Cars and duststorms

I okay, I'm several days late than I had promised... Something came up at the dealership where they needed to do maintenance work on my car before they could give me the keys - "Patience pays off" so I waited till Tuesday.

And so, on Tuesday arvo after work I headed out to Chatswood to the Mercedes Benz dealership. This was the very last time I would drive the MPV. So the stats are as follows:
Car: Mazda MPV
Year: 1993
Years in family: Early 2000 to Mid-late 2009
Final kms driven: 311,536
Condition: It's had its time.
I gave my final goodbye and headed up the lift to the main lobby. MPV, You will be missed.

I sat down with the sales guy and signed my name on so many bloody documents that my wrist hurt. After all that signing, I grabbed my belongings and hopped into my new car. He gave me another 'tour' of the car; the 'ins' and 'outs', maintenance hatches, where to top up wiper fluid, etc. I signed a few more documents and finally was given the green light to go.

The drive was much like the test drive - Very easy and familiar. Not too many driving differences in terms of passenger comfort but actual driving of course was very different compared to a 7 seater family vehicle.

I drove out to 'Mando centre' and parked over at the Westfield parking complex for a few spins around and about the near empty parking floor and took a few shots too:

Above: YAY!!!!! (Plate blotted out for obvious reasons)

Above: First park was a 'sucess'....

I then met up with my mum at Mando Centre and had dinner there as she had to head to Killara for something and my dad would be joining her. Then they would come home together, negating the need for me to hang around. So we drove out of the parking lot into... rain.
Anyway, I dropped her at a nearby station and let her make the rest of the trip...... since I didn't have a street directory with me at the time.
I got back home and started to intensely go through the manual, tips, tricks, etc and just trying to get familiar with the car's function, buttons, whizbangs and do-hickys, etcetcetc.

Top & Bottom: First night in garage

So onto today...
This morning my phone rang at 0550hrs while I was sound asleep. It was my dad who gave me a dire weather warning - A massive duststorm was sweeping across Sydney and covered much of NSW. I dragged myself out of bed and began shutting all the windows around the house and when I looked out the window...WHOA - The entire sky was just a big brown. It was like being in a sandstorm but without sand. I could only make out street signs across the road - barely. It was so incredibly thick and windy that it was difficult to close the windows without getting a mouthful of dust it the process.
I rinsed out the dusty taste out of my mouth and went back to sleep, hoping that it would clear up by the time I woke up. NOT.

I woke to find that the sky was still a strong orange/brown and my room was awkwardly darkened during that time of morning. I ran through my morning routine, dropped the newspapers at my grandmother's, prepared myself for the day and left - All with a brown backdrop.

As a 'first' drive for the Fortwo, it was useful to have foglights installed. I arrived at work and throughout the day I watched my Fortwo gradually go from a strong shade of black to a light shade of brown. It looked as if someone had literally thrown a can of family sized Milo over my car.

In the distance: 'Fortwo: Lightly browned edition'

After work, I headed to me mate's house in my lightly browned Fortwo, picked him up and drove back to my place where we swapped around some anime he wanted to watch and some I neeeded the last few eps of. Dropped him back home, picked up my mum from the station. End of day 2 for the Fortwo.

All in all, these last 2 days have been pretty exciting and very strange. Other than that, I'm very excited about finally driving a Smart car - A 9 year wait since it was first introduced into the Aussieland and finally it is in my hands.

Moral of story: Patience pays off.

New car; New friend?

As mentioned in the previous post, my parents were considering getting me a replacement car - The specifics like money etc... wont go there...

Anyway, about a week ago on Friday (11/9), I spotted an ad on the Smart website and discovered they were selling the standard Fortwo as a 'Spring clearance' sale. Added at no extra charge is what's called the 'Primo' package. This includes: Leather+heated seats, Soft-touch (Auto), Radio 10 (6 CD in dash), Audio package (2 tweets, 2 Mids and a Sub), Elec+heated mirrors.
Then aside from the Primo package, there also is added power steering and an extended warranty

I then brought it to my parents attention on Sat night (12/9) and very unexpectedly they said "call them up for a quote" - So did on Sunday morning and managed to get a quote.

My parents liked the quote and we then booked a test drive for Wed (16/9) and I took half a day off to go test it. I met up with my dad at the Mercedes Benz dealership out in Chatswood and gave it a whirl.

It was everything i exactly imagined since I was young. The car being ridiculously small but comes under my exact minimalistic specifications in terms of usage and lifestyle. We returned to the dealership and it began - The haggle

Dad put up an awful good fight with the sales guy, pushing harder and harder for the price to come down. Now I must say, I am DEFINITELY not a person who likes to haggle. There's too much greed involved but that's how purchasing cars is usually done - A struggle of what you want to what you need and how much you should get it for.

In the end, we got it for less than the original quote and we immediately traded my MPV for a measly 500 bucks. I wasn't too suprised at this price but heck, my car is OLD ('93) and done over 311,111kms already - It's time to let it go.
In the end, he sold us the one that I test drove - Floor stock - and it is totally in black. The Fortwo is a '2-tone' car. Being that the main shell is black or silver and the body panels can be whatever colour you want - Through the haggle, it was pointed out that we'd be given the floor car, if we kept going with it. Colour choice or cheaper? - meh.

All I have to do now is to pick it up (19/9) tomorrow/Saturday morning (technically this morning but meh.) and bring it home. Simple. Whole thing over in about 10 days (11/9 - 19/9)

So here are a few 'memorial last' shots of my Mazda MPV purely as a place to 'remember' it. It's been in our family for nearly a decade (2000). Yes, I do have some kind of emotional attachment to it since I've quite literally grown up with it in my life and all through my late childhood.
This makes it hard to let go - I've driven to everything in it, served the church with it, transported full loads of equipment, carried all me mates in the back in it and it's been an awesome experience. Through this week, I've had some mixed feelings about this whole thing. I am loosing an indespensable and very useful tool that I've grown to enjoy using and respect, and yet I'm replacing it with the exact car of my dreams. My ultimate dream car.

Top & Bottom: "Last night in the garage"

Some of you will think I'm crazy yakking on about all this; "Take the new car. Enjoy it and be merry" - But on the other hand, it feels like I'm saying goodbye to close and old friend who's been with me for many many years.

Top: My 'usual' spot at work

I guess this is where some blogs come into the light of personal use much like a diary. I can read back on my posts and reflect what kind of person I was in the past and compare it to what kind of person I am in that future point in time.

If all goes well (and that I remember to take photos), I'll be scheduling another blog post tomorrow.

ps: I didn't get the chance to take any shots while test driving it and everything. sowwies....
pps: Danny, if you ever get the chance to read this, I want to thank you for sharing your life. You always give a wonderful perspective on how we should view our lives and reflect on it; this indespensable 'skill' that makes a person grow and mature. thx so much.

Same life; different life

So here we are a month(ish) later I've settled into school life all over again - Morning rush, Recess rush, Lunch rush, Bell times, etcetc.

I'm actually very frustrated at the pace things are going - Nothing/Nowhere
When I began, I was full of motivation, "Yeah lets do this!", BRING IT ON, etc kinda thing. But as the weeks have been rolling by, my motivation has worn completely thin.

The netbooks that are supposed to come 'soon' have NOT come. Instead I've been running around the place doing odd jobs around the school, upgrading desktops, visiting the music room (excessively), re-organising the storeroom - Trying to make myself useful.
When I'm not doing odd jobs, I'll be in my office drinking tea, reading the newspaper, playing solitaire/Touhou, surfing the net, napping... - Exactly what I did everyday while I was officially unemployed =_____="""

Other times I'll be roaming around the school giving my legs some excercise or I'll hang out in the music building, drive out to the mall for lunch and/or do a spot of snack shopping. I don't think it bothers anyone that I could/can go missing for over an hour without anyone noticing.The only thing I can do now is to continue what I've been doing everyday and hope that the netbooks arrive BEFORE the school holidays. That being said, since I'm an employee of the DET (Dept of Edu), I work normal days just like every other worker - ie: I got to be there during the school hols while the place is empty. Filling my time will be simple since I my office is in the library - I guess I'll bring all my backlogged anime~~~ ^^"

Really if anyone wants to say "hi" or anything, just drop by my office or catch me walking around - I may appear to be busy but in reality, I am superiorly bored.

In other news:

• Watches - Mail ordered from Japan
  
• Bought a watch from Tokyo Flash last Friday which arrived the following Friday. I bought myself 'Fire' and for my dad 'Transciever' - as a Fathers Day gift.
• Car - My current car is under review by my parents.
• It's a '95 Mazda MPV which has clocked over 310,000kms and been in the family since my sisters started driving, which then has been passed to me. (Hand-me-down car) It drinks petrol at a rate of +15L/100kms and cost average +$60 to fill the 75L tank weekly.
• On a weekly average, I clock up to 350kms p/tank but 98% of the time I drive, it's JUST ME. It's old but it still works a charm
  
• The car currently under consideration for purchasing is a Smart Fortwo - Built/Designed by the same bunch that do Mercedes vehicles. It's able to run at 3.9L/100kms with a 35L tank
• You do the math... Actually please, somebody do it ^^"
  

Anyway, I guess that's another kind of snapshot of what's been happening and what's been on my mind this past month. I am thinking of posting more frequently but the current situation doesn't demand that 'just' yet. Lets just see how it goes~~~

The job of my dreams

Well where to begin???!!!

It's obvious that I have been ignoring this blog again... Much has been happening lately.
First things first. The remainding interviews had went ahead with 50% success.
The interview out at Syd Tech High didn't go well at all. I forgot several documents and totally botched the entire interview - Totally died. But the principal did give me VERY good advice about interviews. I think thanks to her advice, I managed to do well in the Western Sydney interview.

The Western Sydney interview went splendidly. There were only 2 scenario questions that i had to answer and they were very straight-forward. But there were many ways I could have approached the scenario. To my experience, every approach can be a good approach. The trick is being choosing the 'best' approach.

The 2 questions ran along the lines of:

1. "BSOD occurs. What could be the faults and how would you handle this issue if client required a working machine immediately?"
2. "Student with malfunctioning netbook is in rage and demands you attend to the issue immediately. How would you handle both student and issue?"

The 1st question was very easy and straight-forward. I gave them a textbook answer with a few personal twists here and there.
The 2nd question was more 'how would you handle situations that require psychological experience'. Thank goodness my sister is a 'Masters of Social Psychology' and I have a bit of experience from her. So I took a totally different approach than the usual IT method. That suprised the interviewers a bit and the interview turned from an 'interrogation' into a light-hearted conversation.
I could definitely say that I enjoyed that last interview.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, the resultant is that Western Sydney called me back confirming that I made it through all the background checks and child protection checks and have cleared me for employment at: None of the 5 schools i wanted... and offered me another school BUT!

I asked him whether there were other schools that were avaliable or didn't have someone assigned to them yet. And yes there were! There was one applicant who also applied to the Western Sydney region and another region. Obviously like me, he/her also wanted to try hitting multiple locations. This person had been offered (omitted). And so I requested to wait on the school hoping that the other applicant would take another school in the other region he applied for. A few days later they called me back.

And I got it.

So far they've confirmed verbally through phone and through email. All I'm waiting for are forms for me to sign detailing payment of salary, tax, government employment formalities, etcetc.
I begin on Aug 17 '09 which is 7 days from now and finish on 30 June '12 which is 3 years'ish from now. Starting yearly salary is $AUDxx,xxx which isn't bad for a temporary full-time position. (And for someone who's never worked a minute in their life for a salary before... ^^""")

Everything is moving so quick, it's scary - I've only been unemployed for about 2 months since finishing college and already I'm joining the workforce. Ironically, this current period is probably the most difficult time to get a job anywhere in the world.

The weather is pretty cold recently with small spots sunshine. I've been using the floor heater a lot lately but that's going to hike up the electricity bill again ^^""" It's been gradually getting warmer lately, signalling the eventual end of Winter into Spring bringing it along a new season of anime ^^" (Southern Hemi here btw for those confused)

Due to work, my so called 'holiday' is now cut down to a mere 6 days to go. This marks the beginning of a new section in my life; a different road; "a new beginning".
This also marks a new beginning of my blog where either daily or weekly, I'll be blogging about the workings of a high school in the life of a Technical Support Officer.

Ah- I apologise for the lack of updates on Blue Gravy and the resulting length of this post because of that. Well, that's pretty much all that I can think of worth posting ^^

Interviews, interviews, interviews

That's all that has been on my mind lately - Interviews
Mentioned earlier but to re-cap for the hell of it:
I've applied for a position as a "Technology/Technical Support Officer" for the Aussie Govt's 'Digital Education Revolution' (DER) program where every student in NSW will eventually have a netbook each - A Lenovo S10e - I'm guessing the 'e' means edu model/version. ie: dumbed down hardware specs

So far, I have applied for 3 regions of Sydney: Western, North and CBD schools
Each region has allowed each applicant to apply/try-out for 5 public/govt schools of their choice.
As for my choices...... I've completely forgotten what schools I chose... ^^"""""

So far, I've already had an interview for the North region and I think I did pretty successfully for that - The interviewers were the North region manager and the principal of Cheltenham Girls High - Both were really nice people and were great to talk to.
That interview would officially be my first interview EVER!!! - The region manager commented that I did pretty well for a first-timer. There were 3 questions and they were pretty general and easy to answer:
1. "How do you handle problems"
2. "How do you organise time"
3. "What do you require to work?" Context was along, personal requirements: Do you need an egro chair?, table height?, wheelchair access?... those kinds of 'personal requirements'.

And there's todays interview - At the prestigious Sydney Girls/Boys Selective High School.
There was a panel of 4 interviewers: The IT manager from the Boys section of the school and one from the Girls section of the school, the CBD region manager and this one other guy... I never figured out who he was; our introductions were limited to handshakes and were very brief. He probably was a principal of either the Girls or Boys school - I guess he had a 'wise' look to him.

Compared to the first interview, I was definitely much more nervous - Saying 'umm' alot and making those classic 'beginner mistakes'. *sigh*
There were 4 questions which were much more 'business styled' which reflected the kind of high calibre person that they're looking for:
1. "What kind of professional skills do you have/can/will you bring to our school(s)"
2. "How would you prioritise these tasks" (3 immediate tasks, reorder to importance and why)
3. "High Schools have people on many different knowledge levels of computers. What kind of strategies would you make to cater for the less 'computer literate' people out there" (paraphrased)
And the 4th one... I forgot again.

For question #3, I don't think I gave a satisfactory answer as one of the interviewers asked "What other strategies can you think of?" - That really hit me at the time and afterwards, as I could only think of one strategy at the time. I could only kick myself in the head while driving home - I guess it happens alot after these kinds of things. You think of awesome answers to questions only AFTER it's all over and done.

All that's left so far is 2 more interviews: One at Sydney Technological High on Tuesday next week and one for the Western region on Thursday next week also. I'm still hoping that the "Conservatorium of Music High School" will call me. I really want to go there...

Oh well, all I can do now is prepare my best for the next coming week!

頑張れぞ～～～！

Cyberchaos

Jobs, Sickness and Xrays

Wow. Nearly forgot I had a blog for a while. Please brace for long post ^^"
So stuff that's been happen/ing/ed:

• Job
• Sick~~.....
• Doctors

Job
Well for starters, I've applied for a job as a L4L 'TSO' (Laptops-4-Learning 'Technical Support Officier') for the Dept of Edu
It's the way of saying: "Hey, lets give every kid in Year 9 a netbook so we don't have to spash out on expensive full-sized laptops every year". And to make sure things run when stuff blows up or breaks down, they need a couple hundred IT dudes to take care of each government (public) school when things happen to go south.

Finding the job was far easier than applying for it. A good TAFE mate of mine contacted a whole bunch of us students and broadcasted that these positions were avaliable JUST THEN. It's like he's always got an eye on the government job website. We were all celebrating when he told us of the news. Most of us were at that point either newly unemployed or just freshly fired due to eco crash.
The announcement was made right before the exam weeks. 2 weeks were given till the appliciation deadline/cutoff and I was standing beside a tower of assignments and exams - Which spanned 2 weeks....
Studies had absolute priority and so I put all my hope in that I'll finish early so I could deal with the job application.

2 weeks rolled by pretty fast. Exams during the day and assignment completion at night. It was a pretty insane 14 days with nearly no breaks. I had finally handed in all my assignments 3 DAYS BEFORE JOB APPLICATION DEADLINE
I knew already the post would take at least 1 day if I used 'Same-day-delivery' and by that time, it was afternoon already. In other words, I had only 1.5 days to get it all done and sent... crap.

I needed to do a complete re-do of my CV/Resume, Write a 'challenge' to the job requirements, and about 4 other long winded documents. Getting it done was no problem, but figuring out what to say... is another matter.
In this Eco weather, I know that there'd probably be a million other people applying for the same job. So, in all conciet, I made it look like I was the most qualified dude out there... I hated writing those documents. I'm not usually the one to 'show-off' my skills since I'm the more 'quiet/humble' type of person. It was an unpleasant but very interesting experience.

And so I waited... for maybe a week, when suddenly at 815pm, 2 nights ago I recieved a phone call from the 'North Sydney Regional Manager' telling me to "I want you to come in for an interview... blah blah blah... Lets make an appointment... blah blah blah... 2pm on Tuesday okay? blah blah blah... *click*"

tl; dr: Lets just say I had (and still have) the worlds biggest grin on my face.
------------
Sickness

Well, all I can say is that I caught it from my Dad, who passed it to me, then both of us passed it to my Mum... goodness knows who passed it back to me. If a family needed to be quarrantined, my household would be the best candidate.
So my 'holidays' have been filled with sleep, anime, eat, rest, anime, sleep, shower, eat, anime...
The rest is pretty easy to figure out.

Xrays
Well, that would be todays 'event'. Woke up with a headache, took a shower, left the house on empty. When I got to the xray clinic, there was barely a line. So I waltzed right up to the counter and handed over my authorisation slip, and health card. Turned out to be the wrong card. I had grabbed my 'private health insurance card' (Medibank) instead of my 'government health services card(Medicare). So, I drove home again to grab it and came back to a queue that stretched the length of the practice.
( _ _||| )

Turns out that that card had expired...
Anyway, they contacted Medicare services and authorised my xrays.
The 'shots' took less than 2mins but the wait was 30mins. Not bad for a TOTALLY PACKED clinic. Although, it took 3hrs to develop the plates...
I went home, surfed the net for 3hrs, went back to get my xrays and headed straight to the doc for his analysis. Turns out that my Pectus Carinatum has reduced but my heart... was not found.
My heart was eventually found neatly hidden behind the Sternum bone. It was quite... lets just say I've been healthier than I am now... ^^"
Also had a blood drawn for testing. The nurse had no problems at all finding a vein as I have a plethora of highly visible veins up/down my arm. Yes my skin is that thin... I swear, she could've done it with her eyes closed and by touch only.

What else?

Cooked dinner tonight, sleeping every morning, load of meds, loads of anime...

In summary: フリーダムです！

Cyberchaos

I've graduated

Hooray!
2 years of studying the 'Diploma of IT (Networking)' and it's all finally over.
I've been through some pretty insane ups/downs and all sorts of weird stuff but I've managed to come out fine.

Sometimes I think back and I reckon that I didn't do much at all. It's quite relaxed at college afterall. But I gotta remember: This is only the beginning of the rest of my life. This was only just another stepping stone that WILL lead my life somewhere where I want to be and belong. As long as I PUSH forward with everything I got, I can make something out of myself.
Take chances, Make mistakes, Learn from experiences - That's what it's all about.

After all these 2 years, I can proudly say: "I did it"
------------------------------------------------------
Now as I study the 'Advanced Diploma of Network Security', I've felt like I've lost some of that momentum. Study has nearly ground to a halt, morale has dropped like a stone and health is not fairing so well in these winter conditions.

2 more weeks of classes remain before I finish.
I want to finish HARD and STRONG - Not like how I've always done it in the past; fizziling out into a burnt ember.
But I need motivation. Fuel to keep me going. 'Bait' if you will. That invariable carrot hanging out over the donkeys face as it mind-numbbingly slugs step after step forward at the riders will.

It's not because I don't want to see the future. It's not because I can't see the future. But instead, I think it's that I'm too afraid to see the future.

The past I never worry; it's over and done with.
The present I go forward; what else can you do?
The future I freak; what WILL I do?

I'm sometimes I take on the position of a firm believer of inevitablity. Stuff happens because of variables, that you performed, allow it to happen. There were no such thing as "oh... it wasn't entirely my fault" or "whoops, I really didn't mean that to happen".

I've come to realise that when things occur unfavourably, it happens merely by recognising that it MAY happen. - Pessimism, if you will, Murphys law, Finagles law, etc

okay, im going to stop right there. Ranting on will not be healthy for me. I've gotten myself pretty worked up typing this and it IS after-all 1am in the morning.

Goodnight everyone~~