One of the things I became really interested in going through my Finance major at uni was the area of microfinance and how something so simple in theory can have such a powerful and long lasting affect to help people out of poverty all around the globe. The reason I like this idea over other more traditional charitable ideas is because in essence it is not charity at all, you are basically lending a small amount of cash (like $50 or $100) to someone to buy something like a sewing machine, farming materials etc which in turn can not only enable someone with a means to provide for themselves financially, but also supporting their families and creating something their local community can build upon. Another aspect I enjoy is the fact that you get your money back if the venture is successful and this way you don't feel like you are doling out money to some big NGO that might not even use your particular contribution to help anyone, and also the person your giving to doesn't feel like a charity case (And the mindset that can go with that, but that's another blog).
If any of this sounds interesting to you, a great site to visit it www.kiva.org where if you have a paypal account and 25 USD spare you can start contributing 100% of your money to a particular business/entrepreneur right away. Take the time to check it out and I think you'll be impressed by the simplicity of this site and the overwhelming fact that you can really make a direct difference in someone's life.

Currently I am not aware of any such small organisations in Australia that caters for home grown opportunities for microfinancing (they like to call it 'microcredit' here) in such an easy to approach manner like Kiva do, which is a shame but also not surprising as small business opportunities here would likely require larger capital to get things moving in most cases. But who knows? Maybe one will pop up soon...

I read those columns on The Age website occasionaly, usually they just make me mad, then I read the comments posted on the article and I get even madder. However today I was reading through one one materialism and how low would you go to earn a heap of cash, and one part of someones comments really hit a cord with me.

"PS-I've ever never heard money mentioned in a Eulogy"

So true.

Hey there,

This week I agreed to work overtime for one of my shifts, and although the day didn't drag out like I thought it would, I won't be doing that again. Unless of course it falls on a weekend day or public holiday, then it is all worth it!

I also have a head cold of some sort with insane sinus pain and a runny left nostril to boot. Causing me to make many mistakes at work and generally be a little zombie like at home, it is also interfering with my sleeping pattern, just what I need when it is already pretty terrible.

Argh, can't be bothered blogging, maybe more later.

Ok so I got out of bed because for some reason I have not been able to fall to sleep over about the last 3 hours (it is 4am), I was going to the toilet (as you do) then I decided to snack on some leftover chocolate in the fridge (as you do). Well somehow when I was trying tobreak a piece of chocolate off the block I managed to wedge a chunk of it under my finger nail on my index finger which has drawn blood, hurts like listening to Nickelback and has cause me to take pain killers so I can get back to sleep (Something you also have to do after listening to Nickelback).

Anyhoo, if you are a fan of the UK Office series, you should watch the following clips that R.G and S.M did for Microsoft employees, mildly funny.

Part One

Part Two

Tonight I worked the first Thursday evening shift ever and man, it was terrible, bonehead after bonehead calling me with crazy problems that I didn't know the answers to or basically couldn't be fixed without reinstalling their OS. Not that that is all bad, getting calls about things I need to learn about to fix is great because it keeps my mind ticking and means I can go chat to others on what to do, but hell, it is really annoying when I get it call after call and is terrible for my call stats.

Speaking of call stats, I either have awesome stats or they are failing KPIs, what is with that? One day I'll be in the top 5 in the call centre while others I'm sitting there thinking of reasons why I didn't making the minimum number for X KPI. So far I do have legitimate reasons for all of these problems, so all is ok.

Also you know what pisses me off? People with umbrellas that walk with them open in the street AND try to walk under ever bit of cover they can get. Yeah arseholes, you have an umbrella, you aren't getting wet so get the fuck outta the way for all the people that are freezing their arses off in the rain trying to stay under that tiny strip of awning. Also everyone with an umbrella is shorter than me, which results in me having to do crazy bend-over-backwards Matrix moves just to ensure that my eyeball doesn't end up on the pointy bits of everyone elses umbrellas, grr.

I'm gonna call my kid Scholastica, yeah that's right, Scholastica. Now say it with a loud game-show guy voice with my last name, you know it makes sense.

Why people throw shoes over telephone lines.

Last night I drove home with my P Plates down, now I am livin' the highlife.

The Sunday night drive home is good for two things, the first is that I don't have to catch the train and get home in 1/3 of the time, second is that I get to listen to The Sound Lab on Triple J which was playing some pretty decent atmospheric soundscape electronica, proper.

Dear Diary,

Tonight on the way home on the train there was some kinda goth goose tournament in my carriage, I don't know why they all like to travel in the last carriage of the train, maybe they think it is 'cool' like the back of the bus was in high school. Anyway I walked in and because the train was packed due to some concert or football game or something they were all sprawled out on the floor in a little retarded group, one fat old one was passed out on the floor with a red face and looked like he was dead, I was a little concerned for about 5 seconds and then I saw his chest move, then I was fucking angry cause fatty black boots can't hold his GBH and is the reason I have all these stinky drunken retards pressed up against me while I'm trying to finish reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and listen to Burning Man live sets. Anyway they all carried on like retards with their swearing and trying to 'freak out' other patrons on the train, mad me so mad. Anyway when it was time for me to get off the train the little fuckers wouldn't move from the doorway while myself and others were trying to get out, I ended up getting annoyed and bellowing "GET UP" and then they stood up and just looked at me so then I said "OPEN THE DOOR" and pointed at the handle just incase they didn't get it. Jerks.

I just got my full drivers licence in the mail! Does this mean I have finally grown up?

If you have ever smoked regularly before and you've quit there is always a pet 'situation' that will make you crave a cigarette. For some people it is when they are at a bar/pub and people are drinking/smoking, for others it is after having a satisfying meal or going through a difficult situation, for me it is when I see people on television shows/movies smoking somewhere cold, like on a winter day with the overcast sky and the wind howling. Just a few minutes ago there was this British sitcom on TV with a bunch of late 20 somethings pretty much smoking and drinking in every single scene, most of those scenes were pictured outside in the cold in the evening or during work breaks, damn I want a cigarette now!

But I know the minute I get 3/4 of the way through one I'll feel like shit. This is a good thing, I can't even be hellishly drunk and smoke a cigarette without feeling like I tipped an ashtray in my mouth.

So I ate a peanut butter sandwich instead, which gave me a satisfied feeling closely followed by an over indulgent ill feeling, much like a cigarette would give me now :) .

FYI since we are on the subject of cigarettes, for some reason these days I can't STAND people smoking cigarette in the CBD, for some reason it really drives me crazy, smoking out around where I live is fine, but just not near me in the CBD, I think it maybe because everywhere I turn while I am going to work someone is sucking down a cigarette madly during their break/lunch/walk to/from work. Sometimes I feel like I should cough really loudly like an old obnoxious know-it-alls that use to cough around me when I smoked, I am going to turn into such an old annoying conservative man, I can just feel it.

10 things you don't say/do to serp if your calling his work's support line.

1. Don't say you have been on hold for an hour when infact you have been on hold for 10 minutes and it "seems" like you have been on hold for an hour.
2. After saying No. 1 and being caught out, don't lie and say you have been calling 4 or 5 times this evening and haven't got through, I can tell when you are trying to cover your arse.
3. When I ask what modem you have, don't say "The one you sent me" *I* didn't send you anything, my workplace did, and yes we have been sending out modems since the dawn of ADSL in Australia, so don't assume that we have been sending one type of modem out for the last 7 or 8 or whatever years.
4. Just because you have spoken to someone from my workplace who has an accent from the sub-continent, doesn't mean our call centre is located in India.
5. Don't start asking me questions to try and 'trick' me into telling you that our call centre is in India (when it is clearly not).
6. Just because I don't have an OS accent don't start slagging off my work mates as being "Curry Munchers" or something just as 'clever', those guys are my mates and most of them work very hard, they can also manage to chew gum and keep their internet connections going, fancy that?
7. If you ask where our call centre is located in Australia and I am kind enough to answer, don't immediately start handing out insults about Victorians or telling me that our weather sucks.
8. Don't tell me you have powercycled your modem 4 times while you've been on hold and don't want to do it when I suggest to do it. I'm going to make you do it anyway and 50% of the time it fixes your problem.
9. If you are not an account holder, don't try to lie to me and act like you are, because when you get caught out you get annoyed and start carrying on and plead with me to help you. Well perhaps if you had been honest from the start......
10. Please don't scream at your kids/partner/parents/siblings while you are talking to me on the phone, fucking turn your head, put your hand over the reciever and then scream, you are causing me permanent ear damage.

PS - I got pulled over by the cops tonight on the way home, I have to walk down a bunch of back alleys to get there and they pulled me over about 50 metres from home. I thought they were pretty rude to me but looking back on it I wasn't very forth coming with information, ie. when they asked me "What I was doing down this alleyway?" I should have answered "I just finished work at midnight, caught a train home left the station a few minutes ago and I'm going home to my beautiful girlfriend" instead of saying "Going home".

Oh well.

Work work work, it is all i blog about, has an easier night last night, most people were really friendly and the mood is always relaxed on weekend days. Learnt something interesting about what full timers get paid at my work for the job that I do and then the job up from what I do, let me just say that I am thankful that I am only working this job for a short time because I would feel stiffed if I had to do this work for 3 to 6 months to only qualify for some measly base pay packet which these guys get, and then you have to work hard to move up (or I guess you just have to hang around for long enough) and then you only get a token raise. What a jib.
I know what I am doing now is the I.T equivolent of working in a white collar sweat shop or something but at least you are paid well as a temp, actually it is probably possible to earn nearly twice as much money as a temp here then it is to take a full time position, however I think most people at my work want to feel the "security" of being employed full time and getting those things called 'sick days', 'holidays' and being supposedly harder to get rid off (ie. sacked) which would be great but even those things are restricted to the bare minimums.

Saying all this bad stuff, it still really isn't a bad work environment to be in, the people are friendly and helpful, no egos (well there is ONE guy, but there always has to be somebody...) and the facilities are pretty decent to some places I've seen, really I guess I'm just a big whinger :P .

PS - Last night was the first time I got to finish work 10 minutes earlier (due to my new negoiated timetable) and it was the first time I missed my train home :), how can I manage that?! There was a mix up at Spencer Street last night where the tunnels were closed going through the loop for my train and I was suppose to catch the train to Flinders Street and catch a connecting train, anyway, long story short I made astro pick me up from the top of the city and we went home that way, thanks astro!

Last night I had a decent night at work due to having a one on one meeting with my TL, basically he just wanted to go over everything and to make sure I understood what my KPIs were and so on. I thought he was going to give me a big tongue lashing about how I need to really improve and pick up my game etc, but what actually happened was that he told me that I'm doing really well for someone who has only been on the floor for about 3 weeks and that I only need to get my average talk time down on calls by a fraction and all will be sweet! I was glad to hear I was doing okay because I wasn't really sure, I also got to ask a lot of questions which help clarify what I was doing in certain situations etc. generally just made myself feel a bit better about what I was doing.

The best think about having meetings/training at work is that I get a large break from being on the phones! The less time I spend on the phones the better everything is in my books, last night was particually hard due to people generally being really shitty about their internet being out because this week we have had quite a few problems with our service. People, I know it is really annoying when the internet is not working, but that doesn't mean so should ring up and get shitty at someone that is trying to HELP YOU!

I just got back from my overnight stay in Bendigo, I am dead tired due to the spare bedroom walls being paper thin and my mum/sister taking bath/showers really late/early in the mornings.

Plus as an extra bonus, some idiot tradie dude in some broken down ute totally got road ragey at me because I think (and I can't be totally sure of this) I was annoying him because the car in front of me was going 20kmph under the speed limit, this idiot got so annoyed that when we both got off at the same citylink exit, he slammed on his brakes to try and make me run into the back of him (I have no idea why he would want that) and then when I tried to swerve around him and pulled in front of me, so I tried to slow down (almost to a stop) to go back into the other lane and he slowed down and sped up so I couldn't, and then started scream abuse at me when he had forced me to a halt on a fucking freeway exit. What an arsehole. Luckily there was no traffic behind us otherwise he would have cause an accident a lot larger than the two car pileup he was working on with me. Good thing they don't let us easily own handguns in Australia I tell you what.

Now I feel like going on a screaming crotch-punching spree, what a jerk.

I've just read this morning that Yasmin's Getting Married which was talk about on this guy's page has been axed from Channel 10 after just one week. Can't say that I care/am surprised/watched the show even for 30 seconds.

What I propose to Channel 10 to replace this show with (Although they have taken good steps in putting Futurama on in the meantime) is something I like to call Serp's Getting Pizza where Channel 10 pay for a different pizza store across Melbourne to deliver me a large pizza to eat each weekday at 7pm, the 30 minute show will consist of me chowing the fuck out on said pizza and then giving a review on how I felt the pizza was and if I am willing to make it my "one and only".
It only takes me about 20 minutes or so to eat a pizza and review it, so they can fill the rest with ads.
When the format gets a tired, I suggest they bring in "surprise celebrity guests" from even tireder shows such as Big Brother, Neighbours and Australian Idol. These guests will basically stand around trying to flaunt their "talent" on my show while I eat the pizza in the background and tell them how much of an idiot I think they are.

It'll be a ratings smash.

Some Portland wanker gets banned from all the licensed venues in town. Big fucking deal, can't you still just walk around outside drinking anyway? I actually think this sort of move is a good thing, certainly will make people think twice about acting like a raging lout in a pub.

I've just stayed up really late looking at random blogs and other assorted junk. I was trying to find the best page out of the lot I was looking at to post here but they were all pretty crap! How annoying!

Work was boring tonight, call centre is empty on Saturdays after 8pm so it was pretty relaxed, still had non-stop calls right up until knock off time.

Walking to the train statio I noticed the city was full of gangs of emo teen-to-low-twenty-somethings and weak looking punk rockers, did Good Charlotte come to town again or something?

About to go to work, last night at work wasn't so bad, not many calls at the end of the night which is always good. Although when this happens you just know that you are going to get a call drop through right before your shift is up, and the problem with my shift is that if I go 5 minutes overtime I will miss the last train home, so basically if I get a call I have to hurry the customer up and basically "burn" them, ie. Make them do something which may fix the problem (but probably not) that gets them to hang up the phone to me right now. I know that's bad but to my defense I know guys in the call centre that basically work by that premise for every call they get, not just the last call of the night, that makes me sorta mad, because then I get a call back from a slightly less understanding customer and have to work harder to appease them. Although now I feel bad about saying that because I have done that twice on the last calls of the night now.

Egghh, the moral dilemma's of the call centre, who can be bothered?

Couple-surfing: a trend is born. Welcome to the 1990s.

Now I totally need to start a LJ.

I just read this fantastic interview with some guy and Norman Cook, it was really interesting reading about how he became interested in the electro funk sound of the early 80s and then just talking about all the b boy stuff and then the movement into House/Acid House stuff. Sounds like he is still pretty down to earth even though he is all famous and has sqwillions of dollars (probably). It gets a bit name dropping in parts and the guy interviewing him keeps hardping on about certain crap but all in all a good read if you are into that kind of stuff.

So last night I finished my first week of work after being on what will be my normal roster of hours, it has honestly felt like about twice as long as 5 days, working to midnight and working weekends does strange things to you, everything is a bit topsy turvy and a bit out of whack, I'll get use to it of course it just might take a few more weeks.

The good news is that working the weekend does indeed earn more money, which is great cause I'm going to need all that zenny when '07 rolls around.

Speaking of saving, I need to blow some of it on some new clothes/shoes etc, warmer clothes is something I need, a new jacket wouldn't go astray as I haven't had one of those in about 6 or 7 years, and you can tell if you ever see the two jackets I wear all the time. I also need some black work shoes that are actually comfortable and not 8 years olds (although they are in fantasic condition for their age!).

Tech support is starting to shit me a little, I've learn how to deal with most enquiries people call in with, 95% of the people are usually pleasant and good to deal with, a surprisingly good ratio, its just dealing with the same enquiries over and over and over which get really boring. Infact I often get excited when someone calls in with an unusual problem, different is always good!

I don't think I have gotten over the whole not taking it personally bit, I mean even though most customers understand when I can't get things working for them and have to esculate it to a higher tech or have to make them hang up to do an isolation test or something, I still personally feel bad that I couldn't fix their problem for them, and then when I get say 50% calls in a 2 or 3 hour block that I can't fix I feel pretty down. But you know, I am slowly realising that I can't fix everything and that it is actually NOT my fault.

Anyway, bored of typing, more another day.