I want to become a teacher

I want to become a teacher.

In many ways I enjoy learning new things so that I can teach it to others around me. I always am rattling off trivial facts that people around me don’t know. I enjoy explaining how things work, and taking people through ideas. Using what little I know about finances and economics, I have recently been explaining how the financial system works and a bit of the politics at play currently.

Maybe having the teaching taken away from me when I was working as a Political Organiser, was what made me start not liking the job. Because while in Australia I got to teach very regularly, be it showing the new guy what we did, to giving classes on history, on the science of the ideas we were fighting for and against. It was something that drove me, and I loved it at the time, be it getting up and giving a formal class, or just explaining a point of view fully.

In many ways too, it was what I left High School wanting to become. I should had applied for a scholarship to teach, but wasn’t confident. I chose a Science degree because I knew that adding a year for a teaching diploma made me a High School Teacher.

So my career plan at the moment stands, that I want to get debt free, and have a bit of a nest of cash so I can go through University in four years time. I know teachers actually earn a little bit less than me at the moment. So I am also thinking I should look into Open University or something to get a degree that way while I am still in the Navy getting good pay. Maybe just doing an arts degree in History so I just finish that off and then do a Grad. Diploma of Teaching, would be optimal. Though if I get posted somewhere (what is likely) I will have a hard time completing a distance education course (though it may still be possible).

For putting me onto this course of thinking, I blame Wade who the other day on the phone asked me about my career plans. I admitted to him on the phone if the work keeps as easy as it as now in the Navy, I will find it hard to leave…

watching Skins

I went shopping today, got some books, CDs and a DVD (first one I’ve purchased since comming back from Sydney). Then I ended up watching the whole of the first serries of “Skins” (the DVD I purchased) and must say I really like it. I am going to see if my sisters want to watch it when I go over East, they watch the OC and shows like that, what Skins references.

I think I like Skins because of the story arcs and how it seems a little grubby. Not the pris clean sort of teen drama (well it is actually R rated here in Aus, so that sort of defeats it being a teen drama if not many teens can watch it).

Just as I logged onto the internet for today to write this entry, I was thinking maybe I should write back up stories for this blog. Sort of like how in “Race around the world” they contestants had a backup story that was used if their story for the episode couldn’t be made or just sucked. Maybe I should make the aim of this holiday to write a good blog, as well as kick start a strong fitness regime in the new year, drive across australia, visit Noumea with Wade, chillax, make friends and visit family.

Just a thought…

Money gets in the way

The other day Simon came around to my place. It was a pretty big moment in my houses history, few people ever drop around. He soon made it clear though what his intentions were, he wanted to get my laptop of me for about two hundred dollars.

A very cheap price, for a laptop that is only a year old, has 2GB of memory, Bluetooth, 160GB of hard disk, CD-DVDBurner, SD Card reader and heaps of other features I got it for. But haven’t really used much, and then Windows died on it, so I didn’t bother fixing it, loaded up Linux and used it maybe once a week until I got my new Mac (that I like using heaps more than I ever did my other laptop). Problem is that he wants to get Windows onto the system, and is having problems with it that the tech guys he talks to say will cost him a couple more hundred dollars.

I didn’t get the cash from Simon when he came over, but happily let him take the laptop so he could try and get it working and he promised to come around and drop of the cash. But hasn’t come around. Instead he calls me up and asks if he can not do the sale. Sure I answer.

Then he has another attempt at “fixing” the laptop (I have heard some arcane things have happened to the laptop to try and get her running Windows again, that apparently she does now, just not very well). And I go over his house and figure that he will drop around tomorrow and leave the laptop if I’m not in like I offered him. Or possibly call me and say when the money will come.

I should be more laid back about it all, but it is a strain for me. Money is so precious and I get strung up about it all the time. From the furry I feel when I make a downpayment and have to wait an extra few days for a delivery, when I figure I should had made a different choice. To when my money is inacessable because of needing an SMS from he bank, or the bank not liking the characters I type on my phone for anything but the password to get into the online banking. I get furious.

It is one of things I am taking a holiday from though, I have my cash easily acessable incase I want to spend it, and have plenty enough that I shouldn’t be worried about any costs. If it works though? I am yet to see…

The ecological disaster in my backyard

Yesterday I discovered a collapsed part in my garden, and on probing it I discovered a hollowed area about a meter in length with about thirty to forty centimeters of soil above it (that was held in part by some tree roots).

Strange I thought, and shoveled some soil from an unused garden bed to fill in the area, figuring it was most likely a hole dug by a dog that was covered over by the previous tenant. Or maybe where a pipe that had been removed leaving the meter long void.
But then this morning I noticed a huge sunken hole where I had filled in. And took a look around thinking to find out what caused it. Maybe it was an animal digging it? But then noticed the grass near it had no soil under it too. I had a water problem. Water was washing away the soil in the corner of the garden, and trying to fill the corner of my backyard like the Colorado River finding a way to fill the Salton Sea (on a much much much smaller scale).

So I searched around for a sprinkler head or something near by what would be the cause. I found the plug first, then an o-ring. Both had been washed into the hole by the water. I then found the uncapped sprinkler, still surrounded by some dirt and grass, almost not connected to the wash out a short few centimeters away.

I put the o-ring and cap back into the sprinkler, but knew that it wouldn’t stop the flow of water because the sprinkler had no head. The sprinkler with plug in was just a jet nozzle to cause more soil to be washed out. So I ended up digging around the sprinkler (using my hose to flush out a lot of the loose soil actually) and using duct tape and some plastic I covered the end.
I had at first thought to just put a rock on top of the sprinkler, but then figured the water damage would just seep from there. So to finish of the disaster area, I put down some broken cement and rocks that litter another corner of my backyard to bulk up the soil in the area (that I don’t really like to mow anyway) and then put more soil down to replace the lost stuff and level it out a little.

It was lucky, because yesterday I was thinking about planting something there and making it a small vegetable plot (with carrots, corn or something equally as easy to grow there). If I had planted that yesterday I would be now without a garden, as the seeds would had been washed away!

But I figure I’ll have to wait another day or maybe two to make sure that the sprinkler is capped properly (the sprinkler turns on every second day at about 5 am I think). I remember having to cap the sprinklers hose in the front yard that actually was spewing water onto the footpath and stopping the sprinklers giving out much of a spray. That was a duct tape and then bury.

(Note: I would had drawn some pictures, but my Mac doesn’t have a drawing program on it.)

d… d… download

five day old beard

Today I haven’t done very much, except download a lot of music from iTunes. It is a little expensive, but then again it isn’t as expensive as a music store. Also getting to sample everything before downloading (and paying for) the whole song is good.

By the way, by a lot of music I meant just that. I was listening to tripplej and a story on roots of music and thought I needed some more Australian music especially if I am going to drive across it (I will need lots of music to listen to for that). So I got some Slim Dusty, Whitlams, Jimmy Barnes, Sarah Blasko, Josh Pyke and Midnight Oil. It isn’t that my music isn’t Australian or anything, I just wanted a wider range of Australian music and songs that I liked.

On other stories, my beard that I started growing on Monday is pretty well set. Should be very full by the time I get back from New Caledonia. I don’t know if I will keep it the whole holidays. At the moment I think it may get a bit to thick, or maybe I will just like the clean shaven look more (I haven’t had a beard before because of wanting to feel and look clean). Anyhow that is all really trivial, but that’s what happens when you do nothing for a day.

holidays have begun and…

My holidays have begun, and today all I have done since finishing work is surf the internet and cook dinner. [boring...]

Oh and I played Facebook Poker, FreeCiv (what is an open source version of Sid Mier’s Civilization II) and a bit of Privateer (another open source game based on Origin’s Privateer from the Wing Commander series). Actually they are the only two games I have on my MacBook (unless you count Inform 7 being a game, but I actually have no interactive fiction games on my computer).

Anyhow, I logged on just now to watch more documentaries and news reports on You Tube. After watching some docos on the Cold War and how the Nuclear Arms System works I am really starting to love having the internet back again (with a more generous download limit).

I turned 25 today

I am a black coffee no sugar sort of simple guy...

At twenty five, I am a Black Coffee no sugar sort of guy. I live an equally simple stable life, have a steady source of income from the Navy (where I do very little work, as a so called “technician”), am usually quiet and clean shaven.

At the moment though, I am growing a beard (started on monday). And I dream of a complex social life, but haven’t the closeness to anyone to actually sustain it. Maybe I will meet people at an occasional party, but other than that I am not someone to collect numbers, or have one night stands. I am instead a black coffee, work, relax alone at home, sleep, work sort of cycle guy. And frankly I wish I wasn’t equally as much as liking the freedoms it allows (like knowing I can play a computer game all night uninterupted by the phone or friends dropping in).

I use to be more social when I worked in politics, but the thing was that the work was too life consuming that I didn’t have a change to take advantage of it. My housemates and I, I can only remember a few isolated nights we got up to trouble and even then it was only for a few hours at the most at a time. But I loved those housemates, Adam, Andy and Rachel (and Doug, Colin and Jordon when they were there and the house was more serious but even then still social enough for beers and movie nights).

I remember a night going around to one of Colin’s friend’s places and falling asleep on the couch, I had worked that hard all week. If only I was that social in my current job, I think I would be alright. Maybe all I need to do is get a house mate into my small house to share some fun with?
Though my place being so small, and cheap, I barely need it for anything other than social reasons…

Now since I am twenty five, I think my goals are going to change a little. Being money aware, I think saving for a deposit on a house by I am 30 (especially since I have a solid paying job) is a good aim. As is trying to get out more.  It would be fantastic to have a girlfriend by Christmas, but I think I have to be serious there, as I have had fuck all luck with dating sites and seem to never meet interested single women out on the town (when I do go out on the town), maybe I should aim to build a stronger network of friends first (but then where the fuck would I find them).

Anyhow, maybe my twenty fifth birthday isn’t a time to be making resolutions at all. Maybe I should be just reflecting.

I go on summer holidays at the end of this week :|

I am a little worried I must admit. At the end of this week starts my ten weeks holidays. I didn’t really work to hard for them, I have just saved them up during my two and a bit years in the Navy, by only taking short Christmas leave and nothing else (bar the free days I have had holidays).

Originally the plan was for a three week holiday in November to go to New Caledonia, and then to do Christmas leave. But when I saw there was only two weeks between the two holidays, and considering that I haven’t really been working (mostly just playing computer games during the work day), I extended my Christmas leave to fill the gap.

So that leaves me with the frightening situation of ten long weeks of leave. No work for Shane from Saturday 8 November until Monday 19 January.

But other than what is really just my first two weeks, of flying over to my family in southern New South Wales and then to New Caledonia for a week with an old friend from school. Well I have very little on my plate, after those first two weeks.

Plans are to do the Perth to Melbourne road trip. Taking four days (maybe five) each way (because I don’t want to fuck up my car with a Kangaroo hit at night), but other than looking at the route I haven’t planned much for it. And a week ago I was looking at doing a trip through America visiting Memphis, Louisville, Buffalo (maybe Chicago, Detroit and another city) and meeting some extended family just north of Buffalo in Ontario. But with the dollar collapsed so much, the cheap train and bus trips, and small amount of car hire I would had wanted (not to mention the flights where nothing is under $3000 into the Mid West) would be just a little too much for my bank account to handle.

But Oh, and I purchased a guitar just last Saturday. So I should get in a few hundred hours learning it (and I can pick up my Violin from my parents place too).

Other things I have always wanted to do, that I may end up doing include:
i    write an interactive fiction game
ii    spend a good amount of time swimming (I live only two blocks from a beach)
iii    get a girlfriend

On the third point, a little emphasis should be put. I would hate for early January to come around to find I have spent it just sitting on my couch doing very little. At best I would love for the end of my holidays to have heaps of stories, new friends and maybe even a developing relationship.

Maybe that is why I am worried?

Oasis member for a night

I overheard a guy at work today talking about an online dating site (Oasis) and figured I would give it a go. It actually didn’t support Safari and so I installed Firefox to test it out.

My profile hadn’t even been accepted in full (the picture was still pending), and I had only really spent a couple hours browsing profiles and chatting with one quirky girl and sarted to read a little about online dating. I have attempted it in the past to no success, and rather than waste more time on it, I figured it was smart to nip it in the but and cancelled my account.

I am so glad I did it right this minute. It hopefully will mean I waste less time, when what I really want to do is be more outgoing. And to be more outgoing doing something introverted like having the internet to communicate with people you may or may not want a relationship with isn’t going to help.

My profile really was just telling the story of when I went to New York with Lucas and Doug. How we walked all over downtown and over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Doing something like that is what I want to do again on this 10 weeks of holidays I have comming up just after my birthday (next week).

Romantic Comedies

It isn’t really that weird when you think about it, that I a single mid twenty something guy, who is seeking (very unsuccessfully in the seeking) a relationship. Is drawn in by Romantic Comedies like “Numb” and “Elizabethtown”.

I must admit I like both of them, and maybe it is because I emphasize with the protagonist. Maybe its because I dream to one day (soon) find a woman who is almost magically in love with me, Like the Sara or Clare in “Numb” or “Elizabethtown”?

Thinking about it, the two stories lean heavily on that “magic”, it seems the girl falls in love with guy is the key to both movies. It is a sort of magic like explained in fairy tails about stealing clothes of Nymphs to make them good wives. Maybe the magic of the movie is what draws me in, wondering how it works? Maybe I am subconsciously trying to take notes, so I can cast a similar magic : )

But what every it is, I like these two romantic comedies and how they encapsulate a comical slice of life. How the characters have fun, and go through trials on the screen in minutes that can take heart wrenching days and weeks in real life. Another movie (though it has been a while since I’ve seen it so maybe my memory is playing tricks) is “Wedding Daze”.

The magic in  ”Wedding Daze” comes from a waitress asking (or was it the customer) off handedly to marry. And the answer being “Yes”, both characters only just having seen each other for the first time minutes ago. That click, like the long phone call in “Elizabethtown” (after all the ground work Clare put in to get Drew her number). It makes me wonder if that magic, of first impressions, of love, really is that binding. Honestly I haven’t been in a relationship to find that out.

I wonder if the producers knew there was a dynamic of single men who actually wouldn’t mind watching a movie like these?