woohoo! I finally restocked my food supplies at home. Now I can save on ordering pizzas and takeaway for about 2 weeks maybe. I think I have at least that much food. I'm gonna make japanese curry and nikujaga! But still need a couple more ingredients. I just threw out my soy sauces. I'm really not sure if they expire or not, but it smells kinda dubious. So I'll need to restock that. I'll just get the smaller bottles this time. Since I probably wouldn't end up using them much. I think I'll pick some up tomorrow. Planning to go down city to get a hair cut. Maybe I'll buy a box of instant noodles as well.

Maybe I'll get some proper noodles and some bebola stuff. But the fridge is kinda full for once. Especially the freezer. Frozen food is a must in this household. Hmmm.. I think I better go freeze some of the meat I bought. Wouldn't want it to spoil

Hmmm... I'm forced to take a lunch break at work now. Apparently its illegal to not have a lunch break o_O Sheesh.... what a pain. Now I lose 2 1/2 hours off my weekly pay. Although I could work until 5:30 to make up for that...but can't really be stuffed. Ugh... so annoying

The only good news for today is that my share portfolio is actually displaying a profit! I'm still holding on to almost 1K worth of paper loss from the 1st 2 shares I bought, but everything else I bought after that is well enough to wipe that loss off. Its not a spectacular gain, but a decent result if I consider that the shares I bought using my investment framework are all profitable (for the moment at least, the market is a fickle bitch...)

Same goes for my ASX game portfolio. Not a spectacular result, but its been on the positive since day 1. The leader in the game already made $64K from $50K capital, and I'm far from even making it into the top 100, which is at least $58K. Fatty's theory of having to daytrade like a fuc*wit to achieve those results are way off. The previous newsletter displayed the trading history of the game leaders, and the top guy (or gal) has only made 35 trades over a 2 month period. Thats a fair bit of trading, but not at the level Fatty hints at. The next leader only has 5 trades. So yeah... you don't have to daytrade to win. Ah well... good thing I don't take his advice when it comes to the market. Not that I take any of his advice seriously nowadays...

N.B My 1st 2 trades were done before I determined my trading rules, which is why I said the shares I bought using my framework are all profitable

The problem with applying for work is that more often than not, you can't get an immediate reply. I don't know about other lines of work, but its quite pissy if I'm gunning for higher level IT work. Higher level meaning a role that doesn't involve being a 'PC lou' or 1st Level Tech Support(still a 'PC lou', but chained to phone instead).

Theres been a number of openings for junior IT consultancy work. Apparently, the IT talent in Australia is drying up. There are more companies willing to train graduates up. Both good and bad news to me. Its great there more opportunities for me to get into consultancy. The downside is I'm no spring chicken considering I'm not exactly a graduate anymore. Bah. Just do whatever I can I suppose...

My fingers still feel a bit cacat. Having to do data entry during the day, and coming home to work on the computer isn't exactly contributing to the health of my digits. And blogging about it doesn't help either. What a vicious circle. I think I'll stop now.

Feverish...

I think I caught something from when I went to the doctor yesterday. Woke in the middle of the night shivering, even though its not that cold out. Whole body feels weak and sore as well. Definitely the onset of a fever. Bah...

I took off from work earlier today. Partly cuz I was feeling like crap, and also because I have an interview later at 3.30. Semi-interview...for a semi-job. Going to speak with another recruiter in regards to a part time position as a Helpdesk Analyst. I might not get the job, because the recruiter already mentioned that I probably don't have enough experience, but still worth a shot.

I can't even play WoW in the meantime because servers are down. Arrgghhh! And I can't just go to sleep because of the interview. What a crap day...

something wrong with the picture

I finally got off my ass and went to see the doctor regarding my knee today. Primarily because I've been feeling and looking pretty fat lately. What with my zero exercise for the past 6 months, and my staple diet of a continental breakfast in the morning and pizza at night.

So yeah, I went to see the doc after work, telling him that I want to do kickboxing and stuff again because I want to get some exercise. And after that, I walked into KFC to buy a 2-piece+chips & a pack of wicked wings for dinner. Hmmmmmm.....

Anyway, doc says really can't tell if theres anything else wrong with my knee. I check on fine on the surface, but it will take a MRI to really tell if theres more damage inside. Basically a wait and see approach. He told me I can basically sports and stuff, and if it hurts then he will send me to an orthopedist to get an assessment. Apparently an MRI isn't really covered under Medicare. So I'm going to start swimming again! Soon...

Another blog

I just made another blog for all my geeky stuff. For all my development and random technology stuff. I've really been slack since I haven't done real programming stuff for so long, and each time I restart, theres a learning curve I have to go through. So I figured instead of googling each time I need to find out how to reinstall and configure my apache server, PHP and what not, I can just check my own blog. Who knows, it might even be more popular than this one.

I called the blog Embrace Your Geek. Rather cliche, and not totally accurate either, since it should be embrace your inner geek. That would make the url too long, so stuff that. And its still empty for the moment. Not sure when I'll start writing.

But anyway, what I'll do there is probably put some tutorials and tips on how to set up a web development environment and maybe short reviews on tools and stuff. Maybe even a PHP/mySQL programming article. Theres plenty of that already on the internet, but doing something myself would probably help me learn more. I'm also planning to start writing a share portfolio manager. Start small at first, and maybe I can build it up later on. Theres a couple of those already but it'll be good practice as well.

Lets see if I'll follow through with this, might be too much nonsense to do.

Superpowers: what would you do?

If I had a choice between seeing the future, or being able to travel back in time, time travelling would win hands down. Why? Simply because you just rewind when things don't turn out the way you want. And you can technically 'see' the future as well. Want to win the Lotto? Just find out what the winning numbers are, and then rewind your back in time to buy the ticket. How sweet is that!?

If I could go back in time, maybe I might decide to pay more attention in during university. Or do more related work so that I'm not in so much shit career-wise now. But then again, I could just go back a few years with what I know about the share prices now and become a billionaire trading stocks. Although the easiest way to become filthy rich is just to win the lottery.

Kinda like the movie Groundhog Day, which I think I may blogged about previously. Its still one of my favourite movies in terms on concept. Of course, reliving the same day might get pretty dull after the while. But if its a span of 1-2 years, probably wouldn't be so bad. You can do a lot within that time, and if things don't work out, you just kill yourself and start over. Just like in a game. Sweet.

Ermm.. better get back to work.

as expected, I didn't get the job. Good feedback from interview but not enough industry experience for the job. I already had a feeling about that when I did the interview, but was hoping I could still make it. Aihs, back to the drawing board. I think its already been 6 months since I became semi-unemployed, I don't consider data entry real work, even though I've been doing that for about 2 months. I think its time to reassess my options again. Zzzz... damn annoying

I know what I want, and roughly where I want to end up career-wise. The 2 choices would be a business analyst, or a ERP consultant. Actually get into those fields? Well...6 months and counting should suffice as an answer. I've been thinking that I wouldn't mind getting run over by a car and just dying then and there. Obviously, dying after getting hit by the car is the important. Not becoming a vegetable, semi or otherwise. Incidently, that almost occured a few days back. Almost got run down by some dumb shit when I was using the zebra crossing. I already looked both ways before crossing, and he had more than enough distance to stop. Instead of slowing down, he just sped past when I was halfway across the street. Tiu.

Beary Funny series

A series of CG clips made by a korean mob called RG Studios. Youtube rocks! Not going to bother label them cuz I'm at work right now.

the stats for my blog are back up. numbers still looking as sad as ever. the chart looks like the prices of my shares, not going anywhere. sadness. oh well. i'm doing this for my own benefit anyway. just upgraded it to blogger beta, not that theres much of a difference. the templates are still the same, but I switched to another one anyway. felt like a different look. Also got rid of the tag board with all the stupid ringtone stuff spamming it, so if anyone wants to leave a message, just put a comment on the post.

I had my interview on thursday, so its just a waiting game for now. The position wasn't as high level as I initially thought, at the core, I'll still be a support monkey, except that it will be more specialised. It will still be good if I get it, the pay and conditions are fairly decent, and its a proper start to a career in IT. Other than that, I'm still doing the data entry job. I think I've been there for 2 months, or more . wow, 2006 is zipping me buy. I've technically spent more than 1/2 a year not doing anything.

I went in to the dojo this morning to speak with shihan about the website I was suppose to knock up for him. Haven't been able to work on it lately, busy with prepping for the interview as well as grinding in Disgaea 2. Hopefully I can come up with something decent. Might as Kelynn or my cousin to help. I'm quite total loss when it comes to the graphic design parts. Which is the main reason I abandon most of my web projects. I do most of the backend stuff: database design, general layout, functions and what not. But I get stuck when I have to make it 'pretty'.

Anyhoo. Nacho Libre is the program for tonight! Been looking forward to it. Lucha!!

I didn't mentioned that I scored an interview for an very good position. The role is an IT Support Analyst. Its an actual analyst position, not those helpdesk or lvl 1 tech support crap ppl call analysts nowadays... I would be working with actual systems design and the like. Or at least thats what the job descriptions says. Its a permanent role, but I'll be working on a particular project thats under development. So I think I'll be doing a little of everything involved in a software project. Requirements analysis, design and maybe even some coding & testing. Sounds perfect.

I think I match the qualifications and experience they require, but I have an inkling they are looking for a person that is more senior. The recruit did mention that they are looking for a recent graduate with about 1-2 years work experience, and its a role where they want to train someone up to be a technical BA. I was asked to bring in my academic transcript (oh no!!) so I guess thats true.

Hopefully I can overcome that during the interview. I've been doing research on everything that I could possibly need, and even went through some of my uni material. Just do my best at the interview and hopefully everything will fall in place. Interview will be on Thursday, so I have a fair bit of time to prepare. Oh, and the position pays $60K+ too :)

its such gawd-awful slow day. must be the weather. i think there was a thunderstorm early in the morning. very gloomy outside right now. The perfect weather for sleeping in, except that I'm at work right now. Sigh...

They (the company) just installed a phone on my desk, which means I might have to take orders over the phone soon. Ugh. They aren't paying me enough to bother with that. I'm suppose to do data entry, not customer service. Cis.

Theres this old dude working here that kinda annoys me. Probably about 40+. Just started out in customer service. Nothing against old people, but just observing him gets on my nerves. Slow, and in my opinion, probably stupid as well. An example would be photocopying a few hundred pages of a document that was supposed to be faxed out, and then going "Now, how did that happen? I'm prety sure blah blah blah..." Ugh. Even though its the copier and fax are the same machine, the interface is totally different. He only made that mistake because either A) He is dumb or B) He wasn't paying attention. I'd go for a combination of both, since he has already done it twice, and probably the 3rd time as well even though he said it wasn't him. Ordinarily I wouldn't pay much attention, but the problem is that he talks to himself and always complaints about why this doesn't work, what this customer wants, blah blah blah.

Aihs. Thats enough for a rant of the day. Back to work now.