a nonsense Telecom

These days I had kept paying bills everyday, from local phone bill to mobile bill, from water bill to gas bill. Money goes in and flows out. The number of bills grows as our age grows. Bills are never paid off until the day we die.

Telstra is such a crap Australian telecom monopoly. I got frustrated by its stupid staff this morning when I simply wanted to open a STD service. The rude customer service staff on the other side intended to issue me a new number for no reasons. In the end, I just wanted to get out of the dirt and made no changes. Then he told me I could not even get out of the “trap”! Crap! Crap! Crap! I knew I was impolite that I hung up the phone without saying “thank you.” Whereas, that was the only way I could stop wasting my time on these nonsense service. Not only me, a lot of people use various jokes to tears the service Telstra provided. One typical one is its voice comment service, which is the most hateful by consumers. This service works like this: you can not speak too soft and have to pronounce with perfect Australian accent, which a lot of us can not. I think Telstra wants to use this voice technology to turn away people calling its service inquiry lines.

My plan

Hours have been spent on writing job applications. I can only do this for half a day, otherwise, at the end of the day I will be sick of it and find myself useless. There are many things I could do except for getting a job after graduate, whereas, a lot of excellent programs slip away under your eye lids while you are prohibited by your national status from grabbing them. To make myself feel better and reduce the anxiety, I develop this chart:


My Plan

I am so looking forward to the mid-year holiday so I can catch up with lots of my “abandoned” friend. I feel very sorry for not spending enough time to maintain these valuable friends. For me, taking care of friends are more valuable than taking care of myself.

a drug case

I was watching the Schapelle Corby verdict online and could not hold back my emotion towards the tears, scream and anger in the Indonesian courtroom. Very obviously she was innocent and was used by drug traffickers. The poor former beauty student did not know a black hole was waiting for her ahead in Bali. Two decades in a foul cell is devastated for an innocent western girl. However, that is how legal system work. No strong evidence was presented, and the whole case fell into “he said, she said” situation, the Indonesian judges chose to believe documents, not her tears. Although I felt deeply sorry for her, I reckon 20 years is a lean verdict as she would have been sentenced for life or even to death.

I could not believe that yesterday was my last semester day in uni! A lot of revisions are piling up on my desk in the coming Swot Vac. So, before the horrified week kicks in, I went to see a student theatre play produced by another theatre group in uni. It is called “insurgence”. My comment is: something different. There is no clearly flow of the script, and the acting are free from scratch. The most impressive part was the technological effects, with new media video production was inconsistently projected on a translucent backdrop. Their choreographic was so post-modern that made most of us lose in the last part of the play. Overall, a cross-cultural new experience and worth ten bucks.

Yesterday in our last marketing economics lecture, John (a reputable economist) spent half the lecture talking about a graph. I was questioning the point he made on the graph, then a student yelled out “… is that right?”. Then John said, with smile on his face, “You are right. I make this mistake every second year.” Then he crossed out the old graph and drew another one with completely different direction. Alas, that is why many economic major students do not want to become economist.

My description to myself in the last two days is “I am a lemon car,” because I was sick and could not jounce muscles in my throat. Every year this time I definitely fall sick in this fickle Melbourne weather.

A poor guy and poor us!

Swot vac starts next week. The library will open till 3am for our poor students to work on last efforts towards exams. My study are undergoing quite OK, just a bit behind schedule. I plan to send my resume out to companies next week. So in the next few nights, I might need to stay in the fluffy library to finish my media part of assignments; get them out of way first.

A poor guy, who was sitting adjacent to me, had been looking at the computer screen for an hour without a single mouse click. Numbers and forms appeared on the fluorescent screen. A shiver runs down my spin for his brain torture. Good luck little boy!

Strive for dance medals

Again, I hung around library and the computer lab over this weekend for one of my large media essays. Hopefully, it would be the last theoretical piece, if Media Law does not require essay format as assessments. This is an interesting essays though, as I did a surveyed on CTG audience and will write a critical case study analysis based on the surveyed result. The hardest part is the effective way to interpret the primary data, which took me two nights to develop excel columns to allocate the data. This essay will be good given that I have worked hard on it and the lecturer is a soft marker.

I went to see the dance medal examination on Friday night. I know I must have to try hard in the holiday if I want to get good marks to get my medals. Two medals, silver and gold, are my goals. I am practicing everyday for the best payoff. fingers cross

Beauty Queen

I am so excited today. After talking to my journalism lecturer, I was instilled with good ideas in my feature piece. My topic is on “balancing beauty as a student”.

Not wasting a minute, I rushed down the timeworn John-Medley stairs to history department aiming to find a Gender/Feminism study lecturer. To my great disappointment, the Gender study lecturer, an old prune, said, “There are loads of students in my class want to see me. Sorry I don’t have time for you …… I don’t think there are anyone in our department will have time for you. They are all busy.” Crap!!! She is busy writing the academic journal which no more than three people will view it, and waiting for an echo in the empty corridor.

I kept trying. Another hit was a Chinese Professor who was “shock” with the questions I asked. Reluctantly, she curtly told me to interview all the people on my list and see if I need to come back to interview her.

That is why I don’t consider myself as an Arts student. In such a prestigious university, professors are like this? Why? Why? Why? The atmosphere in the whole Arts faculty is prevailed with wordless “academic research” . I admired the academic feel of Arts faculty in first year, second year I was indifference, and then I hated it in my third year. Nothing wrong with the academics, I am the only one who changes.

Escaping from the repressive building, I went straight back home and ripped open the untouchable Yellow Page. I looked for an Australian model. An hour later, I had secured an appointment with an Australian model from one of the famous modelling agency.

The third person on my list was Tali, a M&C student and a model at the same time. She was in my ProfWriting Class in first year. I do not have much hope on interviewing her as she is a busy person; and she cheated on our writing task in first year so I do not really like her in a sense.

I was lucky enough to gain a contact with Jess Young, a 2005 Miss Chinese International 2nd up winner. I had a very nice talk with her over MSN. Apparently, she is very talented. I have learnt a lot from her. The most impressive point is that Beauty is not only about appearance and being arrogant, beauty queen is also a normal person. Before the interview, beautiful girls scared me off. Jess gave me a lesson that they also want to make friends, being normal. More will come in my writing. She is a legend.

A meeting

I do not slack off from my writing, as I am the kind of person that relies on writing down thoughts as a way to clear the head. In the past few days I had a server stomach that I could almost did nothing but lied on bed groaning.

Economics - my right decision to study but I don’t think I will follow this path as my career. Statistics, predictions, uncertainties are the key components in this field. And there is always error comes up for not getting the expected information. Like one of my economic assignment, after handing in today, we were told that the question was wrong. However, we were left with uncertainty. As most of other economist did, bad news would announce “soon” and we were stay in the big cloud for an unknown time.

I went to an Environmental Fest committee meeting today. Put in the situation that I was still in my first or second year, I would like this sort of cranky stuff. Most of the people attended were from VCA, with skills on sculpture or painting. Surprisingly, they all look similar – guys with long hair bundle in a tangle, while girls with hairs twisted in a random way. Anyway, this bunch of people wanted to organise a typical Melbourne event to raise people’s awareness on environmental issue. I am interested, but I don’t think I will get into it as a committee. No reasons to explain, merely it is the fact that I changed my identity three years into my course. I am still figuring out what I really like to do. There are lots of opportunities and jobs out there. Above all, I want to find one that can give me great career prospects. For a long long time, I rest my heart on a self-protected stance. After last year’s reborn, I am now like an infant, searching for a real me.

need ideas!

I need sparkling ideas to instil into my feature story. To find an interesting cut in point is extremely difficult for me as a junior journalist. I went to an Asian gig this morning and had couples of interviews with the organiser and performers. Talk to strangers is not as scary as I thought. I was told by the AGE people that the ability to gather information was more important than writing in the modern journalist practice. Although the dream of being a journalist has long been drained out of my mind, learning the way of their thoughts is valuable for me as I will associate with them in the future.

I had attended two corporate events. Talking to people there, I have a clearer picture of the workforce and the career path I may pursue. The most beneficial contact was a film/advertising TVC Production Company. This is not my ultimate or the most favour goal, yet it will be a great cut in point into the industry.

Opportunities Day

I went to a commerce Alumni event last night. The night was designed for students or Alumni people to network with each other. The speaker was a guy from a boutique advertising agency and gave a talk on current issues raised in the marketing industry. As he had a background as a journalist, I was interested in talking with him about the media industry. His business story was that he enterer the advertising industry as a magazine editor, and at the time he got into the pool, he had no marketing knowledge. Despite he is a good speaker, I do not comment him as a successful person. In his speech and the subsequence face-to-face talk, I could not find much of his opinion on “strategy band management”. We all know that the current advertising industry is more and more competitive while less profit is earn after the restructure of the commission system. In his opinion, the reason for his company could still grow in business account at this difficult time while most big Ad Co.s are struggling for profit is because it is SMALL. He had no plan to open another branch in Sydney; I could guess that was the reason.

Anyhow, it was a great night. I met a girl from Commerce (Marketing)/Arts (Chinese) and had a nice chat with her. Then I talked to a middleman who did his business in Guangzhou and went there for the trade show every year and made great money from that. However, I did not gain any contacts from the event, except for promising the commerce alumni president to attend their committed meeting next month.

One reason for being such inactive is I don’t know whether I will stay in Melbourne or not. The other reason is that the people there are not in the industry I am interested in. I am still in the mode of sorting out my direction. I have a vague picture on what direction I am going towards, yet I know I am not that determine. If I really want to get something, I will fight for it, no matter what. Options are open and out there, there are lots of things I could do.

The Alumni president asked me: “Why did you come to commerce alumni, not Arts?” Surprise! Surprise! I know what Arts alumni is like, I am one of the committed there. I have nothing to do with just a title. On top of that, after the dispute with the faculty staffs and the Dean, I do not feel abound to Arts faculty anymore. The person in charge all those Arts events, which are not many throughout the year, is the one I was going to lodge my discrepancy to. I did not lodge the form, instead, I write myself a script and is going to knock at her door on the day of my graduation and yell at her “#$@*”

An interesting story: I feel much better to know that getting into those big consultant firms’ graduate program may always be a good thing. A friend’s friend’s …… friend got into BCG, but could not last for a year. Why? Stress! Sometimes, I feel sorry for those talented people. There are so many talents in the world, they have to compete with each other in the talented pool in a stress way; a normal person like me will also have to compete in a bigger pool but less stress. The payoff is – your income, which most of it will go to the Australian government’s pocket!

A quick note: I will go to Singapore for good probably at the end of next year. I went to a seminar yesterday, and found that I could gain a three-month visa easily and look for jobs within that period. Or, alternatively, it would be better I could obtain an employment pass before I fly there. But it will be much harder. Anyway, I will see but not wait. I am serious on this decision, and will determine to make a different life.

Mother’s Day

I had a great night with my family on Mother’s day. Not seeing the whole family for quite a white, it was great for all of us gathered around a table and ramble on topics. My cousins were running around. The oldest one has already as tall as mine, and the second one looks more and more like me. Time gone pass without notice, signs of ages are appear on the younger generation and winkles on our faces.

Grandma is alright; still keep saying the “good” welfare system of Australia and my application for staying in this country. I am going to pay for the satellite TV installation premium for her as a mother’s day gift, although I don’t have proper income.

Journalistic life

I was searching for ideas for my big feature. Journalist is an excited job, yet very demanding. In the past few years, I am not trained with journalistic skills. I find myself lack of news sensitivities to discover something “new”. On top of that, I am confined within the campus environment that I don’t really have opportunities to go out and observe the world.

It is scary that I suddenly find myself bond between campus, home and work in the last few months. Staying in a safe zone is not my type. I am going to experience the society in the coming holiday.

Time is running out. I have to get serious with my future now. I was so glad to see Shelly, a central OZ trip friends, at Uni today. I showed my interest of rejoining church service in the coming holiday. Hopefully God will take me back after such a long time of alienation.

Loads of things dump here, please

Undertaking a degree course is not a easy job, especially doing it in a highly competitive and eminent university. School works are loaded up so much so that everyone is at the edge of burn out. My architect housemate was making her two-story high model till whenever last night. I was trying to pull myself out of bed at 6:30am this morning, yet unsuccessful. My mind was wondered around in the air while my body was sticked to the bed. I finally got up at 7am, which was not bad really.

Apart from schoolwork, many miscellaneous things have to do.

·I want to get my silver Street Latin dance medal at this semester, if it is possible. The reason for this is I am in the Gold class now, but if I don’t get the silver medal, I can not take the Gold examination. I am not really those “class” greedier, but I wish to gain confidence by performing in front of other dancers. Also, I want to obtain at least one medal before I leave uni.
·I am applying for different volunteer roles at the moment. As last year I did not commit to SALP as expected, I really want to step out at see the Australian community. The areas I am applying for are legal help and camp leader for disable children. I have never thought about these areas, so, why not? My student life is going to expire soon. I want to enjoy its sweetness as much as possible.
·A lot of interviews are on the way, either I am the interviewer or the interviewee. One for Writing Journalism, one for Media & Language, both is in depth researches for my subject topics. On next Thursday, I am having a job interview from Coles Myer. A lot of preparation and practice before entering into the board room.
·I am going to attend several cocktail functions in the coming week for expanding my contacts in the job market. Make-up, business attires, high-heels will mix with my uni student’s casual wear next week.

I visited CTG tonight for their first night of the Cantonese show “Oh! Touchwood”. This year is quite success, thanks to the hard-work from the publicity teams. They have to add two extra shows, total seven shows, to cater for its overwhelming popularities. Stanley, this year’s producer, said, “It is looking good. But the production teams have to sacrifice a lot though.” Woo~~~, I would definitely exhausted if I have to work for seven shows. Well done CTG! I will join you for the Mandarin production :>

Another news is that Bryan gets into the second-round interview with Master Food. I am jealous! If I can apply, I would like to have a try for big companies. He is a bright guy anyway. All the best – for both his job and our assignment which we will do it together this weekend.

Where are my companionships?

The newly refurnished basement female toilet in Union Hose is gross. Painted in bright red, it looks like nothing but the prostitute houses on Lygon St. I am ashamed of Melbourne Uni planners for approving such a four-month long distasteful renovation. Where are those intelligent interior designer?

I was caught up with one of my friend - a lady who back to study a linguistic diploma after ten years graduated from Uni – and had a long talk with her this afternoon. As she was much older than me, I would like to talk to her about life perspective. After talking with her, I felt scary. I don’t want to become someone like her: mid-30s, unemployed, worked in a TAB for five years, struggle to find a teaching job at the primary level, … I know graduate with a bachelor degree gives me nothing except a title to enter the workforce. There are so many qualified and talented competitors out there; and I know I will never match up myself with them, even if I continue to study. There are two folds in the modern society: a talent waste versus furious competition. The position like reception also requires the candidate with a degree! Sometimes I feel very pessimistic towards the unreasonable world. But, nothing is reasonable these days and I have to survive with spirit. I have a rough idea that I will leave this country before 25. Three years should be enough for me to get a world passport and save some money to venture out for the next unknown destination.

I have a feeling that I need a companionship. A lot of time, I feel really lonely but there is no one around. I haven’t met great people since second-half of my 2nd year. Now in my third year, once-friends are either busy with their study or maintain relationship commitment, we can not get back to the life style we had in our 1st year. Maybe that is why I have to make myself busy to forgive myself for not enjoying life, and to cover my loneliness feeling. I have friends who like similar things as mine, but unfortunately, they are not sitting besides me in this depressed city. They left one after another. I want to --- in three years time!