Day 2: Tuesday – The art of listening
Today we didn’t really do much, just listening to calls intermixed with theory. It seemed pretty good, and I had some good chast with coworkers. But we still haven’t actually done anything.

Day 3: Wednesday – The pressure begins.
An so it began. Calls, calls and more calls. Lots of answering machines, people not home, and not interested people. 8 hours of calls -> no results.

Ended the day by going to the SL no excuses party. That was quite cool, lots of chatting, plus Micah & I stayed up really late watching “John Safran vs God”. A very interesting series. Got to sleep (on a futon mattress on the floor) just before sun-up.

Day 4: Thursday – Exorcism
Got up, had some pancakes for breakfast – which were cooked by Christy and Hannah. Christy had the better skills, but I’m sure some readers will say I make that comment for other reasons. I could rant about how they are wrong, but they might not be….

Walked through driving rain to the station, caught a train, got to town hall, used the QVB toilets for a pseudo-shower – deodorant, change of clothes, washing face & arms. The whole time I had a really uneasy feeling. Mainly stemming from the fact that I felt the job would involve me pushing people too hard if I was to do it correctly. So to put in the effort required for the job would involve me crossing an ethical line that I was unwilling to cross.

Once I got to work there was a meeting for us new guys, where we were basically told we needed to push people harder, and try to pressure people who said they were “not interested”. This confirmed my suspicions, and when we were told to build rapport by lying (e.g “yeah I got kids too” or “I’d want my family looked after”) the feeling transitioned from uneasiness to a complete conviction of my conscience. Plus I had a really raging headache and blocked nose. So I told my boss I was feeling sick and asked to go home.

I used the time to consult an advisor, and I came to 2 conclusions:

• If I was to not breach my views of pressuring people into sales, I’d have to not work hard at all.
• Not working hard at all, and still getting paid is just as big an ethical transgression.

So, I decided to quit. I had a go, tried to do it, and realised I couldn’t. Now I still don’t know if it is possible for a christian to do telemarketing in a general sense, I do know that it isn’t possible for me to do so and stay true to my faith. So like the death sticks guy I have gone home and rethought my life.

So now I’m back to square 1 – find a job. Hopefully the pay I recieve will help me to survive while doing so.

Also I’ll be visiting this church on sunday as my church search begins.

Now if I remember my electronics right (and I should, I got the most consistant marks in it at uni), Induction is an electrical phenomenon whereby an electromotive force (EMF) is generated in a closed circuit by a change in the flow of current. I think the change in me was usually from awake to sleeping.

Wow. Ergonomics at a computer, I’m sure I’ve written essays on the subject. Wow. Don’t do bad stuff – oh, and I was planning on groping co-workers. Although I do wonder if my brown SL tshirt (with some text from John) counts as offensive….

There is free coffee, though – even if it is from a Nescafe machine.

The worst part was definately the early start today. Luckily tomorrow I goto “Ian Hourstm” 11:45 – 8pm. That means no cold early morning peak hours trains. Which is good. But it means cold late night trains. Which is bad.

For those who really care – This is what I’ll be selling.

Although all day when I’ve thought of selling insurance 2 things have popped into my head

• Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day – “BING”
• The “wanna buy some death sticks” guy from Star Wars Episode 2

Hopefully at the end of my three months I won’t need a jedi mind trick to leave.

Well…. things are always in the last place you look. So I got the last job I applied for last week, and have yet to hear anything from anyone else.

It started with a group assessment, where I realised that as a citizen and uni graduate I had a distinct advantage over my mostly backpacker and school grad opponents. We had a phone test where we had to make 4 pretend calls. Two hung up, one wanted me to call back, and I got a sale on the last one. Then we had a group exercise, proposing business ideas (which we were given) and discussing the pros and cons. I think using my general knowledge on the source of wines, and bringing up the main cons and immediately proposing a solution went down well.

The said they’d call back later in the day, so instead of miss the call while train travelling I hung around the city, then at a bit after 2, while passing the burger king on george st. I got the call. Bk proved to be too noisy to hear what was being said so I ducked into the convience store next door.

So I start on monday at Customcall it should be fun. Casual dress code, internet cafe and pool table in the break room, free breakfast when we start work (which is around lunchtime) – plus I’ll be working with young people/backpackers. The only issue is that the office is at 383 Kent st (levels 11 & 12), and heading towards the nearest train stations requires passing Krispy Kreme or Venue Music. Oh well.

So I will have money very soon. [mr burns voice]Exxxcellent…[/mr burns voice]

As much as I love to have no money, finding a part-time job or 3 is now on the agenda. I think it is a fun process, especially in the current environment of low unemployment. That means that there are less candidates for each job, so hopefully the competing companies I’ve applied for will fight to the death for me.

I’m quite sure that coles-myer wants me. I did the only aptitude test, and kinda got at the top end of the curve. Look here, the graph is just an image. Checking the url of it revealed that is #52, the lower numbers point to lower points on the bell curve. And there is no 53. The implication being that I got (essentially) full marks on it. Unfortunately I only applied for casual work, so they won’t offer me CEO ;-)

Unfortunately (or fortnunately depending on your point of view) I can’t just go and get a bloody hard work required labouring type job. It seems that you need to have done OH&S courses and such. Oh well, no back breaking manual labour for me – I’m not going to spend money on a course teaching me how to lift and not get run over by trucks. I prefer to get a security license if I need any qualifications for a job, since I do have the right shape to be a security guard.

Here it is, completely verbatim.

Hey Hey,

An Apology:

I know it’s been a long time since I sent an email to those who support me, but a lot has happened over the past few months. It didn’t matter whether it was sickness, job offers, struggling with sin or running low on possible support contacts but each presented a challenge that absorbed the time I should of used to keep you informed. This was obviously not a good thing for me to do, as having you pray for all the various things that occurred would have been the best option, rather than me tackling the issue alone under my own strength. For this I am sorry, and I pray that I will do better in this area in the future.

The News:

Yes, it’s true, I’m moving. This will allow me to do a number of things:

1. Get settled in at a new church before I hit campus full-time.

2. Work part-time while I continue to raise support – to provide money for things like rent, food, phone bills and a car.

3. Be much closer to those who are also support raising (i.e. others who are also joining Student Life) to provide moral and spiritual support

4. To facilitate further support raising opportunities

After talking to a number of wise counsellors I decided that taking this step was the best option, even though it will mean that over the next few months I will be spending more time settling in and forming relationships within my new church than support raising. Although this will mean that my initial support raising period will be longer, my spiritual, mental and physical health will be much better served over the long term. This will hopefully prevent me getting “burned out” by ministry, and give greater long term impact in God’s Kingdom.

How You Can Help:

1. Prayer: Pray that all the above will go well, but specifically:

   • That God will provide suitable part-time work for my immediate financial needs

   • That I will find a new church where:

     • The Bible is faithfully taught

     • University students can be “hooked in”

     • Support raising will be supported

   • That I will find appropriate housing in the short and long term

   • That God will provide transportation via an affordable vehicle

   • That God will provide the rest of the funding needed for me to minister on campus full-time

2. Ideas: If you know of ways that God can answer the above prayer points via human means, then I’d love to hear from you. Whether it is a friend who has property (or room) for cheap rent, or car for sale, or a church you used to attend that will meet my needs, or you know of people who might be interested in supporting my ministry. Remember that the only bad idea is the one that isn’t expressed.

3. Support: Whatever that might mean for you. It might be that you pray faithfully. Or maybe call or email me occasionally to check on how I’m doing. It might mean that you send me links to articles or website you discover on the net about things relevant to university ministry. Or maybe you could even consider raising your financial contribution, or starting to contribute financially if that becomes possible.

That’s all for now, I’ll provide you with my new details once I’ve moved, but my email address – chaotica@studentlife.org.au and my mobile number – 0402 373 483 won’t change. Thanks for all your support.

Okay. It is time. Now I have actually made a decision about my direction. I will go into my reasoning at a later date, once I have written it all out for my letter to supporters.

What is it you may ask (or not if you already know)?

I am staying with Student Life.

BUT….

To facilitate continued support raising, I’ll be moving down ASAP. As part of this I need:

• A Job: Funding is required to provide the other needs, particularly rent/board and transport
• Accomodation: Short and long term, short would be me crashing somewhere and not having to pay rent etc. And it would be preferablely be near the job
• Transport: Some kind of vehicle that I can drive.
• A church: This is somewhere that I can be longterm, where I’ll be supported both spiritually and financially.

So if you can help, or have an ideas (or have a house/car you want to giveaway) then post a comment or email me or call me 0402 373 483.

Went shopping today. As it was a tuesday, it meant that the shops were less packed than normal. There was lots of stuff in the bargain bins at the various music retailers (HMV, Sanity, DS Powerhouse, JB Hi-Fi). Most of it was bad. Like really bad. We’re talking obscure australian mid 90’s indie, and bad country (nb. all country music is bad). There was a lot less Tom Jones than in previous sales, and I didn’t have any great finds.

I did have a good find in getting the Norah Jones Live 2004 DVD for $13 @ HMV. I haven’t got any of her stuff before mainly due to the “CDs” having copy protection (which makes them unplayable on my system, though they do work on my ancient target discman). I haven’t watched it yet, so I’ll give my review in a future post. Obviously I’ll make a “backup copy” of the audio to both Ogg Vorbis on my computer and an Audio CD. Purely to allow me to listen to it while travelling or playing/working on my computer (as having OpenOffice.org, gimp and gxine (for to play dvds) would tax my little old box too much).

I also got Corrosion of Conformity – Wiseblood for $15 at JB HiFi. CoC are an awesome band who started life as a hardcore punk band, but after some personnel chages drifted to a more stoner/southern blues metal sound. I first heard them when they supported Pantera on their 2001 oz tour, at which point I went and bought “Americas Volume Dealer” – the album they had just released at the time. Wiseblood is an earlier work, and has a less polished sound than AVD, which I think suits them much better, and is closer to their live sound. Awesome riffs, lead breaks – guitar and bass, great vocals, and a good smattering of styles from hardcore to blues via metal and funk though all are tinged with their “southern” style.

Over the weekend I also managed to find an “offsite backup” (i.e. torrent feed) of Sam n Max: Hit the Road to replace my currently misplaced original CD. This is an awesome game and since I started playing through all my old point and click adventures this is the one I’ve been waiting for. Good story, fun puzzles, and scarily adult humor that I don’t think I got all of when I played it in my youth. I also got ScummVM working on my plam pilot, so I can play all the LucasArts adventures while travelling.

My hair is now spikey and blond. If I was in better shape I could probably pass for a boy band member.

Also it seems everyone wants to know what is happening with me – calls from pastor, sms’s from friends, emails galore.

Be assured that something dramatic will happen by the end of the month.

Big week:

• Apple switches to intel.
• Wendell Sailor switches to the waratahs.
• Briath Anasta stays with league (I think he’ll go to the Bunnies on July 1)
• And no…. I ain’t made any decisions yet.

I’ve been quite sick the last few days, yesterday I just laid in bed all day and only got up when my body got angry and wanted to eject all fluids. But at least I’m not as bad as Wil “wesley crusher” Wheaton.

So obviously I ain’t made any big decisions yet, but I did have a lot of time to think and contemplate the various issues involved with either life direction.

And I think I need to mod the landline, it is way too quiet and is almost drowned out by the case fans on a computer. I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to boost the speaker output – just some soldering (oh, and the l ain’t silent – americans I’m talking to you).