Politics, Paint & Ponytails

It's been an interesting few days.

Let's start with the vanity side of things. I discovered, quite accidentally, that my hair is now long enough to fit into a small ponytail. This is very exciting for me, as it finally feels like my hair is growing again. Also, I can now constantly track the growth by the ponytail's length, and how much of my hair I can pull back into it. Pretty cool, huh?

In other news, I voted in the recent Victorian state election, my first state election. Politics always interest me, so I found the process very fun and interesting. I also feel a little like an official Victorian now, what with having helped to shape the political forces of the state. Despite this, I will never start pronouncing castle with a short 'a' (like in carrot).

Tonight I am particularly sore, as I am recovering from my first ever experience with paintball. Despite Scott's assurances that it doesn't hurt, I can tell you that it does. It stings, for a good deal of time.
I had a good time regardless. The people were nice, the location was awesome, I wasn't quite as bad at it as I thought I'd be, and it was just good fun. I highly recommend it, with the following pieces of advice: Wear gloves, paintballs hitting your bare hands REALLY HURTS, and be sure to have nothing important on the next day, for recovery. Other than that, it's very cool!

Not much else new to report, really. Haven't heard back from the apple centre, so they will have a phone call from me tomorrow.
I've just switched browsers. I'm now using OmniWeb, and I have never been so impressed with a browser before. Every other browser I've ever used has been a compromise, losing a feature from some other browser to gain some other feature. Not OmniWeb, it is really amazingly perfect. I could babble all day about how blown away I am by it, but I'll just leave it there. It's great.
Ben through together a wicked barbecue the other night in Albert Park, most fun I've had in a long time. There was a HUGE kids park there, like ENORMOUS, and I decided I had to go and play in it, and everyone followed! It was so much fun!!!

That's about all for now.
This is Jim, signing off.

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Watches, Work & Wanderings

Well, it's about time for an update. Quite a bit has happened, though I'll probably end up covering it all in a few sentences.

On Thursday I met up with Ben, and we went shopping. It was my third attempt to buy a new watch (to go with my work clothes, my current watch is kinda tacky and plastic-ish).
It wasn't looking good, as I'm very picky and have thin wrists, so finding something that I liked and that fitted me was proving near impossible. Then suddenly out out of nowhere ... BAM! There it was, the perfect watch! I think it looks really good, and amazingly it fits me without any extra holes punched in! So that made me pretty happy.

So that night there was a little dinner get-together in the city. Hendi, a guy from Sydney was down for a few days, so a bunch of us went out to dinner to say hi. It was really nice, food was good, and I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, was especially good to see Infi again.

Then Friday, my first day of work...
It was so so great!!! The people there are all REALLY nice, and I didn't feel at all intimidated or afraid to ask for help. And they were very impressed with how quickly I picked up the system there. Within the first hour I was doing quotes for customers, which got me a lot of praise. And the customers all said I was doing a good job, so I think the manager really likes me!
I could rant on all day about how great it was, and how perfect this job is for me, but I'll leave it there. I'm now waiting on a call this week from the Regional Manager to discuss work times, so it looks like I might just have fairly regular work! Fingers crossed.
Ended up meeting Ben after work and we had a nice night of pizza, a few beers, and some DVDs. I can't think of a better way to finish off a great day.

The weekend was quite up & down. I woke up on Saturday coughing and snuffling, it seems I'd come down with a bit of a bug, something cold-ish. So I wasn't feeling too crash hot.
Still, I ended up going to this movie night thing that Michael invited me to. Got to meet him face to face for the first time, which was good. And seeing Aidan was nice too.
I also met two new guys, Shaun and Sam. They are both so nice! Friendly, interesting, and a great sense of humour, the both of them. It was an absolute pleasure to hang out with them.
So the movie night was fun for the most part. That is to say, it was fun when it was a movie night. The rest of the time when they were all LANing, which left me just kinda sitting there... wasn't quite so fun. Oh well..
Had a nice day with Ben on Sunday, more DVDs, and general geeking about.

Yesterday I met up with Wade, this guy I kinda accidentally met online. We met in the city, wandered some shops, had ice cream, and generally had a great time just hanging out! Wade's awesome, I'm glad we met. It's funny how these things happen. If we hadn't accidentally been added to each other's IM lists from a multi chat with some common friends, I'd never have made this new friend. I'd like to think fate has some hand in these sorts of things.
And last night, Scott got back from 4 days in Perth, so now the house isn't quiet and empty anymore! He seems happy, I think the little holiday was good for him.

So for the most part it's been a good few days! The rest of this week's fairly open, with no major plans.
And that's about it for now. Take care, everyone!

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How the worm turns...

Well, the last two days have sucked, let's just say that. But tonight was much better, and things are looking up now.
The full emo rant is below, click at your own risk.

Tuesday:

Had bad IBS for most of the day, so spent my day in the bathroom in lots of pain and discomfort.
Wasn't able to do washing.
Wasn't able to go out and buy the tie I needed to go with the shirt for training on Friday.
Just barely made it to Centrelink, to hand in the form they'd sent me. In the waiting line, Gemma from Next Byte called, saying she wanted to move the training to Thursday. This makes things a little tight, but I can probably go in Wednesday and grab a tie. Then, after half an hour of waiting in line I get told they can't process my form (the form that they sent me) and that I had to call a number I've never had to call before to get something I've never heard of sorted before they can process it. So not only did they not inform me of this, now I won't be getting my pay I need to buy the tie.
What a day!

Wednesday:

More IBS, missed most of the day.
Couldn't do washing.
Finally got Centrelink sorted, so hopefully I'll receive a payment at some point, but that doesn't help me with the tie.
Tursiae agrees to foot the bill for my tie and we arrange to meet in the city.
On the train in, Gemma calls again and says she wants to move the training BACK to Friday! Unbelievable! Still, this means I have time to get the tie, and hopefully do some washing tomorrow.
I end up finding a nice tie, and an impromptu dinner in the city happens with Tursiae, Atpaw, Diz and Snickers. So that was actually really nice.

And hopefully the bad spell is over...

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The Inaugural Post!

Well, here we are at the beginning of a short, infrequently updated and not-quite-so-interesting
journey.
Before we start I shall issue a general warning.
IN THE FOLLOWING BLOG YOU MAY FIND ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING: boring events in the life of Jim, random emo rants about random things, bad humour, lame quizzes, photo-whoring, mindless musing and incessant rambling. The Lair claims no responsibility for any effects resulting from reading this blog. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. You have been warned. Have a nice day.
Okay! With that out of the way, on to posting!

So, a general run down of things so far. I packed up, and moved out of home in NSW, and moved to Melbourne. I'm currently staying with a friend until I get my feet on the ground (a job, place of my own, etc.) and I've been looking for work.

Okay, so, the big news today is ... I GOT A JOB!!! Well, kinda.
I am going in on Friday to do some preliminary training, then it looks like I'll have some casual work at Next Byte Apple Centre. This is a dream come true for me, working for Apple is a dream I've had for some time.
So for all you kids looking for work, let me give you this little piece of advice, which was bestowed upon me. Go out there, in person, and be confident. I applied for over thirty jobs via seek, with no responses. I went out to Apple, who had no advertised positions, approached the manager in person and handed in a resume, and the next day I got called in for an interview. The next business day, I had a job! So get out there, be seen!

Not too much to report on other fronts. Still nothing re: housing just yet, but I do have on inspection tomorrow, so fingers crossed.
In other news, my GPS and sunglasses are still missing. I have been trying to find a new pair, albeit in vain, as my head is too small to find any sunglasses that fit, let alone polarised ones.
I have also been unsuccessful in finding a new watch, mainly because I'm extremely picky about such things.

The other thing that's happening down here is the upcoming State Election. Two things have caught my attention during the campaign.
One: My region, in both lower and upper houses,
has only Labor and Liberal candidates. No Independents, Greens, or otherwise. Most disappointing.
Two: Much more interestingly, I have been spotting the billboard ads for the State Liberal Leader, Ted Baillieu. They show a picture of Ted, pointing toward something, looking meaningful, with various quotes/promises next to him. Here is an example.

Now, what struck about this, is that the would be Premier seems to me to look less like a politician, and more like a P.E. Teacher. It is with that in mind that I created this. (Be sure to linger for a few, as it does change every few seconds.) Hope you like it as much as I liked making it.

Well, that's about all for now. I'll post again I'm sure, probably every few days at first, then less and less as I lose momentum.

Peace and Love,
-- TLB.

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