InTheNow

this was an enlightening experience :)

no entries here yet… um-mum-ma!

Have gotten rid of the PhD, and to celebrate, I threw out most of my paperwork (filled our recycling bin). Felt hellagood :)

I am going to get full-time work back in a week or so (bar student holidays) which will carry me while I job-search. Yay!

I am going to quit my crappy casual Hilton job, and make sure they know that getting paid two weeks late simply because payroll stuffed my pay is unacceptable, seeing I picked up on it on pay-day, was promised to be fixed-up in a week, then simply told that no, you’ll just have to wait a fortnight. I wouldn’t have minded so much if the payroll lady wasn’t so smug. I mentioned that she could write me a cheque, but she flippantly said that it would take five days to clear anyway (which others now say it wouldn’t being for ‘wages’) and that was the end of discussion. Never mind the fact that I’d have my pay if she wrote that cheque over a week ago.

Still have things to do… work the 43-things list will bring my mojo closer!

and decided to steal my other-half’s workbag from the ute today while he was on a job.

Unfortunately he had a bill in his diary which means our home address… so on top of the loss of camera, phone chargers, work clothes, work records, and keys for everything, we’re going to have to re-key the house locks, garage locks, and the van locks.

His house was robbed nearly two years ago just after we met and he was interstate on work, and he lost around $14 000 of tools (they took his van with all his tool boxes) that were uninsured. The home and contents were insured at least.

I’m sorry, but I hate a person unconditionally who could steal a person’s means of livelihood. Hate.

Never give a person the chance to steal from you, because the temptation for some is as good as an invitation.

Had my whinge earlier (apologies for the toxic negativity). Perhaps I walked in shoes I was meant to just long enough to learn a lesson, but thankfully it looks like I’ve got my TAFE work back, and full-time. It’s not a career job, but it’s a good job meantime and I love the people I work with.

I do feel somewhat lucky. I really do. And I’m going to quit the Hilton. I did meet some great people there, but six months is more than enough of the hospitality industry for me. I saw too many people working their buns off doing thankless work just to make ends meet, which is really all you are doing on those wages. Good luck to them all. I want to leave ‘cheers’ for all my colleagues because I won’t see them all before leaving.

I’m feeling so much better now :)

my little Montster celebrated his little claws adorning his silky paws and wrestled my hand for a play-bite.

The amusement watching him try to bite a fist… :)
He’s a lover, not a fighter, but at least he has some idea.

We found the Balmain market ladies making gozleme on Australia Day in Sydney! Needless to say, we had a great lunch, but I don’t know that I’ll ever make gozleme that good :/

The introduction of this book warns that it is not a book that can be read from cover-to-cover, but rather in sections as they are relevent.

Things I’d read about Tolle intrigued me initially; he lives in Vancouver (I was born there), he was 29 when he experienced his rise above depression (I’m now 29), and at 29 he was realising that an academic career wasn’t for him just as he was entering a PhD at Cambridge (I recently decided that I didn’t want to bring my PhD experience to completion).

‘The Power of Now’. It sounds like it promises a lot, but the concept of dissociating from your mind to be ‘in the present’, the whole concept that ‘we are not our mind’, not concerning yourself with your future, your goals… it didn’t help motivate or clarify things for me as I had hoped.

I’ve had to learn my own coping skills for stress and depression, and I don’t agree with the idea of ‘shutting off’. I am my mind. I don’t necessarily agree with all my thoughts… I can be critical and realistic, sometimes overly so. Sometimes my thoughts and attitudes are self-defeating, but I have definitely developed some intolerance for stress and an avoidance of it for survival. I think that is healthy, but in the odd situation that relates somehow to the disaster that was my PhD experience can bring me to tears, which is entirely annoying.

Anyway… I gave it a try, but this book is not for me right now.

I and my other-half have joined forces to domesticate the backyard again. We’ve barely started and already it looks ten-fold better!

The last time the yard saw serious work was when my parents came interstate to visit months ago – they spent a couple days gardening on their holiday!

I’d like to keep at this until we really have the weeds under total control. We live in such a beautiful, quiet spot bordering bushland it is a shame not to maintain a yard you can enjoy the view from.

...will never be the same ever again ;)

I love the fact Hassel the Hoff revels in spoofing himself now... but the real question is, what was he really thinking in those calender photo shoots?
[raises eyebrow]

The grass everywhere is looking greener than here.

My casual Hilton job that should have made ends meet over the student summer-break is falling severely short; they over-staffed and shifts vary between 0-2 a week. I’d actually be financially better off on the ‘dole’, an offer I’ll take next if I’m not finally paid tomorrow for a shift I did three weeks ago. And to think… I went through THREE recruitment sessions to get this job…

The casual TAFE work I was relying on returning to this semester (while looking for my career job) looks like it was lost in budget-cuts, and meantime I’ve started to get into debt living partly on my credit-card. I’ve never done that before, and it makes me a little mad.

I’ll start applying for everything under the sun in my industry that I’m (over)qualified to do, but I did this last year, and employers aren’t interested if you are over-qualified. They think you’ll get bored and leave, or you’re not enthusiastic enough about cleaning their 100L fermenters… who knows. And then the jobs you ARE qualified for… you don’t have enough experience.

I am going to go insane.

Let’s not forget the arrogant Sydney research institutes that demand your academic transcript, nothing less than first-class honours, experience, and expect to pay you a cashier’s wages for the privelege of working there.

The more I see of this industry, the less I want to plot a career in it, but I can’t reskill anymore; I need to make a living now. I need to build my superannuation… I need to see a dentist (first time in at least 12 years)... my car needs tyres (not to mention a total service)... I have a benign tumour in my head that may decide not to respond to medication this time… I’d like to get married in the next two years…

okay… I’m definitely whinging now. But getting angry gets you nowhere. Selling yourself gets you nowhere. Should I be offering my first born child or something to get a job???

Grrr.

and it was just like riding a bicycle again :) It did help that I actually had space on my desk again after throwing a lot of junk out (mainly wheat literature, ha!).

Once I finish this piece, I will call this goal as reached and I don’t think I’ll stop.

Words synonymous to ‘declawing’ that spring to mind:

mutilatev.
Destroy or injure severely [syn: maim, mangle, disfigure, cut up] (mutilation n.)

maimv.
Injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration or mutilation

I know for a fact that many vets (including my friend) refuse to declaw cats for the same reason they refuse to dock tails from dogs: it’s mutilation (more info in sharryfairy’s and uma’s entries below).

Fact: cats have these things called CLAWS. Don’t like it – don’t get a cat.

My Monte loves his scratching post (pictured above), a second-hand gift from a friend. He also likes using my woven storage and laundry baskets. It does no harm and he enjoys it :)

and I’m feeling overly optimistic :)

I’m largely aimed at Research Assistant positions, and mostly in the medical field. It’s competitive. Who wants to research wheat??

This position covers my background. I can do this job, I meet their essential criteria, but only as a mere research student… and one without a solid, weighty reference.

Here’s to the little engine who thought he could…

Every house should have these.

One thing that scares me is burns. I can’t forget about getting a fire-blanket and extinguisher for the kitchen again. It’s not worth it. As soon as I get the work in full swing again, and unfortunately a huge service on my car including new tyres (it helps when your partner is a former mechanic ;), these are the next on my list.

I’m looking at the end of March… but at least it’s on my list now.

I won’t pay to see them ever again.

I went to both their Achtung (whatever they called it) and ZooTV concerts in Melbourne, one at the MCG and the other at Mt. Waverley stadium. Yes, it’s dazzling to see them live, but you won’t get a decent seat unless you’re practically one of the band member’s relatives or you’re willing to pay an insane amount of money to a scalper who’s a band member’s relative…

but I’m not very comfortable with Tolle’s first teaching of learning to ‘switch off’ your thinking by in fact separating yourself from your mind. I understand how destructive peoples’ thoughts and emotions can be, but I’m not sure this is THE way to deal with it.

I will read on, but my dirt instinct is to refuse that ‘switching off’ or ‘tuning out’ is the answer to life’s problems. Being blissful or joyous to be present in the present by ignoring the past and the future and ‘switching off’... I will read on, but I have ISSUES… :/

My kitten Monte ‘fetching’ a wound-up ball of tinsel. He is mad for tinsel. The only problem is that he fetches it, picks it up in his teeth, then bolts with it under the bed to unwind it (before you get it off him), and he does this so fast that it is hard to catch him on camera :)

My kitten Monte (pictured above) as he bolted for freedom out the front-door this morning before realising it was raining and bolting straight back inside again :)

I took the Keirsey Temperament Sorter in a training course. It was interesting to see the spread of a group of diverse scientists… none of my characteristics were extreme, and one bordered. Apparently your characteristics can change over time… it’s quite subjective in a way, but still insightful.

Thanks for the links… if anyone has a problem getting their hands on the Keirsey sorter, let me know. I’ve it as a word document :)

A brief description of an ENFJ temperament:

Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.