Packing

Not much fun, takes a long time, lots of decisions, a little bit satisfying.

We have a steady supply of these boxes at work after a minor incident at a nuclear reactor in South Africa. They are a good size for moving: fit stuff in but not too heavy. 

Nearly all the clothes I'm dropping at the opshop. I'm still wearing a few. I reckon I'm getting rid of about two thirds of my wardrobe.

The coin toss

Some decisions are really hard. I'm not all that fast at making decisions at the best of times, but sometimes there are two really good options and it doesn't matter which one I go with. In these cases, the coin comes out. Heads is the green one, tails is the blue one. Flip coin, decision made.

But whenever this has happened to me, I tend to toss the coin and then choose the option which goes against the results of the toss. My housemate considers this dreadful. He can't understand why, having decided that it's too close to call, I can't stick with the coin toss. It took me ages to work out the reason for it, but I think I've got it now.

I reckon it's because I resent being told what to do by a bit of metal. Or perhaps more accurately, I don't like not being able to have something that is good, even if I have a different good thing, when I didn't choose to not have it. The coin tells me 'you can't have the green' to which I respond 'but I really like the green' but if the coin had said I couldn't have the blue, I would probably go for the blue, because I like the blue as well.

This explains why I didn't toss a coin for my decisions about MTS. Other than the fact that they are probably too big to make with twenty cents, obviously. The thing is, I always wanted to work in Newcastle. It's home. But I wanted to make sure I didn't choose based entirely in what I fell like but also on how I can serve others, and how I can grow as well, so I decided to check out Perth unis.

Anyway, I could have decided in the thoroughly blibical method of drawing lots,which would have definitely put me where God wants me to be, but then if the coin had said

Responses to emails

Are much easier. Why? Because the subject line is already filled in! Tim gets it easy, his subject line is Re:MTS and it comes up automatically. So, yeah, the point of that is that I got a response to my email from last week. He thought it was great that I was considering MTS and thought Perth was definitely a possibility, probably UWA, and instructed me to contact his wife, Rosemary, which I have duly done. I was not fast at this because I kind of expected her to contact me, since she had my email address too. She didn't and eventually it occurred to me that it was probably my job to be the proactive one. So I emailed her, suggesting a face to face meeting, to which she has not yet replied, due to it only being about two minutes ago. I suppose you're thinking to yourself "Why didn't she just copy and paste the emails like she did last time?" Well let me tell you! It's because for some reason my iPad wouldn't let me select more than one word at a time to copy. Yep. I'm that tech savvy. So anyway, here we are, several inappropriately long sentences later, and you know that I have received one email, and sent one email. Stay tuned for more excitement coming your way at some point in the future!

There's no place like home...

At some point I'll have to decide where I want to do my traineeship. I want to work at a university, but there are plenty of unis, all around Australia and the world where I could conceivably complete MTS. So how do I decide where to go?

The first place I think of is Newcastle uni, where I studied. I have a historyther, already know the staff, the culture, the geography, some of the students, that sort of thing. On top of all this, mosquitoes notwithstanding, I miss Newcastle. So that is an option.

I could stay where I am and work in a uni in Perth. I only know one staffworker in all of the unis here, so I would most likely be with a trainer I have not known for a long time. That could be an issue. My current home is not really that close to any unis. All that being the case, there is a very strong argument that there is a greater need in Perth. There are just less Christians here. Also there are bunch of unis, some of which are quite small, an option I rather like.

Along with these options is the fact that I could go anywhere, providing it has some sort of uni ministry for me to join. I am not restricted to where I have already been. This seems to me like making a difficult road even hard, so I will probably not follow it, but God may have other plans.

My next jobs are then to talk to the people who work here in Perth as well as in Newy to work out what... to do...

Back to the Future

So I'm a little into Back to the Future right now, been introducing my housemate to the franchise and reading a blog about the novelisation of the movie, and basically having a good laugh at it. Btothef.tumblr.com is pretty much my favourite place to hang out at the moment...

Aside from that, it loosely relates to the topic of this post, which is, when do I actually plan to start my MTS traineeship? Short answer: not the foggiest. Slightly longer answer: beginning either '13 or '14.

The longest answer is actually a question: do I want to get stared right away so as not to waste time in a job with no eternal significance, and to make the most of my youth and enthusiasm? Or do I keep my job a bit longer, save some more money, and get a bit older and wiser?

I will make this decision... Later. Talking to people, praying, thinking... These activities will play a big role in my life for the next year. Or two.

Mission statement

So I have decided to do an MTS traineeship. That much is pretty well set, not much else is.

Here is what I know:

MTS

Soon

At a uni

Here is what I am yet to discover:

Where?

When?

With whom?

What is it going to be like?

Pretty much everything.

So this blog is to follow my discovery of these unknowns. I will share my decision making process as I speak to people, think through all the options, stress about everything and generally turn my life upside down. Then it will follow through my two years in MTS, what I do, who I meet, interesting stuff that happens, and my reactions. If I'm really keen I might even continue past MTS but that is for future me to decide. There will also be some amusing asides thrown in, so it's not all heavy stuff.

Basically I'm hoping to be super honest, or as much as I can be. For this reason, and for general coolness, I have adopted a nom de plume. Pearl is not my real name, but if you know me, it shouldn't be too hard to work it out.

I hope that you enjoy, or at least are mildly interested by, this blog, but mostly I pray that God be glorified, and that more people hear his word and trust in the name of Jesus to be saved.

PS. If you don't know what MTS is, check out www.mts.com.au