Returning

The holidays are now coming to a close. In less than 12 hours, I, and the rest of BGS, will be back to school. These past holidays have been very different from most, because of the renovations. It has given me a chance to recollect my thoughts, refresh my mind, start afresh.
I have learned much, seen much, done much. I watched no less than 6 animes, downloaded hundreds of songs, learned to create maps in UnrealED, Taken my first job, earned enough money to start purchasing parts for my new computer, discovered new ways for people to interact with computers, learned the Jessica Fridrich method for solving F2L on the Rubik's cube, and many other things, far to numerous to mention.
For most of my life, the passing of years has been marked by the school years. I suppose that's why the fact that it is now 2008 has, for the most part, skipped my attention.
2008 will be an interesting year for me. Since I will be turning 16, I will be able to get a Driver's Licence, apply for a Visa and leave school. I'm not sure how it will all turn out, since the years never seem to go exactly as I planned, but I am hoping that at least it won't be a bad year.
I can't say I'm exactly looking forward to going back to school, but I guess my disposition is irrelevant, and I'm certainly not dreading it. As I said, it will be interesting.

Either way, time goes on, and until someone finds a way to stop it, the only thing I can do is keep clawing my way through experiences as they attempt to rush by me.
Wish me luck!

Blurr.

I....sort of understand what people mean when they say they are blur...
I worked again yesterday, and I'm going to work in about half-an-hour. I haven't slept much recently, so I'm ultra-tired. But beyond that...I just feel...

Blur.

No better way to describe it. Oh well. At least, after either today, or the next time I work, I'll have enough to start purchasing parts for my computer, which is a great thing. I think I'll hold that off until the holidays later in the year, since school starts in a week and a bit...

Not much point in having a beast of a machine if I can't pwn with it...

So I'm pretty much occupying my time with, at the moment, reading. I'm reading an awful lot lately...almost an unhealthy amount, but I suppose that isn't too bad...
The time I don't spend reading, I spend on the forums, and the time I don't spend doing either of those thing, I'm pretty much moping around doing nothing.

And I just remembered, again, that I have a heap of homework to do.
Great.

Oh well, I'm going to use the time I have now on the forums, before going off to put RAM into notebooks. /sigh.

Itte kimasu.

Work Work...(Actually this time)

Work.
My perspective on the subject has changed considerably over the past few days. On Tuesday, it was a shining goal, a place where I had to crane my neck and squint in order to see properly. It was the way I would buy my PC, a plane-ticket and eventually, a car, an apartment who knows what else. It was the thing standing between me, and the next phase of my life.
On Tuesday, it was, very suddenly, much closer. I did not have to crane my neck. I did not have to squint. All I had to do was get changed, grab some lunch and get myself over to Reserve Road.
You see, a family friend is the Managing Director of an IT distributer, and I had asked her for a job about a week ago, not really expecting any results. She called at about 7:30, Wednesday morning, informing me that she was short a pair of hands, and would I like to come in and work for the rest of the week, from 8:30 'till 4:30. I, of course, jumped upon the opportunity, got changed in a flash, and was soon on my way to the office.
At that point, I was quite apprehensive. The only experience I can relate it to is the start of a roller coaster, when the carriage is idling slowly along the start of the track. The only difference this time was that I couldn't see the gigantic drops, loops and corkscrews ahead of me.

Day 1: I arrived at the office quite apprehensive, but excited. It was the sort of job that I hadn't really dreamed of getting. I wasn't going to be cleaning anything, cooking anything, or sitting at home playing games, I was going to work at an IT office...I couldn't believe my luck. I met all of the people at the office - Andy, Dylan, Jarrad, Alex and Katie. Andy and Dylan were the ones manning the IT floor *See Diagram1*, where I would be working, Jarrad was the receptionist, Katie was the manager and Alex was in an unknown position of leadership that still confuses me. I stood around awkwardly for about 15 minutes while Andy and Dylan decided what to do with me, before Jarrad walked in and asked me to "move a couple of boxes, it'll only take about 20 minutes." I will now proceed to correct the preceding sentence. For "a couple", read "about one-hundred. Add "upstairs" after "boxes", and change "20 minutes" to "about 2 hours". And then try adding "Oh and by the way, you will be completely physically exhausted about half way through, and we're going to remind you that after you've finished that massive pile, there are another two hiding that you don't know about yet, so you can have fun finding that out later."
Whee.
About two hours of painstaking box-moving later, I had changed my perspective on work.
Work was now, for me, something that had to be done, in order for a standard of living to be maintained. The way I saw it, someone had to do the things that I was doing, and that person would have to do it, or no longer be able to maintain the way they live. I was only concerned with items that would make my life better, and I still am, I suppose, but now I am more aware of what work means to others. I hadn't really realised that until Wednesday. But the day didn't end there. That was only 2 hours of an eight-hour day.
After finishing that, I walked back to the IT floor, and Andy instructed me to start putting some RAM into notebooks...














Image 1: The IT floor.

This job filled me with interest, since it involves PC hardware, a topic which immensely interests me, and it was far less strenuous than carrying large boxes up stairs.
I was of a slightly different opinion four hours later.
Let me lay out the routine of inserting a 1GB stick of RAM into an Acer TravelMate 6292 Notebook-Computer.

1. Get four boxes out of the storeroom.
2. Carry boxes to IT floor.
3. Get first box.
4. Pick up pen-knife.
5. Cut open box.
6. Put down pen-knife.
7. Take out notebook.
8. Re-insert foam-packaging into box.
9. Take pamphlets out of box.
10. Take notebook out of bag.
11. Place notebook on top of bag.
12. Pick up screwdriver.
13. Unscrew first screw.
14. Unscrew second screw.
15. Unscrew fourth screw.
16. Unscrew third screw.
17. Put down screwdriver.
18. Take of RAM casing.
19. Pick up a stick of RAM.
20. Insert RAM into notebook, aligning groove.
21. Clip down RAM.
22. Check RAM. If wobbly, take out RAM, and go back to step 18.
23. Pick up screwdriver.
24. Screw in first screw.
25. Screw in second screw.
26. Screw in fourth screw.
27. Screw in third screw.
28. Put down screwdriver.
29. Pick up notebook.
30. Place notebook into box.
31. Place pamphlets into box.
32. Place bag into box.
33. Add box to the already humongous box-pile you have created. *See Diagram2*
34. Get next box. Go to step 4, until you run out of boxes, then go back to step 1. Repeat indefinitely.

It was at this point that I decided that any factory worker must be pretty depressed...I was finding this repedative work pretty depressing...
Oh well. After quite some time, I finished, and went home, quite tired.















Diagram 2: My lovely box pile, day one (most of the boxes were taken away, for imaging)

Day two. I'm not going to go over it in too much detail, but just know that ALL I did was the RAM. Non stop, for 8 hours. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Day three. Since I'm getting tired of writing, I'll just say that I didn't have to do any more RAM. I was mainly imaging notebooks. (Installing the OS and programs onto the notebooks for schools) Much more...less-boring. I stayed a bit longer on Friday, until about six. Now, it's all over.

My opinion of work now?
Hmm...

I think I'll settle on:
"A way to earn money."


Oh and by the way, the holidays up until now have been relatively boring, and I'm learning how to create maps for the Unreal Engine.

Ja.