Thinks
The Great Job Hunt: UoB, MoD, BCC
05/05/09 19:06
Well, I've cleared my backlog and recovered from the
food poisoning - and I've finished in Chemistry (damn
you Cathy for getting better :-)).
So I'm looking for a Job, I'm not looking for a graduate position, I'm not looking for an especially well paid job, I'm not looking for a fast track to promotion. I'm looking for stability. I've had a lot of jobs in the last few years while I tried to find a job I liked, the main problem I face is that I did, but only realised after I had quit. I really enjoyed working in the Maths department, I enjoyed the work, I enjoyed admin.
Now, I recognise that I'm probably a bit overqualified for the positions I'm going for, but I'm not the kind of person who carps on about boring work if I get it. Try marking year 8 homework if you want boring. I'm also not an uber-ambitious fool, I'd be lying if I said I wanted to work at the bottom rung my whole life but I'm tired of hopping from job to job. If I spend a while doing a job at the bottom, I'll get to know the organisation better so that when I do get promoted I have a better idea of what the people working for me have to do.
Take the MoD for instance: I know very little about the day to day running of the MoD. I'd be very happy to go in at E1 (I have some specific ones on top of the general app on the way), the grade I've applied for, because I want to get to know the organisation and there will be a lot to learn. I want to get in and get on with it. That same goes for Bristol city council (two apps coming up). I know Bristol Uni a bit better but the departments there are anything but homogenous, I'm waiting to hear about one from there as we speak.
All I have to do is hope that my applications conveys that and people don't make assumptions. Chemistry assumed that I was over qualified so they took me on a trial, kept me for two months and said they want me back when Sarah goes on maternity leave if I'm still looking. So the central question is this how do I prove that I won't be insufferable in-spite of my degree.
Tim
p.s. amusing side note - I set my status on Facebook as "Tim is Squamous". Turns out that most people haven't read any Lovecraft so hit Google. Which says skin cancer. I think that is a really interesting failure in the communications cycle. Well after I had calmed all my friends down. I'll see if I can work it into the effective communications skills course. I figured that since I'm unemployed I might as well keep my mind sharp so I'm helping rewrite effective communications and negotiations skills again, I've done a incremental job before but sometimes a complete rewrite is in order.
So I'm looking for a Job, I'm not looking for a graduate position, I'm not looking for an especially well paid job, I'm not looking for a fast track to promotion. I'm looking for stability. I've had a lot of jobs in the last few years while I tried to find a job I liked, the main problem I face is that I did, but only realised after I had quit. I really enjoyed working in the Maths department, I enjoyed the work, I enjoyed admin.
Now, I recognise that I'm probably a bit overqualified for the positions I'm going for, but I'm not the kind of person who carps on about boring work if I get it. Try marking year 8 homework if you want boring. I'm also not an uber-ambitious fool, I'd be lying if I said I wanted to work at the bottom rung my whole life but I'm tired of hopping from job to job. If I spend a while doing a job at the bottom, I'll get to know the organisation better so that when I do get promoted I have a better idea of what the people working for me have to do.
Take the MoD for instance: I know very little about the day to day running of the MoD. I'd be very happy to go in at E1 (I have some specific ones on top of the general app on the way), the grade I've applied for, because I want to get to know the organisation and there will be a lot to learn. I want to get in and get on with it. That same goes for Bristol city council (two apps coming up). I know Bristol Uni a bit better but the departments there are anything but homogenous, I'm waiting to hear about one from there as we speak.
All I have to do is hope that my applications conveys that and people don't make assumptions. Chemistry assumed that I was over qualified so they took me on a trial, kept me for two months and said they want me back when Sarah goes on maternity leave if I'm still looking. So the central question is this how do I prove that I won't be insufferable in-spite of my degree.
Tim
p.s. amusing side note - I set my status on Facebook as "Tim is Squamous". Turns out that most people haven't read any Lovecraft so hit Google. Which says skin cancer. I think that is a really interesting failure in the communications cycle. Well after I had calmed all my friends down. I'll see if I can work it into the effective communications skills course. I figured that since I'm unemployed I might as well keep my mind sharp so I'm helping rewrite effective communications and negotiations skills again, I've done a incremental job before but sometimes a complete rewrite is in order.
The fast and the curious - how do anorexics do it?
11/04/09 17:04
I have been ill - really quiet ill. I'm going to have
to fast for 48 hours, I'm 16 hours in and I'm really
hungry. How do anorexics do it?
I managed 28 hours the first time, thought I'd got away with it. Nope, half assed doesn't work with food poisoning.
How do the do it? It is just down right unpleasant...
tx
I managed 28 hours the first time, thought I'd got away with it. Nope, half assed doesn't work with food poisoning.
How do the do it? It is just down right unpleasant...
tx
Stories, Squamous and Lovecraftian. Contraptions, Joyful and Jerry rigged.
31/03/09 22:34
I wrote the first part of a story last night, it
isn't something I have really done ever without being
coerced. I wonder how annoying I was to teach English
to in retrospect? It may not have been immediate, or
in fact anything to do with them at all, but I sat
down an wrote a story for my own pleasure. It was
Lovecraft-ian in nature and probably not very good
but I find my self pleased beyond measure that I
actually did it.
I large part of it is down to what we are trying to do in improv at the moment, and the switch of our focus into story telling and long form. It occurred to me that I had never tried to tell a story. I approached it from a fairly improvised standpoint, thinking of a first line and a style, and taking it form there. I would be lying if I said I didn't find it a challenge, there are so many things to think about and I found myself wanting to go back and edit what I had done. This is probably down to the fact that normally this option isn't open to me when I'm telling stories up on stage. It has certainly made me think about a number of things which I need to work on.
I large part of it is down to what we are trying to do in improv at the moment, and the switch of our focus into story telling and long form. It occurred to me that I had never tried to tell a story. I approached it from a fairly improvised standpoint, thinking of a first line and a style, and taking it form there. I would be lying if I said I didn't find it a challenge, there are so many things to think about and I found myself wanting to go back and edit what I had done. This is probably down to the fact that normally this option isn't open to me when I'm telling stories up on stage. It has certainly made me think about a number of things which I need to work on.
- I found that I wrote about the relationships and environment that my characters had, but beyond that we knew far to little of the character to care about them.
- I lack the confidence to build the scene, this is a hangover from too much short-form, the pace was far higher than the average Lovecraft stories and suffers for it.
- I need to finish the story before I edit it, forcing myself to just write certainly helped.
Log books
27/03/09 18:16
How hard can it be to find a decent log book? I have
looked high and low for the perfect log book for me.
I need it to be three things:
1) Harbacked and case-bound
2) Squared paper
3) Acid free paper
It would appear to be a case of pick any two but not all three. I can't imagine that this is a particularly outlandish thing to want, surely there are lots of people out there who would want something like this. I have managed to find two that almost qualify one is a black and red and can only be purchased as a 5 pack and one is made by MAKE (or at least branded as such) and cost $20 + p&p from America. Ouchies.
One a much happier note I have been taking the time to explore the two brilliant new sites: Academic Earth and YouTubeEDU.
Now I fully recognise that these are not a replacement for actually going to university - in fact they are a long way off. They are however, very very good; And they are a lot better than nothing. You may not get the benefit of teaching assistants, lecturers or the other people in your class. You may not get your work marked. What you do get is some lecture courses from some of the worlds best universities. I'm also going to bet best lecturers as it would be very easy to put people off going to your university if you show them the goods up front, I can think of certain lecture courses that would have put me right off Bristol. If you have been to uni and want a refresher, are at uni and want a different take or couldn't go to uni and want a "next best thing" I'd urge you to check it out.
I am currently taking CS106A at Stanford :-)
Tim x
1) Harbacked and case-bound
2) Squared paper
3) Acid free paper
It would appear to be a case of pick any two but not all three. I can't imagine that this is a particularly outlandish thing to want, surely there are lots of people out there who would want something like this. I have managed to find two that almost qualify one is a black and red and can only be purchased as a 5 pack and one is made by MAKE (or at least branded as such) and cost $20 + p&p from America. Ouchies.
One a much happier note I have been taking the time to explore the two brilliant new sites: Academic Earth and YouTubeEDU.
Now I fully recognise that these are not a replacement for actually going to university - in fact they are a long way off. They are however, very very good; And they are a lot better than nothing. You may not get the benefit of teaching assistants, lecturers or the other people in your class. You may not get your work marked. What you do get is some lecture courses from some of the worlds best universities. I'm also going to bet best lecturers as it would be very easy to put people off going to your university if you show them the goods up front, I can think of certain lecture courses that would have put me right off Bristol. If you have been to uni and want a refresher, are at uni and want a different take or couldn't go to uni and want a "next best thing" I'd urge you to check it out.
I am currently taking CS106A at Stanford :-)
Tim x
Starting again
22/03/09 21:29
Well here goes, I think I'm going to start blogging
again. There has been quite a gap, and I needed to
get my head right, now its all good.
I used to worry that nobody read my blog and that what I was writing wasn't very interesting anyway. I know realise that I don't care. It made me write, it made me think. I'm going to try and do it once a week, it may not be interesting to anyone but me. And it doesn't matter one little bit.
So what is happening?
I don't have a job and we are in the middle of the biggest ever financial crisis. Apparently.
I don't have a relationship, and I don't know any single women. I have a few more happy memories than the last time I blogged, and a few more hang ups.
I don't really have a goal for my performances, since I can't go to Edinburg (see point 1).
Sound grave doesn't it? Well it isn't, a VERY good friend of mine summed it up perfectly once "Mate, life isn't that complicated".
I have almost never been happier, yeah there are still things that can make me melancholy (see point 2) but most of the time you'd have to prosecute me to get the smile off my face.
So to all the people reading, and all the people who never will, have a lovely evening.
tx
I used to worry that nobody read my blog and that what I was writing wasn't very interesting anyway. I know realise that I don't care. It made me write, it made me think. I'm going to try and do it once a week, it may not be interesting to anyone but me. And it doesn't matter one little bit.
So what is happening?
I don't have a job and we are in the middle of the biggest ever financial crisis. Apparently.
I don't have a relationship, and I don't know any single women. I have a few more happy memories than the last time I blogged, and a few more hang ups.
I don't really have a goal for my performances, since I can't go to Edinburg (see point 1).
Sound grave doesn't it? Well it isn't, a VERY good friend of mine summed it up perfectly once "Mate, life isn't that complicated".
I have almost never been happier, yeah there are still things that can make me melancholy (see point 2) but most of the time you'd have to prosecute me to get the smile off my face.
So to all the people reading, and all the people who never will, have a lovely evening.
tx