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As for Sunrise - I think the gadget guy is only on Mondays… so I’ll be watching then. Not tomorrow. :)

So there was a huge media launch for new Telstra wireless data stuff this morning out at Fox Studios. It was a whole heap of fun to be a part of, and it went very very smoothly. Great publicity for the company.

The Sunrise gadget guy was there, and once the proceedings were over and there was some mingling, he did a couple of interviews, but then did a profile piece on all the newness that had just been launched. He was standing beside the stand that I had set up with a laptop, and so I asked if he wanted to use the laptop when he filmed. He said that’d be great.

So sneaky James has jumped into Bigpond’s music section and brought up the webcast of The Whitlams’ Saturday night show at the Opera House to run in the background of the story!

So when you watch Sunrise tomorrow morning and you see the laptop he’s holding, look for footage of Tim Freedman, and think of me :)

Booyah!

Sitting at home eating me some tops Sushi from Blacktown.

It was a bit of a late one tonight. I got roped into heading over to Fox Studios this afternoon to help with the set up for a big media launch tomorrow. The bonus is that I got to bring the laptops home and test out some new download speeds!

But I am very tired. Damn Facebook.

Found this shirt today:

Nice :)

Now City Homicide is on the tv… huzzah for an empty house too.

As the weekend draws to a close, I’m feeling quite closed off and quiet this evening. Not exactly sure why… part of it seems to be a little feeling of singleness I think. Which is something I thought I was content with. Guess I need to work on that a little.

The week ahead should be quite awesome. I have Friday off to head down to Stump early, which is already a great start. There’s not much on tomorrow. Actually, I don’t think there’s too many meetings on this week at all - massive contrast to last week. But they’ll probably build a little during the week. Tomorrow I’m actually hoping to head off to have yum cha for lunch with some of the guys that I used to work with. We’ve been trying to organise that for about 2 weeks but we always get caught up in meetings!

And on Tuesday is a fairly massive media launch event of some new mobile stuff at Fox Studios - I’m heading off to that to do some demonstrating, which is quite awesome. I’m hoping that breakfast will be served. That will be very cool and exciting indeed. I’m looking forward to telling you about that when it’s publicly announced, cos it’s amazing stuff.

I just did the Myers-Briggs personality test on myself and came up with these results:

Your personality type is ENFJ.

Extraverted (E) 93% Introverted (I) 7%
Intuitive (N) 55% Sensing (S) 45%
Feeling (F) 80% Thinking (T) 20%
Judging (J) 73% Perceiving (P) 27%

I love that for three out of the four I’m so incredibly on one side of the fence :)

In music stuff… I got a free Foo Fighters’ tshirt when I bought their album yesterday. I’m yet to listen to the whole album, but I do like what I hear so far. The Cat Empire’s new album is amazing. There’s more evolution of their sound on this - the same sort of evolution that we saw between their self-titled and Two Shoes. But I love it. The title track, So Many Nights is a standout tune, as well as Fishies; this upbeat, swing/ska tune. It will be brilliant to see these tracks live too.

I climb the ladder of those black and white keys,
They take me out and into places; some are real and some imaginary.
And though she sways between a mystery and light,
She walks with me, she walks with me alone into the night.

And another week comes to an end. I’ve just been hanging out down at the church with the girls. And Chensee and Dave. :) Setting up for the Wisdom For Women event is what they were doing, and I was being helpful!

Had a pretty tops end to a very busy week today - we headed over to Paddington Bowling Club at lunchtime, had lunch and drinks there, and went for a roll on the green too. It was an end of quarter day out celebration type thing for the account team that I’m aligned to and work with day to day. It suited me quite nicely - I’ve only been a part of their team for 2 weeks! But it was great of them to still invite me along - gave me a good chance to get to know some of the acct executives a bit more.

But my week in general was just crazy… incredibly busy. The thing that’s killing me is going on a customer visit at least once per day, if not twice. That doesn’t sound all that bad in itself… but even an hour long meeting needs two hours - half an hour each side for travel time. And you come away from that meeting with some stuff to do, but you need to put that aside for a day or two, because you still have to get the stuff from the last two meetings finished. Oh, plus there’s just the usual emails that come in from customers day to day, and oh there’s also the proactive opportunities that the account executives give you to chase with customers.

It ain’t a walk in the park… I’ll tell ya that. But I love it - I really do. There’s just so much to do, and it’s always changing - it doesn’t get mundaine and it isn’t even really repetitive either. It’s great stuff to be involved with the customers, and looking for different ways to solve their problems, or get around their weird and interesting requirements for mobile handsets and plans. So yeah, I’m loving it :)

Tomorrow is the awesome music day - although I already have the new Regurgitator album (it came out last week) - I will need to tell you about that soon. The day will be cool. And what will make it cooler is that I get to go and have a catch up lunch with Carlene :) It has been ages since we’ve caught up, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her.

The Apple CEO said he expected a 3G model to be launched next “late next year”, by which time battery lives for 3G phones would be up in the five hours plus range

Do I still patiently await a 3G iPhone… even though it could be 12 months away? Or do I jump the gun and get a 2G one?

Oh the decisions!

Sitting on the couch right now watching last night’s City Homicide. It’s a show that definitely keeps getting better each episode, which I very much am enjoying. Shane Bourne is definitely excelling in this role. Good stuff.

I didn’t watch it last night cos I was enjoying hanging with b. We chatted about all things CAT and music and leadership. Great times. I love how much I’ve learnt about leadership through him. I feel even more privileged that he values my input and my opinion on some things in the happenings of the CAT. I love being a part of it - every part of it: making music, encouraging people, finding new music… and ultimately, looking up from my hands creating some cool noises and seeing people sing their hearts out to God and knowing that God’s given me the ability to help them do that. How awesome is that?! :)

Let me sing all for love.
I will join the angel’s song:
“Ever holy is the Lord, King of Glory, King of all!”

Everything I need is You: my beginning, my forever.

All for love a Saviour prayed,
“Abba Father have Your way. Though they know not what they do, let the cross draw man to You.”

There’s nothing quite as wonderful as a latte first thing on a Monday morning. It always tastes better on a Monday morning I reckon.

Enjoyed a really good evening yesterday with music at church, then with hanging with people, then watching the V8s. Would’ve been nice if the weekend could continue just a little longer.

So fall back on all of your premonitions,
And just learn to listen to those that have more wisdom than you.
And just stop putting so much stock in all of this stuff;
Live your life for those you love.

And I’m still waiting for you to be the one I’m waiting for.

Saturdays are such fun.

I’m very much enjoying just hanging out at home, playing some PS3, eating a burger and chips, and patiently waiting for the Saturday coverage of the Sandown 500 to start.

Heading round to Robbie’s place this evening. Well, the place he’s housesitting in Mascot anyway. Seems as though it’s just the boys going so I think there will be quite a few games of poker and such played. Good times ahead.

I just had myself an extremely encouraging evening with two very good friends.

I went round to the famous Rouse House, where Nick lives, and Yoie came over and cooked us dinner. Yoie and Nick are directing the primary camp in January at Kedon, and I’ve jumped on board as the program director. It’s very exciting, because I love those two and the three of us directing the camp, whilst slightly intimidating, is gonna be super.

It was amusing to sit back and watch two natural roles come out almost instantly - Nick was the chairperson and had an agenda and items written down, and was very good at keeping the meeting moving. And Yoie is quite administrative and was taking minutes down. We laughed about that later :)

We shared so many ideas of how the camp could work, ideas for themes and outings, and more importantly, leaders, camp parents and study leaders. In the end, it was all so positive and the three of us are confident. It’s a good feeling. I guess the intimidation starts to surface when you look at the three of us running it - Nick’s the oldest at 24. But that’s such a minor point, I decided. Because we’re deadset on finding some house parents that are wise Christians who may be able to serve as mentors for us during the week. And we’re also hoping to head off to Melinda and Julius’ place in the next few weeks to seek some wisdom from them.

And the bottom line is that we are serving a great God - the camp is in His hands. And there’s none better for it to be in!

We chatted about Blackstump too… it was cool to realise that it’s only 2 weeks away! :D I managed to convince Nick to come to stump so that the three of us can have another mini-Kedron meeting in the car on the way down on Friday arvo. I’m very much looking forward to that weekend - it will be sweet indeed.

In randomness, I joined the group “People who don’t sleep enough because they stay up late for no reason” on facebook this evening.

So we’re up to day 4 of the new job now. I thought the go was gonna be that this week was a bit of a handover, and that I’d start taking over customers on Monday. That went out the door at about 9am on Tuesday morning as I sat down at my desk and got given several things that needed doing!

But I’m loving it. I haven’t really had this much contact with customers for about a year now. When I was looking after the sales team, I wasn’t looking after any customers. And I barely had any customer contact in the short time I began that wireless data role. So to arrive here and be given customers to manage within 24 hours - I love it :) It’s been a little annoying that the majority of things I’ve been doing this week have been about running around putting out fires… but you get that. And I need to start somewhere!

The thing with this patch that I’m in - I’m the 5th different person to fill this role in the last 12 months. So consequently, all the AEs (account executives - the guys that own the whole customer relationship: mobiles, voice and data) and customers are a little cranky about that. So it’s gonna be a lot of relationship building with these AEs, and getting them to trust me and trust me when I say that I’m committed to being here for more than 12 months. That’ll be tough, but it just means it might take a few weeks before the opportunities start getting confidently thrown at me.

The good thing is that running around fixing all these cranky customer issues that are existing at the moment is giving me a great chance to prove to these guys that I do mean business and that I am damn good at my job.

Bring it.

I couldn’t resist the pull of the iPod this arvo… I have just returned from the Apple Store (which is a 2 minute walk from my building - dangerous) with a cute new 8gb iPod Nano :) The thing is insanely small. I can’t believe how good it is.

I’ve missed having an iPod since I lost mine. Having all the music all sorted the way I am used to it in my car is much nicer than having CDs scattered everywhere - not to mention the fact that I’m losing CDs too.

8gb won’t hold all my music… but I reckon I can go through iTunes and uncheck about a third of my music that I don’t listen to anymore, and that I wouldn’t miss having on my iPod.

The only downside… no cover. I was quite ecstatic when my 60gb iPod came with a nice cloth pouch to protect it. And this little baby desperately needs protection.

I finally got my hands on a copy of the album Welcome To Happyland by the band Happyland - a collaboration of Janet English from Spiderbait and Quan Yeomans from Regurgitator. The album was released in 1998, but I wasn’t really interested in the sound until the album was out of print and very hard to find. Thankfully, the wonders of ebay helped me out :)

The sounds that come from this album make it incredibly obvious of the Spiderbait/Regurgitator co-operation- not necessarily all of the tracks, but quite a few. When you listen to the sounds Regurgitator made on Unit (c. 1997) and that Spiderbait made on Ivy and the Big Apples (c. 1996) that were both released before Happyland, you can hear a lot of the sounds of both bands in Happyland’s tracks.

And you can read into the future as well: there’s sounds that come through on a few tracks that you can definitely hear in the following Regurgitator album, …art (c. 1999) - especially the work that they did on the song Are U Being Served?, a dance track with samples from the tv show.

It gives you a good idea on just how much musical influence Janet and Quan have on their respective bands.

Day 1 of the new job.

Hasn’t really started yet, but I’ve packed up my desk here in Pitt St, and I’m about to head off to the George St building to find me a new home. Had an interesting chat with one of the directors in a part of Telstra who wasn’t happy I was leaving. He was more unhappy with someone leaving the data role so quickly and wondering about the management of it. So I was pretty upfront with him that I felt like my role was everyone’s side project and that I had to lead it myself. And that was something I really wasn’t wanting to do right now.

Had a really good day yesterday. Mum and Dad had a little celebration afternoon for their 25th wedding anniversary, so I was round there helping out with food and drinks and such, and seeing people that I haven’t seen in 15 years, and people that I’ve never seen me before (but who remember me when I was 2). It was a really nice afternoon :)

I love these words. Every time I hear them they just feel so powerful and confident and sure… they end up resounding in me for the whole week afterwards.

No guilt in life, no fear in death:
This is the power of Christ in me.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand!
‘Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
[In Christ Alone - Keith Getty & Stuart Townend]

It’s a good thing that the words will carry with me through the week: I need to remember them. I haven’t been overly close with God of late… and that is my own doing (of course). But I feel like I’m on the way back. I was challenged a couple of weeks ago that if you ignore sin in your life, then you’re just going to make it harder on yourself to have a close and quality relationship with God. And when I heard this, I just sat there in awe - cos it was so true of me. I wasn’t enjoying spending time with God, and I knew I wasn’t giving my absolute all to Him. So those two suddenly clicked in my head, and I knew what I had to do.

So I do feel like I’m on the way back… and it’s a good road to be on. I have this desire, a very strong desire, to be closer to God. And I’m doing all I can to get closer to God.

It’s a good road to be on.

September 22nd is shaping up to be quite the sensational day.

To start with, I’m heading into the Opera House with he the b and Sarah during the evening to witness The Whitlams playing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. What an amazing night that will be. The Whitlams produce fabulous live music at the best of times. Add to the mix a massive orchestra, and it will be an experience that I think I will remember for a long time.

But as if that alone isn’t spectacular enough on it’s own… there’s some awesome albums due for release on that day:

The Cat Empire - So Many Nights
Regurgitator - Love And Paranoia
Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Maverick - Self-Titled (a re-release of Teacuppostcard with remixes and such)

Sweet! It’s musical heaven day for Jimmy.

So the final bedtime last night was 4am. Oh my goodness, so late. But it was a bunch of fun. He the b wrote up a fun recount of our evening shenanigans. I did win the first game of poker, but only just. Kate did very well for her first game ever to come in second :) Having people over is a good incentive to clean the house… and so Rollo and I spent a lot of yesterday cleaning the house. There were breaks for food and naps in the middle though :)

I finally woke up at about midday today. Gonna go round and visit Mum & Dad this arvo and mow the lawns. They’re having a big afternoon party tomorrow for their 25th wedding anniversary :) Should be a really nice arvo, and I don’t have to play at church either which is handy.

I think I will have to slip in a nap this arvo… Eesh I’m gonna be paying for that 4am night for a couple of days.

I’m not lonely. Playing poker with Steve, b, the Chensees, Rob, Chris and Rollo. Good times indeed tonight. I’m gonna be tired tomorrow… but eh. :)

Tis my best mate’s birthday today. And it has been for the last 23 years :) Happy birthday mate… hope the day was good to you! You are a tops mate, and I look forward to many more years of sharing great times of encouragement, and a hatred for Mark Skaife.

We’re all getting together tomorrow evening to celebrate. There will be much bbq-ing, eating, poker and Phase 10… and it will be great times indeed.

Brand new iPod released overnight. Just as rumoured, a touch-screen iPod modelled on the iPhone.

It has wifi built-in, and also has Safari as an application too. Everything else about it is as awesome as the iPhone, which I already am in love with. The obvious thing missing is of course the radio transmitter that would make it a mobile phone.

I sat here watching that guided tour about the iPod, and just so wanted one. But in the end, I think I will hold out for an iPhone early next year. The iPod is great… but it’s only half and iPhone. And for only a little bit more (probably), you should be able to be a 3G HSDPA iPhone in early 2008.

That will be the ultimate device. It will kill everything else.

Crazy couple of days… I have indeed changed jobs. I decided to take up the offer from my old boss and go back and work for her. My current boss was really supportive and understanding when I told him yesterday, which was a pleasant surprise. And my now new boss was very excited when I accepted her offer!

It’s all moved very quickly… I was formally introduced at a team meeting this morning, which turned out to be a very interesting meeting for me (first time I’ve been involved in one of their meetings). And I then spent the morning cleaning stuff up at my desk, and handing over some stuff that I won’t be across anymore. I then headed out to a customer meeting to fill in for someone who was sick, before continuing down the M5 and M7 to end up at home.

And because I’m not officially starting in the new role until Monday, my now former boss said to me that I might as well have tomorrow off and enjoy a bit of a break before starting in the new job. I was quite stoked at that! So the long weekend begins now for Jimmy :) Although, I can kiss goodbye to my nice hours that I’ve had over the last 6 weeks… I’m very quickly gonna be back to at least a 9-5ish kinda day. But that’s cool with me… it’s what my job always used to be.

The more I think about it, the more I’m sure it was a good decision to change jobs. I’m gonna learn so much and really challenge myself. Everyone has been really supportive and excited for me at work too, which has made it all the more easy as well.

John Howard is a goober. A lot of people will agree with that.

However, he just did a bit of hello Australia and dogged the arrival of George Bush at Sydney Airport so that he could go to the Dally M Awards. Nice work Johnnie.

Why do such hard decisions have to be made on a Monday morning?

My old boss has just offered me a job in her sales team. I guess you could look at it as a step backwards to the general mobile sales (rather than the specific wireless data sales that I’m doing at the moment).

But the sales team that I would go into is awesome. I get on so well with them; they have a great vibe and unity; and I would prefer to work for her than any other manager I’ve ever worked for - she is brilliant at supporting and developing her staff. I’ve learnt so much from her over the years… so to go back there would be cool.

On the flipside - I’ve finally got this role in wireless data specialty that I’ve been wanting for a while.

But I can kinda see the wireless data role being too politically motivated, and I almost feel unnecessary at times… like this is an overlapping role. I know that back as a general mobile sales rep that the work would come thick and fast… definitely how I like it.

I guess in the end I think I’ve decided that I just need to go where I’m going to enjoy work. Cos I know that the opportunities will come to me wherever I’ll be working. I don’t have to stay in this role just to try and develop some wireless data reputation.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying on a Monday morning than destroying a Blackberry. *sigh*

APEC has hit Sydney, and as for all that traffic mayhem that was predicted… well, it was like driving into the city on a Saturday. There was a significantly less traffic on the road than a typical weekday morning! So I’m holding out hope that the drive to work will be super for the whole week - which is only 3 more days… huzzah!

Had a great Friday yesterday. The day went really quickly in general, and there were many fun times, which always is good for a Friday.

We had our big awards night for work last night too. It was held at Luna Park, and is always a great night out. The surprise was Dylan Lewis and Cal Wilson hosting the night for us! They presented all the awards in quite a humorous way that kept us laughing. But it was good that the awards didn’t go on for hours… they were all wrapped up within an hour. Then the band came on… some unknown covers band who were ok, but we were all in the mood to just have fun, so I don’t think it mattered whether they were crap or not.

A good mate of mine from work, Dave, lives not far from me, so I’d driven him in yesterday morning. And on the way home we had some quality conversation about where were both at with God, and the struggles of living as a Christian at work. Dave’s known God most of his life, but only in the last 9 months or so has he come to know Him closely… and the majority of that time he’s been working at Penrith. So it’s great that he’s come back to work in the city now, and awesome to hear how he’s been going.

This was all following a very long conversation I had with another Christian friend from work, Alison. She’s always encouraged me a lot with her passion for her Christian brothers and sisters. She always challenges me in my thinking of God, and how I should be living my life. So brilliant.

So yes, my Friday was wonderful!

Earlier in the week, I finally bought Rainbow Six: Las Vegas. Absolutely awesome game… great gameplay and team interaction. Quite similar to the other recent Rainbow Six games… but I’ve loved those two. The multiplayer seems cool too - you can do co-op, or just go on a random terrorist hunt. Looking forward to playing some co-op with b :)

So I definitely think I have my heart set on an acoustic bass. But I’ve decided that I’m not allowed to buy one until I’ve paid off my laptop, which should be buy the end of this year… but if I really get my act together, it could be earlier. And now that I have some serious motivation, maybe it will be earlier ;)

Here’s the two candidates:

Fender BG31
About $540 from Billy Hyde. This does appear to be the better one, and has some awesome reviews.

Monterey MB-05EN
This one’s cheaper at about $400 or so [$429 from Turramurra], but there is a couple of quality reviews for it out there.

In the end, it’ll come down to which one I enjoy playing more, and which one I think sounds better. I’m glad that I’m not letting myself buy one for a while… cos it means I’ll spend a lot of time looking around and doing some quality research.

I took a gamble and decided to buy some wine on ebay. But man I was happy when I won this bottle: a 1991 Wynns Coonawarra Hermatige. I paid $49 for it… which I think is pretty awesome - I’m hoping it will taste much more like a $100 wine :)

The only thing that sucked is that another bottle of the same wine went the next day for $39. Boo.

edit: ok, this is awesome… there’s another bottle finishing this evening. It’s currently sitting at around $120! Yeeeeeeeah. I did good.

It has been quite a nice week following my lovely Monday. Work has still been that little bit quiet, but I’ve been pushing people to start getting things happening.

Yesterday I spent some quality time doing crazy things to my Samsung Blackjack which was fun :) Today I headed out to Telstra’s Innovation Centre at North Ryde. There was a Blackberry presentation for some of our Enterprise customers. It was a really good session that went deeper into what Blackberry is and does.

Cards have been a fun theme in the House of Bach the last few nights… on Monday we played 500 for quite a few hours. And then on Tuesday afternoon, I headed over to Kmart to buy some Phase 10 cards, and we played that until about 11pm. Unfortunately, Rollo won both games. But I have a feeling that Phase 10 will be played again very soon…

And then tonight, Leanne and I are finally going to have our Sushi dinner that we’ve been meaning to have for ages. This sushi train place in Blacktown makes the bestest sushi I’ve ever had I reckon. So I am looking forward to that.

Ever since my iPod got stolen from my car back in May, I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I need a new one… and whether I can justify the cost. But if Apple go ahead and release re-vamped video iPod, with a large touch screen similar to the iPhone, then I will no longer be justifying buying one… it’ll just be a matter of saving up :)

Whoever thought you could overclock a PDA?

Mobile nerdiness hits a new peak.

One of the journos from the high quality Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne are gonna get themselves in a bit of poo after letting this little beauty slip through the cracks…

Hackers have unlocked Microsoft’s new iPhone, allowing it to be used by any network. [herald sun - 27th August]

It was published about probably more than 24 hours ago, and still no one’s fixed that rather large error.

In case it does change… Fake Steve Jobs has written about it with a pic over at his blog.

Microsoft wish.

I’ve always enjoyed Regurgitator’s tunes. They’ve always been very different and experimental. Every now and then, Unit comes out and gets a listen - it’s right up there as one of my favourite albums of all time.

I was quite excited to find the I Like Your Old Remix Better Than Your New Remix track on JB Hifi’s download site. It’s this brilliant rock version of their fairly popular track that’s in my title. I used to have a bad copy of this song ages ago, but I lost it… and then haven’t been able to find the CD since.

But what got me thinking about all this Regurgitator stuff is that they’re playing a gig at The Metro soon! After all these years of an on-and-off love for the ‘Gurge, I’ve never actually ever seen a live show of theirs. And rumour has it, they are awesome.

So I’d like to head off and see them… but is there anyone else in the wide land of the blogosphere who would like to come with? (Perhaps I’m looking in the direction of one music loving blogging friend…)

Today was back out to Woolies at Norwest to train some senior execs on how to use a Blackberry. Thankfully, the meeting wasn’t until 11am, so there was no point in visiting the city beforehand. So I had me a little sleep in and then headed out. The meeting went much better than I’d expected… who’d have thought senior execs of one of Australia’s biggest companies were tech-savvy!

Having finished there, I grabbed some lunch and a catch up with Miss Amie before heading over to Castle Hill to grab a coffee with Aleesha and her new hair! Fantastic Monday indeed. I eventually made my way back home to log into work and get onto the stuff that I had to do :) But back into the city tomorrow is where I will head.

Right now, I’m enjoying a glass of red in my ginormous new wine glass that Kate bought me. I swear it could actually fit an entire bottle of wine in it. It’s awesome. Oh, and I’m watching this new City Homicide show. Once again, awesome. There’s a lot of character development to happen… and I’m looking forward to watching that part. But it’s one of those shows that so indepth, that if you look away for 10 seconds, you struggle to catch up for the next 20 minutes.

edit: changed the source of my quote.

There’s supposedly a little dispute between Telstra and the ACCC about some advertising of the Next G Network. This is a little section from a public affairs manager in Telstra that she posted on her blog…

The ACCC’s performance wouldn’t be so egregious if it applied the same standards to others. We now fully expect the ACCC to investigate Optus over their advertising that suggests tigers can read newspapers and monkeys use phones. [nowwearetalking.com.au]

Quality :) I love it when our media people decide to be cynical. Have a read of that whole post… quite interesting, and I do tend to agree with the majority of what she writes.

That was one very long, but awesome weekend. My hands and voice and body are exhausted, and I’m almost completely music’d out… *shock horror*.

Friday night was a bit of fun… with all the amps and such that I took up for the weekend, and with the PA system that Nathan took up, our “stage” (which was really just a corner of the room) was very full of equipment.

About half of that stuff came up in my car. And that wooden section that all our stuff is on is about a quarter the size of the room. We stood back after setting it all up and had to laugh - it was almost overkill :) But it looked very awesome. As I drove up with it all in my car, I was thinking to myself, “Hehe, I’m like a roadie carrying all this gear to set up.” But then I realised that I’d actually be playing the instruments… so I’m more like a struggling musician. Not sure which is worse ;)

We had some awesome times playing music during the weekend. We didn’t have a drummer, but that really didn’t seem to change things. And when you’re standing there playing your instrument loudly, and then the voices of everyone else just overpower your instrument completely - wow… that’s something special. There was a great time of sharing this morning - got to hear some amazing testimonies from people, and some times of trouble and celebration from others. It was just a time when it brought us all closer… encouraged us to lean on each other, love each other and support each other.

That was then backed up this evening even more for me with Deano’s sermon. It was a great encouragement on many levels for me.

And now it is hang out time at the House of Bach - just Steve, Rollo, me, and the Three Tops Toonie Chicks :) Good times indeed. Anchorman is on TV too… and that is a good fun movie for a Sunday night.

Tomorrow should be an excellent day - I have to go back and visit Woolies at 11am… so I don’t think I’ll be heading into the city. I’m planning on catching up with Miss Amie for lunch actually, cos she now works out there at the super-Woolies-headquarters :)

Just returned from a meeting with Woolies out at their super head office in Baulkham Hills. Being so close to home, I decided to head out there, do my stuff, then come back home to work. I like that idea because a) it’s a Friday, and b) it means I can get things ready to head down to Church Camp, and even leave early and beat traffic - woo! And it was a 10am meeting… and it was done before 11am. That’s how I like ‘em.

I can’t believe how massive Woolies’ HQ is. There’s 4 separate buildings within this one ginormous building. It’s awesome. They have their own supermarket in there, as well as 3 cafes (that I could see anyway). I’d love to work there.

During my musical thinking yesterday arvo I realised that I still didn’t have a case for my keyboard. Turramurra Music were supposed to be ordering it in for me. I rang them but got the usual, “oh, it’s not in yet. We’ll call you when it comes in.” Yeah… it’s been 3 months lady.

So I gave Intermusic in Bondi Junction a call to see what they could rustle up. They called me back this morning and said their suppliers have one and could probably get it within a week or two. Beauty! And only $170 as opposed to the $250+ that Turramurra Music were talking.

It’s been a while since I’ve done this. And given the journey down to Fitzroy Falls tomorrow arvo for Church Camp, I thought a mix tape would be fun.

Red Flag - Billy Talent
Hum Hallelujah - Fall Out Boy
Don’t Stop Believin’ - Journey
Poison - Bell Biv DeVoe
Thunderbirds Are Coming Out - Tism
I’m Shipping Up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys
So Great a Salvation - The O.C. Supertones
Santeria - Sublime
Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
Everything is Alright - Motion City Soundtrack
Blood and Spunk - Regurgitator
Rapper’s Delight - The Sugarhill Gang
Can’t Change Yesterday - Revive
Dancing on the Inside - Antiskeptic
Minute by Minute - Grinspoon
The Hard Road - The Hilltop Hoods
Point of Difference - Hillsong United
Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard
Misery Business - Paramore

That ‘Gurge song is their new one - it’s this synth/alt/rock track. Classic stuff. They were one of the first bands that I was really into, and I kinda went off them a bit after the …art album. But after hearing this track, I’m looking forward to their new album in a few weeks. Don’t get me wrong - Unit will be hard to top as one of the best albums ever.

And the Hillsong United crew actually made a video clip for Point of Difference - it’s cool stuff too.

I love going to music stores. Especially when I’m actually going there and allowing myself to buy something (as opposed to going there, knowing I really shouldn’t be buying anything, and ending up buying something anyway).

Yesterday I had the fun of going to buy that awesome Boss Tuner Pedal, and also some new drum skins for church. But it gave me an excuse to wander round in Billy Hyde for a little while :) But somehow I still forgot to buy me some new guitar picks - which was the main reason of going and picking up the tuner pedal for church!!

So back I go this afternoon… teeheehee :)

And I’m also gonna grab one of these guitar leads - Chensee got one a while ago. They have a switch on one end which mutes the feed from your guitar. Super. And, yes, I need actually need new lead. Sort of.

Next on the list is either an acoustic bass, or an acoustic guitar effects pedal. Both would be awesome.

I did some serious listening to the Little Soul Circus album from The Ross Irwin Soul Special today… good stuff. I found these guys through The Cat Empire - Ross Irwin plays trumpet regularly with those guys. I heard some tunes of theirs on their myspace and decided I wanted to hear more. But obtaining their album was harder than you’d think… but eventually it arrived.

It’s a bit of a shorter album than I would like - it has 13 tracks, but when you take away the Intro and Outro songs, and three Interlude tracks (all instrumentals, less than a minute long), you’re left with only 8 songs. But those 8 tracks are fairly tops, it must be said. Only one or two are possibly skippable.

The stand-out track for me is Nothing’s Gonna Change - a smooth soul love number that plays sensationally. It’s driven by some awesome acoustic guitar work, and highlighted by very smooth and brilliant vocals.

Gimme Some and Blind Saviour are both also tracks that are favourites of mine. Blind Saviour is a similar flavour to the track above… smooth, acoustic guitar soul. But the vocals are driven by Julie O’Hara (of various Melbourne music fame - done a lot of singing with The Cat Empire) for a change, and there’s some awesome harmonies between her and Ross Irwin in the chorus.

However, Gimme Some changes that slow/acoustic soul tempo and feel, and drives home some fast paced and busy sounds… but not bad busy. The vocals are almost light and fluffy here… kinda interesting. The little instrumental fill between the chorus and verse is the best bit though - complex with its little tri-beat drum and instrument synchronisation. Listen to the sample below and you’ll see what I mean.

In the end, there’s only one thing that annoys me about this album (aside from the fact it only really has 8 tracks)… and that is that every song has this strange ‘end bit’ that goes for about a minute or so. The song will be completely normal with its chorus/verse/bridge/instrumental sections… but at the end, they’ll suddenly change the feel, chord progression and sound so hugely that it almost feels like a completely different song. That goes on for a minute or so, and then the song ends. That’d be cool for a song or two… but for every song on the album, it’s just a tad annoying. Oh, and I guess the mix isn’t super… but it’s a very indie album, so it’s hard to get the same production values on what was probably a small budget.

But the sounds that this conglomerate of musicians have brought together (and yes, it is a conglomerate - there’s more than 20 musicians noted on the cd inlay who played on the album… most on more than one track) is something special. Soul became rock, became instrumental, became almost groove. Love it.

After 3 or 4 weeks of not playing a whole lot of music, I now have a weekend ahead of me that will be hugely musical. Yay - fun times! :)

Chensee, b and I went round to Nathan’s place tonight to have a bit of jam and work out some acoustic versions of songs for the Church Camp this weekend. The fun times begin when Chensee and I switch between acoustic, electric and bass guitars each song :) It will be loads of fun though. And then on Sunday arvo, head back to Toonie swiftly for evening church band practice, where I get to jump on the keys!

Tomorrow shall be music purchasing day though… I’m headed to pick up a nice tuning pedal for church - the Boss TU-2 pedal. It’s fairly expensive… but from people I’ve spoken to, it’s just miles ahead of the others as far as quality goes, and I guess you have to pay for that quality. It has a very bright and clear display too. It won’t be needed until Friday evening when we head off to church camp… so that means I’ll get to play with it the rest of this week! :)

I need to also get out my keyboard and get re-acquainted… it’s been too long.

Oh, and the other cool thing to do this week is to find a click-track program for Mac. We’re going to hook my Mac up to the sound system on the weekend, and use it to try and keep us in time. I’m hoping that there’s a nice simple program out there with big display and simple to use. B also mentioned that being able to program in several tempos and then just do it with one-click would be cool.

That’s something to work out tomorrow though.

The Ross Irwin Soul Special cd was waiting for me when I got home this evening. Haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I am looking forward to it in the morning on my way to work.

Had a rather uneventful day at work today… closed a couple of deals and got some stuff implemented for a couple of customers… but that was about the extent of the work. After all my enjoyment of the slow start-up to this role, it’s almost a little boring now. But I guess it’ll only start to get busier now as I get passed more sales opportunities.

Tonight was the ever popular church business meeting. :) Nah, it was good - got to hear some tops ideas from Dean about what the church can do this year with Christmas… very encouraging. And now I’m sitting here watching the taped Top Gear.

I feel like a meat pie…

So this is how my weekend went down:

Saturday:
Lengthy sleep in after late nights during the week.
Out to Nurragingy Reserve for Alison’s engagement lunch.
Home to watch V8s.
Out to Bayview with Leesh to hang out with Kedron people for dinner and much conversation and laughs :)

Sunday:
Up early to head down to church to bass it up this morning.
Visit Dad to help him do some work in the backyard - too wet. Watch the end of Saturday’s V8 race that I missed instead.
Home to have lunch and watch the live V8 stuff.
Down to church for band practice and evening church - great times all round.
Out to Hog’s Breath for a nice steak with everyone, and then coffee with the ladies and Rollo.

That’s how I roll.

I’m gonna get up at 6am and head into work early - simply because I don’t want to drive through the traffic at 7:30am: Monday morning traffic is bad enough… throw in the wet weather and it would be horrid. And that would not be a fun start to a Monday! Getting in early means I can probably leave early - that would be nice.

Today’s challenge was to see just how far the Commodore can drive on the “Very low fuel” warning on the dash. The answer is not far at all. Well, certainly a lot less than I expected.

I knew it was low this morning, but I was in my own world as I drove to work, and drove past every servo. When I drove past the last one before the CBD, I looked at the gauge and sorta thought to myself, “It’ll have enough petrol to get into the CBD and back out again… should only be about 10km.”

So at about 1230, I had to take a drive out to Regents Park to drop off this massive kiosk that I’d used earlier in the week. I went and got the car, and was bringing it around and up Pitt St to the front of the building to load the behemoth of a box in my car. And then in the narrowest part of Pitt St - the only part of the street that is one lane - the car let me know that it wasn’t kidding when it beeped at me earlier this morning and said “Very low fuel”. I had to laugh :)

The NRMA came and gave me some petrol which was nice of them. And then I headed out to Regents. By the time I got there and dropped this stuff off, and had a chat to people, I realised that it was about 3pm… and that my laptop was still in the city all set up [cos I was kinda planning on just dropping it off, having lunch with people in Regents, and then trotting back into the city]. But a quick phone call and someone else was happy to lock my computer away for me for the weekend… and so I got myself an early mark and headed home.

Ahhh what a crazy Friday that was.

The start of the day was awesome though: I managed to get my boss to agree on locking away from everything else for an hour and a half (quite a challenge with him). I made him come out to this quiet coffee shop while we went through the accountabilities and measurable parts of my job. I was excited about all this, cos we’d talked about it so much, and I had other ideas and to just get all that down on paper was a good thing. So I now just need to type up all my scribblings, then we’ll go through it with the national manager and the QLD manager (who has some input too) and finalise it. Very good stuff. Makes me happy and makes me excited that I’m getting some traction in this new role.

Oh and we talked money for this role too… and that was honestly an unexpected, but nice conversation too.

Just been down at the church band practicing with the morning service band. Good times. I do miss playing bass regularly… especially considering I feel like I’ve learnt a whole lot more about the drum/bass relationship lately, and learnt a whole lot more about just playing better bass. So it was a great night, and I loved being all bassy-full.

It’s 12:40am and I’m still awake.

Why?

Because I’ve been listening to Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight and trying to nail that awesome bass line. It’s incredibly funky… and so hard to get just right.

But I need to sleep.

I was having a poke around on The Metro’s website just now, and I noticed that Peter Combe is playing a gig in October!

Imagine hundreds of young adults aged between 18 and 27 at the pub ROARING out ‘Wash Your Face in Orange Juice’, ‘Newspaper Mama’, ‘Toffee Apple’, ‘Spaghetti Bolognaise’, ‘Juicy Juicy Green Grass’…the Peter Combe ‘hits’ from ABC TV in the late 80’s and early 90’s (pre Wiggles) when these young adults were about 4 years old and Peter Combe was indisputably King of the Kids! It’s a new phenomenon – This time Peter Combe’s brining it home to the adults!

I think I will definitely be trying to find some people to head to that gig with… that would be absolutely awesome.

I’ve just been having a look through his myspace and listening to some of the tracks he has up there… *sigh* such awesome childhood memories. I’m sitting here still listening to them with this big goofy grin on my face remembering how much I loved these songs :) hehe

I actually think I’m gonna go down the road and see if Mum still has the Peter Combe tapes that she bought us in the very early 90s…

edit: Just found some Peter Combe stuff on iTunes… don’t know why I didn’t look there first!

Twas quite an interesting day today… I spent 6 hours on one conference call. Boring at times. It was all the sales managers discussing the yearly reviews we’d given all the sales reps, to ensure we were reviewing each salesperson on the same terms and at even levels. Good in theory… but crappy when there’s about 60 sales reps, and each manager needs to go through each salesperson with reasons as to why they gave each rating. So very long. :)

Anyway, I was stoked in the end that all my ratings got through without too much criticism, and in the end, I definitely felt they all got the ratings they deserved for their efforts. So a long day it may have been, but it was a good one in the end :)

Thursday night is a good night for me - the House of Bach is usually an empty place on a Thursday evening! I went on a trip into Blacktown this evening and got me some awesome sushi and a choc macadamia latte for dinner :) And have just been enjoying doing not much - watching The Simpsons and now Law & Order.

For now, I’ve just got an SMS asking if I can play bass on Sunday morning… which should be cool. I don’t get to play bass quite as much anymore… so any chance I do get to play is muchly looked forward to. So I think I’m gonna go pull out my bass and have a bit of a jam.

Yesterday was somewhat of a crap day. Not a crap day through stressful work that needed to be done… but crap day through feeling very unnoticed and unappreciated… and feeling hurt for my sales buddies who felt the same thing.

There was a presentation on everything Next G that was run yesterday for all internal staff - just to serve as a “here’s where we’re at” kind of thing. And our team was specifically invited to attend as well. As a part of the presentation, they told a couple of “good news” customer stories who’d migrated big fleets of CDMA phones across to Next G. And they praised the team that worked on that deal - the Acct Exec, the Mobiles Specialist, the Wireless Data Specialist…. but no where was the Biz Sales Consultant (us) mentioned or acknowledged - despite the fact that in all the cases discussed, our guys were heavily involved and almost led the way with the migration and facilitation.

It just frustrated me so much for my colleagues. I mean, I didn’t expect me to get recognition, cos I haven’t been directly involved for months now; but the other guys certainly have. They work so hard and just go so unappreciated sometimes; it’s like they see us as their mobiles support. Truth be told, the account teams would fall over without us as a part of their team. But they don’t treat us like that.

Anyway… that whole thing and just the way the day as a whole ran just left me feeling quite down and frustrated. But as I drove home, I listened to these lyrics, and sang them, and then had them in my head all night:

This is how we’ll dance when they try to take us down.
This is how we’ll sing it.

I’m called to serve and love others. And I love doing that at work - I love helping others out, taking projects on from someone else and just getting them done. But I struggle so much with being unappreciated; I seek approval from others. Serving and loving have to be selfless traits…

I need to just get back up and dance again even though I know that I can only rely on God to notice my efforts.

Blogged about the wonders of Microsoft Communicator on my mobile on the mobile nerd blog.

Maybe you had trouble understanding the difference between a V8 and flat 6. Perhaps you bought just a few too many hair products. Whatever the case, you acted in a distinctly unmanly way. And you grew yourself a nice little pair of Man Cans.

Rollo and I just witnessed what seems to be a very amusing piece of viral marketing. Mancans, or the World Organisation of Men Exhibiting Nanciness (note the reverse acronym there), has some incredibly hilarious ads on TV that direct you to their Mancans.com.au website.

I hunted around the website, laughing at every turn, but no consumable product is being advertised - apparently they’re just an organisation looking to cure the condition of man cans. However it was interesting that Sept 2 was an “important date” on their calendar. So it’s going to be interesting to see if my suspicions are correct, and what new product will be announced or released on Sept 2!

A quick whois lookup notes that Mancans.com.au is registered to Cadbury Schweppes - innnnntersting!

But hilarious nonetheless :)

I wonder if they drug a lot of Microsoft employees to help them be happier and forget who they work for? Their CEO is certainly quite strangely passionate about his company.

I’m a big fan of loud, complex, solid drumming in rock music. I’m a fan of it in all music I suppose, but it’s more prominent in the rock and punk sounds that I like. Relient K have nailed it beautifully in their last two albums, and when I listened to Paramore’s album for the first time yesterday arvo, the solid, confident and loud drumming of a young 17 year old jumped out and grabbed me.

Paramore seem to have quite the following here in Australia… somehow they’ve slipped under my radar. But I heard of their sounds and a song through the wonders of myspace last week, and just decided I’d do one of those random purchases and go and buy their album, Riot! That’s what you get when you let your heart win.

As with a lot of albums, the first few songs are gold. In this case, some catchy pop-punk tunes rattle through your head making you want to sing along. The first two songs are definitely drumming stand outs of the album that hooked me, as I wrote about above. Although Hallelujah, the third track, is somewhat out of place at the beginning of the album. Actually, all in all, the song is kind of annoying - the vocals come across as almost whiny, as does the distortion chosen for the lead guitar. But that’s quickly corrected by the very fast-paced and complex Misery Business.

The second half of the album explores a bit more than the typical pop-punk, and a fairly solid rock/pop number comes across in When It Rains, with some sweet harmonies. The lead singer, Hayley Williams, sounds almost like Evanescence’s Amy Lee as she sings We Are Broken, with notes much lower than the rest of the album - which I think is a compliment of Hayley’s abilities given she’s only 18. The song is a stand out of the album though, feeling very power-balladish and with Christian themes running through the lyrics.

Fences is a very interesting tune that deserves its own paragraph. The song combines what feels like rockabilly and ska flavours into one. The lyrics (themselves nothing special) are sung through amazingly clearly at high speed, and as the bridge rolls around, a brilliant two-toned harmony hits that I reckon is one of the sweetest piece of singing on the album. Not up there as my favourite track, but one of the most interesting on the album nonetheless.

Riot! closes out with a very solid punk rock tune that returns to flavours found back in the beginning of the album. But I enjoy albums such as this - it’s almost been a revolution. You feel like you’ve had a chance to explore a range of sounds and styles that this band can put out, and then come back to some solid stuff to close it out. Nice.

Have just returned from the airport with Mum. We took my dear grandparents there as they headed back home to Hervey Bay. It was quite the excursion - you see, my Grandpa is not very mobile at all anymore, and can’t stand or walk much before he needs a rest. And Nan isn’t feeling the best at the moment, so she struggles a bit too. So wheelchairs it was for the airport run. We checked in all fine and dandy and laughed at Virgin Blue’s extreme miscommunication between people at the check-in counter and boarding, and then headed for some coffee and raisin toast for breakfast.

I’ve just arrived back home to find the house empty… nice! So Xboxing and PS3ing is in order I feel. As well as music listening. I’m keen to pick up an album by these guys actually: Paramore. Pop punk stylings with a chick singer.

What a tops Saturday evening that was. I had a pretty lazy morning, doing a lot of nothing around the house with Rollo… then we cleaned the house a little (actually, Rollo cleaned quite a bit, then I felt guilty so I did a little bit too), and then Rollo cooked me breakfast. How lovely. I played some xbox and generally did a lot of nothing. Quite nice.

I headed out to catch up with b, and it was a great afternoon - we hung out on the oval down at Morling, and chased the sun/shade area around as the sun went down for the arvo. We had a good chat. In the end, he wasn’t planning on doing much tonight, so he came back and we played some 360 together - the prawn and b xbox team has been missed. I need to buy Rainbow Six: Las Vegas for the 360 sometime soon - our co-op partnership on the xbox was at its peak in the Tom Clancy games I think :)

Dinner tonight was down at the Toonie Pizza place; the little place hidden down the backside of Toonie in such a place that about 5 years or so ago when it opened, I thought it was a sure death within a few months. But amazingly, it has survived. Not only survived, but is booming to the point when all but 2 tables were reserved tonight. Good for them. Good for us too, cos they have tops food. Tonight’s choice was the Fillet Steak special, which was covered in brandy sauce, prawns and sea scollops. Ahh it was awesome. And of course gelato and coffee to finish with :)

B and I had some tops random dinner convo that I’ve missed. And it was awesome to watch as the inevitable returned - that our conversation ended up talking about the CAT and church music and services in general. Comfortable :) It was also very cool to talk with him about where God’s been positioning me of late in terms of leadership and the like. And as I talked it out, I realised how God was doing more than I’d actually seen and realised too. It was sweet. It was great to see where I was. But in the same moment, I discovered that it’s time for me to embrace that, and start taking some proactive steps with my new-found confidence in where God’s got me. But that’s exciting and cool too :)

I look at the new Microsoft Office suite and I’m almost in awe. I mean it looks like they just shipped it without anyone actually looking at the programs and without having any central authority over the project. It’s like one of those movies where you walk out going, Did a group of fully sentient adult human beings really watch that movie and say, Wow, yes, this is wonderful, we must put this into cinemas everywhere and share it with the world? Same for Office. Who gave this the green light? I mean how could Ray Ozzie actually think, Wow, this is some beautiful, elegant software? Oh wait. That’s right. Ray made Notes. Enough said.

Written by Fake Steve Jobs. Made me laugh for a Friday evening :)

Following on from my post last night about TCE, I felt the desire to listen to their music this morning. But I was bitterly disappointed when I couldn’t find any of my TCE cds! Will have to keep looking tonight.

However, when I got to work, I was listening to No Longer There and remembered The Ross Irwin Soul Special that I found a little while ago, but didn’t pay much attention to. They were a friend of The Cat Empire’s on myspace - Ross Irwin plays trumpet as part of the Empire Horns section of TCE.

They have several songs up on their myspace, all of which have this very unique song - each different to the last: some smooth soulful tunes, and one potent rock/funk tune with a driving guitar riff. Awesome stuff.

It seems their myspace isn’t overly updated, and no where does it say where one could obtain one of their two CDs that they’ve made. However, thanks to the wonders of Google, I’ve found them available on this site. I think I will be pur-chasing said CD.

Excitement is starting to build. You see, The Cat Empire have a new single very, very close. It’s still a month away from release, but it’s already getting quite a bit of play on JJJ, and is being streamed on their myspace.

The song begins as a very, very different sounding song to the majority of their previous stuff. I guess I anticipated an upbeat, horn driven, dance track, just as the last two lead singles have been (Hello and Sly). But I wasn’t disappointed. It’s essentially a smooth latin-sounding groove track. Felix’s vocals are so prominent, as is a guitar picking out notes, which is something new for them really. Definitely looking forward to the rest of the album, which is only about 6 weeks away now.

But the excitement continued yesterday, when they announced they’re going for a record breaking attempt in Sydney with live shows:

Back in 1996 a record of 7 shows in a row was set at The Sydney Metro. To celebrate the launch of the new album SO MANY NIGHTS (out Sept 22), The Cat Empire are attempting to set a new venue record. We’re talking 8 shows in 7 days.
Record attempt starts 14 October 2007…
[metro theatre]

So awesome. The Metro is where I first saw them live, and then after a visit to the Coogee Bay Hotel (which was horrid), they made the Enmore Theatre their live home for the next few years. So I’m incredibly keen to see them play some great music back at The Metro. And yes, I will be seeing them multiple times - I’m going for at least two… maybe more. :)

I’m back hanging out in the city today. I’m actually surprised at how much work I’ve done today - well done to me.

Just came back from visiting what has to be one of my favourite customers that I’ve ever looked after: DMG Radio. That is, Nova and Vega. I’ve always loved their appreciation for your efforts - if there are hassles, or mistakes or anything, they’ll let you know for sure… but as soon as you do one good thing by them, they forget all the crap and are your best mate again. It’s the best attitude, and it makes them so easy to love as a customer!

Anyway, after the sales rep and I went out there to solve some ongoing crazy data issues (which we did, very successfully!), the chief engineer who we deal with offered us a tour of the station. The place is insane. He showed us in the studio how they do all the calls for competitions (it’s a very easy-to-use touch screen computer to answer calls and put them on hold) and how they queue up the filler bits and ads between songs. But most impressive was the 12 racks of computers and networking equipment that filled one very long wall. Insane. 

A few years ago now, Relient K released an EP with 10 Christmas songs on it - some covers, some originals. It was very cool. Then yesterday arvo, I read that they’re recording at the moment:

We’re going to track about 7 new songs to tack onto our existing “Deck The Halls, Bruise Your Hand”. It should release Octoberish. Anyway, we’re having a holly jolly time of it, and we hope that the end result will provide you with an ample amount of holiday cheer when the appropriate season rolls around.
[relient k website]

Sweet.

Sitting here on the couch at home feeling incredibly crap all over. Can’t believe how quickly I arrived here.

Yesterday I felt pretty fine - tiny little tingle in my throat, but nothing too bad. Then as the evening went on, my throat just got worse and worse very quickly, til I almost couldn’t swallow. :( I then woke up this morning with the general aches and crap all over and not wanting to do anything - you know, the general signs of a bad cold.

So I’m logged into work, doing little bits and pieces, but not really being bothered. I’m feeling quite happy that the new job isn’t in full swing yet, so the workload won’t pile up if I don’t feel up to actually doing any work today.

Season 2 of Scrubs awaits me, along with new 360 games, and many, many naps this afternoon I think.

Boo.

That’s how I’ve felt this evening.

The sales team that I have managed for the last 8 months took me out for lunch today as a thanks. It was a surprise, and kudos to them for their secrecy and organisation. Getting 9 salespeople to take lunch at the same time and be in the one place is not easy.

They said some thank yous and such, and that was lovely. I guess it stirred up quite a bit in me this arvo and evening, because as I thought more about the last 8 months or so, it’s almost making me emotional. There’s been some times where I just knew in my heart that I was in way too deep, and that I didn’t want to do it anymore. But no matter how hard things got, everyone in that team always looked out for each other and supported each other. That is what makes a successful sales team.

I was kinda shocked and unprepared… and didn’t really say much during the lunch, except a bit of a thanks. But I sat down this evening and wrote an email to them all talking about the times we’ve had together, and the amazing qualities that exist in each of them. It was so easy to write - it was so easy to be able to point out where each person’s strength and brilliance is, and then look at all those features side by side and see why the team is so brilliant.

And it was doing that and realising what I’d been a part of for two-thirds of a year that humbled me. How cool and awesome these people are at what they do, and what they can accomplish as a team… phoar.

What a tops thing to a be a part of. God put me there for many reasons; most I won’t know for a while, but one was to learn a lot of maturity, and to share my love for people and encouragement with these guys. Yep, humbling indeed.

Oh, and they bought me two 360 games as a present… they’re awesome :)

I am kinda bored with Twitter. It was tops fun early on, and I still very much enjoy reading my friends’ tweets, and will continue to. But with my twitter account… I think I’m going to use it to show what music I’m listening to on my blog. Just over there on right.

So I had a bit of a brainwave at work this morning [it was a quiet day and I wasn't overly focused on work...] - create a separate blog where I can go crazy with features and specs about mobile handsets, and the world of mobile data… without clogging up this as a personal blog.

I thought it was a tops idea anyway. :)

You’ll already notice a link up in the top section.

Aye… large weekend. But a good one. I have just woken from a nap on the couch [is there anything greater than a nap on the couch?? I love it.] and am feeling much better for it. I’m sitting here listening to the sounds of Wishful. They were an absolutely awesome band… and still ar