Turns out I didn’t get that job I wanted. It went to the most unlikely candidate actually, leaving me utterly perplexed. Darn. Well it looks like I have a lot more work cut out for me. I’m going to have to look into some other options, throw some resumes around and hope to get lucky.
In good news I’ve made some progress on the tiger form. I have a few moves down and some good ideas. Picking a theme and getting the general outline done was the hardest part. Now I just have to transfer vague images in my head into precise bodily movements. As Sifu Brinker put it, as I explained what I wanted, it will be a slinky form. I want the form to be consistently fluctuating from close range, tight moves and exploding outwards for long strikes. Of course I’m going to try to be as feral as possible. Let me know if my eyes have too much dragon in them.
It’s that time of year where students scramble to find decent summer jobs, before summer sneaks up and it’s too late. It’s a bit awkward for us first year students trying to get jobs in our field, were all a little half-baked. Half of a program doesn’t mean a whole lot; most people don’t have much experience or skills to bring to the table. A summer job is more like a four month interview; you try not to make an idiot of yourself so they’ll consider hiring you when you’re actually useful to them.
I’m doing my share of scrambling. I turned down a job with ATCO because I don’t want to spend my summer in Grand Prairie. I had a job interview with Suncor last week and I’m really hoping to get it. I’d be working at what used to be the Petro Canada refinery near Sherwood Park. I would be working with a team of electrical techs making sure everything electrical in the plant is working and fixing anything that breaks. Myself and six other guys in the program are fighting over a single opening.
I think the interview went very well; I like to think I’m good at making an impression. I believe I have a good shot at getting it... I should know very soon if I did, maybe even tomorrow. I like to think my resume looks good, partly because I put Kung Fu related things on it. For instance I put down how I’m a black belt and martial arts instructor which demonstrates strong leadership. I even put down my participation in the UBBT programs which I threw down under the title of “Lifestyle Challenges”. I was hoping my interviewer would ask about them actually, he didn’t though, unfortunately, and the opportunity to talk about it didn’t really come up.
I did surprise myself a little when they were asking aptitude questions. One of the interviewers asked me to give an example of a time I had put in allot of effort into completing a large project. The first thing that popped into my head was the 1000 push-ups/sit-ups challenge we do on New Year’s Day. I explained how those participating don’t need to; we do it to challenge ourselves, to push our limits and try to do accomplish a simple goal that many would write off as unattainable. I told them how I set my mind on doing it. How even though I had a late start and was admittedly a bit hung-over, I set my goal, strategized how to get there, and kept with it. Even if I was still doing push-ups up till 11:00 o’clock at night it was all worth it just to get there.
So I used push-ups as an answer to a job interview question. I think I even managed to do it without sounding silly. How cool is that? I wait anxiously to hear from them, if I don’t get it I’ll have to get back to scrambling.
Reading week is over; yesterday was my first day back in school after having the week off. I really enjoyed the time off, I was feeling very stressed coming up to the break. A large load is off my back, one round of exams over, and a few big projects finished. It feels good to have a mini restart in the same semester. Reading week is there for a good reason.
In other good news, I bought a car during the break. So things should finally get back to normal and I’ll be able to make it out to Kung Fu again. I was back on Friday and Monday and it felt fantastic. Practicing Me long koon again (I have no idea how to spell that properly) made me feel like a super hero. It’s fantastic being able to get around again.
I’ve been thinking a lot about creating a hand form lately. So for my next project, which I plan on starting right away, I’m going to create a tiger style form. I have some ideas already and talked to Sifu Brinker about what goes into a good form. Creating a hand form has always scared me a bit since it’s easier to screw up then a weapons form. I have an idea of what I should be aiming for, now I just need to make a good outline. It being the year of the tiger I couldn’t have better timing on this one.
I am really starting to feel the pressure of this semester. I got home today at 5:30, after 8 hours of classes, ate, goofed off for an hour andthen did 3 hours of homework. If I go to bed now I might get eight hours of sleep for a change. I should be doing this every day of the week to stay on top of all my classes. There is just an insane amount of work to do if I want to do well. I don’t even think I have enough spare time to do all the work I should be doing, it becomes a matter of choosing what things to let slide.
I HATE not having any spare time or that constant nagging feeling of things I should be doing. This is why I don’t really like school, or at least, the fast paced programs like the one I’m in. I’m trying to get into the routine of doing more homework daily but it really doesn’t leave much time for anything else. My workout routine is definitely suffering. I am going to try to make my daily routine into a rotation of homework and physical activity. Ideally my life should be nothing but books and pushups but dammit that’s hard to keep up and enjoy. I can feel my life getting sucked out of me, stupid tests destroying my drive...why I ought a...
