Google Reader phasing out support for older browsers

i guess i must have missed this announcement: Phasing out support for older browsers - Google Reader Help

sure i've been prompting to upgrade whenever i used google reader from work (yep, still on IE6 there...), but i took that as a suggestion/recommendation rather than a warning of impending cessation of support.

oh well. less distractions i suppose. though viewing it on my phone probably takes more time...

or i could start taking in my own netbook (+ byo internet connectivity) like i've seen some others in my office do!

the ATA decorations

we had our site ATA presentation last week (representatives from the ATA came to view our entry to the ATA awards), and there was much activity from the teams putting up their decorations, which created an interesting tension between the need to service phone calls (after all, we are a call centre and we're there to answer phone calls) and the need(?) to complete the decorations in time...

my work was pretty hectic and i didn't manage to see the results until after the event. as i was on overtime duty this weekend i brought my camera to take some shots of the decorations that were still up - unfortunately most of the stuff in my section (with the star wars theme) had been removed by then.

well, i recently found out how to embed picasa web album slideshows in blogger, so am giving it a whirl :)

[edit 20070526] have just found out that there's an easier way to embed album slideshows, direct from picasa web album. slightly less functionality but less fuss... should have just read the help file from the get go :p
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related posts: darth vader's many siblings

darth vader's many siblings

because we (meaning my workplace) were a state winner last year, we're in the running again for the 2007 ATA (australian teleservices association) awards. the various teams in the call centre have been assigned themes for decorating their work area - this time round movie titles were picked out of a hat, and my current area drew "star wars". one of my colleagues brought in a toy lightsaber (with sound effects) and a darth vader helmet and accompanying gizmo that emits authentic darth vader noises and quotes, as well as modifying your speech to make you sound like the masked heavy breather. another colleague was playing with it, and i happened to bring my camera to work that day, so shot a little clip:

could he be darth vader's long lost brother??!!

for a dose of video fun starring darth vader's "real" brother, check out "chad vader: day shift manager" by blame society productions. it's a fan film series featuring the less well-known brother of darth vader, a guy who works as a day shift manager in a supermarket. the episodes follow his run-ins with colleagues and his boss, and his lacklustre love life. episode 8, which is supposed to bring season 1 to a close, is rumoured to be released this coming week...

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related posts: sorry dr. spin, i'd like a second opinion please

effortless improvement!

six months ago, i submitted an application for a role. i was told that my written application was quite badly done, and that i barely scraped through for the practical assessment. in the end, i made it to the order of merit, but was ranked fairly low in the pecking order.

a few weeks ago another round of application for the same role was conducted by the same person, using the same job description, selection criteria, and application format. i was on leave overseas at the time, so my superior (the one conducting the EOI - expression of interest) sent me my previous application for review. in the end i was unable to write a new application by the deadline, so i SMSed him to say if he can accept my previous submission then please do so, otherwise i would sit out from consideration.

this is the response i received today [with specific details removed]:

Thank you for your Expression of Interest in the [...] position within [...]. The position attracted a high quality pool of applicants and having considered all the applications [sic] advise you that, in this instance, you have been rated as "Fully Effective". Higher Duties will continue on a short term basis pending a permanent selection process.

We wish to thank you for the time and effort you put into preparing your application.

If feedback on your application is required please let me know.

Thankyou

so, by spending no time and effort on preparing my application (since i was reusing my previous one), i had managed to go from "barely scraped in" to "fully effective"! anybody want me to write their next job application?? ;)

(of course, there's a bit more beneath the surface which goes some way to explaining this farcical situation. hence i didn't bother asking for feedback. i'm actually not very good at writing job applications :p)

remarkable customer service

"I'm using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark."

so says joel in a recent article on the topic of customer service. i guess i'm not ignorant of the theories and principles in customer service, as mostly covered in the 7 steps joel expounds in the article. having worked in various customer service roles for some time now, i am much more aware of the occasional good and often ordinary or sometimes bad customer service that i receive as a customer - but i can't say that i set out to provide remarkable customer service. maybe because i'm getting rather sick of my current role, and because the 8th step to providing customer service seems to be somewhat lacking in my workplace...

and maybe if customer service staff were given the freedom to provide customer service without the constraints of having their performance measured by average call handling times and the like. one colleague, when asked by a customer as to what it's like to work here, answered:

"I have two words for you: battery hens."

i thought it was funny. if only it didn't sometimes feel too true!

sorry dr. spin, i'd like a second opinion please

so we (as in my workplace) took home some prizes in the recent ATA state awards. personally i couldn't really care less, other than the fact that it meant even fewer people on the phones taking calls (because they were busy putting up decorations and preparing for the judges site visit etc) when we are already understaffed. which just means more calls for the rest of us... joy.

what i really found amusing was this quote which appeared in a recent internal newsletter. it comes from a senior person from our site, who reportedly said the following in relation to our wins:

the excitement is palpable and the entire centre is ecstatic to the point where they haven't even noticed that there is a peak workload - they're just attacking it with renewed energy.

that's funny. maybe i'm blind (or just cynical :p) but i noticed no palpable excitement of any kind from a centre level, nor was/is there any ecstacy or renewed energy.

the peak workload? that i do see. i'm just glad that i've been put on temporary "higher duties" which takes me off the phones, and i'm hoping to ride this wave for as long as it lasts.

it's a very different looking hive depending on whether you speak to the queen bee or the worker bee...

speeding towards redemption and rest

i got a chance to redeem my poor sporting efforts in the last day of competition at the workplace commonwealth games, teaming with a more senior member of my team to take out silver in our pool at the "swimming" - basically a relay race on foot wearing goggles, a swimming cap, and with one of those foam "noodle" flotation devices between our legs. despite a nearly botched changeover (my teammate's glasses got caught up in the headwear when he was taking them off) and a false finish (i forgot to run back to the starting point to complete the last leg of the race), i managed to outdash another team who made the same mistake at the penultimate stop, squeezing in for a silver medal finish.

and while we were waiting for competitors to assemble at the muster point, i had a few more practice throws at the darts ("archery" event from day 3 of competition) and to my chagrin was having much more success landing them (and having them stick) on the scoreboard... maybe with better preparation, we might not have come last overall... maybe we could have been a contender :p

then on saturday night, after a long day out, i was finally headed home after another false start (forgot to take something back with me, so had to double back). looking forward to some much needed sleep, i drove past a speed camera unit on the way. i saw it as i approached, checked my speed, eased off the accelerator (i was a bit over the limit), and cruised by, thinking i was safe, only to notice a flash of light from behind as i passed by. there were no other cars around in either direction that were near enough for me to think that the flash was intended for me - guess i'll have to wait and see if the postman brings me a fine delivery in the next few weeks...

when i got home, i saw this video, a meditation on the speed limit, waiting as a headline on my rss reader. bemused at the apparent irony of the title, i watched it, thinking it was going to further chastise my conscience about obeying the laws of the land etc etc. but it was actually setting out to show how the laws are stupid (not that i necessarily agree on that point), through staging a "stunt" involving having a group of cars bunched up and travelling together, at the speed limit, across the width of a motorway, and seeing the reaction of other motorists. a remark by one of the guys involved in the video was somewhat striking - he said something to the effect of "we were dangerous, but we were dangerous because we were doing the speed limit".

speaks volumes about the rest of the drivers on the road, doesn't it?

sporting sob stories

in light of the current commonwealth games, my workplace has put on a little competition of its own between the various teams in our area. each team had to adopt a commonwealth nation, and send two representatives to compete in each of 5 modified sports.

after 2 other team members claimed bronze in the first day of competition, i was up next in "netball" and "archery" over the last two days. netball was really a toy basketball hoop thing, and archery a toy/velcro darts set.

i sucked. big time.

out of 3 practice shots and 4 actual shots in the basketball, i probably airballed half and barely managed to hit the rim or backboard with the rest. so the balls were terribly light and the ring rather small... and most people struggled so i didn't feel *too* bad at scoring zero for my efforts.

today in the darts, i had about 4 practice throws and 3 actual scoring shots... i don't know how the others did it (i think everyone outscored me by a significant amount) but most of my thrown darts went tumbling through the air, failing to hit the board head first and just bouncing off! my only scoring shot was hanging off on one or two velcro hooks, dangling very precariously and threatening to fall off... but it didn't, so at least i didn't walk away with nothing.

so thanks to my very paltry efforts, our team is running a very distant last 3/5 of the way into the comp. i'm not usually a very competitive person but doing this badly (even in a competition i don't care much for) has me shaking my head... oh well, guess i should stick to doing what i'm paid to do...

swings and roundabouts - part 1

that's the term a colleague used to describe the movement of staff at work... we were talking about the situation in which i found myself just over a week ago. shortly before christmas, a few of us in our usual business line (BSL1) were approached with an opportunity for "development" - a temporary deployment, to a different business line (BSL2), to begin after the new year. it was meant to last 3 months.

while working in BSL2, those of us from BSL1 noticed how busy BSL1 seemed to be. in order to not breach a client service standard, a practice known as "callbacks" is employed whenever the waiting time for clients ringing in looks likely to reach the 10 minute mark. this practice involves answering the call for the sole purpose of arranging a return call at a later time - the theory being that this gets through a large number of calls fairly quickly, thus reducing the overall queue wait time. many dislike this practice, as it is typically seen as a bureaucratic means to be able to say that the service standard was not breached (since the call - though not necessarily the question - was answered within 10 minutes). usually callbacks only happen during our peak season. this was not peak season, yet callsbacks were occurring on a daily basis, and multiple times each day. those of us on deployment were glad to not be part of that action.

then there were rumours that our deployment would be extended for another few months, because BSL1 had to cut staff numbers (budgetary constraints) and were busy deploying staff elsewhere. nobody could quite fathom how this would help with the call load situation. then we (the deployed staff), along with other normal BSL2 staff, started being told to assist BSL1 by taking some of BSL1's calls. this became a daily routine - sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for the whole day. it made absolutely no sense - take someone from BSL1, move them over to BSL2, but still have them effectively work for BSL1. the cynics will say this too is a budgetary thing... since our time is being paid for out of BSL2's funds.

then came the official announcement that yes, our stay would be extended.

before the morning was over, this changed. now, instead of staying on another 3 months, we would be going back to BSL1 three weeks ahead of schedule! and so, as quickly and unexpectedly as it all started, it has now ended. i've been back for 1 week, and i can't say it feels good to be home.

my mind of its own

pre-script: the photo below has no relevance to the text, other than a tenuous link via the word 'thoughts/thots' being the sole excuse for displaying a pic i took on my recent trip :p

how quickly the joys of a relatively relaxing holiday fade into the background, as a return to old habits of sleep deprivation snap back into place and the constant tiredness reclaims its stake.

*sigh*

to make things worse, i've been on training most of this week, as i'm on deployment to another business line for the next 3 months. when things are busy (as it has been for the past 6 months) i don't get a chance to switch my mind off during work and to feel the tiredness except for the involuntary yawns. sitting in training is a different matter... in the constant battle to stay awake and alert, i'm sure that half the information has either never made it into my ears, or has only passed through as a fleeting fog. i feel like i've retained so little, and can only look forward to struggling with incompetence and lack of understanding once i start answering queries.

tried to make up for it by taking an afternoon nap yesterday, which actually turned into a 3 hour sleep! not sure if it was that which made it difficult to sleep later that night (or should i say earlier this morning... :$) i tossed and turned, my mind being rather uncooperative in resting from the thoughts it was engrossed with pursuing.

then i overslept this morning, and rushed to get to work on time. felt reasonably ok in the morning, but by the afternoon session my mind had wandered a world away from what i was supposed to be learning. perhaps it was the recent reacquainting with a few tadashi maekawa poems i had read a few years back (a trip down memory lane courtesy of checking my sitemeter referral logs, which showed that someone had found my post by searching for the book in which i saw these translated poems), coupled with an old poem of mine i recently revisited, and the sleepless thoughts of the night before, which produced the rather unexpected situation of my drifting mind suddenly coming up with the rough draft of a new poem! thought i'd better get some of the words down on paper before it all drifts away, and work on refining it when my mind is more awake.

or perhaps it will come together more when i head for bed tonight :p

christmas quiz

i entered a christmas themed quiz at work, and won first prize! don't know what the prize is yet... might find out tomorrow. my submission wasn't as creative as the effort from a 'smart' colleague, whose anti-answers i found funny :)

1. What is 'Santa Claus' called in:
   
   1. The Netherlands.
      Santa Van Den Claus
      
   2. Italy.
      Papa Giuseppe Claus
      
   3. Spain?
      Santo Clauso (Basil Fawlty told me that)
   
   
2. What were the gifts received in the Australian version of the Twelve days of Christmas?
   12 cold stubbies
   
   
3. Why is December 26 known as Boxing Day?
   That's the day we have the boxing matches with family members who annoyed us at Christmas lunch and gave us stupid presents
   
   
4. I want to buy a candle for each member of my family. I want to get them each the same size, and they come in three sizes priced at $2, $3 and $5. I need a candle for Mum, Dad, Gary, Breanna, Jessey and Bob, but I only have $22. Which size candle should I buy?
   Christmas day is hot and there is a total fire ban in force, no candles
   
   
5. When were Christmas lights first used on Christmas trees?
   
   1. 1930.
      
   2. 1909.
      
   3. 1882.
   Clark Griswald first used lights on a Christmas Tree in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
   
   
6. How many spirits appeared to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas carol'?
   If Ebenezer Scrooge is having visions, I'd say there were lots of sprits involved but most likely whiskey
   
   
7. In 1974, one Australian city had a miserable Christmas experience because of a disaster. What was the city and the disaster?
   Melbourne - was the boxing day test rained out? That's pretty miserable
   
   
8. What is the name of the Australian Christmas carol that has the line "Racing Santa Claus in the blazing sun"?
   Santa Claus racing in the blazing sun
   
   
9. When is Advent Sunday?
   the day after Advent Saturday
   
   
10. Where did Rudolph come from?
    
    1. He was created by a department store employee as a promotional gimmick.
       
    2. Henry VIII's court jester introduced him to Christmas folklore.
       
    3. A very drunk Christmas reveller rolled into a publishing house dressed as a reindeer – the rest is history.
    Where did Rudolph come from? That's a tricky one. Here goes, when a Mummy Reindeer and a Daddy Reindeer love each other very much……
    
    
11. Which day of the week did Christmas fall on last year?
    It doesn't matter which day of the week Christmas fell on, we had a holiday.
    
    
12. You are trying to wrap a present for your nephew Charlie. The present, a small teddy bear, is in a box that is four inches long by eight inches tall by three inches deep. Which piece of wrapping paper should you use - one that is 16 inches by 10 inches, or one that is 22 inches by seven inches?
    Charlie lives interstate, his mum and dad have to wrap his present. I transferred money into their account to buy it and my work is done.
    
    
13. In which country did the Christmas carol 'Silent Night' originate?
    New Zealand. Have you ever tried to get a beer there on a Sunday Night?
    
    
14. What happened to Christmas in 1647?
    
    1. It was cancelled due to lack of interest.
       
    2. It was made illegal.
       
    3. It became a public holiday.
    In 1647 Christmas was moved to the 18th January 1648 to accommodate the Olympic Games in Tonga.
    
    
15. What were the gifts brought by the Three Wise Men?
    The three wise men brought ties, socks and handkerchiefs
    
    
16. Some people like turkey at Christmas time. If you were hosting a dinner and each person eats 300grams of turkey, how long will it take to cook a turkey for ten people if a turkey should be cooked for one and a half hours per kilogram?
    Mum looks after that sort of stuff.
    
    
17. Why is Santa Claus portrayed as wearing red and white?
    
    1. A Coca Cola ad showed him in these colours to fit their branding.
       
    2. To represent the white of snow and the red of berries.
       
    3. So children can see him as he flies through the sky.
    He's jumping on the Sydney Swans bandwagon
    
    
18. From where did 'Good King Wenceslas' hail?
    Good King Wenceslas hailed from the castle - all kings live in castles
    
    
19. What plant is traditionally hung in doorways at Christmas time?
    after a few too many cold ones over lunch, it seems like every plant in the world is in the doorway as you stumble onto the verandah then down the steps, sprawling into the front yard on your way home.
    
    
20. When was 25 December first celebrated as the birth of Christ?
    
    1. From the day he was born.
       
    2. From AD 440.
       
    3. From 1634.
    25 December was first celebrated as the birth of Christ in the 20th century when everybody realised it was perfectly positioned the day before the boxing day test at the MCG.
    

the journey of 10000 steps...

begins with the first.

my workplace is participating in the 10000 steps challenge, and i have joined a team at work. went and bought myself a pedometer and i'm now counting my steps :) don't think i'll quite hit that 10000 per day mark though, even with my walking to and from work.

funny to think that less than a week ago i was seriously thinking about giving up this walking thing. been walking to/from work for the past 5 months, and it's been ok in the cooler weather. now that it's warming up though, i'm not liking the idea (which turns into reality all too often) of arriving at work on the wrong side of hot and sweaty. plus i've never been keen on exposing myself to the sun too much - and my ~25 min walks is definitely a much higher continuous dosage of UV than i'm happy with. so i was tossing up options like

• starting later so i can drive and park in the adjacent shopping centre once their general parking areas are open (which some people do, but technically we're not supposed to...), or
  
• borrowing access to the shopping centre's staff car park, or
  
• starting and leaving home much earlier to get a spot in the car park at work (tossed this option cos i value my sleep too much to wake up any earlier, esp. seeing as i never get enough as it is), or
• go back to paying for nearby parking (the kind my conscience need not worry about :p), or
  
• starting a bit later to better time the local bus - the one that only comes once in a while, and whose punctuality can't be relied on even though it's at the start of the route! so by the time i wander to the bus stop, spend my time waiting, and finally get to my stop... i pretty much may as well have walked the whole way and saved myself $2

so, essentially it boils down to: what price my physical comfort?

anyhow, now that i'm doing this steps thing, i guess i'll stick to walking. and since i always carry an umbrella in my bag, i suppose i could use it for shade as well as shelter from rain. it's just that i can't stop the pictures in my mind of me strolling with a parasol... *shudder*

another thing i can't get out of my head in relation to this emphasis on walking is the song 500 miles - originally by the proclaimers, and covered by steven curtis chapman on his "all about love" album. it's not a song that i'd have thought belongs on a "christian" album about love, but MB's (SCC's wife) comments in the liner notes sheds new light on its lyrics:

... it celebrates in such a fun way what I know to be true of our commitment to each other. What a wonderful gift it is to know in confidence that the man I'm married to is the man who will be "growing old with me".

speedreader i am not

i remember getting flyers for speedreading courses when i was in uni. never could be bothered forking out the $$ to up my reading speed, and always a bit skeptical about being able to comprehend/retain information when reading at high speeds. sometimes i wished i had the skills...

there's too much to read and not enough time to read it all. maybe i need to be a lot more selective. just like when i got a bit excited about a recent discovery (from which i decided to follow the blog of a person who i actually saw in real life a week or so later), tonight i've clicked my way to singapore and a bunch of christian bloggers there... the trail i followed (aka stuff i want to read, but not so fast that it goes in one eye and out the other!):

• gracenotworks (new "issue" just released)
• christ hacks (see here for explanation of what this is -- cool idea what)
• associated material from christ hack's contributors, eg. singapore living, which looks like it has some good stuff to explore before my next visit to the island nation (but err... i'm from an island nation too...)

meanwhile i think i'll go ahead with the 30 days of prayer during ramadan, which kicks off today. hmm... that actually seems like a good idea/contribution for christ hacks, might try and get a submission in :p

- - - - -

work bites. days are long. breaks are few and running on bare minimum. i want out of peak. badly.

but i did have the pleasure of telling one client today that they are getting a small refund instead of a bill for a few hundred dollars, because two weeks ago something they said triggered a suspicion in my mind which i've been following up, and this eventually resulted in an amendment done to correct an error and making their day. they remembered me, and thanked me for doing my job well. i guess, after all, that is what i'm getting paid to do.

still, i'm glad i don't have to go to work tomorrow - the joys of flex time :) i'm going to sleep in, have a lazy morning, hopefully meet some friends (visiting from overseas, but rather busy/packed schedule wise) for lunch, and set up the 5.1 speakers i lugged back from sydney more than a month ago. but i should probably take care of doing my tax return before indulging in too much play...

- - - - -

p.s. yeah... 90 mins later i'm still up... adding a "small world" update -- just discovered that one of christ hack's contributors seems to be friends with a guy who i knew from church here (when he was here for uni). shouldn't be too surprised cos i'm pretty sure they all go to the same church in sg. ok head starting to hurt. must sleep before i find even more things to add to my reading list!

relevant humour

yes it's still peak. no i don't like it (and there's nothing like having just taken a holiday to make the daily facing up to the busyness of work that much less joyous). this comic from a mass forward at least raised a timely chuckle...

having said that, i haven't actually purchased any petrol since late june! and that was still back in the day of being below $1.05 a litre. imagine that...

All that iS

Should I run and hide,
or stand up and fight?
I'm totally confused
with the maybe and might,
plus the ifs, buts, et al -
just wanna do what is right.
Though not by my own sight
but in line with God's light.

- - - - -

i don't know if it's the fact i haven't had enough sleep, or that i'm distracted by certain thoughts occupying my mind, or maybe it's just not my day. work was a frustrating drag, even with two more breaks than i was expecting. seems like i had an unusually high ratio of long, teeth-gritting, fist-clenching, bury face in hands type of calls. was also a late finish, and i decided to treat myself to a bus ride home rather than walk it. sometimes it's just the little things that help... (as well as being the things that can get to you!)

i'm so glad i have some leave and holidays coming up - hope the time away helps to relieve some of this tension... or help me regain some perspective in a "turn your eyes upon Jesus" kind of way. things don't always turn out the way i want/hope, and the unknown is typically quite murky, but it's good to know and be reminded every now and then that i'm not in control :p

is it ironic that what should be reassuring can be frustrating as well? hmm...

slowness

writing selection criteria always seems to take too long... i guess it doesn't help if you spent half the night playing head-to-head games on msn messenger (and getting a bit of a whooping in bejeweled) :p oh well, it's been ages since yung and i played, so it was a good bit of fun...

i'm trying very hard to apply the STAR principle in address the selection criteria. i also tailored my resume and used lots of "action words". it's due in about 15.5 hours... between now and then i have another example and the covering letter to write up, plus face a longish and likely-to-be-busy-again day at work, oh and some sleep would be nice too.

i'm doing all this because this is a good opportunity (i think?) to move into a role that will involve more admin and (a lot) less time spent on/chained to the phones. plus it's a higher level role, and it'll probably mean i get to work in the city - don't know if that last one is a good thing, but at least i'm likely to have more opportunity to meet/see friends for lunch and the like.

ok enough procrastinating... come on brain, stay with me!

breath of a hog

so i've heard some things about these hog's breath cafe joints over the years, but have never ever actually been to one. that is, until tonight.

took the day off work (i like having flex :D) to attend the day session of BBT, and had dinner with my team (plus some partners, and our team manager) at a local hoggies to celebrate the end of our probation period.

had myself a medium steak (i'm never very confident about ordering steak) which turned out to be quite nice :)

found out that my team manager is only a few months older than the youngest person in our team! that made me feel old...

went to a nearby bar/club after dinner, and i got carded. that made me feel (or at least feel like i still look) young :p

Ohnosecond

That silent moment it takes for you to realise you've just made a VERY BIG mistake.

- - - - -

above "workplace definition" spotted recently in an internal newsletter at work. speaking of which, it's been a bit busier last few days, and for some reason i seem to be taking longer with my calls, and occasionally giving out wrong/incorrect advice or failing to observe set protocols for call handling... hence the ohnosecond which kinda happens after hanging up, or the delayed onset variety where i find out later i did something wrong.

bleh. and it's budget night tonight, which probably means we'll get swamped tomorrow...

been walking to and from work too, given that the cost of my current parking arrangement has recently undergone a 180% hike! more environmentally (and personal health?) friendly... that's what i tell myself :p

- - - - -

more definitions...

Salmon Day – The experience of spending all day swimming upstream only to get screwed and end up dead.

Percussive Maintenance – The fine art of whacking the life out of an electronic device to get it to work.

Adminisphere – The management layers which begin just above the rank and file (ie people who do all the work). Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

white collar marksman

a running update since my last entry...

• sisters night 2005 - not without its share of problems, gremlins and just good old miscommunication and lack of adequate preparation, but i thought overall the night went reasonably ok with all the boys pulling together playing different roles (and being different "parts of the body") to make it all happen. i think it's safe to say that our guests had an enjoyable and memorable evening, and both us and them should be thankful to our common Lord for the gift of fellowship made possible through the giving of His Son. and i gotta say it was quite a bit of fun getting into the spirit of things with items like the "k-ci & jojo" ripoff (pictured) and our rendition of the "lord of the tight pants" routine (courtesy of some zany folk at kollaboration.org). can't wait to watch the video :p
  
• entering the public service - a fair few people have been asking me how the new job is going. well i haven't really started working yet, in the sense that i'm still only about one-third of the way through my induction/training program. i've started with 7 other recruits, and so far it's been verging on the information overload plus struggling with consciousness during the less mentally stimulating sessions. i gotta say that i do feel the part somewhat, dressed in my "business attire" and with the photo id (technically it's not an id card, just a building pass) on a neck strap and clipped to the shirt ;) am tentatively looking forward to doing some actual work, but not altogether relishing the thought of a full call centre workload. i'm sure i can hang in there long enough to see a good window to climb out of... and make a vertical or horizontal move away from the phones. well, one step at a time. can't complain too much... it's good pay, good conditions and good location - except for the fact that there's about 200+ carparks for a 1000+ employee office, and the only staff carpark available fills up within 15-20 minutes of opening!
  
• pounding the pavement - so i did a bit of walking (from home to work and vice versa) the first few days, before getting in on a very temporary and tenuous parking arrangement with a nearby restaurant... guess i'll just have to take what i can, when i can! it's a bit warm at the moment and i don't particularly like getting hot and sweaty in my business clothes... plus it doesn't help that my shoes aren't really made for a lot of walking. either that, or my feet have been too spoilt by wearing sports shoes almost every day for the last 4 years! so i decided to give my feet a bit of a treat and cover them with a pair of hush puppies :) so far i'm fairly happy with them :D
  
• ironing - bah... 'nuff said. haven't had to do this on a regular basis since 1999... and i fully regard the return to be a retrograde step :p thank goodness for wrinkle-free shirts, of which i have a few. that, plus casual dress fridays... anything to cut down on my need to "dress up" on a daily basis and to iron shirts. don't really see the point, given that the only people who are going to see much of me during the day are my fellow employees, and some/many of them dress down to varying degrees. i think i'll start sliding that way fairly quickly!

ok this has turned out to be a longer post that i originally thought... gotta stop with my serial late nights and get into a better sleeping pattern (ie getting to bed earlier, and thus getting more sleep). one last comment, since some people (ie. the very select few who actually read my posts :p) have asked me how the sniping is going... it's not. it's like i'm walking down a hallway, trying doors left and right to check the rooms beyond the doors for windows. some rooms are window-less. some rooms have windows but a second look shows them to be barred, or otherwise inaccessible/unusable. then there's the odd room with a window that looks like it could be opened. but once i enter and approach the window, it recedes! so bottom line is... no available windows in sight (and i've resolved to not force any windows). so i wait for a good shot. one bullet - use wisely. that's what snipers do.

there's nothing like...

... a pending move/departure to force you to clean/tidy up :p

i can see a lot more actual desk now!

less than 2 days to go... *tick* *tock*

will be going straight into new job, so no cake-eating break as i had originally hoped. oh well...

only thing is, i think i'm starting to come down with a cold... :S a parting gift from work, perhaps?? :o