Natter
Technically this is my second post of the day, but then I’ve slept a good eight hours so I’m going to count this as a different post on a different day. Why am I saying this? I really don’t know, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. It’s better than starting off with ‘today I went and did this and this and this’.
I’ve had headaches for the last couple of days. I think it’s caffeine related. Since I started doing the surveys I’ve been drinking a number of cups of coffee every session. I end up trembling slightly and needing to go to the toilet every half-hour or so. It is also at about that time that my headaches started.
I doubt the extra sharpness during work is worth the headaches. Especially seeing as I’m going to end up getting used to caffeine again and then I’ll end up needing it just to remain normal and to avoid the headaches. For that reason I’m going to go back to tea.
Interesting, huh? Oh well, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to, you ken? If I want to talk about my caffeine intake, well that’s my choice and if that means that you people will bugger off and stop reading my blog, well that’s your choice.
It would be practical if you could decide what people read, huh? I guess that’s what people try to do with advertising. First off spreading awareness and secondly making up people’s minds for them. Fortunately it is not a very exact science yet. The question becomes, how exact are we going to let it get before we start regulating it? In some ways, of course, advertising regulation already happens. Some products can’t be advertised and all that jazz.
What I’m talking about, however, is how long is it going to take before forms of advertising will be outlawed? Not specific products, but specific forms of advertising those products. Like beaming stuff straight into the mind, or using ads that are coded in such a way that people can’t help but have something imprinted on their minds.
How close are we to this form of advertising at this time? How close are we to realising mental privacy rights? Or maybe not privacy rights, but the mental rights to be who we are. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those laws are already in place in some places, truth be told. But then we really have no idea how much control people can already exert over the minds of the innocent bystander. How long before the little flashy device from MIB becomes a reality? It is technologically probably feasible. Like any decent computer, our minds can probably be reset, rebooted and even rewired without us being able to do anything about it. The computer doesn’t get a choice in the matter about what parts get put in and what parts get taken out.
Alright, enough rattling on in unexpected directions, talk to you soon.
Numbered days
It just turned Sunday a little more then five minutes ago. The newest a day can get, in a way. Or at least, that’s how we decided to divide things. So what is there to tell about the last few days? Well I did get some work surveying people for the surveying place that I told you about. Not that bad, the hours go past pretty quickly while I’m there and the pay is good. Not enough hours yet, unfortunately. That is the problem with being paid per hour, you need to work the hours to get the money.
For the rest a few things got cancelled. No squash, no roleplaying. Not much of anything, really. Getting very good at sitting at home and doing nothing. Haven’t even really continued writing on my second short story. I’m about five pages in and not really ready to go on yet. Maybe I am now, but I wasn’t for a few days there.
Any great insights? Time moves faster and faster and goes by quicker and quicker. In a way we find that we actually get trained by society to take less notice of the individual moments and experience less in every day. We learn to grow more content with less happening. That’s actually kind of scaring me these last couple of days. What if I learn to be content with the little I’ve achieved. I’m starting to become afraid that I’ll settle for less then my full potential.
I guess that as long as the fear sticks around I have nothing to worry about. It’s like that saying about guilt. ‘As long as you feel guilty, you have nothing to worry about. It’s the moment you stop feeling guilty that you have to start worrying.’ Ambition is probably something similar, but then to do with having or losing the fear of not succeeding.
Success and ambition are irrevocably intertwined. Yes, you can have success without ambition, and ambition without success. The first is hard, and the second is terribly frustrating. Yet they come together more often than not, really.
I’m spending a lot of time talking about success aren’t I? Is that starting to bore people? Or get on their nerves in other ways? Making them think about what they haven’t and possibly wont achieve in their own lives? I imagine it must be very difficult to hear about another person’s plans when you’ve given up on your own. I wonder how it feels to realise that that is exactly what you’ve done? I always say I want to experience as much in my life as possible, but I’m not sure I want to experience that.
But then it is in the nature of personal growth that that doesn’t really happen, right? As long as you keep trying to improve yourself you have not really given up on your ambition.
This last year, without me really realising it, has been filled with me understanding and coming to grips with my own mortality. The realisation that I will probably be dead in fifty or sixty years time and I’ve only got about another 25 to achieve what I want. Not many people still manage to fulfill their dreams after the age of fifty, or so.
Inevitably, though, it is that very realisation of mortality that drives us to succeed. If we had longer than we have we would probably take a lot longer to do what we wanted to do. I wonder if we would think more long term if we lived more long term? Probably. We probably wouldn’t have made it as far as we did in the time we had had. Or maybe we would have. Maybe we would have wasted less time making bad spur of the moment decisions.
I can’t help but wonder, would immortals have ambition?
Curves
It’s been a good week. Still no Internet access, that’s why I’ve been slow to post, but for the rest it has been a good week. First off I was called on Monday by the book shop mentioned in my last post, whether I would like to come down for an interview on Friday. In other words, they liked my whacky letter and that made me happy. Sometimes it pays to gamble, especially if you have little to lose and a lot to gain.
Furthermore I spoke of a survey research thing last week. They called me up and invited me in for a training session on Monday. I went and was directly called up the next day to work. For the last two days I worked and I’ll be working again tomorrow. If things go well then I should be able to milk somewhere between fifty to seventy hours a fortnight. Not enough, but it will do while I’m waiting for other things to go through.
I’m really hoping to get the bookshop job. That would be a full time job, which would be great cause then I wouldn’t have to worry about hours all the time like I’ve had to do with all the other jobs I’ve had so far. The only two things that could go wrong is that 1) they don’t want me and 2) they wont pay me enough to make the job worth it.
It’s amazing how much difference a bit of work can make in your life. I guess it’s just that bit where you manage to push yourself above the absolute poverty line and feed yourself. I still miss the good times that were made affordable by having a bit more money. I miss them quite a lot, actually, but at least things are largely back on track. Now it’s just a matter of keeping them on track for another six months and then either getting a full time long term job in Australia (with a possible PR), or getting the hell out and finding somewhere else to hide away for a while.
I would prefer option two, but I don’t know if our budget will allow it. I don’t know if we can actually survive anywhere with what one person can save up in six months. Damned government with their damned xenophobic policies.
When the money is coming back in then I’ll have time to think about things outside of my immediate sphere of existence. That would be nice, it’s almost like I can feel myself sliding into stupidity. It’s as if the hickeshness of Perth is seeping into my blood and mind. Soon I’ll be wearing suspenders and start chewing on a stalk of grass. When that’s happened, well then I’m only one step away from cowdom. I mean, I already produce white stuff, so little would have to change there.
Anyway, so I’m better. Let’s hope this time it lasts a little longer than the last few times, aye?
Cover Letter
There was an ad in the paper on Saturday for a position in a bookshop that went something like this:
Can you actually read and do you love books? Do you have Chutzpah and know how to spell it? Are you interested in a bookshop that wants to sell books to people that they will really, really enjoy? Have you got 12 months retail experience and do you like to have fun at work? Then bring a cover letter and your CV in to [shop name and address].
I wrote out a cover letter that was a little different from usual and since I don’t feel like writing an entry I’ve decided to put it on my blog.
Dear Manager,
Six out of seven isn’t bad, right? That’s eighty five percent, a pass in most books. ‘What’s this?’ You ask yourself. Well this is (about) the seven questions you asked in your newspaper ad:
‘Can you actually read?’
Yes, it would have been hard to respond to your ad by just looking at the pictures.
‘Do you love books?’
Yes, when I was young, my dad read me the Lord of the Rings trilogy in machine gun mode (sometimes enthusiasm can replace talent) and ever since, I’ve been a victim of the written word.
‘Do you have Chutzpah?’
After conferring with others and a dictionary (just to be certain), I can announce I have chutzpah, though I have no certificate to prove it. Is that a problem?
‘Do you know how to spell it?’
Of course I know how to spell Hutchpaz!
‘Are you interested in the bookshop that want to sell books to people that they will really, really enjoy?’
Absolutely, in fact one day I hope to write books others will really, really enjoy too. Till then, I’m content to sell them other people’s.
‘Have you got 12 months retail experience?’
Ehr, no. But I did study the theory of economics. Does that count?
‘Do you like to have fun at work?’
I would go so far as to say I like to have fun at everything I do. Though admittedly that can be a challenge, on occasions.
If you’re still reading at this point, then I’ve still got a chance with this highly unusual cover letter, so now onto the more standard form, who am I? My name is (the Dutch like to torture the rest of the world with their unusual names). Until last year, I was living in Singapore and have recently moved to Perth. If things go well (i.e. the government lets me), I’m looking to stay here for the long haul.
I’ve always loved books. I recently tricked the state into giving me a library card (around March) and since then I’ve read American Psycho, Naked Lunch, Oryx and Crake, Porno, In the Name of the Rose, The Magic Finger, Tai-Pan
and am now making my way through Fabulous at Fifty
. In the mean time, I’m trying to write together a short story bundle for publication (a sample can be provided on request). Back in Singapore, I maintained a monthly column in The Expat magazine (www.theexpat.com). Though I admit that does little to demonstrate my ability to sell books, I am rather proud of it, so I decided to mention that here anyway.
So why should you hire me? Let’s see, I’m a well-rounded, book-loving, and well-traveled guy who is looking to get more experience in the world of literature – so that I can give that much more to learn what needs to be learned, of course. And if you so happen to find this cover letter amusing, then I can confidently say that I have a good sense of humour as well. Lastly, I’m a person who loves to learn and grow, thereby making me well-suited to learn the innovative techniques that make [shop name withheld] different and, perhaps, better than the competition. So if you like what I’ve written, you may like to invite me in for a chat and see whether the words reflect the man. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing a positive response from you soon.
Sincerely yours,
___________
[Name withheld]
Positive Deception
If everything goes well I should have a new job tomorrow or the day after. I’ll still be harassing people over the phone, but with a more noble purpose (not that much, mind you) and a bigger salary (again, not terribly much).
I’ll be surveying people over the phone for the purpose of Market Research. Since I often look at the statistics from this type of market research, I feel that I am doing more good then when I was trying to sell things to people that really didn’t want it. Research, in my book, is still a step above Marketing. (With marketing research obviously falling somewhere in between.)
I walked into the company’s headquarters, not terribly far from where I lived and was asked to fill in a form. Then a woman, the head of recruitment, came out and spoke to me for a grand total of two minutes, before telling me that she would call me back on Thursday or Friday at the latest for training purposes and writing the word ‘good’ at the top of my half filled in form. Then she informed me that it wouldn’t be necessary to schedule me for an interview, as she had already seen me.
That all sounds pretty positive, right? I thought so, though I’m not counting any chickens yet. Still going to hand in my CV at a bookstore at the center of town. If they offer me a full time position, then I might well still prefer that to the survey job. It’s going to be a whole lot easier filling my hours among books and the written word than on a phone to random strangers who really don’t want to be bothered by the likes of me. Of course, that will probably be reflected in the salary.
Still, if they would employ me full time and let me read and write during that time, I would be pretty chuffed. I’ve never yet managed to find a job like that, where I’m just supposed to be there. For some reason I’ve always managed to land those jobs where you actually have to show definite results at the end of the day. I bet there is a real advantage to the retail industry, especially in ‘niche’ markets like bookstores.
I just even had an insight where I take a wall of the shop and write out reviews for the books in the store, thereby giving people that aren’t sure what they are looking for a good place of reference. Since I can pretty much plow through a new book in two to three days, I can have a review hanging ready in about one working week. Of course these types of ideas will make little difference if I can’t get a face to face interview, so lets first try for that.
Banana has helped me update my CV, so that should help. Let’s hope for the best, shall we? Walk into the bookshop expecting an interview, when I hand in my CV. Hell, even ask for it. That takes balls, but if well done might make an impact beyond the sheet of paper that I’m leaving behind. It’s hard to stick out with a flat piece of paper. That’s why I’m always that amazed by artists, who can create three dimensions in a two dimensional space. That’s all about illusions, really. Much like the rest of life.
The mother of wealth
At Fish’s house. Banana had to visit and help Fish out with some problems, so we tracked down here in the afternoon. Played basketball with a couple of kids and won (surprise surprise, maybe one was half my age, with the rest having to make do with very early teens. Oh well, take wins where you can get them.)
Just finished watching Osmosis Jones, quite fun, actually. A cartoon mixed with a real movie. A bit like Roger Rabbit, though the cartoons and real world stuff barely over lap. Did anybody ever see Cool World? That was a movie that I enjoyed when I was younger, nobody ever talks about it though. I think it might be fun to watch that one again with a slightly better understanding of madness. Anyway, that one had a lot of cross over, like Roger Rabbit. Not too many people used cartoons in movies, I wonder why?
Anyway, I think I’ve partially recovered from the down from yesterday. When I was at the Internet café I thought I was just distracted and thoughtful, when I left it became pretty clear that I was down, yet again. I’m spending way too much time down in this city. For some reason I believe that life was a bit easier when we were in Singapore. I might not agree with what the government did and why, but life was easier over there. The government was nicer to us foreigners.
I guess it’s adjusting to a life of poverty. That is bound to take a while, right? I hope I don’t get too used to it. When you’re so used to poverty that you accept it as a given, then you’re in trouble. That’s the day you stop trying to get out of it and stop trying to make life better.
To this day I still believe that people from rich families often end up rich partially because they expect it. Yes, it is true that their parents help with their connections and their money, but that isn’t enough if a person is content to be poor. Rich people often get rich by expecting, not wanting mind you, but expecting it. They expect to be rich and therefore behave in a way that makes others assume that they should be, as well. I don’t know if that makes sense? I don’t even know if that’s it, but I certainly know that expectation has a lot more to do with end result then I used to think.
I used to think expectation was the mother of all fuck ups. It still is, of course, but it is also the mother of a whole lot more. Expecting to be treated well will doubtlessly make sure you are treated well. That is how the elites recognise the elites, I think. By their birth right to arrogance. Their confidence that money belongs in their pocket.
