February 2004 Archives

I think I'll go into the city tomorrow, maybe walk about, take some very touristy photos, marvel at the harbour, wonder at the mca and do the whole out-of-towner thing.

Ah, I love making plans...

I got a call today around eleven asking me to another interview on Monday, so I'm psyched...hold on, I don't say psyched! What's going on here? Security! Security!

Well, whoever I am, I'm pleased to have another interview, obviously I didn't completely put them off with my offering of rancid fish sticks dipped in rye.

Whoa. That was...intense.

The 'interview' went for just under two hours, and was conducted in two parts. The first part consisted of the history of the company, a discussion of its present and future, and a look at some of its products.

The second part was a discussion of the company's soul. The managing director and founder of the company told me about his roots, his beliefs and how they affected the company.

I have been told the company is 'very hard working', which equates to about eleven hours a day, and a few hours on weekends. I'm not afraid of hard work, in fact I welcome it, my only worry is that I won't be intellectually stimulated, which would make eleven hour days unbearable.

Well, I'm going to make myself some lunch, and then head back to Newcastle with the car that I borrowed for the interview. Ta-ta for now.

I have an honest-to-goodness real-life, non-fake, interview on Monday, at 10am. I'm pretty (read very) excited about the whole thing. I'm going to scope out the place tomorrow, apparently, it's very public transport unfriendly, so I might need to pay the extra on Robin's car insurance so I can drive his car (if I get it).

Anyways, the euphoria still hasn't worn off, so I might go buy some coke and chocolate, or something...(I know, most people binge when they're upset).

I'm sitting on a train at Wyong Station, listening to the particularly disgusting noises the guy behind me is making and the obnoxious conversation of the girl in front of me (on her mopho).

Magisys.net has officially moved to a new server. Hosted on Pudding, Robin's off-site server, which is good news for y'all that hated waiting so freakin' long for photos to download.

Magisys.net mail and tv are still hosted on hadrian, my little 166MHz pentium II sitting back in Newcastle, bravely holding together my old home network

::sniff::

We (Robin and I) went to Ikea a couple of days ago, and bought us some furniture. Well, Robin bought furniture, but I came to help carry stuff.

Ikea is a strange place, where it's always night, people wander about aimlessly with lost expressions on their faces, all to the rhythmic pumping of an iron lung.

I've taken some shots of the place with the new furniture, and I'm pretty happy with how it's looking. Also, you can see shots of our place before the new stuff and shots from our night out with friends (See Jared's post about the night)...

On my way to sleep last night I had the strangest image in my head. This sharp pointy guy coming out of a book (and wearing a jester's hat) was shoving something dark and rectangular down a flower's throat. And whatever he was shoving was compressing from the pressure, which was very strange since it was something that shouldn't have compressed, like a stereo, or a brick. Needless to say, the flower wasn't enjoying the experience.

I've been trying to draw it (I'm certainly no artist :-), but if I get hold of a scanner, I'll upload my attempts.

As I write this I'm sitting in a Centrelink reception trying to think of questions I'll be asked in my interview and their suitable responses. My mind is a blank. Possibly because I don't actually want this job, it sounds boring, the pay is crappy and it takes an hour just to get here...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I'm a lazy bum.

Anyways, I thought I'd post something here, while I'm at the library, since I had to pay to use the 'net.

Job searching has been painful so far, there don't seem to be many advertised positions for fresh graduates...I've been getting the paper, using the 'net for several hours a day, and going down to Centrelink, and coming up with very little. Yesterday I applied for thirteen jobs, but most of them expect more EXP points than what I got, or they're really crappy jobs (like installing windows daily!). Still, even if I get a crappy job, I can at least get some more of tha' moolah, and job hunt in my spare time.

The appartment is still great, though we are finding more and more small flaws (like some weird carpet discolouration in my room, and Robin's stinky shower).

There are a few issues though. For one, it turns out that the walls are made of concrete, and have no conduits in them, which makes the dream of in-wall wiring a little less likely; secondly, Robin's Server Rack (RSR, also known as "The Cheat") is getting louder (more machines are on), and needs to be placed against the wall in the middle of the main area. As much as I enjoy the quiet hum of hundreds of hard-drives, it is a little distracting...but what can you do? Robin understandably doesn't want the racket in his room, and he feels the laundry would be too dusty and hot for all those machines, so it looks like the main room it is.

But I don't want to make it sound like it's all woe and no w00t. Far from it. For the most part, living here in Sydney is great, and I wouldn't trade it for a smelly sock.

In any case, it seems that this entry, intended to simply be a stop gap, has turned out to be one of my longest...as soon as we get adsl, I'll upload lots of photos from the place, and of our evening out last weekend.

Until then, gentle readers, until then...