Archive

Separating Work Mitch from Home Mitch

Published
by
Mitch
on April 30, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

Work probably means different things to different people. For me, I don’t wake up and dread heading into work (most days anyway), in fact most days the idea of hitting the offices excites me a little.

I love my job, my career path, my company and my colleagues. But when things get scary and stressful, leaving all that stuff in the office can be difficult, especially when things go wrong.

To quote my hero, Ari Gold:

Eric Murphy: Ari, I’m getting killed here. Vince isn’t happy.
Ari Gold: Of course he’s not happy. Nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers. Look at me, I’m miserable… that’s why I’m rich.

Now I’m not rich… not yet anyway… but I am successful. And I do know that a certain level of stress, or let’s call it urgency, is totally necessary to be good at what you do. Especially if you love your work and care about the job that you do.

So right now, after working 11.5 hours, I am going to leave Work Mitch at work and go have a beer with my best mate Matt. And I am going to enjoy it and relax.

Over and out.

Mitch’s MSN Censor Gag

Published
by
Mitch
on April 30, 2008
in More Fun Than a Barrel O' Monkeys
. 0 Comments

After just having a chat on MSN with a friend I have developed an awesome MSN gag to get your friends. Feel free to use this, but do credit me. I hereby license this MSN gag under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Done, my gag, I own it. Boom!

Step 1: The Setup
Start by some casual chat using the █ character to block out some bad language.

You: Hey dude, what’s up?
John Do: Not a lot, just at work.
You: Yeah same, what a █████ huh? I really just can’t be ████ed today.

Step 2: Act Dumb
By now you’ve got them curious and they’re asking questions about why all the language is being censored out.

John Do: Uh dude, why is it censoring all the bad language?
You: What do you mean?
John Do: I keep seeing black boxes where swear words should be?
You: What the ████ are you on about?
John Do: See what I mean?
You: No I don’t, what the ████ are you on about? ████ you’re being weird!
John Do: I swear to god, you’re being censored!
You: ████, really? That’s ████ing weird!

Step 3: Drop the V-Bomb
You’re presumably tech-savvy and smarter than your friend so introduce some virus chat to really get them a bit worked up.

You: Oh god, I’ve heard about this virus. Apparently it blocks all your swearing and forwards itself through MSN. I can see the swear words here, but you’re sure you can’t see them there? ████ ████ity ████ ████ ████ - can you see that?
John Do: No, I can’t, it’s censored.
You: I hope I haven’t given the virus to you, you try swearing.
John Do: Shit - can you see that?
You: No! All I see is black! Oh I’m so sorry for giving you virus!

Note: just copy and paste the black squares, it’s easier.

‘Nuff said. Go forth and wreak havoc.

Catching the eye of a recruiter

Published
by
Mitch
on April 29, 2008
in Work
. 1 Comment

Interesting article on KRIS.TV today titled “Catching the Eye of an Executive Recruiter”. It makes some obvious points, some less-obvious points and misses one key area to finding the attention of a recruiter.

One of the points it raises is that recruiters are only interested in the roles they are working on. This absolutely should not be the case with a good recruiter and finding good talent should always be a priority for this kind of individual.

This raises the most important point missed in the article: find good or even great recruiters who are inside your network.

With so many recruitment agencies who barely know what they are doing, make sure you find a recruiter you can genuinely partner with. Find a recruiter who your colleagues and friends deal with a lot, who comes highly recommended and meet with them. Make your recruiter your friend.

In a mutually beneficial recruitment partnership the candidate owes as much to the recruiter as the recruiter owes to the candidate. Offering your consultant a degree of exclusivity, prompt feedback and regular updates are an excellent start to making yourself a priority to your recruitment consultant. Offering them referrals is an even better way to stay front of mind - good people should always know other good people.

This brings me to my last point: know where your CV is. Your CV is a personal document and a window to your professional career; not knowing who has it is a fatal mistake made by a vast majority of candidates. Nothing will ruin your name in the recruitment marketplace like dozens of consultants fighting over representation rights or clients seeing your CV from multiple agencies. Long story short: don’t be a CV whore.

Ten signs that you might be a workaholic

Published
by
Mitch
on April 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments
  1. Food - you have more essential food groups stashed in your work fridge than your fridge at home. Home fridge: beer, sports drinks and toasties. Work fridge: almost everything except the beer (until Friday that is).
  2. E-mail - you are so bad at checking your personal e-mail that your friends actually have to call and ask if you got their letter. Meanwhile, you have a blackberry and web portals to check your work e-mail from anywhere.
  3. Sundays - they’re kind of like Mondays and you’ve completely given up on having them, why not get just a few hours in the office before you get another 60+ hours of work in.
  4. Sleep - almost completely optional and never allowed to get in the road of getting in to work an hour or two earlier than you should be. Nothing feels better than hitting the office before everyone else.
  5. Colleagues vs Friends - suddenly you notice you have plenty of friends, but 400% more colleagues, ex-colleagues and business partners. But you don’t care, friends don’t make you money.
  6. Networking - you can’t even walk the dog without giving your business card to someone or thinking about who you should be speaking to.
  7. Clothes - you don’t have a single t-shirt at home to wear to the bar, but you have 6 suits and 20+ shirts all pressed in the work closet.
  8. Sunlight - you leave so early for work you only catch first glimpses, you leave so late that it’s beyond dusk. You pretty much have no idea what sunlight is and your Vitamin D comes from artificial sources.
  9. Caffeine - your blood/caffeine levels have been replaced with caffeine blood levels. It’s no longer a pick me up, it’s now your sole lifesource.
  10. Relationships - yes, finally the big one. You know loads of people, but maintain contact through Facebook and MSN. You send more cybercoffees and buy more virtual gifts than real ones and your idea of a date is lifting back the lid on your girlfriend/boyfriends microwave meal.

If you relate to more than just a few of these, your life is potentially as sad as mine.

Note: It has been bought to my attention by my lovely girlfriend Claire that this might seem to paint a picture that perhaps I am a boring bastard who never pays for a meal. Just on the record, I definitely make time in my week to make sure she is adequately spoiled. :-)

Getting an apartment in Sydney

Published
by
Mitch
on April 23, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

Finding your apartment in Sydney (and probably other places) in today’s rental market is a nightmare. People are literally lining up for property viewings, applying by the dozens, and in a lot of instances doing literally whatever it takes to get properties.

I viewed a property on Saturday with two friends, applied on Saturday and had the property secured by Tuesday. The reasons I was able to secure the property so quickly are two fold. And both of the attributes you have complete control over.

The two things that are absolutely vital to a good and quick rental application are a solid rental history and an excellent application. The rental history should already be taken care of if you’re a good tenant, but I will share some tips for an excellent application that were given to me by a 20-year veteran property manager.

  1. Be prepared - download applications from the real estate agents website or go to their premises and retrieve them, and have them filled out well before you even go to the property. Don’t be sitting outside trying to think of referees or rental histories, it’s not going to work.
  2. Be really prepared - have everything ready; your bond, your first month of rent and photo copies of relevant paperwork (drivers license, birth certificate, etc. etc.)
  3. Cover letter - they’re not just for job hunting; write the property manager a letter telling him about yourself and your situation. In our case there were 3 guys applying and we wrote a letter to make it very clear that we weren’t looking for a “party house” and that we are three professional guys.
  4. Introduce yourself - the property manager is potentially showing the house to dozens and dozens of potential tenants - in our case it was apparently over 200 people. Introduce yourself, hand in your application and cover letter while you’re there. This makes you front of mind right from the start.
  5. Follow up - don’t hand in an application and forget about it. Call the property manage and ask how the applications are going, ask if he needs any more information and remind him that you have all the relevant documents and the money ready to go. E-mails are a great follow up too as it prompts a response always
  6. Hedge your bets - you’ve maximised your chances of getting the property, now maximise your chances of getting any property that you’re interested in. You will like more than one property, so apply to more than one property. It’s like cheating; it’s okay if she’s doing it, right?
  7. Be polite - common sense, but I’ve heard of guys getting really upset over the property, this just won’t do anyone any favours.
  8. Have support - make sure all your references are prepared and your housemates (if any) are ready to go. Also, it helps if you’re a little younger your parents are on your side (thanks mum)!

I hope this helps anyone looking for a property and explains perhaps where you’ve been going wrong in your applications. It’s a tough market and you have to treat every application very seriously and maximise your chances of finding that dream apartment.

I’ll Kill Her

Published
by
Mitch
on April 21, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Possibly the best YouTube song I’ve seen, why can’t I get rickrolled with this sometimes?

The Things You Own, Own You

Published
by
Mitch
on April 7, 2008
in Geek, Lifehacking and Tech Talk
. 5 Comments

This morning while perusing some news items I came across an interesting article on SMH about people who spend money on gadgets they can’t necessarily afford, don’t need the features and certainly don’t have the computer savvy mind to “drive” these devices.

As a gadget geek I scoffed at the implication that people are so silly that they buy devices they don’t use, but then suddenly found myself looking inwards to think about how I use my technology and just how much value it all adds to my life.

The first thing that comes to my phone. Every time I bring it out of my pocket geeks, and non-geeks alike, look in wonderment and start asking me about the features. When I tell them about the 5MP camera and GPS they are so impressed that they begin to talk about wanting one. But do I even use it?

To go through my rather extremely extensive geek collection and lay out how much I use, this might take a while but will paint a pretty accurate picture of what I need and don’t need.

Hold on to your hats.

Nokia N95
GPS - 3 times in 6 months
Camera - often more than once a day
Web - several times a day
SMS - several times a day
Calling - almost all day constantly - it’s my job

Work Blackberry (new, but this is assumptive)
E-mail - all day
Phone - all day, it will take over from my N95 for work calls
Web - several times a day
Calender / extra feature - all day

MacBook
All features - for a few hours a day or every other day

iPod 60GB
Music - every morning and afternoon after work
Video - once a week or maybe less

iPod Nano 4GB
Music - several times a week jogging, ideally, but actually not as often as I should
Video - never

Canon 350D D-Rebel
Photos (d’uh) - once a week but maybe less

PSP (Playstation Portable)
Games - less than a few times a month
Internet - Not often, but I should use more such as RSS on the bus
Other features - Never

X-Box
Haven’t touched it in years

Miscellaneous
Printer - not in years
Photo printer - even longer
Desktop PC - over a year
Television - in storage for over a year
iPod Shuffle - over a year
Palm T|X - over a year since I smashed the screen, but didn’t use enough at all

Plus god knows how much else that I can’t even think of…

How much of this stuff just belongs on eBay? Maybe just making some streamlining to my life to use fewer gadgets and use them more often? There is just too much junk here and considering most of it is portable, I have none of it with me (barring my phone of course) on a day-to-day basis.

What is your experience of buying technologies you don’t use? How many hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars worth of electo-crap do you have lying around your house?

I’m back

Published
by
Mitch
on March 31, 2008
in Ego
. 4 Comments

Not like Michael Jordan back; barely a few games and limited success. I’m talking about the kind of “back” where I probably don’t mean it and I’ll be gone again in a few days.

Regardless, I’m blogging. And if you’re one of the many 2 people who have asked me when I’m going to start writing again, then the answer is now. Now!

Alright, so this is the last Mitch post. You might notice that all the old posts are back, which I didn’t think they would ever be, but moreso that the design has changed for a rather final step. This design, for better or worse, will be the design I continue to use for some time. There will be minor 1.1.x updates, but this is all.

So what am I going to write about? It’ll still be a little about me, but I am going to try and give the blog some aim and some direction. I update Twitter several times a day with the boring shit I get up to, and I have facebook for boring banter, I want to give the site some direction.

So, this is what will (hopefully) happen over the next few weeks. I will delete quite a few old posts that are just crap. I will tag the posts that are here now and get the blog acting a little more 2.0 (’cuz I’m 1337). And I will hopefully start blogging about things with a little more substance

Oh, and I’m going to delete all, and I mean ALL, the posts that mention that I am going to start writing again. Including this one if I don’t hold my word and don’t start writing more often.

So peace out, comment like a madman, and stay cool.

Hallowed Internet, digital be thy name… make me famous!

Published
by
Mitch
on December 12, 2007
in Rant
. 2 Comments

Over time people have become famous for a lot of different things. Stella Liebeck was immortalized for all-time and given her own, albeit tongue-in cheek, Stella Awards, based on the ridiculous lawsuit she took out against the McDonald’s giant.

But these days with the internet anyone can be famous, even if it’s just for a day. There are an almost limitless number of ways you can make yourself famous on the internet. Majority of those ways involve making a loser out of yourself on YouTube, or getting in trouble over some poorly thought out MySpace photos, but it’s all fame nonetheless.

Wil Wheaton is/was quite famous from his blog on being a post-childstar. Maddox made himself very famous by abusing people who in most cases deserved it and some cases didn’t. Creating a bit of a ruck at a senator’s speech’s made Andrew Meyer famous for a short time. Even Paris Hilton managed some time in the light when her sex video “accidently” found it’s way onto video and file sharing networks.

And off the internet I have even less time for Big Brother throw-back, Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, who’s barely intelligible and definitely not funny commentary of Big Brother are only aided by the severe lack of both personality and intelligence of co-host Bree Amer. And please don’t get me started on the acting career of ex-BB housemate Blair McDonough or the singing meager careers of people like Australian Idol winners Casey Donovan and Kate DeAraugo.

I could literally go on forever over the shitty ways people have become famous, but what makes my mind boggle is how Chris Crocker is now allegedly going to become famous because of his internet video clip title LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

“Like… Double-Ya Tee Eff, mate?”

To be perfectly honest, as much as I’ve loved all the internet bagging of this complete joke, even that is a little too much attention for this absolute drama queen effort.

Personaly I would like to see the fat kid who sang Numa Numa make it big as the next poster child for Subway. I am thinking that MTV spends loads of money to get him thin, put’s him in Britney’s dancing crew to make her shitty efforts of entertainment seem slightly less dull by comparison, and follows him across the country as they terrorise children and crash cars.

In fact, here is my list of 5 internet “almosts” who should be made famous before Chris Crocker even gets a look-in:

  • Ask a Ninja - just funny, perhaps he could do commercial appearances?
  • Star Wars Kid - heavily ridiculed after his internet embarrassment, give the kid a break and perhaps a Wilson golf club endoursment.
  • Justin of justin.tv - already part-famous, but now completely overlooked for Justine Ezarik. Give the guy a break, he invented that little wheel!
  • Anyone who blogs regularly about blogging.
  • Anyone with a pulse and an internet presence.

I mean, seriously, is there no one else we can give a little leg-up to except the internet Freak of the Month September, 2007? Is the talent pool of America, and the greater world for that matter, really so low that we have to resort to such desperate measures as making this token-loser some kind of “new kid on the block” at MTV?

Apparently everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, but surely this Queer Eye reject has already had his. I hope I get mine by doing something really cool, however I know that I will probably get my name on the board for a few lousy moments for growing a large turnip or a bizarre incident involving a midget. But I can tell you what it won’t involve: me, ponsing about on YouTube, crying for a has-been superstar, and making an absolute twat of myself.

Mac OS X Leopard Launch Tomorrow

Published
by
Mitch
on October 25, 2007
in Geek and MacLife
. 2 Comments

In what will be my crowning geeky moment, I am going to be flickering, blogging and twittering the Leopard launch tomorrow. If anyone is in the area and wants to say hi, drop down and I might let you touch my Macbook… gently…

What: Mac OS X Leopard Launch
When: Friday, 26th October, 2007 (tomorrow)
Where: NextByte Store, Corner Clarence/Erskine St, Sydney NSW 2000
Cost: Free, but $158 if you’re buying a copy of the latest OS like me!