I forgot to post today

I forgot to post today.

But now, instead of posting, I need to

• pack for Europe
• pack for a few days in Melbourne before going to Europe, days that involve a wedding (i.e. complicated attire arrangements)
• do some dumb student number thing for MJ that I can’t explain any better than that

All before catching the train at 7.30 tomorrow morning.

You know, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ll have the chance to post much over the next few days. It looks like I stared NaBloPoMo in the face…and forfeited a couple of metres before the finish line.

Wait! I can’t just roll over! I may not post every day, but I will post 30 posts before the end of November! I don’t know how. I don’t know when. But what choice do I have? How can expect to look my young fans in the face and say, ‘kids, do your best but don’t be surprised when it’s not good enough.’

I won’t stare any young fan in the face and say that. I’ll say, ‘kids, to be awesome you should copy me as much as possible because I am awesome.’

Yeah.

What’s your favourite podcast?

It’s been an iTunes-y kind of day today. This morning I had a surprise delivery of a $50 dollar iTunes voucher just for switching over something about my superannuation. Too easy suckers! And now I’m trawling iTunes for podcasts to load up the pod before I go away.

I’m a bit of a podcast obsessive, but today I’ve been struggling to find new podcasts that I can imagine actually listening to. So after the great success that was asking for help to decide on holiday reading, I am asking again for any suggestions of good podcasts.

Here’s what I’m after:

1. Good podcasts

This request is obviously contingent on your interests, but I’d appreciate any suggestions of podcasts you consistently listen to and enjoy.

My favourites include:

• This American Life
• The New Yorker Fiction podcast
• The Moth podcast
• The Economist (for the crisp English accents – makes you feel more efficient)
• KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
• Late Night Live
• StoryCorps
• This I Believe

There are other great podcasts around, but if something is too date-specific it’s often out of date by the time I listen to it (it would be a problem for the Economist too if it weren’t for those accents)

Wow, I just realised that if my favourite podcasts are an indicator of my interests and I heed the advice that I follow my interests to find a career then whoah, I AM IN THE WRONG CAREER. Eek. In defence of myself and poor career choices I mostly listen to podcasts late at night, when I want to be hearing soft voices instead of barking debate.

That little insight into the inner world of Sarah is yours for free.

Here’s the other thing I want.

1. A place that finds and recommends good podcasts

These things exist by the dozen, but pretty much all of them tell me that I want to listen to CNN and geeks talking about gadgets. Wrong. Any suggestions of a site or someone who recommends a good podcast from time to time?

Holiday Reading

My European sojourn is fast approaching, and while I haven’t planned as much as I hoped there is one facet of my trip I intend on plotting carefully.

Holiday reading.

I’ve decided to embrace that kind of embarrassing image of a tourist reading a cliché on paper – For example, reading “The Year of Living Dangerously” in Indonesia, or “Istanbul” by Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul.

So I need three books for my three primary destinations. After a minute or so of thought I’ve got some early contenders, but I’m open to suggestions.

Italy – The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

France – (open to suggestions)

Germany – Stasiland, Anna Funder

My selections are weighted heavily towards what’s been on my ‘to read’ list for a while and what’s already on the book shelf.

Recommendations?

Down at the Brighton Croquet Club

Elisa is getting married next weekend. She’s getting off  the shelf. She’s becoming Ross’s fork and knife.

So we celebrated with croquet and Pims….

David takes the glory...even though he lost the game

Clearly breaking with World Croquet Association dress code - croquet whites only please

It's a game for ladies

The happy couple. Anna and Ingrid getting into the conjugal vibe. Anna has a ring, Ingrid has a 'bride to be' sash. The young people these days break all the rules.

Come to Brighton - where the beach meets rigid social conservatism

The dashing gentlemen

These balls are for Sunday only

Feeling a little playful...Oh the naughtiness

 

Resume writing breakthrough

I just submitted my application for the perfect job. Fortunately, this morning I had a resume-writing breakthrough!

My breakthrough has made writing about how perfect I am for the perfect job SO MUCH EASIER!

Q. What’s one of the hardest aspects of writing a good resume?

A. For me, it’s definitely writing about how awesome I am. (If you don’t find it hard to do this you’re probably an egomaniac and almost certainly not Australian).

One of the reasons I hate writing about my stellar achievements at my past jobs is the niggling feeling that someone I know, maybe my old boss, would read it. They would think, ‘phfff, she makes it sound like the best job ever when in actual fact it was just an ordinary job’.

But here’s the thing, that’s not true! That’s not what your old boss or anyone else would think. Here’s why:

1. Your resume will probably override any lasting memory of you, so when you say that you achieved a whole lot of cool stuff, the reader will be inclined to say, ‘That sounds impressive and, come to think of it, it’s true! Wow, she’s impressive!’
2. Everyone wants to be on the winning team, so unless the reader is your arch nemesis, they’ll be happy to be associated with that awesomeness – this would be especially true for colleagues/bosses. They’ll probably be happy to steal your best lines.

There is two exceptions to this theory I can think of:

1. Some people will think that your awesomeness somehow detracts from their awesomeness so they might be inclined to cut you down to size. They’re dumb.
2. If you blatantly lie on your resume people are going to see through it (maybe not your new employer, but they’ll figure it out sooner or later)

I know that plenty of people think you need to lie on your CV because everyone else is doing it, but I’m of the Penelope Trunk school of thought that there is a fine art of almost-lying-but-not-lying on a resume. Which is essentially just good marketing.

This might be a good litmus test -

• If you can’t show your resume to your old boss, you’re probably lying too much
• If you won’t show it to your nonjudgmental best friend, you’re probably lying too much
• If you’re embarrassed or bashful about showing your resume to your old boss, you’ve probably done a good job of selling yourself
• If your best friend beams with pride when they read your resume, you’ve probably done a good job of selling yourself
• If you feel completely comfortable about showing your old boss your resume you probably need to rewrite it
• If your best friend says, ‘that’s great’ but there are no beams of pride, you definitely need to rewrite it

Maybe you should send your up-to-date resume to your current boss so they can look at it and think, ‘hey, this person’s excellent! They make our project/office/organisation sound amazing!’

***

Inspiration for the resume breakthrough

Posts by Penelope Trunk

• 6 most violated resume writing rules

• How to edit your resume like a professional resume writer

Rowan’s resume – thanks Ro.

My last late night in newspapers

Another late night at the Waranga News,  but not as late as last week.

By the next edition, MJ’s compadres will be back and we will be soaring through the night sky, probably somewhere over Russia – my life in newspapers will be over.

***

Walking down the street today I made myself laugh when I realised how oddly bright my mood was. Do you ever have those moments when nothing can bug you?

I was skipping along the street, delighted by grass, the new bitumen road, even a semi-trailer driving past (‘Ah! The sweet rumble of industry!’)  

Funny. 

Also today, I found a dead rosella in a friend’s front doorway. If you try googling ‘dead bird omen’ you find a whole lot of forums with people asking if a dead bird is an omen and a whole lot of people telling them that they’re dopes. I think Italian mamas need to unite and create Omenpedia.

The less than perfect application process

Remember the perfect job? Well, I may never get to it because the application process might send me to bongkersville first.

If your image of me applying for this job includes pages of papers fluttering around as I try to cram for test, or running around gathering references from everyone I’ve ever worked for, you’d be way off.

1000 characters. I have 1000 characters to convey everything I did in my other post but I have to actually fit substance in it. One thing I’ve learned from this process is that 1000 characters allows for very little substance….And certainly no fluff.

No fluff. Readers, dear readers. As readers you know that fluff is what I do.

FYI. this post is exactly 723 characters (included spaces) long.

The mark of a good weekend

It’s Sunday evening and I’m back in Rushworth after another glorious weekend in Melbourne and the meandering bus trip home (the Vline bus ride deserves its own post)

The mark of a top notch weekend?

Bags under the eyes over a tasty Sunday lunch of course.

(tastiness courtesy of Blue Chillies on Brunswick St – Roti w Curry….mmmm)

 

Really, REALLY yum

It’s Saturday morning and I have a bunch of stuff to do but I am diligently posting now because I will have better things to do with my life for the rest of the day.

Last night, Lara, Al and I went to the newest Mo Vida restaurant, Mo Vida Aqui. I don’t remember enjoying eating food as much as I enjoyed it last night! Just so much deliciosity.  I have a constant love affair with food but last night was like date night and we rekindled the flame. It helped the process along that Paul works there so we got extra special treatment and it further helped the process along that the staff seemed particularly fun and lovely. I’m not a food writer, but I’m sure you’ll hear the poetry in the next sentence. There was this anchovy thing with sorbet and it tasted really, REALLY yum.

Before dinner, Lara and I faced our fears of shopping and made a trip to Highpoint. I needed an outfit for croquet and an outfit for a wedding on a farm. I got a skirt and a white shirt. I think that means I can class the trip as ‘moderately successful’.

But as croquet is to be played this afternoon I must be off to the shops to find the rest of the outfit. Wish me luck!

 

Darwin adventures continue: Litchfield National Park

Darwin day 2!

We packed up the car and drove to Litchfield National Park.

First stop: Petrol Station

Next stop: Litchfield, the town near the entrance to the park…

where we got excited about things like blossoms.

Clare with the blossom.

Clare earmarked a stop along the way into the national park, a lone banyan tree.

Further down the road we saw the amazing magnetic termite mounds. They’re called magnetic termite mounds because they run north to south. How do the termites know?

The sightseers.

Next stop, the falls.

and the first of many swims to be had before the week ended.