I’ll be back in March. Very soon. After I edit out a few posts that have been festering inside for awhile.

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This is a holiday, and Lord knows my boyfriend and I need one.

It has been an eventful year. Life isn’t always fair. Massive upheavals have happened recently that need to be mulled over and decided how to act on. Until then, this is going to be a real and well deserved holiday.

(While we work on some things and prepare for the coming year.)

Evildoers beware! – Daisy, from Neil Gaiman’s “Anansi Boys”.

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But this is my site, and what it should really be is reflect MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! And because I’m human, there are too many aspects to me to categorise and classify.

Wheeeee!!!!

Henceforth it shall be rebranded as “the online repository of all things useful and useless”!

All part of The Journey!

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The blog was never compromised at all. It was just the theme I was using. Apparently it just links to the online service Websnapr that just shows a popup of snapshot of the link in your pingbacks. I mistook it for a popup because the service was down when I hovered my mouse over it, and saw a different site.

Meh. At least it’s a learning experience!

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If the blog looks weird, that’s because I did a complete wipe and reinstall. I spotted popups when I hovered over my pingback links yesterday, and got worried that the blog might have been compromised, and decided to do a fresh reinstall.

Most of the blog content is back up and running anyway, except for the pictures. But everything is back up and good to go.

I’ve got to send Leia to the vet now, so I’ll sort it out over the weekend. She’s got malocculsion (misaligned teeth), so we’re gonna go get that sorted out before it gets worse. Please keep her in your thoughts.

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Oh well. I’m disappointed, of course, but at least now I know where I’m headed.

That and I AM having quite a bit of fun at my current job. =) So maybe it’s meant to be after all.

And there is always another time, another test.

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Therefore, I’ve started collecting ideas for posts, and putting down drafts, so that I don’t run out of ideas and topics.

I’ve also canvassed some friends regarding this blog, and the feedback I got was to keep posting the “how-to” posts, because they’re useful. And useful information is always good.

Also, I need to start writing for the web. Meaning I have to start thinking about shortening my posts to short sweet snippets if it suits the topic. I keep telling clients to keep things short and sweet, but sometimes, when it comes to blogging, I’m so used to reading text heavy posts from some of the blogs I follow that I tend to forget that people DO glaze over large chunks of text online.

Better practice what you preach, Char!

Also, I’ve started shortening down my categories, and have started using tags more. Basically, “categories” on blogs are usually used to class your content, while “tags” are the keywords that identify your post. Right now, I’m still tweaking my “categories” and “tags” list so that it suits the content a lot more.

And as for the previous post, some of you might have noticed that the post title has changed about three to four times. At first, I titled it “Host a website and save the world!” because I thought it had a nice ring to it, and would grab some attention.

Then a friend pointed out that carbon neutral just meant that you would not add to climate change, instead of actively saving the world. So I changed it to “Host a website and NOT destroy the world.”

And then Jon went o_0, so I changed it to the most standard, safest thing evar. Yes, I need to improve on my headline/title writing skills, very much. One day I will be able to churn out something witty and to-the-point like the really good headline writers out there. Until then, I guess practice makes perfect!

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All that aside, what does it all mean? And why is it still being currently defined?

Well, for starters, the company I’m working for is quite small, and the Perth branch is only just expanding even though it’s been around for awhile. And with all expansions, there is plenty of teething and feeling your way around going on. So what it will finally end up being is what the current staff build it to be. That’s also why my hours have been a little crazy as well.

Anyway, onto my role definitions:

Trainee manager. I’m managing the trainees that my boss takes on board, because the company also provides work experience to a lot of students. On the other hand, my boss says he’s also training me up to be a manager, which basically means that I’m learning how to be the person who gets all the shit flung at her in his absence.

Consultant. I consult on a whole bunch of things, but mainly on the usage of social media, how to integrate it into a company’s online business strategy as well as various technologies to fit a business’s needs. I’m still quite junior in this aspect, so it’s still a learning process for me.

Project manager. Managing projects for clients. This include their social media marketing strategy, their website production, their marketing material production and whatever project that I get assigned to. It also includes liaising with clients and other colleagues and designers and programmers and whoever else we need to get the job done. This is an immensely headache-inducing role.

Social media marketing. Making social media services like Facebook and Twitter and blogs work for the client.

The experience gained from the job is great, and I suddenly have a plethora of stuff to chuck on my CV now. And when I read job ads, I can now say even more specifically how I can meet criteria and fit some roles.

If I’m having such fun at my current job, why did I apply for The West cadetship, you might ask?

That’s partly because I applied for the program before my job at this company became more full time. That and my boss is open to us staff widening our horizons.

Plus, I feel that the current skills I have on board are much more suited to Public Relations instead of Journalism, and there is massive void in my skill set, especially in media relations, that needs to be filled.

So if I don’t score this cadetship position, I will start trying to freelance more aggressively.

I like what I’m currently doing at my job very much, as it really allows me to use a lot of my net savvy skills that I’ve picked up over the years but never realised would be so relevant until now. Plus, I love having challenges thrown at me and figuring out how to solve them.

But I also love to write. I love how each word rolls off my fingers, and how they all come together to form something so crafted and so meaningful. Well, meaningful to me, at least.

I love the thrill of putting together a story. I love the rush of making something tangible in time for deadlines. I love being the first to break the news.

So come what may, you’ll be seeing me write a lot more about the topics near and dear to me right here, especially about stuff in my field.

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I didn’t want to mention it to too many people in case I jinxed my chances, but now that it’s over and done with, I don’t mind blogging about it.

Basically what happened was that a few months back I applied for the West Australian’s cadetship program, and I got a call to come in and sit the preliminary 3 hour test. There were roughly around 15 people in the room with me, although they might be testing more people on different days. And the aim of the test was to narrow the list down even further. Whoever makes it to the next stage then has to sit for an interview before landing the position.

And how did I reckon I do?

OMG. I suck. I COMPLETELY suck.

There were TWO questions asking us to name The West Australian’s editor, and my mind completely blanked out. I knew who it was! (It’s Brett McCarthy.) It was only two questions out of the entire paper, but I reckon knowing the name of your potential boss should rank quite highly, shouldn’t it?

Plus, I spent the whole weekend combing through all the papers, but the news questions all dated to the beginning of this year. This is when I am glad that my habit of perusing through my news feeds every morning has finally come in handy.

That and I completely blanked out when it came to the sports trivia questions. I wasn’t the only one, as one of the girls I spoke to also ran into that problem. Sports. Must be a non-girl thing.

Some of the people there were already quite experienced in the journalism field, with only a few candidates there being fresh out of uni. I was glad to at least have SOME experience on my belt there, or I would have felt completely out of my depth.

On the general reasoning questions, I reckon I did all right. There were a couple of math questions as well. Being Asian and being made to do lots of math as a kid, as well as handling money at my last job did help me sort through those questions quite fast.

When it came to the writing section, my papers got so messy. We were supposed to outline a potential article for part of that section, and I numbered my paragraphs and had arrows pointing in different directions because I discovered that I needed to rearrange my points. Well done, Char. The blank pieces of paper were there for a reason, although I had used up most of it with calculations and the working out of other problems.

I’m not very confident in making it through to the next stage, but if and when I apply for it the next time around, I’ll definitely be more prepared. And next time, I WILL know who the editor is right off the bat.

Until then, I won’t know for sure until I get the call sometime next week or the week after next informing me my test’s outcome…

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Windswept Tree

Thanks everyone, for dropping by my brand new spanking site! I know I’m a little late in joining the WordPress and self-hosted site bandwagon, but it’s still pretty exciting for me anyway. And it’s a massive learning experience for me as well!

Anyway, I intend for this site to be a place where I can practice my writing, consolidate and put out ideas and research, and also to just entertain and inform anyone who might drop by and read.

My schedule has been a little hectic lately, becase I’m working two jobs. One at the newsagency, and the other as a trainee manager/consultant at a knowledge brokerage/consultancy firm.

My newsagency job provided me a steady income, but I felt that it was time I moved on and took the leap. I had a feeling that the winds would be changing soon, so I gave my boss a few weeks’ notice, and bought this site to prepare for what would come next.

And the winds of change did come indeed.

We’re starting up a Creative Services department in the company, and I was given an opportunity to be a part of it. But it also means that we’re basically starting a brand new wing of the firm from the ground up. But to me, that’s the most exciting part.

Next week will be my last week at the newsagency. It has been a fantastic working experience there, mainly because of the location and the people around. But it’s time to move on. After this, I intend to devote my time to my other job.

Because I do need income, and the other job can’t pay as much at the moment, I’m also going to use whatever free time that crops up to try my hand at freelance writing.

I’ve also been reading more, and trying to learn as much as I can about business, technology and media. My early morning routine involves sitting front of the computer with a cup of coffee and just reading the news and updates on my feed reader. During my lunch break I read magazines. After work I read. And when I don’t read, my brain is switched off so I don’t burn out.

That’s also why I wanted to start a new, proper blog. I need to put down all that information, and repackage it into something I can use, and this blog will act as my packaging tool.

Whatever happens next with the economy, or with my career, I fully intend to be as prepared as I can, and to bring a lot of value to the table.

No guts, no glory!

In the meantime, you can subscribe to the feed of this blog here to get updates.

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I post when I can’t be stuffed dedicating more than 140 characters to any topic.

And over the course of the next week or two, I’ll slowly be updating the sidebar and pages of this blog.

Until then…

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