Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Be careful what you wish for.
As the saying goes, you just mught get it. I wanted a transfer to more interesting and important work, and I got it. Now I'm sitting here, kinda smelly because I've been at work for over 13 hours with no end in sight (well actually the end for me today should be an hour or so after tech get the servers up).
At least I get overtime, although it's less appealing the day after payday when I have plenty of cash (literally cash - bank accounts in malta are a little difficult to obtain) and won't be reaping the fruits of my labours for another 31 days.
Malta (the little bits I've seen of it) is a pretty sweet place. I'm too tired today to really feel like trying to be clever or informative. I like my house (except for the slight gas leak we have for our stovetop), my flatmates (except when they wake me up early), my job (as much as I complain about it sometimes), etc.
I'm still alive, just kinda busy. Working for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be (or more accurately it is all it's cracked down to be, and then some - right now I'm staring at a photo of Mt Ruapehu on a perfect winter's day and wondering what possessed me to take this job over the Chalet "girl" position in a Swiss ski resort whose name I have forgotten because that's how effective work is at scrubbing nomadic impulses out of your soul.
That's very negative, at least work is usually much more fun (even if it's fun in the way that banging your head against the wall a hundred times is - it feels so good when you stop) than cleaning rooms, although I wish we were based somewhere with good ski hills.
I'll try and be more reliable about blogging in future, but we'll see.
At least I get overtime, although it's less appealing the day after payday when I have plenty of cash (literally cash - bank accounts in malta are a little difficult to obtain) and won't be reaping the fruits of my labours for another 31 days.
Malta (the little bits I've seen of it) is a pretty sweet place. I'm too tired today to really feel like trying to be clever or informative. I like my house (except for the slight gas leak we have for our stovetop), my flatmates (except when they wake me up early), my job (as much as I complain about it sometimes), etc.
I'm still alive, just kinda busy. Working for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be (or more accurately it is all it's cracked down to be, and then some - right now I'm staring at a photo of Mt Ruapehu on a perfect winter's day and wondering what possessed me to take this job over the Chalet "girl" position in a Swiss ski resort whose name I have forgotten because that's how effective work is at scrubbing nomadic impulses out of your soul.
That's very negative, at least work is usually much more fun (even if it's fun in the way that banging your head against the wall a hundred times is - it feels so good when you stop) than cleaning rooms, although I wish we were based somewhere with good ski hills.
I'll try and be more reliable about blogging in future, but we'll see.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Promotion
Well, it didn;t take long, I've arranged the transfer I was kind of angling for from day one. Basically I've been moved from Support to Marketing.
The first question everyone asks is did you get a pay rise?
The answer to that is no, not yet. That said, the other guy in the department that works in Marketing our office (my friend Dave) is strongly pushing for it based on the fact we're supposed to be in the office or on call 24/7 between 2 of us at the moment. Even if that doesn't work out, it puts me in a MUCH stronger position to campaign for a bigger raise in 5 months when my probabtionary period ends. I'll have been doing more work, more valuable work, and have many more tangible things to point at during the evaluation meeting.
Believe it or not (it will depend on how well you know me, and how cynical you are about me) I didn't want this for the money. It is actually because the work is more interesting. I do not like being bored. One of the main complaints I had about Malta was always that work was not particularly interesting. This has been resolved. Sure, I'm going to be much busier, especially in the forseeable future, but I'm going to enjoy a lot more of it.
The other thing, which might seem to go directly against my "it's not about the money" claim, but really doesn't, is that the experience I get in this position will be more valuable and transferable in the future and help me get more interesting (and incidentally better paid ;) ) jobs.
It really hasn't taken long for me to start playing the corporate game. Like I've said before, whatever I play, I play to win.
Anyway, home time, we still don't have internet at the apartment, and things are going to be stupid busy and long hours in the near future so I have more excuses to be slack.
The company is springing for a nice dinner tonight too, which is pretty sweet.
Life is Good.
The first question everyone asks is did you get a pay rise?
The answer to that is no, not yet. That said, the other guy in the department that works in Marketing our office (my friend Dave) is strongly pushing for it based on the fact we're supposed to be in the office or on call 24/7 between 2 of us at the moment. Even if that doesn't work out, it puts me in a MUCH stronger position to campaign for a bigger raise in 5 months when my probabtionary period ends. I'll have been doing more work, more valuable work, and have many more tangible things to point at during the evaluation meeting.
Believe it or not (it will depend on how well you know me, and how cynical you are about me) I didn't want this for the money. It is actually because the work is more interesting. I do not like being bored. One of the main complaints I had about Malta was always that work was not particularly interesting. This has been resolved. Sure, I'm going to be much busier, especially in the forseeable future, but I'm going to enjoy a lot more of it.
The other thing, which might seem to go directly against my "it's not about the money" claim, but really doesn't, is that the experience I get in this position will be more valuable and transferable in the future and help me get more interesting (and incidentally better paid ;) ) jobs.
It really hasn't taken long for me to start playing the corporate game. Like I've said before, whatever I play, I play to win.
Anyway, home time, we still don't have internet at the apartment, and things are going to be stupid busy and long hours in the near future so I have more excuses to be slack.
The company is springing for a nice dinner tonight too, which is pretty sweet.
Life is Good.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
I'm Lazy
Well today it rained. Actually, it's 10am and it stopped. But it rained enough between 7am and 9am to count as raining the whole day. Seriously, this was a downpour of tropical proportions. Thunder, lightening, three inches of water all over the pavement, the whole nine yards. They also don't seem to believe in stormwater drains in malta so streets just turn into rivers.
Our apartment (both the building and the people) is cool.
Doing some super boring testing at work today, so between that and the weather, I have no real desire to write anything. Oh, and the fact we're constantly up till midnight playing playstation and hanging out with people.
Our apartment (both the building and the people) is cool.
Doing some super boring testing at work today, so between that and the weather, I have no real desire to write anything. Oh, and the fact we're constantly up till midnight playing playstation and hanging out with people.
