Read my mind?

My apologies, this blog has nothing to do with jobs. It was just something that I had to write about.

Yesterday I was travelling back home on the train and reading my local city’s paper. One of the articles I read was misplaced, I don’t remember what section it was put in but it was definately not in the Doom and Gloom section where it belonged. It was an article on how in the future, you won’t need to type into Google what you want the Internet to find, the Internet will read your mind for you. If you really don’t believe me, here’s the first article I found in google about it (by typing in the words).  Now, I can see a number of reasons why that is just a million times wrong.

Firstly, I use the computers at uni, a lot. So there I am sitting, intending for Google to search ‘conventional power and contemporary warfare’, and a hot guy sits down next to me. My mind will say ‘wow, he’s hot’, and that is what I’ll see as the results of the search. Even worse, considering the technology uses certain parts of the brain to get a rough idea of what you’re thinking, I just shudder to see the results on screen. It’s one of those things you couldn’t use when you were distracted.

On a more serious note, this even has implications for people who are not so easily distracted by good-looking men. You’ve really got to be high on mushrooms to agree that it is okay for the government to achieve even more power, either that or your name is Tony Abbott. Everybody already knows everything about us, from the information retailers use collected from facebook, knowing which people are more likely to like (as in, literally, click the ‘like’ button) their product, to where the hell we are (don’t carry your (i)phone around with you by any chance? there you go), where we travel on public transport (unless you don’t register your electronic travel ticket), hell, you can even record what sites you go to and linger on on the internet. Sure, the government may not get hold of all this information, but what about the invisible silent men (mostly men, and definately all nerds and geeks) who operate this kind of thing? Isn’t that sort of worse? I don’t like it, and I sure as hell don’t want a computer to be able to read my mind. It’s like being attached to a lie detector.

Of course, I could just not use it. But how the hell would I use a computer without a keypad unless I attach it to my brain? (don’t take that literally). It’s like trying to watch a VCR on a DVD player. And don’t even start me on trying to live a normal life and not use a computer. Can you imagine such a thing in this day and age? You’d have to be Amish or something.

Perhaps I should start a trend, the trend of the the new Amish, those who are still stuck in 2000. It’s a very archaic way of life, I know, but I just don’t want a computer reading my mind. Now, all that’s left to do is put on some flary jeans, open up my midriff and bask in a life way before the saturation of everything in the world with the Internet. Who’s with me?

The coughing post

In the words of myself to my friend Linda over facebook chat an hour ago, ‘my blog just ain’t cracking down tonight.’

In normal people’s language, that means that I just can’t write the blog tonight. That’s not surprising, since I’ve come down with an infection. So tonight, it will just be short and sweet – I have an infection, that’s for one and I think I may have already mentioned that somewhere, and for two, an organisation that helps migrants settle in Australia called me on Thursday enlisting my help as a volunteer. Yay!!!!!!! I go to a training session on Wednesday.

And now, what else could a single teenage mother living in government housing go and do on a Friday night? Surely it’s not …… sleep?

So…what was the plan again?

The main thing that has happened is really that nothing has happened. But that is a very significant thing. Let me explain why.

I feel like I am standing at a junction on a dusty road and there’s a couple of roads I can take. Obviously, behind me is Armaggedon, and although it was a lot of fun and gave me great insights into what I never want to personally experience again, nobody wants to go back there. So at least there’s one road that I’ve crossed off my list. I now know what I don’t want…..the question is, now, what do I want?

Okay, let me explain the situation a little bit better. Other than my name is Kat. The thing is, I study journalism and international relations, and considering I had one measly subject left to do (dear lecturer: one AWESOME subject which I would not trade for the world), I thought I could be really naughty and start the whole job thing right now. After all, it’s only a matter of time. I also volunteer as an ESL tutor for refugees. I love it, but it doesn’t pay, and I, like the rest of the world’s however billion population, do like to eat.

Then my plan came crashing down when I actually went to work, and went to uni, and couldn’t handle the knowledge that I’d have to leave, especially my volunteer job. There’s just something about seen the smiles on your students’ faces, and seen them get better with every lesson, that I just couldn’t let go. So here’s my suggestion: be a heartless thug and never volunteer. It acts like a drug, you find it hard to quit. Or perhaps I just like the work.

So the plan now is this: I’m going to pin my hopes on finding a teacher aide job a few days a week, or finding another temporary part-time job.

And after that, it’s just too scary to contemplate. Can you imagine what November will bring? I can’t. Funny that, one of my biggest dreams coming true and me going, huh? So it’s, what, already come true? How come it did that? What am I supposed to do next?

There are heaps of roads I could choose. Lots of mums are urging me to do the part-time job thing. Permanently. Get stuck at the bottom of the ladder, and when it floods, be the first one in the rising lagoon. Stifle your creativity. Silence your ideas, and scrape by from week to week . Perhaps I am selfish, and my “mother self” feels ashamed to say this, but if that’s the way my life’s going to go, why don’t I just lie down in a coffin, shut the lid and wait for it? Okay, whoa, overdramatisation.

The thing is, I don’t know if I could do that. That would be so similar to…….life right now. I want to do…….there is so much I want to do. By November, I hope to have an inkling about what it actually is I want to do. Or at least cancel a few things off the list, because at the moment I feel like doing everything, at once, right now. For now………well, for now all those roads look exhiliratingly scary to me.

Do they look scary to you?  They should.

So, what next?

Well, I guess to the volunteer worker’s meeting, to another volunteering position I’m passionate about, and a student meeting about the Northern Territory Intervention (a.k.a. Hurricane Jenny Macklin). And to hand in a few applications, of course. Let’s hope I have a bit more luck this week.

Well well well

I got a job!!!!!!!!

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Just kidding. I’m just evil like that.

There’s really being no breakthrough yet, not yet a call or an invite to an interview. And there I was thinking this would be easy. Am I doing something wrong? Well, the lightbulb moment should come to me soon anyway if I am. I mean, I had no trouble getting my two past casual jobs, I was asked if I wanted them without even knowing about them. I’m starting to think a job is a like a boyfriend, they come to you when you’re not looking for them. Well, this job is just going to have to submit to my persistence because I really want it, wherever it is. That goes for Mr. Right too I think. Anyway, I’m getting all girly now. Back to practicality….

I’ve being looking for nineteen days now. Quite a few applications submitted, some I’ve recieved no answer from (yet?), some with a short decline. Today I received my first ‘you were shortlisted but you didn’t pass the second round to get to an interview’.

That’s okay. It’ll happen. I’m positive 🙂 .

P.s. I really need to decorate my page. Even if Mr WordPress is my only fan right now.

Hello world!

Well, hi there world! Bit scary knowing that now everybody can follow my journey and thoughts, but hey, that’s what I signed up here for. Please feel welcome here in the blog :).

Well, about me. I’m Kat and I need a job (yes, those two go together in the one sentence like yin goes with yang). I’m about to graduate university and that’s probably why that reality looms heavy over my head. The other important bit is I’m a single mum, and I like to eat and feed my family. It becomes kind of hard when you don’t have a job. So my first and foremost reason for getting a job is very boring – I like to eat. The acknowleding the creativity/helping the world/doing something exciting and challenging bit of the job comes later, after a big huge shop at the major shopping centre and a signed loan from the bank, but I don’t put that on my resume. The employer probably wouldn’t really empathise.

What else? I live in Australia, in one of the state capitals. I’m 22. My son is 5. We live in government housing. And one day (soon) I want to move.

That’s about it. Idea fix – I need a job. It’s the first step towards a decent life. If anybody can stick through my blogging my journey to a decent income and a good interesting job, it’s got to be you. So……sign up. It promises to be, um…….well, I don’t know what it promises to be. If I knew the future perhaps I wouldn’t be panicking now. So let’s see what happens.