head huntage unsuccessful

hmmmmm, had a very weird experience today lolz, met up with 2 people from a company that i won't name who wanted to offer me a grad job without me applying. It was quite hilarious, very informal meeting, very informal everything, made it feel really awkward. The story goes like this, last week the company came to melb uni and our head of department took them around, and my project team met with them to look for prospective sponsorship for this yr or even next year. My good fellow team mates explained our roles and what we studied and the idea of an elec eng graduate with Japanese skills played a major role in their company and so they asked if i needed a job and gave my team mates their card and told me to call them.

At 10am ish, me in my tshirt and shorts, cooking spaghetti at home, got this call from dwang and said i'd been weirdly offered a job lolz. So anyhow, i call the company the next day, he asks for my cv and wants to meet with me. I send him my CV on Friday arvo. Today's Monday, he calls me and wants to meet today. He and his colleague drive up to Melbourne Uni to meet me at uni. They buy me coffee, they talk about their company and what they do, how this and that works, how their company is growing and expanding, how they deal with this market and need people in this area blablablablabl and then i ask them questions instead of them asking me questions ahhaha no questions about how i think i fit into their company or how i would be an asset to them blablabla, so it was like i'm in the driving seat.

Anyhow, so they kinda look through my CV and they find the own business thing interesting, i tell them about http://www.whatsopen.com.au and they find that interesting but go no furher. They look at my transcript but only look at my jap results which aren't too bad haha so i'm lucky. Anyhow, so at the end i finally cut it straight and ask them about the pay and they quote me a figure and they go it rises every year accordingly etc etc, and in my mind i'm thinking....head huntage unsuccessful..... but i maintain composure and they want me to go in and have a look around and experience it for a bit before i make a decision etc

Well, so i'm going in on Friday to check it out but i don't think the role suits me and i think the pay doesn't compensate for the lack of interest hehe. Like, i'd rather be doing something that's more exciting than the role offered. There was no mention about prospects of going abroad and stuff, and it seems like i'll be stuck on the phone and maybe having opp to meet clients but only in Melb, which is pretty boring so anyhow, that was an uneventful potentially eventful day for me =p

photshop lovers and geeks, start droolin

for all u facebook losers =p

Looking for discounts?

Ever thought of buying that 27" widescreen DELL monitor but found it to be a bit overpriced for your liking? Wanted to get that tshirt at the local TARGET ? Have you gone shopping and wondered what kind of discounts there are available?

Well, the holiday season is coming up. Given that there are a lot of holiday periods to come this year if you want to buy that special gift for that special someone i think you should check out Coupon Chief !

They have heaps of coupons for all different stores and since it's a good time to possibly stock up for the coming Christmas, maybe you can buy your presents early and save some money =)

I really want that DELL 27" though, i've been looking at it for a while. The first time i saw it was in Shanghai. It's huge! And it looks good. And the best thing about it is that you don't need a dual dvi outpout to run it so you can still run it with a low end card. The only problems might be that you won't be able to run high end games at full resolution, but i don't mind =)

You can actually get these with a good deal if you buy a dell laptop, but alas, i don't have that money to burn.

Anyhow, Coupon Chief also has stuff for pets, so Yees, you should check out stuff for Charlotte =)

w00h00

full steam ahead ~!!~!~!~

over the next 3 months i need to:

- not get plump and continue playing badminton without injuring myself
- improve on drums
- improve with God, spend more time praying
- sleep on my new mattress that i'll get next week
- fix my back/hip weird pain problem =o
- goto sleep right now =p

night!~!~

my isaac.........

you're probably wondering what the heck is "my isaac" and is Eric here on some weird pills or is he just rambling on about nohting..... well, anyhow, things have been plagueing my mind lately, like literally it's been a plague. And a plague has an association with something negative, and yep, it is negative from my point of view.

Lately, i've been putting some thought into where my career/life will lead and what would i really want to do and what i would want to achieve in my life. So many things have been going through my head and it started with a harmless thought about the possibilities of becoming a patent attorney.

80% of the people reading this will probably know that a patent attorney is someone who basically helps people with their inventions to make it patented by drafting specialised/technical explanations and applications in order to make their inventions patented and make sure there's no other inventions similar and threatening etc etc etc......

So why the sudden interest? What happened to Eric accepting ANZ job? Well...... i've been thinking that being a patent attorney wouldn't be a bad idea because of a couple of reasons:

1. It would actually make use of my Electrical Engineering degree and I would be able to be specialised and also use the knowledge that i've acquired over the last 5 years to some use

2. The pay package is quite attractive

3. Apparently, after a while in this industry you can work from home and have flexible hours

4. It's distinguished and demanded all over the world

So you ask what's the down side? Is there any? Well, in terms of working hours, it's probably not that demanding i would think, it's less glamorous according to a friend, and you're in a desk job 9-5, you're not gonna be working as a group and you're by urself most of the time, and you'll need to complete a masters and you'll have to do it to a good standard to be recognised.

Hmmmmmm, so what's really been plagueing me?

Well, i have obviously 2 options. 1, do it. 2, don't do it.

1. Do it: Which involves me going to my friend's law firm and checking out the patents that his firm is dealing with and then deciding whether i like it or not. If i do like it then i'll be applying for grad positions and become a technical assistant at one of those patent firms for at least a year. So, if i get a grad job with a firm, i'll have to ask ANZ if i can be recruited in as a 2009 grad rather than a 2008 grad. If they say yes, i'll be a tech assistant for a year and see if i like it. If i like it then i'll quit ANZ and then devote my time to be a patent lawyer which involves probably working for 4 years minimum in the industry whilst doing my masters part time, and then after i get my masters, start being a patent attorney....

2. Don't do it: Which involves me going to ANZ next year =)


Ahahahahhahah "sooooooooo, what's this about isaac then Eric, farout". Well, I guess over the last week this matter's been a pretty big burden over my heart. I've strayed from what i used to have my mind set on and it's kind of annoying i guess that this has happened. But after tonight's prayer meeting at church, i've felt that God's given me an answer to all of it. Pat talked and prayed about what happened with Abraham and his son Isaac, and challenged us about what we think our Isaac is, what do we want most in our lives and what can't we let go of.....

and in that split second, it became quite clear what my isaac had started becoming. My career. Obviously career is important for a guy and yada yada yada, but throughout all this thinking i didn't think once about what would happen to my spiritual well being if i decided to go down path 1. And then it came to me, if i took path 1, i would be working my butt off, i would be trying to pursue something well worth pursuing indeed, but my spiritual life would suffer. I would be working and studying, i wouldn't have much time to lead my cell group, not much time to devote to praise and worship and leading my worship team, wouldn't have time to go play badminton and wouldn't have time to goto these prayer meetings, everything in life would be set for me.... study get a job get a good career, don't stuff up, get good marks ablablalbabl and sure, i could do all that and end up being a patent attorney 5 yrs down the track, and maybe 10 yrs down the track, i'd have a flexible life style, i can work from home, i'd be earning good money, and what would happen to my spiritual life.... it'd literally be sufffocated and dead.......

of course, this isn't really the only possibility i understand, but i guess i'm thinking...is this a risk i want to take? I think God's opened my mind up tonight to heaps of things too, and i want to commit more time into seeking God and understanding more of Him. I should have done what my friend is doing, she's doing part time uni and part time studying at bible college, which would be quite cool, but coz of my project, it's hard to say what kind of hours i need, so i can't commit to it "Sorry Kat =) won't be joining ur classes hehe" but yeahhh, i've decided that i might actually want to commit my holidays at the end of the year to do some mission work and sacrifice my planned holiday around asia.

There might be a trip that i'm unable to move, which is the family reunion trip where my sister will be in Shanghai etc and i might meet up with her and dad there, but i want to at least spend some time with short term missions at the end of this year before i start work....

Anyhow, there's other news to talk about. I've been asked to think about joining a band. As a keys player/sound recording person/backup singer thing. And this commitment isn't a light one either because it requires commitment and dedication and the vision for this band is to actually be able to produce mainstream cds and all in the future. The problem i see with this decision is the lack of training for me, as in, i'm no pro and i'm just a muck around person, but i know that this person has already thought of that before asking me about it and i know that she knows very well that i'm not piano savvy in that sense, but still, it's a big decision and she wants me to pray hard about it before giving an answer.

Well, this poses an easier solution for me because i can see that pathway 2 is able to solve everything as well as glorify God with everything i have. I can obviously go into doing a masers later on in life, but i think that decision can come later on. So, in writing this blog, i think that my decision has been made while rambling on and i think all of you for reading =) God Bless ya all =)

Eric

winners!

w00h00

we won!

i won my singles 21-16, 21-17

and doubles 21-15, 21-6

=)

I think we played a total of 20 games and only lost 4 games
=)

Go jtultra haha, none of us were playing in form...... simon wasn't smashing much and couldn't get to his backhand, i was sorta all over the place, chris was alright tho, ummm, jack c was kinda injured, jack w was playing quite outta form, shu and tavis weren't playing that well together, but in any case, we kicked ass =) all good

and our prize?

Gatorade 600ml muhahuahuau darnit, we need better prizes, come onnnnn Jacky, get with it =)

In other news, i've been thinking hard about changing my career path........ who knows i might not even be working at anz next year

Frustration?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, i'm a bit frustrated with my body at the moment, yes, my body, grrrr, i need to get better at badminton, well, i don't really NEED to but it would be really great if i could. Hmmm, maybe great's not the word, but it'd be nice =) But my body seems to be the limiting factor here. Well, maybe in everyone there's the will to do something and the desire but when we try and do what we want there's always factors stopping us, so is it our fault? hmmmm

anyhow, i'm somehow injury proned, kinda.... well, i don't wanna be one of those guys complaining that an injury is stopping me from this and that but as most will know, my back has been giving me troubles this whole yr.... it's actually quite a lot better now, i mean there's the occasional pains here and there, but i'm not really complaining about that, i mean there's always physical injuries when competing in competitive sports.... but my main concern at this stage is my knee...

My left knee is giving me the wobbles. When i walk it kinda gives me the feeling that it's a little loose. That feeling where you think *where's my muscles around my knee gone?* . How did i do it? I dunno.... i came back from SH a few weeks ago and then i started playing again, and i think i went a bit too hard on the first time i came back or something, and yeah my knee started complaining.... went to get it checked out by the famous Dr Song, she sorta pulverised it and then said it's fine and i could start playing immediately.... hmmmm

I think i'll be resting after this Sunday's badminton comp. We're having a friendly comp against another baddy social team.

Our singles consists of:

Jacky
Simon
Shu
Me

and doubles has like a few more people. It should be fun =)

So anyhow, i told Jacky about my injury and he says ironically that the two injuries i have are exactly what he had ages ago. Anyhow, he told me to do squats to build up muscle while i'm still resting from baddy etc. So yeah, after Sunday, if i can find the motivation i'll be starting to do squats and build muscle but not play baddy for maybe 1.5 weeks i reckon, that should be enough for my knee to heal itself.

In other news, mum's leaving for overseas next week...for 3 months!!!! yeahhh gotta survive!! >.<

Simpsons!

Yes yes yes,

I went to watch it on the big screen......... mmmmmmmmmmmm actually, i didn't think i'd actually PAY for it, but it was tite-butt tuesday so 9 bucks wasn't too bad. Anyhow, the movie's alright, it does feel like a long simpsons movie but some of the stuff in there is quite hilarious =)

I thought the writing on the board of "I will not download this movie illegally" was quite funny =) besides that i pretty much saw most of the funny parts in previews and stuff so it was more of a recap of funny things heheh

Anyhow i'd rate it 7.5/10 for a good no brainer =)

PPP in action!

No, it's not Panacake Parlour = PP

But PPP = payperpost!

That's right folks, and all those who read my unattended blog as of recently. I've recently just joined PayPerPost and i think it might be a good addition to those of you (pointing to jon and hwang) who actually update their blogs on a very frequent basis

This site actually pays you to blog about different topics. I think it'll be quite interesting coz there'll be quite a lot of topics i wanna ramble about and the best time to do it is when i'm here at work and i'm in front of the computer aimlessly searching for useless things to bide my time, but now there's payperpost

Anyhow, so for those who really wanna get a piece of the action, get it at http://www.payperpost.com, it's FREE and yeah, if there is such a thing as referrals (which i'm not too sure yet), add my nick Echang01 please =). So let's all blog away!

They also give you a really good start to your piggy bank by giving you a $20 first post. So, i think Jon, if you're up for it, you should actually join coz you're a very regular blogger and it'd be pretty cool to actually get paid for doing something that you like already, or gajei if you're bored you should also get into it. It's not vey hard and i think that they would be quite fair on their allow/not allow policies =)