Vacant Mind

The story of 3 train lines

I have had the fortunate ability to have traveled on 3 (possibly 5) different train lines.

Glen Waverley
Belgrave/Lilydale
Carnbourne/Packenham

They are listed by the way in order of the one that I want to travel. I have always used the Glen Waverley line because it was closet to home, but recently I’ve had the chance to house sit closer to two different train lines.

Our train systems really are a mess, when at 6.30am there should be a minimal number of people it was standing room only. I know which line I won’ t be eventually living near (Carnbourne/Packenham) I thought that it was hard on the Glen Waverley, hardly ever express, doesn’t come often though and over crowding on somedays.

I have previously heard of the Public Transport User Association,  but now I’m seriously considering joining and helping where I can. I know that Connex has started to bring in changes I just hope that they will work as effectively as Melbourne desperately needs the change.

I can’t tell you the tension in the train some morning (actually most of you might know what I’m talking about) and it would be great to have a normal train ride one day.

Posted in melbourne | 1 Comment »

Traveling Buddies

One of my most enjoyed benefits from my recent trip is the number of friends that I had made along the way. The different experiences that they have brought from their lives into mine has added to the stories that I have in my head and to the experiences that I had overseas.

After I left them overseas I was certain that I would never see them again, but I was wrong. They have followed me home, and it’s been great! To hear what they have been up to since we last departed, the adventures, parties & people. All the while I’m truding through my 9-5 job trying to repay debt and save money to buy a house.

So far I have had dinner with a few people that I travelled with, it’s been both a blessing and a curse to hear about what they have been up to and I have failed to interest or impress them on what I had been up to since we parted. It has caused me to pay more attention to other travels and help them out when I see that I think they look lost, except for when I see them with portable GPS devices.

It has started me back on the track of taking photos, because it was one of the most enjoyable parts of traveling, capuring the moments that I know I want to remember. Now I try to take photos of the parts and moments of Melbourne that I love and want to remember.

The travel buddies have moved on, and we shared and laughed in one night as we had in a month. They too now love Melbourne as much as I do (I told them they would) and I hope that they will come back

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Evil Corporation

Working for a corporation tends to egnite some emotions that I don’t generally like, the most common of them seem to be. “What’s it like working for a evil company?”

The general perception that big public financial institutions are evil because they steal money from the public and finance unethical practices isn’t far wrong. In the past they have always gone where the money is, which has often meant funding projects or companies that provided profit without consideration of the impact of the other person down the line.

But how do you justify your position within this organisation without the expense of your soul? I don’t know yet, I haven’t found out how to do it.

But what I have noticed that they are (the big companies) are starting to notice (finally!) what the public are thinking of them. To the extent that they are starting marketing campaigns against the perception. Case in point the Commonwealth Bank ad on T.V promoting the “different” side of the bank while at the same time rising interest rates.

The move into ethical investing my many fund managers (even though some don’t exist - opes prime)

It is nice to be able to say in an interview that the reason I was attracted to your company was the importance placed on social responsibility, so the tide is changing, but as with everything it changes slowly.

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Favourites from week 13 of 2008

favorite podcasts at Five Public Opinions

Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle Mass Fast at Ririan Project

From BFS to ZFS: past, present, and future of file systems at Ars Technica

How to Stay Healthy While Sitting At Your Desk All Day at Diet Hack

Posted in Geek, Web | No Comments »

Joint Account

Do you have one? Was it an easy decision? Mine wasn’t.

The more people that I tell the more that they caution me that it’s one of the big steps and to look out she will be asking for a ring next (I’ve already encountered that one)

My hesitation isn’t complex, it’s quite simple - I didn’t want to be held accountable.
I’m great when I need to save for a goal I’ve got no problems putting money away when I need to.
When I do have money I enjoy spending it, on nights out, on my new crumpler bag or looking forward to new camera lens.

I never saw the problem in spending money if I had saved for it, I had made the conscious decision to buy something  and months ago started saving and months later still want it. But now I am no longer justified in buying said item - the logic doesn’t make sense to me. The rational does, “well now that you have saved the money you might as well not spend it and save it for something more useful’ I was astonished to say the least.

This is why I have still kept my original account and will continue to be paid into that for as long as I can, because I think that why I have saved I have the right to spend.

Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

The Sorry Debate

I’m not going to weight to much into the debate about the stolen generation or about sorry day.  I don’t think that I am qualified enough even though I do have feelings about the situation. I am posting this picture of an article that I found int he MX, because it really got me thinking about arguments from both sides of the fence.

I hope that you get something out of it as well.

Posted in Australia, Wondering Mind | No Comments »

Wage Slave

So now that I’ve got a full time job I am feeling what it is like to work the 40+ a week not having weekends or any free time for that matter. It’s amazing how much time it does suck out of your life, someone told us that work will take up 75% of your time.

I suppose what makes the days that much longer is the travel to and from the city 1 hour is a lot of time to spend being unproductive or doing something that you don’t want to do. I tried reading a novel and that worked quite well because it was a story that I was really into. Since that worked I thought that I would read stuff that I could learn from like a philosophy book or something about the stockmarket, for some reason it made me go to sleep more than anything else.

I have a routine that I enjoy at the moment that seems to be working except for one thing the early nights. I get up at 5.30am (early I know) and I hit the gym for an hour, get on the train at 7am and then I’m at work at 8am (if the trains are on time). But like I said the sleeping on time is the biggest problem I am unable to get to bed on time not because I can’t sleep but because I don’t want to. There are too many things that I want to do, blogging being one of them, learning about active directory and learning photoshop and photography in general.

The time after work is what I miss the most, that 6 hours that I used to have has been whittled down to 3 hours, 1 of which is spent getting ready for the next day (packing, preparing food, reading work etc…). Time with my family has gone, time with the girlfriend is less but the most precious of all is time with myself that I don’t have anymore.

I guess that it is one of the downsides of life, I can’t have everything my way.

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My constant state of optimisation

I always seem to be changing things, I can never tell if it is for the better or worse but they are always changing. My room is the best example that I have, consistently throughout this year it will change, things will come and go and be shifted.

Already my beloved stereo has moved from it’s place in full view to under the bed to make room for a plastic stacker to how hold my growing collection of accessories and clothing.

The clothes in my wardrobe have lessened, getting rid of the old and not exactly getting anything new but making room for the more functional and less worn.

Now a days when people ask what I am doing, my most common response in cleaning, while this is annoying, I do tend to find that I make a mess a lot so I have decided to make more space in my room and better position items.

The only problem is that I seem to be doing this all the time and every so often I see something new that I can change…I finally decided that I will never reach a state of completelness so I’ll forever be in a  constant state of optimisation

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Leaving Work

I’ve worked there for about 3 years, the longest job that I have had so far, it’s been a great job that I have benefited from in ways that I cannot count and yet I wanted to go, I had to leave because to be honest I couldn’t go any further that I was there wasn’t enough room for me to grow and move.

Please be patient while I express a little bit of arrogance.
I firmly believe that they didn’t recoognise what they had in me, I wasn’t challenged enough and now that I go through all my acomphisments I realised how much I can achieve when I love what I do, and I love what I do.

I have been very fortunate in my working life I haven’t had a job that didn’t hate, I have been able to go through normal retail jobs until I found something more career focused. I think that part of my success has been due to my personality, normally I can get along with everyone and don’t tend to make many enemies. I didn’t realise my social skills within work until recently about the same time that I realised how important social skills where to keeping and advancing in your job.

It is something that I am now wanting to study a little more, I hope to better understand motivations and how this can affect your job. Understandably the work that you do counts as well, it shows that you can do what you were employed to do.

I have a few friends who can enlighten me on this and I’ll get back to you on what I find out.

Posted in Work | 1 Comment »

6 Links

Close to the corner of Swanston Street and Little Flinders it’s a nice basement bar which some great furniture and good selection of drinks with carlton draught, asahi, pure blonde on tap.

To be honest the seating isn’t that great, it’s a little to much form over function but there is enough standing room for it to not matter too much.

I didn’t have a camera this night, but they have a website at http://www.6links.com.au/ which has better pictures.
From what I have heard is that the drinks are set at a good price and it doesn’t get too crowded, a good combination.

Posted in Bars, Reviews, melbourne | No Comments »