Well, it's been over two weeks now and I still haven't been called in for work. Me thinks I'm out of a job, which is okay, it lasted a bit longer than I thought it would. Four weeks to be exact, from October 22nd to November 12th, 2008...that is, unless I get called in, but the chances of that are pretty nil.
But enough about my unemployment. During my employment I encountered a lot of mail, thousands a day actually and when dealing with that much mail, you're bound to stumble upon interesting letters here and there. One type of mail we sorted through were the Return To Sender (RTS) mail, basically the mail that doesn't get delivered, and winds up back to us. We usually sort through RTS when we're done with proper mail, so RTS became our work when work was done work, and I usually took my time to do it, looking at names and such when I felt like it and the inner childish boy within me had a giggle with some of the names, which I tried to take photos of, but they all came out blurry, such is the pain of a bad camera on a phone! So I'll just type down the names I happened to see.
Mrs Joanne Lisa Fullalove
Julie Gay Styles
Fleur Laninazzo (It just sounds cool)
Chika Maree Emeach (Bully's would have a field day with Chika)
William Whitehead
Mahadevan Venkataraman & Kalyani Venkataraman (Those aren't even names)
Mr Robert Freak (Freak-out!)
Most of the RTS we got were from Australia, but some of them were from overseas, which must've taken quite a bit of effort to return them. There was mail from London, Hong Kong, Japan, America, and Netherlands. Then there are cheques that we send out, but become RTS. Those are fun to look at to see how much money people aren't getting. Most of the cheques are for a few hundred dollars but these are the two extremes that I've seen.
The paper for this cheque costs more than this guy is not getting!
I also saw cheques for 5 cents and 2 cents even, can you imagine the excitement someone would get when they open the mail to see a cheque for them only for it to be made to the sum of $0.02.
Just incase its too blurry for you, thats $10,557! This guy will definitely want to call up to fix his address because thats a lot of money to miss out on!
Lastly there's the mail that we aren't supposed to get, as they've been delivered to the wrong place. We just put them in a seperate tray for it to be re-delivered, hopefully to the right location. On my second day at work, I didn't realise this and proceeded to open the letter, and discovered an iTunes gift card for $40 I think it was, suffice to say I was told off for opening mail that didn't belong to us. So I learnt from that mistake. However, when we use machines to cut up the envelopes, they usually cut them open irregardless of whether they're for us or not, and therefore we get to have a peek inside. One particular letter that provided amusement was addressed to this person...
How it wound up here I don't know, but I'm glad it did, because it was hilarious. Especially when we looked inside...
A wish list! A kid who wants Miley Cyrus stuff and a kid who wants books, generic books with no specific name! I should've taken a picture of it too but right under the Santa colouring was written "I love you Santa very much!", I'd like my kids to be able to do the same, except replace Santa with Daddy, Mummy or Jesus.
I'm assuming this note was meant for us, which was nice, and we left it on the table side for people to look at as they walked past. Ironically, this note came on the day that I was told I didn't need to come in anymore because the workload had died down. So it was a great day, in a bittersweet kind of way.
You're probably wondering why I haven't blogged in a while, well wonder no more because I have the answer to that question! The answer is in the title, I've got a job now and thats been taking a bunch of my time, more than half of my day actually, which is ludicrous, so I'm just going to go on a riff now. *tunes guitar*
My last post about my unfortunate work mishap, but the next week on the Tuesday (day of Passion) I got a call from work asking if I could start the next day, which I said I could. It didn't help that Passion ended at 11pm and I arrived home at 1am, needing to wake up at 5am, giving me 4 hours sleep, so I didn't look too great for my first day at work.
Basically the job at Link Market Services involves opening up mail for our shareholder clients and sorting them into trays for our companies. So its a very repetitive, pretty much mindless job and I'm alright with that because its a temporary job, lasting a few weeks. How many weeks exactly is unknown at this point, it seems that it'll end when a bulk of the mail stops coming in, as this time of year is apparently busy with mail, hence the need for casuals.
Now to break up observations by points, for easier reading because I write too much.
- When I applied for my job at Datacom I didn't know I would be working for Telstra, so it was a suprise that when working for Link Market Services I started off opening mail for Telstra.
- I work from 7am till 5pm, with a 15 break at 8:30am, then lunch at 12:30pm, so in a day I get paid for 9.5 hours of work, if I take a 30 minute lunch break. Money is good, so I usually aim for 30 minute breaks.
- Waking up at 5am, then getting home at around 6pm means more than half my day is dedicated to work, whether its actual work or travel.
- Unlike most people who just go home, I still have (BJJ, Kickboxing) training after work, so I don't go home after work, I head straight to training and then get home at 9pm, shower, eat then sleep, so I'm not getting very much sleep at all. My panda eyes are going to become permanent at this rate.
- At work we have cool letter opening machines, I'll need to grab videos of them in action at some point.
- Most of the people at work are Filipino, so that's all I hear all day, with a bit of Cantonese and Mandarin thrown in, then there's English too.
- We work in a distribution centre which is despite being on level 8, is still underground, so I don't see sunlight until lunch time, and if I've brought my lunch I don't see sunlight until I finish work. I feel like a vampire.
- If I'm opening letters and not sorting them then I can close my eyes and do it for a while, gotta get as much shut eye as possible!
I have no idea when this job will end but I'll continue to work the 5 days a week until it ends, and at this point I've heard another 2 or so weeks. No sleep and no play make David go something something...
As requested by Dewey Griffin
On the 12th of September, over a month ago now, I engaged in a friendly fight with my friend Andrew Ha, to those who don't know him, he's 2-3 years younger than me, weighs something around 20 kgs heavier than me, and is built like a tank. To those that know me, I'm skinny, lightweight and built like a twig. So agreeing to a fight like this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but in the spirit of fun I decided to take the fight, knowing I'd lose eventually, it was just a matter of when and how.
Being so long ago I don't remember the fight from start to finish in immense detail but I'll point out what I remember in a hindsight kind of way. Just incase you didn't know, I lost. (OMGOSH SPOILER)
In hindsight I should've warmed up a bit before fighting, if only to get my body ready for a beating, but I didn't, but I don't think Andrew did much either.
Our fight had the rules of no headshots, no elbows and to go 100% because thats what Andrew wanted, and we wore MMA gloves, which are smaller than boxing gloves, and thus would hurt a bit more. We started off standing, trading shots with Andrew getting the better of me, despite my long arms, I'm still hesisitant to close the distance to get my shots in, something that will come to me more so if I keep sparring, which I rarely do these days.
At some point I get taken down, so I pull guard, wrapping my legs around Andrew, to keep him from raining down punches on me, but he still managed to do so, and in the heat of the moment punched me in the face. In hindsight, I should've wore my mouthguard, but silly me I believed in the no headshot rule, but didn't forsee accidental shots occuring. So we paused for a minute so my face could heal a bit, and I could regain composure before starting in the same position again. Prior to Andrew's punching of my face he was trying to break my legs by standing up, so I knew that he would go for it again when we started back in the same position. I used this to my advantage and swept him by pulling his legs causing him to fall on his bottom, and I tried to get on top to gain a better position, however we scrambled and he got back up and we were standing again.
Once again standing, Andrew got the better of me, pulling off a good combo, getting me in the shoulder and body with his very hard shots. Each time he came at me with a flurry of punches I'd end up retreating, bumping up against his fence at his home. Eventually this bumping up against the fence worked against me even more so, slipping and thus lowering my body one of Andrew's punches got me in the face again. Not feeling too good at all, copping two headshots I felt like stopping, as my head was spinning a bit, and my mouth was quite sore. But I kept persisting, seemingly wanting to lose properly. After my break we punched on again, trying some kicks at some point but to no avail, I eventually get taken down again, but fail to pull guard, finding myself in side control, and eventually mounted by Andrew. I instantly try to bridge and roll him over, but that didn't work, then kept holding him down, so he couldn't punch me anymore, but being much stronger than me I could only hold him for so long before he broke my grip and started punching again. I then held him down again, by this time I was very tired and wanted to give up, so I decided to hold on until he broke my grip and started punching me to then say "I give up". In hindsight I should've tried to bridge and roll him over or attempt an elbow escape on more time but I was too tired, and all the odds seem to go against me. I realised throughout the whole fight I wasn't going 100% like Andrew wanted, I'm never a person to punch someone 100% without a good reason to, so while Andrew's punches to me were painful thuds, my punches to him would've felt quite light I imagine, thats just how I fight I suppose.
After giving up I realised my lip was bleeding, so that wasn't great, but wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before. I had a minor bump under my eye, that was quite unnoticeable unless you stared at me, and bruises on my body from the body shots courtesy of Andrew Ha. That brings my unnofficial fight record to 1-1, and it looks like it'll stay that way for a long while.
A few months of solid kickboxing training should help my form and confidence in attacking, rather than trying to counter punch. They say you always learn after a loss, and if anything I've confirmed what I've pretty much known before but suprised myself in a few ways.
After essentially bludging a chunk of this semester I finally got a call back from one of the numerous jobs I applied for, for a mailroom clerk role at Links Market Services, lasting roughly three weeks. I had the assessment interview on Monday and that went over well, with a call later in the day saying I got the position and would start on Wednesday, 7am.
7am, in the city, Ernst and Young building, that requires a wake up time of at least 5am and training catching time of at least 6am but I was willing to do it for a temporary amount of time just to get some work and money. I was told the department I was to work for would call me on the Tuesday but for some reason they didn't, I didn't think too much about it at the time but in hindsight, it would've been good to think about it a bit longer.
So today I wake up at 3am, sleep, then 4am, sleep then 5am, wake up. I have a habit of waking up earlier than the intended wake up time if I've got something on the next day, which has its pros and cons, the con being I could've gotten another hour of undisturbed sleep but time goes on and you can't waste it. I got to the Ernst & Young building at 7am, got into the elevator and pressed 11 and 12, none of them lit up, proving my intuition right, that I needed a swipe card to get up. I told the security guard but he couldn't swipe me in on account of "I don't know who you are" but told me to wait until 8am or until I saw someone I recognised who could swipe me in. Not knowing anyone made the latter option quite impossible so I sat on the couches and waited. Half an hour later the security guard told me to hitch a ride with someone who was going up to my level, so I did.
Got to level 11, and saw that there were two door thingies with the swipe, of which neither I could get into, so I was stuck. Fortunately a lady got off on the level and I told her my plight of being a new employee, she swiped me to level 12 and we waited for the receptionist who wasn't there. So we went to find her, I sat and waited around, reading some HRM magazine. Eventually the HR lady I saw on Monday came out and apologised for the wait and said someone from my department would see me soon. Five or so minutes later a lady came and apologised, saying that I "shouldn't be starting today", and there was a "miscommunication between HR and their department", and basically told me to go home. Living an hour away, I had wasted my morning, my very, VERY early morning...
Lesson to be learned - Always wait for the call, or call to confirm, either way don't waste $9.20 for nothing, that's a lunch, or a bunch of lollies!
After four and a half years of transferring Universities, transferring courses and transferring my career goals I have finally done the deed of graduating, something I probably could've done a year or a semester earlier had I known what I wanted to do, and was smart enough to not fail a few subjects (but lets not dwell on that part), but I suppose all that played a part to get me to where I am now, jobless and still in need of study to achieve my career goal.
Onto the day at hand, that handed me my degree, with high degree weather, and what a day it was!
I didn't really tell anyone about my graduation thing, mainly because I'm not the type of person who wants to celebrate anything to do with me, which may seem ironic with me having this blog to make an account of all things to do with me, but I guess that's just the way I am. Since I didn't tell anyone about my graduation I therefore didn't invite anyone to my graduation, except for the obligatory family and girlfriend. Girlfriend!? Yeah, someone I've been meaning to blog about but haven't done as yet, but will eventually, so the little blurb is her name is Rose, she's a Christian, not married, not divorced, not a blood relative and is female.
I set my alarm for 9am, but woke up a lot earlier, at around 5am or so, something I've had a habit of doing lately, but then fell back asleep knowing I didn't need to wake up so early. At 9am my alarm went off, I turned it off and laid in bed with my eyes closed, hoping this would help restore all my energy and make me less tired. I played Muse's "Falling Away With You" to help me start my day and got up, got ready, shaved and showered, which is important for photos and events such as your graduation and soon enough the rest of the family got ready. Left the house at 10:40am or so and headed for Rose's house, picked her up and continued our drive. While in the car I got handed a gift from Rose, wrapped in tissue paper, the fancy kind, and wrapped with tape, the double stick kind.
Now what could that be?
Trying to open up a gift wrapped with tissue paper and double stick tape in the cleanest way possible is nigh impossible and ripping was to be done, and it was done good, and what was inside was very very awesome indeed. Coming off my first BJJ competition win there were official photos taken, which I took off the site and was content to have the low quality versions, but Rose, is her sweet wisdom bought the photos and framed the one of me with my hand raised in victory. The frame is very very fancy and apparently costs a lot. I spent the rest of the drive up holding the frame and marveling at how someone could be so awesome (Rose, not me).
How awesome is that!
We then headed to the city, specifically, Market City, for parking. We had Yum Cha at the restaurant on the third level which was also eventful. I almost had my lap burnt due to spilt tea, courte
sy of Rose but reacted fast enough to avoid the tea getting my lap and it hit the chair instead. I switched chairs, which was later sat on by someone else, but I think it had dried up by then as the person didn't react like I wanted them to when they sat down.
Yummy-cha
It was just after 1pm when we finished eating and I needed to get to the University to register and get my academic dress on to look like a person who was graduating. Leading to the graduation I had a fairly 'meh' attitude to it all, and didn't know anyone who was graduation as well as I had pretty much no friends in university. But lining up for my academic dress and registration I spotted a guy who I met in my first or second semester back in 2005 and somewhat befriended but hadn't spoke to since, and things hadn't change all that much. I was then fitted into my academic dress, gown or robe, whichever you want to call it, then further adjustments were made by my mum with pins to make my gown more cool looking, then the pictures began, we took our shots, then let the professionals take their shots, which I'll purchase later when they're out. A good thing about my graduation was that it allowed for us to take a family photo, something we hadn't done in a loooong time, so that was good indeed!
Being a graduate!
Fast forwarding along, we took more pictures, then headed for the hall place, to get graduated, I sat between two people I recognised over the years at UTS so we chatted a bit during the ceremony, which was long. I was in the third last row to have my name called and it sure took a while to get my name called that I passed the time by playing around with the camera overlooking the crowd, making faces and what not, hoping that when I watch the DVD of the ceremony for the first and last time I'll be able to be amused by my own antics. Eventually our row was called up and the nerves kicked in, with new shoes on which were quite slippery I was afraid of slipping as I walked to shake the lady's hand. My name was called, I tipped my hat to him, something I was practicing while waiting and walked over to the lady to shake her hand, on the way, and forgot to look at the camera as a picture was taken, it'll be interesting to see what that picture looks like, if I ever get to see it. I was then handed my degree thing and then walked back to my seat. Heard a speech from a former UTS student, and then left, heading for the refreshments to refresh ourselves. Which was packed with people, so moving around was tough, and getting to refreshments was tougher, but we managed.
Graduated!Unfortunately, the whole throwing our hats into the air as a group could not be done as it is deemed a potential hazard so we had to resort to doing it by ourselves. With the wonders of the continuous shot function we were able to capture this pretty well with nice results.
However, a second throw, with the plan to throw higher didn't prove too well with the high winds that day...
After mucking around more, taking random photos and the like I had to return my gown and revert to being normal David again. As normal David we all went shopping, Rose got shoes, I carried the shoes and then we had dinner at Wagaya I think was the name, which had cool touch screen ordering menus, which my brother and sister had fun with, ordering all our meals. Following the graduation dinner we walked around Chinatown, as they had their Friday Night Markets open, Rose and I wandered up and down, then found a spot to sit and relax while waiting for my parents to finish shopping. We were called to the Y2K place for dessert, so all that walking helped get dinner digested and our bellies ready for more. Rose and I shared a mango pudding and green tea icecream thing. Rose thought it fun to give the pudding a face, before we devoured his smiling face.
After dessert we went home, to end what was a tiring, yet enjoyable day.
Having finished university some months back the whole graduation excitement was lost on me, but being there on the actual day made it cool. Now I have the next phase of my life to look forward to, which involves more study with a Masters degree which I better get in to. The weather was alright, and being indoor most of the time was fine, and rain didn't happen until late into the night, and by then I was safe at home. So that's one graduation down, hopefully another to go, let's see where life take me, hopefully to a place called Home...
