Date:	2007-04-15 09:59
Subject:	moving out of house and blog
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful

Words probably can't describe exactly how weird it is to be calling the house that I've lived in for the past 22-and-a-bit years 'my parent's house'. For all this time it's been 'my house' - even 'my home' - but today it changes.

Moving out. How odd it is.

This is also going to be my last post on αλλά αμαρτωλούς εις μετάνοιαν, my trusty blog on my working life. However, I think that it will be beneficial to begin a new blog - a more public blog, in keeping with my new position (hopefully one that is beneficial to my job, too). I'll be notifying LJ friends and some others.

Date:	2007-04-13 18:57
Subject:	Colon dash capital dee
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

To my great delight, I recently accepted the offered position. It means that I will be moving to a new city on Sunday, and will start work on Monday.

I am greatly looking forward to this job, and to all that it can offer - not just finance and fringe-benefits, but this is the kind of job where I'm going to be working with people, so I'm really looking forward to helping people to become, well, better, well-adjusted people.

Reactions to my recent lopping-off-of-hair have been varied. Some have noticed the beard gone first, and then noticed the hair; others have noticed the hair first, then the beard. Admittedly, the beard was fairly low on the face, but still. Some have done a double-take, others have just stared and babbled something incoherently...but the funniest reaction was a two-parter.

On Tuesday, after the Liturgy, I was talking to one of the priests (a generally serious priest, dry sense of humour) and a few altar boys.
Me: I got the haircut, went home, shaved, looked in the mirror, and said to myself...I look like a chick!
All well and good, moving on from there.

Then today, after the Liturgy (again), I saw another of the priests (a generally not-so-serious priest!). After the usual greetings (he'd been at another parish until a couple of days hence),
Fr: (The beard's gone,) Alright, show me the hair
Me: *turns head around*
Fr: Wow...you look like a girl!

Admittedly, I was a little surprised - both that he thought what I did, and that he, well, actually vocalised it

Me: *laughs* that's what I said!
Fr: Yeah, I know, word travels around!

Okay, so no coincidence, but still.

Went to see a movie with a friend yesterday - Bean, the Disaster Movie (worth the actual time in seeing, but not worth paying money for, imho); went to another friend's today. Lots of 'wow, so you're actually leaving!''s all round. After church on Saturday, we're planning on going out (as usual), but in honour of the occasion it's been termed the 'I can't believe you're going' party.

After I was told about the job, that was fantastic...but after a few hours I realised that I was going to have to pack things.
Moving is such a lot to organise - really, I'm asking myself what I am going to need for the next, well, x amount of time - it's not something that comes naturally (never having moved before).
But, I'll get used to it...

Date:	2007-04-11 20:47
Subject:	A Composed Nature
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Yesterday, I went to church. Apparently, aside from the complete lack of English, the service itself was totally botched...badly cut up and basically rearranged. Again, glad I didn't go, because it would have made my ecclesiarch-like personality completely spin out.
But. In keeping with the structure of the services in Bright Week, we did the Paschal matins properly today. Surprisingly, we even had a small amount of English - especially surprising considering the small amount of even bilingual people there!

After that, had breakfast with a couple of people who went that morning; then, I went home, and started composing for a short period of time, before deciding to watch Just Shoot Me! on DVD. Then went to have dinner with a friend from high school.

This morning, I eventually got to finishing the compositions for the service of St Bede the Venerable. There are five pieces in this service that do not have pre-arranged melodies and are supposed to: in Vespers, the Dogmaticon (or Doxasticon) for the Kekragarion (after 'Lord, I have cried' - or, Kyrie Ekekraksa, from which is derived 'Kekragarion'), the Dogmaticon for the Vesperal Aposticha; the Apolytikion of the Saint; in Matins, the Kontakion and the Dogmaticon for the Matinal Aposticha.

For those who know what parts of the service are, and don't need the explanation, skip this paragraph.
During Vespers and Matins, whenever one hears the 'Glory to the Father...' chanted rather slowly, that means that the Dogmaticon is coming right up - in Vespers, it usually means that an Entrance is near; in Matins, it means that it's almost time for the Doxology and the Liturgy. In Greek, the connection between the name and what they mean is more apparent, because the word for Glory is 'Doxa', and the name of the hymn is a Doxasticon.
The Dogmaticons are, AFAIK, always written as idiomelons, which essentially mean that they have no set melody. Each tone has its own general feel for how it should sound, and assortments of notes - but they're usually made up on the spot by an experienced chanter who knows (or, of course, knows that no one will correct) how to do it. In contrast, the hymns in between the versicles are usually set to a melody (for example, the verses after 'Lord I have cried' and before the Dogmaticon are set to 'Πανευφημοι Μαρτυρες / O All-praised Martyrs'.
However, it has become an increasing trend in Greek service books to not only have the text, but to have a composition (of how to chant the dogmaticon) in the back of the saint's/event's service book. This is where said composition comes in - to fill a gap that might be existing, by providing an example of how to chant the dogmaticons in a pleasing manner in the appointed tone.
There are two other pieces that are un-melodied (for lack of a better word) - the apolytikion (main, short hymn of the saint) and the kontakion (another short hymn for the saint). Notably, these are the only two sets of hymns relating to a saint or an event (aside from the Resurrection, of course) that are actually put into a Divine Liturgy in standard parish practise (just after the Small Entrance, before the 'Holy God'). However, these are both able to be melodied - the apolytikion to 'Την Σοφιαν και Λογον / The Wisdom and the Word', and the Kontakion to 'Τη Υπερμαχω / O Champion Leader'.

I haven't posted the compositions yet - I'm still running them by some local people knowledgable in chanting and Byzantine notation and see how it sounds to them - but I shall do so when I think that they're ready for release. Reviews are, so far, all favourable.

Date:	2007-04-09 15:50
Subject:	10 Days Worth of Post
Security:	Public
Mood:	radiant

Christ is Risen!

So, a lot has been happening...in the last, like, 10 days!

The final Thursday at The Company was uneventful - goodbyes and best wishes. Got a reference from my then-current boss, which is always handy.
The next day was largely consumed by me getting my learners permit, which now allows me to learn how to drive and (hopefully) get my licence in six months.
Last Saturday was spent setting up for the Palm Saturday Night Fete, which ended up being pretty cool, with fun times on the jumping castle. Afterwards we went out for slurpees, and a very odd photo.

Palm Sunday proper was spent at another parish, after which a bunch of us went to a talk held by a couple of the ethnic-centric youth groups in this city. The talk was good, but for a question-and-answer session there wasn't a lot of interaction. Afterwards was the first Bridegroom Matins.

Monday morning I went to the Presanctified Liturgy, then had dinner with a friend from high school that evening. Got home late, so missed the Presanctified Liturgy on Tuesday. Went to the Bridegroom Matins on Tuesday night, though.

Wednesday ended up being very busy. There was the Presanctified Liturgy in the morning, then I decided that, to plausibly go for the job that I'm going for, it was time to change my look. So, I went to the local barber and got a haircut. I haven't had a haircut at a barber's since I was 17 (when I got it trimmed for my formal), and it's been tied back since I was 16. My hair is curly, but if you stretched it out it would make it about an inch away from the end of my back (even without that, it made it to the end of my shoulder blades). I'd asked the barber if he could cut it so that it could be put into a ponytail if need be, but would also look good out of a pony tail. He took that to mean that the back side of my head needed to be tied back, but the hair on top and at the front and on both sides didn't need to reach. Of course, now it looks horrible in a ponytail, but it looks pretty good out. Then I went home and shaved, and remembered what my face looked like after about 2 years of having facial hair (which included the period of time between just having facial hair and actually having a proper beard).

Then I went down south to the Gold Coast for Easter services, and went to all the Easter services for one parish (a small, English-language parish) and most of the Easter services for another (which is bigger and has more services at different times). Awesome experience, and hearing about the unbelievable amount of English at the parish I usually went to, totally worth it.

Also had an interview while I was down there. Again, not wanting to say a lot until I know the outcome, but suffice to say I'm veryhopeful of getting the position.

Aside from having more English, the services were also shorter at the Greek Orthodox parish - the chanter there prefers briefer chanting, rather than the drawn-out style that can be so popular (for chanters only) when there's more than one chanter.

The Resurrection service itself was, as usual, awesome. Afterwards I was invited to someone's house, which was beautiful.

So I got back home in the morning (just) on Sunday, relaxed a little, relaxed today as well. Went out last night with the Saturday Nighters to Hungry Jack's, then went to Lucas' to watch How I Met Your Mother. I'm fairly sure that we can rename ourselves after the show (although 'the HIMYMers' may sound a little funny to the untrained ear). Taking the show's inspiration (when they called Barney 'Swarley' for an entire episode), we've decided to rename someone in our group. I shudder to think what the next inspiration we'll take is...

One thing that I have accomplished is composing the Kekragarial Vesperal Dogmaticon (i.e. the big hymn after the first 'Glory' in Vespers) for St Bede the Venerable of Jarrow, using the composition guide from St Anthony's Monastery (in Byzantine notation - naturally, since it's the only one I know). I'm planning to do the second one for Vespers and the one for Matins as well, so I'll post them all up when I've finished them.

Date:	2007-03-28 22:59
Subject:	less than 20 hours to go...
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

So things have been pretty fantastic this week.

I formally resigned on Monday. It was pretty easy - I asked how one would go about submitting a resignation (about as formal as that), submitted it to the appropriate people, and it was formally conveyed to the relevant bosses, well, certainly by Tuesday.

I happened to do an experiment, though (completely unintentional) - I didn't tell anyone on that Monday, but on the way home I caught the train with someone I used to work with. Somehow, this information spread to the other end of the floor, then down to my floor, then back up to that floor. By the end of it, some apparently thought I was going to another city to teach psychology (not the case), but the news travelled enough that people were coming up to me and asking if the rumour was true (which it was).

Went around today and said goodbye to everyone, sent an e-mail around to pretty much anyone who I considered to be anyone saying g'bye, etc. It seemed that a lot of people didn't really think that I was going to make a career with The Company, which was kinda odd (but fair enough).

It really made me reflect on employee satisfaction. Most of the people I used to work with are really unhappy with their jobs, and most of the blame is going on their direct manager, who is most definitely not following in the line of the previous managers - do your hours, make sure the work is done, etc. This one seems to be pedantic about arbitrary rules being followed for the sake of rules being followed, and it's completely killing morale.
I can understand procedures, particularly when a single object goes through five departments - procedures need to be followed. Not what I'm talking about. Rather, I refer to size of lunch breaks (I would regard taking five minutes off a lunch as being justifiable for leaving five minutes early, for example), when lunch breaks are taken, rejecting timesheets because they're a minute or two out, and generally being nasty. It kills morale, which kills productivity, which kills employees, which kills productivity. Unless a person has a vested interest in something working, it is counter-productive to focus purely on productivity. Focus on a job well-done, and you might have a totally different story.

So, tomorrow's my last day - it'll be all over by 6pm. I'll be happy to leave, but it's a happiness that I'll have because I've worked there and experienced. It proved that I have the capacity to do the whole working-in-an-office thing. Plus, it's great on a resume.
As I've mentioned previously (I think?), I'm planning to take up another job soon. This one will require me to have a public image, so I'd rather not use this blog to post on it. I've already set up another blog, and intend to tell LJ friends and (if I know them) commenters on this post where it is, but there will be no link from this blog to the other.