Media Lists Complete!

Interesting things I came to realize upon doing this.  I have definitely not read as many books nor watched as many movies the last few years as I did when I started keeping track.  Part of the book thing, I know, is that I stopped subbing and instead started working at the library.  There were many days as a substitute where I might read half a book in one day, as all I had to do was take attendance, pass out worksheets, and make sure the kids didn't light a fire.  I certainly don't have that luxury now.

But mostly I think the change is in the fact that I no longer live with my parents.  Back then, I would need to have some time to myself, so I would sit in my room.  No computer in there (no space), so I would either read, watch TV, or watch a movie.  Now I have my own house, so I don't have that need to find something to do away from everyone else; I'm always away from everyone else!

I have been reading and such more lately, though, because my desktop computer's been sort of on its last legs.  I've been putting it to sleep, and so it just seems silly to wake it up for something small.  The problem is, "something small" often turns into me just sitting on my computer for an hour or two reading random reddit articles or browsing tumblr or whatever.  So in the long run, it feels like it's been a good thing in that I've been motivated to do more productive things.  (And watching TV is definitely more productive compared to looking at cat gifs on tumblr.)

Random Musings on Dumb Shit that Ultimately Doesn't Matter

So I've been doing this completely useless task of transferring over my old media lists (new books read and new movies watched) from this blog into little notebooks.  2008, 2009, 2010 all written down with care.  (And holy shit, this took four days at work - like so much longer than I thought it would take.  I kinda liked it because it made me look like I was industriously working on something important.)

2011 - January, February, March, April...and then I just stopped posting to Blogspot.  I got out the original little notebook* where I started writing this shit down physically - as opposed to just having the lists on the computer - and that starts in 2012.  So I have eight months that aren't accounted for!  Why did I stop?!  Where are those lists!

I got upset at the lack of continuity in this random, meaningless activity that has no actual point other than I felt like doing it.  I'm at work, so I couldn't search my computer, but I also knew that I was still living at home at this point in time and it's likely these lists would have been done on either my old laptop at the time or the family computer, in which case there would be no retrieval.

Then I thought to check LJ and they were right there!  All is okay!

*I kept track of everything chronologically in that notebook.  For instance, January, 1. episode of TV, 2. episode of TV, B1. book, 3. episode of TV, M1. movie.  Etc.  It's okay for TV since that's the bulk of it, but it's really hard to scan through and find movies and TV (and I do actually go through it sometimes when I can't quite remember the title of a book I read, but know I read it sometime last year).  Thus why I've decided to keep TV in one, movies in another, books in a third.  I'm sort of irritated by the fact that the three little notebooks are part of a set I got for Christmas years ago, and the TV one is about 2/3 full, and obviously the others aren't even close.  So I'll fill that one up way before the others.

I don't know why I care about this nonsense?

ETA: December 2011 is not on LJ, either.  It skips from November 2011 to January 2012.  I AM DISPLEASED.

The scroll wheel on my mouse is broken.

I am seriously having a hard time living right now.

Busy day today.  It's my last week doing this long-term subbing gig - the regular teacher comes back next Monday - so I have to start getting the room back in order and remember where I've put all the things and notes and such that I should have been organizing all along.  I'm not happy about this ending -  I really like knowing when and where I'm going to work each day, instead of waiting for a phone call I may or may not get at 5:30 in the morning, so I always have to be ready just in case.  Bah.

Came home and had to change my returning flight from Austin, which was fairly painless; my new flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning, which will not be painless.  But it was two hundred extra dollars to fly out the night before, which was not going to happen.  I still need to make my rental car reservation - the website was down last night, of course - and then my travel plans will be finished.

I started volunteering with my library's ESL class this summer; tonight was my second time teaching on my own.  Beginner's ESL just has one student right now.  She's from Ethiopia, and has a very, very limited vocabulary.  It can be quite a challenge to communicate with her, and we spent almost an hour today just going over what she did today.  But then you have great moments like when she remembered that after English class, she's planning to go home and eat ice cream, and she got really excited about the ice cream, and then we just talked for a little bit about ice cream.  I just have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone that moves to a country and is not able to speak the language - I would not be able to do it.  I would be too scared.

My favorite things about spring:

--Helping my Grandpa put in his garden, which includes tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and herbs; we also plant new flowers every year. Today I went over and we put in some calosia.

--No more socks.

--Sleeping with the bedroom window open.

--Flowering trees.

--Reading outside.

--Thunderstorms!

It's been nice, doing the workshop thing, continuing to write scenes here and there, because usually when I finish a script I'm like...but what do I do now? How will I spend my afternoons? What do I think about in the shower? It's kind of disconcerting.

Nice weather today! Very exciting. I was going to sit and read outside, except that I read all day at work, and I need to take a break so my eyes don't explode.

Sarah and I bought this pattern yesterday, although both of us have blankets to finish before we start on a new one (speaking of which, Sarah wants me to ask you all if any of you would like to commission a blanket, hee).



Although I'm going to go for a more sedate color palette, I think.

So we've got, like, eight different bitching and whining threads on the boards, right? Which is fine, because Lord knows I love to bitch and whine. But Laura and I just finished watching Happy-Go-Lucky, and it made me think that there's really something to enjoying life as much as you can, even if it's just being aware of the little things, and not taking anything for granted.

Here is a brief list of things that have made me happy recently. I am going to try to do this on a more regular basis.

1. Basketball. Not just KU playing and winning, but the tournament as a whole. Every year, Laura and my dad and I look forward to it, and fill out brackets, and listen to sports talk, and watch all the games, and it's just a great three weeks.

2. Star Trek, if only for moments like this:





3. Finishing my script.

4. Spring. Even though we've had a bit of a cold relapse, even that's not too bad because I know we're almost out of the woods. The grass is turning green, the trees are budding out, the air smells wonderful, like a greenhouse.

5. Eating some really good chocolate yesterday.

A Day in the Life



9:14 AM /// Breakfast



9:47 AM /// Noah Bennet ♥



11:02 AM /// Writing I



11:55 AM /// Mrs. Pasta Sauce, Substitute



2:07 PM /// Latin



4:11 PM /// Library



6:03 PM /// Captain Picard ♥



6:56 PM /// Writing II



8:42 PM /// Photoshop

WHY do I read true crime right before going to bed? WHY. I had to unshield the light of my clock-radio because I had the bugger-boos that somehow, even though he's probably dead, the Zodiac was going to break in and kill me.

My mom yelled at me for going out yesterday in flip-flops and a light jacket when it was 35 degrees outside. You'd think she was my mom or something!

I really want to go to the movies today. Nothing specific, just for the experience, and because it's been a few weeks. So, of course, there is nothing out. I'd see Quantum of Solace (...what does that mean?), but I still haven't seen Casino Royale, so.

Things that have made me happy this past week:

-Christmas music! We have an entire music channel that's just traditional holiday music; none of this awful contemporary pop crap.

-Grilling outside at 6:00pm, already pitch-black, hands and face numb; there is nothing that tastes better once you come in to eat.

-Hot cocoa from scratch.



-Playing with Jack in my Grandpa's backyard, as he runs through the piles of leaves that come up to his head; at one point, he ran so fast he fell down and rolled completely over, then jumped up and barked at me with such great insistence I too became convinced the fall was somehow my fault.

-Putting a quilt and a comforter on my bed. At the same time.

-My first peppermint mocha at Starbucks this year.

-Making the banner up above, starting The Silmarillion, realizing they start principal photography on The Hobbit next year, exactly ten years after they began photography on The Lord of the Rings.

This web comic may be the greatest thing I've ever seen. I'm going to find a way to make it my new desktop, whatever it takes.

...I just can't stop looking at it.

Also, the cutest kitties in the world!

So, I'm watching a bit of SVU with my dad (Nick Chinlund was playing a serial killer - way to get stereotyped, dude), and that commercial with James Lipton came on, where he's the celebrity helping the real guy tell his story. (Geico, right? Effective ad campaign.) Anyway, my dad is like, guess how old he is. And I say...sixty. Maybe sixty-five. And my dad says, no. Eighty-two.

And I laugh. Ahahahaha. Very funny. He's not eighty-two. My dad says, yes, he is, your mom looked him up. And we shake on it, because OBVIOUSLY he's not eighty-two.

So I think to check Wikipedia. That son of a bitch is eighty-two years old. !!! I guess I can no longer say that my grandpa is the youngest looking eighty-year-old I've ever seen. Although...maybe if my grandpa dyed his hair...

I'm going to need you folks to stage an intervention for me. I already spent fifteen dollars on this print of the BSG Last Supper photo. Do not let me spend sixty-five dollars on a toaster that burns an image of a Centurion into your toast. I don't care that this is my one and only chance to ever own this toaster. Don't let me do it.

(If everyone posts that it's totally awesome and I just have to get it, I completely will. I'm waiting for an excuse.)

Maybe you guys can help me out. IDK. I really, really want a Bento box, but I'm having trouble even finding anywhere in Kansas City that sells them. You can buy them off the internet (Here is one of my favorites), but they're much, much more expensive than if you can find them in a Japanese or Oriental shop. (Like, 30 or 40 dollars as opposed to less than 10.)

Does anyone have that kind of store around them? I don't know if they sell them in straight-up Asian food markets, but I've read online you can find them in places that sell Japanese cooking supplies, like woks and chopsticks and rice cookers, et cetera. I couldn't find anything in a thirty mile radius of me that fit the bill, so I thought I'd just ask.

Otherwise I'm going to end up blowing 40 bucks on a lunchbox. Heh.