06
Apr

Holiday Break

By inlimelight 3 Comments
Categories: Haileybury, Holiday, TAFE and Work

On Tuesday it will be time for me to go back to TAFE after an interesting break. I’ve had two weeks off but for some reason it feels like it’s been a month.

The first week I took the opportunity to relax and catch up with everyone who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. That week I had seen more of everyone than I had in the past three months. A full time TAFE course will do that to your social life. But it has been the second week that seems to have lasted the longest time, which has been good.

I’ve spent the past week working at Haileybury, filling in for one of the Facilities staff while they take some time off. So I’ve been moving furniture around and setting up functions which is much more satisfying work than what I do at my other place of employment.

The week was made even more interesting with the hoax bomb threat on April Fools Day. A student had sent an email to the entire school, students and staff at all 3 campuses. Despite the email being said to be an “obvious joke” all three campuses were evacuated. With the police copter flying overhead, so it was taken very seriously.

In other news, if all goes to plan I’ll have a new job soon. I’ve applied and I am waiting to see what happens now. So I will hopefully be able to quit my other job soon, which I have been wanting to do for about six months now, I’ve just been waiting for something else to give me an income.

09
Mar

Box Hill TAFE is Burning Down

By inlimelight 2 Comments
Categories: TAFE

So I woke up this morning and here on the radio that Box Hill TAFE had been set on fire. At least it wasn’t my building.

“ARSONISTS are believed responsible for a fire that caused a quarter of a million dollars’ damage to the Box Hill TAFE in suburban Melbourne overnight.

Police said the blaze started in wheelie bins at the back of the TAFE library at the Whitehorse Campus just before midnight.

It damaged four levels of the building, including cabling and a lift.

Police are asking any witnesses to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23344721-2862,00.html?from=public_rss

In other news to do with TAFE… It is going really well. I kind of wish I had dropped out of school earlier and gone strait to TAFE, but of course I am happier that i finished Haileybury. Also we had our first TAFE projects last week. My groups production went really well! We were the first group to present our work and apparently we set the standard high for the other two groups. We did lose a couple of marks though, we forgot to safety chain a Par-Can and there was some distortion in the sound at one stage, however we still did very well.

I am also now a qualified First Aider. On friday I completed my certificate II in first aid. The two days off class to become qualified is mind numbing though. We were all sitting there from 9am - 5pm watching videos and learning about how to give CPR. However I did learn that it is possible to give CPR to yourself.

And finally I was at Haileybury today working for the year 10 Play. I have no idea what the play is called, however it has had allot of effort put into it in regards to sound and light. It probably has the most amount of lights I have seen for a year 10 play but it does look pretty spooky.

14
Feb

TAFE

By inlimelight 1 Comment
Categories: TAFE

Its been ages now, It’s hard to find the time to write anything. Anyway, “what’s been happening?” some of you ask. Well I have started my TAFE course! Today was only the third day, so it still isn’t running on the full time table yet, but it has still be interesting.

First day was nothing special, just a getting to know everyone and walking around the campus trying to find everything. however the second day was good, we got to unpack all the new equipment. There were new movers, mics and mixers. We also began work on our group project where we have to use a combination of sound and light to put on a production. No one said it was going to be an interesting production.

Today however was allot of fun. We were supposed to go to the arts center and then to the Beason Center to look at their theatre, but the arts center tour was canceled, so a few of us decided to kill time by going to Laser force… our team won, for those who are interested. Anyway the Beason center is pretty cool, their fly space is huge, well it would have to be, and their control room is good enough to live in, with the fridge, couch and TV.

15
Jan

Box Hill Bound

By inlimelight 0 Comments
Categories: Holiday and Rant

Once again it has been ages since I posted anything. I basically have been both to busy to write anything and didn’t have the energy to make something seem much more interesting than it actually was.

Anyway… as most of you already know, The offers for Uni and TAFE came out yesterday. AB and I waited 45 mins for the news paper to arrive at 7/11. (Dam thing was late) and now months of waiting is over. I know what I am doing as far as education goes for next year… I got an offer for Box Hill TAFE, for the Live Production course, which is excellent news if you hadn’t already have guessed. I am now trying to find the $2230 tuition fee by enrollment day on the 24th of Jan. I’m already half way there, and my parents are lending a hand as well.

In other news I’ve been working pretty much every day for the past two weeks, filling in for our manager who has gone on Holiday. I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing because everything was explained to me in a rush. I’m on the phone every 30mins asking one of the other managers what i should be doing. Other than that it is the usual crap you get from people. Yesterday it was a women who said “Not you again” which is a fantastic answer to “how are you?” I don’t know what i actually did to this person but I hope her husband ends up paying his $1000 in Late Fees… People take renting a DVD way to seriously.

17
Dec

Results

By inlimelight 1 Comment
Categories: Haileybury and Holiday

After years of study and and three days of exams (at least it was three for me) the VCE results have finally been released. For those who are interested, this is how I went….

English
GA 1: A
GA 2: B+
GA 3: C
Study Score: 30

Further Mathematics
GA 1: A
GA 2: B+
GA 3: B+
Study Score: 34

Sociology
GA 1: A
GA 2: A
GA 3: B+
Study Score: 35

Theatre Studies
GA 1: A
GA 2: C
GA 3: B+
Study Score: 34

And an enter score of 70.70 I don’t really have an opinion as to weather or not I did well. I never really needed and enter score for the courses I wanted to do next year anyway, all I needed was to have successfully completed the VCE, which I have done.

Anyway It’s been a while since I posted anything so I figured I may as well do a run down on what’s been happening.

All my interviews for my courses next year went very well. I received letters from RMIT, Box Hill and VCA telling me that they are wiling to offer me a place in their course next year, but I will have to put them as number one on my preference list. At the moment my no.1 is the Box Hill course and No.2 is RMIT. The whole interview process for the VCA put me off their course.

I have also been working allot during the break. I need the money to buy presents for the people. Its really expensive and hard to find something that is any good. Most of my work has been at Video Ezy and I also have some money coming from Haileybury… eventually. I did find out that I will be filling in for our manager at work while she goes away on holiday. I had “training” for it this morning and its all pretty easy (it’s not meant to be a pun! I hate that joke!) All I have to do is fill in some forms and email them as attachments, then go to the bank and deposit the money. It’s very tempting to just take it a run.

11
Nov

Spring Cleaning

By inlimelight 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

I’ve finished my exams and that leaves me with nothing but time to kill, so I’ve been working for the past few days with Dale. It was a gig at the Hi-Fi bar for a band called “A Sound Mind” they are actually pretty good. Anyway I was roped in after being given some vague details such as “meet me in the hall at 5″. The lights for the actual show were a bit of overkill for the size of the stage but it all looked good in the end.

Anyway today I finally had some time to relax and do what I have been saying I would do since June this year… Clean out all the junk from my room. I never realised just how much you could fit in my room. My desk alone went from this monstrosity…
img_0829.jpg

To this work of art…
img_0851.jpg

There was allot of crap which ended up in my room over the years and this is only half of what I uncovered under the piles of papers, boxes and cloths…
img_0850.jpg

07
Nov

They Are All Finished

By inlimelight 3 Comments
Categories: Haileybury

Can you believe it! All of my VCE exams are over! I never have to write and essay on a film or a book. I never have to define globalisation and citizenship. I never have to analyse how stage craft was used in the interpretation of a performance and I never have to figure out the gradient of a graph. At least not for examination purposes. It is so relieving to have them over and done with and after sitting three exams in one day and to have that day to be the final day of exams, it feels so good. In the last five minutes of my Sociology exam I couldn’t stop smiling and watching the clock intently, waiting of the exam coordinator to say “pens down”.

Over all, I think I did alright in my exams and my sociology exam i think was actually my best. Strange how I think i did the best in a subject that I didn’t even like. Its either that or I was too focused on the fact that it was my last exam. Now i can finally throw away all the pages of notes that are lying around my room and on my desk.

I don’t mean to rub it in anyones face but, I can sit back and relax while watching the flowers grow. However its a drought so I don’t think there will be much growing also I would get bored of that after a few minutes so i need to find something to keep me occupied.

29
Oct

The Crusher of Souls

By inlimelight 1 Comment
Categories: Rant

I can’t stand my job! That stupid video store it the crusher of all souls for anyone who ever worked there or who ever will work there in the future.

First I’ll talk about the management… or lack of. There are 3 managers who all run our tiny, shit store. There is the owner who we will call Ben. He lives and works all the way out in Shepperton. Then there is our “area manager” who shall be known only as Lee. Lee is pretty much Ben but lives closer to our store. And finally there is our store manager who will remain “unknown” for more reason than one. With three managers you would think that there would be some order to the running of the store, but thats where you and especially me are wrong. Ben hands orders down to Lee and Lee then yells them at out store manager,(Lee is a real bitch) and then our store manager will either never do it or get one of us to do it.

We get given these jobs every day, things like, rearrange tables or god forbid “overnight overdues”. This means calling up every customer that has a movie that is over one day late. These jobs usually take between 1 hour, but there is always a list of jobs to do. So one night you may be told to rearrange the retail stock, tidy some rental shelves and the overdues. This is a good two to three hours work in a three or four hour shift. There are also the returns that need to go out onto the shelves and serving customers. There is never any help when you are working a week day, there are only two staff working on weekends. And every night we are supposed to take out the rubbish, vacuum the whole store and dust the counter. If we don’t do these jobs then you get a written warning and if you get three then you are fired.

Management recently hired another staff member who was supposed to be there to fill in for any shift that someone couldn’t make it to, but this person is never available to work when we need her to. So that means they come to me cause I’m the one who has finished school and has allot of free time apparently. So me being the nice person I am say yes I can do it. But when ever I need someone to work for me there is no one is able to do it cause they all have Uni or have another job to go to.

The next thing that really pisses me off are the customers. The other day I had a customer yell at me cause I couldn’t find the disc to a movie they wanted to buy. I told them that is has gone missing and they said “this is ridiculous, why would you have the movie on the shelf if you don’t have the disc?!” The answer to that brain dead question is “I don’t know it has gone missing until someone tries to buy it!” Customers seem to think we have tracking devices on all the movies in the store and that the computer can tell me the exact location of the movie.

Here are few things for you customers to remember when hiring a movie where i work:
- Grab the case behind the original. Its not that hard!
- If you think you are better than me, you are wrong!
- I don’t care that you dropped the movie off on the day that it was due back. If you return it after closing time, even if i am still in the store it is still late so just pay the f@#%ing fine!
- instead of threatening to go to a different store, actually go there!
- If the movie is out then you should have gotten here earlier!
- It’s not my fault the disc is scratched.
- Once again PAY THE BLOODY LATE FEE
- I am not willing to get fired cause you don’t have enough money on you.
- 3 day hires are counted as new release
- When we are closed we will not let you in no matter how much you beg and shake the door
- Don’t call us every 5 minutes asking for the same movie
- When i accidently don’t give you the correct change do not insult me
- If you didn’t like the movie thats to bad.
- Read the signs. It will save you time and save me time explaining things to you.

The main thing i hate about many of the customers is they think they are better than you, and that you have to serve them and make them happy. I personally don’t care about what ever problems you have with the store. If you want to complain talk one of our three managers.