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

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

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

The Gold-en Age.

For no discernible reason, I was just sitting here, drinking my ritual pre-gym huge glass of skim milk, at my desk, in front of my computer, when I felt a sudden nostalgic desire to play Pokemon Gold.

For no discernible reason, this also made me very sad.

Probably because I remember how back in the day, in Grade 6 or whatever it was, my life was primarily divided between Pokemon Gold, school, and homework. The latter two didn't concern me in the slightest, and it was all fun and easy. School was basically just friends and games, with a few jerks. Homework was learning my times tables. Pokemon was Pokemon (and still is Pokemon) i.e. awesome.

School has now been replaced by work, where I have a lot of friends, but you also run into quite a number of jerks, or people you'd rather not spend hours and hours and hours (and hours) with.

Homework is now Taxation Law. Income tax, CGT, FBT, T.T. I don't get it. At school, up until about Year 10, I just got things.

And Pokemon Gold. I've sort of upgraded to HeartGold. I like what they've done with those games. They're sort of more or less the same, just kind of spruced up.

Problem is, I can't even find the stupid DS right now.

Or it might be the music.

http://youtu.be/pfIrjx19p90

Word of the Day: Gold

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

Almost floating.

After passing FIN, I feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. There's no nagging feeling of anxiety in the back of my mind, no planning of doomsday hypotheticals, less random nights of sleeplessness, reduced bouts of random melancholy, and confidence slightly boosted. 

Yes, it was that serious. I was almost certain I failed. Always seems stupid once you've passed. 

To celebrate, I chanced upon a bar called 1806 - recommended by Liz. Evelyn was nice enough to join me for a celebratory drink. Highly recommend the 'Blue Blazer' cocktail. It looked freaking amazing. Just this blue comet falling out of the sky, trailing a blaze of fire behind it. Alien in its beauty, slightly terrifying to behold, and majestic in its countenance. 

No, I don't know what it tastes like. I'm sure it's good though. According to the bartender, it tastes 'nice'. 

Case closed. 

Afterwards, the grads and I attended my birthday dinner thing. Good times. 

And now I'm back into studying for Tax. 

Sighface. 

Word of the Day: Countenance 

Like a pie.

Bringing music with you on a long trip away is like bring a slice of home with you.

Word of the Day: Home

Time lapse lifeography.

Unbelievably, it's already May. The fifth month of the year. Out of twelve months. Almost half way through.

Quite fortuitously, today, the 4th of May, is exactly two months since I started this job.

Feels like just yesterday when I was all like, where am I? Where am I supposed to be? What do I have to do next? Who do I talk to?

Quite a bit has happened since then. I'm on to my third client, learned a great deal, got most of my admin stuff under control, and I'm soon to enrol and begin my first CA subject. I've also gotten into Game of Thrones (so, like, I heard that winter is coming), Arsenal are a bit more on track than they were a few months ago, I've made a few friends, watched Iron Man 3 (good, good movie) and increased my hatred of public transport.

I'm enjoying it so far. There's been a few late ones, and a couple of people I didn't really get along with, but the great thing about audit is that these two variables generally don't persist for more than a few weeks.

Finishing late is usually attached to certain jobs. Likewise with people you don't get along with. Rotating jobs every few weeks lets me get away from both after a few weeks. Usually, anyway.

Even with the people I don't really get along with, I've sort of learned to not take it personally. I mean, some people make it personal, but I've just kind of tried to take the view that that's just how they are. Just not very personable. Or maybe it's the pressure from work. Anyway, I haven't had to work with a great deal of people like that. Maybe just a couple.

It's all a learning experience anyway. You learn to not be like that to someone when you're teaching them something. Also, angry/angsty feedback doesn't necessarily preclude it from being useful feedback. Just because someone pretty much labels you an idiot for stuffing something up, at least they've let you know that you've stuffed something up.

I'm also pretty pleased that the social calendar is picking up somewhat in the next couple of weeks. Kind of the storm before the storm. The social storm before the work storm. Or something.

Word of the Day: Thrones

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

Suprise Song Sunday: Where Are You Now? - Mumford & Sons

Where are you now?

Do you ever think of me

In the quiet, in the crowd.

Beautiful song. 

Work starts tomorrow. I think it just suddenly dawned on me today that I won't be having a weekday off for a while. And with that thought, I've started resenting shops and stuff that don't open on weekends. Or at least Saturdays. I can't actually think of any that don't open on either Saturday or Sunday off the top of my head, but when I do, I will resent them hard.

As far as pre-work-beginning weekends go, this one hasn't been bad at all. Or even a pre-work week.

On Monday, had lunch with Irene. Just like old times. We even visited uni for O-Week, to add in a bit of gut-wrenching nostalgia. 

On Tuesday, I got the more or less all-clear from the physio. So now my building of the muscle mass in the left leg is mostly up to me. 

Couple of days of not doing a great deal, then had pho dinner with honours friends. Good times, as always.  

Yesterday, played a bit of badminton with some mates, had a visit from an unexpected visitor at said game of badminton, played a bit of impromptu/unprecedented squash with said unexpected visitor, and had dessert with some mates.  

Today, went to eat pho lunch with family, then went to Vic Market. Finally got myself a double-sided sheep mug there, and got the craziest wooden turtle ever. I'd take you a photo, but it's too late. Got work tomorrow. I know, ironic. We ended by visiting Shoppingtown to pick Michelle up, and I stared at some awesome shoes in Aquila. Dinner was a delicious lamb fillet dinner cooked by my mother. Almost completely irrelevant, but whatever.  

All in all, pretty successful. Caught almost everyone that I wanted to catch before I started work. Hopefully I won't get busy too soon, and still be able to maintain a semblance of a social life. 

Time to become a productive member of the household, and the community. Yeah. Not pretentious or anything. 

Word of the Day: Resenting  

  

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

Breeks. More Breeks. Please.

And so it was that the best week I've had in a long, long, long time emphatically came to an end due to a quite atrocious morning. 

'Emphatically' may not be the most appropriate word to use there. Actually, it's just a generally inappropriate word that I bandy about too much.

Back to the aforementioned week. 

Why was it good, you may ask? 

It just was (in-depth analysis and perceptive discussion has always been a strength of mine). It seemed like every day was just golden. Good things happened, more or less, from last Friday (when I finished up at Deloitte) to this Friday. Most of it revolved around friends, cool people (a subcategory of friends), and family. Funny how good times always seem to centre around them.

I was going to do something crazy and wild yesterday, to maximise the utility of the luck and stuff coming my way, but it occurred to me that this awesome spell wasn't necessarily going to last for a full week. And, even if it was, I shouldn't push it too far. Because we all know what happens when you do.

Anyway, as it happened, it ended up being pretty much a week anyway. 

However, after the pretty bad morning, it did pick up again somewhat in the arvo, which leaves me (probably unreasonably) hopeful. 

Here's to another brilliant week!

Word of the Day: Brilliant

One More Time

So the Deloitte gig's all over for now, and I managed to secure (and, just a couple of hours ago, accept) a grad offer. Which, on top of elation, elicits from me a massive sense of relief. I've finally gotten something, after all the trials and tribulations and whatnot. I'm thankful that I worked with really great people, most of whom really tried to help me along.

The last few work-free days have been good. I'm kind of starting to miss it already. It's more missing the other vacationers than the work. I liked those guys. Or a number of them anyway. Hopefully will get to see them before we all start back at work next year. 

Also, after what seems like years, I've finally managed to find me a girl problem. As in, a quandary that is in the form of a girl. 

Well done me. 

I'll not talk about it here, but feel free to hit me up about it next time you seem me online/in person/on the phone if you feel like a bit of goss, a bit of romance, more than a dash of unrequited love, and impossible odds.

I should work in movie marketing. Or something. 

So yeah. Work's over, so normal service resumes. Hell, it's so normal, that, right on queue, the day that I finish work, a truckload of mulch and firewood gets dumped on our front lawn. Which, of course, means that I'll have to move it. Much like the time before I commenced work.

The greatest thing about finishing this whole thing is that I get to see my friends again. Having good chats all around. 

Like on Friday, having good old chats with the other vaccers. Learned a lot about everyone, had good times, etc. Should do it again more often. 

Or like Saturday, where my homies and I went to celebrate my birthday/offer with some weird dinner-ice-cream-Time Zone hybrid. 

Iced Dinnerzone. 

What a zippy name. As I said, marketing extraordinaire right here. 

So apart from doing things with friends, this week I am going to:

• Upload a massive lot of photos
• Blog (which is happening right here, right now)
• Continue the revamping of my room
• Plan for Gold Coast trip
• Finish moving the pile of stuff outside my house to the inside of my house (being my garden).

I think that'll do for now. 

I promise the next one will be a lot more orderly, and a lot less thought-spewy. 

Also, more about Noel Gallagher gig next. Get excited. 

I'll leave you with this clip that was promised by the post title. 

Word of the Day: Celebrate

  

Work and stuff

So yeah, work.

It's been pretty fun, actually. My team's really fun to work with, and the other vaccies are pretty cool as well. I've been working at the Hyatt for the last week, which has been pretty awesome. My buddy Daniel's been spotting tennis stars all over the joint, but none for me so far.

The only thing that's stressing me out a bit is the study that I have to do up until Friday, but other than that, it's all cool.

Something exciting happened! The rear end of my car got swiped off by an 87-year-old driver while my mum was driving it. First weekend I've had free for a bazillion weeks, and my car is out of action.

Typical.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt, including Michelle, who was in the car at the time.

It also made me marvel at the genius of Toyota engineering. The back of the car just came off at the joints, resulting in less damage to the car body as a whole, and less impact to the driver. It's also pretty easy to repair. Essentially, you just pop the rear back on, and away you go.

But yeah, kind of sucks.

Two more nights of study to go!

Word of the Day: Engineering

The Emphatic Return of King Henry

Not much time for a proper post today, so I'll keep it short.

Thierry Henry! It's been said elsewhere, but it's like it was scripted. Arsenal needed someone to lift them, to score the deciding goal against their old nemesis, Leeds, and, of course, Henry climbs off the bench, and scores one of his trademarks. Left channel, beautiful control, curls it around the keeper into the far post. As Arsene Wenger said, it was a very Henry angle.

If you haven't seen what I'm ranting and raving about, click here.

In case you haven't heard, this man was the reason I started following the Gunners all those years ago. To me, in his prime, he epitomised so many things that were beautiful about the game. Pace, skill, power, timing, teamwork, athleticism, goals. Ripping through teams as if they were paper, and he was some kind of paper...ripper. All done with seemingly very little effort. He's also a throwback to a team that was as good as good can be. I'd say that team would give the modern day Barcelona a run for their money. Ljungberg, Vieira, Pires, Campbell.

To see him return, and score the decisive goal in his first game back, is beyond unbelievable.

Trademark.

Although his facial hair is questionable, there was no doubt about the elation he felt at the goal. All in all, pure, undistilled, sheer awesome today. 

Also, started work yesterday. Been learning quite a bit, settling in, and all that. Still finding my feet a bit, but starting to feel a lot more comfortable. More about that anon I guess.

Word of the Day: Henry