Daily Life « Adam Luke

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2010 Is Looking to be a Busy Year

It seems that 2010 will be a busy year for me.

Although the past few months have involved a lot of staring at screens and pointless Internet surfing, I return to university in a month or so, and have taken on a second job, which I start on Tuesday.

A quick list of what 2010 will involve regarding university and work:

Completing the second year of my B.A.
Still with majors in psychology and anthropology. In addition to just “completing” it, I also need to maintain a First-Class Honours average grade in psychology so I can complete an Honours year in 2012, which will allow me to study postgraduate psychology, which, in turn will qualify me to have a career in psychology. I’m still undecided whether I’d prefer to be a practising clinical psychologist or an academic.
Continuing work at my casual job at the DVD rental store (Job One)
It has proven to be fun so far — I enjoy working there. It also comes with the bonus of free rentals. For example, I rented Up recently, which is Pixar’s best film to date (Wall·E is overrated!), and Orgazmo (a colleague recommended it), which had a few cheap laughs, but was generally crap. I also get an $0.75 pay rise in the not-too-distant future, which is a bit exciting. As a casual, though, it’s impossible to predict annual income with any degree of certainty.
Starting my second casual job at a computing department (Job Two)
Some of the tasks I may complete include user authorisation, collecting payments for payable services, replenishing printer consumables, providing support in the use of hardware and software, and aiding in repair and maintenance of equipment. I’m sure I will enjoy this job; it seems that there’s a fair amount of independence, and having many different tasks to do is excellent, too.

I struggled with the concept of “how much is too much, when blogging about your job?” whilst writing this entry. I think the information I wrote is fine, but I probably wouldn’t go into much more detail at all.

January 30th, 2010 · About me, Daily Life, Media, Money and Work, University and Study · 11 Comments »

"I Don't Eat My Necklace, I Just Suck on It": When Bloggers Meet

Today, I met two very cool girls. Their names were (and still are) Amanda and Nadine. I like to think that fun was had by all.

We met at noon, me with the advantage of actually knowing what the people I was meeting looked like (but a bit of texting so I could find them still didn’t go astray). We went for lunch (dumplings and noodles) in Chinatown, where blogging and life in general were discussed, and basic “getting to know you, getting to know all about you”-type questions were asked. It was recently discovered that Amanda and I attended the same high school, which was also discussed over lunch. In all likelihood, we walked past each other in corridors, but were in different year levels and thus paid no attention to each other.

Next stop was ACMI, where we looked at the Screen Worlds exhibit. Finally, we quickly dropped by Amanda’s office (there’s carpet in the elevator, which I feel is completely worthy of note), before catching trains home (Nadine and I caught the same train).

January 23rd, 2010 · Australia, Daily Life, Internet and Websites · 8 Comments »

Job Hunting

I have a new job. I’m reluctant to mention any specifics, so I shall give you some related information instead. Some stuff may appear on LiveJournal if anything I feel I should mention occurs, though.

My previous job was in a supermarket, where I was a “service assistant”, also known as a cashier. I survived there for over two years. To be honest, I’m still pretty traumatised by the tedium of it all. Some people can handle the job, and some even like it, but not me. I craved stimulation, and open spaces where I’d be able to stretch my legs. Eventually, it was noticed that I did a good job at refilling the confectionery at registers¹, and I also had learnt where most items were located in the aisles. This meant I got to spend slightly less time confined to a tiny space, and instead got to refill confectionery and magazines at the registers, and collect loose stock and return it to shelves. When the supermarket’s online ordering system was introduced, I occasionally worked for that department, collecting products from shelves to fill customer orders. Preferably, I would’ve been able to do so more often, but our schedules didn’t really match.

Recently, I was job hunting. I didn’t find it too hard to get a job, and I even got one that I wanted. It makes sense, considering it’s the Christmas period and I have complete availability until university resumes at the start of March. Handing in résumés and cover letters can even be amusing. For example, at one store, the guy who was working saw that I was holding some paper, and was all “RÉSUMÉ? W’ERE HIRING! KTHXBAI!!”, barely letting me get a word in edgeways. I never did end up hearing back from them, though, despite their overenthusiasm.

To cut a long story short, I got a job elsewhere. My interview was on Wednesday, and I thought of good answers to questions afterwards. The person who interviewed me said they’d call the next day, which, of course, meant I spent the day angsting, and thinking “We’ll if they haven’t called by now, I haven’t got it”, Only to check my mobile phone and realise that I had two missed calls², which then made me think “Frig, I probably got it, but now that they can’t get hold of me, they’ve given it to someone else”.

I seldom talk about my life in this blog, instead opting for more of a thoughts-about-random-topics approach. You now know why.

Not like it’s hard to do a good job, but other people would just chuck stuff in willy-nilly, upside down, and back-to-front. I actually made everything look nice, and lined it all up perfectly.
I keep it on silent, and it was on my bed so I didn’t hear it vibrate. I assumed they’d call my home phone number, as that is what was used to arrange the interview. Whoops.

December 4th, 2009 · Daily Life, Money and Work · 7 Comments »