Archive for the ‘Social-esque’ Category

A Look Back in… Some Emotion or Other

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

What’s a sporadic blogger’s prerogative these days when a year’s about to end, you ask? Enter the somewhat obligatory, somewhat nostalgia-inspired and somewhat boredom-induced entry with a retrospective tinge crammed up its wazoo. I was going to get this post up alongside a new theme, but to be completely honest with the two to four of you who’ve been waiting, I’ve not been arsed to do any work on it. So enjoy the default blueness while this entry trudges along. It won’t seem so clinical after a few minutes. Promise.

Default statement of observation: There are less than 24 hours of 2009. Shocking, I know. I myself almost slapped my palm to my cheek and dropped my jaw in surprise at the very thought of it.

This year has probably gone by more quickly than any other I can remember, though I’m quite sure I’ve said the same thing in the past. A lot has happened this year, and I’m not quite sure where to start, what to say, and where to finish. So for all those who intend on high-tailing it out of here once you have even some idea of what my year’s been like (riveting stuff), 2009 has seen me: 1) land two jobs, 2) go through a few relationships (and by a few, I mean two), 3) become progressively more misanthropic and impatient, and 4) completed another year of a sub-par arts degree. Place a “spend more than $5000 on materialistic shit” and a “injure myself even further from dancing” on top and you’ve got yourself a nice 2009 cake ready to be shoved off into the past.

I’ve seen myself change both physically, emotionally and mentally in the Oh Nine. Physically, I’ve gone from nerdesque (I know. I wanted to stab my end-of-2008-hello-2009 self too.) to… well, non-nerdesque (those who are Facebook friends of mine will be able to mark the transition through my photos!). Emotionally, I’ve worsened and bettered myself at the same time, to the point where I’m not sure how to adequately describe it (so let’s leave it, because Xuan’s tired). And mentally, I’ve disciplined myself a hell of a lot more, purely because if I hadn’t, I’d probably be in a padded cell right now, giggling my ass off at the sight of the wall.

It’s been an odd year. A share of bad experiences here, a plethora of exciting and inspiring ones there. It doesn’t feel like a year is ending – I’m sure this is the same mentality that I had last year. Waking up on Friday morning will probably be the most anticlimactic feeling ever – mainly because I have work that night. But at the same time, I can’t wait to see what 2010 has in store.

So that does it for the lovely… handful? of posts I’ve made here this year. I’m sure the gaping bits of my life that haven’t been complained/whinged about here weren’t of any more interest, so I’ll shrug. I can feel my blogging style changing as well (Hello initially unintended and later realised narcissism? Got room on your seat there?); fingers crossed it’ll bring something a little more fruitful – or complaint-ful – to the blogosphere next year. Cross everything you can, people!

And now, without further ado, I’m off. See you all in Twenty Ten. :)

Job Interviews and Suchlike

Friday, July 10th, 2009

If there’s one thing I dislike about applying for jobs, it’s the kind situation you find yourself in, where you feel that a job interview went “alright”, and then you reflect on it afterwards – only to find yourself successfully coming up with better answers to interview questions that are far more cohesive and impressive than the actual answers you gave.

Example: My job interview was in the afternoon on Wednesday. An informal, chatty session underpinned by questions not unlike “What do you think customer service means?” and “What do you think your strengths are?”. Now don’t get me wrong – I answered the questions just fine, but it wasn’t until afterwards that I started getting a little paranoid, thinking things like “Damnit, I should have mentioned knowing the target market and tailoring information to suit a particular customer!” or “Was it really necessary to stress the fact that I like harbouring a keenness to learn and adapt to new situations… five times in the course of the interview?”.

So, the moral of this story, folks? Go into job interviews prepared, and don’t watch your own hand like a hawk when reaching for that cup of water they’ve so courteously supplied for you – you might see yourself shaking slightly with nervousness… this will only cause said nervousness to reach explosive proportions. Also, wear a belt if need be. And by “if need be”, I mean “because it completes the ensemble, and your pants will feel naked and vulnerable without one”.

Applicants for the position will be notified by next week, so I’m keeping my phone with me at all times possible – I’d rather answer the call directly than let it go to voicemail. Paranoid yuppie that I am. In the meantime, though, I’ll be travelling to the Central Coast with a few friends soon, then returning to Sydney in the evening on Monday… only to go with two of said friends to one of their houses for a day or two of horror movies, fast food and general vegging out. So perhaps that will suffice in distracting me until the results for the semester that just passed are released on Tuesday… (Hello slight sense of panic and dread!)

My Aunt is More Enlightening than my University Degree

Monday, June 1st, 2009

But only on fifteen-minute drives back from her place to my place, at 11:00PM on weeknights, when the heat facility of the car slowly defrosting my fingertips which, for the time being, don’t seem to be a normal, human colour. Oh wait… there they go… back to their human colour-ness… I was worried a bit there…

In any other context, she doesn’t talk to me half in Vietnamese and half in English (it’s usually either one or the other), or ask me whether or not I consider myself as having a soul, or talk to me about God. And in other contexts, I usually don’t find myself cupping my hand close to my mouth and blowing warm, carbon-dioxide filled air into the area between them to avoid dying of everyday frostbite. What a bizarre situation to find myself in, then.

But what I found more enlightening on the drive home tonight wasn’t the fact that I’d be able to start learning how to drive without having to pay anybody extortionate amounts or a finger or two (although I’ll have to learn manual, which sounds and looks like a complete bitch). Au contraire (oui oui, there is French here, dear readers). What I found more enlightening was the fact that in the almost nine years since my mother’s death, I’ve forgotten all but the basic elements of the Vietnamese language (it’s no longer spoken in this household), and communication between myself and my own Aunt is, therefore, made exponentially difficult by my own brain.

My own. damn. stupid. brain. Betcha didn’t see that one coming, didja?

I find myself yearning for the days when I was actually bilingual – to the point where I rummage through years and years of primary school memories to find the Vietnamese textbooks from the language lessons I attended back then… and in the process, I drag up six solid years of crappy memories and once they’re absorbed, I resign myself to being psychologically full of fail. This all comes back to the point that I suck for letting myself almost entirely forget something that was once extremely vital to my everyday lifestyle. *cue emo sigh*

I’ve gotten to the point where I immerse myself in Vietnamese-ish surroundings as much as possible, so avoid losing every little bit of my native tongue. Things like (in the daytime, I must say) frequenting the suburbs in Sydney where Vietnamese people seem to crawl around in the thousands upon thousands, not in the least bit aware that I just likened the lot of them to a bunch of creepy crawly bugs…

I speak in Vietnamese wherever possible, despite the fact that half my tones are wrong most of the time and I could very well be asking “How much for a pig?” when I intended to ask “The pork and salad roll, how much is it?”. Oh, and I sit with my nose in a Vietnamese-to-English dictionary on some nights, copying out random words and stringing them into sentences with the grammar that I’ve only partially retained.

…it all sounds a bit sad, doesn’t it? Damn.

So that was, essentially, my train of thought on the way home tonight. Followed shortly by a certain train of thought, not at all unlike “I’m going to fucking blog about this when I get home…”, running laps in my head.

Oh, and the ickle God thing? My Aunt finished off the drive by telling me to murmur “God, save me, and save my soul, if I have a soul” before I go to sleep tonight. Yes, that’s right, folks… if I have a soul. I didn’t know whether to nod in an appeasing manner or burst out laughing… so I did both. The former while I was in the car, and then the latter when I was safely in my room. I wonder when she’ll realise I’m an atheist…

P.S. A new theme will be up after 12 June, as that’s the day I finish my exams and go on a big shopping spree with one of my best friends as a bit of self-reward. So hang on tight until then, folks!