saturday nite

i’ve been a subscriber to the wwwac list since forever. being busy with school & whatever, i usually just delete w/o reading but i happened to read one the other day and noticed someone had posted a message asking if anyone on list lived in melbourne.

turns out a former nyc-er who now lives in fla has a friend in melbourne who’s 30th bday was this past sat nite. he wanted to send flowers to the party but was having difficulty since the party is at nite & the florists close at like 1p on saturday & the bar where the party was being held wasn’t open before 1pm either. he wanted to know if i’d delivery something for him.

what a cool idea. may all my friends out there take note of what a fucking cool idea this is!!!

so during the last week i picked up some trendy expensive chocolate at koko black & then some big flowers saturday morning. sat nite i showed up at the bar late enough for the party to be in full swing. of course that also means the bar was packed & i had very little to go on in terms of a description. i got lucky though… looked for a crowd (there were several though)… went over to one person & started to say something when the chick sez ‘this is a private party’. excellent. i ask if it’s kathryn’s party. she sez yes. i ask her who’s kathryn & she sez she is. very cool. i excuse myself & come back with the gifts. she’s floored. flabbergasted. amazed. it’s been like 10 years since they’ve seen each other but have stayed in touch.

it was great. watching her go thru that shock, disbelief, surprise & then realising what a cool thing just happened.

i took some pix which i’ll post.

then we hung out & had a couple drinks & chatted a little bit. word had spread to the other people so i had to tell the story several times. it was a fun nite.

saturday

saturday morning i went to the usa foods store. it’s this company that imports stuff from the states – mostly food but they also have things like laundry detergent (?). this is the 2nd time i’ve been & last time i ended up spending $100. this time was even worse… $157.

but i now have cherry pop-tarts (6.44), a bag of reeses pb cups (7.29), hersheys choc syrup (4.29), cherry pie filling (6.79), a can of blackeyed peas (2.99), cafe du monde coffee (13.99), can of black beans (3.99), a peach snapple (3.31) & a hersheys almond bar (1.65). i won’t bore you with the entire list. it is funny b/c the 2 times i’ve been there is the only time i hear the american accent a lot. the owners are american & the customers are of course. otherwise occasionally i do but not all that often…

bebel gilberto

lots to catch up on writing… but i’ll start with last thursday (25).

yes, it was thanksgiving but no one here cares about that.

we went to see bebel gilberto at the forum theatre. when i went to book it, it was giving a seating assignment but everyone i talked to said it would be general admission.

the bldg is very cool. built 1929, gothic. the roof is painted dark blue with lighting that made me feel like i was at epcot taking that ‘boat ride’ thru the mexican city. i wish i would have brought my camera.

it turned out there really were seats. the big dance floor had chairs. there were also tables with chairs. and our seats were in a booth. nope, not a booth like opera or where lincoln was shot. picture one of those big booths at dennys, village inn, bob’s big boy, etc where u can fit like 10 people. when we walked over the people in the booth got up to let us in (ie caged in btwn all these people w a table in front so u couldnt even stand up). instead we went to the bar. where i complained to one of the bartenders who said he had never seen the place set up like this. great.

there were also bars on either side of the venue. picture a room a little bigger than irving plaza but with a bar on both sides near the front. we stood by one of those bars. looking around there was 1 couple on the other side standing & slightly swaying. there were a few guys standing at our bar – perfectly still. great. how in the world was i going to manage to get people to rush the stage & dance when no one was even moving??

finally this 1 girl got out of her seat & stood about 5 ft away from me & danced. so that made 2 of us.

about 3-4 songs in, bebel encouraged people to get up & dance. even to (shudder) come up front. excellent. now i wouldnt be escorted out by security when i went up there. the girl dancing near by said she wouldn’t come up with me (i didnt want to be the only one). great. but then a couple got up & i went up with them. during that song maybe 4 more people came up. but then more & more til the whole area was packed by the end of the show. by the end i has almost leaning on the stage b/c it had gotten that crowded.

interesting crowd dynamics. i was v surprised the aussie crowd didnt get up right away. my past experiences have been they’d dance & sing but i guess they need a big of encouragement. and maybe there’s some tall poppy syndrome going on where they didnt want to be first up…

it was a great show. go see her if u get a chance (fyi, she was in nyc like 2 wks ago). but be prepared to dance!

thanksgiving & thesis & xmas

this morning i had a meeting with a company about participating in my research. last week when i spoke to the guy on the phone we talked about a few different teams i could work with but today we both realised there’s only 1 that fits into my project – the senior mgmt team. that would rock but it seems like getting them to participate will be the issue. we’ll see what happens.

for those of you at home, it’s wed nite ie thanksgiving eve. here it’s thursday but no one cares about thanskgiving. i’ve met 3 americans here that apparently do a huge dinner but i’ve only met them once & am not invited. i was thinking of doing something this saturday but havent gotten organised enough. i’ll have to do something though cause i have friends who can’t fathom the idea of sweet potatoes w marshmellow.

one crappy thing about being out of the country is not seeing the parade. BUT i’ve just found streaming video!!! earthcam
is streaming now…. (from 46th st … not uptown where they are blowing up the floats).

earthcam sez the parade is at 11a (is that right??) so that’s 4pm thursday if ur in london & 3am friday in melbourne. i have the live cam running now & all i can hear is the buzz of noise & a car honking its horn every few seconds. oh… now there’s a siren going off…. ahhh… the sounds of home….

oh… btw…. it’s a beautiful sunny warm thanksgiving day over here…

t-shirts

a lot of you reading this know i have a thing for brightly coloured polyester clothing. a more recent addition (addiction) has been the funny / tacky t-shirts. it started with the boys tees (‘boys suck’ or ‘every girl should own a boy’) but has expanded to the tourist stuff (kangaroos & koalas mainly…).

today i stumbled on a few others..

not one to wear here in AU unless i want to start a riot.

these are great too. neuroses. i like…

emotionally available men rock
(not naming any names but how many of these do i have to get as xmas presents….)

boys give me tummy aches
(um… that one is sold out…)

and then there’s t-shirt hell with winners like

i still hate george bush
talk nerdy to me
i like my women like i like my coffee (ground up & in the freezer)

daddy drinks because i cry

plus gang bang elves xmas wrapping paper

on a different note… not 2 minutes after i hit publish on that last post about the office next door, the guy got up & closed his blinds. they’ve been closed for 2 days now. the office consists of 3 windows… one seems to be the kitchen/storage, one is his desk & the other are the workers desks. only the one by his desk is closed.

tuesday nite @ home

9pm tuesday nite. i can’t get used to this idea of not having constant homework to do. ok, yes, i do have notes to take & some reading to do for the thesis but nothing under tight deadlines like i have for the last 18 months.

i haven’t turned into a couch potato. nor do i go out all the time the way i did at home. instead i’m attached to my computer but doing who knows what. a blog here, the news there, writing emails to people i havent talked to in ages, etc. not writing the lit review like i should be.

a new distraction has appeared also. there’s an office building right next door to my flat. not like i can touch the bldg or anything but close enough that i can see the workers expressions. last week people moved into the floor just opposite and the boss guy is there til all hours. he’s there now – after 9pm. my desk looks right out the window so he’s in my line of site. after a week, here’s what i know… he’s balding, wears nice shirts, can’t type properly, has a big leather non-ergonomic chair, has his desk pointing at his employees so he can see everything they do (they’re in the same room), works late nites, doesnt have a laptop, seems to read a lof off the monitor but not input. on top of his bookcase there’s 3 framed pieces of paper that look like diplomas. ill have to get some binoculars.

sorry everybody growth

the other day i got an email from a friend here pointing me to the sorry everybody website which of course i already knew of. turns out it was on cnn & got massively hit. but there’s also a TON more pix up there now. and a lot more from other countries.

here’s a couple of my favs…

check the clothing label one

the 2 johns flushing

circus school

i find it absolutely super cool that the same school i go to has a circus school

au vs us dollar & getting a gig

great… overnight, the aussie dollar hit a 9 month high of 78c. i know i’ve mentioned this before but did u know the aussie dollar was at 55 cents when i was planning on coming over? i have my last payment to swinburne due in january. it would be nice if the dollar would drop down to 55 or maybe even 60 or even 65 before that’s due.

ive been meaning to write about a small world situation i had last week. i was leaving work & walked down degraves street (often a location used in tourist pix b/c it’s all cafes and looks very ‘european’). i saw this girl taking an order at a table & did a double take. sure enough, it’s this girl i go to uni with. she’s from germany so under the same work regulations i am.

this pisses me off. it’s just yet another intl mba student working a crap casual gig. the aussie students either go to school p/t and have full time jobs or they don’t work at all & go to school f/t (they can receive gov’t funding called a youth allowance AND work p/t). they also qualify for discounted transport.

the intl students are allowed to work 20 hrs a week and full time during breaks. we are not allowed transport discounts (i’ve been told the govt line is ‘if they have enough money to come here, they have enough money to pay full price’). i’ve found my fellow students have worked retail, call centres, waitressed & other casual gigs or they don’t work at all b/c they have money coming in from the parents. my personal experience is recruiters & employers (at least in IT) don’t want to have to deal with the 20 hr requirement & don’t really want to talk to you. i know of 1 classmate who was an accountant at home & has gotten an accounting gig here.

it’s quite a shock to go from working a ‘real’ job & earning decent cash to saying ‘may i help you?’ for money so low i’m embarrased to quote to any figures.

but i think its the situation that’s so annoying. people with skills, with experience who end up in casual jobs (um… here, they’re called ‘casual’… at home, um, i *think* it would just be called ‘part-time’. um… i forget). the department @ school doesn’t deal with jobs – they send you to the uni jobs department (so for ungrad & grad & TAFE which is a vocational school). looking at their site today they have jobs for… telemarketers, xmas tree delivery, pizza delivery, accounting, fundraising, marketing & sales (oh, look,i could do IT sales for A$15 an hour).

argh. ok, im just getting annoyed & not working on my thesis which i should be doing. out of here…

contract gigs

since i have the summer off, i’ve decided to look for a contract gig. i’ve tried this before & didn’t have much luck. i have restrictions on how much i can work b/c i’m an intl student though right now i could work for about 3 months full time (during the break).

i just found this description of a PM gig. very refreshing description..

Infrastructure Project Manager X 3 Contract

Our client, a world esteemed blue chip organisation is looking for 3 experienced infrastructure Project Manager to assist with the global roll out of various technologies within the infrastructure space. Duties within this role will include; To decide what is to be done;to tell somebody to do it;to listen to reasons why it should not be done,why it should be done by somebody else,or why it should be done in a different way;and to prepare arguments in rebuttal that shall be convincing & conclusive. Then: To follow up to see if the thing has been done;to discover that it has not been done;to enquire why it has not been done;to listen to excuses from the person who did not do it & to think up arguments to overcome the excuses. Then: To follow up a second time to see if the thing has been done;to discover that is has been done incorrectly;to point out how it shall be done;to conclude that as long as it has been done it might as well be left as it is;to wonder if it is not time to get rid of the person who cannot do a thing correctly;to reflect that in all probability any successor would be just as bad, or worse. Finally: To consider how much more simply & better the thing would have been done had he/she done it themselves in the first place;to reflect satisfactorily that if he/she had done it themselves he/she would have been able to do it right in 20 minutes.