Confounding.

Prior to today, I'd had a pretty lousy week.

And now I can't stop smiling.

What an idiot.

Word of the Day: Lousy

Get ready to ramble.

There are a number of things that I am currently finding confusing, perplexing, bamboozling, confounding. When I get confused, I become really irritated.

When I'm irritated, I get restless. 

When I get restless, I can't sleep. (Probably how the word came about in the first place). 

When I can't sleep, I get angry. 

So here I lie, stewing in my confusion-induced anger, writing this blog post -from my phone! The wonders of technology, eh?

Word of the Day: Stewing

Ceiling, as seen from my bed. Needs more colour. 

Dunno.

I don't know if I've lost the plot or what, but I've caught myself angrily muttering 'Shut the hell up' to my computer screen over the last few days. Mostly in reaction to stuff that people post on Facebook.

Then again, it might just be an increasing quantity of 'shut the hell up' posts on Facebook.

Who knows.

Word of the Day: Plot

Aurora borealis

I decided purely on a whim borne out of nothing, just then, that I had to, absolutely had to, one day, see the Nortern Lights. 

Imagine my dismay when I found out not too long after 'just then' that one can't just simple rock up and 'do' the Northern Lights. 

Apparently it's this thing that happens completely by chance, within a seasonal range. Kind of like a common weather event. And even then, the sky has to be clear for you to see anything. AND EVEN THEN, it might not be spectacular every time it happens. 

I will see them though. I'll get them. Get them good. 

Word of the Day: Aurora

I'm exhausted.

It seems like however much I sleep, it's not enough.

I probably really need a holiday, and to get back in touch with the world outside of work. Work right now is this big leviathan that sort of blocks out everything else. Problem is, I pretty much have nobody to go with. I've thought about going it alone, but that has its own complications as well.

Sadface.

Word of the Day: Complications

Super deep analysis.

There's an element of the human condition that's a bit sad, but also simultaneously excellent. I'm talking about Familiarity. 

Using Familiarity as the lens through which we sort people, humanity is divided into three types:

1. Those who we feel more fondness and respect for as we become more familiar with them, and get to understand and know them better. 

2. Those that we distance ourselves from (or should, but sometimes don't), whether consciously or unconsciously, because Familiarity reveals, for want of a better/less melodramatic phrase, their dark side. 

3. Those that we don't become familiar with at all. Apologies in advance to those 6.5 billion (and counting!) people. 

It seems an obvious thing, but it's sort of taken me a while to reach this conclusion. It kind of developed into a cohesive thought on Friday night. Of all times. Maybe my mind becomes more metaphysical when it's tired/stretched.  

I've never been one to sit down and really think about human relationships, in particular my relationships with other people. I usually just sort of let it all develop/maintain/die organically. I think actually dedicating time to thinking of these things, and in particular, bracketing people that you know into those three brackets, helps to assess which relationships are truly worthwhile, and worthwhile developing and maintaining, which ones need rectifying or management, and which definitely need to be terminated. 

On a slightly cheerier note, I've managed to catch the vast majority of my favourite people in the world over the past three days. Does wonders for the soul. And all this with another day of liberty to look forward to tomorrow.

On a definitely cheerier note, I managed to sneak pass in Taxation. 3/5. Almost through it. 

Word of the Day: Familiarity 

Post-CA-exam list #3.

I think this is probably the third iteration of my semi-bi-annual post-CA exam to-do list. Here it goes (in no particular order):

1. Have a decent lunch with people outside of my immediate family. Not that there' anything wrong with them. Just gotta keep it fresh.
2. Build the Lego set that I got for my birthday. (Man, that seems like ages ago. Oh wait, it was).
3. Shopping. H&M, Emporium, Chadstone, the list goes on. Camberwell Markets is probably overdue for a visit as well.
4. Photo trips. Mount Dandenong autumn run, the city, maybe somewhere a bit further out as well.
5. Seeing my neglected friends.
6. Clean my room.

I think that'll do for the time being.

Word of the Day: List

Random funny things.

A few quirky/funny things I've noticed over the past little while:

1. When people leave comments on a photo album on Facebook, and the album gets updated semi-frequently. Funny for a number of reasons:
(a) The commenter usually thinks that their comment applies only to a single photo in the album. The comment therefore eventually becomes completely irrelevant as the album gets updated, sometimes leading to often hilarious disparities between the photos being posted and the original comment.
(b) The comment pops up every time the uploader uploads a photo to the album.

2. The temperature within a train carriage has a direct positive correlation with the amount of rain pouring down outside.

3. It's funny how 99% of the population assumes that accountants are good at tax. I mean, I can see why they would, but it's just funny, in the sense that it's completely alien to most of us. Like getting a baker to cook seafood.


Completely unrelated (because all that other stuff above was really related and intertwined), but this Coldplay song:



Word of the Day: Quirky

Time.

 "It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up." - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Word of the Day: Time 

Wow. So observation. Very deep.

Observation of the week: if somebody's asking you on a Thursday what you've got planned for the weekend (completely out of context, and not in a 'how about you spend it with me?' kind of way), chances are that this person and yourself aren't exactly soulmates.

Word of the Day: Soulmates

If I were a rabbit.

It's amazing how often the behaviour of the house behind me highlights some of the most annoying things that people can do.

Right now, they're listening to whiny American 'rock' 'music' on full blast. While vacuuming. And swearing conversationally at each other.

That's just RIGHT NOW. On a frequent basis, they:
- Jump around in their pool screaming. At 11 at night.
- Get screamed at by the household matriarch in their garden.
- Pump stupid club music until well into the morning, whilst screaming tunelessly along with a few hundred of their teenage friends.

No wonder their rabbit continually runs away to our side of the fence.

Word of the Day: Rabbit

Wedding season.

Lots of wedding photos on my Facebook feed this weekend. Off the top of my head, I count five 'friends' that have attended weddings this weekend.

And those are just the ones that have chucked photos on Facebook.

I don't know really know what my point is, other than to remark on this sudden spike in people posting photos of other people's weddings on Facebook.

Come my turn to attend a wedding, I'm going to post so many that I'm going to break Facebook. Then they'll all be sorry.

Vengeance will be mine.

Word of the Day: Vengeance

Happy one year.

365 days ago, I started full time work.

Nothing really prepares you for it. Even vac work, working full 8-hour days for four weeks, didn't really get me ready for it. It wasn't until I was well and truly stuck in that it sort of sunk in, that this full-time work thing was for, more or less, the next 40 years.

It seems stupid when I put it out there, but there it is. There's some kind of Chinese proverb/wise Mum saying that my mum often says, which goes something along the lines of:

"Everyone knows that a cut on the arm is painful. But you don't truly know what the pain feels like until you've been cut."

Given all of that, a year of 9-to-5, five week days would've been a bit of a shock to the system. Especially coming out of uni, where starting at 10 and finishing at 4 was considered a long day, and not having at least one day class-free was considered by many to be some kind of human rights infringement.

I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice to say it's been much more than 9-to-5, five week days. In more ways than one. The hours, the experiences.

And just when you think you've almost got a handle on the whole work-life thing, CA starts.

And now you have to re-adjust that equation to work-life-study. It ends up looking more like work-life-study.

I've learned an incredible amount, and I've been thrown in the deep end more times than I can count. The two probably go hand-in-hand a little bit. The number of times that I've done work, and seen somebody a couple of years more senior sign off on last year's equivalent is getting more and more frequent.

I'd like to think it's made me stronger. The truth is, I don't really know. Technically, professionally, and auditing-ly, most definitely yes. Physically and emotionally, I'm starting to feel a little bit drained. I think this is what burnout feels like.

Especially from the start of January, it's just been go-go-go. Not even client to client. More client (not really finished) to client (not really finished) to client. I'd rather be busy-ish than have absolutely nothing to do, for a variety of reasons. One, it means people are liking what you're doing. Two, doing nothing gets boring pretty quickly. Three, if you're not doing, you're not learning.

But I would've liked a couple of days of nothing somewhere along the line. Or even an easier client. Not even to do nothing, but just to do some admin stuff.

When you're on a bad run, nothing works. The client this week was supposed to be pretty good, and out in Dandenong. Just a one weeker, nothing major, and close to home.

Nek minit, client not ready until Thursday, working from the office. Looks like it's going to be a mad scramble to the end on Thursday and Friday.

I'm planning on booking a few weeks of leave for later in the year. No idea what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

It could've been worse. I have friends in other industries that get worked much, much harder. Heck, I have friends at other clients that get worked much, much harder.

Still doesn't stop me from feeling slightly burned out though.

At least I've got two CA subjects in my pocket now. It feels like I'm limping through them, but if I can pull that off for the next three, I'd be over the moon. I'm calling it now, drinks on me.

A major plus is that I've met some fantastic people. Not only people from my level, but people from other levels as well. The great thing about rotating through a number of teams is the variety of people you get to meet, and if you don't like them, or if they don't like you, you're rid of them for a long time. And if you do happen to get along, there are ways of keeping in touch.

I've also worked on some pretty cool clients, and travelled to some pretty cool places. Well, cool places being Perth. Sydney not so much. Mainly because of the workload.

To bring it full-circle (for the first time in months uncounted, HR have managed to nail something, and probably by accident), I met the buddy that's been assigned to me today. Youthful vitality is refreshing. I'll try and keep it for a bit longer.

Word of the Day: Circle

Knacked.

I don't think I've ever been so glad to reach the end of a working week.

I don't even know why. I've definitely had tougher workloads, more difficult problems to solve, worser people to deal with.

 Suffice to say that the euphoria of last Friday has definitely, definitely worn off.

Word of the Day: Suffice

A funny little Valentine's Day ditty that I made up on the spot.

All the material possessions in the world

Lasting happiness they do not foster

And true love they do not replace. 

Happy Valentine's Day. 

Word of the Day: Ditty 

Misfortunate.

A litany of misfortune yesterday (which I actually found quite funny):

1. My FIN test decided to call it halfway through yesterday. This unfortunate incident actually carried over to today, as I had to call the CA people and start doing it from where it left off.

2. My lunch came out last out of five people.

3. It was also very small.

4. It also didn't really taste that good.

5. I missed golf because nobody picked up their phone.

6. I paid $9 for parking, when Safeway had it for free.

7. There was no football on. Not sure if that's a Sunday thing or a Saturday thing. Whatever. Point being, it wasn't on.

On a happier note, most of that trail of destruction was counterbalanced by being in good company for the better part of the day, and, in the case of point 1, having awesome people help me through it.

Yep. Cool.

Word of the Day: Litany

Imagine the kind of stuff I'd write after a few drinks.

It was only a four day working week, but for some bizarre reason, it feels like it's been a big one. The weekend I've got planned promises to be fairly big too.

Not 'big' in the, shall we say, classical sense. You know, get smashed, do some illegal things, maybe a couple of fights for good measure.

Big, as in, lots going on.

This week, I feel as if I've learnt a lot more about people. Reinforces the notion that you shouldn't write someone off before having at least known them for a couple of weeks. Sometimes longer. If you give it time, lots of people that you don't originally rate turn out to be quality people.

It's a bit mutual though. I find that if people invest a little in me, it usually works a lot better. Instead of me unidirectionally extending the cordial hand of potential friendship, these things happen a lot easier if it's a mutual handshake. Or at least a substantially mutual handshake.

Best analogy ever.

Getting to know people better also reveals things that you don't necessarily know about, or think about, and that are actually quite deep, interesting or eye-opening.

On a slightly related note, I've fallen in love again this week. As is customary, she's a bit weird. But so very cool.

How do I know it's love? Well, it's taking me a good ten minutes to fall asleep now instead of the customary one-and-a-half. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.

Word of the Day: Big

Dichotomous.

There is an interesting contradiction in the biological construction of homo sapiens, an alleged result of evolution.

This contradiction is apparent in most of us. I am, of course, referring to the dichotomy of brains and brawn.

Over a period of a zillion years, or however long it was, the human race gradually mutated in such as to develop ever larger and more powerful brains. In this area, we are unparalleled in the animal kingdom. It is our competitive advantage. It has allowed is to colonise almost every part of the world, more or less safe from predators.

However, we have also not evolved to such a state that we no longer require physical exercise. We need it. We're not merely just brain machines. The rest of our physiological make-up is designed for physical exertion. We are incredibly weak and clumsy compared to most other animals, but we are not built for sedentary lifestyles. We become unhealthy without physical activity.

What's interesting about this is that most of our vocations involve choosing one or the other. The use of higher brain function or the utilisation of physical exertion. We spend 9 or 10 hours a day most of the week doing either one or the other. Very few people are in a job that utilises both.

It seems like such a shame.

Word of the Day: Exertion

Change and notebooks.

I approach the official beginning of my working life with no little amount of trepidation. A little bit of exhilaration, but mostly trepidation. Expidation, if you will.

Most of it has revolved around a niggling anxiety regarding how everything will work out.

Will I still be able to maintain a semblance of a social life? Exercise? Family? Friends? Just casual leisure?

Some of it, I guess, is also dependant on others. Many of my friends, for example, also start full-time work now, or roughly now. So it's all well and good if I manage to make time for them, but it also relies on them making time for me.

I've sort of eased this slight worry with a large dose of que sera, sera. I've been thrown into situations previously where I've thought that there was no way I'd manage, and, while not always triumphing in a blaze of glory and awesome, I have by and large scraped by. Also, trying to not think about it also helps a bit.

A secondary element that has me slightly concerned is just the notion of change. I know it's an inevitable part of life, change is now the norm, we have to learn to adapt, blah blah blah. And, even if I do say so myself, I'm fairly good at adapting to change. That doesn't mean that I necessarily love getting thrust into entirely new environments and more or less fending for myself.

Again, I've tried to adopt a que sera, sera attitude about it all, with a larger dose of trying to not think about it.

I also feel as though I haven't really made the most of my holidays. Not enough travel and stuff. I hope I get time to do that later.

In happier news, I have resolved my notebook situation. I've acquired myself a snazzy new largish notebook for general note-taking purposes. It's from kikki.k, and really cool (found here). The paper's white, but edged with black so it looks like it's a black book full of black pages. But it's not!

Also, full leather. Except for the pages, obviously.

All black everything.

Boom! Yeah, deceptive.

I've also ordered some pocket Moleskine cahiers from Book Depository for a grand total of seven dollars something. They're fitting right into the inside pocket of my suit jacket, for on-the-go note-taking purposes. This was the main notebook issue that I'd been trying to resolve, as everything else is either too hard or too bulky for a suit jacket. For some reason, despite my being a Moleskine fanboy, I hadn't thought about getting one from them. Bizarre. But there it was, after hours of searching. It also didn't help that Book Depo had an inconsistent naming system, which led me to think there was only one colour (I know, calamity).

Mad as, and for a great price. The one on the right is the one I've ordered.

I love notebooks. There's just something really cool about them.

Word of the Day: Expidation

A belt doesn't suit me.

When one Google's random questions, the most inane debates become apparent.

This has sort of been on the edge of my consciousness for a while now, but what really brought the inanity of it all to my attention was my Googling of the following question the other day:

Should one always wear a belt with a suit?

Seemingly a mundane, trivial, and, dare I say it, not all too game-changing a question.

From the way people go on about it though, you'd think it was something of global significance.

You have two distinct camps of people. Those who think that belt loops should always be filled, and those that think that a belt ruins the clean, continuous lines of a suit.

Within these two groups, there are further divergences e.g. suspenders, no belt loops, get proper-fitting pants. I'm not going to bore you with details. You can always Google the debate yourself.

The point, in the absence of anything approaching one in this post, is that any topic that you deign to research throws up a plethora of opinions. It's just interesting to see how strongly people feel about such obscure topics. (They did feel strongly. There was mud-slinging, name-calling, and categorisation flying all over the place).

Anyway, I've decided to go beltless for the time being until either (a) I find a belt to my liking, within a reasonable price range, or (b) somebody tells me that I forgot to put on my belt. Ideally, I'd get rid of the belt loops, but I'm not that rich, hence the lack of belt. A prime example of a vicious cycle of pain and anguish.

I figure that whether or not somebody tells you you've forgotten your belt depends heavily on how the rest of you looks. You know, shirt, tie, the cut of your suit. I'm relying on relative well-cutness of my clothing to get me through this. In any event, it'll be an interesting social experiment. Actually, it may not be a social experiment. Just an experiment then.

Word of the Day: Belt