Yesterday was my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.
When it comes to Mum’s side of the family certain things can be expected when gathering together for a family event. First you can expect to repeat everything at least once when talking to my grandfather, as an former RAAF Warrant Officer he has pretty poor hearing from working around aircraft his whole career. This can be both frustrating and amusing for while you are pulling your hair out having to repeat nearly every question you ask, you are as often doing your best to stifle fits of laughter from some of the answers you receive to otherwise straightforward questions. Then there’s my grandmother, who after years of dealing with my grandfather’s deafness, has become accustomed to talking at volumes in excess of twice that of normal conversational tone. I love my grandmother, but sometimes this can test the capabilities of even the strongest painkillers in their effectiveness of fighting migraines.
So the new job is going well… so far. I’m am feeling pretty confident with the work, even though it’s still early days and I still have a lot to learn. I’m feeling pretty shagged at the moment though, simply because I’ve been learning all day and haven’t had the chance to let my mind rest, which is both good and bad…
Funny thing happened this morning, just my luck really. I was up early, ready for work, and had everything organised well before my usual departure time, this was because I was supposed to pick Rob up and take him into work this morning for him to take his radiator in for repair. As the luck of the Irish would have it, I get in my car, turn it over, and…..nothing. For some reason my car just didn’t want to start. Not because it was having a bad day, not because I had taken it’s lunch money, not even because I had called it a sissy. Nope, simple because I am just that lucky….ask anyone! So I get Melly to call Freaky and he comes over and gives me a jump start. I make it to Rob’s place, and then to work on time, but only just. Going back to the car part of the story for just a second, once I arrived at work, I turn my car over just to see if I might have been lucky enough for my alternator to have given my battery a bit of charge? Nope, again, just my luck I guess. So I toddle off to work and Rob goes to the Radiator place.
Later on this afternoon before finishing work I call RACQ to meet me at my car. The RACQ guy tells me that my battery has shat it self, but gives me a jump start so I can make it to the nearest battery World, where a nice guy puts in a new battery and I had over $120. The moral of this story is, if you ever plan to pick up someone for work, make sure your own car works at LEAST an hour before you’re meant to be there. Good news is my car is now working….again….hooray. Thank you Freaky Steve, RACQ guy and Battery World guy….oh and God above for letting me enter Matrix Bullet time on my way to work =o)
And thats all…. thanks.
OK, so this morning I was meant to have my eyesight and hearing checked for my new job. The manager I was speaking to who arranged all this gave me the appointment time of 10 for the optometrist, and 12:15 for the hearing test. We had even had another conversation the next day where I clarified with her these appointment times, so I wouldn’t make any mistakes, and thus make a bad impression.
This morning I get up and get ready and was at the optometrist by 10, where in I was promptly informed that the appointment had been scheduled for 9. Oh how happy I was. I gave my new manager a call, but her phone diverted to message bank, so I left a message informing her of what went wrong, and of how the receptionist had told me that they wouldn’t be able to get me in until next week. After about 10 minutes I get a call back and she implies that I am the one who made the mistake, and that it couldn’t have possibly been her that screwed up. Being the type of person I am I didn’t let her get away with that, explaining that if I had made the mistake, why didn’t she correct me when going over the details with her during the next conversation we had. All I got was a reiteration of how it was obviously me who had made the mistake. So I say to her, “Maybe I did make a mistake, but I had clarified this information with you twice, once initially when you were giving it to me, and again in the next conversation, why can’t you admit that it is equally likely that you are capable of making this mistake as I am?” I got no adequate response. She says, “You not making a good start here..” to which I reply, “I’m not trying to make trouble here **insert manager’s name**, I simply do not appreciate being blamed for something that wasn’t my mistake.”
You know, I left the last job to get away from this kind of arrogance and insinuation, and I hope to God above that this is just a once off incident. I’m sick and tired of management that think that they are somehow immune to human fault. I have no problem admitting that there is a possibility that I am wrong here, I even said as much to her, but considering the circumstances I don’t think there is any evidence of that.
All you believers who happen to be reading this, please pray that the rest of this day goes much better than it’s started out. Pray also that my first impression of this lady being a nice person remains. I NEED this job to work out. And maybe also pray for my frustration levels to be settled, because right now my heart is racing.
Thanks to those who prayed and thought of me throughout the day, as things did get remarkably better. The rest of the day went off without hitch, and I actually found out that I will be working in the exact same department as my friend good mate Rob who helped me get this job. This is a departure from the original plan to have me working in a similar but slightly different section of the centre. Yeehaa!
Basically I start my first shift tomorrow at 8. Things certainly look interesting, and there’s an added bonus, they sell ice cream at this new place….. I LIKE ICE CREAM! **Insert ROVE pilot season actions and mungy voice here**
Today is Australia’s Federal Election. For the last week or so I’ve had the arduous task of having to cautiously sift through the lies and come to some responsible decisions regarding who I am to vote for.
In the end I didn’t totally make my final cut until I got to the ballot box. When surfing the net and doing research on the dozen or so parties to choose from though, I settled on a good short-hand description of each party. Each description rests entirely on the points I personally consider to be important. These include defence policy, taxation, gay marriage rights and health benefits. The reasons for the issues being at the forefront of my mind are pretty obvious, they are the only ones that have an immediate impact on my life, and because of this, all other issues I care little about, call me short-sighted.
Today I handed in my resignation. After two and a half years working for Australia’s biggest telco in their international call centre, things began to look better elsewhere. So, through the help of my good friend Rob I managed to get the contact details of the person who employs for where he works. I subsequently sent in my resume and a letter of application, even though there wasn’t any jobs going at the time, and got a reply saying she’d keep me in mind. Last week I got an email from this same lady saying that basically the job was mine if I wanted it, and being sick of the in-house politics where I was, decided that anything would be better, even if just for a change of scenery.
Where I was has been very bad for some time. I only ever got my roster one week in advance and you would never know if rostering were going to give you enough hours to make ends meet. That combined with the brown-nosing, backstabbing, and petty politics, and you can see why I’d basically had enough. Management did indeed suck balls too, so that was another helpful factor in making my decision.
Ok, so last time I talked about Battlefield Vietnam. This time it’s again about a game, only on xBox. With the gift voucher my lovely wife gave me for our first wedding anniversary I preordered Fable, which is a very very cool RPG (role playing game). It turned up on my doorstep last Thursday and I have been hooked ever since.
Basically you take on the role of a young boy. His parents and siblings get killed in a village raid and is subsequently adopted into a hero guild where he learns the art of combat and magic. The idea is that one day he will become a powerful hero and reap revenge on those who destroyed his family. Of course the story develops through many points during the game, but what I am very impressed with is that it doesn’t take a mediocre stab at creating a good plot… it goes all the way.
Story line aside, the game play is excellent. Imagine a cross between Diablo 2, The Sims, and EverQuest. You can do all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Of course you have all the fantasy elements such as strength, magic, and accuracy, but you can steer your character towards any number of different hero paths. You could become an archer, soldier, or wizard and within those broad categories specialise in different areas. This is similar in practise to the way Diablo 2 develops it’s characters. The difference lies in extra features that fable chucks into the mix. The most significant of these is being able to direct the moral standing of your hero. For instance, throughout the game you take on quests that give you choices and variety in the way they could be accomplished. You can choose to do the quest in an evil manner, or if you prefer take the narrow road and be the saint. Every single choice you make in the game affects your character’s moral alignment, towards either good or evil.