Brain Flatulence
I had kind of planned to write something yesterday, but unfortunately I didn’t find the time. Kind of a shame seeing as four days ago was my one month anniversary in Ausie land. One month on Ausie soil and still unemployed. Oh well, it’s normally pretty good if you manage to find work within the first month, right? Especially considering that half of that time was public holidays and the other half was Ausie people recovering. The police realised that this period was different from the rest of the year. For instance they doubled the number of points that you get for making a driving violation, because everybody is so piss drunk and dangerous on the streets around this time. Unfortunately the police was never nice enough to warn me that people would be too piss drunk to hire me. (Did you know that soliciting a person under the influence of alcohol (the person you’re soliciting, not you) is a criminal offence? Bullshit, I say. If they decide to get drunk, well then it’s their problem if they do something stupid. ‘Do sober what you said you would do when you were drunk. That will teach you’ –Winston Churchill)
Anyway, the Ausies have this thing about alcohol being sacred, in a way, so it isn’t all that surprising that nobody is hiring. Hold on, hope and see.
So last Saturday I hooked up with a group to role play once again (like dungeon and dragons. Yes, I really am a geek, hadn’t you noticed?) when I joined in on a campaign. I haven’t actually played any role playing games since I left Holland for Singapore, so it has been a while, still I wanted to give it another try. I always had great fun doing it while I did it. It is also a very cheap hobby to partake in, which suits our financial situation just perfectly, right now.
I’m not sure if I have found the right group yet, though. They might be a little different from what I’m used to. I was always lucky enough to get good players who were just as interested in politics and the social sciences as I was. This always created amazing games, in which socialising and networking played a paramount role. (True, I did have to train them, but they bent to my will in the end).
I have to convince the few doubters that remain of my dweebieness. It wouldn’t do for any of you to actually think I’m normal. Normality is a curse that must be battled wherever it rears its ugly head. Our main weapon against normality is questions. Nobody that truly and fully questions themselves and their surroundings can remain normal.
I finally figured out where
Huiling’s Blog is at. She didn’t tell me when I asked, but I figured it out when she made the mistake of linking to me on her blog. That all through
Technorati, the tool that tell you all the blogs that have linked to a specific site (yup, I put my own blog in there sometimes, just to see who thinks my blog is interesting enough to link to. Yes, I am a pretty pathetic bugger).
She just started it a few days ago, I know she’s got an older blog somewhere, but if she started a new blog, then she probably wanted a new start. So we’ll leave it at that. When I figure out what Alvin’s blog is, then I’ll put up that link as well. Why? Well, I don’t really know, but it sounds like a fun thing to do.
I know these guys from my short stint in Philips (I think I mentioned that already) where we discussed the politics of Singapore at length (rather then working). We got into some good discussion, I have to say. Alvin, Krist and myself (Huiling often seemed more inclined to just listen or ignore. Probably realising we were trying to pry open Pandora’s box with a crowbar. Sometimes there is wisdom in silence. Uhrm, yeah, moving right along).
Three people replied to my post about whether I should edit my blog and they all agreed that I should keep it as it stood. That’s good, because I really had no real intention of changing how I was doing things, anyway. I think
KnightsofPentacles said it right when he said this about his experience of going back and changing his own mistakes
"It is a slippery slope to me. First I correct a typographical error.. then I correct a spelling mistake.. then I correct a grammar mistake.. then I rephrase a sentence for clarity.. then I rework a paragraph for continuity..And eventually the retrospectively-modified blog entry says something different what I wanted it to mean when I first entered it."
That’s pretty much how I feel about it, but I was just curious to see what others had to say on the subject. It’s always that bit better when others agree with you, though Mark Twain said it well when he said "When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect". Maybe I’ll just ignore that bit for right now though, or maybe I’ll just pretend that three can’t really be considered a majority (a minority of a majority?)
I’m rambling on pointlessly, aren’t I? I think I’ll leave it at that, except to say ‘Welcome to Perth, KnightsofPentacles’. Yeah, that sounds like a good way to end it for today.
Unedited and Unabridged
Should I edit my blog? I was just sitting there at our balcony table (with windows! (the balcony, not the table)) and I was leafing through this magazine called ‘The Box’ and thinking to myself ‘should I edit my work?’ Should I take the time to read through my stuff and take out all those annoying little then and than mistakes and similar errors, or should I just keep spitting it out as fast as I can, without ever a backward glance?
I’m putting this question to you people, to answer. But before you answer lets examine the question in a little more detail. What effect will editing have on my texts? Except for the obvious improvement to both my grammar and my spelling, there will be other effects. For on thing it would mean that the nature of my posts would change. They would become less raw, less off the cuff. They would, in a way, become less sporadic thought and more structurally solid. It would still be me, of course, after all it would be me doing the editing. Yet it would be me in more layers. Less the daily me and more the ‘intellectual’ me (yeah, yeah. Laugh now! My day will come).
The actual question is probably more ‘do my mistakes bother you?’ because I don’t know if I really want to take the effort to edit everything I write. My posts would probably end up becoming far more scholarly and I’ve recently started having a real problem with the scholarly stuff. That while I’m trying to make my way through a whole host of scholarly books, like ‘Philosophy made simple’ by R. H. Popkin and A. Stroll. and similarly titled books. The interesting thing is that I find that so many of these intellectual sorts seem to intentionally hide what they are saying under layers of technical terms and flowery language.
As if they are afraid that if we really got what they meant we would ridicule them. I imagine that a highly educated man might end up being more sensitive to ridicule then a less educated man, though I might be wrong about that. After all it is often the least educated men that take the most offence to the slightest insult.
Anyway, so please tell me what you think, I’m genuinely interested to know what you think. If I will act on the information will depend on the extremity of the answers. Not extreme, no change, slightly extreme and I’ll consider editing, too extreme and all you all will get is a raised finger (I’ll let you choose which one).
So, do my mistakes, errors and failures make for more or less interesting reading (to change the question yet again)?
Old Tech
We're sitting here in an internet cafe with the last couple of days of blog entries on a thumb drive, but these computers are too damn old to have USB ports. Truth be told, we were already suspecting that might be the case, but we still took it with us in case we got lucky. We didn't, so that will mean you guys will have to wait till later in the week for your those updates (I'll make sure I mention it on the top when I do update them.)
Things are still going their steady way. Still no work, though I do have a shot at landing a campaign for a local clothing brand (I would be modeling) here in Perth. The guy that is going to do the photography for that campaign saw my pictures and said they were kind of what he was looking for, but he would like to see something more recent. Fortune has it that Chadwicks models had just booked me for a shoot to update my portfolio (comes out of my future pay). Guess who the photographer is?
Thats right, the same guy that is taking the photos for the campaign. So that's a stroke of luck. Of course the photographer would then still need to convince the owner of the store, but it would put my foot in the door.
I hope I'm not appearing to be grasping at straws over here. I'm sure I'm starting to loose some perspective on what is an opportunity and what is just plain silly. This didn't seem too bad, though.
I've also been called back to come see this charity organisation, but I've written about that extensively in yesterday's post, so you'll hear about that when I manage to put that one up. I'm not sure about that.
Anyway, things seem to be looking up. At one point one of the opportunities has to pan out, that's just a statistical given.
In the mean time I've got squash tonight, so that will at least make me feel like I'm doing something more then just waiting. Probably I'll just end up waiting and hurting. Maybe they will end up fighting with each other and leave me well alone.
Brownie Points
I had never really though about working for a charity till today. I mean, I had in the sense of going off to some third world country where they barely have running water and teaching English there, but never in the country I’m in. Banana has talked about it (quite often, actually), but still I had never considered it. The two interviews today (there were two, I got that wrong in the last post) were both for charity organisations.
We had taken them out of the newspaper the day before. One we realised was for a charity, but not both. So we went and talked at both of them and I have to say I wouldn’t mind working for these companies at all. It struck me as quite satisfying to be working for those that really needed my help, rather then for some businessman who felt he needed another car.
Quite often that has bothered me about mainstream business. The fact that if we work hard we’ll make our bosses rich really eats into my motivation. The problem is that I’m not disciplined enough to do what needs to be done on my own. That always puts me in a bit of a pickle. When I work for myself I can’t get myself to do it and when somebody else gets me to do it I don’t want to do it. A mental rock and a psychological hard place, if you will.
Working for this charity might be a way out. If I manage to get myself to work hard there then I’ll be helping make the lives of those less fortunate richer. I am and remain a socialist at heart, so that sits rather well in my book (not to mention my soul). I mean I always have this intention of doing things for those worse off, but then I never really seem to get around to it.
I always put it off, really. Think there will be more then enough time later to help. I’m sure a lot of us are guilty of that. ‘I would like to help, but I can’t. I just can’t give anything because otherwise I can’t pay for gas.’ Gas is important, I’ll grant you that. The question I need to ask myself, though, is ‘does gas rank as a higher priority then a stranger’s health?’
Of course there is a bit of hypocrisy in that. If I work for these organisations then they will be paying me money. For instance, for the second job I would get no basic salary, but would get 50 dollars for every 30 dollars monthly subscription. That would mean that for the first 40 days of that person’s subscription they are only giving money to pay my salary. Only money earned after that would pay towards the actual charity.
Of course time society now deems our time too valuable to expect people to work for these kinds of organisations without being paid. Truth be told, the number of people that help out of the goodness of their heart are just too small in number to raise the kind of money these charities need. Paying people is the only way that they can have enough people out there raising money for their needs.
I certainly couldn’t afford to work with a charity if I wouldn’t get paid. That’s not out of cold-hearted cruelty but out of simple necessity. I think I made that more then perfectly clear over the last couple of weeks posting here.
The question then becomes, however, ‘am I really doing anything more charitable then the average office worker’. Yes I am working for a more charitable organisation, but do I get ‘charity points’ by association? I don’t know, but I imagine that I’ll have more than enough time for that if they offer me the job. I imagine that the people there might have some insights into that question.
The lesser evil
On the job hunt again today. Banana did most of it from the phone box. She is much better then me at calling people and sounding natural. She always manages to connect with the person on the other side of the line. I always just seize up on the phone, even talking to friends is slightly uncomfortable (so now you know why I don’t call). Anyways, so she called up a whole host of people on the phone. We both got an interview out of it tomorrow morning, so it wasn’t completely unsuccessful.
We tried going into town and handing out CVs there, but then I left my CVs lying in a hotel when I gave them a copy. That would have been all right if I had discovered it right away, but I only realised that I was missing them when I was trying to give another CV at the other side of town. This while it was fourty degrees out, which made moving around extremely exhausting. We both got pissed at me (me certainly more then Banana).
So we went back for the CVs and then just gave up and headed back. (Sometimes retreat is the better part of valour). We did manage to give our CVs to the hotel manager across the way. I’m not sure if it would be that great working there, but at least it’s close and anything is better then nothing. I can start picking and choosing again when we’ve survived the month.
The problem with the place is that it is apparently run by a real queen. He’s supposed to be difficult to work with, racist and prone to, well, queeny behaviour. Now I don’t have any trouble with gay people. Why should I? They are human beings, just like everybody else. What I don’t like, however, is queens. They are often hypocritical and I don’t think that anybody should be hypocritical. Hypocrisy is a very offending trait. Then there is the tendency towards being loud and extremely self-centred diva like behavior. Acting like they believe that they are the most important person present. I realise that probably stems from deep-rooted insecurity. That, however, is an explanation and not an excuse.
What annoys me even more about queens, really, is that they seem to think that they have the right to be as they are, because they are gay. Gay people are people, just like everybody else, so that means they shouldn’t get any special privileges. They get held up to the same moral and social scale as everybody else, in my book. If they want to be gay, that is their right, but that does not make them special. It’s like claiming special privileges because your blond and blue eyed (which one group did, of course, and they are still hated for their behaviour while they held that belief).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing anybody to being a nazi, just that we didn’t like one group doing it, so why should another group get to do it?
To sum up, I don’t much like Queens and I especially don’t look forward to working for one. If they offer me a job, though, I’ll accept. After all, as they say, ‘morality ends where hunger starts’.
Greatful Support
Thanks for all your support. Not just on this entry but on all of them. I appreciate your comments, even if I don’t always reply to them (I’m notoriously forgetful and I often even forget what I was planing to write about in my blog entry, let alone to reply to the people who are nice enough to respond to my Blog.)
I’m feeling a whole lot better today. Yesterday was just a down day, for me. I’ve got a couple of plans for tomorrow, we’ll have to see how those pan out. I’m going to try visiting some of the bars where I asked for work again (remind them I exist, basically), but more importantly I’m planning to head out to the university and see if they need any assistant teachers, or something similar to that. Socialist countries pay good money for teaching. The way it should be, in my opinion. After all, it is your students that will be making the money of tomorrow. The better educated they are the, well the better they can look after their elders, yes?
What has struck me as the most interesting, however, is that my God post has provoked responses from all side. I don’t think I’ve gotten more people to speak to about any posts as much as they talked about that one. Some with the intention to learn why I think what I think (and, for that matter, to find out what I think in the first place).
Why is it that everybody is so interested in my religious persuasions all of a sudden? Does that mean people want to hear more about what I believe about god? Maybe I’ll sit down and try to truly explain the black box concept at one point. I’ll try not to sermon too much while I’m doing it, though. Just explain what I think and why I think it (see if that ends the questioning, or just provoke more of it. I’m betting on number two).
Anyway, thanks for all your moral support. It really helps to have somewhere to vent and people that actually take the time to respond to what I’ve vented. I’ll try to keep all of you updated on the life front and, by extension, on the job front.
Down for the count
I miss not being able to grab a beer in a bar, or grab a sandwich on the street when I’m hungry. I miss going out in the evening and hanging out with other people. Drinking some, eating some and not worrying about each dollar leaving my wallet. I miss being able to treat other people to food, drink or merriment. I hate not being able to pull out my wallet when we are getting stuff for a whole load of people. It just pisses me off. Not having anything outside of the bit of money left in our pocket. Not having the money to pay next month’s rent.
Everything else is great over here. So much better then being in Singapore, or most other places for that matter. This place is wonderfully relaxing. The people are nice, the city is nice, the countryside is nice. I could easily see myself spending some time living here (though I would really like to see the rest of the country). It’s just so bloody annoying that we can’t get somebody to give one of the two of us work. That would end all our worries, for the moment at least.
Perseverance is the key, I know, but it is just such a drag not to be able to do the things that we love to do together. Sitting home, smoking cigarettes and waiting for somebody to call is just not my idea of a good time (though at least we’re doing it together).
How much longer before the generosity of the people around us runs out? How much longer before the money runs out? It all wouldn’t matter, of course, if we could just find a job. Then we would be perfectly fine.
Ah, nuts. I’m going on about this far too much. You guys probably don’t want to hear about this stuff anymore. I wish there was something else to talk about, really, but right now our current state of employment is the most important and pretty much the only thing in our lives.
I’m feeling pretty miserable today. Liana started off her day badly and then recovered, but by that time my mood had plummeted to near rock bottom. It’s ok though, it is Saturday after all, so we can’t be out and about looking for work. If we have to be down then it is probably best to be down during the weekend. At least I don’t waste any valuable time that I could be looking for work.
Oh brother.
Flustered
Uhrm... I don’t know what to think about what
Patricia had to
say on her blog. She apparently wants a carbon copy of me (Eek!). That’s certainly flattering, but a bit scary. I’ll have to watch and clean up every hair that drops out of my head, from now on. Otherwise I might find an illegal clone of myself wandering around, one day!
Of course, as much as I like to toot my own horn, that is probably not what Patricea really meant. What she really meant was to find a like minded and like hearted spirit. In the end that is what we all look for, really, somebody who can understand us, join us in what we do and stun the socks off of anybody of the opposite sex.
Still, it’s nice to have others write about you in that way on their blog. It certainly strokes (and stokes) the ego. You’ve got to treasure the moments that beautiful women whisper comments about you into the ears of others (Hell, those kinds of complements are better to get then the ones told straight to your face. Just like a snide comment hurt a lot more from the back then from the front.)
Anyways, I don’t have a lot more to talk about. Yesterday was uneventful, I spent most of it trying to recover from the squash from the day before (read my previous post to get the full story). So I’ll leave off for today. Sometimes its good to write a little less. Keep you people thirsting for more. I’m working on a short story and I’ll possibly share that with you guys, once it’s finished. That all depends on how I feel about it, of course. If I’m happy with it I’ll probably try to get it published, but I’ll keep you informed about how that’s going.
Squashed
I played squash yesterday, for the first time. Well, that isn’t exactly true, but the other time I did it I didn’t really manage to actually return a ball. I was twelve at the time, or somewhere close to that, and I went with my dad. It went horrible and my dad got annoyed, so it went even worse after that. I imagine we’ve all experienced something similar.
Anyway, yesterday it went a whole lot better. I played with Ken and actually managed to get somewhere. Sure, he won all the games, but at least I got him running, sweating and breathing heavily. You’ve got to take solace where you can. Giving a seasoned player a run for their money on your first try has to be worth something, right?
Today everything hurts. It was al right in the morning, but when we went running around town to get Liana to meet the editor of the Box I started feeling pretty damn sore. It’s weird how some sports get you using muscles that you never knew you had. I’ve got muscle aces in places that I thought were just bones!
Hell my muscle ache has muscle aches from aching so hard.
I didn’t manage to run around very long, as a result. We wanted to go visit another place that was looking for people, but Banana superhero girl took pity on my misery and decided that we should go home. It didn’t take much persuasion on her part to get me to admit defeat. Feel a little bit guilty about it now, though. We’re supposed to have work by the end of this week and, well, it’s end of the week and, you guessed it, we don’t have work.
The little bits we’re managing to do here and there are not adding up to enough to survive on. Yeah we’re starting to get into real trouble. Things are still looking decent, though. Lot’s of people have shown interest. Now we just need to get one to bite. Bite you slow bastards! So close, yet so far.
Every time the phone rings my heart makes a little jump, because that could be it. That could be somebody calling to invite us to a second interview, or even better to invite one of us to join their company. We’ll get there, I still feel confident that we’ll get there. We don’t have a choice, we can’t afford not to.
You don’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need (can’t remember what song that’s from).
Debatable
Banana and myself had a very interesting debate last night about God. She was provoked into asking a number of question because of my last post, ‘
Red Eyed Wondering’. It was really impressive how she managed to vocalise her arguments. When I first met her we used to debate every so often, but she would spend half her time saying ‘I don’t know how to say what I think’ or ‘I can’t find the right words’, etc. Now, however, she managed to get her thoughts out coherently and convincingly.
She actually had me on the ropes a couple of times (yes, I know that sound arrogant, live with it) and in the end we had both left feeling just a little bit wiser. It’s great when you have a good debate with another person. Often I feel "It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." (Jeseph Joubert) because, to use another quote, "I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" (Dudley Field Malone).
To put it in my own words, as long as you do not get angry with each other each discussion, will boost your understanding and capabilities, thereby making you better suited for your next discussion. Discussion are, unfortunately, a part of life, so you might as well try to be the best you can be at them. That way you can win the discussion that ‘matter’ (of course all discussion matter, but you get what I mean).
It is great to see how much better Banana Superhero girl has gotten at keeping her thoughts together and making a solid case. I honestly believe that the two of us are greater together then we could ever be apart. (Yes, I too have learned a great deal from her, including but not limited to picking up my dirty socks).
I sometimes really miss the stimulation I got from university. I’m quite stunned with how many people spend so little time thinking about the world around them. People that scoff at Philosophy, Psychology and a whole lot of other ologies, because they believe that they have no bearing on their life. It amazes me that they actually believe that. The better you understand the world around you, the further you can get in life, right? The better you understand something, the easier and more fully you can use it. Since Philosophy is the understanding of knowledge, well, that would mean that somebody that has a good understanding of Philosophy would be better suited to use the knowledge they have gained.
Of course even if you discard that argument as a loud of rubbish, there is always the undeniable argument that thinking and puzzling are just plain fun. So I’ll leave you with a simple and well known mind puzzle, (a paradox, really)
‘If god is omnipotent, then can he/she/it create a rock which he/she/it cannot lift?’
The Long Drop
My uncle died a few days ago. I’m still trying to decide what I feel about it. I didn’t know the man all that well, met him only a few dozen times, so emotionally it hasn’t done that much for me, except of course that the family is affected and that effects me. It was my mother’s youngest brother (she is the oldest of four).
He was also a drug addict with AIDS, that had wasted away to near nothing and was no longer completely ‘with it’. The last time my mother came back from visiting Europe she even said that she wasn’t sure if she would see him again. The last time I saw him (two or three years ago) he already looked like a skeleton and his appearance had not improved much since then.
My mother is much saddened, but even she said that it was probably for the best. He had drained the family over the many decades. Being incapable of looking after himself, he relied on them to help. They would give him what he would need and then he would betray them by stealing, cheating and screwing things up. He couldn’t help it, he just couldn’t kick the habit. He was a junkie and after 15 years of being a junkie, he was little else.
The person most affected is probably my sister. She ended up being the one that looked after him most. She was only a few years younger than him (my mother had her young) and they had had a really strong bond when they were younger.
When the rest of the family couldn’t take it anymore, my sister stepped in to help. She had been away a lot (she’s a traveler, in fact I think I got my travel bug from her) and had not been as completely destroyed by the concerns of the family. She was trying as best she could to help him (she helped him get a house, which he then lost again. Supported him as best she could, when she could). For her it was the end of a very long fight that she knew from the start she was destined to lose.
Again, it was probably for the best for her too, you can’t spend your entire life looking after somebody else, when they were too foolish to look after themselves.
So what do I feel? Distant, I guess, glad that people can concentrate on their own lives. Sorry that he ever started on that path in the first place. Not sorry he died, though. In my eyes he died a long time ago. He was far from complete for a very long time. I’m sorry he got hooked on the stuff, I’m sorry he couldn’t control his addiction, but I’m not sorry that his body gave out on him when he had single handedly utterly destroyed it. After a while he could no longer get off the road that led to his untimely death. It was too late, so I’m not sorry he passed on. At least he passed on in a bed in a hospital, not in a box in the cold, where he might only have been found two weeks later.
When you try to see how close to the edge of a cliff you dare walk you might fall off. I’m sorry he slipped, but I’m thankful his fall is finally over.
Red Eyed Wondering
After six hours of sleep we went to the Sunday market today (again). Within ten minutes I had bought eight books for a buck and spent the rest of the time waiting for Fish and Banana. Not just any books, however, but non-fiction. I was walking around thinking ‘I want fact, not fiction, I wish they had some good educational stuff over here’ and then I stumbled right across this box, where everything went for 10 cents. Some old guy’s collection that his daughters were selling (I wonder if he knew about it, or whether he was still in a state to care). Of course the stuff is a bit out dated, but outdated is better then not informed, right?
After I was done buying the books the girls still needed some time (read two hours), so I wandered around, considering this and that. I ended up thinking about God (just one of those things, you know). The inspiration for that was Fish’s husband, Taha. He’s a convert (for the uninitiated that means that he joined the Muslim faith of his own free will) and therefore rather taken with religion (the converted are often the most zealous, I’ve noticed).
He loves to talk about his faith and why his faith is the right faith and how the other faiths have it all wrong. I think he is secretly trying to convert me (Banana being Muslim and all). The interesting thing is, though, that he is approaching me from completely the wrong angle. He continues to try to prove his faith right by default. If he can prove that all the other faiths are wrong, well then only the Muslim faith remains. That is logical enough if you believe that there is, without a doubt, a god. Unfortunately I’m still very much in doubt about that matter.
I consider the God question much like the
Schrödinger’s cat paradox, where we can just never open the box to find out if God is inside, or not. (I’m not saying god is dead, just that we will never know if god does or does not exist). The black box of ‘the god question’ will probably always remain closed and if we can’t open that box, well then we can never know which faith is the right one (or if any faith is the right one, for that matter). It seems a little pointless to try and undermine one faith to advance another.
I imagine people would feel pretty foolish if they find out they have been killing, hunting and slaughtering each other for a God who does not exist, or even worse, does not care. Alright, I better stop before I get back on my pedestal and sermon all of you. Hehe, Sermoning on the doubt inherent in religion, amusing.
Length of a Phone Call
On the phone with Shazam, who has just learned (two days ago) that he will be evicted for no apparent reason. Having long since lost interest in staying in Singapore much longer, he is now looking to possibly relocate. One potential location might be Australia. That would be a blast! (and a hoot as well). True, that’s a lot of mights, could bes and ifs, but none the less, the chance is there.
Everything starts with a chance, how ever slim, or how ever big.
For the rest matters are pretty much the same as before. The money we made has all been spent already, we went out last night and discovered that Ausie land isn’t quite as cheap as we thought it would be. That’s not a problem for most people, considering they make more money here then abroad, but for us it’s a little limiting. We’ve decided to drink at home until our financial situation improves (let’s hope that doesn’t take too long).
We’re also looking at another 2000 dollar cost to get Banana her visa. Once she’s got that we’ll be able to make that back, of course since we don’t have that right now, it will be a bit of time (or somebody with money to blow) before we’ll be able to apply for that. Yes, the Australian bureaucracy is throwing us a lot of curve balls; still we only have to hit one out of the park to sprint home, the ticket is to just keep swinging away (until they call an out, that is).
It’s hard to win a game when the referee is your opponent. Some would stipulate that the only way to win would be to cheat, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Governments should not undermine the people’s morality. That would pretty much defeat the entire point of governments, wouldn’t it?
If you’re noticing a certain disjointed nature to this entry, it is because Liana is still japing away next to me with Shazam. My mind is trying to keep up with my Blog and the conversation. That is not an excuse, mind you, just an explanation. I have given up apologising on my blog. It just irritates the hell out of you and it doesn’t do much for me. I’ve realised I spent too much time doing it, so hereby it’s over.
I don’t want to turn into one of those people that apologises all the time. The kind of person that gets a kick of saying sorry to everybody and everything. It’s like a hobby for them ‘sorry, sorry, righty, sorry about that’. Does that irritate you? True, it doesn’t irritate quite as much as somebody that never apologises, but still, it’s a bloody annoying habit. I would put it up there with flipping turtles on their back over a Bunsen burner and frying eggs on their belly.
Right, well the phone call is over, so I guess this entry of the Blog will be over as well (don’t ask, cause I don’t know).
PS: Hey Huiling and Dashing Boyfriend that got a scholarship by refining my ludicrous ramblings into the valuable juices of knowledge (or DBTGASBRMLRITVJOK for short). Cool to find out that you guys still read my Blog. Give me your addies and I'll try and make sure I read yours as well. I didn't tell a whole heap of people that I was leaving, so don't worry, it wasn't specifically directed at you. Just at 'you people' in general.
Still Chuggin’
So after doing nothing what so ever on the third (though I did manage to write a little on my script) yesterday was an overactive day. We left the house at about 11:30 and returned at about six, not sitting still for longer then ten minutes. The rest of the time we were walking, walking and walking. The great thing about Perth city is that the inner city can easily be walked over, from left to right, north to south and back again. So that is exactly what we did, wander and wonder.
We got quite an up when somebody called Banana superhero girl in the early afternoon and asked her to come right on by for an interview. They want to consider her for the position of Pizza Place manager! She would get to manage pimply pizza boys! We got a further up when that Italian guy that was saw at the end of 2004 said that we should examine what would be necessary for her to be employed by his company.
Both ups were quite severely torpedoed by our discovery that it will take the Australian government up to three months to process a work permit for Liana. Fortunately we closed the hatches in time (to continue the metaphor) and our ship did not quite sink. It is still limping along, as we sent in an E-mail to inquire whether she could work while her work permit was being processed.
Ken (whom we met later for pool and food) said it well, however, when he said ‘that would be the logical thing to do, but this is the government. The logical way isn’t always the government’s way’. That, we both have to admit, is a very true statement. Governments the world over are the embodiment of inefficiency and stupidity. I don’t think I’ve found one governmental model that does not run approximately a decade behind what its population needs.
I always feel that the government should directly reflect the people’s desires, wants and (above all) needs. For some reason, however, the government continues to run behind where the people are. Perth, and in fact all of Australia, has the lowest unemployment in more then three decades. Those people that are still unemployed and on the dole often do not want to risk their ‘benefit’ payments by going back to work (Ex. One local family will not go back to work, even though they might want to, because that would loose them their retirement benefits, which took them three years to get).
So they have incredibly low unemployment and those that remain unemployed probably do so by their own choice. So they actually have a labour shortage. Then they have people like Banana Super Hero Girl, whom wants to work and wouldn’t even get any benefits if she /did/ work, but will have to wait for three months to get her employment papers (if she even gets them).
Instead businesses are forced to offer bigger salaries or take on less educated and skilled workers. Great for the people, but bad for businesses as high salaries and poor quality will cut into their profit.
By not dealing with their employment problems, the government is hurting its economy. Yet it will be a number of years before the government will alter its foreign worker policies. This is largely due to the ultra conservatism of the rural areas. These people might understand how to run a farm, but can’t truly grasp the details of running a geographical area with more then two million people in it. How can they?
Cities are still an enigma for great numbers of them, with many rural people honestly believing that cities suck in the wealth of the countryside to survive. Like giant and unsightly leeches stuck to the surface of the land, wiggling and squirming with incomprehensible activity.
Same Same, But Different
It is no longer new year’s day, but for the rest not that much has changed. I went to be bed early last night with a throat ache and then woke up early to roam around second hand markets with Banana and Fish (yes, they all have silly names). Then we watched some movies (Super Size Me, Mulholland Drive and Sleepy Hollow). Been a bit down, actually. Getting a little worried about not getting a job in time and being buggered. It’s not easy, especially since Banana has no work permit and therefore a much greater barrier to overcome before she can actually get to work.
The fuck ups the last week in terms of going out weren’t all that helpful, either. We could have possibly met some very useful people for work purposes, but instead we had to go home early each time. That saps your energy, if you get what I mean.
So sickness, money worries and minor depression are taking their toll. Hopefully I’ll be able to fight my way out of them, though. I have to, seeing as otherwise we’re truly screwed. Oh well, I might as well get used to the pressure of responsibility, as it doesn’t actually get any less, as life goes on.
I’m going to direct some effort into the Japanese story and try to work on some short stories. At least if I manage to publish some work, then I’ll be building up a name as a writer. That might help me in the future. I certainly need to make sure I build up a name as something, except for a lay about.
I knew that this down was coming. It was bound to come, it always does as the pressure rises. I just wish I didn’t have such a feeling that we are wasting time that we could have used far more efficiently. Though I’m enjoying the naps and the sit around and the chats with the children, I have this feeling in the back of the mind time is running out.
Well, on Tuesday the public holidays are over, at least then we’ll have things to do. Then we have no excuse to sit around and do nothing. Then there will be people to do and places to see. I think I need to just be patient. Be patient and physically recover, that will certainly help.
365
So last night turned into another disaster. This time it was Liana that crashed and burned, again. She had started early, full of hope and expectation. Planning to make it a night to remember. Then we stumbled into a party that could have ended up being fun, but was still pretty held back and ‘civil’ when we arrived. Liana ended up spending too much time thinking and ended up thinking herself sick. (As happens, when you’ve had a few too many drinks and too much time to realise it.)
First we tried walking it out of Banana super hero’s system, but that proved only slightly successful. So we had to go home. At nine thirty on New Year’s eve, we headed home in a taxi. We ended up sleeping through New Year. Liana claims she heard fire works at twelve o’clock, but that didn’t even get through my deep sleep (I had started a lot later then Liana, but had played a catch up game. Therefore I was doing pretty well, myself.)
We seem to be starting a new tradition for ourselves. Whenever we plan to go out and have a good time, we end up getting ill and having to go home early. People must think we’re awfully bad at this drinking thing. That considering we were actually quite good at the going out thing in Singapore.
It’s so weird falling sick. I’m starting to understand what those people who can’t handle their alcohol must feel like. Those people that try to keep up, but are always forced to quit early, must feel pretty crap about their fate. For us it’s even worse. Not only are we suffering through the getting ill, we know we can normally do a hell of a lot better.
Oh well. Shit happens and at least it’s cheap to go home early. We did get a chance to take a cab and find out its prices. Quite expensive, actually. But then somebody had already warned us about that.
We’ll be alright, I think it’s just going to be a matter of re-evaluating our chances of having a fully functional and far spanning social network set up. All we’ll have, as we’re going now, is a reputation as the ‘go home early’ guys.
"The only thing worse then being talked about, is not being talked about" - Mark Twain
