Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ketchup and Blog Art

Hello, it's "Christmas time" here in Australia and I hope you're all feeling the holiday relaxation as well.  I must admit...it's even stranger hearing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." here than in Arizona.  Anyway, this post is devoted to you and I, catching up like old friends that we are or once were and a small snip-it of my intentions for this blog.

Ketchup (chronologically enumerated for your viewing pleasure/convenience)

1. I "quit" the door-to-door salesman job...even though they referred to me as a Business Development Manager.  I'll spare you the details, but I'll give you the good bit (which also happens to be self-indulging) that when I quit, the boss emailed me back and said "no need to apologise [sic] Nick, it's never a waste of time meeting quality people." I'm not sure if this was a legit compliment or if he's just a good manager of people...but I know how I'm going to take it because my ego balloon could stand some inflation.

2. I finished my write-up for the recycling company's financials.  It's good to have something to be proud of again.  It went over extremely well and I see a lot of future potential from it.  I look forward to future work with ReFab.  And yes, I realize this sounds like a PC thing to say, but really, it's good!  It ended up being 20+ pages of spreadsheets and writing.  I had my Excel fix quenched for the time being.

3. I went on a trip and got a disgraceful amount of hiking in.  The trip was to Mt. Beauty and Mt. Bogong with my Dutch friend, Babette.  She's headed back to (as I like to call) "Dutchland" soon; she'll be missed.  During our trip we saw areas that looked as though we were in Scotland and areas that were beautiful coast.  I included some pictures of the trip at the end of the post...apparently just to mess up my enumerated chronologicalness.

4a. I was offered to audition for a commercial (which would be a series of 92 commercials).  Alas, it was right during the time when I'd start my trip on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide so I had to decline.  But!  Mark my words: this mug will be in your living room soon.  To not completely blow off the prospect, I wrote the casting director and said: "...please keep my blonde and pale self in mind should any sunscreen commercials come up..."  As an "actor", I feel it is important to show my depth of skills.  E.g. making light of what could've been a lot of money and demonstrating my willingness to be on a pink bottle with a little dog biting at my bikini bottom (I hope everyone caught that reference...otherwise that sounds very strange, *cough* Coppertone *cough*).

4b.  I was an extra on Winners and Losers.  The story is a loser...so it ends here.  Although my mom asked which one was I, the winner or loser.  Neither I suppose, which is why they pay me so shitty...so maybe I was the latter after all!

5. I'm on a trip (we're in the present)!  On Kangaroo Island I made sure to tell Kristin that the "Aussie Wave" was dubbed so because there are so many flies in Australia and they are JERKS and that when people are waving their hand in front of their face it is the "Aussie Wave" (true story, seriously).  It may also be noted that she had more flies on her than I did, I quietly said to myself it's because she's dead inside and they're attracted to that (I kid!  Although I should've told her the joke at the time because now it just sounds mean...).  But let's be honest, it was one less fly (15 compared to 16...seriously that many!) and truly I smelled quite bad after not showering for 2 days so the more likely answer is even the flies were repulsed by me.  Also, as I asked her to take a picture of all the flies on my back; she had 3 cameras on her.  She has her new DSLR (which is awesome), her pink point-and-shoot, and her phone (which technically has a camera)...which led me to recall a song:  "I think [she's] turning Japanese, I think [she's] turning Japanese, I really think so."

As I am writing this, we are currently in Sydney.  Today, we saw the opera house while on a ferry (I've never been on public transport on the water...picture the same people you'd see on a train...but you're on a boat).  We've eaten some excellent Thai food with Gaby (Ana's sister...Ana is my brother's girlfriend for those who don't know), Josh (Gaby's husband), and Adrian (Ana and Gaby's youngest brother) who all just took off today to head up the coast.  Which, coincidentally, means they've entrusted us to watch their truly quite beautiful flat, by ourselves.  I am continually impressed with how trusting people are here (we literally just met them yesterday).  We leave Sunday back to Melbourne and we need to work out what we'll be doing for the remainder of the days here...which begs the question: "Nick, why are you writing in your blog instead of helping/planning?"  I wish I had a better answer...I wish I had AN answer actually.  It would appear ADD is not a passing fad.  Below are a couple photos from the trip thus far:

Upon arrival: Tacos (not shown, but scrumptious) and beer.  How is she so chipper!?  I looked like hell for at least three days.

Great Ocean Road: 12 Apostles (two shown).  We caught the sunrise.  It. Was. Early.  ...and worth it?  You be the judge.

Sydney.  Iconic.  And also already posted on Facebook.  I plagiarized myself!


6. We're in the future now.  No, not "tomorrow-land" as I like to call Australia (we're a day ahead here); I mean that what follows are my plans once the New Year rolls 'round and the Mayans, as good as they were with calendars, were wrong.  Or rather, what we're interpreting of a culture thousands of years ago is wrong.  Below is a graph from a presentation Tracy Cobb (from Raytheon, NCS) very thoughtfully sent a couple months back that she got from "lululemon" (a perhaps yoga chain from Canada? Either way, good stuff).  It basically says you should be setting goals in all aspects of your life so that you can achieve more than you would have otherwise...and it's also in pretty colors and small words so people like myself can learn good [sic].  And below that: my plans for the immediate future and some down and dirty blog talk.



6a.  Get a job at a coffee shop.  Better hours than a bar and you can actually talk to people.  Oh, and I'd actually make money...weird concept nowadays.
6b.  Create list of companies I like the mission of and apply directly to them.
6c.  Literally start walking in the door of companies and selling myself to their HR department.  "I think you guys suck at this, but I bet I could help you suck less at it."  The pitch needs work...
6d.  Reinvest some time with the recruiters here.  It's painful, yes, but dammit...maybe, just maybe...
6e.  Politely hassle the "modeling agency" for some gigs that will make me a millionaire...or at least a C list celebrity who occasionally gets free coffee because someone recognized his "get tested for HIV" ad in the subway.  Seriously though, this is an ad in Melbourne.  It's a guy in his scivvies (sp?) with both thumbs in them, pulling them out and he's looking down.  In one, there's fire coming out.  In another, there's confetti.  If it were me...I'd have asked if the caption could be: "keep the party in your pants going, get tested today." Or perhaps: "Is there a party in your pants...or is it AIDS?"


The Art of Blogging...and My Take

As far as I can tell, the art of blogging is finding your own voice.  It would seem to me that a blog should also have a purpose and not stray too far from that.  This blog, has the foremost intention of travel, the second intention of life updates for family and friends, and lastly my pursuit of happiness.  I implore you, should I deviate from this, do let me know.  Because, I can get wordy and tangential at the drop of a hat...and that's just the adventure that you and I signed up for when reading/writing this...so keep me honest and on task.

I write this blog for so many reasons and I hope you appreciate that it's simultaneously therapeutic and  communicative (equal parts for me and for you).  So, if it gets boring, I apologize ahead of time, but those are just parts that are more for me or to let family know what's going on.  Otherwise, enjoy and as always: keep in touch!

Cheers.

Pictures from Mt. Bogong and Mt Beauty:

I believe it's a "wombat" or maybe a fat squirrel with a cute little button nose.  :)

Shutup Nick, this isn't Australia.  Oh, but that's where you're wrong my friend.  Truly, this does not even close to doing the area justice.  But it's one of the myriad cool memories from it.

Currently on Mt. Beauty and looking out over the valley towards Mt. Bogong.

Well, you have a lot of ways to die here.  Nevermind the wildlife, you need to beware of motorcyclists, turns in the road, and KANGAROOS!

Speaking of things that might kill you, never trust the elderly.  They'll walk in front of you while you're driving.  Is it bad eyesight?  Maybe.  Are they tempting death having gotten over the fear of it?  Perhaps.  Or do Australians just like putting up signs?  Definitely.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, Nick! Tracy sent me the link to your blog. Just want to wish you a year that is far better than anything you know you deserve!

    Regards,

    Ray Flowers

    ReplyDelete