even if they are adament that they have reached the right department (and they probably have), all you have to do is assure them that you know what you're doing, and the people who told them to do so were probably new, and you don't know them.

"I'm not sure who you talked to, but this isn't the right place. I'll see if I can find the number for it, just one moment." *doo wee doo* "I'll put you through now." *transfer to the person next to you*

2. Feign Sympathy
Another thing to do is feign sympathy for your customers. If they think you're on their side, they're more likely to believe the things you say.

Example:
"I understand that you've been handballed around a lot today. The same thing happens to me everytime I call Telstra, but I've dealt with situations similar to yours, and I'm positive that the [insert random department] is the correct contact point."

3. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT interrupt them.
If you interrupt customers, they get offended. Please avoid this, its good for your own personal health. Plus the longer you're listening to them ramble on, the longer you're doing absolutely nothing, and the closer going home time will be. Theres no example, since its pretty much self-explanatory.

4. Procrastinate as much as possible
Pretend to do other things. If a potential customer looks hard to please or looks even the slightest bit annoyed, stay in the background until either someone else takes that customer, or they leave the queue or shop. Pretend to talk on the phone regarding an urgent matter ("Please action these applications immediently!" ... "I understand you're very busy, but these people have been waiting weeks/months/years." Repeat if desired.)

Another possibility is to gently nudge one of your collegues in their direction.

5. Turn their problem into you're shared problem
Effectively, this changes the customer's perspective on the organisation you work for, but keeps you safe from their wrath. This should only be used in dire situations, for example, when you transfer someone to another department, and they get transferred back to you, by chance. So its almost impossible to avoid a confrontation.

Example:
"Really?! Jeez I talked to them yesterday, they managed to [insert solution here] with my grandma (she can't speak english you know). Its a wonder how these [insert department here] guys can work at all. They don't seem to be doing anything. I'll have someone look into this immediently."

Yeah thats about all I've got at the moment. I hope you've enjoyed it.

The perfect end to a crappy day

Oh Monday. Even though Monday doesn't really mean much to me in the whole scheme of a week these days, since I'm pretty much working flat chat every single day of the week, today it seemed like I was hit with a bad case of Mondayitis. Normally I wouldn't believe in such things, how monday is the worst day of the week. But I guess it kind of turned out that way today. Well at least I hope today will be the worst day of the week.

It all started with the anticipation that I'd have a long, hard day. Not exactly the best feeling to wake up to. I found I didn't have any clean shirts to wear, so I had to rummage through the dirty laundry to find my shirt from yesterday. It was still pretty dirty, and not exactly my favourite shirt either. Wasn't so bad I guess, at least it meant that I wouldn't need to get changed when I got back to work at my second job, because it was a white shirt.

It definately didn't help that I was running late and needed to run to catch the bus. Thats partly because I was looking around for a clean shirt for so long.

Work was just as bad as waking up. You'd think that in an outbound call center, where all you're doing is calling people to verify some information, you really wouldn't get too bad weird and angry people. Yet thats what happened. One of them was so adamant in his refusal to give income verification documents that he asked to speak to my team leader. He said that he didn't want to give us any more information than he already had. But the thing is, he'd already given us almost his whole life story, whats his income going to change? I think he was one of those retired dudes with nothing better to do with their time except make lives hard for other people.

Another customer was so tight arse that he wanted to speak to my team leader about what I thought was nothing. In fact, I can't even remember what it was about. So over I went, and asked for her. So she starts talking, and the customer says I abused him. I'm sorry, did I call your gold phone? He wanted to know where I worked, what my name was, etc. Stupid guy had his head stuck so far up his arse all he could see was shit.

The third bad call of the day invovled a widow. I managed to call her on the day of her husbands burial. *sigh* I almost cried talking to her. *sob* I don't really know what to say to people who've just lost someone. So all I said was "I'm sorry for your loss" and other random sympathetic stuff. Hopefully she'll be okay.

All those calls sapped my morale. I think today would have almost been my most unproductive day. At least my most unproductive day compared to last week. I think our whole team's morale has suffered due to the fact that we're being overwhelmed with work to do. Theres just not enough people to do all that needs to be done, and theres just some people who have to ask things all the time. Sure, we're new, but I would have thought some things just need a little intuition and common sense. Apparently common sense isn't as common as its name implies.

I just missed my last direct bus back to the restaurant. So I caught another, which was kind of annyoing, and asked my grandpa to pick me up from the shopping center. Arrived at the restaurant in the peak time, and hardly had any time to eat dinner. So I didn't really eat much, and got to work. Being valentines day, there were lots of couples and I guess it was nice to see. But I was still working my arse off. It was an early finish, so it wasn't too bad.

So the perfect end to the day:

I'm lying in bed, blogging away. Its quite relaxing, because its almost as if theres absolutely no effort involved in doing this. I get to express what I feel like expressing, and its suppoedly quite theraputic. Ahh....

Oh so now everyone starts commenting

Face it, everyone loves this blog. You can't live without it! Can't go your daily lives without a little tidbit of juicy daily ramblings from Ez. Okay... maybe I'm being a little too something or other.

The other possibility is that everyone just feels sorry for me. I think thats probably it. Anyway...

I just realised I missed out on Friday night. There was actually meant to be something, because I actually did something. I went to celebrate chinese new year, again! This time it was with my aunts, uncle, a 2nd cousin and her friend. It was a pretty random group. We went down to crown, checked out all the food stalls, ate, then left. Wasn't really THAT exciting, it was kind of like the Box Hill one the week before, but bigger. There was also a heap of shows on. There were things like noodle making, tai chi, and even chinese music. Someone from the restaurant was supposedly performing during that, but I missed it. I think I was eating.

Lisa(my 2nd cousin)'s friend was one of those people who seem to be really outgoing. If anybody knows Kerry, she'd be kind of like her. Its kind of funny. Supposedly I'm cute all the time.

So anyway, worked Saturday night. Hardcore. Sunday morning, not AS hardcore.

There was a hot pot on at Eric's last night. It was supposedly to celebrate Sam and my birthdays. I think he feels obliged to do something for me because he thinks I did a lot for his birthday. Hehe. I really didn't do that much Eric, I was working too much to have time to do anything. You should really thank Soh and Dot. Although I'm guessing that you've already thanked Dot enough :)

I just remembered its Valentines day. Guess what? I'm working, 9:30-6:30, then as soon as I get back, I'm meant to be working at the restaurant.

Mememememememmeem

It doesn't really look like anyone reads my blog anymore. Its probably not very interesting. I suppose I didn't really create it in the first place for other people to read. It was more of a personal thing. That and because I was really really bored at the time. Now it seems like its this whole social and interactive thing, which I didn't really want it to be. I mean, it can STILL be that, but its not really its main purpose. So now I'm just going to write what I want to write, not what I think will be interesting to write. Although, its not as if what I have written so far is very interesting anyway. But its just to distinguish it I guess.

I think I made a relatively impulsive buy today. I suppose I've been thinking about it for quite a while now, but its different because I've just done it. I bought a laptop. I rekon its alright. Now I get to blog while I'm in bed, and possibly on the toilet. That could be very interesting :)

Nothing more to add

2 minutes to blog

2 minutes left on my tea break.

Been reading blogs the rest of the tea break, thats why I've got so little time. All I have to say is .... GO SAM.

Yeah.. thats about it really.

Oh and I'm damn hungry. Gonna go chinese new year stuff tonight at the casino with some family. Hopefully theres food there too, preferably free!

Hmmmmm.. maybe I should have breakfast.

If I fall asleep, somebody poke me

It was pretty funny. On the way home from work yesterday, I fell asleep. Missed my bus stop by about a kilometer. So I walked to my grandparents' place to ask for a ride to my other work.

At least it wasn't as busy as the day before.

So after lion dancing, signing old classics, and cleaning up a lot of crap, I went home fairly exhausted. Today wasn't much better. We're really really behind in the queues. I have a feeling our backlog of work is just going to get bigger and bigger. Its especially bad because two people have actually already quit since we all got hired. One just disappeared midway through training, another just quit first day on the job, and another is potentially going to leave.

But hey, at least that almost guarentees my employment :)

work

I'm just writing this in my tea break at work, so I don't really have that much time to do an extended blog. But I guess theres not really much to say, so I might just not say much.

Yesterday was a pretty long day. Got up about 7:30, caught the bus to work, and worked. It was really busy, I don't think we actually got all the things we had to do done. Oh well. Anyway, after that, took the bus back home. It was actually quite packed on the bus. I don't know what happened. Did RMIT start back early or something? I'm pretty sure there aren't that many med students around my area either, so I don't think it'd be that.

So it was chinese new years eve yesterday, and my birthday. There was work, lion dancing, and umm.. lots of loud drums. Yeah, a pretty normal chinese new years eve. Today is actually new years day! Again, working the whole day. I'm pretty lucky that I'm not working in a hard labour job here, otherwise I'd be sooo stuffed. Work work work work....

Anyway, should get paid today, which is a good thing.

6 minutes left on my tea break. Lets see what else I can fit in.

Ohh yeah, birthday stuff. Lots of people sent me sms. Thanks everyone! Its nice to know I'm loved :) I can't be bothered listing names. That and if I do, then people will know who I hate... muahahahahahaha. Nah... its ok, I don't send sms birthday messages either (so don't expect one from me). Didn't really get much for my birthday on my birthday. Just a bit of cash, or a lot of cash, depending on how much you have currently.

3 minutes left.

Not looking forward to work tonight. Hopefully its not as busy as yesterday.

Wow, I actually wrote quite a bit in 10 minutes (5 minutes or less to go to the loo). I think I've run out of stuff. Maybe I'll just go back to work...

the day before chinese new year (and my birthday coincidently)

Had work today.

Came back to a huge family gathering type thing where we just ate and went home. My cousin couldn't get his car started, and Fi still doesn't drive very carefully.

I'm working the whole day and night tomorrow (chinese new years eve) and the day after (chinese new year) and the monday after that (valentines day). Just in case anyone needs me, all they have to do is errr... come visit?

I'm back! (for those of you who missed me)

So yes.... tennis.

It was actually at a free court the coucil provides. So naturally, there was a lot of people on the weekend who wanted to play. Garry seemed to be inappropriately hostile to the people who wanted to have a go after us, but thats just Garry I guess.

After getting back home, I got changed into work stuff and went to the restaurant. Dad wanted me to help him hold some long bits of wood while we drove with them half hanging out the back of the car from my grandparents house. So off we went. Its lucky that their house isn't too far away from ours, otherwise we could have been stopped by cops or something, and the fact that I wasn't really wearing a seat belt could have come embarrasingly into light. Not to mention the nails that were sticking out of it and could have poked a hole in anything, including my head. Its probably not one of the most safest things in the world.

Had a nap till work time, worked... then sat around and went to Box Hill for the chinese new year stuff. Lots of people, some food, and random things just really didn't do it for me. I wanted to go home. I thought we were going just to have supper, and I didn't even know the chinese new year things were on already. All we had were chinese sausages on sticks, fish balls, and some chinese made japanese food, which sucked. "Ran into" Soh there, who was probably meeting some "friends" to just "hang out". Sam was coming too, but I didn't see him. I just went home with mum.

Thats about it really. Came home and blogged the last post, slept, woke up, then blogged this one. Might go back to sleep now.

Flat out...

Its not often I can say I've been flat out and be telling the truth. But it is true this time. I haven't even had much time to update blogs at all. I've got so much I want to write, but too tired to write it. I want to sleep till at least 2 or 3 in the afternoon, to sleep the last few days off. I can't even really remember what I've been doing thats taken up so much of my time. Now I guess I know what it feels like to have no time on your hands to relax, sit back, and bum, like I've been doing my whole life until now.

I haven't updated since my first day going 'live' at my new job. I think I should expand a bit on it. Work is pretty good. Theres always things to do, so you're never bored just sitting around on your arse doing jack all. The people I work with are also great. They help out as much as they can, and we do work as a team to try and get the job done. The volumes at work have been rather high due to a new type of card the bank has brought out. You even get to choose the colour of your card. And you get two! For what reason I wouldn't have a clue, but I guess it seems pretty cool.

We got training for the new card on Friday. It only took about 10 minutes. We were hoping it would take a lot longer. Training is good because all we do it sit around and listen to things. We don't even have to remember it because we can just look it up on the internet. Ah, the things people waste their time learning.

In other news at work, we seem to have lost people. Theres two 'bays' of computers for our team. In each bay, theres two senior staff members and theres spaces for 4 other people who are kind of separated by a glass wall. The senior members get the window seats, which is kind of nice. We were joking the other day that that'll be what we get if we ever get promoted. That is, a window desk. Anyway, there were supposed to be 6 people in my bay (2 seniors, 3 new members including me, and a part-timer). Now theres just two seniors and me. Both the new members seem to have quit/disappeared. I feel so lonely, especially since the part-timer is diagonally opposite me with a giant column in the way. *sigh* At least we can talk over bays.

Work seems to be taking up the majority of my time. I start at 10, finish at 6, take the bus home, eat dinner, get home around 7:30-8. Sit around some, go to sleep. That takes up 5 days of the week.

Thursday night I think it was the night some of us went to Terence's (again) to watch tv/do stuff. Ended up playing poker again, which is always a fun thing to do. I got knocked out early, and spent half the night just kind of err... actually I can't really remember. But I do remember eating very oily stuff. VERY oily. Oh well. Its not like I don't eat a lot of oily stuff already.

Friday night was an exception. We'd been organising a suprise birthday for Eric for the past week, and it finally came around then. If anybody has noticed gaps, then thats probably when I was trying to organise it. Actually, theres a giant gap between now and tuesday, so.. err.. thats when I was. We were really behind schedule in getting there, and I almost skipped dinner, but got something on the way. But behind behind schedule is what we're known for, and now that being late is now considered acceptable because of mobile phones, I don't know..... I think I'd rather still be on time, but theres always something preventing it.

Anyway, the suprise actually turned out to be a suprise, contrary to what we thought. I'm not sure whether telling Adrian he already knew he had a suprise birthday was something from nothing, or whatever. There was minimal eating, minimal drinking, but I think almost everyone had a good time. I think its one of the few 21sts I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Still haven't worked out financial details yet. I'm just going to write down right now that I'm $10 up, just in case I forget. Somebody remind me anyway. I owe a lot I think.

The ride home was interesting. I took Terence, Mica, Garry and Sam home from Eric's. What a killer. From one side of the city to the other and back again... just in one night. Actually if you count going there in the first place as another trip across the city, you wouldn't be too far off the mark. Anyway, there was lots of driving involved, a lot of grunting involved, and yes... lots of turns and cruise control. It was kind of annoying, so I was also speeding a lot on the way home. Sorry for scary people, but I was just in the mood, or wasn't in the mood depending on which way you're looking at it.

There was lots of chat chat chat, worries about knife totting Viet gangsters ambushing us at our destination, threats to throw Mica out the door. Yes... entertaining. Got back home around 4am.

I'm blabbing on a lot.

Saturday, got up 9:50 to get a haircut at 10. Came back, went to lunch at grandmas, had a shower, left to play tennis, played tennis, came back, got changed, went to grandma's again to pick up giant pieces of wood and hold then while they were hanging out the back of the van while we drove them back to our place, went to work (at the restaurant, not the office), worked, went to box hill, ate stuff, came back home.

Now if thats not hard to read... then I don't know what is.

Lets go through it a bit slower.

I got woken up by mum for my haircut. I actually thought I'd set the alarm on my phone, but obviously not. So I quickly got up, drove 300m to the hairdresser, and got my haircut. Normally I don't say much to my hairdresser, but I felt like talking today. Maybe because my job involves so much talking, I find it easier to talk now. Maybe she's just easy to talk to.

After getting the haircut, I came back home to watch the latest episode of the OC. No comment there, might spoil it for people. Got dragged to lunch at my grandma's. It wasn't any special occasion, it was just .... I don't know...

Came back home to ahve a shower and went to tennis. I still can't hit the ball for shit. omg. so sleepy. Lemme continue tomorrow.

1st day 'on the job'

Normally I'd wake up and kind of fall back to sleep again. Actually I kind of did today as well, so thats nothing different.

I was meant to start work at 10:30. I got there on time of course, and I even bought a paper to read on the bus. I kind of miss reading the paper. Theres lots of interesting stuff that I normally miss on the internet version. Also, there are the puzzles. Somebody remind me to bring a pen next time.

Work itself was good though. After doing quite a few boo boos on the first few apps, I managed to get myself into gear. The supervisor seemed particularly impressed. I'm not sure whether is was genuine or just because she wanted to encourage me, but either is good I suppose. Didn't get any particularly difficult customers either, which was also good.

The weather, on the other hand, was confusing. Last night the forecast said 33 degrees. So I just wore a shirt in the morning. Went outside, cold. The bus had the air con on too high as well, so the bus was cold too. At lunch (around 2ish) it was really hot, and when I finished work, it was raining! So I had to walk in the rain, wait in the rain, then wait in the rain some more, with only a shirt on. *sigh* Remind me to check the weather report a bit more thoroughly as well.

Thats about it. Nothing earthshattering today.