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My own worst enemy!

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

I guess it's not hard to see why I'm not getting any healthier despite all the exercise... Over the long weekend we had a working bee to finalise the chicken coup and make planter boxes around the vegies... I, of course, had to make cup cakes for the occasion. Not just any cup cakes though... Sweet potato cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I can honestly say these are the best cup cakes I have ever ever tasted... Possibly the best food I have ever tasted... The people at Better Homes and Gardens have outdone themselves with this recipe. I knew I was in trouble after the first bite. Mum and Lachlan polished off 3 each fresh out of the oven... and I took some around to our neighbour, Jack, as well... but it was a large batch and 2 remain in the kitchen. I want to eat them both right now. I guess this is what addiction feels like! They are just exquisitely delicious... So I am blogging to take my mind off certain mouthwatering specimens of perfection in the kitchen.

Apart from that I am mid career crisis at the moment... Do I try to make a career out of sustainability? Or do I refocus and build my technical skills so I have something tangible to work with? Should I try for my dream of community development work? It's so hard... The classic "jack of all trades" - I love variety! I'm having a lot of trouble making the decision and it's not fair on the people around me! I need a crystal ball to see into the future...

Anyway, I'd better get some real work done.. The piles are beyond enormous. I need to take a month off work just to catch up on work!

Labels: career, cup cakes

posted by genloz at 11:35 PM 0 Comments

Why should we choose you?

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Interview day... Today I had a chance to implement my 'sustainable culture' HR policy... The job ad I posted for a new programmer included the requirement of 'interest in sustainability' amongst other things, and one of my key questions was regarding the 5% reduction! Unfortunately only 2 out of 50 applicants deemed my requirement worthy of a mention... and only 1 of those interviewed actually knew what the 5% target was about!! I am definitely starting to see why behavioural change is considered so difficult... (well I suppose I already knew from my chocolate addiction)... The candidates were an extremely mixed bunch... Those who were obviously social isolates, spoke too fast or didn't stop! Those who turned up in a dirty tshirt and those with full suits and cufflinks... Some fresh out of uni and some with years of professional experience. After all the interviews it turned out that the best 2 were the 2 who actually addressed the sustainability criteria in their responses... Now it's up to me to come up with a test/activity to determine which one!

Reading through the cvs really put my career into perspective though... I think I'm having a career crisis like Xin! I trained in software engineering and physics, I have been doing environmental engineering and sustainability and now I'm moving into education?! It's no way to build a skill set and have a focus like the people who I interviewed today... I need to decide what I enjoy most! It's just so difficult - elements of each are fascinating. Perhaps I should have been a journalist - the classic jack of all trades!

I also realised that my hobbies have really been light on this year. All my interest in sport, volunteering and the arts has dried up in favour of work, work and more work... If I'm not at work, I'm doing webpages for the University or for ecoIT or the not for profits I'm involved with... I really need to get out there and embrace life more! I read an interesting quote the other day. I'm not sure of the exact wording but it went along the lines of "boys learn to live too early, women learn to live too late, that is the problem with life". I'm certainly seeing that with Ganesh and myself. I suppose the HSP has to do with my slight uptightness but I've had enough - it's time to be a complete and happy person... No more hiding behind the computer! And yes, I see the irony of declaring that via a blog... I've been thinking a little bit about my new years resolutions of late and that is definitely going at the top of the list.

Labels: career, interview, sustainability

posted by genloz at 9:38 PM 2 Comments