I have internet access for an hour or two, so I thought I’d let the teeming masses know that I’m still alive.

Update: Turns out I am the bronze medallist. Geish Hori is the silver medallist. A well-deserved win. Well done Geish!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Already I am enjoying such WA cliches as:

• Stunning countryside
• Revolting tapwater
• Iffy internet, and
• Incredibly parochial news.