A.L.F.'s · PAD

One of the joys of the internet is that you can discuss all sorts of things with different people that live in different places, earn interesting perspectives on all sorts of topics. The below conversations erupted during such a time with some WoW buddies. My thoughts on yaoi:

Why is it that guys can fawn over their favourite celebrity women yet scoff at the popularity of things like Twilight? Why do they complain that girls these days only like thin, whispy, barely-men pretty-boys yet they drool over the ideal-looking-woman-that-is-totally-not-in-real-life? Ya know? And I can twist this around: why do women roll their eyes when they hear guys talk about Megan Fox but squeal in the mention of Robert Pattinson?

More irony: Please don’t tell me the horrors of how the government is slowly controlling everyone by spying/logging phone conversations and then reach for your ringing cell phone. What? Mind you, I’m not saying our government’s perfect. I’m not saying that our government’s not trying to control us. I'm just merely pointing out the irony of the discussion.

But the beauty of those who have access to freedom of speech is that we are allowed to be hypocritical about things – we can complain up and down about modern life, analyze it, conjure theories about it, and still embrace it as a part of our everyday lives (whether we like to or not).

So, when such debates come up again, the best choice for me is to just smile and nod. Smile and nod. And try not to let it bug me too much. Ha-ha.

Lastly, I’m a terrible verbal debater. Always have been, always will be. I have a hard time forming what I want to say into words instantly. I flounder around and end up feeling stupid and frustrated, even when people somewhat agree with what I’m saying. My rebuttals are best served in the written format. I have the time then to analyze what has been said to me, think of the best way to respond, then carefully do so without time constraints.

Sadly, I’ve discovered more and more that writing is a crappy way for a lot of people to work out issues. Both a coworker and a friend have made this clear to me so far *sigh*
However, my problem with discussing things verbally is that people always misinterpret what I have to say because I can’t say it properly, and I end up not saying what I need to say anyway because I’m distracted/sidetracked by their comments. In the written form, at least, I can let out everything I want to say in the way I want to say it without being led astray by a side remark. And with written responses, I can read and re-read them, break them apart, chew over them, then decide from there how to act.

Does anyone else have this issue of communicating with people? Anyone have a solution to this? My social skills are falling away piece by piece; it’s rather depressing. I'll probably someday die a lonely hermit. *laugh*

But at least there’s always LiveJournal *huggles it*

We may have a new addition to the family.

Ha-ha, no, not another kid!

Went to SIL's place for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. She had one too many cats at her place. Why? A stray kitten somehow broke into their place a couple of weeks ago and had decided to stay. A friendly cat, but very, very, very shy and very good at hiding. He is almond-colored (almost white but not quite) with a dusting of mocha-color across his face and ears similar to that of a siamese cat, and gorgeous blue eyes. He reminds me of Lilly, our old siamese-cross cat that passed away last march. He's still small and appears quite young - I'd say around 6 months old TOPS. He looks a bit battered, as most strays do, but nothing a good brushing, steady meals, and some TLC won't fix. I wonder where his siblings and his mom are.

We managed to take him home.

Our household consists of me, Husband, Tyler (our almost-5 year old son), Nimbus (our 7 year old solid-gray cat) and Rosie (our one-year-old VERY sociable lab/retriever cross). We've blocked off half of the house from Rosie until Kitten (as we shall currently call this stray) gets used to how we live. (He's terrified enough of us, Rosie would be just too much. She'd never hurt him, but I can see her playtime being mistaken for chow time to a skittish kitten that doesn't know better, lol)

Tyler, of course, is the typical curious, eager 4-year-old. All he wants to do is pet the kitty. Kitten has shown no signs yet of lashing back at Tyler (all animals in our household know and obey the hierarchy - Joe/me, Tyler, then them, and any animal that violates that gets the boot). We're also trying to teach Tyler to give Kitten his space until he grows more comfortable (a big part of having pets is teaching children how to properly respect their pets).

Nimbus. Heh-heh, Nimbus. Nimbus, who was once a coward when he was younger, has grown to be somewhat of a social butterfly, thanks to Lilly's teachings. He's made friends with some of the cats in the neighborhood and has gotten in fights with others. But no matter his mood, he has a soft spot for kittens. Nimbus, in the past, has taken newborn kittens from the mother's den, stashed them away to where he feels is a better location, and has cuddled with them, as though he were a momma cat. (I don't think he thought through how he was gonna feed the kittens, or how irate momma cat would be to find her kittens gone, lol). So we hoped Nimbus would welcome Kitten with open arms and will get over his slump he's been in since Lilly passed away.

Kitten, though shy around people, is very clingy to other cats. When he first layed eyes on Nimbus, he immediately rushed to his side with an "Oh god, save me!" look on his face, and cowered beside our cat. Nimbus looked very startled, as there was no introductory sniff, no get-to-know-you staring contest, no rules-of-the-house lecture in howls and swats or anything else cats do when they first meet, but fortunately he handled it well. He sat there with cowering Kitten for about 5 minutes, looking very awkward, before finally slinking off to a private location in which Kitten could not follow (much to Kitten's dismay - poor thing, lol). That was their interaction for the day. Nimbus spent a lot of time very carefully sniffing and analysing all the places in the house Kitten had been.

We didn't see most of Kitten that first day. He disappeared and we had worried that he had hidden inside the forced air duct, the one that didn't have protective plating over it. We looked EVERYWHERE for that cat, but couldn't find him. I had a hard time sleeping, listening for any signs of a kitten in distress. I kept imagining a half-scorched kitten dragging himself out from the heater duct like something from a bad horror flick. But I found him this morning peering out at me from the depths of Tyler's closet, safe and sound.

Kitten is slowly starting to come around. Little by little he's growing more sociable. And surprisingly he tolerates Rosie very well - far better than Nimbus does. Rosie, of course, ADORES this. She's stoked that she can sniff Kitten all she wants and cover him in dog drool without him fussing too much.

Kitten, however, still won't go near Tyler.

We'll see how this goes. Joe wanted Kitten in the first place, he can deal with all the cat drama. As for me, all I care about is that Kitten gets intimate with the litter box. I am NOT putting up with the house smelling like cat pee. I do NOT want to find ripe, steaming "gifts" hidden in every nook and cranny of the house. As long as Kitten uses the litter box, I'm satisfied.

(And for those that are concerned, Rosie and Nimbus are up-to-date on their shots. Still, the risk of disease from bringing home a stray cat is always there...)

It snowed this morning.

Either it was THAT slippery out or stupid 4x4 on my big beast of a truck didn't switch over properly; I fishtailed everywhere, driving really really slow, being gentle on the gas, blah-blah. Tiny cars were doing better on the road than I was.

I'm scared to drive home this afternoon.

I was forced to run a red light. It was either that or swerve out of control. Either way, the cameras caught me. I'm worried about getting a ticket in the mail. A stressful thing about driving on ice: just approaching the intersection, watching the green light suddenly switch to yellow, and realizing that you can't stop...

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE WINTER. DIAF, winter! A nice, hot, thawing fire! *laughs* No white christmas for me, thanks. That crap is for people who don't risk their lives every time they leave the house.

(I'm one of those nervous drivers, can you tell?)

Joe went in for more testing of his heart earlier this week. They did a cathader (sp?) through the artery of his inner right thigh. In other words, they cut open the artery there and shoved a bunch of wires through there into his heart to get a good look at it. His arteries are completely clear, but we knew that already. (It annoys us both when someone assumes his heart is bad due to clogged arteries or that he needs bypass surgery, blah-blah) His heart's still weak, but it's recovering. One of his valves is toast, the other is failing.

What does this mean?

It means it's very likely that, because his heart is strengthening, he can go in to replace his valves instead of his entire heart. This is a VERY GOOD THING and is actually very good news. More testing to be done at a later date still unknown to us. Ugh.

In the meantime he's doing a good job losing weight. And he's struggling with the non-smoking thing. It's hard not to just let an argument go. Using argument stress as an excuse to light up is pretty stupid, in my opinion, even if I'm being stubborn and difficult. No, I'm not purposely pissing him off to test his boundaries on what he can handle without a cigarette. Not at all. I'm trying to be more of the good wife that just rolls over and takes it every time he gets snappy due to withdrawals. I'm trying very hard. I'm supporting him every way I know how. Every once in a while, though...

I suppose the argument is that if I love him enough I should accept him of all his flaws, including the smoking. That it shouldn't get in the way of our marriage. However, in this case, the heart specialists have flat-out said "If he doesn't stop smoking, we will not even consider putting him on the list for a transplant." He needs to have stopped smoking for 6 months before they'll consider even the mere possibility of putting him on the list. Therefore, it's no longer an issue of him wanting to quit or even him needing to quit. He HAS to quit. Plain and simple. Has to. His life and the future well-being of our family depends on it. If he's willing to say "fuck it" to that, then...

Yeah, I need to get back to work. Arguing with husband on the phone over hubcaps, his drivers license, and money (money ALWAYS being the issue between us) and having no one to directly vent to leaves me just a tad bit unproductive at my job. *sigh*

On a random note: anyone else addicted to their iPod/mp3 player?

Frustration: taking an active part in a friend's interests, but not having that effort returned.

"Hey, read this and this and this, I think you'll like it," friend says. "Try this game when it comes out," friend says. "Try this. Check out that." And I do. With everything.

But if I were to share some of my interests, they are ignored.

Am I so boring of a person?

But then I wonder, am I expecting too much out of this friendship? Who cares as long as we have a lot in common and enjoy each other's company, right? I have no idea. I've never been very good at keeping friends.

I tend to distance myself from people. That, and I am baffled as to why people meet me, like me at first, and then over time eventually discover that they don't, but no one ever, ever tells me why, leaving me saddened, frustrated, and confused but unable to correct myself in whatever flaw(s) are scaring people away. Meh. (terrible run-on sentence liek whoa but too lazy to change it. ha-ha)

This post isn't directed at anyone on my flist; you're all wonderful. I fear I've distanced myself too much from you all, though - I haven't been posting much lately. I've been holding the attitude of "Well, would anyone really care if I talk about this? Or that?" without any particular reason why I would feel that way. You don't know how many posts I've written up and just have never posted. *sigh*

I'm trying to get new people into my writing, people I know in real-life and such. Not working out so well. Perhaps what I write about is too boring. I need new, fresh ideas, and preferably original ideas. Writing is the only thing I'm any good at (in my mind), so I might as well finally take it seriously. But lately I've been wondering if I'm even good at that, not because I'm discouraged by better writers, but because of a lack of interested readers.

When your own husband keeps saying, every night, "Yeah, I'll read it tonight," and doesn't, it's very discouraging. Double-fold when a friend pretty much does the same thing. But perhaps I'm just being impatient again.

Emo-ness aside (because it's not an Alf_b entry without some sort of self-pity or complaint, right?) I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife mainly because I wanted to see the movie but never got the chance to. It is a very interesting book, and I'm enjoying it for the most part, but the romance is very dry. I just can't get into the couple, Henry and Clare. What they're going through is quite fascinating, and it's what's keeping me reading the book, but them being together doesn't make my heart melt, I don't inwardly squee over them, I don't crave their next encounter together...just, nothing. They're a great, three-dimensional couple, but they're kinda just there, going through the motions of the plot. There's something missing in this book, and I can't pinpoint what it is.

But lately I've been craving more and more romance in what I read, in what I watch, in what I listen to, everything. For the past couple years or so it's been like this. There's nothing wrong with my relationship to Joe, I don't think, it's just...this festering craving. And when I mean romance, I don't necessarily mean sex, just romance in general. *sigh* I dunno. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.

Naruto fans: I haven't read the manga in years, but I've been keeping up with the anime on-and-off. And last week's episode...*smirk, fangirly bounce* I used to be freakin' OBSESSED with Inuyasha's parents back in the day...I think I've found my replacement couple! I've been scouring the web for anything and everything Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Don't think I'm quite ready to write fic for them yet, though. I've been a fan of the 4th hokage for years, but for him to have a name, for him to be confirmed as Naruto's dad, and to see who Naruto's mother was...I'm caught, hook, line and sinker!

The Inuyasha anime is continuing!! Woot!!!!

In regards to my previous post, we decided to enroll Tyler in kindergarten next year. He'll be 5 just turning 6 by then. He's smart enough to attend school now, but I worry about his social development. He's just so very shy around strangers. It actually broke my heart when I first discovered this trait about him when he was a year old at his cousin's birthday party. Being the shy, quiet kid growing up sucked a lot of the time and I hoped Tyler wouldn't have to go through that. I had hoped he would be more outgoing like his dad. Ah well.

And Joe's doing a bit better. He's lost a lot of weight. And he's attempting to quit smoking (hell hath no fury like someone quitting cold turkey *gulp*). He goes in for more testing this month, the doctors wanting to take as close of a look at his heart as they can without actually cutting him open. We'll see what they find out. *sigh*

Thanks to those that replied in the previous post. Apologies for never replying to you.

It's 2:30 am, I have work tomorrow, but I'm not at all tired. How unfortunate.

Update time, woot!

( Renovations, Husband's Health, son in school, fandom )

Until then, laters!

So, I finally made my "official" debut in the Warcraft fandom. And...

( Read more... )

In more exciting news, it seems as though the Inuyasha anime is continuing after a too-long hiatus! Perhaps it's time to remind myself why I fell in love with the manga/anime in the first place, finish the WIP fics I have there, write something new for the fandom. (How can I ever forget the awesome kick-assery and hawtness that is Inutaisho?) Again, we'll see what happens :)

ETA: So, I did receive a review today! However, it was NOT for my Warcraft fic. Instead, it was for the oldest fic I've ever published to the site - a DBZ fanfic I wrote 10 years ago. It is the first review that fic has seen in years.

*headdesk*

So I'm hoping to finally make my debut into the Warcraft fandom sometime this week (a.k.a. I wrote stuffs! It's been a while!) To gear myself up for it, I decided to do this character meme on some of the characters that will appear in said story. Took me FOREVER to do - about a few hours! It's a response to a friend's blogspot. As it's a LONG meme, I couldn't reply directly on her blogspot, so I posted it here. *shrug* If you roleplay in any way, or write, feel free to do this survey if you wish...

Pick 5 of your characters and make them answer these questions!

( Read more... )

( On Transformers... )

( On the Avatar movie... )

( On the Dragonball movie... )

The Warcraft movie was supposed to have been released the summer of this year. They moved it back a year. Grr...

I have not seen the new Star Trek movie. I should, though. I heard it was really, really good. Good enough that people who aren't into Star Trek (like myself) even enjoyed it. We'll see, I suppose...

( On the Twilight fandom... )

All I have for movie news right now...

So...hello! Is anyone still around? *looks around nervously*

It's been a while!

Everything's been great lately. Really, it has!

You don't know how many times throughout this past year I've written paragraphs upon paragraphs to post here. But I always get side-tracked and/or busy and then nothing gets posted. *sigh* So I'm keeping it short this time around:

HOW HAVE YOU ALL BEEN?! I want to hear about YOU. So if you're reading this, if you still remember me, drop a line :) I'd love to hear from you!

I miss you all, and I apologize SO MUCH for dropping off the face of the earth like this. *laugh*

So I'm back after almost a week in BC!

I'll spare you the details as they're a bit boring. Basically, I went to Richmond for some training regarding work. Learned a lot, haven't applied it yet, though. Hopefully the look of my ads will improve, and my job enthusiasm will improve too (still really, really nervous about the upcoming job review, though *bites nails*) It was nice to meet some of the coworkers in Richmond that I had only conversed with through emails and phone beforehand. One thing that was surprising--some workers who I thought were so uber-important ended up working in tiny cubicles just like everyone else :P lol Everyone there works so hard, though. I don't think I could compare to their awesome skills if ever I have the chance to transfer to their office.

It drizzled the whole time, but I expected this. Husband says it rains a lot in that area. Despite the cloudy nature, the area was still gorgeous. It was nice to see mountains in the horizon again, and to know that somewhere beyond the skyscrapers is ocean. And everything's so lush! It's like California minus the palm trees *nods*

Richmond itself is nice, kinda boring though, and I wouldn't want to live there. But the hotel room I stayed in...gigantic window in the bedroom, the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in in my LIFE! Just...gah! The company did not skimp on the hotel room, that's for sure :) And seeing the city every night and evening was nice. False sense of feeling all posh :P

The highlight of the trip was meeting the lovely empath_eia Wednesday night :) Man, was I ever nervous! Excited, of course, as I have been wanting to meet her for some time, but also very nervous too *nods* Pictures do not do her justice as she is positively gorgeous (and she came in her trademark hat! yays!). I think she was nervous too. (I seem to intimidate people--I'm a hard person to get to know, I suppose). It was a nice visit, chatting over dinner, but we both had to get up early in the morning so we kept it brief. Perhaps next time we meet it'll be during the day, with plenty of time on our hands, with stuff to do! She could influence me with D.Grey-man, DBSK, and other such things while I could influence her with...hmm, well, I dunno! *laughs* It was SO nice that she went out of her way to meet me; I hope it was worth it!

I left Thursday afternoon but not before attempting to do a little sight-seeing with my coworker, who had never seen the ocean. We didn't have time to wander far from Richmond (especially since neither of us knew the area), so we hung out in Steveston for a couple of hours. Though we saw a lot of water, we didn't see the vast expanse of nothing but ocean and seaweed littered beaches that we hoped we would. Ah well. At least it was sunny that day.

And that was the trip! The plane rides were rather relaxing for me, but when you go through the hell that is customs in the year 2002 everything else is easy-breezy!

This afternoon (Monday), I leave for Richmond, BC for a week. (What's up, BCers on the flist!) Will be there Monday evening, leave Thursday afternoon. Just to get a little bit of training and insight pertaining to my job.

I'm nervous about going. It's the first time I've traveled anywhere without family of some sort. I'll be traveling with a coworker (and it's the only reason why I'm going for training now instead of later), but still... I HATE being apart from Husband for too long :( That, and I'm broke. People at the Richmond office are supposed to feed us, room and travel are paid for, cab is paid for, but still, I am broke, and am feeling VERY nervous about traveling with no money. Also, I'll be swamped with fall catalogue stuff when I get back. I'm worried that I chose a bad time to go for training--that I'll be too overwhelmed with catalogue stuff and will regret ever going in the first place because of it (but dammit, I could really use the overtime pay!)

Otherwise it'll be nice to see the Vancouver area. That and coworker has never seen the ocean, so I'm hoping we'll get a chance to show it to her before we leave. I'm looking forward to meeting the staff at the head office in Richmond. I'm looking forward to relaxing in the Marriott hotel (paid for by the company, of course :D). I'm looking forward to getting out of Alberta for a while.

We'll see what happens! *deep breath*

Oh, and I remembered my umbrella :P

So, I jumped on the bandwagon and watched Dark Knight just like everyone else and their dog did, lol.

( All I want is my phone call! )

So, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I got to watch the Avatar series finale!!

( spoilerific liek whoa! )

Well, now that the show's over, I am positively STOKED about the movie! Yeah, I know, the fandom has done nothing but complain about it. Whatever. I really like Avatar. I also really like M. Night Shyamalan's films. Therefore, I am nothing but giddy over the movie! So shoot me.

So, it's been a while.

I'm ok, in case anyone's wondering.

What brought me back? I do still check my email from time to time, and someone sent me an email wondering when I was going to update one of my Inuyasha fics...from DeviantArt, of all places. Um, wow, people are still reading my stuff? o.0 And yearn for updates? o.0

So I decided to procrastinate on work for once, since I actually have the time to do so now, and take a peek at how everyone is doing in LJ land.

( My Thoughts on Inuyasha Ending (spoilers) )

( Work Stuffs )

( Family Stuffs )

( Fandom Stuffs )

( Warcraft Stuffs )

Other random stuff: My coworkers are obsessed with Facebook. I've been contemplating jump-starting my facebook account. I never get around to it, though.
Fell in love with the anime 12 Kingdoms. Husband adores Great Teacher Onizuka.

So yeah. That's about all from me. How is everyone else doing? Forgive me for not getting a chance to post comments!

If a tree falls in a forest...

...does anyone care? :P

Update on me in list form, to make it short and sweet:

* Mid-to-end of January: Moved to new place in GP. This means no more commuting. YAY.

* End-of-January: Finished my last week at my old job. Good bye Shawna, J'son, Irene, Maria, and all of the managers. I'll truly miss some of you. Shawna (aka "S") seemed suprisingly OK with me leaving. I was relieved by this reaction, since I was scared to death she'd get upset. However, I ended up crying privately in a corner over it anyway. I don't know if her calm "whatever" reaction should be considered a good thing or not. I still wonder about this. However, I was one of the few admin staff that did not get a bonus over the X-mas season, and she had said flat out that the bonus was an incentive for those that did a good job to stay, so I had quietly taken the hint and found other work. What ever her reaction was to me going, I hope they get me my last paycheque ok.

NO MORE PAYROLL!!!!

* Monday, January 28-present: Started my new job as advertising administrator for the agriculture department of a global-wide auctioneer company. (Free Internets to whoever knows what company I'm talking about!) For those that don't know, I make posters, ads, flyers, and even full-blown catalogues of all the nifty farm stuff that will be in upcoming auction sales. My job is graphic-intensive and is very cool :) Observations of the job thus far:
--I am surrounded by very computer-savvy rednecks and hicks. I kid you not. All of these people live out on farms, listen exclusively to country music, and come to work wearing sweaters and jeans (sometimes flannel shirts, cowboy boots, and baseball caps o.0 ) Each person is even related to at least one other in some way, shape, or form or have at least known someone else for years! Yet they're all very smart, very office efficient, can professionally pwn in boardroom meetings, and are up-to-date with technology trends (they all have Blackberries, for instance :P ) It's very unusual to me, but in a good way :)
-- These people are also, so far, very, very nice :)
--This job has the potential to be very stressful (tight deadlines combined with lots of responsibility suck) which has me very nervous. I pray that I can learn what I need to fast enough and be considered a good asset to the company. I really want to be good at this!

* During my first week of work, I had to catch rides or take very expensive cab rides to and from work because the temperature had dropped down to the -40C ranges during the DAY (I kid you not!) so our rust bucket of a vehicle would not start. This stressed me out liek whoa.

* Because of the above-mentioned stress, I also caught the stomach bug during this first week of work, fighting my queasy tummy all the time. I did NOT want to call in sick on my first week of work, plus I can't afford it anyway. Besides, I was still able to work, I wasn't running to the bathroom every 15 minutes or anything like that. And for those of you who may be concerned, no, no one got sick from me.

So yeah, that's all that's happening with me right now.

As for fandom things, I'm still very much into Warcraft, but I'm having a hard time making LJ friends from the fandom because those that talk about the game do so obsessively, rambling about raids and epic gear and what-not. I'm not a hard-core player so I don't care about that stuff. All I want to do is gush about the storyline with people, not game mechanics, but no one seems to care. *sigh* That, and all I really want to do in the game anymore is roleplay. I REALLY want to RP. Sadly, I don't know anyone that's willing to help me out with this, and I can't get over my shyness to approach someone in character. Why, oh why must I be shy and totally fail socially online now too? It's enough of a problem offline :( I really hate myself some days. Meh. (If any of you want to help me out with the WoW RP issue, or if you want to try to introduce me to some other RP of any type, I'd love you forever!)

At least I'm getting the urge to write again :) Probably not for the Inuyasha fandom, though, unless someone can tempt me with a juicy plotbunny...?

Meh, shutting up now. Back to your everyday schedule :)

2008, so far, seems to be the year of big changes for me (hopefully positive).

The biggest change: I found a new job!

My current job is as an administrative assistant for a husband-wife duo that owns a handful of Subway restaurants. Their business has grown considerably in the two and a half years that I've been working for them, and they're good enough bosses. However, my job duties have changed so much since then, eventually warping to tasks that I both do not enjoy and am not good at (specifically payroll). I swear, they lost more money with my mistakes, despite how very hard I tried to do the best I could, than what was warranted. My self esteem also took a nose dive because of this--it sucks coming to work knowing you royally suck at it. So, before waiting until I make a mistake big enough to cost me my job, I quietly looked for other work instead.

My new job will be very, very different from this job. It's still an office job (yay), but instead of fighting with payroll and doing whatever annoying oddball tasks that no one else wants to do, I'll working with advertising.

Wait, what, advertising?! But Alfbie, you're not a people person!

I'll be working for a rather large auctioneer company that specializes in operating equipment (trucks and such). I'll be working exclusively in the agricultural department of this company, in this region. My job is to take the pictures and data that others have gathered (on tractors, various other farm equipment, and even farms themselves) and to put that into templates for posters, newspaper ads, radio ads, and catalogues. These ads will be advertising auction dates and all the nifty farm stuff you can expect at these auctions. Sounds easy, but the little training manual I got to take home with me makes it seem much more complicated. Also, the area I live in is very big on agriculture (lots of farms). Therefore, farming auctions seem to be VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS for a lot of people. The big spring catalogue, displaying everything that will be in the April auction, is typically over 200 pages long o.0 And I have to compile all that! Needless to say, my training will probably be very intense, as I need to know very quickly how to do the uber-important spring catalogue :(

So, yeah! I start at the end of January. I'm both nervous and excited at the same time. I'm excited because it's something different. I'm nervous, however, because I worry that perhaps I won't be good at this job. Being the only breadwinner in the family, it's crucial that I stay working. So, I pretty much HAVE to be good at this job. I suppose,then, that I'm more than just scared--I'm terrified.

But hey, NO MORE PAYROLL!!!!

In other news, we found a place in GP!! This means NO MORE COMMUTING!!!!!!!!!! Move-in date was yesterday (the 15th) so I've been busy packing and moving. A friends-locked post will follow this post, displaying the new address and phone number. I pray, from the bottom of my heart, that I'm able to afford this place. I'm so very, very scared to death that I won't be able to. It's so hard being the only one earning money. I wish so much some days that I had some sort of financial help, a second income source, like every other married couple does. This is all so very hard :((NOTE: I am NOT insinuating(sp) that you send me money. Please don't send me money or think that I'm asking you to! I'm merely venting some frustration, that's all. Thanks :) )

But that's all about me for now. Thank you very much if you've read this far *bows*

Thank you very much for those that sent holiday cards!

alena_s_anigor, it was very cool to receive a card from you in croatian :) the_firefly, the card was cute :) prpl_pen, we'll definitely have to talk more :) Thank you, tomoeish, hope this year is better for you! parsnip_chan, time during the holidays sure does fly! I wish all the best for you in 2008 as well :) fenikkusuken, for some reason I had a hard time opening the envelope! It was well worth it, though--what a beautiful family you have :)

Again, thank you so much to the people mentioned above for the cards! Not sure if I should be expecting more--a few I received only yesterday. So if you have sent something and I haven't mentioned you yet, chances are that I will soon!

Now it's time for me to mail a few things out. I know it's after the holidays, but I always worry about stuff getting lost in the mail during such a hectic time. *sigh*

A lot of changes are happening right away. I found a new job and will be starting it at the end of the month. We're also moving to GP, which means no more commuting. I'll give the details of both, including a new address, soon. Right now, I'm tired. I was up since 5 in the morning because some idiot tripped the fire alarm in the apartment complex. *headdesk* No fire, of course. Just a lot of very cold and irked residents, including ourselves, and miffed firefighters. *sigh*

Dear Staples,

It's neat that you have a service to deliver office items that businesses order directly to them. We use this service quite frequently. Yay for coworker "I" for discovering this and ordering stuff from you to be delivered so that none of us have to actually go to your store and buy stuff :P

"I" has ordered coffee from you before. (Staples has everything. You can buy toilet paper from them. Any item you can think of that an office could possibly need, Staples has it.) She usually gets the instant kind (yuck) in the glass container. This time around, however, the employee of yours that packs stuff thought it would be wise to pack a glass container in a BAG (ya know, like those FedEx bags that you ship small stuff in...?) all by itself and expect it to be delivered to us in one piece!

Now, I'm all sorts of airheaded. I make stupid comments, ask stupid questions, and do stupid things all the time (I hate my social anxiety :( ). However, even I would say that this move of yours was pretty darn stupid. Just...wha...? *mind boggles*

Please teach your employees some common sense when it comes to packing, mmkay? It's a wonder the jagged pieces of glass that were delivered to us didn't cut through the bag and potentially hurt someone. Also, your delivery people should be more careful to the stuff they are hauling! This glass jar was made of thick glass, meaning it would have taken a lot of force/weight to crunch up the container as badly as it was. Items of glass should be wrapped in bubble wrap, or form-fitting styrofoam, or something, then packed carefully in a box small enough to hold the item without it shifting around. But what do I know, I don't pack/haul things for a living :P

The stupid, it hurts.

Astounded,
Alfbie

What is up with Will Smith and the "I Am" titles? I Am Robot, I Am Legend...

Anyway, the previews of this movie gave me the impression that it was about Will Smith's character being the last human on Earth and...yeah, that's it. I had heard the occassional rumor that it was some sort of vampire film. Will Smith? In a vampire movie?! Must watch! So I did, last night.

It was definitely not what I expected.

( Cut for TONS of spoilers! )