Random commentary of the day
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterCoordinating, unsurprisingly, still sucks.
Talked with the consultant lady again and now there is a definite Plan to get me into marketing (product development?) and I have homework, as in redoing my resume, learning the vocab, etc. She also says she is going to hook me up with someone to prep for interviews and even dress for them. I am very in awe. This is about six hundred times easier than doing it by myself. And I like her because when she asked if I had any financial or statistical background, and I said no, instead of giving that horrible, soul-shrinking Look that said What the hell are you thinking? she just said, oh, my daughter was just like you and she got a job. And I think the thing that's helping the most is that she doesn't know me at all but thinks I have potential (ok, based on the personality tests), as opposed to the six billion other people who didn't care if I was smart or anything because I had no background and was an EAS major. Well, the boy said the exact same thing she did, but for some reason, it's not quite as effective coming from the boy, because he loves me and has a rather biased POV. But that's also the wonderful thing about the boy ^_^.
Anyway, it's just kind of scary. It reminds me a bit of tackling the thesis, except with an advisor who keeps me on the deadline.
The poor rats are not getting lots of playtime lately =(.
I misread a sign at Borders and thought they were doing buy 2 get 1 free. So instead of just getting a Crusie for the trip to Ohio, I ended up with three books. Unfortunately, one of them was not free. Oh well. I now possess LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle (an old favorite I've been meaning to pick up for a long time) and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter (also been meaning to read for several years now, plus, started flipping through it in the bookstore and was immediately snagged by old-fashioned fairy tale language).
Speaking of which, is it sad that I get the most excited while browsing the YA section? Right now I use it to find good authors since the fantasy section is bigger and much less reliable. Was again reminded of the love of Cynthia Voight's Kingdom series and the need to pick up Blood and Chocolate, Firebird imprint books, and etc.
Weird trend too -- I know there are at least two YA fantasy imprints now (Firebird and Aladdin, but not sure if Aladdin is strictly fantasy), but I just saw the weirdest thing! Avon True Romance. I found some written by Meg Cabot of Princess Diaries fame, and when I flipped open the cover, they've also got Lorraine Heath from romance. Hee.
I guess it's no more unexpected than those Love Stories series going around a few years ago (and Sunfire, oo nostalgia).
And I want Colman, sequel to Wise Child, and it's so pretty in its nice hardcover and dustjacket, but it is expensive and I must resist.
Yeah, I'm so good at that. Just bought three, then bought two others a week ago (Reading Lolita in Tehran and a Julia Ross, both in trade, oh my wallet), then have more ordered online for when Laura Kinsale's Shadowheart is released (it's all about having enough for free shipping!). This is, of course, not to mention recent purchases from my bookstore (Maus, with Alan Moore's Top Ten sitting in the locker) and about ten borrowed library books and, of course, the half a dozen unread books I bought over two weeks ago.
Sigh. And there's a giant backlist of books I want just for the sake of having. See, being not in college frees me up to collect! No moving every year! No space issues! Well... not as much. And I want a giant fat bookshelf stuffed with old favorites (I need many more of my old YA favs, old fantasy sci/fi favs, although I've brought most of those from home now). I only have three bookshelves! And one is teeny and half of it is used up with the boy's stuff, and another is just for non-fiction and manga and old school notebooks. So really, I only have one! And it's not even double-stacked on the shelves.
Clearly I do not own enough books yet ;).
Talked with the consultant lady again and now there is a definite Plan to get me into marketing (product development?) and I have homework, as in redoing my resume, learning the vocab, etc. She also says she is going to hook me up with someone to prep for interviews and even dress for them. I am very in awe. This is about six hundred times easier than doing it by myself. And I like her because when she asked if I had any financial or statistical background, and I said no, instead of giving that horrible, soul-shrinking Look that said What the hell are you thinking? she just said, oh, my daughter was just like you and she got a job. And I think the thing that's helping the most is that she doesn't know me at all but thinks I have potential (ok, based on the personality tests), as opposed to the six billion other people who didn't care if I was smart or anything because I had no background and was an EAS major. Well, the boy said the exact same thing she did, but for some reason, it's not quite as effective coming from the boy, because he loves me and has a rather biased POV. But that's also the wonderful thing about the boy ^_^.
Anyway, it's just kind of scary. It reminds me a bit of tackling the thesis, except with an advisor who keeps me on the deadline.
The poor rats are not getting lots of playtime lately =(.
I misread a sign at Borders and thought they were doing buy 2 get 1 free. So instead of just getting a Crusie for the trip to Ohio, I ended up with three books. Unfortunately, one of them was not free. Oh well. I now possess LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle (an old favorite I've been meaning to pick up for a long time) and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter (also been meaning to read for several years now, plus, started flipping through it in the bookstore and was immediately snagged by old-fashioned fairy tale language).
Speaking of which, is it sad that I get the most excited while browsing the YA section? Right now I use it to find good authors since the fantasy section is bigger and much less reliable. Was again reminded of the love of Cynthia Voight's Kingdom series and the need to pick up Blood and Chocolate, Firebird imprint books, and etc.
Weird trend too -- I know there are at least two YA fantasy imprints now (Firebird and Aladdin, but not sure if Aladdin is strictly fantasy), but I just saw the weirdest thing! Avon True Romance. I found some written by Meg Cabot of Princess Diaries fame, and when I flipped open the cover, they've also got Lorraine Heath from romance. Hee.
I guess it's no more unexpected than those Love Stories series going around a few years ago (and Sunfire, oo nostalgia).
And I want Colman, sequel to Wise Child, and it's so pretty in its nice hardcover and dustjacket, but it is expensive and I must resist.
Yeah, I'm so good at that. Just bought three, then bought two others a week ago (Reading Lolita in Tehran and a Julia Ross, both in trade, oh my wallet), then have more ordered online for when Laura Kinsale's Shadowheart is released (it's all about having enough for free shipping!). This is, of course, not to mention recent purchases from my bookstore (Maus, with Alan Moore's Top Ten sitting in the locker) and about ten borrowed library books and, of course, the half a dozen unread books I bought over two weeks ago.
Sigh. And there's a giant backlist of books I want just for the sake of having. See, being not in college frees me up to collect! No moving every year! No space issues! Well... not as much. And I want a giant fat bookshelf stuffed with old favorites (I need many more of my old YA favs, old fantasy sci/fi favs, although I've brought most of those from home now). I only have three bookshelves! And one is teeny and half of it is used up with the boy's stuff, and another is just for non-fiction and manga and old school notebooks. So really, I only have one! And it's not even double-stacked on the shelves.
Clearly I do not own enough books yet ;).
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 06:15 am (UTC)I'm glad the job placement stuff still looks promising; maybe you can use it to console yourself when coordination particularly sucks.
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 08:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, sigh. At least things are looking up in terms of coordinating -- we're finally hiring more people so I should be able to stop doing it soon, hurrah!
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 06:25 am (UTC)Is that possible? All I can say, is thank goodness for used bookstores and lots of good libraries!
And all digits crossed for your search; so glad that you've found someone good to help with this! (Of course you're wonderful, silly, and whoever you end up working for will be extremely lucky.)
And I think that a good deal of excellent work is done and placed in the YA section? I don't know exactly why...perhaps a certain greater creative freedom?
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 08:58 pm (UTC)I bless my libraries daily! I can't imagine how many books I would buy if I couldn't borrow from libraries! I mean, right now mostly I'm just buying things I want to own (aside from the occasional impulse) and not everything I want to read, which would be a truly frightening amount of books.
I think a lot of good stuff is done in the YA section, maybe because the market demands relative shortness (which can be bad, but also does not lend itself to long, Robert-Jordan-esque sagas), heightened emotions and a focus on characterization instead of other things. And maybe less need to conform to genre expectations?
And thanks, re job search! Much appreciated ^_^.
(no subject)
Sun, Mar. 7th, 2004 06:33 am (UTC)Keep us posted on the other...all digits crossed!
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 09:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 04:08 pm (UTC)Firebird makes me want to buy books I already have, because their covers are so much better. Some of the covers are so good that they make me want to buy books I didn't like enough to keep the first time I bought them.
My votes for the best Firebird reprints, by the way, are Elizabeth Wein's THE WINTER PRINCE, Patricia McKillip's THE CHANGELING SEA, and Lloyd ALexander's Westmark trilogy, particularly the second book, KESTREL.
My votes for the best covers are the African mask on THE EYE, THE EAR, AND THE ARM, the rose in the sunset of THE HEX WITCH OF SELDEN, and the ghostly figures on ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS.
(no subject)
Sat, Mar. 6th, 2004 09:04 pm (UTC)Guh, the Firebird books are so pretty. I wanted to pick up The Eye, the Ear and the Arm, and Enchantress (haven't read either!), a Peter Dickinson, etc. Mmmm. Ooo, they reprinted Alexander's Westmark?