Asleep on a Train

I haven't posted stuff for the past ten days because there has been so much going on. I have been gearing up for the Christmas break, but life isn't letting me take one. I have had several job interviews and I was offered two jobs in the same day on the 23rd. Both required a lot of thought and I have decided what to do. I'm also on great terms with Dee now, with a strong understanding of what our differences have been in the past, and a desire to not let those mistakes occur again. I've also, with Dee's help, finally taken out a loan to pay off the killer Visa card and overdraft, replacing those debts with a low rate personal loan. There was even some money left over to buy a car. It is an '89 EA Falcon wagon, white with grey interior. I will be getting it on the road in early Jan, after I get a RWC from Pino. As with most good things, there are also bad things. One of my bad things is letting down Bren, who has been employing me for the past three m...

I read and hear a lot of advice each day, and one of the recurring items is to keep a journal, to jot down events and thoughts for later reference. This is my place. The past week has been interesting. On Thursday, Dee and I watched our youngest daughter Kirby, graduate from junior school. In the evening, we went to her graduation dinner. I spent the night in Geelong, and on the Friday night,the girls came up to our Werribee home. The whole 24 hours was a great time. I was reminded about what parenting was about and Kirby has a wonderful set of memories. The weekend was slightly normal, with housework and kid minding, cos Kirby's old school friend Ben came over for Saturday night. Casey went off with her friend, Kate, to spend the day at Adventure Park. Failing as a father, I forgot to remind her about sun block, but she was smarter than me, and had it covered, so to speak. We watched ScaryMovie3, from the Foxtel Box Office, which appealed to the kids. Kirby spent Sunda...

...well at least the Networking/Mentoring part is, cos' I've just finished reading a little book on it. On the plus side, I found out that my door faces East, which is my Success direction, and my house is a good shape. It may not be in the perfect direction, (North/South) but I can take measures to avoid the 'killing breath' when I need too. I read the book because it was fun, and hey, the Chinese have followed this stuff for centuries and they seem to be thriving. It told me that the Mentor-luck corner is the north-west, and that I needed to load that corner of the house up with metal stuff, preferably with Red stuff on it to show that it is Feng Shui'd. It also said that the WORST thing to put in this area is an open flame, like a gas cooker. This is a bit of a bugger, because the north-west corner of my house...Is the kitchen!! I'll be eating cold stuff from now on, unless I can create a strong wind (a la The Extractor Fan) when the evil Fire stuff is hap...

I spent an interesting day today down at the Wallington Adventure Park. I was there as part of the Workplace Big Day Out, which is a joint venture organised by BAC-Links in Geelong and the Waringal organisation. The day involves about 150 volunteers from Geelong businesses such as Alcoa, PATHCare, Bendigo Bank, Mercure Hotel and of course Black Dog, spending the day with the more mobile clients of Waringal and St Laurence. Lots of Downs and Special Needs people mixing in with the normally office and factory-bound people. I spent the day floating between the various organised teams, helping out where I could. It was fun, but the most interesting part was spending time with the people who had volunteer their time EVERYDAY, not just once or twice a year. I spoke to people who have suffered in their personal lives, but still find the way and time to help those even less fortunate. I think they are true winners on these types of days. For example, the guy giving the soccer lesson is a so...

I came out last night. No not like that, but sort of anyway. Last night I attended the Nov BizNet gathering. BizNet is an organisation of business people in the area I would like to sell into so it was important that I made my presence felt. Bren had put a special package of pens together and had printed up a heap of 'certificates' to promote the special. Along with my business card, and a pen, I put one on every one of the 70 places set for the function, so in essence, I handed out all my cards. I try to write about special people I meet from time to time, and last night I meet an embalmer. Cool! Kathyn is from Canada and has been embalming folk for quite some time. I had a great time with Kathyn telling me all the details on what goes down during an embalming process. She has invited me to tour the funeral home soon, so if I get bold enough, I'll take her up on the offer. At the end of the evening, we became co-sponsors simple because we had a quick business card draw...

Let me go over the past few days. On Friday afternoon, I eagerly checked out a car I thought was going to be a winner, only to find that it would cost 4 times the asking price to get it back on the road. I then went to an appointment for work, only to have them ask me to reschedule. Not much on TV that night, so no glowing movie report today, Up early on Saturday for the Kardina working bee. I was early for the bus, so I walking to the train station. Dee was at the other end to pick me up and we made it to the school in time for the start. There were 100's of parents there, which was very impressive, and apart from a sore shoulder from swinging a pick axe, I was satisfied with our efforts in the garden of the amphitheatre as it was created. In the afternoon, I spent my time helping Dee and girls clean up their house for an open day. I also set up their ADSL connections so the girls could chat to their respective friends simultaneously. After a run down to the local mall, I dropp...

A steady day at work today, with some solid progress on contacting many of the people on our database whose businesses are in MY area. This evening, Black Dog hosted a free seminar on "7 Steps to a Successful Marketing Plan". It is based on the readings and thoughts of Steve and Bren, and is one of the seminars I plan to bring to town as well. The boys have floated the idea of another seminar next week about Street-Smart People skills, which got me thinking about where I was in those stakes. I have been a fan of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for years. In that time I've taken their test, or forms of it, many times, and each time I have score a different Type, but I believe it was still an accurate score, based on my circumstances at that time. So it comes as no surprise that when I took the test again this evening, my new Type is in the INFJ/ENFJ range. Here is what is says... http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFJ_car.html I'm classified as an Idealist this ti...

Summer shows its hand today. Spent the morning visiting potential clients, dropping off Pens of Niceness, and generally drumming up business. I also checked out an old car I may try to buy if the Road Worthy stands up to inspection. It is a 1982 Toyota Cressida, owned by the same family since new. It's pretty tired now, but still seems in pretty good shape. I will keep me upto date on the progress. Went to the "After 5" Chamber of Commerce function last night. Interesting bunch of people including a young lady called Sherree Marris, who was at one time, a Young Australian of the Year, which is kinda cool. She is cleaning up the world. Here is an article about her and some friends. http://theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/02/1059480601826.html This is her website. http://www.visionsofblue.com.au/ In one of life's interesting turns, she helped create a snorkelling path, along with a major business, for people to see octopus living close to shore. It is called the Octo...

A pen/s 

you know the rest. Crashed and burned yesterday morning when I went to visit a prospect (eck, talking like a sales person now). I was all in control, but a little bit of product knowledge, or more so, the lack of it, let me down. To be safe, I stretched out the delivery window, and the client couldn't wait. Big confusion all round and I had lost the chance to sell that time. Spent the rest of the day beating myself up. In the afternoon I recovered slightly and began to make a few more calls. In the evening, I visited a prospect and we talked about the trials faced by middle-aged men, in this 21st century. I feel a movement coming on, and it is not related to our bowels. We also talked about pens, because it was still a sales meeting. He liked this one ...

This is take 2, because I poured my heart out on the latest blog entry last night, only to have it disappear on me when I went to Spellcheck it. Next time I will Save as Draft before Spellchecking. I think it was something to do with the Pop-up Blockers I use. - -sigh -- The past 4 days have been emotional up and down for me, hence the blog title. Friday at work was a bit flat, as I started to do more cooler (a la Cold) calls than I really like. more on that later. In the evening, I had the house to myself, so I settled down to watch a couple of Showtime classics on Foxtel. First up was the movie "The Doors" about the band from the 60's / 70's. I class myself as a child of the 60's and I always wondered why they weren't at Woodstock. Now I know. Jim Morrison had been arrested for lewd behavior while on stage, and the Woodstock promoters cancelled. I think The Doors would have been a perfect fit for Woodstock. Oh Well, that's a story for another time dim...

I finished reading Michael J Fox's autobiography last night. It was all I could manage after the "True vision" setting session we ran last night. I have published my dream tonight and over the next few days, I will put up my other thoughts and dreams that can all combine to create the "True vision" In the light of day, it can look like a bit of a wank (a la Mark Latham's quasi blog at http://markl.tblog.com/ , but for now, it is what I'll use to keep me going along the road, one step at a time et al. If I'm brave enough, I will also publish my vision, and a set of step goals to take me there. I enjoyed work today, and although my energy levels were a bit off, I managed to talk to several people who were very nice back to me. For that, I award them "The Pen of Niceness" which I will deliver to them as soon as my business cards are ready.. Pizza for tea, and I rang mum, who had just returned from nana's funeral (her mum). Nana had...

Very early start today, with the boss picking me up at 6:45 to take me to the WREDO networking event at the Fox Car museum. Great way to start the day, with an interesting info session on the museum itself from the centre manager and a overview of what Western Chances does for the disadvantaged youth of the west. The disappointing aspect is that the focus can only last until age 25. I suppose that is when someone like this guy can come into play... Justin Herald . The reason I add Justin is that his Attitude sponsored coaching business is one of the businesses Black dog has a stake in. After spending the rest of the day meeting clients and calling potential new clients, I had a healthy scorecard and a reasonable feeling of achieving something today. In the evening, I work-hopped my 'true vision' with the rest of the Black Dog pack, and I will enter that into this Blog when time allows tomorrow. It was bigger, yet simpler than I first suspected. Stay tuned

Work was a wash out today. I spent the morning working through a kick-arse question sheet that I was going to inflict on the unsuspecting Promotional Product market in MY area, ie the Rest of Aussie outside Geelong, and when my boss read it, he said he had something just like, and showed me his questionnaire, which wasn't, but by then the wind had left my "sales" and I floundered away for the rest of the day. I caught a slight breeze near the evening, and had a nice talk with a driving instructor business, but the damage was done. Live another day. Time to read more of the Michael J Fox story. Night night

Like many mornings in recent times, my day started before the alarm clock went off. I lay in bed, waiting for the radio to turn on and play the ABC classic program I'd tuned it into to. This isn't always the channel I listen to, it is just the one I felt like waking up to this week. Once the radio came on, I allowed myself to get up. Another week has begun. I had a dull weekend. The girls stayed with me on Friday night, but Dee took them back on Saturday, so a void was left in my mind as far as activities were concerned. And it was raining most of the time as well. I was disappointed that I hadn't made better use of the weekend. I had managed to dig a grave for poor dead Puzzle, Dee's kitten from Geelong, and I had picked up some rabbit food, but many things were not done and I beat myself up about that. I'm reading Michael J Fox's autobiography at the moment. I feel that he and I shared many similar thoughts and motives as we were growing up at different ...

The reason a veteran IT guy can still say this is due to me thinking I'd lost some notes I'd made a couple of weeks ago, and then finding them safely tucked away in my Outlook folder. This is wahat I wrote.... My past three months have been another journey of self discovery. I feel that i've come full circle back to 1988, a 14 year cycle of repeated mistakes and lessons. In 1988,Dee and I left NZ to seek a better life in Australia, and we did, until things started to go pear shaped in our relationship. I lost the hunger to succeed. There is a complete story in there,but this is a blog, so I'll keep it short. Forthe past three months, I've been just holding on to my sanity, and my finances....all that's about to change (well the sanity part at least). Truck driving is a great job, but I wasn't going anywhere(sic), and I didn't really want to either. I've started a new job at Black Dog Promotions, http://www.blackdogpromotions.com.au/ a...

Tapping out my thoughts on the train, I am committing to writing, my thoughts and rambling ideas. It is intended to serve as a path to those who may read it, and not as a statement of fact, because nothing in my life is set in concrete beyond that fact that I love my family. I must have writting this several months ago, but is still something I wrote so it goes in here...I still have weekends.... ...even though I don't have a job. It must be part of my subconscious actions to ensure that I don't slip into jobless apathy. Early last week, my stars said that by Saturday I would need some retail therapy, and it was right. My therapy consisted of Kirby and me doing the grocery shopping, then in the early evening, having a meal together at a local pizzeria, then off to the movies to see I,Robot. For exercise, we walked home under the glow of a full moon. On Sunday, I spent too much time playing Dii, but I can beat myself up about that in my own time. Another file dragged of...

...Over the past couple of months, I've been plonkin stuff into a tiny pocket PDA, but it is only today that I see how it can work for me, because all the stuff I've been jotting down is now in Outlook n the PC...and I never cared about it until now. this is some of the stuff I am typing about... My past three months have been another journey of self discovery. I feel that i've come full circle back to 1988, a 14 year cycle of repeated mistakes and lessons. In 1988,Dee and I left NZ to seek a better life in Australia, and we did, until things started to go pear shaped in our relationship. I lost the hunger to succeed. There is a complete story in there,but this is a blog, so I'll keep it short. For the past three months, I've been just holding on to my sanity, and my finances....all that's about to change. Truck driving is a great job, but I wasn't going anywhere, and I didn't really want to either. I've started a new job at Black Dog Pr...

Thursday and I'm full of ideas and thoughts. I rang a truck school yesterday and for $850.00 they will take 3 days to teach me how to drive a HEAVY RIDGID truck.I suppose I will need to pass a test as well. I now need to find out the job options available. I will speak with a person I know who runs a fleet of trucks. Slowly getting used to using the home PC for this bloggy stuff . I'm actually on a train today while I enter these words. I'm listening to a CD I made up of MP3 tunes. I play them on my Sony Discman. I made this one with the theme of female country singers, you know , Shania, Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, and then I threw in a few more old favoutites such as Don McLean, The Eagles and the Corrs. Then I set the Sony to shuffle and I have an instant Easy Listening radio with no ads! I really like my Sony. Uni was cool. We needed to give a brief presentation of our team database. I did all the talking this time, but next time I think I will let another m...

...flicked through the Principal Centered Leadership notes, I reliased that is what I am/I do/ I behave. Now I will have to find an organisation that is also behaving like this. I'm the first to admit I'm not perfect at being this way, but I think that each day I can continue to hold on to an abunance mentality, and empower my charged to be all they can. Noble words, but I need to do this. Later days

...Inertia drags me down. The IT job market is quiet this week so I'm trying to concentrate on sorting out the other stuff in my life. If I can build up a lead in the study regime I might have one less thing to stress over. I need to push myself to not just sit around blaming things outside my control for the current situations I'm faced with. To this end, I've begun to reread the old notes I have on the 7 Habits... and Principal Centered Leadership, by Steve Covey as a way to reset my goals and energy. As the Cunchie ad once said ...”Life's a long long journey son, and before you get too old, don't miss that opportunity to strike a little gold...”

...Tis done., I've left CAG but I return today as a contractor. Al [the boss] doesn't think there will be much for me to do, so we have agreed to limit my time to 5hrs a week at the start. I will need to keep lots of detail about my activities. My assignment is started, which is good! I've sent off the framework to the team. More work on it tonight Watched '50 First Dates' last night. I really enjoyed the movie and would put it into my favourite 5 romantic comedys without another thought.

Friday night 'when the weekend REALLY starts' had me rushing off to my new part-time job as barman at the Bridge My Pub where I got stuck on the late shift after a bunch of actor-type ppl came in after a huge performance at the local thea-ate-her next door. Getting down with the remaining locals, three likely lads gave what I regarded as a very poor imitation of Queen's famous "Bohemian Rhapsody", The Song singing along to the jukebox. They shoulda stuck to the script, or maybe they were just the stage-hands. Any how, I was absolutely buggered by the time I managed to bike the 7kms home...in the rain...after midnight...sigh. Saturday had me up bright and early so I could get to Monash Uni My Uni for my afternoon Tutorial. This was the first one for the Semester and I needed to talk to the boyz 'bout what our team project involved. It is a 6 hour round trip with the bike-ride, train-trip, tute etc, then train/bike again, is factored in. Got back ...

...I have been retrenched, and in my typical ISTP (Firefighter) style, I have been quietly putting my house in order, prior to my departure, which I thought was on the 28th July, but, bugger me, I looked at 'the letter' again, a bit more closely than the last time. ie my eyes weren't blurred up with my tears, and I noted that the last date is 26th July, a Monday of all things. Crap. now I will have to finsih a couple of things sooner, rather than later. Number One on the list is writing and sending out a "so long and Ta for the Fish" type email to and and sundry...so you should all hear from me personally again ...shortly :)

I've only got two weeks work left here at CAG. Panic has settled in, but it is a funny kind of panic. A quiet panic, with no external signs such as finger-nail biting, or strange smells. Maybe that will come along shortly. I've been reading an employment book called "what color is your parachute" It has some common-sense info that has helped me retain a sense of propective about what is happening in my life/job. I may end up deciding on a completely different tack at the end of the day. I've started part-time work at a local pub, as a barman, and I've also rejoined Uni for the last of the subjects I need to begin the MBT proper, so my dance card is nice and full.

...I have a Uni exam in 5 days, and I can't motivate myself to study, and I don't know this stuff. It's been a waste of 6 months...or has it. I have 5 days to redeem myself. ...wish me luck.

One of the biggest dramas I face is where to put my stuff. Well this Blogger thing may be the one, 'cos it seems to be everywhere, and anywhere, all at the same time, and I kinda like that :)