Updates, announcements, etc
Well things have been rather hectic lately, but I can now say that I'm 90% moved in to the new place :) However we still don't have Internet (or a phone for that matter..) so instead I'm blogging from uni :p
So now time to cram a few short random entries into one MEGA ENTRY
Transformers
This was.. interesting.. to watch. On the one hand, the CGI Transformers were everything you could ask for. On the other hand, they didn't get enough screen time, the dialogue between the actors was incredibly stupid, and what the hell was with half the random characters in that movie?
What was with the Aussie/Brit analyst chick and her annoying black friend? And the unit who escaped from the original Decepticon attack at the beginning of the movie who as soon as they arrived in civilisation deciding to side with the kid they'd never met who seems to be popular with the space aliens? And Shia Lebouf just annoyed me; I felt like the director didn't really want Sam to have a love interest but was forced to to cater to the demographic, because the romantic moments between those two were so ridiculously lame and stereotyped that I didn't believe it for a second. PLUS then they made out on Bumblebee's hood at the end, which is just gross when you think about it, because he's a sentient being and their friend. It makes no difference that he's a machine, he's still sentient and.. yeh, ew. And the whole humour level in general was incredibly juvenile and sometimes down to the point of farce.
Anyway, despite all their efforts to ruin an awesome movie I still liked it on the whole. The military scenes were cool, the Transformers themselves were awesome, and I eventually warmed up to the character of Sam Witwicky.
Engaged/disengaged
I'm not sure whether this is related to the whole Introverted/Extroverted thing, but it came up while my friend (who's Extroverted) and I were moving stuff between homes and flat. It's about forms of relaxation and internal landscapes.
I prefer to relax by disengaging from the world as much as possible. I'll read books, go on solitary walks while listening to music, and engage in activities where some processing is required but not so much that I can't let my mind wander to completely unrelated areas while doing it. Working in a supermarket and playing a lot of oldskool Sega games are examples of activities that let me do this*. In some ways they're almost a form of meditation. But basically for me relaxation means retreating to the inside of my head and letting my mind do what it likes without active direction from me, or immersing myself in another world entirely but one where I don't have to make any decisions myself, such as a book.
My friend on the other hand prefers to relax by engaging himself in something. He'll play complex computer games, go out with friends, surf half a dozen webpages while listening to a DVD in the background, that sort of thing. It means finding something to occupy himself with, be it other people or tasks that he makes up for himself.
Neither of us could imagine being like the other. For him, my way sounds boring. To me, his way sounds busy.
To add another layer, I'm the one who prefers disengagement and yet it's he who comes across as by far the more laid-back of the two of us.
I don't really have a point with this, I just thought it was really interesting, and I got a lot of insight into how some others think.
* This isn't to say I never play new or thought-requiring games or anything. I guess I enjoy those but I don't always find them relaxing?
Work related stuff
My manager's last day is tomorrow, which sucks cos he was pretty cool. Although it was amusing to watch him caring less and less about the store as his last day approached. No one seems to have any idea who's going to replace him or even if we're going to get a replacement.
To make things worse, the store is experiencing massive budgeting problems at the moment. The kind where we're chronically understaffed because they can't afford to pay a decent amount of people. Apparently even the full-time people have had their shifts cut.
And now that I live in Maroubra it's much harder to get to work in the morning, I have to take two buses to get there and I haven't yet worked out how long it'll take me.
Combine all of the above and trying to get a transfer to another store is looking like a more and more attractive proposition. Except that one of the older ladies in Grocery said I wouldn't be allowed to, which I guess is because I'm a hard worker? Or maybe I should be looking for a new job entirely. *shrug* I like the non-thinking aspect of my current job though..
As I mentioned previously, working in my current position is something of a Zen experience for me. My job only takes at most half of my available resources, leaving me with plenty of processing to think about all sorts of things. Thoughts such as..
So now time to cram a few short random entries into one MEGA ENTRY
Transformers
This was.. interesting.. to watch. On the one hand, the CGI Transformers were everything you could ask for. On the other hand, they didn't get enough screen time, the dialogue between the actors was incredibly stupid, and what the hell was with half the random characters in that movie?
What was with the Aussie/Brit analyst chick and her annoying black friend? And the unit who escaped from the original Decepticon attack at the beginning of the movie who as soon as they arrived in civilisation deciding to side with the kid they'd never met who seems to be popular with the space aliens? And Shia Lebouf just annoyed me; I felt like the director didn't really want Sam to have a love interest but was forced to to cater to the demographic, because the romantic moments between those two were so ridiculously lame and stereotyped that I didn't believe it for a second. PLUS then they made out on Bumblebee's hood at the end, which is just gross when you think about it, because he's a sentient being and their friend. It makes no difference that he's a machine, he's still sentient and.. yeh, ew. And the whole humour level in general was incredibly juvenile and sometimes down to the point of farce.
Anyway, despite all their efforts to ruin an awesome movie I still liked it on the whole. The military scenes were cool, the Transformers themselves were awesome, and I eventually warmed up to the character of Sam Witwicky.
Engaged/disengaged
I'm not sure whether this is related to the whole Introverted/Extroverted thing, but it came up while my friend (who's Extroverted) and I were moving stuff between homes and flat. It's about forms of relaxation and internal landscapes.
I prefer to relax by disengaging from the world as much as possible. I'll read books, go on solitary walks while listening to music, and engage in activities where some processing is required but not so much that I can't let my mind wander to completely unrelated areas while doing it. Working in a supermarket and playing a lot of oldskool Sega games are examples of activities that let me do this*. In some ways they're almost a form of meditation. But basically for me relaxation means retreating to the inside of my head and letting my mind do what it likes without active direction from me, or immersing myself in another world entirely but one where I don't have to make any decisions myself, such as a book.
My friend on the other hand prefers to relax by engaging himself in something. He'll play complex computer games, go out with friends, surf half a dozen webpages while listening to a DVD in the background, that sort of thing. It means finding something to occupy himself with, be it other people or tasks that he makes up for himself.
Neither of us could imagine being like the other. For him, my way sounds boring. To me, his way sounds busy.
To add another layer, I'm the one who prefers disengagement and yet it's he who comes across as by far the more laid-back of the two of us.
I don't really have a point with this, I just thought it was really interesting, and I got a lot of insight into how some others think.
* This isn't to say I never play new or thought-requiring games or anything. I guess I enjoy those but I don't always find them relaxing?
Work related stuff
My manager's last day is tomorrow, which sucks cos he was pretty cool. Although it was amusing to watch him caring less and less about the store as his last day approached. No one seems to have any idea who's going to replace him or even if we're going to get a replacement.
To make things worse, the store is experiencing massive budgeting problems at the moment. The kind where we're chronically understaffed because they can't afford to pay a decent amount of people. Apparently even the full-time people have had their shifts cut.
And now that I live in Maroubra it's much harder to get to work in the morning, I have to take two buses to get there and I haven't yet worked out how long it'll take me.
Combine all of the above and trying to get a transfer to another store is looking like a more and more attractive proposition. Except that one of the older ladies in Grocery said I wouldn't be allowed to, which I guess is because I'm a hard worker? Or maybe I should be looking for a new job entirely. *shrug* I like the non-thinking aspect of my current job though..
As I mentioned previously, working in my current position is something of a Zen experience for me. My job only takes at most half of my available resources, leaving me with plenty of processing to think about all sorts of things. Thoughts such as..
- Why is it that there are so many different types of toothbrush? If all these special features are so essential then by buying one you'll be missing out on all the other features you're not buying. I guess the best approach would be to buy one of each and alternate their usage, or something
- There sure is a lot of theft of cosmetics and razors and stuff
- The "You'll Love Coles" brand features pictures of people enjoying the product with a quote from them. Almost all the pictures look really really gay, and the quotes are nearly equally gay. It really makes me wonder what kind of demographic buys products on the basis of an endorsement from some random person who you don't even know (not to be confused with the completely authoritative endorsements from celebrities who obviously only put their names to decent products. Just sayin')
- Almost all my coworkers are complete idiots. To the point where I hesitate to ask them to do stuff because half the time they can't follow directions properly. It's a little frustrating.
Mr Friendly
So the other day Alex and I stopped at a crepe place in Bondi Westfield to get breakfast, and there we met Mr Friendly. Mr Friendly is one of those aggressively friendly salespeople, where not only do they feel the need to ask you how you're going and other attempts at small talk, but they'll just keep going and going and going (Oy!). We decided afterwards that Mr Friendly must have been the owner/manager of the place, since no one else would be pushing the friendly factor so hard. I'm really tempted to avoid that place from now on for fear of meeting Mr Friendly again, he was just that scary.
On a related note, the week or so before we were in the same food court, buying lunch from Oporto, when the guy serving me decides to start a gaming related conversation on the basis that I'm carrying an EB bag and thus indicating that I like games. Once again, pushing the friendly factor just a little too hard for my liking. I prefer my serving people to be polite and taciturn rather than the whole service culture thing from the US.
Hmm looking at the length of this entry that's probably enough for now. More to come when I can be bothered :p