Some graphic novels I’ve been/’m reading

So yeah I’ve been loving the city (and state) library since I got here. Admittedly, I haven’t made full use of its potential but I had just moved to a new country and I was a bit busy with other things. Pretty basic and administrative tasks, like getting my shiny new Boost Juice card. Mhmm perfect for the hot sunny days. I like to plan ahead. Oh and I got some tax-related stuff. Boring but very useful for contract jobs, which I’ve been getting a lot of (ok just a couple) from Facebook, no joke. Whoever says that it is a waste of time has clearly been playing a too much Farmville.

So I’ve been on and off a graphic novel binge the past several months. I saw Persepolis on DVD earlier this year and I had the bright idea of borrowing the book from the library. Looking back now, I kinda wish I had gone and seen more animated films during the film festival. But that was during a crazy time of working and studying and working and volunteering. I barely even had time to breathe then. I have way too much free time now. Hmm. Well not necessarily free time, I’ll call it fun time. Books, museums, light installation shows, special exhibitions (saw one about Pompeii and I LOVED it!). Oh yeah I’m loving it.

And so I went to the library and while there, I had another bright idea of borrowing more. Then I discovered the online reservation system. And the self-checkout machine at the library. Currently, I have 8 books on loan and 20 on reserve. I would have kept going but it seems that I’ve maxed it out. Most of the books are of the visual variety: graphic novels (they’re more than just comics, mind you) and design books and then throw in a D.H. Lawrence here and a William Faulkner there. The only book I’ll be buying this year is the recent one from Lars Brownworth, my idol Byzantine lecturer. I’m already feeling depressed in anticipation of having finished reading it. But let’s not dwell on that.

Here are some good recommended reads, if you’re into a lot of human interest stuff and reading about history’s “losers” and survivors. It’s very good stuff, I tell you.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis: The Story of a Return are both by Marjane Satrapi. She grew up in Tehran and saw and lived through part of the revolution. Her parents sent her to Vienna when she was 13 or something then she returned to Iran in her 20s, forever changed. She moved back to Europe and I think she’s based in France now. I heard about her because I was reading up on French illustrators. She’s pretty awesome. I think I instantly like people who speak languages well. They’re better at deciphering human nature.

Next up, I discovered Maus II by Art Spiegelman by accident when I was on my way out of the library and the swastika image on the front cover caught my eye. I’ve been morbidly interested in the Holocaust ever since I can remember. I once sat through Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, glued to the screen for 9 hours. I think watching that once was enough, really. I’m in the queue for Maus I. The second one was pretty good, I wasn’t as drawn into it as I was into Marjane’s world (yes I feel very close to her) but I’m hoping the first one is better. I’m guessing my brain’s just completely saturated with years of reading up on this topic.

The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel is something I came across while searching for graphic novels on the library website. Everything I felt I wanted enough to go the distance of a few more double clicks was checked out and I didn’t feel like queueing for any of them. Besides the title got me all curious. While I don’t think I’m an alcoholic, I may have had a problem of excess at some point in my past. I certainly still enjoy indulging in a drink or two or three a few times a month, maybe even sometimes a whole bottle of a really good pinot noir. Living in Australia encourages drinking. I just try to fit in.

Jonathan Ames’ story confirmed a lot of my thoughts on alcoholism and the people afflicted by it and provided some really good and new insight. The romantic in me wanted a more upbeat ending, but what he had put there was probably more apt. Haspiel’s illustrations are awesome.

Joe Sacco’s Palestine is what I’m reading at the moment. Very heavy stuff to go through. I’ve had to take breaks from reading it. It’s originally a nine-part comic series but I borrowed the single volume edition. Another chance discovery from browsing the returns cart, hehe. Edward Said’s introduction is superbly written.

That’s what I’m partly busy with these days. That and concluding contract work I’ve done in the past 5 weeks. And looking after the baby sometimes. LOVE.

Not a bad show at all. But now that I’m on holiday, I’ve got heaps of free time and am allowed more hours to work. I’ve got to find steady work again though. I want to go to a beach outside Victoria this summer.

What happened to October 2009?

I’m going over my calendar now and I’ve got things color-coded. I’ve got a lot less of the green (work) and pink (school, less days but more full on) in October, more of the yellow (interesting things I do/attend that are not necessarily related to work or school) and black (social) and a bit of purple (back up career planning). Needless to say, that month went by in a blur.

Nowadays, the skies are bluer and clearer and the sun is definitely hotter. I’ve taken a couple of sunny strolls and spent a few hours under the sun yesterday and my oh my, looks like I’ll be roasty toasty brown when 2010 rolls in. Can’t wait for BBQ picnics and beach trips.

I took some time off work to spend time with my parents, who have been in town since the middle of September and will be here until the end of November. Plus I’ve got a little nephew now and it’s great helping look after him. I’ve started looking for a few jobs and hopefully will be working by the time school wraps up for the summer. I have 3 months off classes!! Got work to do, places to go to, people to hang out with. Life is very good.

7 months here and it’s safe to say that I am having an awesome time here. I love the fact that there’s so much to do, and they’re things I want to do and didn’t know I wanted to do! The weather could be more predictable but I’m really loving the cafes (I’m on coffee ban at the moment cos I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately), the libraries, the galleries, the festivals, the little alleys, the laneway culture, the nightlife, the people I come across and their diversity, the friends I’ve made, the feeling that for some reason I can get more things done here… I still get homesick and I’m already excited to return to Manila in early 2011 for a quick visit but folks, it’s official: I heart Melbourne.

Soon is here

Okay let’s get something clear. When I said ‘back soon’, I meant ‘Gimme a month’. So it’s all good really. I’m even 2 days ahead of schedule.

Soookay, what’s been happening here? Work’s fine, the steady computer job is coming to an end soon. The project deadline is in a week and a half and then launch and then bye bye funding. I’m getting nostalgic. Such a good group of people. Geeky, funny and just all-around great. I had fun, learned about things I didn’t know I’d enjoy and made some friends. But I think the learning’s plateau’d out and I feel like it’s time to move on. I’m having a coffee chat with my next employer this Friday.

School’s term 3 starts this week too. I had a quick look at the subjects and MAYBE this term will be easier than the previous one. Which is good cos I want to do other meaningful stuff like write haikus and do more shopping.

My parents are in town. They arrived last week. Everyone’s waiting impatiently for the little one to come out…

I bought a bike and started riding it a few weeks after. The weather’s warmed up considerably but it still gets nippy and I still have to wear some layers. It’s raining at the moment. At least tomorrow’s likely to be a nice sunny day.

It was a bit frightening to get back on the bike after years and years of inactivity, but once I screwed up the courage to get on and stay on, it’s been exhilarating. Looking forward to making a habit of riding a couple of hours per week. Very happy about having a huge park with trails and inclines and slopes nearby. Hopefully I’ll become confident enough to start riding on the road with fast fast cars. Especially since I’ve never ridden a bike with gears before, it’s somewhat disconcerting. Anyway I’m excited about riding around and exploring the city on wheels! I even worked out a way to get to the boxing gym, which is a bit over 6km away. That’s still a bit ambitious at this point but I really miss the speedball!

Hm. That’s about it. I haven’t been in a public writing mood of late so I’ll have to check in with you later on. Oh and today marks the anniversary of the big car crash. Yep, still alive.

Soon

I’ll be back.

True to form

So I’m back to steady breathing after a month-long huff and puff. I’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off the resto job. It was beginning to be more trouble than it was worth. It feels good to have a tidy bedroom floor and actually having a bed to sleep on instead of having to sleep on a blend of dirty and fresh clothes. I had a nice long proper shower last night and it felt GOOD.

Good thing I’m doing well with the lexi job but too bad the project ends in October. I’m totally crushing on my Irish colleague hihi and I can’t wait to be back at work tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll ask to keep me on for the next one, but I’m not holding my breath for that. When it’s time to move on, it’s time to get moving!

I overstretched myself with the 2 jobs and then schoolwork got definitively harder. I’m going to have to start taking that a little more seriously if I want to continue doing this at the end of the course.

Apart from that, I’ve been participating at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) since it started two weeks ago. Apparently there’s over 500 films and so far, I’ve seen about 10. Haha. Poor show maybe, but I like to think it’s not that bad considering all the other shit I’ve got going as well.

Okay what else? Hmm, well it’s been a great time so far. I’m certainly enjoying what the city has to offer and I feel more comfortable being here. For one thing, I don’t say ‘take out’ or ‘to go’ when I mean ‘takeaway’ and I bear to the left when walking around. Of course I’ve progressed a bit further than that since arriving here 4 months ago, I’m just really pleased with how busy I’ve made myself and am now beginning to reap the benefits of that effort.

The forecast for the rest of the week is: watch a lot of films, including that controversial one that made China pull out all their films at the start of the festival and enjoy breathing this weekend.

Before Houdiniing

I got this term’s timetable and it’s even better than last one’s! I’ve got 2 days of school per week only and a damn straightforward daily schedule at that. A solid 9 to 5:30pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Which means I can wait on tables after classes on both nights and Sunday evenings. I’ve even offered to do every other Friday evening. That means I can do the geeky job all of Monday and Tuesday and then Friday mornings. Which leaves me all of Saturday to run errands, work on school projects, party and possibly rest! Then a break every other Friday night and I should be spending most of Sunday studying and doing some relaxing.

So that’s a pretty tight schedule but you can see that it works. We shall soon see what happens in application.

This week is just a wee bit crazier because I have a volunteer briefing session for that film festival I mentioned a while back. I’m happy I can do that this Thursday evening because I’m not on the resto roster on that date. I’m excited for my tshirt and my film passes woohoo!

That’s Thursday.

Then back to the geeky job on Friday and I may do a full day because I didn’t go yesterday after getting my timetable, which only took about 10 minutes. Instead, I went gallivanting with a friend and we headed over to the museum (there’s a Pompeii thing going on!!) but it was crowded so we moved on to grab a pizza and a beer. Then we decided to do more celebrating and grabbed a coffee in Prahran, then walked to Windsor, grabbed another coffee and afterwards got rained on. Well. That was extremely cold. Then I sped off to Melb Central and got a haircut. Which isn’t being the best thing ever as envisioned but it should shape up nicely because I am willing it to happen. I am willing very strongly.

That was Friday’s projection and a Monday recap.

Then for more fun I’m doing two morning shifts for the design festival this weekend, which is important for me to do because it’s design-related and there’s lots to do, see and learn. It’s just that I’m going to be SO TIRED.

Despite all that, I still manage to get around 7 hours of sleep on most nights. Good stuff.

So that’s my life for the next 9 weeks. Don’t be mad if I don’t appear anytime soon.

Parmesan cheese and a $50 dispute

So I finally have some down time after a hectic 2 weeks. This whole morning has been one long sigh of relaxation. I had smoked salmon, gruyère, spinach, eggs and an exquisite cup of flat white for breakfast somewhere in Canterbury. I’ve tidied up my room, changed my sheets and my last batch of about a ton of dirty laundry is currently spinning in the wash. I’m sat down with OJ that I pressed myself, it’s all good stuff.

Soooooooo yeah. Onto some waitressing stories. I did a quick mental count and I’m very surprised that I’ve only been working at the restaurant for 2 months. It feels so much longer than that. I’ve had 3-4 shifts per week on average since mid-May and whatever money I make has been covering all my transport expenses and my phone credit. I think I said all this already. It’s just that I feel fantastic about being able to do that. I even have enough for lovely nights out on the town and Melbourne does not have an inexpensive nightlife. There is a ton of fun to be had though and if you’re savvy enough to find places that offer $2.50 pots of beer, then it balances the nights you have $20 cocktails.

I’ll be working all this weekend and I’m feeling alright about that. Classes start next Monday and I’m a bit apprehensive about next term’s timetable. I’m really hoping it’ll be possible to squeeze both jobs in without having to sacrifice my weekends for the next 2 months. There are way too many interesting things happening from now till September and I will be sad to miss out on all of that.

So the job is pretty simple, no heavy brain work involved but you do have to be alert and on the ball for a couple of hours. There are 2 bells to listen for, the main course dishes and the pizza. So now, every time I hear a bell outside the restaurant, I have to fight the urge to go into the kitchen and bring out a plate of gnocchi or a veal scalopini. It’s amusing. I’ve broken a plate and spilled a drink (not on a client, thank goodness), but apart from all that, I’ve done well enough for the resto to consider me competent and reliable. I think I’m the first one they ring whenever an employee can’t make a shift and they have to find a replacement on short notice. They’ve steadily given me more hours, which is very good news.

So the main job is getting the food and drinks out as quickly as possible and clearing tables as soon as customers are done. I think it’s toned my arms a bit, which is a good thing. I don’t take orders yet, which is fine with me as it looks too complicated and tiring. I have started leading guests to their tables and handing them menus now though. It’s fun.

If there aren’t a lot of people around, I polish a large amount of cutlery. So what I do is fill the bucket with hot water a third of the way and then add about a cup of vinegar. Apparently it brings the shine out and dries the cutlery much faster that way. The first time I did that, it took me 1.5 hours to get through them. My left shoulder was still sore for about 2 days after that. I’ve gotten a bit faster than that now.

The place has a mafioso-looking owner and his name is Frank. I felt really intimidated and small when I first met him but he’s been really nice to me and I think he actually likes me. He’s thinking of sending me to coffee school! I dunno when though but I hope it’s soon, like September. I have to get an RSA on my own though but that only costs $60 and half a day to get so that’s fine. I need to have decent hospitality skills before the summer break. The city’s cafés and restos will be packed with tourists and locals and will probably look to hire a few extra hands.

There’s 3 managers who take turns in supervising operations. I get along well enough with all of them, but have had a few clashes with one of them. I’ve learned to adjust to him and we’re okay now. There’s Paul who does the hiring and managing the payroll and then, Victor, whom I suspect is a bit soft in the head, a kindly old gentleman who is not a very effective supervisor but he’s nice and I like him. He calls everyone in the staff good girls and boys. “Christine, could you take these drinks out to table B11? That’s a good girl.”

I’ll get on to talking about the staff later on. I’ve decided to have a wee nap before I go to work later.

Oh yeah, a quick side note regarding the post title: whenever I bring a pasta dish over to a guest’s table, I always have to ask if they’d like some Parmesan cheese. And the resto owes me $50, they only gave me half of the money I was supposed to get on my last paycheck. The accountant messed up and forgot to stick another $50 in the envelope but put in the entire amount in the books. So it’s really a matter of my word against what’s logged in their accounts. That’s hours of exhausting work and it may not be much to some, but that really goes a long way for me, especially in terms of covering expenses. Hopefully I can sort things out later with the manager.

Next up, I’ll try to muster some writing enthusiasm for the lexicography one. It’s great fun and I’m hoping to pick up a few useful skills by the end of the contract. Like making apps for the iPhone. At $1/app download, that would be a very useful thing to know indeed. What fun!

Oops

Sorry I totally didn’t get back to you. I kinda died from too much activity after that last entry. Worked all weekend but partied as well. Good stuff. Remind me to post separate entries on waitressing and computational linguistics (I finally know what the other job is). One is full on physically and the other mentally. Good vegetative-state inducing balance. And I may also be overdoing the social scene. It’s all good stuff, sowing seeds of opportunities I think.

Will be on a snowy road trip from tomorrow to Sunday then a full week of working my ass off again before next term starts. Back soon.

Retooling

Wow I know it’s been a bit over a month since I last wrote but OMFG it’s been a helluva month. So much has happened that I actually had to go over the last few entries to reacquaint my now self to my then self. I feel so changed inside. Hm but then again I feel closer to my younger troubled self, when I was going through my emotionally distressing years at college (or at uni, depending on who I’m talking to). But I will get to all of that in due time, my friend. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often, writing is therapeutic and relaxing. Having said that, it’s always been difficult for me to write when I am going through particularly difficult times. I always have to quietly try and make sense of it all in my head before I can shoot off a good and coherent entry.

So yeah. Retooling. Yes, that’s what I’ve been busy with and it’s all been very good.

I’m going to keep this short for now, BUT I PROMISE I will try to be back later this week to get this blog rolling again. I have been feeling under the weather since Thursday night and although I’ve been resting all this weekend, it hasn’t been the long and uninterrupted rest that I think I might need. I do feel slightly better though. And no, I don’t think it’s swine flu.

I bet you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to all this time, eh? Don’t answer that. Okay, answer it quickly in your head.

So I’m in the last week of my first term at school and I am having a blast so far. I have been a bit better at updated the new blog for that. All the specific design-y and learn-y stuff are there. I’ll add the link to my blogroll since it’s all connected to me anyway.

I have been working as a waitress for over a month now and it’s what’s been keeping me afloat for the past few weeks. I make just enough to pay for transportation expenses and phone credit. Okay and maybe a few beers on the weekend. And some cups of coffee. Mhmm flat white sure is good here. More on the wait job later. I’ll have you in stitches.

I also teach basic French once a week, this is a more recent development. One of my classmates says he’s always wanted to learn and he tried looking for a tutor online and apparently it’ll cost like $44/hour, which is ridiculous really and I joked and said yo man I’ll do it for $20 if you’re so keen. And he was actually serious haha. So the first lesson went well, I think his head exploded a little bit but he’s game for another lesson tomorrow. He figured he spends a great deal of his money on alcohol, might as well set a budget for some form of self-improvement. Good on him, I say. And good for me. He may have a bit of a crush on me but of course that has nothing to do with his interest in learning French. That would just be silly.

And I finally landed a “proper” job last week, after over a hundred applications to over a hundred companies advertising on the Seek website, as well as on other less reputable job sites (which is a story in itself, I tell ya).

The new job is in Sandringham, which is at the end of the train line going southbound, it’s over an hour away from home (I live in the east), quite possibly 1.5 hours with the wait time between bus connections factored in. I get to work with linguists and geeky people and I think I’m going to have a fantastic time. I went over there for the interview and after like 5 minutes of chatting, they offered the job and I’m just through the roof at this point. I finally fucking get my self-worth back. Clearly I can find jobs in Melbourne. It feels GOOD to know that. Such a painful process, employment and the state of being unemployed.

So I’m on cloud nine and the lovely geeky people start my training straight after the interview and my head explodes a little bit with all the Prolog and the emacs (which I actually uninstalled from my computer a few months back because I didn’t like the multiple keystrokes for a lot of the shortcuts). They use Linux and I’m excited about that!

This new job pays more than double the wait job and I will be prioritising that because not only is it BETTER ON PRETTY MUCH ALL LEVELS, it is also contractual and will run only till October. Unfortunately I will have to cut down, if not stop altogether, my volunteering for a bit, as I will probably have zero time for frivolous unpaid things like that. It’s really tough because I just managed to get a Wednesday morning shift at an art gallery. It’s not paid but it’s such a great opportunity for learning and establishing contacts. I’ll have to tell them I will return after the linguistic job ends. It will make me seem unreliable though, but I suppose they can’t expect to rely too much on volunteers. Just a week before finding this 3rd job, I had already turned down volunteering at a crafts gallery, I simply don’t have enough time and I need to prioritise school and money-making. It’s good that I have the option to volunteer there. Oh yes, this is definitely a better place from where I was when I first arrived.

Incidentally there are 3 festivals I’m trying to spare some time for. I’ve already helped with some mailing for a writer’s festival, which is scheduled to run for about a week in August. Another is a design festival and I’m desperate to be a part of that. That is so right up my alley, it’s not even funny to consider being excluded from that. It starts in 2 weeks and I haven’t heard from the volunteer coordinator, so I may have to resign myself to being a mere guest this year. It’s just as well, it’s not like I’ll have a lot of time for that anyway.

The last one is a film festival and I want to volunteer because I get a nice T-shirt and 8 free film passes out of it. Haha. Good stuff.

So that’s a bit of a handful and I’m grateful that things are starting to come together for me here. While I’m lucky that I don’t have to worry about making the rent and having something to eat, it has often felt like an uphill struggle. This post is just one long sigh of relief. The trick really is to keep going.

Reschooling

I never enjoyed classes as much as I am right now. Well, the language courses can probably compete. First of all, can I just say that I’m loving the whole NOT WORKING part of being a student? But yes yes I know I should have be part time jobbing by now.

The school is new so it isn’t one of the more reputable ones around here but it has been doing well so far. I did have my misgivings in the beginning but the instructors have proven to be quite good, even though most of them have atrocious spelling, i.e. SAN serif, ocupational hazard, aesthitics etc. It seems to afflict the entire nation, to be honest. I’ve been doing my best to keep the snobby spelling nazi in me silenced. Rather discomfiting for a former spelling bee champ, as you can imagine.

The kids are alright, several are straight out of high school, so I think they’re moronic (I know I generalize this, yet I continue to judge). I will say this though, I sincerely do enjoy talking to most of them. What I do find irritating is that they’ve been using my laptop as the public cd writer and the default usb port for organising files. Oh and they also want me to convert their jpegs to pdfs. One stop freakin’ shop. A simple google search would sort them out. They’re really just either lazy or imbeciles (well it’s really just self-centeredness). Most are unprepared for this course, and this baffles me. Sometimes I help, when I feel like they’re making an effort and when I can see that they want to learn. It’s easy to distinguish those who are freeloading from those who are really trying. I start off by joking that I’ll have to start charging for my services, then I tell them off in the hopes that they’ll see the light and if I’m really fed up, I just flat out refuse to help them. It’s not my problem they can’t understand English (oh snap!). I guess there is such a thing as a bitchy pushover. Or maybe a pushover bitch. I remember being a lousy student at university but I never once inconvenienced other students with my slackering. I assure you that it was all a very dignified affair.

The Peruvian girl, let’s call her Yola because that is her name, tries very hard so I help her out most of the time. She works part time every weeknight and is struggling between that and school. She’s good and besides I can practicar mi español con ella. It amuses both me and her. I also don’t mind helping out Chinese Will and Vietnamese Jessica, (names anglicised duh) cos they’re my BFFs here. I particularly enjoy the boy’s company even though he remains unwashed most of time. I like the Japanese Tatsu as well because he did his best in submitting a tough assignment but that’s really only secondary to the fact that he is a boy that looks like a girl and he giggles like a geisha. I’m also very nice to the late enrollees and especially sympathetic to the ones who encountered visa issues so I patiently explain project assignments to them. I’m not as keen on helping some of the others, namely the overindulged brats and those who confuse their work/school priorities. I still help them though, even as I crab at them. It’s curious that I can’t help it, I must really have my father’s educator blood in me. He does come from a family of teachers after all.