Break it you buy it

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

New Place

So now I've moved my setup to my new room

End of the line

Okay not a true end.

An end and a new beginning XD

Gifts a plenty

One before the holidays.

AA

Not quite yet ...

The Day the Post Arrived

Keeping it up

In the business

I've been saying for awhile that I'd post about volunteer work so here it is. I actually haven't been in a few weeks because I started working and also my contract is officially over last week. Still it was a good experience and if I had more time I might still continue volunteering. 

People have asked what I did at the opt shop. When I first started it was sorting and stocking. Basically do that for the stuff that comes in previous days or on the day. Get quite the range of things, from antiques to new items. Depending on what sort of item it is condition matters. Like clothes, who wants to buy stained clothes? But we still get people who end up donating things without checking. So we sort these out. We do try to clean up the stuff we get but for some things there's just no hope. Get quite a few things that we need to throw out. If no one would buy it we need to throw it out to make room for other things. Shop space matters. We end up with things that take quite awhile to sell so it sits out front. Also in general our store is small. We've had offers for furniture but had to refuse because there's just nowhere to put it. So we price what we can and put it on the shelves. Later on I manned the register.Good thing about that is I get to choose the music been played. Pretty much every time Taylor Swift goes straight on the CD player.

Creepy Doll

Multi-battery-type device???

My boss there was pretty good. She's been working there for awhile and knows all the ropes and the mistakes that we will make. When we make a mistake she always tells us she's made the same mistake in the past so it's all okay. Also if we break something she doesn't expect us to pay for it and only ask if anyone got hurt or not. Though she always treats me like a kid. Says because she's a mother she'll always be motherly to someone my age ... or maybe it's the way I act ... Last thing she does a lot of is give the staff discounts. All the things are already decent cheap and half the time we are pricing them. However she still insists on giving us a discount because of our hard work she says. I sometimes still try to pay for things outright ... come on it's for charity.

Just some of the things I bought

I didn't write this
... but wish I did

Thought I had a bit more to write but guess not. Been awhile since working there so probably forgot. Here's the previous blog post about volunteering and here's my vlog post which mentions a bit about my last trip in to the opt shop. Below are a few more photos on the tasks I did there. Enjoy.

Before and After polishing

After Polishing 

Wood polishing

Electronic testing

Sorting Earrings

Work without the work

Ok new vlog is up. More annotation nonsense. 

A bit longer than I wanted but that's what happens with one take, no edit.

Continue to give me feedback and I'll try my best to get better :D

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. 

Volunteer, volunteer

Was gonna post about the work for the dole after working a few days but because of being sick here and there I haven't really racked up that many days. To this day it has been 4 weeks since I started but after the first day I was sick that week and the week after. Went in the following Tuesday but they sent me home because was getting a running nose. Then this Tuesday I had to see the doctor for my old elbow injury. Finally managed a full day today. So up to date I have done 3 full days and an half day over 4 weeks ... but I've done a lot apparently ...

For those who don't know they've placed me in an opt shop in Kew so not too hard to get to. The hours ain't bad either because I usually need to start at 9 other places they've sent me but here it's 9:30 and I still end at 5. They're pretty free with the timing (not that I turn up late or anything) but instead of having lunch I leave half hour early. However most people there were half dayers so I meet different people during the day. Everyone I've met there are women but I've heard some men volunteer on some days. They make fun of that fact but I'm used to it working in childcare. I do need to wear an apron for this place though (no I don't usually wear that hat). First day I trammed in. Tram line pretty much goes straight down. Takes half an hour because it's peak hour traffic. Found out we have a car park area for opt shop so I've driven there since. Takes half an hour from my house so lose less time and I don't need to walk. Also good because I can load stuff from the opt shop in my car ... I'll get on that later. So not too bad location wise.

Yeah that hat ... and that face ...

So the work there ... very subjective I say. What I mean is is there's work but it's like you choose what you pick up sort of thing. Nothing is very clear cut. Pricing things is pretty vague. We have to price it so we make money for the charity but we don't want to price it so hardly anyone will consider buying it. And thing is the donations range in conditions from brand new to unsellable. I'm kind of terrible without some sort of structure. At times you'll see me standing around not knowing what to do. I mozzy around looking for something I might have a clue what to do with. But apparently I'm a great help when it comes to tasks I'm allocated because I get them done quick.

Childcare Centre

Opt Shop

Organizing wall peg things ... looks pretty

 Okay quick list of some of these set tasks I've done. First one is ... shredding ... Somehow this job always come to me. Had to do this at the childcare centre I was working in last year ... I'll post photos side by side. They had these sitting around since November last year. Second, counting puzzle pieces ... okay I only did a few of these because I was given this task when I was sick. However I heard the last guy quit because he had to count pieces for one puzzle ... well I didn't quit. okay so the real second is bag sorting. They have these big bags which they fill with stuff to store like summer stuff which we don't put out in the winter. Well they were all shoved in a big bag and some of the big bags were way to big to fill and carry so had to throw out. Seeing the state of the bags just shoved together I thought I'd divide the bags into their various sizes. Was much appreciated. And the third most recently finished task was measuring fabrics. They get like a tonne of fabrics. They had a wall high draw system overflowing with fabrics. Told them I didn't know how much fabric was worth but they just said I needed to measure and sort through them because no one was doing it. Took me one and a half days to get it all measured and sorted. Some of the fabric weighed heaps and some were 6 metres long!?! and I had like minimal work space so I had to fold it many times just to measure it ... Some were both heavy and long. Eventually it was all done. By the way the picture is one of 4 boxed I sorted through not including fabric which had to be thrown out because of stains or cuts. But finally the wall was reduced to 4 well organized draw of measured fabric. Hope I don't have to do that again any time soon. The boss says I've been a big help doing the stuff no one does ... Yeah great. Don't know what I'm going to do next.

So about loading my car ... it's just a few things. I mean I always liked opt shopping but being in the back you find things that don't find their way to the front for different reasons. I got myself some goodies that I've been happily using. You find all sort of things you wouldn't think would be at an opt shop. 

Really should control myself, I already have a lot of gadgets and stuff in my rooms ... 

Awww sitting in the back all by himself

Pretty but no I didn't get it