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Thursday, July 10th, 2008
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8:55 pm
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| Monday, June 30th, 2008
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8:57 pm - Big Eyes
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So here I was calmly going by my daily ritual of torture at work when out of the blue, my supervisor from my old job calls me up. Apparently he's been shortlisted to become the general manager of the company and incidentally he was asked, if he were to become the general manager, what would his wishlist be.
The first on his list seems to be to try and poach me back. To that effect and to pre-empt anything that'll happen in the future, they called me up for a meeting today with my old boss (at the insistence of my supervisor) to discuss what it would take to get me back there.
I was practically offered twice what I'm making now.
:/
The company was not a bad place to work with and if things were different, I might never have left there. Now I'd have to consider once more the two main reasons why I left in the first place. The first reason was the travel distance. Being in Tullamarine, it means about 3 hours of driving a day minimum. That drastically cuts time to what I can do at nights and would eliminate many of the things I enjoy doing now because of that free time. But yeah, with higher pay, really why should I complain? Just suck it up, yeah?
But that leads me to my second and possibly just as important reason for leaving in the first place. The job is sales. Sure it's selling high voltage gear, which somehow or other relates to what I did in uni... but it's not engineering... which is what I'm doing now in this job, however crap it might be. It's a career choice, and I don't think it should all be about the money. If I have to keep telling myself I'm only there for the money, what satisfaction is there to gain in that? I think I'm in a position at the moment to not have to overly think about the money side of life too much. I've got no major financial commitments besides the car, and no family to support or anything like that.
If I took this job again, they expect my stay to be a long run thing, along the lines of 5 to 10 years. In 5 years, I sort of hoped I'd be wearing shirts that need cuff links and silk ties and that kind of high end corporate crap while directing people out in the field (yeah, weird fantasy I have). Accepting this offer means in 5 years, I'd still be wearing the same polo shirt uniform. It's not really about the uniform of course, but I just wanted to illustrate my mentality I suppose...
Damn it, this is almost as hard as when I was trying to pick the colour of my car.
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| Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
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1:58 pm - 24 sound bite
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Time for the obligatory long winded update post on The World Around Mark.
I think recent history has shown to me that I'm not actually dead to the internet. I've certainly greatly reduced a lot of my forum trolling, but probably increased my wiki-pedia surfing in the process. In general, it is my aim to live a lot less in the internet. Many of the things in my address bar on Firefox these days I click on mainly out of habit and don't linger long and in the long run makes me appreciate the other sites I visit a lot less because there's actually something new to find.
Anyway, reason behind this reflection are my two latest contributions to AnimeNewsNetwork.au and my new release video. And Jon, I know I said end of weekend, but it'll probably more end of today before I hand in my Karas review ^_^;
The first ANN.au update was a review I had, which takes my tally up to 3 reviews now. I'd like to do more, but this new job really saps energy quick... more on that later. The other is my first article, which is a day in review of Supanova Melbourne. It was pretty awesome getting in there as a journo, but rather than actually tell it all, just read it here even though it's been quite some time now since it all happened. Thanks Biccy for being my photographer.
My new video doesn't seem to be appealing to too many people at the moment. It's probably my worst ranking video purely looking at the early results, though after a while, the ratings tend to even out. I could definitely say this was a style I've never opted to do before, so I was never quite sure what kind of reception it would have. Certainly my last couple of videos haven't been exactly my style (if I ever had any), but I think I'm enjoying more unique ways to get an idea across and though I believe I still make videos because I'd like to have them seen one day by an audience, I'm less fazed about pleasing everyone or conforming to norms... I guess it's part of acquiring experience... you end up not giving a shit XD... here it is for those wanting to have a look see.
I think I'll keep the job topic short and sweet... I hate it and I want out. When all you're doing seems to be trying to solve one problem after another, when it all feels like you're part of a sinking ship, it's certainly not conducive to a happy employee. Couple that with the ridiculously low pay for the amount of work, and yeah... I want out... now. Damn you financial obligations!
Mmm... at least gym is something I'm actually looking forward to most days now. It's funny how in the start the mentality was, I was going to the gym because I had to... owing to the obvious softening of various pieces of me. Now it's just part of the routine of everyday life, and I really don't think about it much anymore, though I like the results even just after two and a bit months. Must keep reminding myself, sore muscles each day equate to stronger stuff later on... Don't know if I'll ever become a health nutt or one who really looks forward to going to the gym, but yeah, at least I'm coming of my own accord :D
Not much is really riling me up these days. I'm usually a mellow kind of guy... but this really irks me... Yeah... the dude is stealing our studio intro, and claiming he's part of Amvience... I don't really give a crap about YouTube thievery most days, but yeah, this one goes above what I usually tolerate, and I know I don't have a leg to stand on since I'm pretty much just doing the same thing by editing other people's works, but hey, if they're allowed to get narky, so can I.
Righto... that's the extent of that which surrounds me these days... anyone for snow this season?
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| Thursday, June 19th, 2008
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10:11 pm - The GNU Operating System
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You know how sometimes people on your friend’s list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think “Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???” And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy the question below, erase my answers, put yours in their place, then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration and feel free to ask for elaboration from me as well!
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| Saturday, May 17th, 2008
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11:04 pm - TRANS-AM!
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The pictures really don't do justice to how much this is made of win.
I bought me a Logitech MX Air Mouse. It's so awesome, I even posted something about it here... it's like... the most awesome thing I bought since the car.... this is like... the Ferrari of mouses. It's all so sleek and sexy, but the most nifty thing about it is the ability for it to move the cursor LIKE A REMOTE CONTROL! I don't need to have the mouse flat on the table. And you change volumes or move tracks in a media player with nothing more than swiveling your hands around.... I mean, it doesn't even have a scroll wheel, but it makes a sound simulating the rolling noise when you slide your finger down it.... best of all, I save $10 today because it was the last one XD
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| Sunday, May 11th, 2008
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8:25 pm - Golden Poker
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I thought a random post should be made at this stage. One which doesn't particularly have any major news to announce, just some way to voice out what's happening around me and waste some time in the process. My mood these days have been "unsettled".
I can't seem to get some onto some solid footing. I attribute most of this I suppose to my new job. In a couple of day's time I will have spent a month there. Yet, even now I don't have my permanent desk yet, nor the proper computer. At the same time the work seems to keep piling on my desk. It wasn't until the start of last week that I even had a chance to get the proper duties briefing with my manager mainly because he too was very busy. I listened to what he told me I was to do in the company and took it all with a feint grin of confidence.
The work itself isn't complicated. Organisational work isn't a very hard thing for me to get my head around, however the weight of the responsibilities I seem to be amounting is beginning to become a bit, for a lack of a better word, suffocating. Our section of the company deals with the Telstra project across Victoria, SA and WA. The section is divided into 3 groups, Pre-provisioning, Access Services and Installation and Maintenance. Each group has a host of staff handling the work there, and they are lead by the Project Managers. Roughly below the Project Managers are 3 Project Engineers. When I was offered the job as a Project Engineer, I never thought that I'd be one of three. I thought there would be more than that, like maybe I would be working directly with 2 or 3 other engineers in my section and consequently learn from them in the process.
That assumption is wrong as you are very well guessing at this stage. I'm the Project Engineer for Installation and Maintenance. And on Friday, at the end of the day (cos most people were gone and no one could come to me and complain), I assigned about 16 jobs to various people to do for the course of the month. I gotta assign another 4 on Monday morning. All of these people have been working here longer than I have. It just feels very intimidating having to hold myself up against these field workers. On top of this, my other job is making sure the finance side with Telstra is in check.
I just think, I need almost a year, backing up someone first, before I should be put in charge of this. But the company, being recently given this massive project (they handled mainly Victoria only before the start of the year), doesn't have time to properly train anyone before throwing them in the deep end... and I don't swim very well >.>
Anyway, writing this seems to have stirred me up more than I would have wanted. One month... I think I could still go back to my old job... the long drives... sometimes boring days when the work is slow... lower pay with not very much chance for moving up in the company. I think I was less stressed there... and the reason I changed, I thought, was so I could get away from that kind of stress... has anyone out there been in this situation before? Anyone ever went back to an old thing because you couldn't handle it?
Gah... 3 months... probation period... if I don't get myself sorted out in that timeline, I propose a serious re-evaluation of my choice. What's the point of moving to a new job that's just going to make you more miserable?
Bah... to more interesting things, here are a couple of pictures of the yukata Sorrell got for me and Jai from Japan. I think he must have asked us what we wanted from Japan at one stage months and months ago. Jai and I thought this might be good. So this is the result... and I must say, I am very happy with it. Sash isn't included, but that could be rectified.
*sigh*
I wish I had better news to say.
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| Sunday, April 13th, 2008
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12:17 pm - Milhouse is dead
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Ok, since I've been getting a fair few, "huh? since when? you never told me this!" I might as well clarify this in some more public medium, that way you could all spread it amongst yourselves and I won't have to repeat myself too much.
Last Friday was my last day working at Australmold, the electrical underground cabling accessories company I've been working for in the past 12 months. It was a slightly sad affair as I have grown to like my workmates but there was an underlying understanding amongst everyone that this was the right thing to happen. I was still fairly crook (I didn't go to work on Thursday) then but I had decided that no matter my condition, I had to come anyway because there were one or two things I needed to pass on to the next people, and that I had my stuff still left in the office too (I forgot my bottle of juice in the fridge -_-).
Anyway, at the barbecue lunch (which consequently I had to cook), we had the usual round of laughter at the table. Near its end they presented me with a couple of items and a card, just as a way of saying goodbye and thank you. The largest of these things was a poker set. Now, I only know the basics and never played myself, so I think we're testing this set out today at a friend's place ^_^
After setting up the workstation for the new boy they were hiring, and after repeated reminders by my boss that "they were only a phone call away" I left that place in Tullamarine, maybe for the last time ever... who knows.
Of course there is a reason for me leaving. It's because I've been offered a new job with Visionstream, a telecommunications project management company, based in Bentleigh. The position is as a Project Engineer, so that was immediately a big pull for me to accept the job. Probably one of the more pertinent reasons though was that Bentleigh is far more closer than Tullamarine is, probably going to cut my traveling times by less than half of what I had before. Pay is roughly the same, but I'm not so fussed as this company seems to have far more opportunities and room to grow.
It's strange... before getting my job with Australmold, I was on and off with casual work and continually applying for full time stuff for close to 8 months. It took about a month and a half of half arsed looking before I got this new job. Experience much?
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| Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
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12:09 am - To Be Free
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You ever had the feeling where you were one step away from something big or momentous?
I think I'm on the brink of several at the moment. A change could happen in one second and there's a possibility I could miss it if I blinked. And because of that, I'm in a state of trepidation. What if I focussed on the wrong thing? What if it's just false hope? What ifs, what ifs, what ifs...
A friend a few months back told me something she noticed about me. She told me I liked, or at least tended to go the direction of what ifs. As in, instead of telling her I liked her directly, I'd say instead, "what if I liked you?" and never actually come out of it cleanly. For all my self-proclaimed aptitude for dealing with people and sticky situations, it certainly seems that I have a hard time being honest when it came to putting myself on the line. Heck, looking back at myself, I might have been a lot nerdier and a lot less concerned about appearances during my teen years, but at least I didn't fear just really pursuing something with all of myself and not just half arsed.
What is this? A defense mechanism? Or something learned from past failures and hurts?
I've faced more rejection in the past 2 years than I've ever had my entire life (I'm including the countless job rejections I received before I got this one). There's always a moment when I walked out of a situation and thought, "hey, that went well..." and I would tell myself that I'll build up from this but then I'm immediately faced with a seeming lack of opportunity to do so afterwards. Like a job never calling me back again, or having to leave someone on the other side of the world.
Another friend of mine a couple of weeks back told me something else which came as news to me. I keep waiting for that perfect moment apparently. It was always about the build up or a hope that something better was going to come by and that I could end up looking the fool if I jumped the gun. When he told me this, I was actually far more taken aback than I would have expected. Partly because it rang true and partly because I guess it sort of hurt my pride in some way I can't really explain yet.
This sort of self analysis post started off with my thought about a couple of video ideas I've been working on both for myself and for Manifest this year (I was thinking of some video ideas which I'm of the opinion would be quite novel). But somehow, as you probably noticed by now, this has got nothing to do with any projects I'm working on anymore. Taking cue from Dani's unexpectedly honest post the other day, I thought I ought to write about a situation I'm in with a bit more detail, rather than just some reflectional rhetoric for which I'd get only one or two responses from people who might have had a clue about what I was talking about.
Ok, let's start this by calling this girl Sun... because that's actually her name ^_^
A little background knowledge is in order here I think. I've known her since third year uni during the times when I took Japanese classes. We sort of hit it off even back then I suppose and I can't really remember when we've hung out together and I didn't have a thoroughly enjoyable time with her. For the most part of all the time I've known her, our relationship was predominantly a cordial friendship and for all I know it could still be just the same. Over the years, she's hardly ever been a focus of my attention and our meet ups weren't all that regular, so you could say that I treated her in my mind as the "what if" girl.
Anyway, ever since last year she's been working in Sydney for some graduate program. The couple of weeks before she left then were probably the height of my pursuits with her, where just before the very last second, at the top of the highest building on this half of the world, I found out that I waited 2 days too late and she was with someone else now. Suffice to say, for the rest of the dinner and the night afterwards, I just wanted to go home and watch Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I mean, who wouldn't? It's an awesome film.
It couldn't have been more than four months later when a random MSN chat window opens up where she tells me she's broken up with the guy before going offline leaving me with a wtf face for the rest of the day.
I guess it's been 3 or 4 months since that online revelation and now she tells me she'll be back in Melbourne in early May. I learnt this during our dinner conversation on Thursday night since she's back in town this whole week for Easter and because she's on some training at the place she'll be working in when she does return permanently. She text messaged me early Thursday morning, asking to catch up I suspect because I made her feel guilty that she returned to Melbourne without telling me. Anyway, the guilt trip was two way because she revealed to me that her birthday was today (Sunday) and I had completely forgotten.
After our meet up on Thursday, my friend immediately told me to join them at which point they began dissecting what I did and didn't do wrong (there was a lot of facepalming). Tonight I've come to realise something else yet again. She's probably one of the girls which I've spent the least amount of time analysing what she was thinking, or what her actions meant. It's only with conversations about friends afterwards that I'm told that she's been giving me hints and that moments have passed me by and it wasn't until later that I recognise a lost opportunity.
I don't even know why I'm telling anyone about this. I'm not sure what question to ask, or what advice to seek. I think maybe I just want someone to tell me what to do next but of course, as is the case with everyone in this game of the heart, I doubt I'll listen.
Maybe she's one of the only girls that has some genuine interest in me and I'm afraid of finding out I was wrong if I did make a move. Maybe I'm just a masochist that found it easier to go after someone who don't or can't like me.
LJ sucks.
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| Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
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11:06 am - A Moment of Screams
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Righto... it's been about 3 weeks now since my brother and I had our run of the mill with our house. Parents are still in the Philippines and they'll be gone for another week yet.
Until about the 4th day, the two of us were going to each other, "Day 4... we're still alive"
Well... I don't readily admit that I'm too dependant still on my parents. Having a job and all, I do have some fall back from my cushy lifestyle if need be. What I do however miss is the good, wholesome food that I generally can expect every time I get home. As expected, nothing really beats mum's cooking... except grandma's of course. But anyway, this meant that for the most part, life for me was status quo, minus the daily regaling I have with mum and/or dad of the current state of the underground electrical cable accessories industry.
My brother on the other hand, who is admittedly a "mama's boy" started acting strange the very next day that the rents were gone. He started... caring...
Like... he'd ask me what I wanted to have for lunch the next day for work, or he'd worry about why I didn't come home as per usual after work. Geez, even mum didn't bug me about things like that. That said, though he'd ask what I'd like for lunch, nine times out of ten, by the time I get home, nothing's prepared anyway and more often than not I end up preparing it at the end. Yeah, I probably just can't convey it enough and truly must be experienced for anyone to understand, but my brother is the weirdest thing to get along with.
Anyway, he's run rampant a bit with his friends coming over every day or second day, and I'm no big fan of the smell of smoke they bring with them. I very much do not enjoy the smell of cigarettes and for it to linger in my house, a place I call sanctuary is frustrating at best. He'd also complain sometimes why I'm leaving the dishes on the sink and that he was doing it all, but now that I take tally of the other things I do, it really does annoy me that he can even talk. He was bothersome when mum was around, he's a pain now that she's not.
And he says he wants to move out along with me XD
Umm... yeah... right... big reason why I want to move out start with was because he irritates me. I mean, I don't really hate him, he doesn't do anything overly bad, at least no more than the kind of things that he should have grown out of from his teenage years. But the multitude of little annoying things he does (or doesn't do) will drive me insane eventually if I have to do this for much longer. No wonder mum gets high blood pressure >>
But I think that's genetic and I'm probably going to die from stroke at an early age.
Anyway, I can't say I've been all that "good" myself with the parent's absence. Granted, it's not like I need the parents to be gone for me to throw parties or not come home every night, but somehow this non-existent rebellious little kid in me is going trigger happy like it's Christmas (whatever that means). I did learn one thing however which confirmed for me why even though I can, I didn't follow this sort of lifestyle. It is far too exhausting... I realised that I love my weekend sleep-ins even more than before especially now that I'm missing them. Seeing your house filled with crumbs after you've spent the whole day getting it presentable is also not a happy sight. And above all, the bank balance isn't quite... balanced... anymore... a couple of hundred blown on food and alcohol hurts... AND I DON'T EVEN DRINK! (it was all in an attempt to get Dani drunk and pass out on my bed).
I'd have to admit that of course, I've had tonnes of unadulterated fun and it quite possibly will be hard to get off this track, especially if I didn't actually feel like leaving it. Well... I'm really looking forward to the rents coming home... I want my mummy T_T
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| Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
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9:31 pm - Long Slow Slide
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In the past week I've been slightly agonising over what to post because it seemed that my life seems to have slowed down quite a bit. The weekends became predictable, and though work went in spurts of constant running around to mind numbing boredom it was still nonetheless nothing out of the ordinary. Sure this merger is making working here a bit of a pickle with everyone a little edgy about their jobs (I'm not since to start with, I never thought I'd last here as long as I have), but for the most part staving off sleep has been my biggest challenge lately.
Well, finally something different happened last weekend. It wasn't like the Australia Day long weekend where I spent most of my time in front of the plasma melting away from DVD to DVD.
Started off with after work, making my way to pick up a couple of friends I haven't hung out with for a very long time. It's very nice to catch up on things. Nam was one of my best friends back when I went to Springvale Secondary. He may have seemingly grown to liking more mature ways to enjoy life, but nonetheless he was still the funny man in a way that he doesn't actually think he was funny. Don't know how else to explain it really. Anyway, best friend maybe, but it ended up that I didn't talk as much with him mainly because of him being tired from work, although he didn't seem too tired when we finally got to the bar later that night. Luckily Karen was around and had much fun till the early hours of Saturday morning. The last time I went to Hyde Bar I found it rather boring, but this time around I have to admit I thoroughly had a good time. Though the company was good, being immersed in the music and dancing for so long hasn't been something I've done in a long long time, so I probably had moments when I forgot I was even there with anyone.
Got home after dropping off Karen (Nam seems to have skipped to another club) totally buggered of course with a ringing in my ears which usually wouldn't have allowed me to sleep, but yeah... tired much?
Anyway, what did I do the next day? Spent 3 hours on tennis and squash. In the words of Arthur, "Fark". Admittedly I woke up on midday and I didn't actually play until around 5PM, but man that totally wore me out. I probably could have fared better had my sister not woken me up when she got to our house because she wanted to drag me around with her and her boyfriend while they look for a house to buy. Found a nice 3 bedroom house with a very spacious sitting/waiting room which was close to a park with tennis courts and local swimming pool. That got my seal of approval but I'm not sure they're going to go through with that. Anyway, all in all it was a good day.
Sunday was spent losing money in Springvale in the Chinese new year festivities being held there. Stupid games... Stupid pony *glares at Dani*. The company was Jacob, Jarrod, Jaq, Dani and Alan. Decided to eat at a restaurant instead of sampling the food stalls. I learnt my lesson back in the Filipino Festival a few months ago where I forgot just exactly which food it was that made me crook. Probably going to end up getting sick anyway when I head to Box Hill this weekend to go at it all over again and this time play the Russian roulette of Asian food there.
So... it was a good weekend till I got home on the Sunday night to hear confirmation that Grandpa died. I can't say I'm all too shocked by this event. He's been steadily becoming more frail in the past few years and we were expecting this to happen sooner rather than later. It's sad and a part of me does miss him. But the fact that I can't remember the last time I've had a proper conversation with him (he had a stroke a few years ago which started his degrading condition which has affected his ability to recognise people), isn't giving me the feeling that I will miss him a lot or at least no more than I have already done so all these years. We've all accepted his condition some time ago, and so looking at it from the perspective of my memories, he's been gone from me for a long time already, the hope of sharing a story or of asking if he was proud of me has long since faded. I'll always remember the candies he hid in his back pockets, but they are all just childhood memories of more innocent times.
Mum and Dad are in preparation at the moment to return to the Philippines for the funeral this weekend. Though I can probably take the time off and afford it, I'm about 80% sure at this stage that I will not be following them. Coming back to another funeral isn't something to look forward to. Sadness is contagious.
I hope I don't starve during this month long abstinence from Mum's cooking.
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| Saturday, January 19th, 2008
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3:41 pm - Sad monkey
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After reading an article on the Green Guide about a Korean rehab camp for the internet addicted, I immediately thought, am I clinically or about to be addicted to this same thing? Hence, I went to the internet to find my answers... ironically enough.
http://www.netaddiction.com/resources/internet_addiction_test.htm
Interesting little survey. I scored a 40 which says that "You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage". I guess I should be happy with that, but my aim right now is to be in a year or twos time be even less hung up on this thing. I would say that I've improved much since 3 years ago, and I'm enjoying life outside the box so much more, despite how tiring it is.
So... addicted much?
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| Sunday, January 6th, 2008
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1:27 pm - Album Cover Meme...
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| Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
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5:04 pm - A Sketch Of Summer
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Long winded post coming up. It's a day late for my usual 31st of December post, but I guess there's at least some part of the world out there that still hasn't reached the new year yet. Well then, let's start by getting the obvious out of the way. It's hot -_-
For your viewing pleasure, here it is run backwards. Last night was of course the New Year's Eve celebrations. Decided to chill with mah homies, Jacob and Jai, as well as Feven and crew and Ay for dinner. Got a surprisingly good spot on Southbank where we caught most of the fireworks the city offered this year, which I thought weren't as great as in previous years, but were good nonetheless. Paid Ting a brief visit while she was at work before I decided that I only had a limited amount of time left before my carriage turned back into a pumpkin (several Cokes and V weren't enough to keep my energy up any longer).
And that's been the pattern for me for most of this year. Things just surprisingly fell into place.
During my birthday bash, on top of most of my favourite people these days coming over for a few hours of chillaxing (stolen word from Ting), I also learnt that I won Wai-con's AMV competition for Best Action/Horror, which was happening during the very same weekend. I was very surprised that I won that category because I personally didn't peg that particular video of mine to be my best in recent times. That win ends my 2007 AMV competition touring this year. The only other competition I've won this year was AVCon's, which I was so happy about because with the exception of Manifest, I've won something from every anime specific conventions in the country now. Next up, Supanova competitions and then maybe decide to give up competing altogether. I still say that there's a lot of talent in this country, but if you take into consideration the statistic of our population and the people involved in the fandom, you don't see the most remarkable creations emerging all too frequently, which no matter what I or others do is I guess something that can't be helped. This leads me to question; should I sooner rather than later quit the competition circuits so as to let the opportunity of winning fall on others to inspire them, or do I keep making my mark out there, to both challenge the locals to be better as well as to maintain the prestige that I helped build? I know it sounds cocky of me, but I guess I'm just voicing the thoughts of the other creators in this country who are leading in the fandom.
I also won the Anime Academy forum's Student Review Contest, which landed me quite a few awesome prizes. I now possess a Death Note, so don't mess with me. With that win, I've set myself up to take on the role as one of AnimeNewsNetwork.au's correspondents. As far as Jon has told me, I'm the only Melbourne based correspondent at this stage, taking over from Fri who is now of course in Queensland. The first thing on my list to do are a few reviews which I've yet to complete, primarily because the material arrived just when the whole Christmas and New Year's celebration got in full swing, so if you're reading this Jon, know that I've actually started doing things. I guess I decided to take on this role because I can't quite get my hands off from the anime community. There are many things happening not only around Melbourne, but in Australia which are anime related, and I'm a believer in the thought that things worth doing are things worth doing well. Over the years, I've dug myself in quite deep both in anime itself as well as the communities around it, so I think it's a waste for me to give that all up and not put the experience and knowledge I've gained to use.
Which brings me to the next event in this backwards chronological look. My quitting Manifest. This departure was one of the biggest reasons that I joined ANN.au, because now this is my main contribution to the community. But yeah, no more executive powers, no more fortnightly shenanigans and almost immediately I noticed, a reduced presence in the usual circles for me. I'm still going to offer to run the Manifest AMV competitions but only strictly from a third party position. Almost immediately after the AGM whence my abdication became official, I questioned, "what's next?". Up until the very last moment, I was doing things for Manifest, including putting together a proposal for a move for Manifest out of Melbourne University and to all of a sudden have that work yanked out from me was sort of jarring. Being kicked out of the mailing list and the committee section of the forums as well showed me just how out of it I am now, and where I once had all the answers and knew all that was going to happen, now I have this feeling of walking in the dark. It was a month ago since the AGM happened, and since then I've made a nice recovery and am glad of the decision I have made.
And that ends the month of December for me. On top of the things I mentioned, there's been the road trip to Adelaide, company Christmas parties and of course my brand spanking new car. I can't say I've had a busier month that this in a while... but wait... YES I HAVE!
The month of September was totally a blur and it makes December look like a lazy Sunday afternoon. Manifest was just far too hectic, where I did more running around than having fun, which was my biggest reason for leaving. It was nutts! I could say that where I was concerned, things didn't go as badly as other aspects of Manifest and I think we've outdone ourselves once more in terms of AMVs, but I thought I failed a bit in that too (call me anal). So it was a gigantic contrast that less than a week after that weekend, I flew to Atlanta for AWA. If you look back at my New Year's Eve post from last year, you'll see that my number one wish was for a change in scenery, and boy was America just the perfect thing for that. After Atlanta was New York and I was just in for an experience of a lifetime. Poor little Australian me, out there in the big city. Luckily I had Rina there showing me a "good time". Damn, I love that girl, she's just awesome.
Moving further back in time, I reach the point when I got a new computer. That was a momentous occasion. My laptop served me well over the years, but I've reached the peak of what I can achieve with it. Now I've yet to realise this machines full potential, but that's more me being lazy about this. Of course this wouldn't have been possible if not for another event in my life eventuating. The new job with Australmold, dated March 28, 2007. It still has its annoying little bits as well as lulls in the activity and the awfully long drive to get there and back, but I haven't regretted taking the job. I'm not sure where this will lead me just yet, but I've come to a realisation which has been highlighted by this year.
Almost all the major happenings in my life have been a culmination of the little bits and pieces which I thought were good. What I mean is, all the bad things in my life didn't come together to create an even bigger catastrophe. It has been more the case, that the more good things, no matter how small, happening in my life, the better those things seem to lead to. It could just be me taking stock of only the good things, but seriously, I can't complain. Things just surprisingly fall into place, and this hasn't been the only year that's happening. I love my life.
Unlike last year where I thought that my life was in need of improvement, this time around I'm thinking that it would be fine to stay this way, but you know what? I have a feeling that it's actually going to get better. More of the things which I told myself I will do have happened so unless the world turns upside down through some sort of cataclysmic event I think I have every right to be optimistic about 2008.
LJ still sucks.
Oh... and girls... damn, they've been fun ^_^
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| Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
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12:01 pm - Edible Insanity
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Wow, it's been one hectic day after another. Last night was the first in a while where I afforded to go to sleep by my self-imposed bed time, but that sort of failed too.
The highlight of course of the past few days was the birthday bbq. I think I had a 70% turn out which was good. I sort of lost count of who I actually invited, but I was glad in the end that I didn't invite as many as I thought I did. The number of people that came in on Saturday was just perfect for me to give everyone enough attention, unlike back on my 21st when I was barely able to say a few words to anyone in general.
I ended up with 2 ties, one from Ay and one from Ting... from the same brand... but luckily, different designs XD. Now I just gotta actually have more reasons to wear ties other than my once-every-blue-moon meetings with clients. I'm itching to construct the Gundam Exia that Chris, Rea and Arthur got me... EXIA! Someone's obviously been stalking my choice of Gundams XD. Maha got me a Harry Potter calendar... issue with that is that I currently have no wall space, but I guess she's paying attention to my fandoms. My bummy university friends decided to be jackarses and write a card full of jackarse comments... with the pen that they gave me... well, they lied about that too. Oh, and I got a Lego set from Biccy... I need to put these things together ^_^;
But you know what... none of these people were listening... I didn't want anything!
Sunday was fun with dinner with Biccy and Jai because Biccy is selfish and didn't come to my barbeque like everyone else the day before. Mmmm... Raju's. I also had my 3rd Round Iron Chef match which I finally lost in. Geez, I've been getting impatient. I was expecting to be knocked out the first round, in fact, I was hoping I didn't even make the cut off... too lazy XD. Josh's video was good, but I thought my video was good too. If I were judging, I would have had a hard time making heads or tails over the winner. I'm probably going to do a proper release of the video because I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
Anyway, it wasn't all bad because during that weekend, I also won Wai-Con's AMV competition, with my video, Reaction taking Best Action/Horror. Don't know what Prize I get for that yet, or even if they'll mail out anything. I was sort of nonchalant about it because I didn't peg that video to win anything. I had my hopes up for Cherished Memories instead, but I guess the choice of Faith Hill for a song can hurt XD. I also thought that ScorpionP entered his video, Nirvana, which I pegged to win Best Action, but I guess I was wrong. I probably shouldn't complain :P
I also received my prize pack from Anime Academy yesterday for the review writing competition that I won there. Everything's coming up Milhouse! Here's the review: CLICK
And check out the prizes ^_^
Ting's dinner thing on Monday was pretty cool too. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I swear I was gonna fall asleep on the table there from how tired I was. It's nice to go out on weekdays. I would do it more often, but I really do need sleep after work XD
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| Thursday, December 13th, 2007
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10:03 am - Don't spill your beans
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ZOMG!
FINALLY!
Went to the car dealership at 8:45AM yesterday. And after a few moments of fretting around and trying not to look impatient with the car dealers trying to organise the last of my paper works, I was given the keys. Ran to the car... took a few moments to figure out where the bloody hell the hand break was (it turned out to be a foot pedal -_-), and then was soon on my way back home.
With mum shoving me out the door, I drove off again right afterwards so I didn't miss out on any more work. All through the drive, there was not one moment when I wasn't stupidly grinning from ear to ear.
When work was done (finally!), I drove off to Monash Uni to pick up Jai and then we went to pick up Dani and Jaq, and ate at Knox. I guess it was fitting, seeing as how it was my birthday (somehow, this little bit of fact just didn't compare with the arrival of my car XD).
Anyway, before we left Jaq's place, I of course demanded to get pictures taken. Here be the results.
:O Red!
Parking sensors and rear spoiler!
Dani says it's like a spaceship, Jai says like an airplane. I say it's just freakin' awesome!
Night adventure!
Yup, I own this baby!
Awww...
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| Monday, December 10th, 2007
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10:21 am - Keyboard Smash
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Good things come to those who wait...
Good things come to those who wait...
Good things come to those who wait...
Good things come to those who wait...
Good things come to those who wait...
GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT!!!!
SERENITY NOW!!!
...
I knew it was long shot, but I had to try.
Saturday morning, I rushed home from the hotel after spending the night at the company Christmas function. I went over to pick up my dad because I needed a second driver, but my brother rode with us anyway, so I probably didn't need my dad there in the end. Got to the car dealership and was promptly told by the finance lady that I won't be taking home the car that day...
T_T
I mean... I guess it is fair enough after knowing that the difference between taking it then and waiting for Wednesday is $500... still...
I had hoped that they could work something out by which I could get it for the lower price since it was only 4 days difference, but I guess the insurance company is anal about these sort of things. CURSE YOU AAMI!
It wasn't a total waste I guess. The dealer guy at least was able to give me a demonstration of the car already and I discovered a few features which I didn't even know yet, the coolest of them being the electronic seats! And I've also signed all the paper and placed the deposit so all I'll be doing is picking up the keys on Wednesday and I'll be golden! Now I just have to not die until then.
Damn it... I could have enjoyed the company paid breakfast longer -_-
Wow... I haven't posted on LJ as much as I've been doing lately... shows just how excited I am about this... which will also mean that when I've got this new distraction, I'll probably be taking a holiday from the internet for a long time! I need a break from clicking.
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| Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
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9:47 pm
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Righto... so in case you haven't heard me dribble on and on already about my latest way at losing money, I've put the wheels in motion for my new car. Financing is approved, all I have to do now is pick up the car this weekend and I'll be a hundred times happier than I already am now. I love being materialistic.
With that, and a conversation with Biccy, I've stumbled on an idea that is probably one of the most awesome ones in a while.
I can't believe that the name plate "ZOMG" hasn't been taken yet. Hence, the idea now is to see if I can raise the $395 price for the plate. By my reckoning, I'd be lucky not to reach the bottom of my bank account this month if I'm not careful. If anything, I've now learnt not to make any major purchases during the Christmas season.
Anyway... it's my birthday after all? Donations? XD
(PS. I'm only half serious)
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| Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
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3:08 pm - Backspace
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Man... it's been a long 3 days... Boss and supervisor are in Sydney for some electrical power and utilities expo. Naturally it meant I've ended up with the most number of things to do while they were away because I'm at this point the most experienced person in the technical sales department even though I haven't been here for a year yet... heck, I think this would just be my 8th month. They ought to be back tomorrow so my life should return to the normal boring stupour that I sometimes struggle to fill up here :P (well, that's a bit of an exageration, there's table tennis every lunch after all XD).
I've become itchy lately... itchy for something new... for some reason, I think my worth has gone up now that I've worked here these months and my slightly higher than minimum salary has been stuck there for too long. I've told myself I'd stick it out here till at least my first year but that means waiting until March XD
Driving to work is a bitch but at least I get to play around with the GPS (even though I know all the routes I could take to get here). I gotta buy some accessories for it. I've got the car charger. I've got the phone holder. Now I need that new Toyota Aurion I've been eyeing. Hmm... soon... when my insurance lowers...
Speaking of insurance, my birthday is coming up in a month's time. HA! YOU FORGOT, DIDN'T YOU?!!!
Anyway, I've decided that I'll just have a simple barbeque at my house. Doors open mid-afternoon, closes when last person passes out. It's too complicated trying to find some middle ground between cheapness, venue (distance) and what to do. I've considered karaoke, paintballing, beach party... all of them involve far too much effort in my part when ultimately, all I want is for people to get together and have fun socialising and them coming to my place for my birthday (even though it's not the easiest place to reach) would mean they actually care enough to put some effort in rocking up XD. Date for the actual "party" isn't set in stone yet, but when it's decided I would say I'll be sending invitation emails soon after. So... who do you not want to come? XD
Ok, because apparently of Fri, I'm tagged too... I don't care if you tag yourself and post yours, but I just wanted to show my office desktop XD. Man, I love that image... it's so totally inspirational and motivational!
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| Friday, November 2nd, 2007
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6:46 pm - *vomits*
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| Friday, October 5th, 2007
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10:06 am - Slice me, dice me... so many choices...
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We've all heard of the stories of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. There's usually some fantastic story of weird and unknown beings and of voyages to some far off place inside an equally impressive spaceship. Afterwards, the first thing the abductees realise is that for some strange reason, they seem to have lost track of time and there's a void from which they can't make up their mind whether or not something really did happen or if they just dreamnt the whole thing.
That's probably fairly close as to how I'm feeling right now with the past month of my life having flashed by in a hurry, minus the anal probe.
Manifest... AWA... New York...
The only sadder thing now besides me being back to a normal life and at work is that I'm so quickly forgetting what has happened. It's just sheer memory overload. And with my relatively short leave from work (as I haven't exactly been working in this company for long enough to earn me a long break), it meant that I was cramming in so many things in the short time @_@
Anyway... Manifest.
I can't believe I survived that. Officially speaking I had 3 roles in the committee. Unofficially throughout the course of this year, I'd say the jobs I did probably numbered near ten, I never really kept track. As many of those in the committee like myself who wanted Manifest to be some semblence of a working convention, I found myself just being very deeply involved and and coming to the realisation that if I didn't do something, no one else was going to step in to do it.
The consequence of which are two things. First, I was thoroughly stressed, however I didn't feel all that pressured. Back in uni, when it came to the workload, I was stressed and continually feeling the pressure. Here I was just tired and pressed for time, but I really didn't feel much pressure despite the very long to do list. I think the big difference was that I knew what I was doing. Being very engrossed in something means that when a tricky situation pops in front of you, you are generally armed with enough information to make a decision that will lead to a good outcome for yourself. In uni, particularly in my later years, I felt I was never really into it anymore and just doing it to get the degree, but Manifest was different. With work being fairly unchallenging and predictable this year has allowed me to be much more in the know about Manifest though I say it here now... I am not Hamish 2.0
The second consequence of me having a finger in too many pies was that the reason I was in Manifest to start with got a bit neglected. According to most people, the AMV events ended up being a success and I do take pride in that, but I just thought it could have been better. I don't make it a secret that my original intention in getting the official positions I had for Manifest was to have some control over how AMV events were treated but somehow it didn't quite work out that way. It's true that there have been more AMV events this year than there ever has been, but it's a case of spreading out too far. My AMV panel ran... without me... as I realised that at the exact same time on the Sunday, I needed to organise the band playing outside and the Hare Hare Yukai dance competition. Thank you so much![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) e_chan_21, for actually being there and I am so sorry that my computer went as close to exploding in the middle of hte panel.
When you're being called Hamish and the reason you joined something starts to be neglected, it's time to step back a bit and maybe re-assess the reasons why you got in the game to begin with. Three years is a long enough time in the committee. I was fairly serious about quitting the committee after Manifest this year, or at least giving it up for a year or so just to look at the bigger picture from an outsider's perspective. When people get deeply involved in something, they develop a sense of indispensability, thinking that if they left, things will fall apart. This may or may not be true in my case, but the only way to find out is to actually give it up and see.
But then came AWA...
Less than a week after Manifest I went over to the northern hemisphere.
Twenty-four hours travelling is a total drain on your system. Just like many things in this trip, all I can say is, words are cheap and they don't do justice to the actual experience of it all. Planes from the inside seem at first to be fairly tolerably not so noisy but after you've been flying for 10 hours with very many failed attempts at trying to fall asleep, you realise just how deafening it actually is.
Suffice to say, I was quite relieved even though I was ragged when I finally reached Atlanta airport (after a stop over in LA and Dallas x_x ). And I wasn't even scared when I got out to the arrivals lounge and found no trace of Rina or Deshi, my supposed pick up. It surprised me how hard it was to find a bloody pay phone in that place. They weren't all that obvious actually, with being all silver and black coloured, camouflaged in between the metal railings found all over the airport (thank goodness for the yellow and blue Telstra phones back here). Anyway, soon enough someone picked up the phone which I dialed. I don't know if it was just from being deaf/tired from the trip or if the phone speaker was crap, but I could barely just make out what Rina was saying and managed to described to her where I was at so they can meet me up there.
Many minutes later... she was there ^_^
AWA being known as the AMV capital of the convention world meant that the first stop was the AMV dinner where all the editors who knew about the event came together on the Thursday night of AWA for some socialising fun. Though I was hella tired to fully appreciate the conversations, it was still a great moment to finally meet in person the people who's videos I have watched and enjoyed and even created together with. I wasn't insane and talking to imaginary people online.
Anyway, about the convention itself. It was large... Easily 3 times larger than Manifest. Hell, the line alone of cosplayers (yep, cosplayers not audience for the cosplay) that were going into the competition was as long as the lines we had in the Manifest rego, though not as thick and probably not waiting on that line as long :P The traders hall was massive and there was a fairly extensive range of things to buy. The fan/art traders provided me with much to look at as there were plenty of them and a lot of good art/merch to choose from.
But of course, the reason I went there to start with was for the AMVs and I was not disappointed. All day of the 3 days of the convention there were non-stop AMV panels (which really were just AMV exhibitions by particular editors showing different "flavours"), and the dedicated video room screened AMVs for 24 hours of the day, in which during the night, the place was turned into the AMV disco room. The AMV winners announcement was held in the main hall which was indeed a big place, seating maybe a thousand or more people in there. Disappointing though was the fact that it was a flat floor space and not theatre style which meant that those further up the back ended up being blocked by the tall people in front of them. The Iron Editor was entertaining and done in the traditional style of the game.
There's a lot more to say about the convention, but I'll just leave it at this one thing I've learnt while I was there. Seeing the immensity of the weekend and all that was found there and how much fun I had made me appreciate the whole convention scene in a way that I haven't in a long time. Being just another attendee has made me realise that though I've become a bit jaded by being part of the Manifest committee, there's still definitely a future and room to grow here. AWA as many conventions are, is also a volunteer run convention yet it hasn't collapsed yet with its own size and I think it's because it's organised in a different way to how we've been handling Manifest. It made me realise that Manifest is now entering this league and even more serious thought into the organisation of the committee and convention is needed if we are to survive into the future and it'll no longer be just our lack of manpower that's going to hinder us. If we are to really grow, I think we have to consider avenues now which in the past we thought as being a "sell out".
At the end of the day, AWA was just another convention, albeit larger than any I've ever attended. Ultimately, it was the people that made it awesome. The hotel shanadigans (Rina in bed with 2 guys and we have pics!), the bathroom fumbles, the thumbs up... a lot of fun in so short an amount of time. Which is the disappointing bit I guess... I would have loved to have spoken more than just 2 words to some of the people I met there but unfortunately everyone's grabbing for everyone elses attention and doing their own thing and what not. I had a lot of time and fun with my homies though (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jaddziadax and John, jade_eyed_angel, scoobrocks, and Batto). Too bad radical_yue and senshimamoru couldn't come though... well... maybe not Yue... otherwise there would have been war over Rina XD
Well, after this whirlwind weekend of AWA, I prepared for my short(ish) journey to the next city. I left at 7 in the morning on the Sunday, a little sad that I missed out on some of the late night partying the night before because I had to wake up early to catch my flight and even more sad that I couldn't say goodbye to my roomies because even though I tried, not one of them was capable of waking up at that stage. I got to the airport and got to my destination around noon...
... New York City.
There was a reason why this city was on the list of cities I wanted to visit before I died. Truly it deserves its title of the city that never sleeps. Two things immediately hit me when I got into Manhattan. The sheer number of people all going in some direction was mind boggling and skyscrapers rose to dizzying heights, sometimes streets stretched out to the horizon without seeing an end to the rows of buildings. I was told that you could tell which people were the tourists by them staring at the buildings in the middle of the streets and I thought I wouldn't fall for that trap, but man, when you get there, you just become so tiny and you can't help but marvel at the immensity of it all in stunned silence.
For a tourist like me, time really felt like it disappeared here. One moment it was midday when I was dropped off in Queens (I think that was where I was dropped off), the next it was almost 9 at night trying to find my way out of Central Park. During those hours on the Sunday, I think I went a little overboard by the excitement of discovering all these famous landmarks and I found myself with a blister and dreading to make another step because of muscle pain. That night, this realisation did hit home when as soon as I got into bed and relaxed, my leg cramped up something awful and I fell asleep soothing the pain. Man, I went to Time Square, Central Park and walked the length of Broadway (because I missed my stop on the train and quite possibly could have ended up out of Manhattan if I didn't get off when I eventually did), pass the Public Library, seen the Chrysler building and all on foot, all on the one day. I also passed many bums (including one that just spat blankly in front of him nonstop and another that just stared at me from across the bench and randomly laughed), smoking sewer holes, endless emergency service vehicles with sirens wailing and Taxis as far as the eye can see.
That was just day 1.
Rina who has so awesomely taken me in to her house for the duration of my stay there arrived later that night and after getting lost on the trains (how was I suppose to know which direction was up town and down town, there wasn't an incline or slope to indicate it or anything), I finally managed to meet up with her again and we headed for her place in Staten Island.
In the new few days I would be cramming in as many New York sights as I could and consequently, we got home always late at night and always on the verge of collapsing. I went close to going overboard again, this time on shopping when I realised that I could easily just use my ATM card over there. Only thing that impeded that in the end was the fact that I remembered I didn't have much weight to play with on the plane home. In the end, all I got were some fairly decent priced jackets, some tacky souvenirs to accentuate that I went to NY, and most prized of all, the 2.2kg block of Hershey bar. Mum is a chocolate fanatic and when I found the Hershey World store in Time Square, I knew there was no way I was going to leave New York without entering this most sacred ground. The smell of all that chocolate was intoxicating and perhaps the only thing better there was riding a ferris wheel... inside Toys 'R Us XD.
Food was ultimately the reason for the travel. What better reason is there anyway. Being the land of fast food, everytime I got peckish, I was immediately looking for what to eat next. I of course went to the places I knew best, trying to see if there was a difference in the tast of food. I have to say that besides side orders being ridiculously large, the food tasted practically the same as it does here. I can't really say if I'm disappointed or not. On the one hand, I went to a different land but ate the same thing, while on the other it's comforting to know that my favourites are there available on at least another part of the world. One noteworthy thing though was the Outback Steakhouse. Man, oh man... I was laughing inside my brain when looking at the menu.... No Worries Burger takes the cake for the funniest thing there... Aussie Fries with cheese was next (firstly because you don't often see Aussies put cheese on it, and second we don't call it "fries" XD).
Anyway, it was only too soon afterwards that my time in that city came to an end. Though it's a fantastic place to experience, I really wouldn't want to live there. I keep going back to the idea of lost time while in this city and I believe this doesn't just apply to over-eager tourist like myself. It felt that everyone had no time to appreciate the moment, that everything was fast paced and constantly hectic. I like my peace and I like seeing the horizon.
My parting with Rina was abrupt... she had class to go to and she war running late as it was. I dunno how far you're going to read this entry, Rina, but if you read this far, I want you to know that if I were to name the best thing about my whole trip, it would have been you. I've always been wary of online friendships and how fake people can be in the interweb, but you were geniunely a thrill to be with in real life as I hoped you would be based on how I've known you in the past couple of years. It really is sad when I realise that we are back to being a world apart again.
Anyway, what did I learn about this whole thing? Nothing... I wasn't on some study tour.
The cold that had been threatening to hit me though since before Manifest didn't wait a second to hit. As soon as my next 24 hour flight back home ended, I was down and out immediately. Though I said I would be back at work the next day, there was just no way I could do it with how stuffed I was.
*sigh*
One of my most memorable experiences in my life... all over... and somehow life back behind my desk peddling high voltage cable connections just doesn't compare... boo... if you've read everything, I'll give you a chocolate, but I will be testing you on this.
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