The TroppoBook

iBook_dark
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Here's my iBook after I applied a flower decal over the Apple logo. My iBook's getting on a bit so I've been on the lookout for stickers for it, and I couldn't find anything that wouldn't get peeled off in a couple of days. But this is nice. Sort of a tropical theme to reflect the hot, hot summer days Melbourne has been having lately.

I've switched from coffee to tea or iced tea (mostly). It seems too hot for coffee, and tea doesn't rattle my nerves as much. And even at McDonalds, tea is served in a teapot with a jug of milk. It's a more deliberate, civilized sort of experience. The only problem is I can't drink tea without some sort of sweetener. I'll have to buy some more Stevia to carry around with me.

On that topic, weight loss continues, doing very well thank you very much.

On the job front, I'm encouraged by interest from recruiters and I'm applying for more jobs, in the likely event that the current roles I'm pursuing with them fall through.

The other thing I'm working on is swotting for my MCSE exams, I've been putting those off for an embarrassingly long time. At this stage, I have experience but not the certs, and those certs could mean the difference of about 10k in the job market. It means more flexibility too. I'd like to be able to *avoid* the sorts of jobs I've had up until now.

One could argue that doing the certifications once you *have* experience means you'll get more out of them, and God knows I need more confidence.

Without the certs, I'm doing the work of people who *did* get the certs and are getting paid more than me, and who needs that?

Gaming it

Listening to ‘Landed, Ben Folds’

 

Playing phone tag with recruiters today. Actually I’m fairly chuffed considering how many applications it took to get *one* phone call the last few times I’ve been down this road. Feeling hopeful. Which is good because once the buzz from my impulsive Recovery had worn off and I was starting to feel a bit silly.

 

 

Treating the process like an RPG as much as possible, in terms of strategy and trying vs failing. Seems to be working out so far.

Recovered

Well, one thing led to another and I made a decision to move on from
$current_werkplace. So now I'm looking around for some new
employment. I might put up a quasi-CV listing my 1337 sk1llz later
today. I was up to 2:30am hunting down leads in my bookmarked job sites.
Hey, if you shake enough trees something is going to fall out.
There's a Unix gig I have my eye on.

It is what it is

So I’m back after a couple of days on holiday.

 

I got asked to write some notes on the stuff I’d done. I wrote a beautiful phone book, and arriving here found none of my cases had been touched, and nothing I’d done had been acknowledged.

So tell me why I was here doing an hour’s overtime, again?

 

 

And so it begins

http://www.apple.com.au

 

 

 

On Interruptions

“Conversely, forcing someone to perform errands synchronously is bound to limit their productivity. The cost of an interruption is not just the time it takes, but that it breaks the time on either side in half. You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on hard problems at all.”

 

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

 

And if what you do is nothing *but* interruptions?

 

The other source of procrastination for me is just how long I spend avoiding other people (with some of the people I work with, understandable) if I’m depressed, which is most of the time lately.

In which KrisTheGrumpy survives a Random Spider Encounter, and discovers that she *really* signed on for paperwork, not computers

The day began with a Giant Spider Encounter in the shower. (I think the rude little bastard stole my towel, too). The fly plague is perpetuating a spider plague, and I predict in a month or so you won’t be able to leave anything on the floor without it sliding away a few minutes later on a lot of hairy little legs. I suppose I can hope that they don’t like 40 degree temperatures, and that would explain the tarantula lurking near the plughole.

I’ve gotten into World Of Warcraft, and if I wasn’t spending 8hrs a day shuffling papers this entry would look a whole lot more like ‘NElf Druid, lvl 10,  lvl grinding atm, gg’.

On the paper shuffling, I think I’ve gotten myself pigeon holed here, set up a situation where I’m not going to be able to extricate myself.

See, I didn’t get hired as an engineer. I got hired as tech support, at the time an estrogen-only zone. There’s arcane rituals, filing,  answers to questions that sound suspiciously like ‘because I *said* so,’ and ‘do as you’re told’ , bonding over shoes, and a pecking order. It’s a feminized environment, and not in a good way.  It’s the checkouts at Woolworths, or the typing pool.

In a different department, or a different company, where there’s a more male style of communication and expectations I do well. Blame my chart for having Mercury in Gemini.  I know the geek community gets a lot of crap for ‘RTFM!’ but IRL I’ve never found it to be excessive unless your query really did go ‘HELP ME PLZ’.  Knowledge is power, so they express it by sharing information. Sometimes too much information, but the point I’m getting to is that it’s a different psychology.