| Ch-ch-ch-changes |
[Sep. 30th, 2007|09:40 pm] |
It's been an incredibly long time since I wrote in this thing, for that I am sorry. I have been busy...though the extent of my busyness depends on your perspective. Let's start from the top.
The year started. I went to work a lot. And for several months, nothing happened. Then April hit.
In April, I rejoined PALGN after being offered a small cash sum on a regular basis for my Easy Mode columns - the prospect of a little extra money was too good to turn down. Later in the month, whilst studying for my Superannuation exam, I started procrastinating by talking to a certain girl I'd known from IRC for a couple of months. We hit it off incredibly well - we must have chatted for about 30 hours that first weekend, hehe. After time we decided to meet, but before we met, the extent of our feelings was revealed, and thus I was thrust into a relationship again, with all of the various drama that it brings. Now, I had previously intended never to venture down the internet relaitonship path again after being previously burned, but I took a chance, and the chance paid off. We met for the first time in July when she travelled from Melbourne to stay with me for a week - instantly fell in love with each other, and had a great week enjoying each others company. Being separated again was tough on both of us, as we would not know when we'd be seeing each other next, nor did we know how long it would be before we could be together again.
After two weeks apart (one of which back at work), I began to realise the extent of my unhappyness at work, and missed her dearly. It was this yearning for her company that was basically the straw that broke the camel's back, thus forcing me to finally work up the courage to leave my job and the comfort of my parent's care, and move to another city to be with the girl I love. With work no longer an issue, I gave myself six weeks to get my things together, take some time to relax, and move on to Melbourne. Unfortunately, in the middle of August, I caught glandular fever - just in time for my Lymphoma checkup - which as a result of the infection showed up as positive on the scans, despite being negative on examination and blood tests. So that extended my stay in Queensland by 6 weeks, forcing me to be away from my dearly beloved even longer. I managed to convince her to allow me to pay for her to visit me so we could spend a little extra time together before we move in with each other. She departed my company on Tuesday, and I miss her badly.
I have my CT scans tomorrow and PET scan on Wednesday, with the specialist visit Thursday. Once everything has been cleared, the stage is set for departure to Melbourne on October 13th. Yay.
I am unsure if I will return to accounting full time. The prospect of working in the accounting field again tends to make me sick, and Charly is trying to encourage me to work harder at my writing, with a view to trying to draw more freelance work. We'll see how things go - being frugal left me with plenty of money to live off while I am out of work, so I have plenty of time to decide. |
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| Cripes |
[Jan. 6th, 2007|09:49 am] |
Wow, 3 months between updates. Either I've been busy or I've forgotten about this thing.
2006 is over, and it's really quite frightening what steady full time work can do to one's feeling for the flow of time. Since July, my weeks have really flown by, and I feel helpless - stuck under the weight of 300 self-managed super funds. As May 15 grows ever closer, it is more and more apparent that we're not going to reach our goals for the year, nor will we even be close. I think this is due to a number of things: losing a month to software updates, losing a month due to manager holidays, and all but two of the team of six accountants never having had any super fund experience. It's almost a bit of a trial by fire - I was the first graduate thrown into the mix, and had picked up the flow of things quickly since we couldn't do much other work at the time, but I think that the numbers are beginning to become a liability. It's a tough job to balance all of these young accountants, and I think our manager does a pretty good job considering he himself is only quite young, but there are times where having to keep five other accountants active becomes a mess. Nevertheless, I cracked 50 funds for the 6 months, which is almost half of what we did for the period. Unfortunately, we needed to do about 150 to be on track.
Work consumes my life, which is really quite sad. I haven't had as much time as I'd want to just relax, play videogames/watch DVDs and catch up with friends - the reality of the world I guess. I spent way too much money on DVDs last year - more than I did on games...and I've hardly watched any of them, let alone tucked into the existing backlog of DivX shit from 2005...sigh. Basically I could just live off my backlogs for the next two years...which isn't such a bad idea.
Went to the coast for a four day weekend in December, but I was too stuffed to do anything, and by the time I was ready to go to the beach, it was raining. Sigh. Still feel like I need another week off, but the reality of the work situation will not permit it. The generous offering of public holidays should help.
I got a distinction for the first CPA module. Go me. The chumps hit me with $1,000 in fees for this year's membership and the first semester course fee. Just when you think you've got that credit card paid off...
Nothing interesting on the relationship front. People seem to be amazed at the fact that I find going out to pubs and clubs boring - I still do it to keep up appearances, but yeesh. I just don't feel like it's good value for money (can't ever switch off the accountant thing, lousy genetic pre-disposition). It's $5.00 for a bourbon and cola which just doesn't have any kick to it. Factor in 4 to 5 of those and a taxi trip home, and that's $50 gone. For the same $50, I could have grabbed a full bottle of higher quality bourbon, a bottle of coke and a bunch of DVDs and friends. My mother is really beginning to pester me about the whole bachelor thing, but I honestly do not care.
Christmas was very quiet this year. I spent most of the five day weekend smashing through The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (alas on my GameCube, as the import Wii deal I had fell through). Spent a lot of money on presents, didn't get a whole lot back...the realities of adulthood. Still, it's good to give, and I got some great deals on their presents, so I gave more than I normally would. New Years was even quieter - my plans for the night fell through, so I brought in the New Year with a midnight beer at my PC :(
Hopefully that's not representative of what the rest of the year will be like. |
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| Another update |
[Oct. 9th, 2006|10:45 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cynical | ] |
I tend to forget I still have this thing every now and then, but only making the occasional entry makes those particular entries far more interesting.
I've quit PALGN. Yes, I used to guard it like a child, and for a while it was pretty much the reason I woke up every day. It just became too hard to fit it into my life, and it was pretty much becoming the main source of discontent in my life - petty in-fighting over free games, not to mention the whole "hey guys, let's post publisher-written information off as our own in exchange for exclusives"...the site was founded on that BULLSHIT NOT HAPPENING! I willingly gave up complete control over the site's direction for a more democratic approach, and look where it got us. Oh well, it's only been a week, and I'm having fun playing the stuff I like (even if I'm going to have to go back to paying for the 50% of my games).
Work has been reasonably tough. I enjoy the challenge, but I find I'm getting frustrated with my own inability to remember everything and continually make the same small mistakes which destroy an entire afternoon's work. My manager took a month off - I wasn't really that phased when he announced it, but by the end of the week I knew I'd be glad to have a superior back. Two junior accountants in charge of 300 clients just doesn't seem...smart.
The relationship front is flawed. I managed to ask two girls out in September, and both said yes. But wait, they each decided to cancel before the date - the second one not deciding to do so until about 10 minutes before! I'm finding that I'm highly incompatible with the majority of women - it's not a case of not having the confidence like it used to be, now it's more the fact that they bore me to tears. The number of people who think that the focal point of their existing being clubbing and shopping somehow constituting "a life" is seriously disturbing. Moderation, my thumbless friends.
I'm really beginning to need a holiday. I keep extending my hours to fit in more study for my exam on the 26th, not to mention make up for my stuff ups. A holiday would clear the brain and allow me to de-stress. Closest thing I have is a Friday off on the 27th, which I'll be using to make visits to friends. I'm beginning to think a trip to Sydney to see some long-time net buddies is back on the cards. |
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| Another quickie |
[Jun. 24th, 2006|12:03 pm] |
30th of June is a pretty hectic time in Financial Planning, made more hectic by the database conversion I have to complete before June 30 due to the fact I'm being transferred to another division. So I'm a little tired, and like usual, I've had no time to write. My annual review is this week, and I'm hoping they give me a reasonable payrise, since I'm on an unreasonable salary right now.
On a positive note, it's been five years since I finished chemotherapy. Go me. Feels like a lifetime ago now. On another positive note, I think I've finally met someone nice, but I think it's going to be a pretty long process to get a relationship off the ground, which always seems to be the way things go when I meet a nice girl - I'll meet someone before and be too slow for them, and then try to change my approach only to have to revert to the original one...guh. She's away for a little while which makes me a bit nervous, but it gives me time to work on a few things.
The PALGN stuff..I was discussing buying a half share of the site recently and decided not to go through it after I wasn't comfortable with the high legal costs for such a small acquisition...but it looks like that might blow up in my face. Site is still doing well - it topped 195,000 unique users for the month of E3, but I still think we've got some minor quality assurance and management issues.
I've bought a shitload of DVDs and games lately and need some time to play them. I catalogued my family's entire DVD library recently, and have had to turn to a random number generator to select what to watch from my list of unwatched movies/series. I'm not taking any time off until the end of the year, but I think I can get through my backlog of movies progressivley like I did with my writing backlog (which is clear for the first time in 9 months). |
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| Quickie |
[Jun. 6th, 2006|06:13 pm] |
Hardly anyone, if no-one reads this thing, but nevertheless, here's an update.
- Work
- Work away from work
Moving out of financial planning at the end of the month - they're getting two people to replace me, which I find funny because there's not even enough work for one of me. Does that suggest that I'm totally awesome, or are they just expecting more work...
PALGN's doing well, almost too well. Some big developments will be happening there in the next 12 months. Honestly, I need a weekend off from it though, so I'll be using the long weekend to relax for once. I wouldn't mind seeing my friends, since it's been three months again. |
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| Level up |
[May. 19th, 2006|09:31 pm] |
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I received notice of my appointment as an Associate Member of CPA Australia. Go me. |
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| Busy |
[May. 12th, 2006|08:27 pm] |
Between work and E3, I've had no time this week. I've been shocked and wowed all over the place, from the return of Nintendo, to the shock of Sony's PS3 price and the tax cuts (the changes to superannuation are a really big deal), I don't think I've had so much happen in one week for a long time. I've been on a lot of solicitor's trust audits lately, and I can see myself having to take over responsibility for them one day, but they're the least stressful type of audit (provided you do them correctly, otherwise the QLD Law Society bashes the door down) so I can tolerate it.
My CPA application is in the mail - should get notification of my Associate status in the next month. Found out that the firm will pay the full costs of the program, which saves me about four grand. Been looking at other post-CPA study options; turns out the CPA modules count as credit towards an MBA at Deakin, which I'm now considering, though I may just set about building up other skills, namely Japanese and other languages. |
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| Weekend |
[Apr. 23rd, 2006|09:50 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass | ] |
Another weekend at a close. Quite depressing really.
I'm beginning to get restless with working all week, only to use my weekends for a completely different sort of work. I got two reviews done today at a little over 1,000 words a piece - not my best work, but not my worst. I'm beginning to think that we need to bring an editor with a better grasp of the English language than either myself or Brendan. Maybe something to do when PALGN is eventually incorporated (which I need to discuss with James one day). Current urgent review backlog is five, with two of those titles still due to arrive (lousy AusPost). Current low-priority review backlog is at 47. Today also marked my 150th review for PALGN - at 1,000 words minimum per article, that's an awful lot. Not as big as the old GameCube Guide, but that's taken me three and a half years to write (and weighs in at 350 pages).
One of the financial planners gave me some work to do for him tomorrow, and I can't remember for the life of me what it was, other than it involved sending a fax and calling or requesting something. Hopefully I'll remember when I see the file. Called my uncle on Friday to get his CPA #, he wasn't in at 9 when I called, and never returned my message, so I'm gonna have to chase after him too. Apparently I need to get a copy of my degree for the HR files too - might as well take the academic record along too and photocopy it for the CPA application.
Dad and I briefly discussed investment strategy this morning - he seems bent on making me a director of his obsolete medical company, and then turning it into an investment company. He mentioned something about gold futures and either making a lot of money or losing a lot of money. It'd be nice to be able to retire at 50 :) |
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| Ikuze! San! Ni! Ichi! |
[Apr. 12th, 2006|06:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | productive | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 175R - Melody | ] |
Had my probation review today, HR guy reinterated how happy the partners are with my performance, and the guy who was in charge of my training gave me a solid report (no "excellents" from him, but an excellent overall from the HR guy :P). Needless to say, my job is now entirely secure, so I celebrated by picking up my credit cards from the bank and letting myself buy something (since I have to do that to get them authorised).
This week, I finally made the decision regarding my professional development. I'll be joining CPA Australia very shortly, and starting the CPA Program in June. Tack another set of letters on to my name :) I had previously wished to join the ICAA, given the higher level of prestige the organisation carries, but in reality, our firm is headed away from being a CA firm, with all but two accountants either training to be a CPA or a fully qualified CPA. Should I decide to defect after completing my professional development, I am told that I will only need to complete the exams of the CA Program. The CA Program is meant to be a lot harder, requires travel to Brisbane fortnightly and of course, has freaking group assignments. I've had enough group assignments for one lifetime.
PALGN-wise, things are very cruisy. Decent increase in site traffic for March, forum joins are continuing well (should pass 4,000 registered users this month), and article views remain solid, well, outside of the bug that James set off when mingling with the backend. I've given myself far too many articles to write over the Easter break, but by Tuesday, I should have no backlog for the first time since September. The good thing about being active on the site is that my writing ability in other areas (see: reports at work) also improves - my reports were slipping a little recently, but my boss came out to see me and commended me on the quality of the superannuation brochure I wrote for him. Go me. |
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| Monthly update |
[Apr. 3rd, 2006|09:04 pm] |
For the five folks that read this thing.
Well, my time as an auditor has drawn to a close. I'm pretty stoked about it - they ended up deciding to move me up to financial planning 3 months earlier than anticipated, and the partners have all been showering me with praise. I've only been in financial planning for a day, but must say that it feels a little weird not being completely frustrated at work.
PALGN is still going strong, but my enthusiasm for it is see-sawing. It's actually making a profit, but I'll never see a dime of it. It's also worth noting that a friend of mine was just the featured story on Australian Story on the ABC - haven't seen him since the incident (when we tried to visit him at the hospital, we were turned away several times), but it brought back a lot of good memories, and it was nice seeing him able to do the thing he loves once again. |
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| Pondering |
[Feb. 9th, 2006|08:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Foo Fighters - Resolve | ] |
It's quite a dilemma, that of the working person. Many of us work in order to get money to do things we like, yet working takes that time away for us, leaving precious little time for anything else. I don't mind my job, but it's not what I expected. Lets just say that I feel that many bookkeepers and bursers do an especially lousy job, and it makes my life harder, to the point where I am ready to shower them with praise when they do something right (when it should be expected that they do it right in the first place!). I know that auditing is what they use to test the mettle of those who want to be accountants, so all I've got to do is stick with it until June, when they've said I'll be moving into financial planning. Funnily enough, I don't really have anything to do with the money I'm earning; no girlfriend, no debt, and I'm not buying any games at the moment, so it's just piling up.
In other news, my 'Easy Mode' column is now exceeding 10,000 readers every fortnight. That kicks serious ass, because the first edition I wrote received a paltry 200 readers. Still lending a hand to the editorial side of things at PALGN, but while everyone still thinks I'm leading the charge from the front lines, I feel like more of a guidance figure than a leader. Oh well, I still do a lot of the grunt work, and enjoy it more now that I'm not doing it all of the time. |
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| It is done. |
[Dec. 18th, 2005|08:43 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
Collected my degree on Friday - the graduation ceremony was actually quite impressive. A lot of effort goes into assuring everything goes smoothly, and the production values are quite higher than I expected. My folks were quite proud, they bought me a briefcase as a graduation present (very swish). In hindsight, I probably should have asked some friends to come along to yell and cheer when I collected my cylinder, but nonetheless, I was very happy at the way things have turned out as of late. Work starts in two weeks. |
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| Believe the hype. |
[Nov. 30th, 2005|03:20 pm] |
As of today, I am a university graduate. I receive my Bachelor of Commerce on the 16th. It doesn't end there.
As the ink was drying on my final exam (two weeks ago), I was offered a job as a graduate accountant, which I promptly accepted. That starts on January 3rd.
I'm ever so chuffed, as one tends to be when things go their way. Now, I can focus my attention on finding the final piece of the puzzle, wherever she may be... |
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| Not long now. |
[Oct. 18th, 2005|10:11 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  lonely | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Foo Fighters - Best of You | ] |
In exactly one month, I will have completed my undergraduate studies. Yes, it will rock.
There are obstacles, such as the amount of study I will need to do to guarentee my results are the best I can achieve, but I am confident that I will make it through at the end of the day.
I recently completed my 100th review for PALGN too, which is quite an achievement, with each article ranging from 1000-2500 words in length. Writing so many articles for the site in quick proximitity is good for the mind - it did take me a lot longer to get back into the swing of helping out on the site, but it is certainly easier now with the publishers supporting us (free games, ner :P) and more active staff. The benefits of writing such volume can leak out into other parts of life too. I've also re-launched my fortnightly column on the site, and the latest version should break the 3,000 hit mark. It's a little more bloggy, but I keep my personal life out of it, and only discuss gaming issues.
I've been doing my best to exercise for around an hour six times a week, and I have generally felt great as a result, but the past two days I've lost the motivation, and have felt quite lousy. This could be due to the fact that I've spent the last five weeks in this house alone, with virtually no human contact outside of university and phone conversations. I'll be happy when my parents return on Sunday.
Guess I'll post another entry in a month. |
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| Leaving Brisbane |
[Aug. 15th, 2005|08:48 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Megadriver - Guitar Ninja | ] |
My lease expired 2 weeks ago, and my friends decided to renew, but I had made a conscious decision during my exam study that I'd be moving back home. So, September 4th is the last day I'll be here, and I don't really intend on travelling too much more - I've been on the Warrego Highway so much in the last 5 years, I'm just fucking sick of it. Still, I'll have ~20 trips to make down for university related matters, so it's not over yet. Toowoomba seems to be offering greater opportunities in the accounting field - one firm has already expressed interest in me, they claim that male UQ Commerce graduates are in short supply, and I'll get snapped up quickly. It did help that I was the sole pursuant of the fabled "clean house" while living here. I knew my friends were a bit lazy, but now I know of a new kind of lazy, one that I lack the apathy to be able to match. The only major downside is losing my unlimited^ DSL, but my parents have it now, so I'm not going to have to go back to dial-up.
Graduation is within my grasp - I've started my final semester...sort of. I can't seem to commit to doing the work I need to do each week, let alone making study notes. I swore I'd crack down this week. |
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| Another update |
[Jul. 7th, 2005|01:54 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Megadriver - Concrete Jungle (Streets of Rage) | ] |
The semester is over, hurrah. The exam period was tough - I realised my memory retention wasn't as good as previously thought, so I studied really quite hard. I hit burnout point on the day before my Corporations Law exam after having studied 50 hours in the previous four days, a feat I never wish to have to accomplish again. Most of my exams were bunched together in a three day period. When it was over on the Thursday, I ended up having a few drinks and watching Star Wars with a friend, before sleeping for something in the order of 16 hours. Sleep was something I thoroughly enjoyed over the last week and a half, moreso than usual.
My enthusiasm for PALGN returned during the study period, perhaps as an attempt at procrastination. Writing there is paying off, with plenty of free games coming my way. The future looks bright for the project, but I can't discuss things here for legal reasons.
The university results were released yesterday - passed everything, and even got a distinction in maths, thus proving that laziness was the only reason I didn't pass it at high school.
Currently overwhelmed by games to play and write about, but I'll be taking a bit of time out on the weekend to go to the Valley to meet some people...whee
Moving back to Toowoomba in September now that I don't have to go to uni every day - two weeks after I move back, I have five weeks of living by myself while the rest of the family goes to Europe. |
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| 3 Monthly Update |
[May. 12th, 2005|02:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Miles Davis - Willy Nelson (Insert 2) | ] |
I excel at ignoring my LJ for months at a time, mainly because nobody reads it.
My life is pretty standardised. I wake up, feed the cat, have a shower, go to university til around 2pm, come home, watch whatever I've torrented recently until 10pm, and then I go to sleep. Repeat 5 times a week.
- I now have DSL, go me.
- I now kick ass at Maths.
- Been ever so busy lately, with exams and family commitments, I have had absolutely no time to myself.
- Jord, my roommate, is a slob. His lack of basic human decency defies belief.
- 81% on Maths M/S, 52% on External Reporting Issues M/S and 68% on Stats A M/S. Could have done done better in the Accounting, but I am happy across the board - these are not easy subjects.
- I'm beginning to tire of the cat. Normally, we get along fine, but today he's been trying to claim my bed for the last few hours, so I had to smack him.
- Had a job interview recently - it went well, they said they'd definitely call, but they haven't yet.
- Finals approaching, they're going to send me nuts.
- Back to writing for PALGN here and there, but I lack the enthusiasm I presented in my reign as Editor.
- Barbecue tomorrow night - I enjoy a good feed at someone else's expense. |
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| Quick Update |
[Feb. 10th, 2005|09:58 am] |
I've settled in down in Brisbane rather smoothly, though not everything is going the way I would have liked. My internet connection barely works - not entirely a bad thing right now, as I am getting plenty of other stuff done, but it could be bad once uni starts. Currently at home visiting the parents, will probably leave for Brisbane before midday. Other than one or two small problems (people not doing their share of work, or not having transfered accounts when they moved out), living in Brisbane has proved to be pretty damn fine so far.
Ended my game buying drought last Thursday - the official count was 60 days, which isn't too bad considering the wealth of releases during the first half of that period. Getting a little worrysome that I've bought 3 games in the last 7 days though, and will probably buy another two before the month finishes.
Going to start looking for a part time job - while my parents support is very generous, I don't like being constrained by a meagre income, especially when everyone I know is pulling in double (or more) what I am paid in a week. Getting a part time job now would probably be beneficial towards getting full time work for July (which I need, because my support dries up in August).
This will probably be it til I sort out my internet connection woes. |
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| Recovery |
[Jan. 23rd, 2005|11:39 am] |
Went to Dan and Ann-Maree's wedding last night, got absolutely wasted, which I am regretting right now. Change of plans with moving arrangements - Jord is staying, so my brother won't be moving in, which is probably a good thing. Going to start moving stuff down on Friday.
I think I might quit drinking for good. |
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