Audaciously Hopey

This post is about a life philosophy (it's sappy, feel free to skip), my seemingly unending optimism (also sappy/skippable), and a life update (aka the good stuff).  Enjoy the read!

Hopefully Audaciously Hopey [sic]:

My philosophy in life, whether I've known it at the time or not, has been: If you're a good person to others then good things will in turn happen to you.  I've been told by several people that I live "a charmed life" and I'd very much like to think it's due to this life philosophy coming full circle.  Simply put, it's karma.  Or, you could even say it's half of the "Golden Rule".  Or...I'm just selfish and it makes me feel good to be a good person...so I do it.

A good friend once paraphrased a philosopher in saying (roughly): philosophical thought is not born out of contentedness/happiness with life.  True, but philosophical thought is not always a way of life, it comes in ebbs and flows as does contentedness and happiness.  My only point is...I'm not depressed, but I am searching for answers.  So...if you have my mailing address here, please don't send Xanax/Prozac...but please do send good IPAs...they're not very abundant here yet.

As life has, at times, been "charmed", I can't say that is the current case.  This is certainly one of the most stressful periods in my life and no, that is not hyperbole.  This is by no means me complaining, just updating.  I could go into all the reasons, but let's suffice it to say: I'd rather look towards the positive.  Below are some things to be happy about:

- I'm in a great city
- I've made some good climbing friends
- One of the climbing friends made my outlook on jobs glass-half-full again (I know...I need to update the post about finding a job here, I'll do it *soon*)
-  Kristin gets here 2 weeks from today
- She's bringing my trad rack (It's stuff for climbing.  Mom: please send my helmet, love you)
- We'll have a free place to stay in Sydney thanks to Ana's sister being awesome
- We'll be doing the great ocean road
- There will be much hiking and camping very soon
- I have enough money to float myself here
- I know who I am and as cheesy as it sounds: I like who I've chosen to be and who I'm striving to be

Life Update:

Per my last entry, I was deciding whether to start a job as a BDM (let's be honest, sales rep).  Alas, I cannot (repeat that sentence, but very dramatically/Shakespearean, and then you have my intended tone).  I asked two very intelligent and likeminded friends whether I should do it, because I had entirely been delaying the start due to my gut feeling being to not do it.  One said: "trust your gut" and the other said "you're too honest to be a salesman".  Well, consider my gut reaffirmed.  The remaining details of it are less than interesting, so I'll spare you.  But, they did give me an iPad with 3g so it does beg the question of when I let them know I've officially quit...  Ok, fine, jeez, I'll do it soon.  I can't be a little bit of a bad person every now and then?

I'm doing another acting gig.  Yes, I know it pays dirt.  But as it turns out, dirt is more than I'm currently being paid.  The TV show is called "Winners and Losers" and I've heard it's basically another trashy Soap Opera.  There are no small parts, only small actors...and people who get paid to stand in the back of the scene.  Anyway, I'm doing this because I can walk to the set/studio from my place and if nothing else these things always come with ridiculous stories.

Lastly, I applied to a job in Optics that was recommended to me from a manager at a place with a long acronym.  He had a moustache for Movember and was balding...I immediately trusted him.  Clearly, desperation can cause lapses in judgement.  But nay, not this time.  I knew by the finely trimmed whiskers resting on his upper lip that this was a man who understood the plight of life and was one dashingly gray sprouted lip-hair away from the remedy.  I visited the website he so forthrightly recommended and applied via electronic mail to the job I so roughly was applicable for.  Well, I was actually surprised how well I fit the candidate profile (let's pretend I'm still an engineer for just a moment...), but I certainly lacked a couple key components.  They wanted someone with a PhD in physics and someone who had been published.  Not to be done-in, I addressed those concerns in my application.  I assured them: "Don't have: - PhD (Have a BS and an MBA) - Publication Record (I have a blog...? Hopefully humour is a plus...)". See what I did there? I spelled humor with a "u". I'm sure you'll be reading the blog of a renewed engineer by the end of next week.

Thank you to all of you who have written. Also, all blog comments and suggestions are very appreciated. Annnnnnd as always, let me know how you're doing!!!! :)