Spring!

Well, in a few days time, at least.

Didn't like the old banner anyway. Had a bit of free time, so I decided to have some fun.

Hehe

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Hmm, 10 weeks.

After 10 weeks of work, I was given an evaluation on how I was doing, and to see if I can move out of my n00b peon status to a full fledged peon to the company.

I dare say I passed with flying colours.

It must be my upbringing. From what I've learnt, you don't go home until the things is done.

Down here, it's "Time's up! Whoops! Sucks to be you. Long queue? Not my problem. Ja ne!"

But what is even more saddening is that the management here doesn't really take actual experience into account.

Apparently, some 3rd in-charge got hired, but had no idea what to do. The management finally got rid of her (or will get rid of her in a week). However, instead of replacing her with someone who has worked for over 4 years or someone with equal experience, they are getting some 17 year old 3 IC from some unknown bean bag.

Admittedly, if you are not advancing after 4 years, you should reconsider your career....

Still, while it may be a good choice for the company in general (Younglings get paid less. A lot less.), the morale of the entire checkout crew has been greatly affected, with quite a few (already disgruntled) people planning to leave ASAP. However, while some are studying at the moment, many more have come straight from school to work, which seriously narrows their career path.

Welcome to the real world, I guess. :< Not that I'm an elitist, but let's face it, if you want your choice to be open, you will need education (I love economics...).

However, I've decided.

I'm not going to really further my career in this place as I had planned in the first place. Work recognition is too small, and if any, won't reach the ears of the people who has the power to do anything, assuming they even care.

I'll just continue to work as the peon I am. ^_^

And now, time to look for an intern job.... Mmm.

Falcon Productions, returns.

Muhahahahhaa.

I wonder if anyone recalls the Falcon's Productions, the one where I somehow chucked a 3 gig DVD ISO into 6 discs or something along those lines (GTA:SA XD)

Since then, I've kinda gone inactive, due to a lack of decent games and the fact that I myself don't play a lot of games.

But now, it's time to rise from the ashes.

>:)

One of my subject has a CD as a textbook, which, obviously, is very well and annoyingly protected. As it costs over $60 for a first hand (60% price for 2nd hand), my friends and I decided to use a cheap way out and make copies of the CD.

However, during Autorun and Installation, it will install a bunch of dlls into your C:/ drive, which is very annoying if your C:/ is pretty full. On top of that, while the discs burns easily (Note that this is a 2002 disc. No SecureROM and all that Jazz and certainly no Starforce), the CD-rom drive seems to take a whole lot longer to read the disc when compared to the original. When I tried installing using the burnt disc, the auto-run simply screws up and dies off.

Knowing that this isn't an issue with protection, but just ridiculously silly and annoying coding, I decided to just go for broke.

Make an image of the CD, then run it straight from the Hard Drive, reducing time needed to run due to the ridiculously amount of time it takes to read from the CD.

And, it worked!

$60 saved! \o/

Woo hoo.

I guess I'm still in it.

Falcon Productions!

Muhahahhahahaa

Respect for the teachers.

Today, one of my tutors was dressing a little... sexily. Bareback dress that was rather body hugging. While she was a little older than us and is fairly nice looking, that dress was something I did not expect from her.

What did surprise me, was a random guy who asked her out during class after he answered a question. While Aussies are a pretty responsive bunch (with us being the more quiet bunch), saying "will you go out with me tonight" back in Singapore will earn you an instant dismal from class.

But in Aussie, the teacher actually laughed and continued the class.

And that's not all.

Remember the days when the teachers who use the visualisers in their lectures zoomed into something (specifically some random Z value), and forgot to zoom out? Groaning or going "Oi oi!" will net you a scolding.

Down here, some dude whistled to the lecturer, who actually laughed and apologised.

O_o

Different cultures, I guess. Coming from one which you are taught from young to bow to the teachers when you meet them, and to greet the teachers before the class start etc had instilled some discipline and respect for the teachers. While I'm not saying everyone here has no respect, sometimes, even I find it weird when people start calling the tutors/lecturers by their names.

However, it's not like the lecturers are annoyed by it. Some don't mind, and some actually encourage calling them by their names. I must admit I still feel weird calling teachers by their names, but hey, when in Rome, do what Romans do.

Respect. One word, different meanings across the world.

Why am I always late these days?

I wonder why.

And no, I don't eat bread with jam for my breakfast. :D

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Song of (whatever) changed to MASSIVE WONDERS by Mizuki Nana, which is Mahou Shoujo Nanoha StrikerS 2nd Opening theme.

Nana-chan to the rescue!

Boss.

Previously, I have thought that my boss is just a random guy mucking around, haunting people and getting people to work.

But, after an extremely short-staffed Saturday, I was forced to eat my words.

The Boss that I thought to be, was more than a Boss.

He's part of the team.

When customers and loads begin to outnumber the current staff at hand (The usual Saturday. Note that NO penalty rates apply on Saturday. Great time to get work, since no one else likes working on Saturdays), every single hand was needed.

When I saw the boss helping the guys in the Long-Life department (The guys who are in charge of restocking just about every other thing), I was deeply surprised. While he did not actually restock the items, he did "face" them up, which is to bring the items to the most frontal part of the shelf so that it looks "nice" (While at the same time, concealing the fact that there is nothing behind that stack which you see.)

Ah well, I guess he is the boss after all.

However, to see him continuously checking on our progress and helping out where ever he can is nice.

There was this time when my team and I was doing the freezer stuff, but because we were so busy, we just placed anything that won't go into the freezer on the floor. When the boss came over to our end, he just picked up the Ice-cream we left on the floor and stuffed it into the fridge and walked off without saying a word. While the entire team thought that we were screwed, myself included, he did not say a single word on that issue.

Of course, instead, he just told us to keep milk looking good (ie, well stocked) the next time we met. By the way, Milk is a huge seller here in Australia. Aussies just LOVE their milk. While there is a huge range and brands of milk, keeping them well stocked despite their huge amounts can be a challenge. I could be refilling a section of the milk (At least 50 bottles) within 2 hours during a really busy time.

But then again, I guess even the boss has his own pressure. He definitely has a profit target to meet (and to make him look good so he can go upwards too, maybe). However, what did impress me was that instead of sitting in his office or hounding at us peons, he actually helped us out during our time of need.

A part of the team?

Maybe.

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Strangely, my song on the blog has not been updated for a while. However, there just isn't any half-arsed decent songs these days which I seriously like. It's sad, but I guess that's how the music industry is these days.

Maximum Tune 3

About damned time too.

Time to tune up!

Once I get the money...

Ekka 2007

Ekka 2006 was the first Queensland Royal agricultural show I attended. However, while I was there last year, that was for slave labour to complete an essay.

This year, it's for fun.

EKKA is still the same, which well with the saying of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". Admittedly, everything is a lot more expensive than it was last year. $100 flew out of my wallet before the day ended, and I didn't even know where it disappeared to.

The price of good fun.

Huhuhu.

But, it's all good. A much needed day of relaxation.

Pictures that actually matter, the kittens:






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Huhuhu.

So, it has been one year in Aussie. So many events have happened.



:)

Oh yes. Many things do happen after just one year :D

Exhaustion

It's settling in.

Oh yes.

Shopping, the great treasure hunt.

Shopping, is like a treasure hunt. You spend hours looking for the perfect clothes, the perfect gift, or simply something which would catch your eye.

At the end of the day, if you found what you want, the feeling of satisfaction would overwhelm you and consume you as if you have just eaten chocolate.

However, it's surprising to see what lengths some people would go to get that perfect deal.

In the supermarket I work in, sometimes, there are tags marked "special" which shows a discount for a product which is currently on sale. At the bottom of the price tag are two dates, one to show when it started, and another to show when the sale is to end. Staff members are supposed to yank the tag off once the discount period is over.

Of course, sometimes, we get lazy, or forgetful, and with no trash trolley in sight, we just yank the price tag and stuff it at the back of the freezer, never to be seen again. Hell, I've once found one discount tag which ended on November last year.

However, some people would go incredible lengths just to save 55 cents.

I was called up to the service desk yesterday when I was pretty busy taking care of stuff because some other guy has quit, leaving me to fly solo on Thursday nights. Some customer claimed that the ice cream he was buying was 55 cents more expensive than the price tag he saw. Since I did the freezer load for a few weeks, I was very sure that the special finished 2 weeks ago. He then led me to get the price tag to verify the price.

And lo and behold, there it was, sitting right on the bottom area of the freezer. I then vagely remember one of my collegues stuffing the price tag to the back because we were rushing for time back then. However, to see that customer ignoring the official price tag which where the ice cream was (at the top of the freezer), and looking to the special tag (found lying at the bottom), I found it a little ridiculous.

Unfortunately, that is scanning policy of the company. If a customer finds the tag, we have to give it at that price.

Hurr.

Shopping.

It IS a treasure hunt.

Oh, did I mention that I have to write up a report on it too? >_>

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Song of (whatever) changed to I SAY YES by ICHIKO, Zero no Tsukaima~Futatsuki no Kishi~ Opening Theme.

I SAY YES zutto, kimi no soba ni iru yo.... <3