Best laid plans...
I feel an Eddie Izzard paraphrase coming on.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go aglay. Some of the not-so-good plans do alright, but the best laid ones usually fuck up. What exactly are these plans that mice make, though?"
Cars are fucking fragile pieces of work. Maybe I should have been more like other guys in the past, utterly obsessed with the things - horsepower and bling bling and all that's inbetween. Is it really so naive to believe that a slight scrape against the corner of Blockbuster in order to avoid a giant pothole should not completely implode my left rear door? I mean, I crashed into a guy on a bike back in January (100% his fault, which he readily admitted) and all I got was an insignificant ding in front of the wheel. Are the doors just covered in the same aluminium that forms Coke cans? Scary thought - what the hell would a real impact cause? I'm thinking but I can't come up with a better word than "implode", which I already used. Tear the door of it's hinges, send it flying three blocks away where it beheads some poor unsuspecting citizen (or alternately Michael Laws)?
So money will need to be spent. It's the kind of damage that's very noticable and I don't want to be one of those guys who drives around a car that's had the shit beaten out of it. Plus it's a constant reminder of a bad time, and who wants that every time they head out somewhere? I'm only just recovering from the robbery of my MP3 player now that insurance has been worked out.
I have roughly a thousand dollars, after paying off some of my credit card debt. I still have about $600 worth of debts to call in to me, so I really should get on those. I'm hoping like hell that I can get my car all fixed up for not too much dough, the pipe dream is that I could get it looked over mechanically as well as panel/paint, I think there's a few quirks that could be ironed out, but have no clue exactly what. Luckily my brother-out-law Nathan works for VTNZ so I won't get screwed.
In other news, as I'd pretty much known going in, I simply don't have the skills to perform at a professional level of web design or programming. I gave this "Joomla" shit a shot. At the end of the day it's a not a system I can get into, it's completely alien to anything I've ever worked with or studied. So my plan stands where it did before, or at least I think it does. I don't even know how I feel about the "new plan '06" in retrospect...
In my meeting with the Mayor, it came down to this: If I'm in full-time study by the end of the year, I get a job for the summer. This job will be simply being his personal assistant - performing whatever tasks are appropriate and that I'm able. IT stuff, some PR, organisational stuff. Tax-free, contracted work filed under expenses.
So what do I study? Absolutely I agree that I'll need a degree in order to get any fucking job anywhere that's worth doing. I can't think for the life of me why I didn't get the Casino gig (and why the hell they felt the sadistic need to send me two seperate rejection letters!), I did well at everything they wanted, and it's not a profession you need any qualifications for. I've barely spoken to Rob since then, though that's mostly due to him not being online.
Anywho, I figure a mix of media and business would really kick some arse. So I look it up in the Massey guide - and holy crap, it's there! But... prerequisites state an A Bursary is absolutely essential. Lousy Fucking B Bursary. Who would have thought it would actually come into play? Well, it does remind me that I've never really felt confident in my ability to succeed at University anyway. Why would I throw years and stacks of money at a double major that would more than likely see me crushed and broke? Hell, I'm one paper off getting the certificate version of the diploma I went for, but going back to Ucol is a fate worse than death to me.
Just Media then? It's what I'm very much into now, and always have been. Which is weird because as a general rule I try to avoid "the media" as much as humanly possible. Here's a typical conversation me and Sam had two days ago:
Sam: "Hey Morgs, did you see that [I can't remember what it was even about] thing on the news the other night?"
Me (with mock glee): "Oh yeah, I watch the news every night. It's so scintillating!"
But I can sure analyse the hell out of advertising, especially and if I care to pick in to it, I can stack up a huge thesis about culture across television, or why M. Night Shyamalan is an English teacher's wet dream, and should be shot. Oddly enough, two out fo three are the synopese for papers in the first year. I guess I'll have to appeal for the latter to join the prospectus.
Alright, so I'll study Media at Massey. Extramurally this year, and figure out how I want to change next year. BUT, do I actually want this job with Michael Laws? Didn't I insinuate earlier that I wouldn't mind if my car door decapitated him? I hoesntly don't know what to think any more. The only person on council that I totally trust and appreciate is on the chopping block, as well as a bunch of other respected and well-meaning individuals, all in the name of cost-cutting (for the Splash Centre? I forget exactly why).
He mislead me completely in that I stayed here because he wanted me to make sure the YC works right. Instead, I'm nowhere to be found on it and they've gone ahead and appointed Crackwhore McGee and Christopher "My dad's the CFO" Ross as deputy chairs. I'll be heading down to the "Youth Day Out" thing on the 20th, but only to see my Dad who's apparently working the Bull for it. When I saw the poster for it at BK my first thought was "well shit, that's the one good connection I could have called upon, and they did it without me". I don't think Yadana (our first facilitator) will be coming up for it like she said she would last year, but I did get in touch with her about it and in general. Carla on the other hand couldn't commit to a freakin' lunch that she suggested, so I'm thinking "why bother?".
So in the meantime I'm left with no job until July. Hopefully that's a good thing. I'm slowly but surely starting to educate myself about better film making. The books I found at the library (three blocks from my house) don't seem to be very instructive, but the first one was very funny and insightful. I plan to spend my time reading these books, writing more tweaks into ESD (and add some stacks of action!) which is going great so far, and tying up loose ends on everything else.
During this time, I'm totally back to my philosophy of "no extra spending whatsoever". One week of slight indulgence was nice, but after this whole car thing it's clear that new expenses come up all the time, regardless of how I live so I need to make sure I'm ready for them.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go aglay. Some of the not-so-good plans do alright, but the best laid ones usually fuck up. What exactly are these plans that mice make, though?"
Cars are fucking fragile pieces of work. Maybe I should have been more like other guys in the past, utterly obsessed with the things - horsepower and bling bling and all that's inbetween. Is it really so naive to believe that a slight scrape against the corner of Blockbuster in order to avoid a giant pothole should not completely implode my left rear door? I mean, I crashed into a guy on a bike back in January (100% his fault, which he readily admitted) and all I got was an insignificant ding in front of the wheel. Are the doors just covered in the same aluminium that forms Coke cans? Scary thought - what the hell would a real impact cause? I'm thinking but I can't come up with a better word than "implode", which I already used. Tear the door of it's hinges, send it flying three blocks away where it beheads some poor unsuspecting citizen (or alternately Michael Laws)?
So money will need to be spent. It's the kind of damage that's very noticable and I don't want to be one of those guys who drives around a car that's had the shit beaten out of it. Plus it's a constant reminder of a bad time, and who wants that every time they head out somewhere? I'm only just recovering from the robbery of my MP3 player now that insurance has been worked out.
I have roughly a thousand dollars, after paying off some of my credit card debt. I still have about $600 worth of debts to call in to me, so I really should get on those. I'm hoping like hell that I can get my car all fixed up for not too much dough, the pipe dream is that I could get it looked over mechanically as well as panel/paint, I think there's a few quirks that could be ironed out, but have no clue exactly what. Luckily my brother-out-law Nathan works for VTNZ so I won't get screwed.
In other news, as I'd pretty much known going in, I simply don't have the skills to perform at a professional level of web design or programming. I gave this "Joomla" shit a shot. At the end of the day it's a not a system I can get into, it's completely alien to anything I've ever worked with or studied. So my plan stands where it did before, or at least I think it does. I don't even know how I feel about the "new plan '06" in retrospect...
In my meeting with the Mayor, it came down to this: If I'm in full-time study by the end of the year, I get a job for the summer. This job will be simply being his personal assistant - performing whatever tasks are appropriate and that I'm able. IT stuff, some PR, organisational stuff. Tax-free, contracted work filed under expenses.
So what do I study? Absolutely I agree that I'll need a degree in order to get any fucking job anywhere that's worth doing. I can't think for the life of me why I didn't get the Casino gig (and why the hell they felt the sadistic need to send me two seperate rejection letters!), I did well at everything they wanted, and it's not a profession you need any qualifications for. I've barely spoken to Rob since then, though that's mostly due to him not being online.
Anywho, I figure a mix of media and business would really kick some arse. So I look it up in the Massey guide - and holy crap, it's there! But... prerequisites state an A Bursary is absolutely essential. Lousy Fucking B Bursary. Who would have thought it would actually come into play? Well, it does remind me that I've never really felt confident in my ability to succeed at University anyway. Why would I throw years and stacks of money at a double major that would more than likely see me crushed and broke? Hell, I'm one paper off getting the certificate version of the diploma I went for, but going back to Ucol is a fate worse than death to me.
Just Media then? It's what I'm very much into now, and always have been. Which is weird because as a general rule I try to avoid "the media" as much as humanly possible. Here's a typical conversation me and Sam had two days ago:
Sam: "Hey Morgs, did you see that [I can't remember what it was even about] thing on the news the other night?"
Me (with mock glee): "Oh yeah, I watch the news every night. It's so scintillating!"
But I can sure analyse the hell out of advertising, especially and if I care to pick in to it, I can stack up a huge thesis about culture across television, or why M. Night Shyamalan is an English teacher's wet dream, and should be shot. Oddly enough, two out fo three are the synopese for papers in the first year. I guess I'll have to appeal for the latter to join the prospectus.
Alright, so I'll study Media at Massey. Extramurally this year, and figure out how I want to change next year. BUT, do I actually want this job with Michael Laws? Didn't I insinuate earlier that I wouldn't mind if my car door decapitated him? I hoesntly don't know what to think any more. The only person on council that I totally trust and appreciate is on the chopping block, as well as a bunch of other respected and well-meaning individuals, all in the name of cost-cutting (for the Splash Centre? I forget exactly why).
He mislead me completely in that I stayed here because he wanted me to make sure the YC works right. Instead, I'm nowhere to be found on it and they've gone ahead and appointed Crackwhore McGee and Christopher "My dad's the CFO" Ross as deputy chairs. I'll be heading down to the "Youth Day Out" thing on the 20th, but only to see my Dad who's apparently working the Bull for it. When I saw the poster for it at BK my first thought was "well shit, that's the one good connection I could have called upon, and they did it without me". I don't think Yadana (our first facilitator) will be coming up for it like she said she would last year, but I did get in touch with her about it and in general. Carla on the other hand couldn't commit to a freakin' lunch that she suggested, so I'm thinking "why bother?".
So in the meantime I'm left with no job until July. Hopefully that's a good thing. I'm slowly but surely starting to educate myself about better film making. The books I found at the library (three blocks from my house) don't seem to be very instructive, but the first one was very funny and insightful. I plan to spend my time reading these books, writing more tweaks into ESD (and add some stacks of action!) which is going great so far, and tying up loose ends on everything else.
During this time, I'm totally back to my philosophy of "no extra spending whatsoever". One week of slight indulgence was nice, but after this whole car thing it's clear that new expenses come up all the time, regardless of how I live so I need to make sure I'm ready for them.