Cutting it Fine

Photos below

Weird transition photo in the middle

Had a photo of me with the middle shaved but got some of the children at work in the photo so can't post it. Ask me to see it if I have my camera.

Top is first try and bottom second try. Came out well.

On Top

Been awhile.

Been busy sort of ...

But here's the latest Vlog.

It's something different.

Enjoy

Full

It's my 10th Episode Vlog Video ... like not including parted videos or updates.

Didn't do anything special with it but its got quite a lot in it.

Kept well with time at the start but unboxing took awhile ... spoilers there's unboxing.

It's New

Happy New Year

I go left, the world goes right

Ok so I've been pushing myself to starting things that I've had sitting around, mainly because I wasn't really going anywhere. Thought might as well while as I had time to try these things out. But God seemingly had other plans.

I had started to talk to others and move forward last Wednesday. Thursday I was told by my job search assistance that I had two interviews on Monday and both were promising from the sound of things. I haven't had an interview for awhile so I didn't think I'd just suddenly get two. I posted about my last interview, First Impressions, back in May. So I was happy I had interviews but thought it was quite odd with such a turn of events.

Had the interviews on Monday. The first was in Templestowe, then Blackburn. Really wished it was the other way round. Blackburn is pretty much next to my place. I had plans to go to brunch/lunch after which was in Camberwell. So instead of travelling like this, it was more like this.Actually surprised it was only 2.5k difference when I put up the two routes ... however think that driving pretty much past my house makes it worse with the feeling of backtracking.

So how did the interviews go? Well the first was okay. Quite the nice place with a very large back area. Had two floors which was quite interesting for a childcare. There was a ramp to the side which led to the lower floor for the kinders. Kind of impressive. The weird thing was during the interview they told me I didn't sound very motivated ... didn't think I had come off that way. It could have sounded a bit that way because they asked me what I wanted to do or something on that line and I answered mostly with my thoughts of teaching primary level ... they did ask. I think I convinced them because they wanted me to trial for a full week to gauge how I worked. Problem is setting up a whole week is hard as I already knew that the next interview already wanted to give me trial work. Their idea for me to do trial work was to compare me to people who have had completed higher education. So be it.

The one back in Blackburn was beautiful. Don't know how I explain that but just thought that when I saw it. This interview looked much better. Again they also wanted trial work for the next day. Pretty happy with this. However they wanted my working with children check card ... This was in process. I had passed the check but it was still in the post ... for the next 2 weeks. So unfortunately they told me to call back when my card arrives.

Adding to this on Tuesday I was given another interview on Wednesday. This one was far away all the way in McKinnon. Before going here I had no idea where it was ... but then again I have little idea where places are if I've never been there before. Anyhow got there and waited an extra half hour before my interview started. The previous two had me waiting only ten minutes. Think half an hour is almost unreasonable as the interview was shorter than the wait. Anyways it wasn't too bad. The place was only four weeks old so they also want people and trial work seems to be the thing. However they needed me to send them referee details but I got on my old phone ... so they going to get back to me once they have gotten that and called them up.

After all these interviews and promises of trial work, nothings actually happened yet. Hopefully I get my WWC card next week and be able to hear from some of the interviewers.

The Trouble with Sleep

As you can see I didn't end up keeping to what I said about blogging. I mean thing is I'm still having problems with sleep so I can attribute it to that I guess. Actually slept okay last night ... so here a post.

So for about a week I've been having terrible sleep, or attempts at sleep, ending up sleeping at random times during the day. What's different from the past? Oh right yeah sleep apnea. Had that for years, probably years before I found out I had it. Many years of Peter's infamous snoring probably was from sleep apnea. Also the days of sleeping during classes and such ... I mention a bit in my MIA post but I might post more about it another time just so I can get this post out.

But no I was trying to use the CPAP machine so it wasn't that. It's more likely because studies are coming up again. I've been deferring it awhile now because of health and family circumstances. Now it come round again and I'm worrying. Years of terrible studying, some due to circumstances and some due to my incompetence, has made me a bit squirmish when it comes of studying. So why don't I just not study? Well I don't have anything worth anything to get a career and I already have a hard time looking for any work I can possibly get so I'll need something more. I don't want to just study and fail again. I want to break that cycle. So what I guess is keeping me up is trying to figure out how to break that cycle. In the past I had a hard time asking for help but I think I'm a bit better at it now. I'm up for any help I can get. 

Now I am a bit better at asking for help now it's more of who do I ask for help from?

First Impressions

Had an interview for an educator position at a childcare centre. Hadn't had one in awhile. But this time I think I was a bit more ready. 

Last few times I was apparently too under dressed. Didn't know how I had to dress at the time for interviews. I thought nice pair of pants and a polo was good enough. However I only found out at a compulsory job search training thing. Unfortunately while I was driving to the interview I noticed I was still wearing nail polish on my right hand from the weekend (read about it in my mushroom picking weekend post). I tried to scrap it off but it didn't work so I just consciously avoided showing my nails up.

So the one thing about this job that makes this job quite concerning is that it's in Cheltenham. The drive took 45 minutes in off peak time!?! While they I asked about the other centres linked with their one so they showed me a giant map and pointed out several areas even further from Box Hill. They asked me where I was from and I told them. They were quite shocked, looking at the distance on the giant map. But this was at the end of the interview so most of the interview went reasonably like any interview.

Probably the thing that was different was the Chinese test. I was told initially they were looking for a Chinese speaking educator to speak with the children and parents. They were informed that I was only a conversationalist so they had one of their Chinese speaking converse with me. It went well enough that I convinced her I could least speak in Chinese. 

I think it was better than my other interviews I've had before. It has been several days since so I'm not quite hopeful. Try get myself another interview. 

Difficulty Setting

Been playing B-Sieged which looks quite difficult/daunting with the hordes of enemies moving ever so close to siege the citadel. Lost the first two game miserably so didn't have much hope for the third. However with a bit of luck rolling we managed to beat the game. 

That night we had Koinonia. Talked about the difficulties serving those we work with. The mentality of the work place is often to put yourself first. So to serve others in the workplace is pretty counter productive right? Well it really depends on the goal of why we do things. As Christians we are serving to show God's love. 

The reason I put these two different subjects together is that they both talk about difficulties. Difficulty is a subjective idea because everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Was just thinking of the things that I found difficult or not difficult. I mean looking at some games I play, some people wold say how hard it is and tell me how I make it look easy or such, even though to me it is neither hard or easy. Then there are things others do that I find extremely difficult/impossible but they seem to do it with such ease. Now breaking that down there are aspects of things we do that I find easy but others that I find hard. Like I don't find it hard working, doing menial tasks but I find it hard to get a job. So would it be said that I find work in general hard because I can't even get work? 

I find interacting with children relatively easy to what others have said but I find it hard to study to be able to work in the business even though I have the skills. But this comes down to how the world works. You need a piece of paper to say what you can do, and you need the skills to be able to put that proof on paper. Reading and writing isn't my thing as you can probably find reading my blogging but these are required skills for general education. Practical skills are great but doesn't exactly transfer to paper to hand in to my teacher. I know there are Cert and Diploma level stuff that grade more on practical skills but to teach you need a Bachelor. Even the guy I talked to study a Diploma said it was a waste and that I should study Bachelor if I wanted to teach. Does that mean I should just give up on teaching?

Practical skills also don't transfer to job interviews. All they can see is what is written down and possibly what they hear from referees. I don't have any interview skills so that's mostly what they see. Apparently I didn't know what was appropriate to wear to interviews (no I didn't wear anything dodgy) and that I need to practice interview answers which shows the little I know about interviews ... 

In the end it looks like I have the wrong skills to enter into what I want to. I think what I need to do is get some help. Some professional help ...