And in other news . . .
. . . I’m finding it hard to convince my coworkers I have pig flu. Was easier when it was bird flu – I just told them my budgies were sneezing . . .
But that’s not really relevant to anything. Got a couple of shout-outs – very excited to see Elvy Ess has an Etsy store now. I got a fantastic, custom-made bag from her that I ordered at Wild and Worn and I love it (it’s got a stag beetle on it *squee*).
My friend Pangaia is also in the process of setting her Etsy store up too, but until then you can get her stuff at Visage n Vice in East Brunswick (and you can buy my jewellery there too *hint hint*).
And I’ve jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. I was going to avoid it – I’ve managed to hold out against Facebook for this long – but given that I’m now trying to sell stuff I’ve got to start thinking about things I’ve never considered before such as . . . well . . . marketing. Anyway, you can catch all the fun @stillbeing00.
Last of all, lots of great new stuff in my store! I’m starting to focus on belly dance coin belts, and I’ve got a few new anklet styles in stock too!
Oooh! Purdy anklet!
Few more updates . . .
- Made my first sale in my Etsy shop today – very exciting! I finished off two new anklets last night in a new style, so I should have those up and posted in the next few days and I’ll be working on some coin belts for belly dancers soon.
- Bruno has updated his website with details on the family’s rebuilding plans and some amazing photos of the aftermath of the fires. It’s incredible how there’s still so much beauty in such destruction. You can pre-order new copies of his book too.
- And from the man who documented the dino invasion of Aukland comes the latest threat to the peace-loving city – paper cuteness on buses!
This guy's clearly VERY DANGEROUS!
News! News!
Ok, so this blog has been turning a bit whiny lately, so I have some GOOD NEWS to post (hurrah!). I’ve been making jewellery pretty intensely over the past few months and I’ve finally got myself an online shop over at Etsy. I’ll make a sticky post at the top of this blog to display my wares (so to speak 
) as WordPress doesn’t seem to like the widgets that Etsy provides, but I’ll be focussing on anklets, beaded belts and I’m in the process of scouting some naturally-moulted feathers to make hair accessories too. I’m still setting the shop up and there’s so much to learn, but I’m hoping by the end of the month to have everything organised and promotions in full swing and actually making some sales.
Other good news during the week: another one of my stories on Worth placed! I got a silver for this one and I was really happy with how it turned out (mind you, the topic could hardly have been better for me: “Noir on a Train”). Another one placed third a couple of weeks back, but I’d like to expand it a little before posting it here as it’s a little confusing in truncated form, so stay tuned for that.
Ways to Ruin my Day
So I hadn’t had much sleep last night and I’m running late to work, but that’s ok, nothing unusual. I get in, check my email, and there’s a few forwards from one of my bosses. Again, nothing unusual. One warns about card skimmers at ATMs,all very useful stuff, and the other seems to be something about birds so I click on it.
There’s a picture of a jet engine with holes all through it. A few more shots of planes with big holes. This should have been enough information to tell me to CLOSE THE DAMN EMAIL. But I had to look, didn’t I? I skimmed through a few more, each getting more bloody and brutal with cormorants smashed against windscreens and blood coming through control panels.
Then I saw the owl, and I just lost it.
Now, I’m a bird person. Some people are cat people, some like dogs, some like reptiles or fish or dolphins or giraffes or elephants. Me, I like all animals but I especially like birds. I love birds. I get birds, birds make more sense to me than most people, and I really have a soft spot for parrots, corvids . . . and owls.
I love owls. I even have one tattooed on my leg. And seeing one gorgeous big, dark-grey owl contorted and embedded in a jet engine was really not how I wanted to start my day.
Please keep your owls in a non-smashed-up condition
I lost it. I don’t even know why. I’m not even the emotional type. To make things worse, I was on reception so every time someone came past my desk they’d ask if I was ok and I’d lose it again (being a redhead, I don’t hide crying very well). It took me most of the morning to compose myself and I’ve felt horrible all day, like my body was filled with a venom I couldn’t discharge and all I wanted was a nice, big G&T and a lie down. My supervisor went and had a quiet word to the boss over it (i.e., Molly doesn’t want to see pictures of smashed up animals, thanks), and I know he didn’t mean any harm (we’ve got a few ex-RAF/RAAF members in the office who’d be interested in aviation stuff) but still . . . that poor owl . . .
(disclaimer – I’m not squeamish. I’ve got a strong stomach and a sound head on me. I’ve worked in areas dealing with deceased people and seen (and smelt) all sorts of things, but damn it, I can’t stand seeing animals come to harm. And yes, I did snorgle my budgies when I got home, and yes, it did help.)
Slightly Unsettled . . .
I saw something a little unsettling on the tram on the way home tonight, and it’s left me feeling a little unsure of myself. The tram was packed sardine-style (as usual) and I was crammed in like everyone else. Soon after we left the stop, some guy pushes past me, as if trying to get to the door for the next stop. He pauses in front of me, grabs his mobile phone, and holds it up to his face. Ok, nothing unusual about that, that’s pretty much what happens when you try to check your messages on a busy tram . . . except he put it to camera mode and took a photo of a guy sitting on the seats by the window. At first I wasn’t sure if I saw what I thought I just saw, but sure enough, he’d taken a photo then moved on past me closer to the door, shoving past everyone. By the next stop he’d gone.
This guy was tall, skinny, maybe in his fifties, wearing glasses, a baseball cap and a polo shirt with the collar up and what looked like “HIZZ” or “HI33″ in red print on the back. He seemed kind of nervous and tense, and was fiddling with the two newspapers he had rolled up in the back pockets of his jeans. The guy he took a photo of looked perhaps Lebanese, sort of vaguely Middle Eastern or possibly even from the subcontinent. He was short, young, kinda stout in a business suit, styled hair and trendy stubble, and looking pretty tired slumped in his seat.
My first thought was maybe this guy taking the photo was some kind of white-power extremist type, documenting and targeting darker-skinned people. My next thought was maybe he was from ASIO or something, which some might argue isn’t much different. Or maybe he had some kind of fetish for young, Arabic-looking guys, like how people surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts or of girls at swimming pools. Either way, it creeped me out and the people chatting next to me seemed to notice it too as they pulled faces in his direction as he shoved past us and sounded like they were discussing what just happened (from what I could hear over my music anyway).
Yet, by the time he’d gone (and he was gone within two stops), I had this overwhelming feeling that I should have reacted or done something. I should’ve, at the time, made a point of asking him why he was taking photos of other passengers. Or maybe I should’ve told the guy sitting by the window that someone had just photographed him. I should have acted, but the situation was just so odd and a little disturbing that I felt kinda frightened that I’d do the wrong thing or I’d just imagined it or something. And now? Now I just feel this bubbling sense of unease, the kind where you just know something ain’t right . . .
Ninjas: They’re everywhere
‘Ninja’ kangaroo terrorises family in bed | The Sydney Morning Herald | smh.com.au.
So a kangaroo busted into someone’s house in Canberra the other morning, resulting in not only a gratuitous amount of references to Bonds underwear (wait, aren’t they the bad guys at the moment?) but what may be the best quote in the news this year to date:
“My initial thought when I was half awake was: it’s a lunatic ninja coming through the window,” Mr Ettlin told The Associated Press.
Yup. Lunatic ninjas. They’re a real problem in Canberra, believe me . . .
He's on his way to bust through a window right now
Thinking about the Future (or why I’ve felt so mopey this weekend)
I don’t usually discuss what I do to earn my wage here, but it’s not that glamourous, it’s something I’ve been doing for a long time now, and it’s starting to feel like much too long. Sure, I’ve had grand schemes and plans for the future, but nothing I can actually envision myself actually doing: going to acting school, going back to uni to study anything from anthropology to zoology (don’t laugh, it was a serious thought at one stage), as well as trying to get into intelligence analysis through work and being knocked back time and time again. But at the end of the day, all I really am is a glorified, underpaid data entry girl with lots of real-world experience and no formal qualifications. Not a great recipe for career advancement or satisfaction, no matter how many more interesting activities I fill my free hours with.
Cut to this Friday, and I’m out drinking with people from work (god, I really should have eaten dinner, but hey, I didn’t really need to be functional on Saturday). During that drunken rambling point of the night, one of my coworkers was encouraging me to look at other opportunities outside of the organisation I’m currently working for, mentioned other organisations where I’d get paid more, get more interesting things to do and possibly and overseas posting. I check up on it and meh, nothing going, and on a whim I decided to look at jobs at the UN . . . and there are lots of jobs for people like me. Especially in the UN missions abroad.
And now I’m kinda excited. I could be doing what I’ve been doing for the past six years somewhere overseas, sure, probably heartbreaking, difficult and dangerous but interesting and amazing at the same time, and I’m a roll-up-your-sleeves practical kind of girl with a solid head on me (despite what my relatives might think). And although the effectiveness of the UN can be debated these days, it’s gotta be a damn-sight better than what I’m doing now.
So my plan is to put some of my government hand-out I should be getting soon and the money I earn on the side from making jewellery (if I see another crimp or clasp right now I’m going to scream – been making stock all weekend, well, the parts of the weekend I wasn’t hung-over) into a French course and hopefully by the middle of the year be in a position to start putting some applications together. Looking at the website tonight, seeing the opportunities out there, I just wanted to apply right away but this is going to take some patience and planning. But still, it’s achievable and I’m excited . . .
But if anyone out there has any experience or tips on working for the UN, please let me know. I’ve had colleagues quit their jobs to work for them and colleagues who’ve worked in PNG and the Solomons through other deployments but I don’t know of anyone who’s done admin-type work in these situations. I know it’s not glamourous or 100% excitement or any of the bullshit hollywood would have you believe, but any practical tips or experiences would be appreciated.
Mobile Phone Poetry is Alive and Well
Well, at least as far as residents of North Fitzroy are concerned . . .
Those mobile phone poets are an angry bunch.
A friend spotted this gem just off Brunswick Street as we were heading home after eating pizza and playing pool. To the left of that, someone else has written “Only if you’re a shit poet” but I couldn’t fit it in as well.
