Another Month Stares Me in the Face...

This time last year I was in Australia contemplating a plane ride home, and the fact that I was going to miss my new home more than I thought. Being able to run down to the market for anything I wanted, or stopping in at the local corner restaurants was something I really enjoyed being able to do on foot. You could get anywhere on foot without ever having to own a car. If I needed a book, I could just jump on the train or ferry if the local bookstore didn't have what I was looking for. Libraries, doctors, shopping and anything else right at your fingertips, but you could also get away from it. Nothing was cluttered. No one was standing all over each other. Everyone for the most part was polite, kind and I never felt out of place.

And then I was home where driving is a means to an end. I suppose I could move nearer to a city, but here, things are different. Everything seems a little tainted here. Even if you find a peaceful spot to rest your weary head, others also see it as a peaceful spot and suddenly that peace is gone. Instead you're surrounded with people who are loud, unpleasant and don't really care about you or what you were looking for. I guess I miss the respect for peace and quiet that everyone seemed to have in Australia. Perhaps I was misreading it, but I never felt pushed, or disapproved of.... then again everyone thought I was from Canada. Conversations were generally interspersed with, "So, what part of Canada are you from?" and I had to tell them that I was from the States. A brief surprised look would cross their face, and then they'd apologize immediately, but even then they wouldn't try verbally scraping me off like some sort of mold. Its a courtesy I don't often run across here.

I guess as another December stares me in the face I find myself missing that time I had in Sydney. Perhaps it was because for the first time in a long time I didn't have so much weight on me. It was nice to be able to have not a care in the world for a while and from time to time I wish I where back there. I guess December makes me melancholy. But don't worry. I'll be on the rebound pretty quick. Hope everyone has a good time this month. Night.

Hiding at Home...

There have been some years when I get up at the crack of morning the day after Thanksgiving to go see if I could find anything down at the stores worth damaging my credit over. Looking back on that foolhardy activity there was nothing worth losing precious sleep to acquire. This Thanksgiving, I ventured from my hovel but once to visit family and to help them eat a lot of food, since half the people who said they were coming canceled because they'd gotten the flu, or colds, or whatever the latest rhinovirus out there is. So, I basically stuffed myself until I was nearly sick, and even three days later I still think I've got stuffing in the nooks and crannies of my head. Too much food is bad. Even if it is turkey with cranberry sauce. I have a weakness for cranberries. I like the juice too. Anyway, I managed to scarf up most of the left overs on my own, while the dog looked on in hopeful anticipation. Sorry dog. None for you. Where is my sharing nature? I don't feed my dog human food. There's too many things that can hurt her. Onions, grapes and other innocuous seeming food substances can hurt of kill a dog. Yes, I'm justifying my selfishness.

For the rest of the weekend, I pretty much spent my time hiding, doing homework and watching my newly coveted Smallville seasons. Once again my obsession with superheroes is shining through. Hopefully no one forgot to wear their sunglasses. Its nice to have some down time, although not enough downtime to get to read anything from the pile of books next to my bed. Maybe during winter break? I guess time shall tell. Or, its just going to hoard its information and keep me guessing. What else have I been doing? Well, eating way too many See's Molasses Chips, which I love. I don't get a chance to have them very often. Aside from that I've been remarkably lazy. There was the fight with the laptop, and the realization that's probably about time to reformat the hard drive again... Ugh. Never a fun project. I'll have to do that over winter break. Periodically I do that to keep things from getting too cluttered. Its just really... involved. At least for me.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! At the moment, I'm off to sit in front of the TV and watch Smallville. Yes, its on DVD, but I'm on a roll. Plus there's also the fact that there's ice cream and bananas with my name on it. Yum. Banana split, here I come. Possibly. Unless it... splits. *sighs* Apologies. Bad joke on my part. Night! :)

Thanks for....

Yet another class assigned post (not that I'm complaining) in which we are to tell what we are thankful for on this day before Thanksgiving. Actually I could've posted this later or earlier, it just happened to be the day before Turkey Day. Generally I am given to slightly sarcastic witty remarks, at least that's what I'd like to think. However I find myself giving this question some heavy duty thought, because this past year has been uncharacteristically harsh in terms of family and friends. Last spring semester I had an 8am class twice a week, and was starting a new job and that was a long haul down the hill. To help me out my great aunt and second cousin offered me a room since they live on 10 minutes away from school. Being there twice a week needless to say I got a chance to know them. More so than I had in the past. My cousin passed away before the end of the semester. So although its bittersweet I am glad that I got to get to know her and that she got to know me. I will miss her kindness, her gentleness, and most of all her laugh.

My guess is this post is going to be fairly short, given that I'm having trouble coming up with something to babble about. There's always the boring.. such as, I've got a sinus infection. How's that? Boring, I know. However there have been some amusing side affects to the sinus infection. Such as, my left eye has been leaking tears for several weeks now and the doctor couldn't figure out why. Now we know. In between all that though I was sitting at the internship or at work with a constantly tearing eye, and people were always asking if I was alright. Today, both eyes were tearing to the point it looked like I was crying. A patron would walk in, and say,"Hi! Listen, I was wond... Oh my god! Are you alright? What's wrong?" thinking I was crying about something. At the internship, everyone was asking what was wrong as well. By now they all know I just had a faulty eyeball, but it was sort of funny as well. I guess I'm also thankful that I work with such nice people, and have such instantly concerned patrons. ;)

Since its the day before Thanksgiving, I wish you all a wonderful holiday with friends and/or family. Even if you're not fond of the holiday, its still a chance to hang out with those you care about. Don't toss that for anything. So, Happy Thanksgiving! Night. :)

The Long Long Week...

The week has been a blur filled with too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Last week is when it really started on Friday. We had a managers meeting, and then a blessed day off Saturday on which I caught up on a lot of sleep. Sunday was movie day and I think I posted then about the movies I watched. At least that's what it says on my blog. ;) Its sad when you have to read your own blog because you can't remember what you did the weekend before. However that was the case. In fact, I hadn't realized I'd left my blog all by its lonesome for almost a week until I wandered over here to see if anything was in the comments. I am soooo bad. Anyway, after the meeting, it was a weekend spent sleeping, resting and trying to avoid the cold I've been fighting off for a while now. It just waits until I'm low on sleep and then sneaks back.

Tuesday I ended up having to leave work early because I was over in hours for the last pay period. So my help came and I didn't get everything done that I normally would have. No chance for catch up the next day because of a Library Advisory Board meeting. The last few weeks I've been working myself into the ground to get my library looking up to snuff in case they wanted to do a walk through. They didn't do the walk through per say, but a few of them came in to take a look and I guess they liked what they saw. Okay. I hope they liked what they saw. I ended up just going in and talking to the tail end of them because I had to lock up the meeting room. I guess I'll never really know.

Thursday and Friday brought the internship days in which I get up before the sky has decided what color its going to be, and the forest is painted in nothing by shades of grey and hints of outlines. Eventually I make my way to the car, and down to the internship, which I actually enjoy even though I'm half asleep and in a constant state of,"Oh No! Did I just screw that up?!" My minders assure me I'm doing fine and you know? I'm really going to miss working there when the internship time is up. Its sort of like Christmas everyday. Hmm... de ja vu. I'm guessing I said that somewhere else at some point. After the internship I have an hour to grab lunch and run to my branch to open. Its hectic, but I like it. Down side is when I get home I'm thoroughly worn out and all I really want to do is lay down for about a week. I'd take a vacation, but I don't get that yet. Too new to the system is what I'm told. ;) I shall wait my turn. All in all the entire week has been nothing but that smear of color that landscapes become while you're looking at it through the window on a speeding train. Next week isn't going to be much better. Joy.

My personal vote is for sleeping, and since I'm a party of one, I will do as I dictate. Sleeping it is. Maybe some tea first and then ... lovely lovely sleep. Night. :)

On Movie Night....

Since I have nothing better to batter my loyal readers with (I'm making assumptions on the loyal reader aspect) I'm going to talk about the movies I watched over the weekend. Unless you all want to hear about the sleeping aspect of this weekend which was quite enjoyable if I do say so myself. But since thats basically a blank spot, I'll move on to movies. I won't give spoilers if I can help it and I'll tell you about them out of the order I watched them. Before we begin, I will warn you that I watch a rather eclectic group of movies.

First up, we have "A Taste For Tea" which is a Japanese film about a family at different points in their life. Its a snapshot really of life in a small town in Japan, in the same vein as certain Hayao Miyazaki films, namely "Whisper of the Heart" or "Only Yesterday" which is another similar snapshot. Its quiet, funny, thought provoking, and can be compared with "Little Miss Sunshine" without all the screaming, serious disfunction, and heartsick feeling at the end. By the end of this film, you are left feeling calm and somehow comforted. I will be suggesting this to people who like stories a little out of the ordinary, and don't want a lot of violence. There is a little, but I swear the guy deserves it.

Next up is the "The Thief Lord" which is an adaptation from the book by Cornelia Funke by the same title. I have no read the book which is probably why I enjoyed the movie. Obviously it targets kids, but it was well done as far as I could tell. Aside from a rather surprising look-alike that had me wonder how Corey Feldman has managed to un-age himself, the acting was good, the story help together and overall the film was a fun romp. If you like kids movies, this one will do.

Anime is something I really enjoy, so the next one I watched was "Mushi-Shi vol 2". The first was sort of a unique experience because of its calming effect it had on me, which was odd because of some unsettling images. I'm one of those people who can sit through I don't know how many horror films and doesn't freak, or have nightmares, so images like the ones shown didn't bother me. Its just interesting that it didn't affect the overall feel of the show. Its shown in half hour segments like it was for Japanese television, so you can just watch one every day. Personally, I tend to gorge on anime, so I watched them all in one sitting.

The rest of the evening was basically just watching horror flicks. "Wrong Turn" and "Ghost Ship". Fairly easy to follow, run of the mill horror films. I guess you could say that the predictability is comforting, and then there's always the usual triumph over evil. If you like horror flicks these are pretty good, otherwise don't bother watching them. Especially if you don't have a totally hardened skin towards blood, guts, shrieking and torture. You'll end up with nightmares and you'll be pointing the blame finger at me. Quite frankly I'm not fond of that, so I will be avoiding recommending horror flicks.

Since I'm still watching films I guess that brings this movie review episode to a close. Please tune in next time when I might give reviews on Manga, Anime or something else that the general public scoffs at out of sheer ignorance. With those gentle words, I'm off to watch SWAT so I can enjoy large explosions, excessive violence and a general disregard for subtly and language restrictions. Talk to you all later! Night. :)

How Things are Going...

This is one of the posts in which the teacher asks us to answer a question. In this episode I will endeavor to answer this question. "With having completed over half of this course so far, have your expectations for the course been met up to this point?" The answer would be a definite yes, in every aspect I could've hoped for. Everything from the Discussion Board to the reading and homework is an eye opener in some way. Or has helped me look at information in different ways. Generally speaking I don't go into a class with expectations, because I never know how things will go. Expectations tend to make people set walls at which they decide to stop. For me its much better to stand in a field that goes on forever in possibilities, than to stand in a self imposed box with set limits to what I want to learn. So far I've learned way more than what was listed in the course description, so indeed I think all the basic expectations have been met and more.

Today was catch up day at my little branch, which means I did a lot. Boxes of books were moved out, certain items were moved around to make more room. Since I don't have a lot of room to begin with I try and use absolutely everything I can get my hands on to make a little more space for books, BCDs and other items. So, when I left, the branch looked great, my car was full of books, and my feet and back were killing me. My feet are still a little problematic. Why work myself into the ground? Well, there's a library advisory board meeting next week, and I'm trying to make the branch look fairly good, so if they decide to look at it, it won't look... awful. It still needs some work, but I think I can handle it. I don't have any employees, so I end up doing a lot of stuff myself. Hopefully I will get to all the trouble spots before the meeting. Here's crossing my fingers. ;)

For the rest of the evening, I guess I'll putter off to the TV set, where I will probably fall asleep. Perhaps not. Its cold in here, and I generally have to be warm to become totally unconscious. But for now, I need something hot, and somewhere warm, because I think I'm getting sick. I'm hoping I'm wrong. Getting a sinus infection now would be very bad. So, I'm going to wander off for the night. Shall talk later. ;) Night.

And the Lights Went Out In.....

Friday morning at 8:15, I had just finished up several adds to the system in the cataloging department. The books had been handed over to a volunteer for covering, and I was headed back to the desk to see what other trouble I could get into, when "bink". The lights went out. Everyone paused and then sighed. Our IT guy husseled around the library checking to see that back up system were on battery and functional, while other systems would be out of commission until the power was back up. Staff wandered around in the dark with flashlights attempting to shelve, while managers attempted paperwork. In the tech department, my supervisors and I went about doing the tedious stuff you do to items being added to the system. None of that involves a computer, but it does require light, so we were all crammed over by the windows putting barcodes on books, CDs and DVDs. Also did some receiving while we waited. Listened to a big of music on the radio and was told by the Director that we'd be staying closed until the power came back on since you can't see a thing in the stacks with the power out. We would've had to issue everyone flashlights, or have a flashlight armed page walk around with every patron to help them see. For almost three hours we worked in the dark like ants. Except most of us are paid ants. I'm not because its an internship, but what the heck, it was fun.

The entire weekend was taken up with watching movies that I haven't had a chance to watch. Some were alright and others I felt I'd managed to waste time on. But at least it was a relaxing experience for the most part. Tonight, I will probably be watching Chuck. Has anyone watched Chuck? It cracks me up. Mostly because the main character is someone I can identify with. At the heart of it, it appears that I am a geek. Geek as in I'm into everything intellectual to some degree, as opposed to the more disturbing original meaning, which was the person at the carnival that bit the heads off live chickens. Perhaps a more apt title would be nerd for me. Who knows. All I know is that I get all the references to Dune and Star Wars and other such Science Fiction that gets mentioned no matter how obscure. I suppose I shouldn't be admitting to that, but its true. I also like Moonlight even if it is doomed, and probably won't last until next season. The acting is good, but the writing isn't up to par. That usually doesn't happen, but this is one of those cases. National Treasure was a good example of exponential acting talent, not fully utilized by the director, which was a shame, because the movie could've been excellent instead of mediocre. Okay, off to watch stuff on TV, in which I will quickly lose interest, and end up reading a book, periodically surfacing to look at the tube when I hear something interesting. Until I type again. Night. :)