Feed of Blog

the mid-week fin year turnaround

The new financial year has kicked off, again.

It’s always difficult having July 1st mid-week. Earlier this week was the struggle of finishing off the fin year and trying to make the overall year sales target (which I missed, just). And after that was over, Wednesday kicks in and everything’s all new again.

Wednesday was tough – two of account managers at work were made redundant. Not a happy mood in the office at all. The restructure of people in general has meant that I am only working with 8 acct managers this year, and not 14. Huge bonus for me. But overall, targets are set to go up, and I’m impatiently waiting to find out what they are next week.

Today was all about the sales incentive plan – all the ins and outs on how we get paid commission, what the rules and changes are, etc. And it was also the day when the customer portfolios were announced. Good in some respects, cos some customers came up from what we call “mass market” to be account managed, so there’s lots of opportunity to start selling to them. But it sucks cos some bigger customers moved up, and annoyingly, two of them I had big data networks on the table for. And now I’ve got 30 days to close that sale, otherwise I don’t get paid for it.

But I did enjoy a sleep in and slow start to today, which my new manager wanted us to do. And tomorrow is an outdoor BBQ, meeting, fun type day for all the account managers. That starts at 10:30, and I’ll head there briefly before heading into the city for a farewell lunch for my previous manager.

And then next week will start to pick up, I’m sure.

3 posts this week

The KRudd Laptops - NSW style

There are 0 Comments for this post.
At the last election KRudd and the ALP promised laptops to all High Schoolers in Year 9 and above. Some states just took the money and gave it to the schools and they bought what they needed.

NSW had their own mind.

They held out, for more money and a better programme that included infrastructure and support.

What they ended up going for was each school to get their own industrial strength wireless network covering the whole school, on site support of at least one person possibly even two if big enough, extra software [Adobe was a big winner with Premier (and Photoshop) elements getting a look in along with other things]. And instead of a laptop the students will get a netbook [Lenovo S10 to be precise]

I can't decide if they did the right thing or not - at the moment, I am leaning towards "yes".

From a technical viewpoint I think that they have done it right. Just chucking laptops at schools in isolation was going to be a disaster - our school worked out it would cost about $40,000 to $60,000 in infrastructure just to get things up and running and that does not count ongoing support, maintainence and replacement due to damage - the DET plan gets all that covered by the Federal government.

Educationally??? Not so convinced - the juries are out on the education value of one for one laptop programmes, with some research suggesting little to no difference.

Of course, on the ground it's all a bit chaotic and no doubt not quite the nice flowchart drawn in Visio.

Wireless was delayed, support personnel are delayed, netbooks are coming out in dribs and drabs, software is not ready [even though we will be given some netbooks to start doing some planning and familiarisation with] and almost all the questions we have are either answered in the negative or we just aren't told anything [hmmm that is actually SOP with the DET]

Which for a project that went from tender in Jan to sending out seed hardware in July it's not that surprising. The DET has actually managed to do a damm fine job of turning a complete disaster into just a normal one.

Plus each staff member is getting one - which for the DET is a complete change of policy practice - they have always been very much against giving staff anything of their own.

[Footnote: they will run Windows 7 - yep Windows 7!! The 7100 Release Candidate is on the ones we got today. But I am guessing that the final SOE will have the full release version of Windows 7 on them. Which must make us one of, if not the first, large scale deployment - I hope that meant we got a good deal.]

2 posts this week

Rock On

We caught the ferry to Statton Island today. It's free. It takes you past the Statue of Liberty. It doesn't make taking photos very good if you have a little camera. Still we did get to see her, and she's famous and all that.

On Statton Island we wandered into a cafe to find some Coke and got sucked in by the friendly waitress who asked us if we wanted breakfast. Seeing as we hadn't eaten breakfast since Monday, we stayed. Once we'd sat down we discovered it was some clandestine, hippy, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, chick-pea cafe. I felt very ripped off. I don't go places like that when I'm on holidays. Unless I'm on holidays with the majority of my friends and then sometimes I have to.

Still they did do stuff for real people too, so I ate some french toast. It wasn't that good but at least it had gluten in it.

Once we escaped the den of health and ethics, we got back on the ferry for our free trip back. Then it was off to the Rockefeller Centre to see the New York from up high. We managed to be up there about 5 minutes before the rain set in. The approaching rain made for some good photos, but the rain itself just made us wet. So we sheltered in a room with light up squares on the roof and walls. It was like a giant, inverted Dance Dance Revolution. I'm sure those of Asian decent with us felt very at home.

Eventually the rain eased and we made it outside. We were very high up, New York is full of tall buildings. In the worlds of Mick Harvey "Whenever I see New York, New York USA...every time I see it I get high, oh so high." Actually it wasn't quite like that but as the song names every tall building in the city, I sang it to myself as I looked at each other buildings in his song.

When we descended from those art deco heights of steel and over priced gift shops, we ate a hot dog from someone who sells them on the street. I was eating mine as we crossed the road, over a grate with steam coming out of it [...]

7 posts this week

Pretty truck

Pretty truck, originally uploaded by Nutloaf.

8 posts this week

liquid crystal

We have been trying to work out how to clear some space in the dining room of our house so that Oscar can have a more permanent play area set up. One option we thought was to get rid of our chunky old TV because it takes up a fare bit of space. This is the sort of idea that excites me because i love technology and was hoping it meant I would get to go and get a new TV.

I was in westfield getting some bats for a TEAR simulation and thought i would pop in to a few TV shops just to look at prices.

The space we have for a TV is quite small so i went to look at all the small TV’s in the stores. The cheapest i could find was $500 and that was in Kmart, some brand that no one in the whole world has ever heard of.

I went to several differnt shops, Bing Lee, JB Hi-Fi, Kmart, It seemed that the new tv idea was a lost casue, I’m not spending $500 on a tiny tv.

I thought I would give David Jones a go, so I went in and looked around at their TV’s, then I found this ugly white one that was $549 but on sale now only $349 Bargain. So i rang Jenny to see if she thought it was a good idea. We did lots of umming and arrrring. Then Jenny said i needed to put forward a better case. So I spun my magic and walked to the register with a TV in a box.

The man scanned it in and it came up at $249, that’s $300 OFF!!!! I had to buy it now.

So we have a new little LCD tv, it even picks up fuzzy 10, 9 and 7. Unlike our home theatre that only gets ABC and SBS.

We put our old chunky TV out on the footpath and jenny made a sign that said “FREE!!! Works fine, includes remote”

Some smart arese came along and stole the remote so I had to tear that part of the sign off. A few hours later the TV was gone.

2 posts this week

Bare essentials of safety from Air New Zealand

Air NZ safety video with staff just wearing body paint. Keep an eye for the boys.

1 post this week

snap back to reality

life contnues, people grow and change, new relationships form and old ones fade. basically the world keeps spinning even while you are away. its a bit of a harsh reality in a strange way. i would have loved my life to stay in a torpor and waited for me to come back, and on the surface it has, i have steppend into my old jobs, im living back at home, my family is here, my friends are here, my car is here, my things are here, but its all different somehow, im different. Canada was a positive experience on the whole, i needed to go and i needed the change to happen but i just wasn’t ready for it, i wasn’t ready for how it was going to change me and my views on life. its strange that being single and back in Australia feels so lonely, i thought that being in a long distance relationship was as lonely as i could possibly feel, but alas. don’t get me wrong, its great being back in Aus, its just very strange, i feel somewhat hexagonal in a round hole, almost fitting, but not quite.

1 post this week

giggles

this is a month and a half old or so now, but i still think it's pretty cute...

5 posts this week

hello from nyc

Arrived in NYC tonight. In the space of an hour we have taken a yellow cab and had late night pizza. We’re almost locals. Bussed it in from Ocean City which took all day as Greyhound overbooked the first bus, so we detoured to Baltimore, and waited for 3 hours. Met an earnest young man [...]

1 post this week

Motorbike

So Martin and I are now the proud owners of a motorbike. Not that I know how to ride it, Martin does that, but maybe I will learn. Bikes are lot more expensive than I would have thought so it took us ages to find this one that wasn’t. I just hope it doesn’t break down really soon. It is good to have a second vehicle though. I was starting to feel fairly overwhelmed by all the driving I had to do to get us both to and from work. This is much better for the environment and my mental health. And I have to say I think Martin looks really hot on the bike. Let’s just hope he doesn’t hurt himself.

1 post this week

Time to Own Up

Who prayed that dog prayer on the 21st June?

1 post this week

A world that is not Melbourne

hi everyone – guess what?? I am engaged.

Nah just jokes. But I am feeling all excited about weddings. I saw photos on facebook and Tom blogged.  

Anyway I promised to post about my week in Sydney with Hannah for Jane and John but I couldn’t get their internet working so I didn’t do it and by the time they read this they will proabably be home with her but better late than never. I had a lovely time with Miss Banana. She is very cute and she seems to still love me even though I left Sydney. We hung out in parks and played with sticks and we ate chips and chocolate and soft drinks and lollies and meat pies and ice cream and smoked cigarettes and drunk beer. Oh no did I just tell Jane? It would be a bit of a worry if it was true but it is not. Only the chips and a little soft drink and the parks.  

We went to dinner at Ryan’s place in Campsie. It was real nice to see the place he inhabits. His flatmates are cool. More interesting than most people’s flat mates I believe. I guess the paradox is, the most interesting things in life take work.

On the Thursday I let Hannah wag school. I wanted to hang out with her all day. We caught the ferry to Manly. Ryan and Jenny hung out with us too. It was a great day. I really enjoyed myself.   

Then I went and spent two days in Tamworth. I loved my dad’s girlfriend and her kids and her kids babies and they loved me too (thanks for the car Jane and John). And my Tamworth aunties loved my dreads. They thought I was very cool.

Did I mention  Grandpa (mum’s dad) said they did not look as bad as he thought they would. Then Grandma made me laugh. She told me how she told her friend she was going to see her grand daughter who now has dreadlocks and her friend said to her “I understand, my grandson used to have a pink mohawk.” I was like – “gran dreads are way cooler than a pink mohawk.”  

I wish I could end the post there but unfortunately I have some bad news (Mum and Mil I guess this information is especially for you). My high school friend Amanda Cashell died in car accident. She was drink driving and hit a truck. I am doing Ok because I hadn’t seen her for awhile but I am saddened and shocked by the news. The small mercy is Chloe and Renee who used to hang out with Amanda and I alot contacted me about it and shared some of their grief with me. Amanda and I used to encourage each other to do a lot of crazy things. Unfortunately it seems she never quite stopped engaging in dangerous behaviour [...]

MPH

slabs

slabs are good. we have a slab where was once a teapot with toast and jane. its a nice slab. for awhile it was wrapped in plastic like a christo installation (he wrapped up north head once so this is a small christo). we planned to polish the concrete which has become my way, particularly because it doesnt cost so much money. last weekend i did that so the builders could come and turn the slab into a building. grind grind, sweep sweep, hose hose. do that 20 times and you’re there. quite therapuetic. helps to temper my need for a quick result. after the grind sweep hose i am ready to paint the little thing trouble is the paint i get is wrong and the builder doesnt get to make a house for longer. i must get my paint from sydney. is anyone coming our way you could drop it off. still slabs are good and we get to enjoy it a bit more. i am hoping that everyone who reads this will sleep on this slab. thats my dream.

Back in Web World

After several weeks of fading and intermittent and then no web access, tonight all seems to be working as it used to. I spent 2 hours today trying to communicate to Telstra, the telecommunication giant. I think I must have got through. Any way, we’re on again! When you live in the desert you can’t take these things for granted.

So much has happend since the last blog I don’t know where to start. We have had many visitors and important progress is being made on cabins. And we had a couple of days of rain and my tomatoes are growing and the weather has got cold. And we wish we were in Guatamala for a certain wedding in about a week.  And last weekend we did Finke! What’s Finke you may wonder. Well, I might let Keith blog that one as he has photos.

But we’ re back in the land of the net living.

Monogomy in Nature

Stupid words

I think it might be impossible for the word communicative not to sound like a complete wank.
You know, it’s funny, because communication is so hearty and great, and I have learnt comes from the latin verb for community. And also to create and build. It’s so marvellous and then they just go and let it have stupid words like communicative associated with it. I just don’t get it.

This week’s highlights