Sakura of DOOM

Well, I'm finally catching up on all the JoA eps that I have Tivoed. Hey, is Tivo really trying to limit the use of Tivo as a verb? That seems sort of silly...

( JoA 2x08 Friday Night )

( JoA 2x09 No Future )

( Spoilers for JoA )

Alas, I overslept both days this weekend and missed the book/prints/whatnot fair in Oakland. Sigh. I also don't want to go to work tomorrow. Does anyone ever want to go to work on Monday? It's sort of stupid, considering that I just got a new job, but now I'm trying to think of a job that will make me want to go to work on Monday. Probably it's the Job Holy Grail or something.

We went to Andronico's today for lunch, and they had samples of twenty different kinds of cheese, I swear. I read in a book once that places do this because people feel guilty about sampling a lot and end up buying the things. I must have somehow missed this memo, because my first reaction is "Free food! Must take!" and go on shopping without a backward glance. Unless, of course, the sample is so yummy that I go back for another one, in which case I figure it may be worth buying the actual thing. I really love cheese, despite issues with lactose. However, Alton Brown said that the harder, older cheeses have less lactose, yay.

I think I need to set up a book buying budget. I have tons of books that I've bought that are lying about unread in the house... I'm not quite as worried about the fiction, given the rate I go through fiction. Plus, now that I can't borrow books from the bookstore, there will be more chances to read books I own. It's the non-fiction pile that I'm a little worried about, given my last two very large EAS buys. Also, it takes me forever to get through academic non-fiction, mostly because I keep getting distracted by fiction.

I haven't read very much romance of late. It's interesting... I was on a huge romance streak the first half of this year, but it seems to have died down a bit. I blame this entire on Dunnett. It's sort of hard to go back to your average romance after having been immersed in the romance and the history and the overall drama of the Lymond Chronicles. It's not that the romances are bad, it's just that Dunnett had six books to do it in. So my regular genre diet of much fantasy and the occasional SF continues.

I saw the updated Bright Shiny Objects and smacked myself on the head after I realized I have never pimped minnow1212's Things Left Undone, a series of shorts taking place after "Not Fade Away." It's very, very good. And it makes me cry every single time I read it. It's bizarrely funny, morbid, and heart-breaking at the same time, and some parts have already become a part of my own personal canon. So go and read and praise it better and more articulately than I do.

Haven't been keeping up with LJ lately, or I've been too lazy to comment mostly. Work is getting better, and slowly but (hopefully) surely, the nervousness is dying down. Although it still sort of freaks me out that there are going to be performance reviews and whatnot. Eep. And then thinking about bonuses and raises and promotions, and it is just horribly strange. I still miss the smallness of the bookstore and how there really wasn't a need for things like performance reviews because I was talking to the boss of the store everyday. Not like one goes around rubbing elbows with CEOs all the time.

And the people really are very nice. I probably sound like I'm damning them with faint praise... all the other people I interviewed with or informational interviewed with liked to emphasize working with brilliant people who were hard-working and incredibly smart, and I'm not saying that the people at the company aren't. But they're nice. The corporate culture feels nice. It's very strange for someone whose only other corporate experience has been ibanking, and I like it very much. People are helpful, and friendly, and don't perpetuate this culture in which you have to work yourself to death to ensure that you'll be kept on after two years of 100-hour weeks. And I'm starting to feel a little better because after I've pestered people to show me how to do things once or twice, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Hopefully I will not be too incompetent.

Also, my department issued a Spam award (for excellence in marketing, or some such), which is supremely cool because the award is actually a can of Spam (unopened) glued onto a wooden block with a plaque.

( JoA 2x01-2x03 )

I ended up watching a lot of JoA today because the boy was watching the latest episode of the Apprentice, which basically makes me want to run around, hit Donald Trump on the head with a giant stick, hit all the contestants on the head with a giant stick, and then bash my head into a wall.

This is why I don't watch reality TV -- I can't stand all the people on the shows, because it's like they're all there to win (duh), and so everyone is back-stabby and passes the blame around, and there's all this conflict, and it drives me absolutely up the wall. I am very conflict-avoidant. I don't like reading through kerfuffles, I don't like even being in the same vicinity of flame wars, none of it. It just makes me really nervous and tense, and I can't stand it. This is probably a very good reason as to why I suck at interviewing.

Anyhow, so after an hour watching all the people on the Apprentice be stupid and mean and petty, I needed to watch something happier with people who were essentially good at heart and tried to do the right thing instead of save their own skins.

Not the best icon because apparently I forgot to reinstall Photoshop when my computer crashed. But it's the Girardis!

Just for fun: oyceter

I've been really lazy about writing up the Italy trip... I sort of kept a little travel diary that now sounds a bit stupid, and I'm lazy, and I'd rather sit around and watch JoA instead of writing anything that even remotely requires thought. Maybe will just make a little trip webpage and stick in some photos too.

In other news, mailed off assorted packages today, so yhlee and knullabulla, your books should be arriving soon!

Also, guy from work who me and the boy have been going to occasional movies with says his friends have game nights every Thursday! I think I shall drag the boy there tomorrow and check it out. But, joy, other people who like board games! I live for dork companionship ^_^. And friend from college has moved to East Bay and is going to be working in Menlo Park, so I will get to see him more too! Yay, I might have a social life!

And I am thoroughly enjoying today, a free day in which I do not have to worry about job hunting or stress about my resume or worry that I will never get a job. *dances* Wow this feels good.

( JoA 1x06 Bringeth It On )

( JoA 1x07 Death Be Not Whatever )

I really do love this show. Oh dear.

"And I have a pimple growing in my ear!"

Hee!

( Read more... )

So, I've had that Big Red Boat vid everyone has been talking about playing over and over and over because I like the song so much. And Joan is cute. Plus, she gets her leg stuck in a washing machine ^_^.

Er. Does anyone on the FL watch Joan of Arcadia? Where could I get S1 episodes? And when does S2 start (and at what time, and on what station)?

Some legitimate company actually found my resume off Monster.com and called me for an interview. I feel extremely intimidated and nervous now... blech.

Buying today went fairly well -- no bugs found, at least! And I got some nice orders with pretty things, and ended up taking in a lot of books for the store. There was even one order for which we gave 40%-60% for nearly everything, which is very rare... usually it's around 20% (of what we'll sell it for). So that made me happy, because hopefully the person who brought the books in was pleased and will bring back more nice stuff, and hey, nice books in the store!