Tech Part 2

Lets start with games.............

I love playing computer games, I was a fairly decent Call of Duty 4 player online. Yes I may have been in a clan and for a time had top player on several maps. Despite cooking the video card on my dell twice it did the job but I always knew it was my weak point.

Then we sold our house and moved, then moved again, days got longer I was getting home later, I had to wipe and reload the OS on my dell and I just didn't re-install COD4. The new version Modern warfare 2 came out then COD Black Ops and knowing my laptop wasn't up to the challenge I resisted.

Knowing I was due for a laptop refresh this year I started looking into alienware laptops but was very hot and cold with them as they probably are enough to scrape by in terms of a gaming machine but the size and noise of cramming better video cards and extra cooling made for a highly un-portable laptop. In considering the alienware gear I think I was focusing more on wanting to be able to game and less on having something portable to use on my commute.

I then started to to sway towards the Macbook Air as my portable then compliment it with a simple server/desktop at home for our families storage needs. The new MBA came out and despite having several decent plays I couldn't see the wafer thin notebook as something I could use on my lap every day, it was just too small.

I'd been keen for a tablet for sometime, since here actually.... but my satisfaction with my Android phone faded somewhat when I updated to froyo. I found some of the features I loved like swype text bombed on the new version. I pretty much didn't want to consider any androids tablets running 2.X until early this year when the Motorolla Xoom came out sporting honeycomb, the Android tablet specific OS. I still um'ed and ahh'ed swaying between Ipad and the Xoom but waited for more honeycomb offerings from the other tablet manufacturers to enter the ring.

I found the Xoom more to be an ipad copy than a competitor. I still really liked the Android OS then as more makes got thrown into the mix the Acer caught my eye. In a nutshell it does everything the iPad or Xoom can do with a few added bonuses. Firstly, a microsd slot like that with my galaxy makes it so much easier to load content on/off your device and its expandable storage. Secondly a standard USB port, this is an awesome idea because while tablets a supposed to be alternatives to pcs the more "useable" and specifically connectable they are the more things you can do with them. In the case of a USB port it could be to bang in a keyboard and whack out a long winded opinion piece like this or simply transfer some data from your main machine via USB key (I have a really small 16gb key that barely sticks out when inserted and is perfect for this sort of use, so 32gb on board, add my 16gb microsd card and my 16gb key and bingo I have the same storage as the top spec ipad with the added bonus of swap-ability.

I guess you can't find something that ticks every box and the downside to acer is its a little more bulky but for the added features I was still keen. The other issue is that they are relatively new (June/Julyish release for the 3g model??) meaning choices for cases are currently a little thin (there are 3). Lucky I have big hands so bulk is no worry actually it easier to handle and there will bemore cases sooner or later.

So thursday I pulled the trigger and picked up an Acer Iconia a501 32gb. DSE had a decent price & were happy to throw in the Acer case, 2 screen protectors so I up'd the warranty from 1 to 3 years then stopped into Telstra store & had them load a sim card for mobile broadband, plugged it in and away I went. Review to come



This left me with a decision to make in terms of desktops where my options are limitless. Dollar value for reasonably high end gaming desktop + android tablet comes in slightly more than the 14inch alienware or the macbook air. I'm currently decided (unless I change my mind which tend to do) on i7 with enough ram, a few 1tb hard drives, video support for eyefinity (linking monitors as one large one batcave style as opposed to extending your desktop over multiple screens and gaming on one screen). All this in a case with ample slots for optical & hard drives that keeps and looks cool so stay tuned.



Until Next Time...........

Tech

So i'm typing this update from new android tablet.....

I spent many hours over the past few weeks trying to come up with a tech solution to my changing every day needs. The key driver was it was time to upgrade my pc which turned 3 in march this year. I initially considered getting a desktop and an ipad but as I looked more and more into the ipad it didn't suit my portability needs.

I then began to sway towards a macbook mainly because i was really over the windows experience and could see a need being met by the decent battery life on offer.

I waited for the new Macbook Airs to come out and still wasn't entirely grabbed by them then started looking at a alternate laptops before deciding on desktop/android tablet combo.

oops looks like i posted prematurely stay tuned.

You know you're working for a good organisation when.......

The person who signs your time sheets pulls you aside and comments on the fact that you didn't take lunch on the previous Wednesday. (I'm guessing its the first or maybe second time I've skipped lunch and worked through in 6 months).

I really like the work ethic here. I worked through countless lunch breaks at my old job, not to mention the times when I would try to leave on time and my old boss (aka satan) would say "Just one thing.............." starting a 45 minute conversation epic that would see me home later.

Also with the trailer for this movie fresh on my mind from the weekend it was very pleasant today thinking about how much I don't miss my old boss.

Jobs

My 1st job was delivering pamphlets, I loathed it, it was soooo much time spent folding the junk mail, probably about 75% of the work was folding. You folder until your fingers were black from the ink. It gave me enough pocket money to afford the little things, which at age 14 was parts for my bike.

My 2nd job was working after school on Wednesdays at a family owned photo shop, I did general tasks like cleaning up and eventuated to classifying miss prints. (Classifying photos printed in error helped with calibration the machine that developed photos). There were some eye openers working at this store, you would be amazed what people take photos of. I think the store closed down because of the emerging popularity of digital cameras.

My 3rd job commenced half way through year 12 when I started working as a nursing attendant at an aged care facility. I remained at that nursing home for almost 4 years well into my nursing degree. It was a place of many firsts one of which was experiencing death first hand. I had only ever seen a dead body once. It was my grandfather at his wake the year before. In the years I worked i witnessed all facets of life in particular the lower end of human existence, dementia, incontinence etc etc

Seeing so many people who had lived great lives come to an end was a privilege.

My 4th job was my first IT job doing EFTPOS & point of sale support. The hours were good, I worked 7 out of 14 days on 12 hour shifts. I miss working shifts, in particular how much free time it permits you. After 12 months I was made redundant as the contract I worked on was terminated.

My 5th job was doing the exact same job on the same contract with a new company. I went on to stay at this company for the next 5 years working many roles from tech support to management ending up in operations. I saw the writing on the wall and signs that the company was not managing their finances well and left. (They were bankrupt within 3 years)

My 6th job was working as a technical analyst for a company that owned private hospitals. This was a great job, working in a great team for a great company. As things happen this company was bought out by a smaller company looking to expand. There was good and bad in the takeover, unfortunately all the systems I worked with were targeted for lights out.

My 7th job was working for the company that took over the private hospitals business working on a network project interstate. This was a great experience for me personally and professionally as I was able to move my family to another city. It was a great experience however as we were interrupted by a cute little blond boy we had to move home

My 8th job fell in my lap, the stars definitely aligned for this one. I was sitting in Brisbane contemplating resigning from my job and moving back to Melbourne when a phone call out of the blue set the scene for a new job in Melbourne working as a systems analyst starting around the time that we would arrive home. Though far from the best company on earth working there for the next 5 years was great for me in so many ways. I was able to leverage flexible work arrangements for hospital trips. I would have happily stayed there for many years however working for a tyrant and not being able to visualise where my career there was going made it an easy decision to leave.

My 9th job is where I am now, again IT, again as a systems analyst.

What have I learnt in 9 jobs??

• Most jobs have an expiry date
• You learn just as much working for a bad company as you do for a good one.
• People will stay way too long in a bad job if they work with good people

As a footnote I found it interesting that I had this post typed up yesterday but didn't post it everything from here on I added later.

Today I arrived at work today to an email from my one over manager expressing her thanks to me for the work i've done while my direct manager has been on 5 weeks leave. The Head of the departement was also Cc'd on the email and he had responded and also added his thanks.

I've been working in this new role for only 10 weeks and i'd say that's more praise than I received in the last 3 years at my old job.

This new job feels good.

A week gone by and another to come

Firstly I must apologise for the dot point update, its been hot and I've avoided extra PC time.


Miss P turned 3
Its hard to believe its been three years since the smallest (though not youngest) memeber of our family popped out into my waiting hands. While her 1 year old sister isn't far off sharing her clothes she is the bigest personality of our crew by a long shot (not to mention the loudest) We had a quiet gathering with her grand parents and she got some different pressies including a doctors kit that has been a big hit.

Shoes
I finally got a decent enough break in to go to my fave little specialist shoe shop for some new clod hoppers, In the form of some snazzy boots for work and a second pair for walking around town.

Man Bag
I managed another equally extended lunch break to pick up a man bag for all manner of things I like to cart around. While the brief was simple it had to:
-Fit an iPad
-Have ample internal pockets for headphones keys and coins & phones
-Be waterproof
-Be small enough to be worn on a crowded train
-Have velcro and a clip for security
I scoured the interwebs for all manner of man bag but unfortunately didn't like anything I saw. I remembered where there was a factory outlet for crumpler and while nothing on their website met my needs I decided to have a look in the hope of getting an older model that may tick my boxes. I did in the form of "the soupandsalad son-o" yeah I don't get the names either. (I got the blue/yellow one)
Sickness
Mamma Bear was ill, in 6 children she has only had mastitis twice and this time was pretty hard on her, mixed in with a few high 30 degree days and plenty of humidity saw her pretty wasted. I felt crap that I couldn't do more for her. She never loses her cool with the children but I could see the combination of being crook and the heat and half a dozen shadows wore her down. Its frustrating seeing people with 1 or 2 children who get multitudes of help all the time, people dont offer to "take 5 off your hands" for an afternoon so mum can rest so we make do. I tried to have all the washing done before mondays return to work as well as taking care of the meals but with a 1 year old you are challenged thats for sure. Heres to no more sickness and a paid babysitter so maybe we can have our first date in well over 3 years

Incense for mosquito's
Living in the sticks means bugs and if you're unfortunate to be a mosquito magnet like some in our family are they can be an annoyances. Its not ideal to close up the house when we get such nice breezes and mossie candles stink so we decided to try some sandelwood incense. I have to say I love the smell and each night I've had a stick burn I've sat next to an open window and haven't had any bites.

Work
Work has continued to be awesome, I'm really getting into working for the government and can really see good in the work people in my department do and indirectly the systems I work on.

Lack of two wheeled action
Its been almost 2 months since I've been for a motorcycle ride, I'm not craving it but am missing it. I'll probably take the Duc for a spin just to give it a run this weekend but wont do any long rides for a few more months. Life is a little busy at the moment for selfish passtimes

Hiking
The eldest boys and I went for a hike up one of the local mountains yesterday, despite torrential rain we wore ponchos, it was challenging, steep, slippery and the track was more overgrown than I expected, we also encountered several leeches I had alf a dozen on one leg. I think I might invest in a water resistant camera for capturing some of the more active and messy activities we do as there were some awesome photo ops.





And the week ahead?

One of the great things about home schooling (there are so many I could bang on all day about them) is the fact that you're no bound to standard school hours or calendars. Lets face it if you go to a family destination be it the zoo, the beach or even the movies it kind of blows during school holidays. Don't get me wrong I love children (well certainly my own) but when an attraction is swarming with families its not as enjoyable.

Enter home Education, forget the crazy 8:30am traffic as parents flock to their childrens school drop off zones, forget about the panda enclosure that you queued at for 90 minutes, or the noisy movie theater. Its awesome when everything is quiet-er.

Monday we have the annual "Not-back-to-school" meet where by many Home Educators take their broods to a water park down the coast for a day of water slides and aqua cycling and much more. Monday is "Not-back-to-school" day and I cant wait.

The change in jobs and switching to consulting (no paid leave) means that our 2011 wont be as active as 2010 was in terms of me taking days off work for activities so I hope to get the most out of Mondays water fun.

Until next time

EDIT - I should add that by help I meant taking the children of MB's hands for an afternoon. She did receive help via our ever so handy Doula who delivered some herbs and potatoe compress to ease the mastitis.

Work, Life & Balance

One of my dot points in the last entry outlined the fact that after 5 years in same role with a shall remain nameless multinational finance company I finished up and had started in a new role.

I've now been at the new job for about 5 weeks and here are some of many positives of note:

• The new team environment is very positive and everyone is really friendly.
• Its quiet (as in audible)
• Good hours, currently doing 8ish to 4:30ish
  
• My chair is soooo comfy
• Going from 10 years using laptops to a desktop has been interesting.
• I've always used dual screens & have gone back to a single has also been a challenge
• Being in the city is awesome for places to eat.
• The daily train ride in and out has proven to be a good way to relax.
  

With all the rain we've seen of late one of the first things on my shopping list was a new umbrella. I made the mistake of getting a piddly little compact which turned inside out the first time I used it so I quickly upgraded to a golf umbrella reminiscent of the umbrella corporation.

I've also added some other items to the shopping list for the coming weeks, firstly I need a murse/man bag, all my bags are either backpacks or laptop bags and while I dont carry a lot a hand bag would be just that..... HANDY. Secondly I need some new leather shoes, I wore a hole in my current pair in the first few weeks and with countless streets to explore on my lunches I intend to do plenty of miles.

Another thing on the shopping list is a tablet pc. With an extra 2 hours a day sitting on the train time can be better spent reading the my daily interwebz, typing up blog posts, reading e-books videos, games etc etc. This will be the subject of much deliberation, at the moment I'm swaying towards an iPad mainly because with the upgrade of adroid 2.2 on my Galaxy I'm really not happy with the lag and cant really justify taking the plunge on a tablet running the same OS i.e. the Galaxy Tab. More on that later.

Some other changes that the new job has allowed for is the growth of a little hair, I usually shave my head because its the easiest way to maintain when you're riding a motorcycle daily but with my switch up in commuting I dare say i'll need to get a hair cut in a few weeks (the first in years).

I hope I can continue to contract with the Vic Government for a few years and see through the projects I currently have in the pipeline. This year I will also re-establish some new career goals.

I had originally set certain goals to achieve before I turned 30, I reached this first set at 28. I then set additional goals to reach before I turned 35 and reached these at 31 so I think now is an opportune time to reassess.

Until Next Time.......

Time For a Change

I know I had a bit of a moan about hating my job a few weeks back. After some more thought on the issue and time to reflect I can probably shed some more light now as I resigned a few days ago.

The issues I had with motivation didn't stem from having a boring job, it wasn't the long commute, it wasn't the company I worked for. It was my boss.

I started with this multination shall-remain-nameless company almost 5 years ago. I was head hunted, and at the time, we were living is Brisbane, C had just been born and we were still coming to grips with his nevus and what parts of our lives would have to change. I started in a great team, great manager, very positive atmosphere. Unfortunately that manger moved to a new role and a re-org saw me answering in to a new manager, a woman who had been with the company for quite a while as a contractor. She came from a Project Management background managing a team of contractors. I wont go in to all the details, i'll just say that this womans people skills were not the best, and she managed everything like a project.

It was the best feeling to hand her my resignation, she was surprisingly positive about it.

I've done the whole permanent employee thing for years so I was keen to try my hand at consulting. After a week of applications the interviews started to filter through & mid last week I received an offer & accepted an initial 12 month contract with plans for extensions, & its government.

Yahtzee!!!

I start in a few weeks. I'm nervous because its a new, its not finance (I've been in Finance IT for almost 8 years) but its in the city so I have a 20 minute drive then a 55minute train ride. I'm hoping the reduced amount of driving will also contribute to being more mentally fresh when I get home of a night.

To begin with I'm contracting through the firm that hired me but i'm going to look at setting up my own company eventually (never thought i'd be saying that).

Stay tuned I guess.......

Drawing on Harvey Mckay

“Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life”

I’m in a bit of a rut professionally at the moment. I don’t enjoy my job; it wasn’t a career I chose. I fell into by chance as I tried to get out of my chosen career. It was only meant to be temporary. But 12 years later I find myself miserable at work. I work for a great company and enjoy what I do but do not have the greatest of managers which turns a positive situation negative in so many ways.

I find there is often a difference between doing something you love & doing something you’re good at. Unfortunately the latter can sometimes be more of a curse.

In early high school I was passionate about design. Graphics was my favourite subject and if I was drawing I could see hours go by and feel like minutes. I soon realised it was the design and build process that I enjoyed as opposed to the artistic side.

A bad placement on work experience made me change my mind and look at other career prospects. Midway through high school I was really enjoying biology and human development and started consider options of careers in nursing or perhaps as a paramedic. By the end of high school the pressure from my parents to go straight into university pretty much made my mind up for me and I studied Nursing. I worked as a nurse while I studied and thoroughly enjoyed the contact with people and helping those who needed it, but felt my size & strength made me more prone to be used as a lifting machine.

I made the decision to leave that profession and lined up an IT support role and did some additional studies and soon found my niche and 12 years later here I am. I did choose to quit a job I was working about 6 years ago and obtained the necessary qualifications to work in security at night allowing me to be home in the days and mamma bare could teach, but ultimately found myself looking for what was familiar and went back into IT.

With children comes responsibility and I have always put the importance of supporting the family over my career satisfaction and the perfect reward at the end of a stressful day and slow commute is hugs from your little ones. I've set career goals regardless of my level of passion for the work I do. I had a salary goal for when I turned 30 and reached it at 28, I set another goal for 35 and will be on track to reach it by 32 but money doesnt motivate so here I am applying for roles.

My parents never gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted. Who knows if that was the case I could be a teacher now, or maybe build houses or any one of a dozen other fields that interest me. In the mean time i'll stick with what i'm good at and maybe look at contracting, working 6-9 months of the year and doing what I truely enjoy for the remainder

A quick poll of my eldest 4 on what they would like to be when they grow up
B 10 Years - Something with elctrical stuff or electronics
T 8 Years - Police Officer
L 6 Years - A Mum(Her mothers daughter clearly)
C 4 Years - Metal Bean Chicker

This list will no doubt change completely time and time again, the important thing for me is to support whatever is on it no matter what.

Until next time.................