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There are several reasons why I stopped blogging this year, both intentionally and unintentionally. This year had already been quite a rough one due what began as financial stress. My postgraduate scholarship ended in February and losing that income made things hard. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get work around the university, but due to CQU’s lack of funding there was nothing to be had. I did manage to get a brief stint tutoring out at the correctional centre, but (as is the way of things) I had a better job offer come up at the same time that was due to commence.

It was during WWDC this year that I was told I would not be going to Apple for an internship (the specifics of this are best kept for another time). I should note that this was not Apple’s decision, but a decision of the AUC. So not only was I struggling to try and finish my PhD as quickly as possible (and getting nowhere fast) while earning no income, I’d also found out that I’d lost out on a major once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All of this made me lose motivation in a lot of things (blogging one of them).

Since WWDC though I’ve found a job I enjoy, and have been on a leave of absence from my PhD. This has been a good thing, as going to CQU everyday and sitting in my cubicle was starting to make me really depressed. When you put your hand up to do a PhD noone tells you about the recurring feelings of self doubt and worth you have, nor the fact that you’ll basically be viewed as someone who has qualifications but no experience to back them up (which was the case for me, I missed out on several jobs – and one REALLY good one – because of my lack of real world and industry experience, even though my qualifications were very impressive). This makes you question what the hell you are doing a postgraduate degree for, other than to become and academic (and that certainly wasn’t going to happen at CQU). I’m sure PhD’s in other fields have a different outlook on things, medicine for example.

Anyway, since July I’ve been working at a small Advertising and Media company in Rockhampton (this job came up at the same time as the tutoring job at the prison). They mostly handle newspaper press ads and television ads, and have been increasing the rate at which each of these are produced in-house. They also do all the general stuff such as business cards, websites and the like. It’s been an enjoyable experience so far, and the work differs quite a lot from week to week, so it has been keeping things interesting.

In September, Hayley and I found out that we would be having a baby. This was pretty exciting news for us. We kept it a secret for a while just to make sure everything was OK, but everything is fine and we are having a little baby boy at the end of April 2008 .

I also started playing in a band around this time. I hooked up with them through a friend who heard they were looking for a guitarist. A regular gig is something I have been after for a few years but have never been able to pull off due to different peoples work commitments (or others work ethic) so stepping into an organised established group was ideal. It’s a 3 piece (drums, rhythm guitar and lead guitar, with sequenced bass and keyboards) so there’s no hanging around for 4 or 5 other people all the time. It’s been fun and while I started just filling in, next year I’m gigging with them almost every weekend (I had an idea where I might take a photo from the stage at every gig, and calling it “a year in the life of a Rockhampton musician”, or something. It would showcase all the shitty venues local muso’s play in and put up with around Rockhampton – as well as the good ones). If I could get away with it I’d just play music full time, but in a place like Rocky there doesn’t seem to be that much opportunity.

Anyways thats what I’ve been up to since WWDC when I made my last post. What started out as a pretty rough year ended up being rather a decent one towards the end. Hopefully this year I’ll have more incentive to post.

Happy new year!