Minimum Wage, Ha!

So, for those fo you who don't know, or haven't been able to work it out, I got a promotion of sorts at work.  Granted, this was first offered to me back at the end of June, but it has taken till now to eventuate, due to circumstances created by other people, or lack thereof.  

I am now, according to the signature that was set up on my email, a Technical Sales Representative.  This means that instead of being outside in the heat, humidity, grease, dirt, and oil, standing on concrete all day, and lifting heavy things, I now get to wear nicer clothes, sit down in A/C, have a desk and computer, and slightly more flexable work conditions, and the heaviest thing that I have to lift all day is probably a stapler. (no, it's not a red one...)  

I've kinda been thrown in the deep end, with a half-eaten life preserver, and told what to do to tread water.  What better way to learn!  But I am having fun, and most of the guys upstairs are willing to give me a hand when I get questions that I don't know, (which at this point, are most of them!) I answer the phones/faxes/emails that customers give us, wanting to either just buy some fittings or design a whole power system for them.  I know it might not sound like much, but I'm enjoying it, and that makes a lot of difference.

If you don't know and want to see what we do, go here: http://www.southcott.com.au/  Ignore the Cycles part.  Our branch doesn't really do them, although I CAN get them if requested.  That's about it. 

Oh, Listen To The Music

Music has always been a major part of my life.  The last few years, however, due to working and other things getting in the way, both my playing of, and listening to, music has fallen a bit on the wayside.  For Christmas this year, Cindy got me a new guitar strap, the Best of The Smiths tab book, and 4 lessons to help improve, (or possibly even create) my guitar playing ability.  I start these lessons on Thursday night.  Also, for our Christmas Eve game this year, we got the Guitar Hero World Tour pack for the XBox.  Cindy is surprisingly good at the drums, while I love signing aspect; everything from About A Girl, to Up Around The Bend.

Now, reading my sister Sharon's blog for the last year or so, I've watched her Friday Flashback posts; a lot of times I remember the songs that are there, and sometimes I don't know them at all, but enjoy being exposed to things I would otherwise not have known about.  It's not like the radio stations in Brisbane play anything older than about 3 months...  and it's all that new crap like the Pussycat Dolls and such, that doesn't have a bit of real music in it. (my opinion, obviously. Sorry to those that actually like that type of stuff)  As such, hearing things that I don't know and that actually is music is fantastic.  

So what do these two things have to do with each other?  Well, I thought that I'd start trying to post on a simi-regular basis, some sort of Ode to Musica post.  To start it off, I thought that I'd dedicate this one to Sharon, in thanks for her involvment of music throughout her blog, both posts about it and random, sometimes obscure references to it.  As such, the video that I'm posting is of my favorite Smiths song (which I am currently learning to play, btw).  If it wasn't for Sharon, I would never have heard the Smiths, James, The Ocean Blue, They Might Be Giants, and so many more....  so, thanks Shaz!