One Foot Out the Door

So.... long time no post.

A few things have happend since I last wrote anything. I got another temp job working with the Department of Justice and Attorney General in the Licencing section (sounds fancy, but I'm really just an office drudge/data-entry chick/file finder extraordinaire. The ID's cool, though ^___^).

I'm not complaining too much, it's full time work, money in the bank, and experience under my belt. I finish up there on Friday next week, maybe, there's a possibility that I'll be extended again.

I also got myself a Dreamwidth account (which is where I'm posting from at the moment). I'm Saffiter, if anyone wants to add me.

Birthday/Christmas/New Years was a lot of fun. I scored a pressure cooker from my parents for my birthday and I've been cooking out of that since then. I think I've finally figured out how to not burn stuff to the bottom in a big, charcolish mess, and only really do that every 4th time or so now (I'm blaming the stove. It's dodgy and electric). Stuff that comes out of that is TASTY!!!!

My specialty? Lamb Rogan Josh.

*grins* What's really funny is that I take my leftovers to work, reheat them, and then watch the heads pop up in the different cubicles and co-workers start sniffing as I walk back to my desk. I've dubbed it "The Meerkat Effect"


Eh... I'm sure more's happened.. I had a severe reaction to something in the house, which then affected my asthma. Coughing to the point where you can't actually draw air and yet still keep coughing is REALLY not fun. I'm still coughing, but nowhere near as bad as I was.

Ow.

So, not sure if I told you or not, but I've taken up rollerblading. It was just up and down the streets to start with, but my housemate and I (she'd bought her blades back from the States, this is what started it all. I used to rollerskate all the time, but thought I'd try blading to keep her company) discovered very quickly that we lacked certain skills....like the ability to stop.

Kinda important to be able to stop. I couldn't keep jumping over gutters and using the grass...or a convenient tree...or a fence...to stop all the time. So, lessons had to be found. We tracked down DIGI Skate out at Browns Plains. They run adult skating lessons every Tuesday night.

I've actually been doing quite well at it (which is surpising me no end). I'm up in the highest group now. We've been doing stuff which I can only really describe as dance skating manouvers. Tonight was transitions (switching the direction you're facing in one quick movement, one minute you're skating forwards, the next you're going in the same direction but facing backwards) on both two legs and one leg (one leg is scary in blades, and damn hard to do), Spirals (you know that move where there's one leg on the ground and the other is up in the air behind you? Yeah, that), spins (those are fun once you work out how to do it without spinning too hard and crashing to the ground), and 180degree jumps.

They also tried to get us to do 360degree jumps, but I can't even do that when I'm stationary! I stacked it so hard when I tried. Landed chest first on the ground and that's when I'm pretty sure I bruised my rib. Coughing hurts, sneezing really hurts, and don't get me started on laughing!

I've also found another problem, couple of problems actually. The wheel base on my skates is way too long for the stuff I'm doing, and I'm aparently too advanced for the skates I'm using (something about how the skates I have are recreational and designed for beginners who don't do all the funky stuff I'm doing. The wheels are designed on an angle, and when you're balancing on one foot that's really not something you want to have. I got a "Wait, you're doing what now on your blades?! O.o o.O O.O ).

Oh, and the brake at the back is driving me nuts. I don't use it, and the way I stop, well, it keeps catching when I do my spin stop and nearly sending me flying. Plus, actual spins/twirls are really hard to do on the opposite foot when there's a brake there.

The brake needs to go. It's coming off on the weekend!

I'm actually eyeing off some hockey skates at some point. Short wheel base, and they're designed to take the kind of pounding I'm giving my skates (I swear I heard the axles creak tonight when I was doing a fast spin stop).

In other news, I'm finished Uni for the year! Handed my last assignment in yesterday *cheers* This year's been rough in the assignment department. I'm tired, really, really tired. My final assignment involved creating 12 hours of lesson plans and writing about the psychological, linguistic, and sociolinguistic aspects of what I did, as well as blathering on about what, exactly, I thought "Language" was...and I just couldn't bring myself to care about it at all.

The entire thing ended up being around 6000words of writing (not including the lesson plans) and roughly 40 pages long.

I'm actually going to go and talk to the uni about switching out to external coursework instead of internal.

One more year, that's what I'm telling myself right now. One more year to go and I'm finished my Masters degree and completely free. Of course, conisdering the current economic climate, actually being able to use that degree anytime soon might not be a reality.

So, to treat myself after the year of hell, I'm going to Stradbroke Island for a day tour in a couple of weeks. I got a good price for it (I'm on this Living Social daily deal thing. They had it for $49 so I grabbed one). My treat to myself after this year.

Also, I AM EMPLOYED!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the temping agencies my name is down at called me up to tell me there was an ongoing, part time position available that they wanted to put my name down for. I told them to go for it, and got a phone call a week later saying that I was the preferred candidate and when could I start? So, I've been in training for two weeks, and tomorrow is my first day flying solo in the office. I'm an Administration Officer for the Queensland Police Scenes of Crime Unit (think CSI) out at Indro. I do pretty much anything and everything administration. Work is definitely interesting.

And that's my life in a nutshell at the moment.

Just currently swamped beyond belief with Uni work!

I must've looked so bad on Thursday that my boss asked me if I wanted a long weekend to try and catch up on my work. I said yes and got today off. Have made a fair dent in my work, but there's still a lot to do by Thursday this week.

(And I will admit that I did sleep in until midday today, since I haven't got much sleep all weekend and have been getting to bed at 2am only to get up at 8:30am to keep going).

Back at work tomorrow, but it's only a short week (thank god!). We don't work Friday 'cause of Easter and then we get a long, long weekend with Monday and Tuesday off. Thursday night I'm going to put a sign on my door that says something like "If you're waking me up, you'd better have caffiene or else!"

Some student antics to tide you over until I can post again. Was teaching the difference between "Can I?" and "May I?". Queue the next day:

Antics #1

Leonardo: Can I leave the room please?
Rest of class all at once in a sing-song: May I!
Leonardo:.... Sorry, sorry. May leave the room, please?

(Leonardo also introduced himself to me with this: "I'm Leonardo, like the turtle!" *starts humming the theme song to the old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*)

Antics #2

We'd been doing expressions to do with body parts a week or so ago. Andres asked me how much my dictionary had cost me as he wanted to buy one himself. When I told him the price he didn't miss a beat and fired back with: Jesus! You paid through the nose for it!

I was so proud!

Hey everyone!

Just wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Have stolen my Dad's laptop for a few minutes to type this. Saw my message on the phone the other day and yeesh, talk about typo filled!).

So, ankle is pretty much healed up. Still a little tender (it doesn't like going down stairs), but I can walk on it without limping. Knee is a lovely shade of blue-ish-purple and it doesn't like going up stairs... so I'm gimpy no matter which direction I go on the stairs (My students sent up a cry of "You should be at home resting!!" when they heard what had happened.

(btw, went over on my ankle again the next day in the same area. Thankfully my ankle was strapped at the time so it really only twinged a bit).

Parents came down for christmas/new years and I spent a lot of time with them.

Work's been busy. One of my co-workers called in 10 minutes before we were due to start teaching on Thursday this week. I get a phone call from the front office on my mobile (accidentally hung up on them...new phone -_-;;) and was asked to cover not only my class, but Rufus' and his....at the same freakin' time!!!!. 10 minutes to plan a 4 hour lesson for 3 classes of IELTS/EAP and all of them are at different levels.

OMGWTFBBQ???!!!!

I've been doing that all week. (Nice, short week).

On top of that, the DoS has been coming to me to discuss my opinion on stuff like schedualing for classes during the holiday... o.O what's up with that?

Pay day is either this week or next week. Not sure which since I can't get a straight answer out of boss on what day, exactly, is pay day.

Hope everyone is okay.

NOT!!!

First pay day: January. The job pays monthly.
Current bank balance: $100
Rent: $440 p/m
Credit card debt: roughly $550

Let's just say I had a bit of a panic attack this afternoon and spent most of said afternoon crying. Thank god for my parents, I'd be really up a creek if it weren't for them! I have to pay them back (gradually was the order. No being an independent cuss, not asking for help, and living hand to mouth again like I have been for the last 6 months. I've been ordered that a lot of my pay is to go into my savings account), but I have enough money now to pay rent, buy food, go out for the occasional coffee, and enjoy my birthday/christmas period.

Have I mentioned how awesome my parents are lately?

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Employment! finally!!!!!

Will tell more when I get back home. Have to go into the city for a bit.

I'M EMPLOYED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only took 5 months.

I have an audition with Warner Bros. Movieworld tomorrow at 4pm! O.o

I got my mid-semester exam results back today: 63% *massive grin*

I'm extremely happy about that 'cause that subject.... bloody hard! I was quite pleased that I got full marks for one section that was really giving me some troubles. I just don't get syntactical analysis and PCO's, PCS's, IO, DO, C, S, NP and all that sort of stuff. *curls into a ball whimpering*... don't ask me how I did it, but I got full marks for the section where I had to label all the stuff.

So, I'm currently sitting on 44% (ish, I'm not exactly sure if my math is right) for Semantics, Syntax, and Morphology. 20% for the worksheets, 22% for this exam (it was worth 35% of our marks). The final test is worth 45%, so as long as I pass it, I pass the subject.

At least the last couple of classes have been interesting. We were listening and discussing Old and Middle English today.

But, yeah, happy Sheena is happy! (and bought a bottle of wine on the way home to celebrate results with housemates).

In other news, I started work last week. I've got a garaunteed job until 30th of July and then they're gonna see if they still have the budget to keep me on. I've been reading reports and typing up summaries into a database. It's fascinating reading (all about archaeological digs)...but, is it dry or what! It took me 5 1/2 hours to sumarise a 26 page report. The one I'm summarising right now... it's 26 pages of just dig results, that's not counting the other 20 pages of stuff... O.o

If feel my eyes starting to cross and the first thing I do is go splash some water on my face and make myself a cuppa.

So, things are going at the moment. Neither good nor bad. I'm still looking for a job, though my application to McDonalds (I did say no-brainer jobs) is being reviewed. All I want at the moment is employment. Once I get a job and am in a position where there's steady money coming in every fortnight then I can start looking for something better, but at the moment, if all I can get is a job at Maccas, I'll take the job at Maccas.

Uni is driving me slowly insane! One week I get what the linguistics course is talking about and the next I have absolutely no idea what just happened. I actually enjoy the semantics side of it though, go figure *laughs* The TESOL course is slow going. Interesting but I'm wondering when the lecturer is actually going to come to the point. We just seem to be meandering from topic to topic and the only real thing holding this together with some sort of cohesion is the Critical part of the course.

I swear, if it weren't compulsory, I wouldn't be doing this course.

I have an exam next week for linguistics... crappitycrappitycrappitycrap! I'm still not sure about half the stuff they've been talking about! I tried reading some of that Grammar Survey thing today (which the tutor said would help....HAH!) and it made only a tiny bit more sense then the lecture does.

Crap.

In other news I got a random compliment on a T-Shirt I was wearing yesterday (Purple G1 Megatron) from a guy on the train.

Also my ling6100 class is full of nutballs. I fit right in. Tutor one day says "If I were a rich man..." when she was giving an example of something, I can't remember what it was, the other day. The entire back row (myself included in this) starts singing the next line from Fiddler on the Roof at the same time.

Nothing else much is happening at the moment. Weather's being screwy, hot, cold, hot, cold. Last night was cold. I slept with leg warmers on last night.

Exactly what inspired you to use Blackboard as your eLearning site? Seriously, it sucks! In the last week it's crashed my web browser about 6 times.

I cannot hit the link back to the previous page because it has issues. I have to hit home and then work my way back through all the bloody links again if I don't want my browser to stop working completely and then shut down on me.

Not good, UQ, not good.

And before you tell me to stop using IE, I don't. It's doing this to me on Firefox...

And must I mention the weird hissing noises and warding signs my housemate makes whenever I mention the site?

I appreciate the fact that I can print out my lecture notes before hand. I can be bemused by the fact that one of my lecturers is trying to do most of the course work solely online (although it smacks of laziness). What I don't appreciate is it crashing on me frequently!

One of my courses requires me to be active on this site. 35% of my marks relies on this.

Fix it.

Now.

Yrs,

Seriously pissed.

_____________________________

If you hadn't guessed, I've decided that I really, really hate Blackboard. I click certain links and my entire web browser shuts down. Every. Single. Time.

****************

In other news work is going well, I'm enjoying it.... it's just that working full time while studying part time at uni is not a good idea. I was so close to walking into walls from exhaustion by Friday it wasn't funny.

I'm also getting behind on my coursework readings. I'm about 3 weeks behind. I spent 6 hours today just reading my Linguistics textbook trying to catch up. It helped a little, some of the stuff is starting to make sense... of course.... I've still got a 2 inch thick pile of readings that I haven't touched for my TESOL course yet. That'll hopefully get done this coming weekend (after I catch up on the two honkin' great big chapters I still have to read for linguistics... I haven't even managed to get the Grammar Survey thingy downloaded and read yet *sigh*.

As much as I'm enjoying the work I think I'm going to have to ask them if they can just give me three shifts a week maximum. Any more than that and I'll be swamped with work.