Randomness
Sun, Aug. 8th, 2004 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWent on a friending spree and then realized my reading list was getting really rather large, and trimmed it down a bit.
Have recently been watching BBC's Top Gear with the boy, which is an absolutely hilarious... car show. Yeah. It's a TV show about cars, and I like it (yes, I'm amazed too). Not only do I like it, I think it's absolutely hilarious (although I do have a tendency to wander off when they start getting a bit too technical for me). But honestly. The people say things like, "The only way you would ever pick this car is if you were clinically insane. And by that, I mean if you wake up in the morning and think you are an onion." And they have weird segments -- the one we watched today was "Let's get a nun to drive a monster truck!" And they did, and she did, and did so successfully, and it was the coolest and funniest thing ever. Past favorites include the segment in which they drive cars past the jet engine of a 747 and see how fast the cars get blown away. And I even listen to their car reviews, because the guys on the show are so incredibly snarky (see above onion comment).
"What can we say? Where do we start? The lacklustre nature of Vauxhall's 1995 Vectra is not simply down to the name, its design or even its quality: it's absolutely intrinsic to every sinew and screwhead in the car's entire being. It's just not a car for anyone who likes cars and, maybe the biggest betrayal of all for the target drivers, there are so many better ways to simply drone along the motorway - like hitch-hiking naked in the rain for a start. "
More here.
You know, I never thought I would be posting car reviews in my LJ.
---
Rethinking career options in light of a) no one hiring. The boy made me feel a little better by saying they (who is this unknown entity anyway?) estimated that some 300,000 new jobs would be created, except only 50,000 were. b) my eyes glazing over reading job descriptions and listening to people talk about their companies. c) continually coming back to books.
Also, this is probably influenced by the current giddy euphoria over being able to buy books for the store, so I shall wait a bit and see if I get tired of it. Or, er, if my feet give out from under me, which is also a possibility.
One of the problems is that my mom is a great advocate of not doing what you want to do and instead doing what is Good For You. One of the largest points of contentions between us through the years has been my tendency to just do what I want to do without thinking of long-term consequences (i.e. majoring in EAS, not taking more econ/science/technology courses in favor of said EAS and various literature courses). Hong Kong and ibanking rather hammered my mom's perspective quite well, and I've been doubting my own instincts ever since.
Then I talk to people at all the big companies around here that are shiny and respectable and would probably make my parents very, very happy if I worked there. And it would make me feel better, because I am extremely materialistic and enjoy a more-luxurious-than-necessary lifestyle, not to mention the ability to buy as many books as I want. Plus, the importance of good benefits is not to be underestimated. And I am vain, and I would like for people to sort of ooh and aah when I tell them my job, instead of feeling vaguely embarrassed.
However, there's this giant counterweight to all of that on LJ and the store. I swear, every other person on my reading list is involved with books in some way.. there are the writers, and editors, and obviously, the multitude of intelligent readers. It's obviously indicative of something that I read all these people and find these posts incredibly interesting and fulfilling, and another really big part of me is constantly wibbling, thinking, wow, having connections in the book industry! Being able to be surrounded by books for a living! And I like most of the people who work in the store, which is pretty rare for me. I went out with the boy for lunch with a few of his friends from work -- he works at this place that makes software for gamers -- and they talk about video games. And anime. And weird assorted stuff like that, and he gets to play games at work, and go to gaming conventions, and meet people and talk to people and it is seriously the coolest thing ever. I want to do something like that (but with books, obviously).
Except I'm not sure if I will burn myself out on books, or if I am not up to it, or what. But then, I realize that I wander around bookstores in a happy daze, thinking, oh, yeah, this one is going really fast at the store now. I would price this at such-and-such there. And it is the most fascinating thing in the world talking shop with my boss.
Also, I know I'm not a writer. I've always sort of floated around that and written down a few stories here and there, but I don't think I've ever felt the burning drive to tell a story that so many people have. Plus, my stories are incredibly bad ;). I would so much rather do something like edit, or review, or something.
Can one review in their spare time? How in the world does someone get into that anyway? Also, is the thought of me being a reviewer or something entirely presumptuous, because really, I just diddle around LJ and spout stuff off the top of my head.
Have recently been watching BBC's Top Gear with the boy, which is an absolutely hilarious... car show. Yeah. It's a TV show about cars, and I like it (yes, I'm amazed too). Not only do I like it, I think it's absolutely hilarious (although I do have a tendency to wander off when they start getting a bit too technical for me). But honestly. The people say things like, "The only way you would ever pick this car is if you were clinically insane. And by that, I mean if you wake up in the morning and think you are an onion." And they have weird segments -- the one we watched today was "Let's get a nun to drive a monster truck!" And they did, and she did, and did so successfully, and it was the coolest and funniest thing ever. Past favorites include the segment in which they drive cars past the jet engine of a 747 and see how fast the cars get blown away. And I even listen to their car reviews, because the guys on the show are so incredibly snarky (see above onion comment).
"What can we say? Where do we start? The lacklustre nature of Vauxhall's 1995 Vectra is not simply down to the name, its design or even its quality: it's absolutely intrinsic to every sinew and screwhead in the car's entire being. It's just not a car for anyone who likes cars and, maybe the biggest betrayal of all for the target drivers, there are so many better ways to simply drone along the motorway - like hitch-hiking naked in the rain for a start. "
More here.
You know, I never thought I would be posting car reviews in my LJ.
---
Rethinking career options in light of a) no one hiring. The boy made me feel a little better by saying they (who is this unknown entity anyway?) estimated that some 300,000 new jobs would be created, except only 50,000 were. b) my eyes glazing over reading job descriptions and listening to people talk about their companies. c) continually coming back to books.
Also, this is probably influenced by the current giddy euphoria over being able to buy books for the store, so I shall wait a bit and see if I get tired of it. Or, er, if my feet give out from under me, which is also a possibility.
One of the problems is that my mom is a great advocate of not doing what you want to do and instead doing what is Good For You. One of the largest points of contentions between us through the years has been my tendency to just do what I want to do without thinking of long-term consequences (i.e. majoring in EAS, not taking more econ/science/technology courses in favor of said EAS and various literature courses). Hong Kong and ibanking rather hammered my mom's perspective quite well, and I've been doubting my own instincts ever since.
Then I talk to people at all the big companies around here that are shiny and respectable and would probably make my parents very, very happy if I worked there. And it would make me feel better, because I am extremely materialistic and enjoy a more-luxurious-than-necessary lifestyle, not to mention the ability to buy as many books as I want. Plus, the importance of good benefits is not to be underestimated. And I am vain, and I would like for people to sort of ooh and aah when I tell them my job, instead of feeling vaguely embarrassed.
However, there's this giant counterweight to all of that on LJ and the store. I swear, every other person on my reading list is involved with books in some way.. there are the writers, and editors, and obviously, the multitude of intelligent readers. It's obviously indicative of something that I read all these people and find these posts incredibly interesting and fulfilling, and another really big part of me is constantly wibbling, thinking, wow, having connections in the book industry! Being able to be surrounded by books for a living! And I like most of the people who work in the store, which is pretty rare for me. I went out with the boy for lunch with a few of his friends from work -- he works at this place that makes software for gamers -- and they talk about video games. And anime. And weird assorted stuff like that, and he gets to play games at work, and go to gaming conventions, and meet people and talk to people and it is seriously the coolest thing ever. I want to do something like that (but with books, obviously).
Except I'm not sure if I will burn myself out on books, or if I am not up to it, or what. But then, I realize that I wander around bookstores in a happy daze, thinking, oh, yeah, this one is going really fast at the store now. I would price this at such-and-such there. And it is the most fascinating thing in the world talking shop with my boss.
Also, I know I'm not a writer. I've always sort of floated around that and written down a few stories here and there, but I don't think I've ever felt the burning drive to tell a story that so many people have. Plus, my stories are incredibly bad ;). I would so much rather do something like edit, or review, or something.
Can one review in their spare time? How in the world does someone get into that anyway? Also, is the thought of me being a reviewer or something entirely presumptuous, because really, I just diddle around LJ and spout stuff off the top of my head.
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(no subject)
Sun, Aug. 8th, 2004 05:19 am (UTC)One can easily review in one's spare time--the trick is to find someone to pay you for it. Some markets do. STRANGE HORIZONS, for example, pays $20 for reviews:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/SubmissionGuide_Reviews.shtml
Unpaid reviewing is fairly easy to come by, if you browse through publications, find their guidelines, and email a query and a sample of your reviewing skills. I do unpaid reviews sometimes, and the advantages are 1) free books; 2) practice in writing reviews; 3) pimping books I like. But I don't do it often any more, it takes a lot of time for no money.
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 9th, 2004 02:50 pm (UTC)I'm pondering doing it just for free books, given (eep) how much money I spend on books -_-;;.