Impromptu to the Max

So impromptu that I forgot to post it ...

New Financial Year Update

So it's the middle of the year so here's the update for what's to come.

Coincidentally the thumbnail I think it pretty much exact as last times ... 

says a lot about what's important ...

Break it you buy it

Don't ask me about the title I just felt that it said it for me ...

In the Wild

So camp stuff is up!!!

Instead of putting it as one video because I really can't be bothered finding a program to put it together I just put them back to back in a playlist here.

If you can't be bothered watching the whole trip here's a intro video.

And here is one of the highlights ... well it's actually probably one of the only on location videos ... here it is.

Here's a Rosella eating a chip.

And a time lapse of of the sunrise ... with some Youtube edit music I could find.

Hope you enjoyed that. My next vlog will be in my new room, as in my new "living room". Not entirely set up yet but the computer and stuff is here now. Look forward to it ... and here's some of the photos of animals that I didn't take videos of.

And some of John.

 






And that was pretty much it. Thought I had posted this earlier but guess I left it sitting saved. Enjoy.

End of the line

Okay not a true end.

An end and a new beginning XD

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.

The Day the Post Arrived

Keeping it up

*poke poke* Is it still alive?

Ok so not dead yet ... yet. Watch the vlog.

Maybe there'll be more ... maybe.

[Insert Blog Here]

Been slightly over a month now since my last post and might be a bit longer till I post again. Been sick and busy ... mostly sick. Better now but still sickish ... and need to catch up on some work and other stuff ... be back soon.

Tough times

Life is hard, sigh. Life is hard when you assume too much, sigh. Life is hard when you speak without thinking, sigh. Life is hard when you are arrogant, sigh. Life is hard when you are human, sigh. Enough said. Thanks for listening.

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.

Getting the ball rolling

Been awhile again but I won't get into that. Also was going to post about Pokemon Go but think I'll update about what I have been doing. I mention Pokemon Go because it has been somewhat an idea about moving faster. With the Pokemon Go craze I find that opportunity to Poke evangelise will be the next few months. If I leave it any longer there would be less people out about catching Pokemon so less opportunity to talk to them. With this in mind I suddenly decided to push some things forward which I have been talking about doing but been left on the backburner.

So one of the things I've really left sitting around is the card game I designed about a year ago. It was quickly developed and then it just sat there after a few playtests. It a game about going to the gaming arcade and playing on arcade machines. I clearly state gaming arcade as people have been confused with shopping arcades so no its not a game about shopping. Pretty much went for this game theme because of my time in gaming arcades playing games with friends. It's a bit hard to explain the mechanics without visuals so if you want to know how it goes just ask me and we can play a game if I've got it with me. I stopped doing anything with it because it had become a physical thing already and would be difficult to move any further in production idea. Currently the card/boardgame industry has been pretty flooded with game developers so to even consider producing something would mean a lot of commitment would be needed. Not saying I don't have any commitment to producing this game but because I wouldn't be doing stuff like the graphics I would need to get someone else to do that stuff and its not like I have any money to pay them. That was pretty much the reason its just been sitting around.

However lately people have been telling me I should go forward with it (especially those who have playtested it). I took awhile thinking about it but so I did some research. It not like an impossible thing but there are things I need to consider to be able to continue. One, the most likely way I would be able to produce this way is through Kickstarter. Developer companies would only take a look at my game if I had a name for myself but I don't. They have too many people submitting games to them so would be unlikely they would have time to see mine. This means I'd have to be able to set that up. I'd have to one, make sure the playtesting is in its final stage, two, research the production needs, three, work out the costs and charge for the game and four, get a team to do the stuff I can't do. So that comes to the second thing I need to consider, the team. I'd have to find people who don't mind giving up their time to help with what I can't do. I don't have funding to actually pay anyone so the team would need to probably be volunteers. As said before there'd need to be some sort of commitment so I don't really want to bug anyone to just volunteer time for just a pet project. This is probably one of the big things that's keeping from moving on but with the people saying that my game might just be worth producing might as well give it a try ... And lastly I need to consider how much time this will all take. I've been told that playtesting can take years ... but I think with my calculating that hopefully I can reduce the time on that. That said with the volunteers, I don't expect to put the majority of their time on this so it would be hard to predict how long it would take. This is why commitment is such a important thing if I want to move forward with it.

So what did I mean when I said I was pushing forward? Well I've started asking people to help me. I mean there's no harm I guess as long as I don't expect too much. Everyone has their own lives too so I don't want to encroach on that time. I'm been somewhat careful with who I ask so not to put any pressure on them. I've been getting positive responses so we'll see what happens in the future. Currently got some graphics worked on and someone to work on finances but that'll be late game. If you know anyone who's up for helping on such a project contact me about it. If you want to help out that be cool too. Any help would be appreciated :). 

I'm looking forward to where this could possibly go. I don't expect to make money from it but it be great to be able to share this with people and see a completed product. You will be updated on any, if any, major progress is made. 

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?

Car Adventure

I've talked about driving before and how I don't really enjoy it. One of those reasons is petrol. I mean paying for it isn't great but is a required thing. It's moreso finding one to stop by to get petrol. The way I usually do it is if it's really cheap I'll fill up if I'm half empty. If it's price is okay I'll fill it around the eighth mark. And if it's expensive I'll wait until my empty light has flashed for about half hour ... Yes I know risky right ... The thing is it has to be convenient at the time to get petrol, which hardly ever felt that way. Probably why I've had to get a can of petrol once.  Well I soon learnt about why I shouldn't really do that again. By the way before these short trips my petrol light had already flashed once ... right just a flash, no need to worry right?

Monday morning I had a doctors appointment. This was for a update and a CT scan I got the previous Friday for my elbow (yes I don't update my blog enough). Let's just say the only interesting thing is I felt was that there was like 3 doctors there to give me just a CT scan. The last time I only got 1. Felt like a lab rat. Anyhow I was sort of sick anyways so two birds with one stone. There was really one route to drive to the docs and that was up Station Street ... in the morning. It wasn't just the traffic. Box Hill's been booming and there's like heaps of apartment building which end in temporary road blocks. Obviously I would have avoided it if possible but it wasn't. I live decent close to the place so any other route would take me ages out of my way. However might have considered it if I knew a 30 second driving section would take me 10 minutes instead. The right turn on Station Street was actually considered the fastest part of the trip because traffic was moving so slow that they stopped to let me turn in. So the light flashed again ... didn't stay on ... it's okay.

Apparently my CT scan wasn't great news but it wasn't terrible either. They advised I get a dynamic CT scan. Great sounds awesome. I've mentioned I like to try new things right? Well my doc hadn't heard much about this sort of CT scan before so must be something unique to some degree. Well I thought why not get it out of the way. Booked the appointment in 10 minutes time and quickly left. Had considered getting fuel but no time. This time the light turned on and stayed on. Okay concerning. But no time. So back down station street. Slight block but better than the other way. Then the turn onto Thames Street. Another building site ... was regretting booking the CT scan so close. However this time it wasn't as long. The place where I get my scan has 5 underground levels of carpark. The parking level for those getting scans was on the bottom floor ...

Scan was interesting. Got to move during it because it was a dynamic CT scan. However I had to be in a weird angle and still had to keep my head out of the way. Took a bit longer getting it right. Also the doctor came out to discuss my "injury". Because I had to move he needed to know where it hurt. It doesn't actually hurt but it grind and tweaks sometimes so always hard explaining this. Anyways I couldn't actually get my elbow to act up at the time so couldn't get it exact. What was disappointing was at the end they didn't print it out for me. Guess too many slides. Last still CT scan was already 5 slides. Anyways time to leave ... and here's where the problem happened. I couldn't get my car started. Well I managed to get fuel into it but it stuttered and shut. This happened over and over again. At times it sounded different but it still didn't work. I managed to reverse my car around a metre in like 2 minutes. As I had no reception I didn't even consider calling for help. I just tried time and time again, trying different things. After 5 minutes I finally managed to get my engine sounding right. Every moment was tense, especially climbing up the carpark. There was 2 boom gates I had to stop by which didn't help. The closest petrol station was all on a uphill way ... Well it didn't stall once after getting it working so that was a relief. Always thought I had more time to fill up but all these short quick trips didn't give me many options. Petrol stations always seemed to be on the other side of the road. Right turn in and out is a pain. Weird thing was didn't realize petrol price was actually quite low at the time ... Guess my filling up rule got trumped by convenience.

After that I went straight home this time with no road blocks ... but a few minutes later I was out again to get KFC. I mention it because this whole morning I took so many little trips here and there I didn't actually leave Box Hill ... Think it was all within a 1 kilometre block. The fun of driving ... next time I might just walk it.

Thought I'd Google map it and it came to 8.6km drive. Link is here just so you can see where I drove to.

Not Sick but ...

Okay once again haven't been blogging ... but it was for a somewhat good reason. An old injury has come back to bite me. 5 years ago I woke up one morning and my right elbow felt really weird. Depending how I moved it would click quite loudly. Well that ended up with me not being able to bend my elbow for the next 2 months. So my elbows clicking again.

Back then it had been Sunday morning so I still went to church just thinking that it was just a weird thing that would correct itself eventually. However when I had driven to dinner that night I got out of the car and found that I couldn't unbend my arm. Thought it was a joke. Thought it would fix itself. We had a shared meal and the guys were eating fast, and poor me was unable to keep up with my right hand unable to cooperate. Well next day it didn't fix itself. So I went to the doctor and got myself a referral to see an orthopedic and some x-rays. They asked me if I had been doing any excessive exercise ... me exercise? Got a MRI which was pretty cool but was hard to do because of the not bending. With no private health care I had to wait 9 months to get it seen by the orthopedic. While waiting I had to withdraw from study. Signing my name without bending my arm was difficult and painful. But the worst thing while waiting was actually the fact that my elbow fixed itself 2 months after!?! No idea how, just woke up one morning and it was bendable. By the time I saw the orthopedic they just told me the bone obstructing movement probably just moved into a empty groove in the bone. Said it probably okay and just book an appointment in 6 months just in case something happens. A lot of probablys ...

Don't want that to happen again so since its been acting up I've been watching it ... not that I'm really doing anything about it. Went swimming the previous week, playing badminton, and been lifting at the opt shop. Sometimes it gives me trouble so I have to get out of things. However it's still like the same for a week or so so I went to the doctor to check it out. My GP was out on holidays so I saw the new doctor ... She was blunt about how it was just inflammation even though I told her bout the past. Gave me a prescription, some things to do at home, and shuffled me off ... Think I'll make an appointment to see my usual GP when he comes back.

So now I'm just keeping my elbow warm and taking my meds ... hopefully this is just temporary.

Yes I'm Sick

Oh right I haven't blogged for awhile. Most because I've been sick on and off the last 2 weeks. Was meant to post about my first (at the moment only) day work at the opt shop in Kew, however I started getting sick since then. Since I had started Work for the dole it meant that if I was sick I'd need to get a medical certificate so meant I had to see the doctor. 

The first day I took off I had gotten been pretty sick the night before. However it was short lived and seemed to be okay that Thursday morning. Kind of curious why it was like that and I didn't want to pass it off to the nice volunteer people at the opt shop so I went to the doctor to check it out. Weird thing was the car park at the doctors was pretty much empty but the place was opened. I was actually in the waiting room by myself!?! Apparently one of the doctors had passed away and the other usual doctor was away so the only one there was the new doctor. Didn't realize people cared so much who they saw. So I met the new GP. Seemed to be nothing much wrong with me but it was evident I had something so they gave me a med certificate for the day off.

So when did I get sick again? Sunday night. Slept most of Monday but by the time Tuesday came I was still pretty bad off. So back to the doctor. This time my GP was there. Usually when I turn up to the doctors the symptoms have already subsided but this time I was wrecked when I got there. Was just a cold apparently but had to be pretty bad because he gave me a med certificate for 3 days. Don't ever get that many days off usually. Good to have time off but I had people over the next night so had to be careful not to give them. 

Actually tried to play badminton Thursday night thinking I was better but I wasn't. Quite evident was that I was having a hard time pacing my breathing. Then again I hadn't played for a few weeks. A week or so in bed probably didn't help either.

Now I'm still a bit here and there but I think I'm cycling out. Hopefully I won't catch something else new any time soon.

Work for what now?

So been on Centrelink for awhile now so this isn't so hard to believe but it's still pretty terrible. What am I talking about? I'm talking about their Work for the Dole initiative. When you are on Newstart, what you get as a new job searcher, for like 6 months they put you on Work for the Dole. They give you work with a company that needs volunteers and what it's for is that you can put that on your resume as experience. Well if your resume was good enough you would have got a job already, or that's what they assume I guess. So it's not a terrible thing. 

I've done Work for the Dole before. Nice computer refurbish place. However the problem is during one of the change with the government they removed this initiative while I was working there so I stopped that. That was like 7 or 8 years ago. They only just recently brought it back end of last year. Problem with this is that because they just started it back up there is a lack of connections with companies so a lack of volunteer work. I tried to volunteer for it back when I started back on Newstart but they said they had to reserve those for people who are suppose to be on the initiative before they can let people volunteer for it. Okay so I had to wait till I needed to do it.

So in Jan I was suppose to start Work for the Dole. Problem was once again there was limited places. Fortunately they found me a place in Box Hill basically down my street. Sweet. Worked out the paperwork. Immediately the next day I receive a call telling me that connection has been cut and was in renegotiation so I had to choose the only other place which was in Southbank. Bleh fine. Wasn't very happy. However with the thing that happened with my brother happened at the time they told me I didn't need to come in at the time. Thing is after a week of not attending apparently it is automatically cancelled by the system. This I didn't find out until 3 weeks later ... Fine they scheduled me a meeting so I'll wait for that. However just a week later before the meeting I receive a call checking on how I was doing with Work for the Dole ... Okay I really don't get how their system works. The system cancels my Work for the Dole however my automated scheduled phone checkups stay up ... it's messed up. So tried to work it out. And now apparently there are 0 places for me to work so they put my studies as Work for the Dole activity ... aren't I basically on Austudy which is for students? Then again I'm getting paid more this way, guess I can't complain.

Unfortunately my studies don't go so well so I defer. Of course this means changing my Work for the Dole. They tell me there's a place in Balwyn, sweet. Problem, they expect more hours then someone my age is suppose to do ... then why did you even tell me. Hating. They place me in Collingwood for only 2 weeks because that's when their agreement is for. Okay fine, don't place me anywhere close and make me come in after 2 weeks to do this all over again. So I turn up in Collingwood and guess what? The place is close for the holiday break ... I call up my jobsearch place and find out they weren't informed. Of course. They tell me they will work it out. 2 weeks and they tell me just to come in to work out a new place.

That brings us to this week. Kew, not so bad. I turn up Tuesday. Apparently the Kew place didn't know I was coming in. They weren't informed and they didn't get my police check so I couldn't even start if they could allow it. So call my jobsearch place and again they say they'll work it out that day. They call the next day and tell me to come in the next week because can't be worked out this week.

My head hurts just reliving it. Wasted so much time. Hopefully it is all worked out by Tuesday ...

Lost in Time

Sooooo ... with such a weird schedule without work and random events here and there I seem to be forgetting what day of the week it is. Just missed yum cha with friends ... so sad.

I mean most of a week is standard work days. With work days you look forward to the weekend, you can see it coming. However not saying I do stuff throughout the week unemployed, but a Saturday is somewhat the same as any other day. Sometimes have things on and sometimes just a chill day. 

With that said I really should have looked forward to yum cha ... but guess I didn't. Showing my age. Somebody just the other day said Peter doesn't forget anything ...

MIA

Okay a quick post. So I have been missing for around a week and there's a reason for that. With the drastic weather changes, because it's Melbourne, my sleep apnea has been acting up making it really difficult to sleep and so I'm so much worse off when I'm awake. Doesn't help it was the week I began my studies and I'm already terrible at studying without the tiredness. This result of sleep apnea was pretty much the thing that stuffed up my studies a few years back.

Still ... I can't believe the weather has been like this. It's basically the end of March and it was still pretty darn hot in my room. The other week it was like deathly cold. Yes for those who know me well I'm usually fine with the cold, but that's when it's consistently cold. Because I don't have many long sleeve clothing I've had to keep a blanket around just in case the sudden drop in temperature. It messes with the humidifier in my CPAP machine, which "suppresses" my sleep apnea, so it ends up blasting cold air into my throat causing me to wake with a dry throat causing lots and lots of coughing. So yes the weather is totally messing with my sleep. This is the kind of weather we get living in Melbourne ...

I just recently got a Mi Fit which is a cheapo version of Fitbit. Why I'm mention it is because it records when I am sleeping. Even though sometimes I barely remember if I woke or not the Mi Fit records what I've been doing. Apparently the recording is more on how much movement I am doing It records that sometimes I am awake during the night. Okay it's not cheapo enough that tapping it lightly count as steps. Pretty much means if its recording I'm awake it means I'm moving around a lot while I'm supposedly sleeping. And this is when it gets worse. I end up pulling out my CPAP mask off. This is the mask connected to the CPAP machine. 

A bit brain dead still so post might not run really linear and also this post wasn't as short as I thought it be.

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 ...