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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Punishing Schedule

I'm just thinking out loud now...

so i've worked two shifts there now. today I woke up at 11:15 after getting to bed around 1:30. in about three hours I'll have to do it all again and i'm just lacking the energy required to study. plus there'll be two days off before the exam, that's enough time to do what's needed. the thing is though, if i'm like this all the time over summer, how will I manage to do the study needed for honours? I'll need to work this much though if I'm to afford finishing the other degree in some distant uni full of fresh sophomores who find an australian accent "like, totally hot."

I'm not sure I like the job yet... there's not much customer contact, and that's often the best bit about horden work, cos the punters want to be there. here, we'll only be serving people directly when they're waiting for a table. not often happy. And I've no idea what wine they're asking for. it's probably the lack of money talking, because a cash injection will probably kick this doubt out of the park. I could get some decent shoes and a proper apron, and China Inc among other books, Red Dwarf and Sliders to fill in these gaps between work and sleep (Seaquest is coming out in december, hurrah! talking dolphins!), and some real food for at home, cos kev's really hungry.

I wanted to start getting more political on this blog again, particularly to outline the thesis topic a bit better (and do a bit of letterboxing for the greens), but work's just filled up all that spare time.
posted by Keegan at 11:46 am ... 0 comments

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Spotlights! Sirens! Rifles! Firing! He Made It Out...

After midnight, after closing down the bar completely. Apparently, what I read in the training manual about finishing 10:30-11 was really for runners and waiters, not bar staff. Food was great, and getting fed every day at work is going to be pretty good as well. people are friendly, and the managers are fine with us having no experience, and give us the chance to learn a thing or two.

Oh, I forgot why this was blog worthy. apart from being my first shift, I walk up to the place half an hour early, because i'm meant to be shown around, given a uniform (Prison Orange), and do all those general first day things. Only I come up towards the restaurant from the back, and there's cops and red tape... hmm. go around the front and there's a hundred odd people sitting around and my restaurant's taped off, there's police talking to some of the staff, and once I walk around to the other side, the staff tell me we had a bomb threat. great, I get a job and then somebody blows it up. typical. lucky i'd shown up on time, people might've been asking questions otherwise. and all this middle eastern studies i've been doing won't help none.

So I'm probably up for about 40 hours a week, this thing is going to dominate. I'm going to be a little too cashed up for my own good. and random days off... thursday and sunday. what the? Must not buy take-away.
posted by Keegan at 9:00 am ... 0 comments

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Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Paradigm Shift

I've finished one of the two exams left between me and a degree. I've applied for honours and i'm waiting on a phone call to see wether I can finish another degree at a foreign university. I got a job which has bestowed upon me thirty hours of work next week - more than I've had in the past month. There's a nice girl who may or may not feel the same way, and that's more than I could ask for.

Somehow I'll scrape through till the money flows, and here I am, alive and out of home. life is good.
posted by Keegan at 6:18 pm ... 0 comments

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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Paris Burns

I know I've dropped off on the political stuff in this blog, But my god. These riots are too interesting.

It's not quite what we've discussed in Europe and Islam, one of the subjects I've almost finished this semester, where it was suggested the French reaction to the immigrants from North Africa has hardly been inclusive. Multiculturalism is an idea Australians my age accept without trouble - everyone's got their own thing, and it's all Australian. Fair 'Nuff. France on the other hand, is staunchly proud of it's culture, which it feels to be under threat from Americanisation, the Anglophone nations, and of course Islam.

It can be thought of in the same terms as the anti-semetic sentiment before and during WWII - something that wasn't just limited to Germany, or the Continent. The St. Louis was a ship carrying 900 Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba, where they were rejected, and their attempts to get into Florida failed as well. They were forced to return to Europe, where over half died in the Holocaust.
The North African Immigrants are mainly separate from the rest of French society, and they are picked on by police. One of the articles i've read online (a couple of days ago now) had a quote from one of the rioting kids atelling about how the police would do identity checks on buses, and if they were from these particular suburbs, and looked different, the police would be questioning their reasons for going into the centre of Paris. The police use the word 'Tu' when talking to the youths, instead of the formal and respectful 'Vous'. Imagine Police here saying 'Oi, You', instead of 'Sir'.

The thing is, the Riots may not be as racially charged as I'd come to think they'd be from all this study. Youth Unemployment reaches around 40% (national average 10%), and I'd bet a fair amount of those employed are under-employed. Can't help but thinking about Macquarie Fields - the difference being that Mac kids were the only ones who shared an identity with the kids that died in the car chase. the two electrocuted french kids running from police were different, one North African and the other an Arab. the response was not limited to their suburb, but spread as the Interior Minister egged the rioters on - calling them 'scum', 'low-lifes', and 'dregs'.

Cars are burnt in France every night, it's become the act of vandalism of choice. half the kids might be just using the rioting as an excuse to set off a few more while the police are all about, and there's lots of other kids in baggy jeans and hoodies running about, so they can get away with it.

Destroying the world, just to see what happens.
posted by Keegan at 6:47 pm ... 0 comments

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Monday, November 07, 2005

Why It's Taken A Whole Week

Monday again, and the Blog has suffered as my Horse (Railings, no.7) failed to fill my pockets with badly needed food money. it was only a minor bet, $10 that wouldn't have made a difference to anything much as the TAB lost out on Makybe, but it was $10 that I would've spent on an extra feed at Uni.

but here I am, as one of the essays due tomorrow is almost complete. I dragged it out all weekend, and it's more evidence than anything that I can only do things when there's a big fat deadline that's really deadly. I've been witness to huge and shocking events, and because people may actually read this thing, it's better to leave it as unexplained and mysterious.... oooh....

My role in the world has been wildly fluctating between gossip queen and counsellor, and it's been all the more frustrating because I've not been on the coast to enact these roles in person. It serves me right for pushing the limits of these essays further than is strictly possible. I mean, this has gone quantum. Only my skills at imitating a terrorist/hostage, and at being eaten by a jumping shark, have saved me from utter failure in half my units. well, at least extended the fall. there's about 18 hours for 4000 words - around 220 an hour. minus sleep and driving to uni... I'm boned. so very boned.

that and blogger's been acting up and not letting me post. frustration.
posted by Keegan at 3:39 pm ... 0 comments

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