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David

Typed, edited, printed, signed, contemplated, but eventually delivered. Officially resigned.

12/11/2010 11:02 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

Today I handed in my resignation letter.

It’s been something that I’ve been thinking about for a while now. A decision, prompted by a barely workable situation that I found myself in; an email sent, questioning how we got to this point, and a reply with a truth that I found disheartening. An extract from that reply I received:

I guess we can look at it from the point of view that whatever income it’s generating is better than not having any work at all from that client (or maybe not).

Maybe not. I don’t really know why I found that reply so disappointing. A corporation putting profit before the interests of its employees (and clients)? Perhaps I was just being naïve in hoping for the better. I don’t want to work for a company that just views me as a resource to be allocated, with absolutely no regard for how decisions made will affect my circumstances.

So I no longer will.

Not too sure what I’m going to be doing now. I finish up mid-December, so shall be taking a break until after the New Year. I guess we’ll see what happens then. Adventure.

Warning: video has blurred NSFW bits.

Cheap and dirty bullet-point summary of what’s happened:

• I’ve seen some great live music! Not so much into the very long and tiring festivals, but I got a chance to see The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Passion Pit, Florence + The Machine, Antony and The Johnsons, Mumford & Sons, Lady Gaga. All very impressive live and well recommended. Favourite moment I think would have been hearing Antony perform Another World. Just a heartbreakingly stunning moment of perfection. Sigh… just thinking about it. This is what it sounds like:
• I was in the Mardi Gras parade! My first ever participation in the parade. Our dragon boat club decided to enter a float. The theme was “drag on boat” *boom-tish*. Very exciting stuff. It was all a bit of a rush on the night, as we had the Chinese New Year regatta on earlier on in the day. The wait in the holding area was a bit of a pain, but once it’s your turn, and you enter onto the main street, and there’s a mass of people just waiting, it’s kind of mind-blowing. A picture of the prop paddles we made, drying in the sun:

  

• Dragon boat is going well! We had our last regatta last Sunday. Didn’t make the finals… but we were awarded Club of the Year! Fantastic achievement. I’m just so immensely proud of everyone involved. Kind of surprised by how much I’ve fallen for it, considering I only started in October last year.
• I’ve started my swimming lessons! And had my last lesson on the Wednesday. I’m afraid to say I’m not quite at the being able to swim stage. I think it might be time to look into private lessons.
• I’ve booked my flight to London! Shall be going over for my sister’s wedding. Travelling between June/July, so the weather should hopefully be much better than when I went in January last time! Shall be meeting up with Jane. Side trips with her to Amsterdam, Cinque Terre and San Sebastian planned, but not quite booked/organised yet! Very exciting.
• I’ve started a new blog! Whaaa-t?! Yes, the idea is a bit silly, given the fact that I can barely maintain this blog, but I wanted a place where I could post about music and only music. Anyway, if you wanted to check it out, I’ve dubbed it Not Mundane Music. A very minimalist affair.

Funny how (for me) it never really seems like anything is happening. Guess I’ve just gotta look closer. A not-too-shabby start to the year.

I was not afraid to:

• Do things on my own like go to gigs by myself, especially if I really wanted to see something that nobody else wanted to see (namely Lykke Li, Pivot/Metronomy, Sia).
• Challenge myself physically by completing the City2Surf, agreeing to walk ~31km from Manly to Palm beach, starting up with squash and dragon boating.
• Change mobile telephone providers (and lose my free, unlimited, Vodafone to Vodafone 20 min off-peak calls). This is a much bigger deal than it sounds, hopefully explained somewhat by the context below.
• Start to let go of old friendships. Sometimes people grow apart. You kind of realise that you’ve become different people. You have different values. You have barely any common interests, besides a history that’s been repeated so often it’s no longer nostalgia and just… pathetic. Talking on the phone seems to be more like listening to the other complain for hours, with their steadfast refusal of actually trying to work at their problems. It becomes a huge drain mentally.

I was afraid to:

• Let go completely. Or at least afraid to be completely honest, before things deteriorated the way they did. And I guess being honest to all my close friends in general. I should let them know how I feel if I feel like they’ve done something to let me down.
• Come out to my family. I don’t think there are any excuses for this one. Especially after my sister came back to Sydney for two weeks and had gone through my book/DVD collection. Or that time I told her I started dragon boating and she asked what kind of team it was. Or whenever my Mum asks if I’m seeing someone.
• Speak to people I don’t know. Not necessarily to (try to) pick up, but just to make conversation in general. Either in social situations, or at work. People (strangers) seem to terrify me.
• Take swimming lessons. OK, this one was more “too lazy” as opposed to “too afraid.” Still can’t swim. Gotta look into lessons for 2010!
• Take charge of my career. I’m choosing being comfortable over the uncertainty that comes with pursuing what I’m interested in.

I guess the above will also form the things I want to achieve for 2010.

My theme song (oh, how Alley McBeal!) for 2009, which will probably continue for this year:

Apt.

• Saw Patrick Wolf on the Wednesday in Sydney. Amazing! Tremendous amount of talent. My overall most-played artist on Last.fm for a reason. I swear he looked right into my eyes at various points during the gig, although I did not check if there was anyone hot standing behind me.
• Honourable gig mentions to John Mayer and Jay Brannan, who I also got a chance to see. Seeing John Mayer live reminded me of why I liked him so much. When he acknowledged his recent douchebagginess, I couldn’t help but immediately forgive.
• Jay Brannan performing Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind is something I won’t forget soon. Absolutely beautiful.

• I’ve ported my mobile telephone service to Telstra. A huge debacle, spanning 19 Nov 2009 up until 7 Dec 2009, approximately 10 outbound calls, 4 inbound calls, 5 sent emails, 3 received emails and 5 store visits. PlanetISP (my previous provider) can go fuck themselves for not telling me my correct account number and providing me with false assurance that my account number was updated, when it was in fact not.
• I have won one game of squash! Quite happy with this achievement, considering how terrible I was. Won’t quantify the number of games I’ve lost (but it’s around the pretty-much-every-other-game mark).
• I’ve competed in two dragon boat regattas! Most recent one was the 500m on Sunday. I paddled in all four heats, second row in three of them (pressure, pressure, all that pressure, timing, timing, timing). Didn’t make the finals, but our second heat was definitely on the faster side.
• Possibly related to the above two points, I have had comments from friends saying I look more “buff”. This is a positive development, as someone who could previously squeeze through fences. Although, I met up with a different group of friends who said I looked thinner and asked if I was OK?! Colour me confused.

That’s it!

• I am now taking part in a squash competition with some workmates (plus some other people that I do not know)! I had my first proper game on Thursday. I was quite terrible. Hopefully I’ll improve with time? No, I will improve with time.
• I have now joined a dragon boating team! First training session was last Saturday and I was really, truly sore afterwards. Had another one yesterday which wasn’t too painful. I’m getting better! Or not working as hard? No, I’m getting better.
• I got a haircut a couple of weeks back. I don’t think I could say I was happy with how it was cut, but then I tried parting my hair on the other side (my right side) and I thought that looked better. So for four days, I alternated between left and right parts, before deciding to stick to the right. I think I’m happy with it now.
• I decided to cram a lot of things into this week. I saw Julie & Julia, listened to Meiko & Matt Nathanson, meet friends for dinner & dessert, meet other friends for dinner just because, meet other friends for dinner and drinks, and go out for high tea. On the edge of social burn out. Got to slow down and start saying no to things. Of course I say this after I’ve committed to the first two points.
• I am now up to date with Mad Men. Such a fantastic series. Eye-opening. Very stylish (check out some photos from the Vanity Fair photo shoot, by Annie Leibovitz). Superb. No hyperbole.

I think my favourite line:

I need to take myself away
From the pillowed hand, on which I stand
And throw me out of the side of a plane
And I’ll just see where I land

• Kanye West is a bit of a dickhead. But I’m thankful for all the memes that have resulted.
• I’d like to see this movie. A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford:
• Really love my green t-shirt. I love it seemed to really fade that time I went bushwalking, making the stitching slightly more contrasty. I love the little hole at the back of my shirt, from the man with the pointy bag on the plane. Every time I put this shirt on, it’s like it’s hugging me, feels a teensy bit too tight if it’s fresh from the washing line, relaxing with every movement.
• Yeah, I think it’s been a while since I was last hugged.
• This makes me really happy:



• I don’t know why, but I have a strong urge to write a parody song of La Roux’s Colourless Colour. I’ve decided it will be called Stapleless Stapler.
• When you put things away after using them, things are much neater.
• After rummaging through the recycling bin, I’ve found my local planting guide between my desk and the wall.
• It’s over!

Songs that I’ve (re)discovered in the last 3 months that I reckon I’ll still like in the next 3 months. Compiled and mixed on 31/08/09. 49 minutes 13 seconds.

Download mixtape as an enhanced podcast (.m4a, playable in iTunes, with chapter marker, embedded album artwork and a link to the artist’s MySpace for each track, slightly better quality) (49.3MB).

Download mixtape as an MP3 (47.3MB).

Track List:

1. We Are Golden (Calvin Harris Remix) – Mika
2. Pump My Pumps – Dan Black
3. Animal (Peter Bjorn and John Remix) – Miike Snow
4. Battle – Patrick Wolf
5. Drumming – Florence + The Machine
6. Symmetry – Little Boots
7. When You’re Around – Frankmusik
8. Guns and Horses – Ellie Goulding
9. Speak, Memory – Tiga
10. Watch The Sun Come Up (Fred Falke Remix) – Example
11. As If By Magic – La Roux
12. Morning Dreams – Ladyhawke
13. Asleep – The Smiths

Past playlists can be found here.

If you like, have a listen and let me know what you think!