Week 19: Gordon Brown's Last Stand

[The Doctor]

I have a sudden terrible urge to watch Transformers Armada. I don't know why. I need this urge to go away.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

BEGONE, urge!

If you need a distraction, Paul Merton was on exceptional form on last night's HIGNFY. I highly recommend.

Martin

[Deleted]

Just think how crap Armada is and maybe it will go away. You could also read a few Dreamwave comics with Armada stories in them and that may persuade you to stop getting this urge!

[blueshift]

But it is fantastic

[The Doctor]

I RESISTED.

-Ralph

[Deleted]

Excellent news!

[legios]

Glad to hear it. No-one should find themselves watching Armada. It is truly a horrifying thing to contemplate.

Karl

[Hero]

Had a tough and positive week at uni. Been working hard to finish my film Fitting IN for a public media show screening next Friday as well as slaving away over my written assignments.

Things went a bit sour on Thursiday when I went across the editing area to briefly help a classmate out with her project and came back to my own area to find my bag had gone. Now I figured at first I must have misplaced it somewhere and that nobody would have gotten in and taken it (our 3rd year editing area is quite tucked away and unheard of on Campus).

I went home bagless since there was nothing more I could do after extensive searching. It was a stressful afternoon with worry since the bag contained pretty much ALL I worked for that year including data, notes, camera tapes, USB sticks, DVDs etc. I was left with a choice, either: vent and complain about it til I drop to sleep or try and relax and watch a film or something. I went out that evening and got sushi and spent a happy evening with George, so that helped.

Next morning I get told by the cleaners that a bag of my description ( a generic black shoulder bag ) had been handed in at the union bar. I rushed over with delight but was later dissapointed to find it was someone elses bag.

The way forward was to report to Campus Security and make a claim that the bag had been stolen, even though I had serious doubt and wanted to deny anyone at our uni would do such a thing. I did that and left a time to further report things to the police if nothing would turn up.

I decided to get on with things and continue editing work on my film. Fortunatley the portable HD with all that work on had stayed untouched. It was all I had left...

All of a sudden "Behold the King... The King of Kings!! THERE IS ONLY ONE!" (HHH's theme song) cranks up on my phone. The police are on the other line and they've found my bag dumped outside the local co-op.

I meet up later with two officers in the union bar and to my releif, nothing was stolen... Well nothing except for a can of deodorant and a USB lead for my MP3 player. Everything THE WORK was all intact and okay. The police had taken a couple of items for finger printing, but fortunatley everything was back.

So it would appear we have a 'smelly' thief on campus. It seems like Uni is an easy target for pilfering.

===KEN

[The Doctor]

Bag thief is a twat. At least you didn't lose your important stuff.

Thought the lurgy of last week had passed but then spent the night awake with very painful ear ache. Joys.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Glad you got the important stuff back, Ken, but please promise me that in future you'll always keep backups of your important work in a second location, so that if it happens again it will only be a financial blow. It's a terrible thing to lose something you've spent so much time and creativity on.

Martin

[The Doctor]

I agree. This is extra stress I am sure you could do without, Ken.

-Ralph

[Mark_Stevenson]

Hi gang

Finally been getting a few job interviews over the last few weeks, after three months where I may as well have been posting my CV to Timbuktu. I was a bit rusty for the first one but I'm getting back in the swing, and I've got another one lined up on the 19th. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, not much to report.

Mx

[Andy Turnbull]

Splendid news Mark. We shall channel for you.

Glad the bag was found Ken and as Martin says have a secondary back up of your work safe at all times just in case something happens.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Best of luck, Mark, from one jobseeker to another. Personally, I can't believe how difficult it is to get a job interview, nevermind a job. I've had four interviews from over a hundred applications. Prior to 2008/2009, I had always been given an interview for every job I'd applied for in my life up to that point. I used to get really psyched for every app, but now I just forget about every one after it's sent off. Without checking, I honestly couldn't say what the last job I applied for was, other than that I did it last Tuesday.

-Ralph

[legios]

Mark, that is good news on the interviews. Good Hunting to you for the next one.

I used to average about one interview for every ten applications that I made, on both occassions that I have been unemployed. I used to treat applications as very much a fire-and-forget process, as soon as they were in the post I stopped worrying about them and moved on to the next one. If I got an interview then I got an interview, if I didn't then I thought no more of it. In actual fact none of my most recent jobs have followed an entirely normal application process as such. My current post came about due to a restructuring of the organisation, and in the previous one I was taken on staff after temping for several months. Before that I worked as a cleaner for a company who gave me a job mostly because I was at the right place at the right time, nothing more scientific than that. But then, I do seem to have an aversion to doing things the easy way so that might explain why I am unable to get a job in a straightforward manner....

Karl

[The Doctor]

I just wish I hadn't wasted my time with that Edinburger job. I knew it was wrong for me during the interviews, but I took it anyway in a madly optmistic 'it will work out' way. That turned out to be a complete disaster and has knocked me back quite a bit. If I hadn't been so desperate I would have listened to myself better. It's fair to say I have not been this depressed in my adult life. I'm not looking forward to hitting 31 with no home of my own, no partner and no job never mind an actual career. Not the way I thought things would turn out. But I've got robot toys! Um. Yes.

I'm applying for lower paying temp work as a way of keeping the wolves from the door and in a 'you never know what might happen' way and to have something recent to put on my CV. And for something to do. And, to be realistic, it's a position many people are in. Nowt special or unique about my situation, really.

But, you know. Robots!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Oh man, I feel totally the same. Though I am younger than you.

I think you /were/ right to take the Edinburgh job though. If you find a chance, you go for it.

[The Doctor]

I was blinded my four factors: it was the highest paying job I'd ever been offered, the opportunity to live and work in a new city (I'm sick of Glasgow), it was the only job I'd been offered and I was desperate to do something useful. But it was in a field of work I swore I would never go back to and it was against my skill set and I had not the slightest idea what was going on.

But then I fired off a ton of apps, thinking: "Ha! Ha! No worries! I'll be drowning in interviews soon!"

Hum ho.

But...what would Emirate Xaaron do?

Anyway, I do not wish to pollute the thread with more of my doom and despair. Optimus Prime! Roadimus Prime!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Well there is absolutely nothing wrong with being seduced by cold hard cash, especially in the current financial environment, don't beat yourself up over it!

[legios]

We've all made tactical errors in the past when it comes to employment. As to whether that particular Edinburgh job was one is something that only you can judge. Certainly it did not appear to be entirely suited to your skills or your circumstances at the time.

I do understand your feelings though. My sister has only recently restarted work following several years of unemployment and having a complete career change forced upon her by circumstances. It is not an easy thing. But if I can pass on anything I have learned from observing her it is that you will survive this.

But...what would Emirate Xaaron do?

Probably set up an insurgency and go underground to fight on for several million years until victory is finally at hand. Hmm. Perhaps not advice that is easily generalisable to all life situations.

[/quote]
Optimus Prime! Roadimus Prime!
[/quote]

Something strange has happened. Now there are two Optimus Primes!

Sadly there were two attempts to go for a walk today by Karl. Both of them unsuccessful. I went out this morning for a walk up the canal, but before I had got more than a mile the heavens opened and I was forced to head home before I got too drenched. So it was back home for warm tea before nipping into town (where it wasn't raining) to pick up a metal sieve to replace the ancient one that has been soldiering on in my kitchen. Then it looked like it was going to clear up this afternoon so I got myself ready to head out again. Of course, by the time I had got my shoes on and was outside the door, you guess it, a massive bank of clouds was rolling back in sweeping a wall of rain with it.

I took the hint and stayed in reading Slaine and watching Mad Men

I must get up there next Sunday though. The swans may well have youngsters by now, all being well, and I would like so see how they are doing.

Karl

[Deleted]

I had been knocked back for several jobs before I got my current one seven years ago including one where the interviewer treated me like scum. I had spent six years on the dole and during that time I had been offered by the job centre a job at my current work place which I had turned down several times due to what I had heard of the place. In the end I fell on desperate times and took up the job and I've been there ever since. It has actually got a lot worse over the years and am thinking of looking for a new job soon but until I secure a new one I'm staying in my current job. I suppose you could say that I've experienced everything in terms of employment/unemployment.
I've been on the dole for many years, I've been knocked back many times and I've worked in a place that I wasn't willing to work in but situations forced me to take up the position.