Stuff I write. Things that happen to me.
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Today’s WWA Grand Prix #3 was a good day for yours truly. I won the gold for most-improved Sinclair and took second place for the premier cup. Snatch 90kg, Clean & Jerk 130kg, total 220kg. Just as Jack Walls predicted.
Update: Turns out I am the bronze medallist. Geish Hori is the silver medallist. A well-deserved win. Well done Geish!
Since leaving The Frontier Group in late June I’ve been watching the job lines and shooting off resumes here and there. I’ve been to a few interviews, had a few offers, but now I’ve decided to take a job at CDU in Darwin.
When I sent my resume to CDU, I didn’t hear back from them for a few weeks. I figured they’d quietly discarded my resume, which I was a bit sad about. Then, while I was on holiday in Darwin, they rang to ask if I could do a phone interview. Luckily I was in a position to interview in person, which I think helped my chances.
Last week CDU offered me the spot, with a good base rate and excellent (17%) superannuation. The super is one of the things I found most attractive. Also attractive were the location (I’m a Darwin boy) and the opportunity to become familiar with Oracle technologies, which continue to be in wide demand.
I’ve verbally accepted the offer today and I expect to receive the contract paperwork in the next few days. I’m looking forward to it.
A while ago I asked my loyal readers (both of you) to help me decide on the best course for the next few years of my life.
The results are in: I have accepted a fulltime position at the Frontier Group here in Perth, and I have accepted a position at UWA as an Honours student. It’s going to be an exciting year.
I am, at long last, within a cooee of actually having an undergraduate degree. The road to this point has been much longer than I expected back when I graduated from high school in 1999. The intervention of depression in 2001 and its aftermath through to about 2006 or so left me well and truly off course in life.
But what’s done is done. I am now in the final weeks of my final semester. And now it’s decision time.
For example, there’s the question of honours. My professors like me, are interested in some of the projects I’ve proposed, and I have the scores to qualify. But if I do it fulltime that’s another whole year of earning approximately nothing. If I do it part-time then I stretch out the stress of being a student, but at least I get to earn something.
Then there’s post-graduate study. I could, in theory, go back and finish my law degree on a post-graduate entry (which would make me, again, a student of Ken Parish). Or I could go for industry certification and training to increase my saleability. Or I could give in to the darkside of corporate advancement and get an MBA.
That last one amuses me. Melbourne Business School reckon that their MBA costs $54,000 and can be done in 16 months. A bargain in international terms, even if you ignore the cost of living.
Meanwhile, over in industry-land, a full set of IBM z-Series mainframe courses could cost as much as $61,353 if you include some database and COBOL classes. Yikes.
In any case, I’d be interested to hear what the fine folk of the internet have to say.
So today was my first day at UWA. I committed the classic fresher faux pas by turning up late.
Actually, I turned up on time. To the wrong theatre. I went to the geography theatre; I was meant to go to geology. The former turned out to be teaching vege-maths for business students (which explained why so many people were there).
My second lecture was Java Programming, a unit which at UWA is prerequisite for every computer science unit. It’s aimed at people who’ve never programmed before and frankly, based on my first lecture, I expect it will be a doddle.
Bachelor of Computer Science. I start on July 23rd.
And finally I have DSL again. Sweet merciful DSL.
Yes, the move to Perth has entered its second stage. The previous stage was the stressful madness of evacuating the old house. I’ve been here in Para for 2 days now. It’s a tiny mining settlement deep inside WA.
Already I am enjoying such WA cliches as:
After taking a sabbatical from university for a semester, I am back and ready to try make a good go of it.
I warn you, O Gentle Reader, that what follows is self-indulgent.
I’ve been going over my old K5 diaries. I’m amazed by some of it, disturbed by other bits, and nostalgic for the days of yore.