I haven't been able to post on here for awhile because I was having problems logging in, since the Blogger people wanted me to update my blog to have new features and stuff. To do so I had to make a Google account. Today I decided to just go to Google and create an account there, and it turned out I already had one, cause I'd made a Froogle wishlist. So now things are set up.
Anyway, not much happening here. I took my laptop into Staples today to get a diagnostic done, so depending on how long it takes them to do the diagnostic, I won't have my laptop with me. I am happy I finally got around to it, cause of something I'm working on that I'd rather not talk about quite yet.
I pre-ordered the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, from Barnes & Noble the other day. I am excited about getting it.
Speaking of Harry Potter, you'll notice that when I played around with the page elements for my new blog page, I added a Harry Potter countdown to the footer. This countdown is courtesy of mugglenet.com and counts down the days until the release of Deathly Hallows and the Order of the Phoenix movie, which premiers a week before DH comes out.
I also changed the blog description, since with my new format the description ended up in the header. It now says "Because even gym leaders (and college students) need a place to sort out their thoughts...". I think it's clever.
I am very tired tonight, maybe cause I stayed up really late last night (till around 1), probably cause I knew I could sleep in cause I had the day off. I was mainly trying to type up as much of this one thing I'm doing as I could, since I knew I would likely not have my laptop for a few days.
American Idol is coming on now but I don't think I'll watch it. Although I do need to stay downstairs to watch the dogs...well, either way I'll see it, cause it's recording for my parents and brother, who are gone (bro at work, parents at the gym). There isn't anyone who immediately catches my fancy at the moment. I may know better once it's down to the top 12. But last season I had faves as early as before the top 24 (Kat McPhee for girls, and Will Makar -- who narrowly missed the top 12, being one of the last pre-top 12 guys to be eliminated, along with Gedeon McKinney--for guys).
Speaking of reality shows, The Amazing Race has started again, and it's All-Stars this time around, bringing back teams from previous seasons. A few of them are pre-season 5 (when I started to watch the show) so I don't know much about them. But my fave team from season 5, Charla & Mirna, are back, which I'm really excited about. (You can see video of them here). I hope they win, cause a girl-girl team has never won the race before. Also, they got eliminated along the way in season 5, so for them to win would be great. I was just watching a video on cbs.com and there Charla says if they win she will spend her share on financing her and her husband's attempts to have a baby via in vitro. That's interesting. Mirna wants to use her share to help her and her new husband finance their new life together (she just got back from her honeymoon right before starting this season!).
Anyway, I hope they win. Basically anybody except Dustin & Kandace (the "beauty queens" from last season) and Rob & Amber (the "engaged couple" from season 7 who met each other on Survivor: All-Stars...they're married now though).
I'm tired, and Mum and Papa are home now, which means I can go upstairs if I want...I don't have to be at work till 5pm tomorrow, so I may stay up later tonight too. Not too late though.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Harry Potter, weekend off, long days at work, video making addiction?, got Kat McPhee CD...and other stuff
Yesterday, I finally got up the nerve to rent Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the only currently available Harry Potter movie I hadn't seen yet. I rented it at this little video store called Videos for You that is located near my work, along with Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns and an Olsen Twins movie called Getting There. I set up an account there last week and so far I've rented movies there twice now (including yesterday) on Fridays because those have been my early days (7-4) and I've had Saturdays off the last couple weeks.
I have to admit the movie was good and followed the book well. They cut out a lot, like the entire Quidditch World Cup match. But at least the events went all in order, whereas in Prisoner of Azkaban they had Harry get his Firebolt at the end rather than the beginning, for instance. However, it takes its time to get to things, not getting to the first Triwizard task until about an hour into the movie (since the movie is 2 hours long, this is like halfway into the movie). Also the beginning of the movie is a bit different. It starts with the scene of Voldemort and Wormtail in the old Riddle house where they are discovered by Frank Bryce, who is subsequently Avada Kedavra'd by Voldemort. This is from chapter 1 of the book. Then the movie cuts to Harry waking up from a bad dream and he, Hermione, and the Weasleys leaving for the Quidditch World Cup. They don't leave for the Cup until chapter 6 in the book, and Harry is shown in chapter 2 waking up from the dream that is the chapter 1 scene at the Dursleys', not the Weasleys'. In other words, they cut the Dursleys out entirely, as well as chapters 2-5 of the book. Chapter 8, which details the events of the Cup match (including the Weasley twins' bet with Ludo Bagman) is cut. In the book, Harry tells Ron and Hermione about his dream while they're heading back from the Cup to the Burrow via the Portkey. But the movie makes it seems as though he told them on the Hogwarts Express, since it cuts to the train right after Crouch and the other Ministry people run off to investigate who conjured the Dark Mark. Parts of chapters 10 and 11 seem to have been cut. The scene of Moody turning Malfoy into a ferret is moved to after the scene where he tells them in class about the Unforgivable Curses, whereas in the book the ferret scene happened before the Unforgivable Curses class. A bunch of the stuff leading up to the revealing of the champions (parts of chapter 14 and 16 and pretty much all of chapter 15) are cut, except that the arrival of the students from Beauxbatons (who are of both sexes in the book, not just girls) and Durmstrang, which doesn't happen till chapter 15 in the book, is moved in the movie to the opening feast scene, which makes sense anyway. Parts of chapters 17-19, like the Weighing of the Wands, are cut. Chapter 20, which covers the first task, is pretty much intact, except that the part where Hermione helps Harry practice the Summoning Charm is cut (her appearing in the champions' tent to try to help Harry right before the first task is probably their attempt to show her trying to help him). Pretty much everything leading from there to the Yule Ball (chapters 21-22 and part of 23) aside from Ron and Harry trying to get dates is cut, probably because it is not viewed as important. Chapter 24, where Rita Skeeter writes a defaming article about Hagrid, does not appear, although they kept the idea of Bagman talking to Harry because he wants to help him with the tournament, although Harry refuses the help, moving the scene to right after the 2nd task (instead of before the task). Chapter 25, where Harry tries to solve the egg clue in the prefects' bathroom, is pretty much intact, except the Marauder's Map parts don't appear. The 2nd task chapter (26) is basically intact, except that Harry gets the gillyweed from Neville rather than Dobby (since they cut Dobby from the film), which actually kinda works because part of the fake Moody's plan was to get Harry to learn about the gillyweed by planting (no pun intended) the plant book Harry could've found info on it in on Neville. Chapters 27-29 are cut, except for the brief part where Harry finds Barty Crouch and then reports to Dumbledore's office (supposedly to tell him about Crouch, rather than about his dream about Voldemort as in the book). Chapter 30, with the Pensieve scene and Harry and Dumbledore's discussion afterward, is intact, as is most of Chapter 31 (the chapter dealing with the Third Task) except for the stuff about Skeeter being an animagus, Mrs. Weasley and Bill arriving to watch the third task, and the part with Harry and the Sphinx and the spider. Chapters 32-35 (the graveyard scene and the immediate aftermath with the fake Moody and the Veritaserum) is pretty much exactly the same, just made faster-paced with less of Voldemort's monologue. Chapter 36, where Dumbledore and Sirius (who only appears in the movie when he and Harry talk via the fire) hear Harry's story and Dumbledore and Fudge disagree about Voldemort's return, is cut. Chapter 37, the final chapter, is basically the same -- it has Dumbledore telling the school the truth about Cedric's death and everybody leaving. The parts where Hermione shows off the captured animagus Skeeter, where Malfoy and company try to taunt the trio, and where Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George is all cut.
(Thanks to the Goblet of Fire Chapter-by-Chapter Guide @ The Harry Potter Lexicon for summaries of the book chapters that I used for info in the above paragraph).
Overall, though, it was pretty good but not really worth buying. So far, I have figured that the only Potter film currently available I would feel like buying is Prisoner of Azkaban, which I actually already own cause I bought it on VHS while Christmas shopping soon after it came out.
In other Harry Potter stuff, the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the 7th and final book) was announced this week, which I just found out last night when I went to mugglenet.com to download the latest MuggleCast. It is July 21, 2007. I am just excited that the book is coming out soon. Some people, according to MuggleCast, aren't happy and think the date is too soon. I think it's a decent date. Why wait till 2008, especially since it was just released that J.K. Rowling finished Deathly Hallows in an Edinburgh hotel about a month ago?
After working 6 days straight, 5 of them closing, I have today and tomorrow off, which is very nice. I watched the other two movies I rented this morning (the Mewtwo Returns one was interesting, but Domino--see picture below--is kind of annoying) since I had to return the movies by 6 p.m. today.
The days have been long at work though - 8 hours a day for so many days is pretty tiring.
I was thinking today that I am getting addicted to making videos. I think this because I have trouble when listening to music. When I hear a song, I find myself thinking what kind of video I could make to it. I find myself doing that on my laptop more than anything else. I haven't been working on updating my sites like I planned, working on planning what my University Studies A.A. will be in, stuff like that.
Today I went to Wal-Mart to get a couple extra work shirts, after Papa told me I should after seeing me going to work on Friday with a shirt with stains on the sleeves (from cleaning the oven). I bought the shirts, a $25 pair of pants, shampoo and conditioner, and...drumroll...KATHARINE MCPHEE'S DEBUT CD!!! I heard that it was coming out, and Mum and Papa were planning to get it for me for Christmas but it wasn't out yet. I got it for $13.88, a pretty good price.
Here's a pic of the album:
Other than that there's not really anything to tell, except that I've been making "mixes" of music on CD-R's I've been buying from Big Lots (there's one in the same shopping center as Stater Bros). I have 9 now, and they are basically made up of songs that were on my computer and songs from CD's that I had ripped onto my computer. Now that I have my Kat McPhee CD, I am going to listen to that too.
Good night. I'm tired. I stayed up really late last night.
I have to admit the movie was good and followed the book well. They cut out a lot, like the entire Quidditch World Cup match. But at least the events went all in order, whereas in Prisoner of Azkaban they had Harry get his Firebolt at the end rather than the beginning, for instance. However, it takes its time to get to things, not getting to the first Triwizard task until about an hour into the movie (since the movie is 2 hours long, this is like halfway into the movie). Also the beginning of the movie is a bit different. It starts with the scene of Voldemort and Wormtail in the old Riddle house where they are discovered by Frank Bryce, who is subsequently Avada Kedavra'd by Voldemort. This is from chapter 1 of the book. Then the movie cuts to Harry waking up from a bad dream and he, Hermione, and the Weasleys leaving for the Quidditch World Cup. They don't leave for the Cup until chapter 6 in the book, and Harry is shown in chapter 2 waking up from the dream that is the chapter 1 scene at the Dursleys', not the Weasleys'. In other words, they cut the Dursleys out entirely, as well as chapters 2-5 of the book. Chapter 8, which details the events of the Cup match (including the Weasley twins' bet with Ludo Bagman) is cut. In the book, Harry tells Ron and Hermione about his dream while they're heading back from the Cup to the Burrow via the Portkey. But the movie makes it seems as though he told them on the Hogwarts Express, since it cuts to the train right after Crouch and the other Ministry people run off to investigate who conjured the Dark Mark. Parts of chapters 10 and 11 seem to have been cut. The scene of Moody turning Malfoy into a ferret is moved to after the scene where he tells them in class about the Unforgivable Curses, whereas in the book the ferret scene happened before the Unforgivable Curses class. A bunch of the stuff leading up to the revealing of the champions (parts of chapter 14 and 16 and pretty much all of chapter 15) are cut, except that the arrival of the students from Beauxbatons (who are of both sexes in the book, not just girls) and Durmstrang, which doesn't happen till chapter 15 in the book, is moved in the movie to the opening feast scene, which makes sense anyway. Parts of chapters 17-19, like the Weighing of the Wands, are cut. Chapter 20, which covers the first task, is pretty much intact, except that the part where Hermione helps Harry practice the Summoning Charm is cut (her appearing in the champions' tent to try to help Harry right before the first task is probably their attempt to show her trying to help him). Pretty much everything leading from there to the Yule Ball (chapters 21-22 and part of 23) aside from Ron and Harry trying to get dates is cut, probably because it is not viewed as important. Chapter 24, where Rita Skeeter writes a defaming article about Hagrid, does not appear, although they kept the idea of Bagman talking to Harry because he wants to help him with the tournament, although Harry refuses the help, moving the scene to right after the 2nd task (instead of before the task). Chapter 25, where Harry tries to solve the egg clue in the prefects' bathroom, is pretty much intact, except the Marauder's Map parts don't appear. The 2nd task chapter (26) is basically intact, except that Harry gets the gillyweed from Neville rather than Dobby (since they cut Dobby from the film), which actually kinda works because part of the fake Moody's plan was to get Harry to learn about the gillyweed by planting (no pun intended) the plant book Harry could've found info on it in on Neville. Chapters 27-29 are cut, except for the brief part where Harry finds Barty Crouch and then reports to Dumbledore's office (supposedly to tell him about Crouch, rather than about his dream about Voldemort as in the book). Chapter 30, with the Pensieve scene and Harry and Dumbledore's discussion afterward, is intact, as is most of Chapter 31 (the chapter dealing with the Third Task) except for the stuff about Skeeter being an animagus, Mrs. Weasley and Bill arriving to watch the third task, and the part with Harry and the Sphinx and the spider. Chapters 32-35 (the graveyard scene and the immediate aftermath with the fake Moody and the Veritaserum) is pretty much exactly the same, just made faster-paced with less of Voldemort's monologue. Chapter 36, where Dumbledore and Sirius (who only appears in the movie when he and Harry talk via the fire) hear Harry's story and Dumbledore and Fudge disagree about Voldemort's return, is cut. Chapter 37, the final chapter, is basically the same -- it has Dumbledore telling the school the truth about Cedric's death and everybody leaving. The parts where Hermione shows off the captured animagus Skeeter, where Malfoy and company try to taunt the trio, and where Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George is all cut.
(Thanks to the Goblet of Fire Chapter-by-Chapter Guide @ The Harry Potter Lexicon for summaries of the book chapters that I used for info in the above paragraph).
Overall, though, it was pretty good but not really worth buying. So far, I have figured that the only Potter film currently available I would feel like buying is Prisoner of Azkaban, which I actually already own cause I bought it on VHS while Christmas shopping soon after it came out.
In other Harry Potter stuff, the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the 7th and final book) was announced this week, which I just found out last night when I went to mugglenet.com to download the latest MuggleCast. It is July 21, 2007. I am just excited that the book is coming out soon. Some people, according to MuggleCast, aren't happy and think the date is too soon. I think it's a decent date. Why wait till 2008, especially since it was just released that J.K. Rowling finished Deathly Hallows in an Edinburgh hotel about a month ago?
After working 6 days straight, 5 of them closing, I have today and tomorrow off, which is very nice. I watched the other two movies I rented this morning (the Mewtwo Returns one was interesting, but Domino--see picture below--is kind of annoying) since I had to return the movies by 6 p.m. today.
The days have been long at work though - 8 hours a day for so many days is pretty tiring.
I was thinking today that I am getting addicted to making videos. I think this because I have trouble when listening to music. When I hear a song, I find myself thinking what kind of video I could make to it. I find myself doing that on my laptop more than anything else. I haven't been working on updating my sites like I planned, working on planning what my University Studies A.A. will be in, stuff like that.
Today I went to Wal-Mart to get a couple extra work shirts, after Papa told me I should after seeing me going to work on Friday with a shirt with stains on the sleeves (from cleaning the oven). I bought the shirts, a $25 pair of pants, shampoo and conditioner, and...drumroll...KATHARINE MCPHEE'S DEBUT CD!!! I heard that it was coming out, and Mum and Papa were planning to get it for me for Christmas but it wasn't out yet. I got it for $13.88, a pretty good price.
Here's a pic of the album:
Other than that there's not really anything to tell, except that I've been making "mixes" of music on CD-R's I've been buying from Big Lots (there's one in the same shopping center as Stater Bros). I have 9 now, and they are basically made up of songs that were on my computer and songs from CD's that I had ripped onto my computer. Now that I have my Kat McPhee CD, I am going to listen to that too.
Good night. I'm tired. I stayed up really late last night.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
First day at a new job
Well, I got the job at Stater Bros. and today was my first day. I am working in the service deli, as I said. Papa gave me a ride to work, where I was to report at 8 a.m., which isn't that bad except that for the last couple months I haven't been waking up till then.
I started out the day receiving my apron, name badge, and cravat (sort of like a tie) from the manager who hired me, Erika. Then I waited for the other person who was going to be trained to show up, after having gone to the bathroom to put my cravat and apron. Once the other person, a guy named Chris (who I think is the 6'7'' guy I met at my orientation), showed up, Erika took us up to a room and told us about safety stuff and some other things and had us sign off on that stuff. Then she took us to our departments. She left me in the service deli and went on with Chris to the bakery, which is located next to the service deli. I was then entrusted to the tutelage of Tami, the service deli manager, for the rest of the day. She gave me a second apron made of plastic to wear, and later while with her I got a visor from Erika.
The day was mainly spent following Tami around to learn stuff. Tami took me on a tour of all the back area. It's pretty cool and sort of like a secret passage. It goes from behind the service deli counter through the area behind the bakery into a big storage area with some freezers and the trash compactor and stuff that empties out onto the other side of the store.
The time went surprisingly fast, mainly cause there were a lot of customers. The oven-roasted turkey was particularly popular, probably cause it's healthy and on sale. I made a few mistakes -- accidentially not selling the roast beef and oven-roasted turkey for the sale price because I pressed the wrong button on the scale, and cutting too much roast beef for a guy who wanted a pound of thickly sliced roast beef. (I cut 1.96 lbs).
They asked me if I wanted to stay later (I think cause some guy called in sick) but after some thought, I said no, since I had developed a headache mid-morning that wasn't going away. So they let me go.
So the first day went ok. I work 7-4 tomorrow. Yeah, that's right -- I have to be at work at SEVEN A.M. Since I plan to walk, that means I have to get up at the crack of dawn basically, since it takes about an hour to walk there.
After getting off work and waiting for some manager so I could get my stuff out of the office (since I didn't have a lock I couldn't put my stuff in a locker in the breakroom) , I sat down somewhere to eat the lunch I'd brought (a sandwich and apple slices) and then headed home.
At least I'll be working a lot of hours tomorrow. 7-4 is 9 hours I think. Do I get overtime for that? No, probably not cause it would be technically 8 hours cause I will most definitely get a lunch break, which is an hour. I will have to figure out what to do with all that time, because I'm used to having half-hour lunch breaks, so I have trained myself to eat lunch in like 20 minutes. If I had the money I would get something from the deli. The chicken looks really good. The chicken includes quarter legs which are huge legs that look like the kind you see people brandishing in paintings of medieval scenes.
The breakroom is kinda nice. You approach it via a flight of stairs from the sales floor, and it's a big wide room with lockers down the hall and a couple big tables pushed together in the center with chairs. There is a microwave, a bulletin board with all the things businesses have to display in the breakroom, like OSHA laws, minimum wage info, and so on, possibly a small fridge (the microwave was sitting on something that I assumed was a fridge) and two very outdated-looking vending machines. I mean, they are like '70's-style. One of the people I met while up there on my break, Meg (who works in the bakery), said they don't get much use since people usually buy stuff for their break out in the store. At least this way I don't have to make sure to attach the receipt to stuff (something they require when you buy something, even a magazine). Plus the soda machine sells cans of soda for 50¢, a real bargain. The other machine is a coffee machine that charges I know not what. It probably doesn't get used much because you can get a cup of coffee at the store for 69¢, and plus there's a Starbucks next door. I don't care about the coffee though. I'm fine with 50¢ soda cans (or 80¢ if I go to the donut store on the other side of the shopping center), and if I want a bottle, they sell them there, and there's also a soda machine over by Big Lots.
I may not have much money for soda though. Mom says once I get my first paycheck I am going on a budget. Hopefully, though, I will have some spending money. With my first check, combined with a $25 check from my grandpa (from Christmas) that I still need to deposit, I am going to get a bus pass for February (it's too late to get one for January), a nice jacket I can wear when walking to or from work, and some other clothes item my mom told me to get that I forget now. I may buy a spare pair of black pants and a spare white shirt for work also.
I found out today I have to go to a class to get my Food Handler's Card. There's one this Sunday, so I was told to go to that. The nice thing about this is that I get Sunday totally off because of it, which will be good after four days straight of work, three of which are full workdays (8 hours). The bad news is that the class is at 8am and lasts three hours, which means I'm going to have to miss church to go to it. I was thinking it was after church, but apparently not. Shoot.
Well that's basically everything. Bye for now.
I started out the day receiving my apron, name badge, and cravat (sort of like a tie) from the manager who hired me, Erika. Then I waited for the other person who was going to be trained to show up, after having gone to the bathroom to put my cravat and apron. Once the other person, a guy named Chris (who I think is the 6'7'' guy I met at my orientation), showed up, Erika took us up to a room and told us about safety stuff and some other things and had us sign off on that stuff. Then she took us to our departments. She left me in the service deli and went on with Chris to the bakery, which is located next to the service deli. I was then entrusted to the tutelage of Tami, the service deli manager, for the rest of the day. She gave me a second apron made of plastic to wear, and later while with her I got a visor from Erika.
The day was mainly spent following Tami around to learn stuff. Tami took me on a tour of all the back area. It's pretty cool and sort of like a secret passage. It goes from behind the service deli counter through the area behind the bakery into a big storage area with some freezers and the trash compactor and stuff that empties out onto the other side of the store.
The time went surprisingly fast, mainly cause there were a lot of customers. The oven-roasted turkey was particularly popular, probably cause it's healthy and on sale. I made a few mistakes -- accidentially not selling the roast beef and oven-roasted turkey for the sale price because I pressed the wrong button on the scale, and cutting too much roast beef for a guy who wanted a pound of thickly sliced roast beef. (I cut 1.96 lbs).
They asked me if I wanted to stay later (I think cause some guy called in sick) but after some thought, I said no, since I had developed a headache mid-morning that wasn't going away. So they let me go.
So the first day went ok. I work 7-4 tomorrow. Yeah, that's right -- I have to be at work at SEVEN A.M. Since I plan to walk, that means I have to get up at the crack of dawn basically, since it takes about an hour to walk there.
After getting off work and waiting for some manager so I could get my stuff out of the office (since I didn't have a lock I couldn't put my stuff in a locker in the breakroom) , I sat down somewhere to eat the lunch I'd brought (a sandwich and apple slices) and then headed home.
At least I'll be working a lot of hours tomorrow. 7-4 is 9 hours I think. Do I get overtime for that? No, probably not cause it would be technically 8 hours cause I will most definitely get a lunch break, which is an hour. I will have to figure out what to do with all that time, because I'm used to having half-hour lunch breaks, so I have trained myself to eat lunch in like 20 minutes. If I had the money I would get something from the deli. The chicken looks really good. The chicken includes quarter legs which are huge legs that look like the kind you see people brandishing in paintings of medieval scenes.
The breakroom is kinda nice. You approach it via a flight of stairs from the sales floor, and it's a big wide room with lockers down the hall and a couple big tables pushed together in the center with chairs. There is a microwave, a bulletin board with all the things businesses have to display in the breakroom, like OSHA laws, minimum wage info, and so on, possibly a small fridge (the microwave was sitting on something that I assumed was a fridge) and two very outdated-looking vending machines. I mean, they are like '70's-style. One of the people I met while up there on my break, Meg (who works in the bakery), said they don't get much use since people usually buy stuff for their break out in the store. At least this way I don't have to make sure to attach the receipt to stuff (something they require when you buy something, even a magazine). Plus the soda machine sells cans of soda for 50¢, a real bargain. The other machine is a coffee machine that charges I know not what. It probably doesn't get used much because you can get a cup of coffee at the store for 69¢, and plus there's a Starbucks next door. I don't care about the coffee though. I'm fine with 50¢ soda cans (or 80¢ if I go to the donut store on the other side of the shopping center), and if I want a bottle, they sell them there, and there's also a soda machine over by Big Lots.
I may not have much money for soda though. Mom says once I get my first paycheck I am going on a budget. Hopefully, though, I will have some spending money. With my first check, combined with a $25 check from my grandpa (from Christmas) that I still need to deposit, I am going to get a bus pass for February (it's too late to get one for January), a nice jacket I can wear when walking to or from work, and some other clothes item my mom told me to get that I forget now. I may buy a spare pair of black pants and a spare white shirt for work also.
I found out today I have to go to a class to get my Food Handler's Card. There's one this Sunday, so I was told to go to that. The nice thing about this is that I get Sunday totally off because of it, which will be good after four days straight of work, three of which are full workdays (8 hours). The bad news is that the class is at 8am and lasts three hours, which means I'm going to have to miss church to go to it. I was thinking it was after church, but apparently not. Shoot.
Well that's basically everything. Bye for now.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Team Rocket origins, 2 job ops, fanlisting craze, I'm thirsty...
I have sort of liked Team Rocket since I first got into Pokémon...in fact Jessie (one of the members) was my favorite character at first. The cool thing is that more and more about their origins (how they met, etc) has been coming out over the years. One episode that really does that is "Training Daze," an episode of the Pokémon spin-off Pokémon Chronicles. I just watched it online via Toonami's online cartoon viewing spot, Toonami Jetstream. It's a great little ep which shows how Jessie couldn't keep a partner, and then when she got James as a partner things finally worked out.
You can watch the ep here: http://www.toonamijetstream.com/dlink/index.html?episodeID=8a25c3920f629d31010f6458c77700fa
Speaking of Toonami Jetstream, I don't know if I already mentioned this, but I've been getting into an anime called The Prince of Tennis. It was originally only available legally in the U.S. via Toonami Jetstream, but just before Christmas 2006 it made its debut on the Cartoon Network's Saturday night Toonami lineup. The show is basically about this 7th grade kid named Echizen Ryoma who is really good at tennis. That's the best I can figure out at this point. It's an interesting anime to bring to the U.S., since sports anime like Prince of Tennis, while very popular in Japan, don't usually get legally brought stateside. But I guess the Japanese animation companies have decided to take a chance on us and bring it over.
More than likely it has been brought over because of a trend. There has been a recent trend of success with shounen (young boy-targeted; animes like Outlaw Star that are targeted for teenage boys and older are called seinen) anime, like Naruto, Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist, in the U.S. Hence the market is ripe for more shounen anime, and The Prince of Tennis, being shounen, fits the demand. Plus, since it is a sports anime, the likes of which haven't really been seen in the U.S. before (the Slam Dunk manga, which, like the title suggests, is about basketball, is the only other example I can think of), that makes things even better. To please both genders, Toonami paired The Prince of Tennis, which is sports and action (the kind of things boys like) with another shounen anime of the fantasy variety called MÄR in the same hour block.
I think the anime appeals to both boys and girls though because both boys and girls watch tennis, and tennis is a sport played by both men and women, unlike baseball or football. The action and great use of animation effects like slow-motion, use of greyscale frames, stills of characters with voice-overs of their thoughts, and the like are enough to attract someone of any gender, even if they can say, as Sakuno does in episode 1, "I don't know much about tennis, but I love it!" You could not even like tennis or know a thing about it and still like this show.
Now, in my case, I do like tennis and have had for a long time a basic idea of how the game works. Now, thanks to having done a speech about tennis, I know far more about types of shots, scoring, positions, and other tennis stuff than I really need to to understand the game from poring over about 8 books on tennis for research. Having knowledge of the game helps me appreciate The Prince of Tennis even more.
Personally, I think the animators make it relatively easy for even the tennis novice to understand the show; after all, although Japan has many good pro tennis players (mainly women) and even hosts its own pro tournament (the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships, held in Tokyo), tennis is still a imported sport in Japan. It's not like sumo, for instance, which is distinctly Japanese.
Anyway, I have 2 job opportunities that have gone as far as the interview stage and beyond. I am just waiting for a drug test result on one, a job as a General Merchandise Clerk at Stater Bros., working in the Service Deli department. The other I had an interview for and am supposed to hear back from early this week. That's as an employee at Babies R Us.
I have gotten back into the craze of joining fanlistings, having joined enough to fill about 3 or so Microsoft Word pages just in the last 2-3 days! (I keep a list in a Word file of the fanlistings I've joined, so I know when it comes time to put the link button on my site what to link to, and also so I don't try to join one I've already joined). There are so many fanlistings listed at thefanlistings.com that it's almost overwhelming. Most of them are rather random, like the ones for the program Notepad, for breakfast, or for DVD commentaries. Some are really specific, being for certain characters from books, movies, or TV, or certain relationships (platonic and romantic) from the same. There are even ones for items, from Nausicaä's Mehve (flying contraption) from the movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to the Ginzuishou (Silver Crystal) from Sailor Moon to Zakuro's Cross Whip from Tokyo Mew Mew.
I may create a fanlisting for the Sailor Moon live-action show Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, since there doesn't seem to be one though there are many Sailor Moon senshi-related fanlistings that include the senshi's PGSM incarnations under their subjects, and fanlistings for some of the actors of PGSM (I joined the ones for Kitagawa Keiko, Komatsu Ayaka, and Chieco Kawabe, who play Rei/Sailor Mars, Minako/Sailor Venus, and Osaka Naru respectively). The only problem is that fanlistings are tough to keep up, and I've got two sites, a blog, and a video hosting account to attend to. Plus making one requires at least one page with a form, the script for which (JavaScript I think) is not exactly easy to do.
I'm thirsty and jittery from sitting so much at the computer. I'm going to go for a walk. More later.
You can watch the ep here: http://www.toonamijetstream.com/dlink/index.html?episodeID=8a25c3920f629d31010f6458c77700fa
Speaking of Toonami Jetstream, I don't know if I already mentioned this, but I've been getting into an anime called The Prince of Tennis. It was originally only available legally in the U.S. via Toonami Jetstream, but just before Christmas 2006 it made its debut on the Cartoon Network's Saturday night Toonami lineup. The show is basically about this 7th grade kid named Echizen Ryoma who is really good at tennis. That's the best I can figure out at this point. It's an interesting anime to bring to the U.S., since sports anime like Prince of Tennis, while very popular in Japan, don't usually get legally brought stateside. But I guess the Japanese animation companies have decided to take a chance on us and bring it over.
More than likely it has been brought over because of a trend. There has been a recent trend of success with shounen (young boy-targeted; animes like Outlaw Star that are targeted for teenage boys and older are called seinen) anime, like Naruto, Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist, in the U.S. Hence the market is ripe for more shounen anime, and The Prince of Tennis, being shounen, fits the demand. Plus, since it is a sports anime, the likes of which haven't really been seen in the U.S. before (the Slam Dunk manga, which, like the title suggests, is about basketball, is the only other example I can think of), that makes things even better. To please both genders, Toonami paired The Prince of Tennis, which is sports and action (the kind of things boys like) with another shounen anime of the fantasy variety called MÄR in the same hour block.
I think the anime appeals to both boys and girls though because both boys and girls watch tennis, and tennis is a sport played by both men and women, unlike baseball or football. The action and great use of animation effects like slow-motion, use of greyscale frames, stills of characters with voice-overs of their thoughts, and the like are enough to attract someone of any gender, even if they can say, as Sakuno does in episode 1, "I don't know much about tennis, but I love it!" You could not even like tennis or know a thing about it and still like this show.
Now, in my case, I do like tennis and have had for a long time a basic idea of how the game works. Now, thanks to having done a speech about tennis, I know far more about types of shots, scoring, positions, and other tennis stuff than I really need to to understand the game from poring over about 8 books on tennis for research. Having knowledge of the game helps me appreciate The Prince of Tennis even more.
Personally, I think the animators make it relatively easy for even the tennis novice to understand the show; after all, although Japan has many good pro tennis players (mainly women) and even hosts its own pro tournament (the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships, held in Tokyo), tennis is still a imported sport in Japan. It's not like sumo, for instance, which is distinctly Japanese.
Anyway, I have 2 job opportunities that have gone as far as the interview stage and beyond. I am just waiting for a drug test result on one, a job as a General Merchandise Clerk at Stater Bros., working in the Service Deli department. The other I had an interview for and am supposed to hear back from early this week. That's as an employee at Babies R Us.
I have gotten back into the craze of joining fanlistings, having joined enough to fill about 3 or so Microsoft Word pages just in the last 2-3 days! (I keep a list in a Word file of the fanlistings I've joined, so I know when it comes time to put the link button on my site what to link to, and also so I don't try to join one I've already joined). There are so many fanlistings listed at thefanlistings.com that it's almost overwhelming. Most of them are rather random, like the ones for the program Notepad, for breakfast, or for DVD commentaries. Some are really specific, being for certain characters from books, movies, or TV, or certain relationships (platonic and romantic) from the same. There are even ones for items, from Nausicaä's Mehve (flying contraption) from the movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to the Ginzuishou (Silver Crystal) from Sailor Moon to Zakuro's Cross Whip from Tokyo Mew Mew.
I may create a fanlisting for the Sailor Moon live-action show Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, since there doesn't seem to be one though there are many Sailor Moon senshi-related fanlistings that include the senshi's PGSM incarnations under their subjects, and fanlistings for some of the actors of PGSM (I joined the ones for Kitagawa Keiko, Komatsu Ayaka, and Chieco Kawabe, who play Rei/Sailor Mars, Minako/Sailor Venus, and Osaka Naru respectively). The only problem is that fanlistings are tough to keep up, and I've got two sites, a blog, and a video hosting account to attend to. Plus making one requires at least one page with a form, the script for which (JavaScript I think) is not exactly easy to do.
I'm thirsty and jittery from sitting so much at the computer. I'm going to go for a walk. More later.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Job stuff, website updates not going so well, podcasts, boredom, etc.
I actually got going on some job stuff today, writing several cover letters for newspaper ads and filling out one of the two applications I decided to keep. (I threw out Submarina and Domino's because the first is a sub sandwich place, which I've already done bad at -- getting fired from Subway after 3 days -- and the other is only hiring drivers right now). I've not been in much of a good mood though, after having a discussion with Mom (well, not really a discussion so much) about my overweight condition hurting my chances of getting a job. Uh, hello, I've had three jobs since my senior year of high school and I was overweight all that time too. She mentioned that when my dad came up to me when I was going to Wal-Mart the other day to get my cell phone (since he was changing out our phones) that I was barely moving. I said this was because my feet hurt a lot, which is true. My mom thought it was because of my weight though. She brought up (once again) the fact that I lost so much weight when I was walking to school during the time after I'd lost my bus pass until I got a job at Wendy's. I should mention that this walk took TWO AND A HALF HOURS each way and required that I wake up at the crack of dawn to get to school on time for my 8am class.
Ok so I am overweight by about 40-50 pounds. Yes, I am at risk for cancer and diabetes from family history. Heck, maybe Tay-Sachs too given my Eastern European Jewish history on my dad's side, coupled with cystic fibrosis from the other Caucasian relatives and the chance of passing on to one of my kids whatever this weird social disease I have (still not sure if it's Asperger's). But I do not think that will prevent me from getting a job. Yeah, employers can be discriminatory if they want to. But if they can't discriminate you if you're a woman, a homosexual, of a race other than white, disabled, over age 40, or a wealth of other things, and can't automatically deny you employment if you say on your application that you've committed a felony, you'd think they can't discriminate against you because you're overweight, right?
Granted, I probably should exercise more and stuff. I know it may better my chances of getting a job since this world is so appearance-conscious as to prefer thin people over heavy people. But that shouldn't stop me. It's the inside that really counts. A guy applying to be an accountant might be the best qualified candidate around and get hired, but then slack off at work or be a crook and get the company into major debt or tax fraud or something (kinda like the Enron scandal).
In other news, updates on my personal website, Silvanmare, aren't going well. I tried to make a new drop-down menu for the side menu, but when I typed in the code (which involves unordered lists and CSS) it didn't show up right. I am thinking of trying a different method. The new site will have "mini-sites" on various subjects. Although maybe I will limit the amount of them, cause I went a bit crazy on making mini-sites -- making 35 in all.
Sorry there was a bit of time delay...I went on a site called Into the Pensieve to find some Harry Potter video clips (I discovered when making my "Dance to Me" video that that site is a great place to find those) and ended up creating a My Pensieve account. You get a blog and the ability to add content from the site to your "media gallery" and control over what kind of news appears on your page (called your "pensieve"), which you control by checking what "subscriptions" you want, etc. Sorta like MySpace I guess, but not. (I'm still resisting the urge to get on the Myspace bandwagon).
Anyway about the site...I'm going to continue playing with the drop-down thing, and see if my HTML books have anything about them.
As for the podcasts part of the subject line, I'm still into MuggleCast, and I decided to give PotterCast -- another Harry Potter podcast for the site The Leaky Cauldron -- another chance and I actually like it.
I found three travel podcasts on a site called Podcast Alley (which I heard about from MuggleCast, since they're always telling you to vote for them there) and got eps. One is the podcast for Rick Steves, who does a travel show on PBS. Hard to hear (I couldn't hear it over the water when doing dishes last night) but good. Another is one on Athens that I haven't listened to yet. The last one was called Josh in Japan and promised to be interesting, but episode 1 was just the guy griping about how much Western fast food there is in Japan and about how he hates seafood and swearing quite a bit. So I decided not to listen to that one anymore.
As for boredom, well, with lots of time and nothing to do, life has been boring. I did manage to do some new videos over winter break so far to try to rebuild my video collection after the YouTube fiasco. I also created an alternate e-mail account with Hotmail so that hopefully I can get back on YouTube. Not that Putfile isn't bad but it's not as nice as YouTube and plus I have friends at YouTube. The only good thing about losing my YouTube account is losing the abstinence video. I'm not saying I regret making the video, but I got sick of all the flaming comments I got on it from people who prefer safe sex to abstinence. I just stopped answering the comments after a while.
As for new videos, what did I do? Well I have a Yumi-Ulrich-William love triangle video (called "Somebody to Love: Ulrich or William?") to Anne Hathaway's rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love." I have an Outlaw Star video (called "A Space Free-for-all") done to the song "Rodéo" from the Code Lyoko Subdigitals album that I mentioned before. I have a Sailor Saturn video called "Soldier of Destruction" set to a song by Saturn's voice actress.
I gotta go. More later.
Edit: The song sung by Saturn's voice actress, Minaguchi Yuko, is called "A DIEU." The other videos are a Code Lyoko-PGSM battle vid (called, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," set to Pat Benatar's song of that name) and yesterday I did one about Usagi's struggle with the power from the Silver Crystal and the destructive desires of Princess Sailor Moon called "Addicted" (set to the song "Addicted" by Kelly Clarkson, which I got from the Kelly Clarkson CD my dad got for Christmas, which I borrowed).
Today I went and returned the socks and the shirt to Wal-Mart and got two pairs of trouser socks and a new hat (a denim baseball cap) as well as some foot spray and shampoo and conditioner. I also got several applications for places in that area.
That's basically all I've done today. As for other videos, I think I'll do a Harry Potter video. I had done one but I lost it in losing my account.
That's all I really have to say. Bye.
Ok so I am overweight by about 40-50 pounds. Yes, I am at risk for cancer and diabetes from family history. Heck, maybe Tay-Sachs too given my Eastern European Jewish history on my dad's side, coupled with cystic fibrosis from the other Caucasian relatives and the chance of passing on to one of my kids whatever this weird social disease I have (still not sure if it's Asperger's). But I do not think that will prevent me from getting a job. Yeah, employers can be discriminatory if they want to. But if they can't discriminate you if you're a woman, a homosexual, of a race other than white, disabled, over age 40, or a wealth of other things, and can't automatically deny you employment if you say on your application that you've committed a felony, you'd think they can't discriminate against you because you're overweight, right?
Granted, I probably should exercise more and stuff. I know it may better my chances of getting a job since this world is so appearance-conscious as to prefer thin people over heavy people. But that shouldn't stop me. It's the inside that really counts. A guy applying to be an accountant might be the best qualified candidate around and get hired, but then slack off at work or be a crook and get the company into major debt or tax fraud or something (kinda like the Enron scandal).
In other news, updates on my personal website, Silvanmare, aren't going well. I tried to make a new drop-down menu for the side menu, but when I typed in the code (which involves unordered lists and CSS) it didn't show up right. I am thinking of trying a different method. The new site will have "mini-sites" on various subjects. Although maybe I will limit the amount of them, cause I went a bit crazy on making mini-sites -- making 35 in all.
Sorry there was a bit of time delay...I went on a site called Into the Pensieve to find some Harry Potter video clips (I discovered when making my "Dance to Me" video that that site is a great place to find those) and ended up creating a My Pensieve account. You get a blog and the ability to add content from the site to your "media gallery" and control over what kind of news appears on your page (called your "pensieve"), which you control by checking what "subscriptions" you want, etc. Sorta like MySpace I guess, but not. (I'm still resisting the urge to get on the Myspace bandwagon).
Anyway about the site...I'm going to continue playing with the drop-down thing, and see if my HTML books have anything about them.
As for the podcasts part of the subject line, I'm still into MuggleCast, and I decided to give PotterCast -- another Harry Potter podcast for the site The Leaky Cauldron -- another chance and I actually like it.
I found three travel podcasts on a site called Podcast Alley (which I heard about from MuggleCast, since they're always telling you to vote for them there) and got eps. One is the podcast for Rick Steves, who does a travel show on PBS. Hard to hear (I couldn't hear it over the water when doing dishes last night) but good. Another is one on Athens that I haven't listened to yet. The last one was called Josh in Japan and promised to be interesting, but episode 1 was just the guy griping about how much Western fast food there is in Japan and about how he hates seafood and swearing quite a bit. So I decided not to listen to that one anymore.
As for boredom, well, with lots of time and nothing to do, life has been boring. I did manage to do some new videos over winter break so far to try to rebuild my video collection after the YouTube fiasco. I also created an alternate e-mail account with Hotmail so that hopefully I can get back on YouTube. Not that Putfile isn't bad but it's not as nice as YouTube and plus I have friends at YouTube. The only good thing about losing my YouTube account is losing the abstinence video. I'm not saying I regret making the video, but I got sick of all the flaming comments I got on it from people who prefer safe sex to abstinence. I just stopped answering the comments after a while.
As for new videos, what did I do? Well I have a Yumi-Ulrich-William love triangle video (called "Somebody to Love: Ulrich or William?") to Anne Hathaway's rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love." I have an Outlaw Star video (called "A Space Free-for-all") done to the song "Rodéo" from the Code Lyoko Subdigitals album that I mentioned before. I have a Sailor Saturn video called "Soldier of Destruction" set to a song by Saturn's voice actress.
I gotta go. More later.
Edit: The song sung by Saturn's voice actress, Minaguchi Yuko, is called "A DIEU." The other videos are a Code Lyoko-PGSM battle vid (called, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," set to Pat Benatar's song of that name) and yesterday I did one about Usagi's struggle with the power from the Silver Crystal and the destructive desires of Princess Sailor Moon called "Addicted" (set to the song "Addicted" by Kelly Clarkson, which I got from the Kelly Clarkson CD my dad got for Christmas, which I borrowed).
Today I went and returned the socks and the shirt to Wal-Mart and got two pairs of trouser socks and a new hat (a denim baseball cap) as well as some foot spray and shampoo and conditioner. I also got several applications for places in that area.
That's basically all I've done today. As for other videos, I think I'll do a Harry Potter video. I had done one but I lost it in losing my account.
That's all I really have to say. Bye.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Post-New Year blues with some good parts
Christmas and New Year's have come and gone. Christmas was all right. I got mostly clothes from my parents, which I knew I was getting cause I went with to buy them. I also got some underwear, which I knew I was getting, plus a 6-pack of glass-bottled Coke. My brother got me a new GameCube (which is great cause my other one has having problem) with one controller, and four 12-pack boxes of soda cans, a Life Savers Sweet Storybook, and I think some other stuff. My parents gave my brother and I a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner with a couple refill bottles. I got a little box of candy and a $25 Wal-Mart gift card from my aunt and a $25 check from my grandpa.
New Year's was uneventful. I spent New Year's Eve day applying for a couple jobs online, and using the computer mostly, getting some video files to make a Sailor Moon video. I also downloaded the New Year's show for MuggleCast, a Harry Potter podcast I've recently gotten into, which I listened to late on New Year's Eve night so I could stay awake late enough to watch the ball drop on Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. Fortunately the podcast ended at 11:52 (probably cause it was almost 2 hours long, but also cause I paused it a lot), so after that I watched the program till the ball dropped. Then I went upstairs, wished my parents Happy New Year and took a shower and went to bed.
Today Mum wanted me to get out of the house and not just sit around. So I walked to Wal-Mart to use my gift card. Unfortunately, I wore one of my new pairs of shoes which I hadn't broken into yet, so walking was a rather painful experience.
I got two packs of socks, a plastic box to store the CD's that don't have cases, a nice cotton shirt, and the book The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. My mom said I should've gotten nicer socks to wear with new clothes and that the shirt could be worn under a blouse, which means it's not nice enough to just wear by itself. So I am going to return the shirt and the socks and get nicer stuff, if I can. I'm keeping the box and the book.
The 2-year agreement on our cell phones ended today so my dad changed out our phones. We got Motorola W315 phones. Here's what one looks like:
My brother pointed out it doesn't have a camera like our old phones did, which means my dad can't take pictures of our dogs all the time like he usually did. I like the phone though, even without the camera. Since it's Motorola, it'll be easier to get custom ringtones.
Speaking of Motorola, I saw a really funny Chinese Motorola commercial on this show called Funniest Commercials of the Year 2006. Here's a link where you can see it:
http://veryfunnyads.com/ads/25096.html
I'm pretty tired so I'm going to end here.
New Year's was uneventful. I spent New Year's Eve day applying for a couple jobs online, and using the computer mostly, getting some video files to make a Sailor Moon video. I also downloaded the New Year's show for MuggleCast, a Harry Potter podcast I've recently gotten into, which I listened to late on New Year's Eve night so I could stay awake late enough to watch the ball drop on Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. Fortunately the podcast ended at 11:52 (probably cause it was almost 2 hours long, but also cause I paused it a lot), so after that I watched the program till the ball dropped. Then I went upstairs, wished my parents Happy New Year and took a shower and went to bed.
Today Mum wanted me to get out of the house and not just sit around. So I walked to Wal-Mart to use my gift card. Unfortunately, I wore one of my new pairs of shoes which I hadn't broken into yet, so walking was a rather painful experience.
I got two packs of socks, a plastic box to store the CD's that don't have cases, a nice cotton shirt, and the book The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. My mom said I should've gotten nicer socks to wear with new clothes and that the shirt could be worn under a blouse, which means it's not nice enough to just wear by itself. So I am going to return the shirt and the socks and get nicer stuff, if I can. I'm keeping the box and the book.
The 2-year agreement on our cell phones ended today so my dad changed out our phones. We got Motorola W315 phones. Here's what one looks like:
My brother pointed out it doesn't have a camera like our old phones did, which means my dad can't take pictures of our dogs all the time like he usually did. I like the phone though, even without the camera. Since it's Motorola, it'll be easier to get custom ringtones.
Speaking of Motorola, I saw a really funny Chinese Motorola commercial on this show called Funniest Commercials of the Year 2006. Here's a link where you can see it:
http://veryfunnyads.com/ads/25096.html
I'm pretty tired so I'm going to end here.
Friday, December 15, 2006
A little update
Hi there. How are things?
A lot has happened since Nov. 16. Still no job yet, but I have made steps. I went in and did an application and interview with a place called AppleOne, a job services place. I am also still waiting for definitive word back from Walgreen's. (I had an interview with them like 2 weeks ago and I still haven't heard anything conclusive). So things are looking up.
School is officially over for me for the fall semester. I took my last final yesterday. I am so happy that's over. That's one big load off my back. It's been a tough semester.
Right now, I am focusing on getting a job, planning for next semester schoolwise, and getting my Christmas shopping done. I thankfully am going to be able to buy presents as I hoped -- my parents agreed to give me money from my savings with them like I asked, and I got $68.75 from selling some of my books back, so a bunch of that went to Christmas presents. Plus I bought some stocking stuffers before my last Loaves & Fishes check ran out. So now I am almost done. I just need to finish buying the presents I've planned to buy for the family (my parents and my brother) as well as maybe something for my Aunt Jane, who I found out is coming for Christmas. Plus I need to buy a couple 4-square balls to bring for the church tree. (It's one of those things where you pick an ornament that has a certain needed item on it from some relief place in the area -- the balls I'm getting are for some shelter for boys). Then I need to make the little bag I'm making to hold this one present I got for my mom, and then wrap everything. With a little over a week until Christmas (10 days to be exact), I think I have plenty of time.
As for school prep, I wrote down a list of all the University Studies majors offered, and then chose the ones I was most interested in. I then took these and looked them up on Assist (a website for transfer students in CA) and typed up what CSU schools offered the majors I was interested in getting a University Studies A.A. in. I then narrowed these down more by circling the schools and subdegrees, etc I wanted to pursue further. Then I got info on the majors from the websites of the schools. Now I just need to look over that stuff.
I am still doing videos, although I got quite a shock on Tuesday -- my YouTube account got "permanently disabled." This is due to three videos they labeled as copyright-infringing. Now I would never deliberately infringe copyright. That's illegal and wrong. I even put copyright notices in the credits of my videos to avoid this. Yet they blocked my Katharine McPhee and Inuyasha vids (which had clips from fansites) and my video about May from Pokémon which had a few opening sequence clips and a bunch of still pics. And because there were multiple occurrances of this, they disabled my account. I do not understand how I violated copyright (I suppose with the Katharine McPhee one I can sort of understand, since American Idol is a network show -- but the facts that use of the clips was infringing would be the fansite makers' fault, not mine, right?).
I am now back where I originally was with hosting videos: on Putfile. Not as fancy but also less strict. Right now I only have a few videos on there that I put up this week when at school (since our family computer blocks Putfile as well as YouTube) -- I won't be able to put up any more until the internet on my laptop gets fixed or I go back to school, whichever comes first. I may try to get back on YouTube by creating a different e-mail account and going under that. I am still thinking about all that.
So anyway you can view my videos now at Starlight Starbright, my Putfile page (same account as in the pre-YouTube days, different page name).
Speaking of videos, I have progressed some with the fansub I was doing of the first episode of season 3 of Code Lyoko. I don't think I mentioned the fansub on here, just on Tech Links, the CL forum I was doing it for. Anyway, I got raw footage of the first episode of CL season 3 in French and proceeded to get a script, translate it, and do a fansub. You can download it in parts via Sendspace if you're interested. Here are the links:
Part 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/4p1p0y
Part 2: http://www.sendspace.com/file/9z3mpj
Part 3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2ovesq
Part 4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/sl1fa2
I've been on Sendspace since I started doing the fansub back in September. It's a great file sharing site AND our family comp doesn't block it like it does Rapidshare and Megaupload. I first learned of its existence back when doing that infamous Katharine McPhee video (which, now that I'm on Putfile, I may remake -- I'll have to read their Terms of Service first, since I already got a warning for putting a link in a comment...sheesh, why is that so bad? I'm not spamming!).
I have also been busy translating lyrics from the new CD Code Lyoko featuring The Subdigitals for the Tech Links people. This CD was recently released in France and features songs by a fictional band the characters in CL like (in the English version the band is called The Subsonics), as well as the show's French theme song as a "bonus track." You can see the lyrics, with my translations, if you like, by downloading them from the links below (listed in the order the songs appear on the CD):
-Ouvre Les Yeux (Open Your Eyes): http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1dbt4
-Technoïde (no real English translation for that word): http://www.sendspace.com/file/od26iu
-D'ici et d'ailleurs (From Here and Elsewhere): http://www.sendspace.com/file/43ixwr
-Ensemble (Together): http://www.sendspace.com/file/15c616
-Sauver Le Monde (To Save the World): http://www.sendspace.com/file/15c616
-La Tribu (The Tribe): http://www.sendspace.com/file/cw2c67
-Bienvenue (Welcome): http://www.sendspace.com/file/06rveb
-S'envoler (To Fly Away): http://www.sendspace.com/file/malych
They're all ZIP files; I made them that way so I could attach them to posts at Tech Links. I zipped the files using WinRAR archives, but saved the files as ZIP so they could be downloaded and opened by people who didn't have WinRAR.
These are not all the songs: Tracks 7 and 9, called "Rodéo" and "S'en Aller," and the first track, "Planet Net," are not listed. Another forum member translated "Planet Net" before me, getting the lyrics from a karaoke video posted on the net (which you can see at my Putfile page), so I didn't translate it right away (I have now though and I'll post it here) and the lyrics for the other two I just was able to get this morning from the French CL forum I've been getting lyrics from, so I haven't translated those yet.
Not much else to say. I was really tired when I got home yesterday, and mostly sat at the computer half-asleep. I went upstairs, showered, and did the Sailor Saturn video I'd planned to make (to "A DIEU," a song sung by Saturn's seiyuu, Minaguchi Yuko), saved the Movie Maker file, and then closed down my laptop and went to bed. This morning, I got up, did my morning stuff, saved the video to the computer, did some dishes, watched The Price is Right, and went on the family comp again over lunch, which is where I am now.
I'm tired. I'm just trying to kill time while my laundry finishes. I want to wait for it to finish before I go out and Christmas shop.
A lot has happened since Nov. 16. Still no job yet, but I have made steps. I went in and did an application and interview with a place called AppleOne, a job services place. I am also still waiting for definitive word back from Walgreen's. (I had an interview with them like 2 weeks ago and I still haven't heard anything conclusive). So things are looking up.
School is officially over for me for the fall semester. I took my last final yesterday. I am so happy that's over. That's one big load off my back. It's been a tough semester.
Right now, I am focusing on getting a job, planning for next semester schoolwise, and getting my Christmas shopping done. I thankfully am going to be able to buy presents as I hoped -- my parents agreed to give me money from my savings with them like I asked, and I got $68.75 from selling some of my books back, so a bunch of that went to Christmas presents. Plus I bought some stocking stuffers before my last Loaves & Fishes check ran out. So now I am almost done. I just need to finish buying the presents I've planned to buy for the family (my parents and my brother) as well as maybe something for my Aunt Jane, who I found out is coming for Christmas. Plus I need to buy a couple 4-square balls to bring for the church tree. (It's one of those things where you pick an ornament that has a certain needed item on it from some relief place in the area -- the balls I'm getting are for some shelter for boys). Then I need to make the little bag I'm making to hold this one present I got for my mom, and then wrap everything. With a little over a week until Christmas (10 days to be exact), I think I have plenty of time.
As for school prep, I wrote down a list of all the University Studies majors offered, and then chose the ones I was most interested in. I then took these and looked them up on Assist (a website for transfer students in CA) and typed up what CSU schools offered the majors I was interested in getting a University Studies A.A. in. I then narrowed these down more by circling the schools and subdegrees, etc I wanted to pursue further. Then I got info on the majors from the websites of the schools. Now I just need to look over that stuff.
I am still doing videos, although I got quite a shock on Tuesday -- my YouTube account got "permanently disabled." This is due to three videos they labeled as copyright-infringing. Now I would never deliberately infringe copyright. That's illegal and wrong. I even put copyright notices in the credits of my videos to avoid this. Yet they blocked my Katharine McPhee and Inuyasha vids (which had clips from fansites) and my video about May from Pokémon which had a few opening sequence clips and a bunch of still pics. And because there were multiple occurrances of this, they disabled my account. I do not understand how I violated copyright (I suppose with the Katharine McPhee one I can sort of understand, since American Idol is a network show -- but the facts that use of the clips was infringing would be the fansite makers' fault, not mine, right?).
I am now back where I originally was with hosting videos: on Putfile. Not as fancy but also less strict. Right now I only have a few videos on there that I put up this week when at school (since our family computer blocks Putfile as well as YouTube) -- I won't be able to put up any more until the internet on my laptop gets fixed or I go back to school, whichever comes first. I may try to get back on YouTube by creating a different e-mail account and going under that. I am still thinking about all that.
So anyway you can view my videos now at Starlight Starbright, my Putfile page (same account as in the pre-YouTube days, different page name).
Speaking of videos, I have progressed some with the fansub I was doing of the first episode of season 3 of Code Lyoko. I don't think I mentioned the fansub on here, just on Tech Links, the CL forum I was doing it for. Anyway, I got raw footage of the first episode of CL season 3 in French and proceeded to get a script, translate it, and do a fansub. You can download it in parts via Sendspace if you're interested. Here are the links:
Part 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/4p1p0y
Part 2: http://www.sendspace.com/file/9z3mpj
Part 3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2ovesq
Part 4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/sl1fa2
I've been on Sendspace since I started doing the fansub back in September. It's a great file sharing site AND our family comp doesn't block it like it does Rapidshare and Megaupload. I first learned of its existence back when doing that infamous Katharine McPhee video (which, now that I'm on Putfile, I may remake -- I'll have to read their Terms of Service first, since I already got a warning for putting a link in a comment...sheesh, why is that so bad? I'm not spamming!).
I have also been busy translating lyrics from the new CD Code Lyoko featuring The Subdigitals for the Tech Links people. This CD was recently released in France and features songs by a fictional band the characters in CL like (in the English version the band is called The Subsonics), as well as the show's French theme song as a "bonus track." You can see the lyrics, with my translations, if you like, by downloading them from the links below (listed in the order the songs appear on the CD):
-Ouvre Les Yeux (Open Your Eyes): http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1dbt4
-Technoïde (no real English translation for that word): http://www.sendspace.com/file/od26iu
-D'ici et d'ailleurs (From Here and Elsewhere): http://www.sendspace.com/file/43ixwr
-Ensemble (Together): http://www.sendspace.com/file/15c616
-Sauver Le Monde (To Save the World): http://www.sendspace.com/file/15c616
-La Tribu (The Tribe): http://www.sendspace.com/file/cw2c67
-Bienvenue (Welcome): http://www.sendspace.com/file/06rveb
-S'envoler (To Fly Away): http://www.sendspace.com/file/malych
They're all ZIP files; I made them that way so I could attach them to posts at Tech Links. I zipped the files using WinRAR archives, but saved the files as ZIP so they could be downloaded and opened by people who didn't have WinRAR.
These are not all the songs: Tracks 7 and 9, called "Rodéo" and "S'en Aller," and the first track, "Planet Net," are not listed. Another forum member translated "Planet Net" before me, getting the lyrics from a karaoke video posted on the net (which you can see at my Putfile page), so I didn't translate it right away (I have now though and I'll post it here) and the lyrics for the other two I just was able to get this morning from the French CL forum I've been getting lyrics from, so I haven't translated those yet.
Not much else to say. I was really tired when I got home yesterday, and mostly sat at the computer half-asleep. I went upstairs, showered, and did the Sailor Saturn video I'd planned to make (to "A DIEU," a song sung by Saturn's seiyuu, Minaguchi Yuko), saved the Movie Maker file, and then closed down my laptop and went to bed. This morning, I got up, did my morning stuff, saved the video to the computer, did some dishes, watched The Price is Right, and went on the family comp again over lunch, which is where I am now.
I'm tired. I'm just trying to kill time while my laundry finishes. I want to wait for it to finish before I go out and Christmas shop.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Trying to think things out
I'm planning to leave school soon, but I just wanted to get some things off my chest.
With spring semester coming up, and my plans changing to involve getting my A.A. in University Studies at that time (because I lost my job and may need to work full time), I have to think about classes to take toward my major, since after this semester I won't have any IGETC or Cal State G.E. requirements left. That is a big deal, because I would most likely be taking classes toward a major at a certain school, and I have to decide what school that will be.
I am pretty certain I will go to a Cal State if I go to a university -- I've been preparing for that anyway. The only Cal State schools in the county are Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM) and San Diego State University. Though CSUSM is closer to where I live, and the campus is lovely-looking, I don't really want to go there, for whatever reason. Maybe cause that's what my mom wants, and I'm not fully in agreement with that. I just recently started considering San Diego State, since it's considered part of the Cal State system. I can still commute there from home via public transit if I had to, but it's not too close for comfort.
I am considering History for a major, once again. For CSUSM's History B.A., I have most if not all of the requirements. The requirements are: 12 units of history in 2 different areas (which I can have in Western Civ and History of the Americas if I take the other Western Civ class), two classes in lit, religion, poli sci, econ, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, the arts, or a single discplinary field (I had to take 3 arts courses for the IGETC anyway, so that should count - I can ask), 3 units in a "separate and distinct area" (I've taken so many electives that I'm sure I have this covered), and English 100 (which I had to take for the IGETC anyway).
For SDSU's history B.A., I have met most of the requirements too. I have gotten 2 classes from the history classes you have to take 2 of (History of the Americas and Western Civ). I'd just have to take both sections of World History. I also have met the language requirement.
As for other Cal States, I'm only missing three classes toward the history major at CSU Long Beach, & 4 classes toward the history major at CSU San Bernadino -- the two closest campuses I could find info about.
I'm going to try to figure that out, possibly this weekend, although I do have a big anthro essay to write. Plus job-hunting since I still don't have a job and my final speech to do. *sigh*
At least Thanksgiving is coming up -- the holiday will give me time to think.
I'm gonna go so I can look for pics for my final speech boards before leaving school. If I can get my boards done today, it's one less thing.
With spring semester coming up, and my plans changing to involve getting my A.A. in University Studies at that time (because I lost my job and may need to work full time), I have to think about classes to take toward my major, since after this semester I won't have any IGETC or Cal State G.E. requirements left. That is a big deal, because I would most likely be taking classes toward a major at a certain school, and I have to decide what school that will be.
I am pretty certain I will go to a Cal State if I go to a university -- I've been preparing for that anyway. The only Cal State schools in the county are Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM) and San Diego State University. Though CSUSM is closer to where I live, and the campus is lovely-looking, I don't really want to go there, for whatever reason. Maybe cause that's what my mom wants, and I'm not fully in agreement with that. I just recently started considering San Diego State, since it's considered part of the Cal State system. I can still commute there from home via public transit if I had to, but it's not too close for comfort.
I am considering History for a major, once again. For CSUSM's History B.A., I have most if not all of the requirements. The requirements are: 12 units of history in 2 different areas (which I can have in Western Civ and History of the Americas if I take the other Western Civ class), two classes in lit, religion, poli sci, econ, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, the arts, or a single discplinary field (I had to take 3 arts courses for the IGETC anyway, so that should count - I can ask), 3 units in a "separate and distinct area" (I've taken so many electives that I'm sure I have this covered), and English 100 (which I had to take for the IGETC anyway).
For SDSU's history B.A., I have met most of the requirements too. I have gotten 2 classes from the history classes you have to take 2 of (History of the Americas and Western Civ). I'd just have to take both sections of World History. I also have met the language requirement.
As for other Cal States, I'm only missing three classes toward the history major at CSU Long Beach, & 4 classes toward the history major at CSU San Bernadino -- the two closest campuses I could find info about.
I'm going to try to figure that out, possibly this weekend, although I do have a big anthro essay to write. Plus job-hunting since I still don't have a job and my final speech to do. *sigh*
At least Thanksgiving is coming up -- the holiday will give me time to think.
I'm gonna go so I can look for pics for my final speech boards before leaving school. If I can get my boards done today, it's one less thing.
Friday, October 27, 2006
A quick post
This'll be quick cause I'm supposed to mainly be using the internet on our computer downstairs for job hunting or school.
I tried to post on Sunday but the computer kinda froze up so it didn't work out. Wah.
Updates:
I tried to post on Sunday but the computer kinda froze up so it didn't work out. Wah.
Updates:
School: I started school at the end of August (I point this out cause the last post is from July, but I edited it Sunday which is why it has an October date). I am now at mid-semester, with the work piling up fast. I am taking Biological Anthropology, Principles of Oral Communication, Asian Philosophy & Religion, and History of the Americas, as I believe I said before. Right now I have an anthro essay due soon, a speech for my Oral Comm class coming up (and we just did another), a "microtheme" (mini-essay) for Philosophy due next week, and a research paper for History that I'm doing on Dutch expansion in the Americas. Plus we have our triterm in Philo on China in a few weeks.
As for what I'm studying...right now we're still in the early colonial age in History; we're studying Daoism right now in Philo, particularly the Tao Te Ching, which Professor Scott-James had us buy and read; we just started our Human Evolution unit in anthro, and we just finished our informative speeches in speech class, and now go on to the final lecture days of the whole semester, which are on how to do persuasive speeches. The rest of the class is going to be taken up by our two other speeches, our persuasive speech and our final speech. I already know my topics, since Mr. Moura contracted us on certain topics for all our speeches for the whole semester early on. My persuasive speech is on why we need fairy tales, which has been rather hard to come up with good arguments on...so much the stuff on fairy tales affect us is rather speculative or involves complex psychological stuff. My final speech is an informative one on tennis, and I have so much info I need to sit down and sift through it. I know I will definitely need a visual aid or two for that one, though it's not required; with my persuasive speech, there is not really anything that requires extra visual illustration, so I can do without a visual aid.
The main issue with my persuasive speech was that it was tough to figure out where all the info from my notes would fit in. So I scripted it, writing out more or less what I was going to say. I need one more source since I eliminated one of the fairy tale books I was going to use, but this is ok cause I need some statistic or scientific fact anyway to back up my assertion that you can get far in life by planning ahead and using your brain. I also may need to cut some stuff out cause it looks long. But this is mainly cause I use actual fairy tales as examples and thus have to give plot summaries of them all as briefly but as completely as possible.
Work: Bad. I found out I am going to be let go as of November 1. So I have to find a new job and fast. I am looking primarily for work involving computers that doesn't involve customer service (since I haven't been doing too good with customer service at Loaves & Fishes). There are some of these -- mainly receptionist and clerical jobs, as well as secretarial/admin assistant jobs -- but a bunch of them didn't work, because I didn't have prior experience, or they were too far away, or because I didn't know some programs, like Outlook or Quickbooks (an accounting program), or because I'm not bilingual (which around here means you speak English and Spanish fluently).
IVCF Fall Retreat: I just got back from this (well, not just, on Sunday). It was awesome. I felt like I was really touched by God while there, plus it was fun. We stayed in a nice hotel in Newport Beach and had big group sessions and seminars at nearby UC Irvine. Some parts of it were tiring, like the late nights (the evening session, with small groups afterwards, often did not get out till around 10:30) and walking up the long, steep ramp to the lecture hall where our main sessions were in my not-good-for-walking shoes (most of us wisely decided to park across the street by a shopping/food area called University Centre rather than pay $7/day to park in UCI's parking structure). We also had to pay for all our food, even breakfast. And pretty much everyone ate out -- I don't think anyone ate at the hotel restaurant or got room service that I know of. Some people were smart and bought groceries somewhere so they'd have snacks and stuff. I ate at La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill with my carmates Elizabeth and Raquel for dinner the first night, had pita chips from Jamba Juice and a peanut butter bagel sandwich from Breugger's Bagels for breakfast with Cassandra and Yvette on Saturday morning (they put WAYY too much peanut butter on my bagel though), ate lunch Saturday afternoon at California Pizza Kitchen with a bunch of other people from my school who decided to make an excursion to South Coast Plaza, ate dinner to go Saturday night from In-n-Out with Cassandra and a couple other girls, found my own breakfast Sunday morning at a place just down the street from our hotel called Panini Garden Bistro (I got toast with butter, a scrambled egg, and a can of Coke all for $5.30 with tax), which I brought back to my hotel room to eat (I've never had toast and a scrambled egg to go from a restaurant before...it was interesting), and then ate lunch with a bunch of other people from school at a place in University Centre called Lee's Sandwiches. Lee's Sandwiches is great cause it serves simple stuff, like sandwiches, ice cream, and smoothies, with a bit of an ethnic twist, and it's really, really cheap. (I got a medium drink and a garlic baguette and only spent a little over $2!). It obviously caters to UCI students, cause we saw a lot of them there. Actually, all of University Centre basically caters to UCI students.
Other Stuff: I'll make this quick cause I gotta go get dressed soon.
- My birthday's tomorrow! I turn 22 this year. I'm not getting many presents; I'm getting my hair styled today and Mum wants to buy me an interview outfit. In other words, getting a job is top priority right now.
- I managed to download all of Code Lyoko season 3, which finally aired this month. I am very happy about this cause I have new clips for vids. Granted, Movie Maker is still not saving right, but I'm trying to figure out how to get around that. I have made some movies with a program on our family computer called Sony MovieShaker, but it's only good for non-clip movies.
-I have not been able to get online on my laptop for about a month now. It is driving me crazy. My antenna and the router card I've been using both only pick up a "limited or no connection" signal.
-I lost my mp3 player (*sob!*) somewhere at school. So I have been having to rely on my portable CD player, which uses up the battery really quickly. I'm hoping to get a new one soon.
Ok I'm gonna go.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Vocational schools and stuff
School starts on the 21st, a little less than 2 weeks from now. Well, for me, it actually starts on the 22nd, since my classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I may not have all my books by then though. It depends. I have to pay back Mum $75.94 for the two books she ordered for me. Then I have some other book that used is $64.25, and which I sorta need to buy at the school bookstore cause even the used books had the CD's and stuff with them, so I figure I'll need them. That's a pretty hefty price to pay for that though. Sheesh.
So after that $140.19 expenditure (ouch!), I don't know how much money I will have left from my next paycheck, since I haven't been working very much. My next paycheck may not even cover all that. I may have to combine paychecks or something.
I know what I'll do. I'll use my next paycheck to pay off Mum and get my cheaper books (a "annual edition" book for Anthropology that is $20.50 used, my other History of the Americas book, which is $16.50 used, and a $6 used copy of Tao Te Ching for my Asian Philosophy and Religion class). There's also some "reader" I need for my philosophy class that I more than likely can only get at school, since it's written by my teacher. But when I last checked the store, it was on backorder. So I don't know if they have it in yet or not. I saved myself some money on the history front because I am taking the other half of History of the Americas (one half of which I took in the spring), and from the same teacher, so I saved the textbook from last semester, and thankfully, the teacher is using that same book again. What a relief. (I also kept the novel he had us read--In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez--because it was very fascinating).
Then, when I don't have my debt to Mum to worry about, I'll use my paycheck on the 29th to buy my other book. Granted, I'll need to buy a bus pass from that too, unless I put aside money from my next check (they don't start selling the passes until the 25th of the month for the next month).
I checked out a couple nearby vocational schools, as I said before -- Maric College and ITT Tech. I had an appointment on Monday with Charlie, an admissions rep at Maric. That went ok. We talked, he gave me a tour of the place, and then he gave me a brochure to read, and I left.
I didn't actually meet with LaMonte, the rep from ITT Tech who answered my info request but we talked on the phone and he sent me stuff.
I'm gonna stop now so I can leave to go to college group. More later.
So after that $140.19 expenditure (ouch!), I don't know how much money I will have left from my next paycheck, since I haven't been working very much. My next paycheck may not even cover all that. I may have to combine paychecks or something.
I know what I'll do. I'll use my next paycheck to pay off Mum and get my cheaper books (a "annual edition" book for Anthropology that is $20.50 used, my other History of the Americas book, which is $16.50 used, and a $6 used copy of Tao Te Ching for my Asian Philosophy and Religion class). There's also some "reader" I need for my philosophy class that I more than likely can only get at school, since it's written by my teacher. But when I last checked the store, it was on backorder. So I don't know if they have it in yet or not. I saved myself some money on the history front because I am taking the other half of History of the Americas (one half of which I took in the spring), and from the same teacher, so I saved the textbook from last semester, and thankfully, the teacher is using that same book again. What a relief. (I also kept the novel he had us read--In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez--because it was very fascinating).
Then, when I don't have my debt to Mum to worry about, I'll use my paycheck on the 29th to buy my other book. Granted, I'll need to buy a bus pass from that too, unless I put aside money from my next check (they don't start selling the passes until the 25th of the month for the next month).
I checked out a couple nearby vocational schools, as I said before -- Maric College and ITT Tech. I had an appointment on Monday with Charlie, an admissions rep at Maric. That went ok. We talked, he gave me a tour of the place, and then he gave me a brochure to read, and I left.
I didn't actually meet with LaMonte, the rep from ITT Tech who answered my info request but we talked on the phone and he sent me stuff.
I'm gonna stop now so I can leave to go to college group. More later.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Planning for the future
My parents and I had a heated talk tonight about my future. We were in the car after my mom picked me up from the bus stop I was at after I went to deposit my paycheck because since I was still waiting for the bus I knew I wasn't going to make the last FAST bus. It started when I mentioned about having gone to the dentist today. Then my mom said I needed to take care of my teeth so I wouldn't have to go to the dentist so much because soon their health insurance won't cover me. Then we started talking about careers and so on and so forth, and I told them I'd done research and all this crud.
My mom has been worried about money a lot lately because she and my dad had to spend a lot of money at the time of Grandpa's death on hotel expenses and so forth. She told me this morning we only have like $600 to cover us for the next 3 weeks.
My mom also said if I wanted to transfer, I was going to have to think about how to afford it. I do have a start because there is $1,000 from my Grandpa's CD (retirement account) which I can use toward college or a car, because of his trust or whatever. But that doesn't cover very much when the normal state university costs around $6,000-$7,000 a year for room and board. I don't think that includes tuition.
My parents dropped me off a little while ago and said they were going to Fry's so I am home alone right now. I figured I'd do some research while they were gone. And I did research on an educational option I'd disdained for some time, especially since commercials for them are on TV constantly: vocational schools. Specifically I looked at ones I knew were in this area (because of my transportation issues).
First, I looked at ITT Tech. It had sounded like a good school from the commercials, plus they train primarily in computers, which Mum keeps telling me I should go into. They have a campus down in San Diego, which isn't too far. I could live at home and commute, using the bus and the Coaster or bus and the San Diego Transit (based on what came up when I looked up the route on sdcommute.com...I'm surprised they didn't mention taking the Trolley...maybe you can't take the Trolley there). Or, if it's not too much out of the way, maybe I can ride up to town with Papa, since he works in La Jolla.
I also looked at Maric College, though their legal programs were the only ones that interested me.
I requested info from both places, so we'll see what happens.
That's all for now. Bye.
My mom has been worried about money a lot lately because she and my dad had to spend a lot of money at the time of Grandpa's death on hotel expenses and so forth. She told me this morning we only have like $600 to cover us for the next 3 weeks.
My mom also said if I wanted to transfer, I was going to have to think about how to afford it. I do have a start because there is $1,000 from my Grandpa's CD (retirement account) which I can use toward college or a car, because of his trust or whatever. But that doesn't cover very much when the normal state university costs around $6,000-$7,000 a year for room and board. I don't think that includes tuition.
My parents dropped me off a little while ago and said they were going to Fry's so I am home alone right now. I figured I'd do some research while they were gone. And I did research on an educational option I'd disdained for some time, especially since commercials for them are on TV constantly: vocational schools. Specifically I looked at ones I knew were in this area (because of my transportation issues).
First, I looked at ITT Tech. It had sounded like a good school from the commercials, plus they train primarily in computers, which Mum keeps telling me I should go into. They have a campus down in San Diego, which isn't too far. I could live at home and commute, using the bus and the Coaster or bus and the San Diego Transit (based on what came up when I looked up the route on sdcommute.com...I'm surprised they didn't mention taking the Trolley...maybe you can't take the Trolley there). Or, if it's not too much out of the way, maybe I can ride up to town with Papa, since he works in La Jolla.
I also looked at Maric College, though their legal programs were the only ones that interested me.
I requested info from both places, so we'll see what happens.
That's all for now. Bye.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Lost with careers
I am still at a loss in terms of careers. I feel pressured to choose a major this summer cause I committed to that, for one, following the procedure in my decision-making paper, and because if I want to transfer by next fall I have to apply to universities this fall. I can't go to junior college forever. I know some people transfer not knowing what they want to do, but if you transfer as a junior, well...by junior year you're usually doing major work, right?
Mum seems to think I should do office work. But I don't want to just do office work. First of all, that's what she did, and I'd rather not do the same thing as her. Second, if that's what my career is going to be, then these last three years of college have been a total waste, since for most entry-level office jobs you don't need a degree.
I don't know who to turn to. I don't think a counselor would understand, my mom obviously wouldn't, I don't think my dad would, and I don't know how to approach God about it, seeing as 95% of the time I pray I feel like I am talking to the wall, or practicing a scene from a play. And those times I don't feel that way, I end up later feeling as if those experiences weren't genuine anyways cause my life doesn't change.
I have tried to vent this anger by writing in here, writing about it in the writers' forum (where I feel free to say stuff like this cause I know those people better than those at the other forum I belong to), and mashing buttons playing Tales of Symphonia, beating the crud out of the monsters in Niflheim or the Meltokio Coliseum. Those seem better than just talking to people, who just utter pleasantries to try to make me feel better. Either I vent or I just try to ignore it by doing other stuff.
I have tried looking up stuff on careers too to try to help my decision, but this only makes things more confusing.
The only hope I have is I know I still want to write, though I haven't written since May. But I know I need to be able to support myself till I can make money doing that, or instead of that if it doesn't work out.
Yet I have to balance what I want and my interests plus my mom's expectations while trying to include God in the decision. UGH....MENTAL OVERLOAD!!!!!
I looked into history but the only choices seem to be museum curator, historian, and teacher. And teaching, which seemed like a good idea at one time, now no longer really interests me. At least in history. English I might be able to teach, though I would probably never be a Mr. Keating (the teacher from Dead Poets' Society). Yet Mum says I should do something with computers. But I can't figure out what high-paying job you can do in that which doesn't require a computer science degree and high math. I've thought about being involved in the video game industry, but I don't know how to get there. And the main good school for that is UCLA, which the transfer counselor I went to said I couldn't get into with my GPA.
Well I'll look into it. For right now I'm gonna try to watch some more Tokyo Mew Mew before I have to leave for work (I've been watching it on YouTube and I really like it).
Mum seems to think I should do office work. But I don't want to just do office work. First of all, that's what she did, and I'd rather not do the same thing as her. Second, if that's what my career is going to be, then these last three years of college have been a total waste, since for most entry-level office jobs you don't need a degree.
I don't know who to turn to. I don't think a counselor would understand, my mom obviously wouldn't, I don't think my dad would, and I don't know how to approach God about it, seeing as 95% of the time I pray I feel like I am talking to the wall, or practicing a scene from a play. And those times I don't feel that way, I end up later feeling as if those experiences weren't genuine anyways cause my life doesn't change.
I have tried to vent this anger by writing in here, writing about it in the writers' forum (where I feel free to say stuff like this cause I know those people better than those at the other forum I belong to), and mashing buttons playing Tales of Symphonia, beating the crud out of the monsters in Niflheim or the Meltokio Coliseum. Those seem better than just talking to people, who just utter pleasantries to try to make me feel better. Either I vent or I just try to ignore it by doing other stuff.
I have tried looking up stuff on careers too to try to help my decision, but this only makes things more confusing.
The only hope I have is I know I still want to write, though I haven't written since May. But I know I need to be able to support myself till I can make money doing that, or instead of that if it doesn't work out.
Yet I have to balance what I want and my interests plus my mom's expectations while trying to include God in the decision. UGH....MENTAL OVERLOAD!!!!!
I looked into history but the only choices seem to be museum curator, historian, and teacher. And teaching, which seemed like a good idea at one time, now no longer really interests me. At least in history. English I might be able to teach, though I would probably never be a Mr. Keating (the teacher from Dead Poets' Society). Yet Mum says I should do something with computers. But I can't figure out what high-paying job you can do in that which doesn't require a computer science degree and high math. I've thought about being involved in the video game industry, but I don't know how to get there. And the main good school for that is UCLA, which the transfer counselor I went to said I couldn't get into with my GPA.
Well I'll look into it. For right now I'm gonna try to watch some more Tokyo Mew Mew before I have to leave for work (I've been watching it on YouTube and I really like it).
Friday, July 14, 2006
Back to life as usual
Well it has been a crazy week. I left town with Papa and Andrew on Thursday to go up to Lone Pine. We stayed till Sunday. During this time, Mum tried to work out funeral arrangements, with the help of Uncle Stan, who arrived last Friday, and these were finalized once my mom finally heard from Uncle Vernon and found out he was coming. The funeral was set for Wednesday the 12th.
We got home on Sunday night around 7 (minus Mom, who stayed behind to continue taking care of the last things that needed to be dealt with, like going through stuff, clearing things up with the bank, and so on) and then left for Lone Pine again around noon on Tuesday. Thus I worked Monday night, the first day I'd worked since Grandpa died. Fortunately, nobody treated me differently in a major way (they expressed their condolences and that was it) which was nice. Sometimes people go out of their way to be nice to you right after a death, I think, and I'd rather not have that. I just want life to go on.
Wednesday was the funeral, held in the burning mid-morning sun at the Mt. Whitney Cemetery just outside of Lone Pine, where Grandma is also buried. Fortunately, we family members got to sit under a canopy, so we had shade. The funeral was military-style, as Grandpa had asked for in his last wishes, and thus the pomp and ceremony was primarily handled by the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) post. Barbara (Grandpa's 2nd wife) was the only one really crying. Anissa (her daughter-in-law) looked like she was a little bit, but not much.
After the funeral, there was a luncheon at the VFW. All of us family, except Barbara, sat together: Mum, Dad, Andrew, me, Uncle Stan, Uncle Vernon, and Barbara's son Frank, his wife Anissa, and their kids Jereth and J Lin. (Barbara was sitting with friends in the bar area). The Auxiliary ladies and the local restaurant The Totem Cafe provided the food. It was very good. I had a piece of chicken, some cold pasta, a roll, and a piece of cake for dessert. I also had Diet Pepsi (since they had soda for those who didn't drink alcohol) which I had to order from the bar.
Our plans for after that were that Mum and Papa were going to go to Independence (the county seat, about 15 miles away) to get a copy of Grandpa's death certificate to give to his bank so they could deal with his CD (which I think is a retirement account). But they found out they couldn't get the certificate until the next day after 2 pm. So we tried to figure out what to do. We all went back to my Grandpa's house after a bit.
I left not long after though. This was because my Uncle Vernon, being equally without something to do, wanted to go see Manzanar, which is only a few miles away from Lone Pine. Manzanar is one of the 10 internment camps where Japanese and Japanese-Americans were taken during World War II. Uncle Stan was going to go with him (even though he'd already been there) and I decided I wanted to go too. After all, it beat sitting around with Barbara watching Hallmark Channel or "M*A*S*H."
So we went, and it was very interesting (and hot weather-wise). We looked around the visitors' center, and then watched a 20-minute film they show there called Remembering Manzanar (which you can buy on DVD at the gift shop, by the way). Then we looked around the gift shop, where I bought a $1 copy of the first edition of the Manzanar Free Press, the paper put out by people interned in Manzanar. Afterwards, we hopped back in the car and drove the auto route past the signs showing where certain places in Manzanar used to be. We stopped to look at what had been a Japanese-style garden at one point. Only some concrete, where the water would've flowed into the big pond, remains. Then we got back in the car and drove some more until we got to the marble monument in the cemetery, and there we got out and walked around some more. Then we left, and Uncle Stan dropped me off at the hotel (and then Uncle Vernon, who was staying at the same hotel), assuming my parents (who had gone off on some errand or something shortly before we left for Manzanar) would be there. Unfortunately, they were not there, so I called my mom on my cell and she told me to wait there and that my dad would come and let me in the hotel room, which he did shortly after. It felt good to feel A/C after walking around in the burning heat at Manzanar.
That night I spent partly by myself at the hotel, until my dad picked me up to go to my grandpa's house, since we were ordering pizza. Frank and his family came over too and we all sat around the living room having pizza (though my parents eventually sat out on the front step). J Lin, who had had a bit too much sugar at the funeral luncheon (soda plus 2 slices of cake) was very hyper, to the point of annoying nearly everyone she encountered. Jereth and I got a chance to talk, and I found out we like a lot of the same things, such as reading, Harry Potter, Teen Titans, etc. It was fun.
Thursday morning around 9:30 Andrew and I left, since Andrew wanted to be home for his passing league game. We only made one stop, at a truck stop near Adelanto, a town with very few houses but a rather large police station (it looks like they took a Motel 6 and converted it into a police station). The truck stop is one large black-painted stucco building with the words "Open 24 hours TACOCHAN" painted on it in white letters and some gas pumps out front. It houses a sit-down Mexican restaurant with vinyl-upholstered booths, a room with arcade games in it, a mini-mart, 2 somewhat out-of-place massage chairs (where you must pay $5 to get massaged for like 15 minutes), and 2 really nice bathrooms.
It was a nice place to stop. It beats Pearsonville. Pearsonville isn't even really a town. It's a few buildings, a water tank that says "Pearsonville: Hub Cap Capital of the World," and a truck stop/gas station with a Burger King. That's all.
We made good time, despite having to detour off Mapquest's directions due to construction on the offramp onto this one freeway we were supposed to get on. We got home right around 2 p.m.
I was gonna write more but I am too tired. More later.
We got home on Sunday night around 7 (minus Mom, who stayed behind to continue taking care of the last things that needed to be dealt with, like going through stuff, clearing things up with the bank, and so on) and then left for Lone Pine again around noon on Tuesday. Thus I worked Monday night, the first day I'd worked since Grandpa died. Fortunately, nobody treated me differently in a major way (they expressed their condolences and that was it) which was nice. Sometimes people go out of their way to be nice to you right after a death, I think, and I'd rather not have that. I just want life to go on.
Wednesday was the funeral, held in the burning mid-morning sun at the Mt. Whitney Cemetery just outside of Lone Pine, where Grandma is also buried. Fortunately, we family members got to sit under a canopy, so we had shade. The funeral was military-style, as Grandpa had asked for in his last wishes, and thus the pomp and ceremony was primarily handled by the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) post. Barbara (Grandpa's 2nd wife) was the only one really crying. Anissa (her daughter-in-law) looked like she was a little bit, but not much.
After the funeral, there was a luncheon at the VFW. All of us family, except Barbara, sat together: Mum, Dad, Andrew, me, Uncle Stan, Uncle Vernon, and Barbara's son Frank, his wife Anissa, and their kids Jereth and J Lin. (Barbara was sitting with friends in the bar area). The Auxiliary ladies and the local restaurant The Totem Cafe provided the food. It was very good. I had a piece of chicken, some cold pasta, a roll, and a piece of cake for dessert. I also had Diet Pepsi (since they had soda for those who didn't drink alcohol) which I had to order from the bar.
Our plans for after that were that Mum and Papa were going to go to Independence (the county seat, about 15 miles away) to get a copy of Grandpa's death certificate to give to his bank so they could deal with his CD (which I think is a retirement account). But they found out they couldn't get the certificate until the next day after 2 pm. So we tried to figure out what to do. We all went back to my Grandpa's house after a bit.
I left not long after though. This was because my Uncle Vernon, being equally without something to do, wanted to go see Manzanar, which is only a few miles away from Lone Pine. Manzanar is one of the 10 internment camps where Japanese and Japanese-Americans were taken during World War II. Uncle Stan was going to go with him (even though he'd already been there) and I decided I wanted to go too. After all, it beat sitting around with Barbara watching Hallmark Channel or "M*A*S*H."
So we went, and it was very interesting (and hot weather-wise). We looked around the visitors' center, and then watched a 20-minute film they show there called Remembering Manzanar (which you can buy on DVD at the gift shop, by the way). Then we looked around the gift shop, where I bought a $1 copy of the first edition of the Manzanar Free Press, the paper put out by people interned in Manzanar. Afterwards, we hopped back in the car and drove the auto route past the signs showing where certain places in Manzanar used to be. We stopped to look at what had been a Japanese-style garden at one point. Only some concrete, where the water would've flowed into the big pond, remains. Then we got back in the car and drove some more until we got to the marble monument in the cemetery, and there we got out and walked around some more. Then we left, and Uncle Stan dropped me off at the hotel (and then Uncle Vernon, who was staying at the same hotel), assuming my parents (who had gone off on some errand or something shortly before we left for Manzanar) would be there. Unfortunately, they were not there, so I called my mom on my cell and she told me to wait there and that my dad would come and let me in the hotel room, which he did shortly after. It felt good to feel A/C after walking around in the burning heat at Manzanar.
That night I spent partly by myself at the hotel, until my dad picked me up to go to my grandpa's house, since we were ordering pizza. Frank and his family came over too and we all sat around the living room having pizza (though my parents eventually sat out on the front step). J Lin, who had had a bit too much sugar at the funeral luncheon (soda plus 2 slices of cake) was very hyper, to the point of annoying nearly everyone she encountered. Jereth and I got a chance to talk, and I found out we like a lot of the same things, such as reading, Harry Potter, Teen Titans, etc. It was fun.
Thursday morning around 9:30 Andrew and I left, since Andrew wanted to be home for his passing league game. We only made one stop, at a truck stop near Adelanto, a town with very few houses but a rather large police station (it looks like they took a Motel 6 and converted it into a police station). The truck stop is one large black-painted stucco building with the words "Open 24 hours TACOCHAN" painted on it in white letters and some gas pumps out front. It houses a sit-down Mexican restaurant with vinyl-upholstered booths, a room with arcade games in it, a mini-mart, 2 somewhat out-of-place massage chairs (where you must pay $5 to get massaged for like 15 minutes), and 2 really nice bathrooms.
It was a nice place to stop. It beats Pearsonville. Pearsonville isn't even really a town. It's a few buildings, a water tank that says "Pearsonville: Hub Cap Capital of the World," and a truck stop/gas station with a Burger King. That's all.
We made good time, despite having to detour off Mapquest's directions due to construction on the offramp onto this one freeway we were supposed to get on. We got home right around 2 p.m.
I was gonna write more but I am too tired. More later.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
And again...a death
I am not really sure what to think right now. Everything seems so confusing.
My dad called my brother and I downstairs a few minutes ago, which I knew had to mean trouble, cause my mom has been gone since Tuesday because my grandpa (her dad) was really sick and she felt she needed to be with him.
When we were seated in the living room, my dad said, "Grandpa died about 15 minutes ago."
He then went on to mention the details and such. I kept having to bite my lip cause part of me wanted to cry, and yet I was trying to stay composed.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but they will be soon, I imagine, which means I may have to request off work on short notice pleading emergency. I just hope the day we have to go up isn't Saturday cause I'm covering for Brandon that day, so it would be really hard for them to find a replacement.
My mom now has no parents, since my grandma died in 1999. Her only immediate family (besides us) now is her two brothers, my Uncles Stan and Vernon. I'm not even sure whether Uncle Vernon would be able to make it to the funeral, since he's stationed in Japan right now with the Navy, but he will probably come anyways, since he came for my grandma's funeral.
I wonder if my black dress fits...I bought it for my first Homecoming my junior year of high school, and I'm pretty sure I've gained weight since then. I've only worn it for two Homecomings and a bar mitzvah. Maybe something else too...I don't remember. I think I wore it for a Growth Group social once when we all dressed up. That wasn't too long ago, so it probably still fits.
Why did this have to happen now? I was having a hard enough time trying to trust God, and he has to bring another tragedy into my life! My grandma's death was what started my downward spiral of distrust in God in the first place.
I'm sorry. I can't write any more. I'm just too confused. Bye...
My dad called my brother and I downstairs a few minutes ago, which I knew had to mean trouble, cause my mom has been gone since Tuesday because my grandpa (her dad) was really sick and she felt she needed to be with him.
When we were seated in the living room, my dad said, "Grandpa died about 15 minutes ago."
He then went on to mention the details and such. I kept having to bite my lip cause part of me wanted to cry, and yet I was trying to stay composed.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but they will be soon, I imagine, which means I may have to request off work on short notice pleading emergency. I just hope the day we have to go up isn't Saturday cause I'm covering for Brandon that day, so it would be really hard for them to find a replacement.
My mom now has no parents, since my grandma died in 1999. Her only immediate family (besides us) now is her two brothers, my Uncles Stan and Vernon. I'm not even sure whether Uncle Vernon would be able to make it to the funeral, since he's stationed in Japan right now with the Navy, but he will probably come anyways, since he came for my grandma's funeral.
I wonder if my black dress fits...I bought it for my first Homecoming my junior year of high school, and I'm pretty sure I've gained weight since then. I've only worn it for two Homecomings and a bar mitzvah. Maybe something else too...I don't remember. I think I wore it for a Growth Group social once when we all dressed up. That wasn't too long ago, so it probably still fits.
Why did this have to happen now? I was having a hard enough time trying to trust God, and he has to bring another tragedy into my life! My grandma's death was what started my downward spiral of distrust in God in the first place.
I'm sorry. I can't write any more. I'm just too confused. Bye...
Friday, June 30, 2006
Bored, and other things
I had today off from work, and as usual this summer, I'm off of school. I've spent pretty much all day on the computer, loading my new videos, playing around on the internet, and watching PGSM on YouTube. I just finished watching Act 45, which means I'm almost done. (I watched the Special Act and Act Zero before watching the regular series, and the Tuxedo Kamen and Hina specials too, so I won't have to watch those after).
I did go out, believe it or not, but just to buy some pantihose for work, since I work tomorrow. The drag about that--working--is I have not seen a movie in a while and tomorrow would be a good day for that. Oh well...I don't have a lot of money anyway (as usual right before payday...I gotta learn to save...well, I had to buy a bus pass and I bought myself dinner on Sunday night when our Quad group met, the latter of which I didn't really need actually and could've done without).
Well at least it's only 11-4 so I can take the bus there and back. I just called to make an appointment for pickup and return. Plus, since it's 5 hours, I should get a 15-minute break (although I'll be with Lenora, and she tends to forget about that...I should eat an early lunch just in case).
Oh crud I have to buy donuts for everyone tomorrow cause Lenora said it's my turn. Apparently this is something they do on Saturdays now. I haven't worked a Saturday in a while, so I just found out about this custom last night. I'll have to get orders from everybody. That shouldn't be hard cause coming on the FAST bus I should be early anyways.
Wait...everyone that's working tomorrow is there right now. I'm going to call and find out what they want.
Hmm...I've been on hold a long time. I wonder what happened...
Gaa! Lenora just got back on the line and she told me Lynne was only joking about the donut thing. I am going to mention that to her tomorrow...
In other news, I made it to level 3 of the Desert part of my GBA Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon game...quite an accomplishment. I just wish that, if the developers were going to do a level with quicksand, that they wouldn't put enemies on the quicksand so that you're having to avoid sinking in the quicksand and fight enemies at the same time. What are you trying to do, make my thumbs sore?
On the school and career front, I still am not sure what kind of career I could do with a history degree. To make matters worse, Mum was saying I really should look into a career in doing stuff like making the videos I make (I sent her the link for my YouTube profile so she could see my videos). I hate when she says that...it throws me off. She has constantly said I should consider a career in computers. It's not that I don't like computers; I love them in fact. But getting a job in computers is not as easy as my mom makes it look. Most programming jobs require a degree in Computer Science, and a degree in Computer Science = knowledge of higher math, including calculus! And I stink at math, so there's no way I could do calculus. Animation jobs, while maybe not requiring as much high math, would require actual artistic talent, which I do not possess either.
Basically, my computer skills consist of: computer and internet literacy; knowledge of Office, making videos, some image and sound editing, and HTML; and some basic office stuff, such as transcription, 10-key, and typing. I have no programming knowledge whatsoever, or animation other than Animation Shop, a measly little program that comes with Paint Shop Pro that is good for making animated gifs but I doubt much else (that I know of anyways...I haven't played with it much).
I could see myself doing computer stuff as a hobby, but I don't think I could do it as a career, with my difficulty in math and art.
I suppose I could do something just having to do with videos and video editing, which is what my friend Mark does. He is a entrepreneur of sorts, hiring himself out to do video work. Unfortunately, I don't have the knowledge -- or programs -- to do anything really sophisticated. I don't even have a camcorder!
*long sigh*
God, help me. Please...I was making progress...why should I regress when I've come this far?!
Even more bad news...Movie Maker decided my collections file was corrupted or something, so it emptied it. This means I have to go through and divide the episodes I'm going to fansub into parts all over again...dangit! Maybe I'll just forget about the fansubs. I don't really feel like doing them anymore. I have enough stress as it is.
I did go out, believe it or not, but just to buy some pantihose for work, since I work tomorrow. The drag about that--working--is I have not seen a movie in a while and tomorrow would be a good day for that. Oh well...I don't have a lot of money anyway (as usual right before payday...I gotta learn to save...well, I had to buy a bus pass and I bought myself dinner on Sunday night when our Quad group met, the latter of which I didn't really need actually and could've done without).
Well at least it's only 11-4 so I can take the bus there and back. I just called to make an appointment for pickup and return. Plus, since it's 5 hours, I should get a 15-minute break (although I'll be with Lenora, and she tends to forget about that...I should eat an early lunch just in case).
Oh crud I have to buy donuts for everyone tomorrow cause Lenora said it's my turn. Apparently this is something they do on Saturdays now. I haven't worked a Saturday in a while, so I just found out about this custom last night. I'll have to get orders from everybody. That shouldn't be hard cause coming on the FAST bus I should be early anyways.
Wait...everyone that's working tomorrow is there right now. I'm going to call and find out what they want.
Hmm...I've been on hold a long time. I wonder what happened...
Gaa! Lenora just got back on the line and she told me Lynne was only joking about the donut thing. I am going to mention that to her tomorrow...
In other news, I made it to level 3 of the Desert part of my GBA Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon game...quite an accomplishment. I just wish that, if the developers were going to do a level with quicksand, that they wouldn't put enemies on the quicksand so that you're having to avoid sinking in the quicksand and fight enemies at the same time. What are you trying to do, make my thumbs sore?
On the school and career front, I still am not sure what kind of career I could do with a history degree. To make matters worse, Mum was saying I really should look into a career in doing stuff like making the videos I make (I sent her the link for my YouTube profile so she could see my videos). I hate when she says that...it throws me off. She has constantly said I should consider a career in computers. It's not that I don't like computers; I love them in fact. But getting a job in computers is not as easy as my mom makes it look. Most programming jobs require a degree in Computer Science, and a degree in Computer Science = knowledge of higher math, including calculus! And I stink at math, so there's no way I could do calculus. Animation jobs, while maybe not requiring as much high math, would require actual artistic talent, which I do not possess either.
Basically, my computer skills consist of: computer and internet literacy; knowledge of Office, making videos, some image and sound editing, and HTML; and some basic office stuff, such as transcription, 10-key, and typing. I have no programming knowledge whatsoever, or animation other than Animation Shop, a measly little program that comes with Paint Shop Pro that is good for making animated gifs but I doubt much else (that I know of anyways...I haven't played with it much).
I could see myself doing computer stuff as a hobby, but I don't think I could do it as a career, with my difficulty in math and art.
I suppose I could do something just having to do with videos and video editing, which is what my friend Mark does. He is a entrepreneur of sorts, hiring himself out to do video work. Unfortunately, I don't have the knowledge -- or programs -- to do anything really sophisticated. I don't even have a camcorder!
*long sigh*
God, help me. Please...I was making progress...why should I regress when I've come this far?!
Even more bad news...Movie Maker decided my collections file was corrupted or something, so it emptied it. This means I have to go through and divide the episodes I'm going to fansub into parts all over again...dangit! Maybe I'll just forget about the fansubs. I don't really feel like doing them anymore. I have enough stress as it is.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Another short post
I have to leave for work really soon...just catching up.
24 was good. It was nice to get away, even though the camp was hot and dry and there were a lot of bugs. I have several little red bumps on both my arms that are itchy as heck.
Summer weather has settled in for those of us on the home front though. So I finally pulled the box fan out of the closet. I need to dust it though cause it is really dusty from sitting in the closet since the beginning of winter or whenever it was I put it in there.
I looked at articulation agreements and stuff today, since enrollment for fall starts this week and I needed to figure out what my fourth class should be to round out my full-time schedule. Since all the schools I looked at basically wanted the same basic history classes, I decided to just take something interesting to round things out. That way, I can apply to schools this fall, figure out who will take me, and take classes in the spring that prepare me for the major at a particular school.
So I picked Philosophy 105, which is Asian Philosophy and Religion. Coincidentially, the teacher also teaches history! However, she also teaches Asian Studies. I looked her up on ratemyprofessors.com (a great little site where students rate teachers, which helps you figure out who to take and who to avoid) and she was pretty highly praised, so I am going with her. The same was the case for the teacher of the Anthropology class I'm going to take to meet my Bio Science requirement (it's Biological Anthropology, so it counts).
The one bone of contention was Communications 101. It's an option for the oral communication thing for the IGETC, which is a Cal State-only requirement, but since most of the universities I'm looking at are Cal States, I figured I should probably take it. The two teachers whose classes were at a convenient time for me got a lot of "poor quality" (sad face) ratings. So I went with my first choice teacher because he got more smiley faces (the highest rating) than the other teacher.
As for my teacher for History of the Americas, I didn't really have a choice because there was only one section. I checked him out anyway and he had mixed reviews. Some people hated him and some loved him. I went with him anyway, because (1) I didn't really have a choice and (2) I liked him from last semester (when I took the other half of History of the Americas).
Enrollment starts Wednesday, but only people with 40.5-50 units can actually enroll on that day. The enrollment appointment for people with 70.5-80 units (like me) is July 3 in the morning. You can enroll on or after your enrollment appointment date, but not before. Such is the disadvantage of first priority enrollment. The advantage is you have first dibs on the classes you want.
Crud I gotta go. Bye.
24 was good. It was nice to get away, even though the camp was hot and dry and there were a lot of bugs. I have several little red bumps on both my arms that are itchy as heck.
Summer weather has settled in for those of us on the home front though. So I finally pulled the box fan out of the closet. I need to dust it though cause it is really dusty from sitting in the closet since the beginning of winter or whenever it was I put it in there.
I looked at articulation agreements and stuff today, since enrollment for fall starts this week and I needed to figure out what my fourth class should be to round out my full-time schedule. Since all the schools I looked at basically wanted the same basic history classes, I decided to just take something interesting to round things out. That way, I can apply to schools this fall, figure out who will take me, and take classes in the spring that prepare me for the major at a particular school.
So I picked Philosophy 105, which is Asian Philosophy and Religion. Coincidentially, the teacher also teaches history! However, she also teaches Asian Studies. I looked her up on ratemyprofessors.com (a great little site where students rate teachers, which helps you figure out who to take and who to avoid) and she was pretty highly praised, so I am going with her. The same was the case for the teacher of the Anthropology class I'm going to take to meet my Bio Science requirement (it's Biological Anthropology, so it counts).
The one bone of contention was Communications 101. It's an option for the oral communication thing for the IGETC, which is a Cal State-only requirement, but since most of the universities I'm looking at are Cal States, I figured I should probably take it. The two teachers whose classes were at a convenient time for me got a lot of "poor quality" (sad face) ratings. So I went with my first choice teacher because he got more smiley faces (the highest rating) than the other teacher.
As for my teacher for History of the Americas, I didn't really have a choice because there was only one section. I checked him out anyway and he had mixed reviews. Some people hated him and some loved him. I went with him anyway, because (1) I didn't really have a choice and (2) I liked him from last semester (when I took the other half of History of the Americas).
Enrollment starts Wednesday, but only people with 40.5-50 units can actually enroll on that day. The enrollment appointment for people with 70.5-80 units (like me) is July 3 in the morning. You can enroll on or after your enrollment appointment date, but not before. Such is the disadvantage of first priority enrollment. The advantage is you have first dibs on the classes you want.
Crud I gotta go. Bye.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
A short post
I have to leave for work in about a half hour, so this will be short. Just thought I'd catch you up on what I'm up to.
I am working on a fansubbing project where I fansub into French several Code Lyoko episodes. After the first part of the first one I'm doing ("Franz Hopper") took so darn long, I decided to do the translated scripts beforehand, and then I will have more time to focus on timing the subtitles correctly. However, this is easier said than done. I have finished scripts for two episodes so far, and doing the translation for each 8-minute part (roughly about 8 minutes, anyway, sometimes a little less) takes an hour or more. The last part of "Code: Earth" (the part I just finished an hour ago) took an hour and a half. Let's just say I've had some late nights!
From here I am going to do the scripts in alphabetical order (this just makes sense because my list of "collections" in Movie Maker is alphabetical), which means "Exploration" is next. Then "False Start" and so on (skipping "Franz Hopper," since I finished that one already).
I made the mistake of trying to do some scripting on the bus yesterday. Not only could I not hear very well, but it was tough to keep my notebook and my laptop straight on my lap.
Other than that, I have to decide soon what my fourth class for the fall is going to be so I can register. I also need to work on deciding on a major if I want to apply to schools this fall.
This weekend is the only college retreat of the summer, 24. I paid for it last week, and I'm looking forward to it. Pity it's only overnight.
Next week I work four days! Wahoo! I am very happy about this because it means I will have more money.
I gotta get better at budgeting though if I want to go away to school. *sigh*
Oh, by the way, my personal site is up. The URL is http://iam.homewithgod.com/silvanmare. Or you can just follow the link in the sidebar.
That's basically it. Ja ne!
I am working on a fansubbing project where I fansub into French several Code Lyoko episodes. After the first part of the first one I'm doing ("Franz Hopper") took so darn long, I decided to do the translated scripts beforehand, and then I will have more time to focus on timing the subtitles correctly. However, this is easier said than done. I have finished scripts for two episodes so far, and doing the translation for each 8-minute part (roughly about 8 minutes, anyway, sometimes a little less) takes an hour or more. The last part of "Code: Earth" (the part I just finished an hour ago) took an hour and a half. Let's just say I've had some late nights!
From here I am going to do the scripts in alphabetical order (this just makes sense because my list of "collections" in Movie Maker is alphabetical), which means "Exploration" is next. Then "False Start" and so on (skipping "Franz Hopper," since I finished that one already).
I made the mistake of trying to do some scripting on the bus yesterday. Not only could I not hear very well, but it was tough to keep my notebook and my laptop straight on my lap.
Other than that, I have to decide soon what my fourth class for the fall is going to be so I can register. I also need to work on deciding on a major if I want to apply to schools this fall.
This weekend is the only college retreat of the summer, 24. I paid for it last week, and I'm looking forward to it. Pity it's only overnight.
Next week I work four days! Wahoo! I am very happy about this because it means I will have more money.
I gotta get better at budgeting though if I want to go away to school. *sigh*
Oh, by the way, my personal site is up. The URL is http://iam.homewithgod.com/silvanmare. Or you can just follow the link in the sidebar.
That's basically it. Ja ne!
24 Spoof
I found this cool "24" Spoof on YouTube, with a Christian twist, made not by me, but by making88. Enjoy!
Lovers
This is a little video I made with pictures and video of different couples from TV shows, movies, and 1 video game (Tales of Symphonia) that I like. Enjoy!
Friday, June 09, 2006
"Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people..."
"Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation
with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by
discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah."
~Habakkuk 3:13, King James Version
I got fed up with feeling down today. I wrote a poem, a prayer to God begging him to help me. Shortly after, I picked up the King James Bible that Emilee gave me right after Snow Blast. It was sitting on my bed because I'd grabbed it earlier to look up something. I was thinking of reading one verse (the one about hinds' feet that I think sounds so nice in the King James) but in the end I turned to another verse I've liked for a while, Zephaniah 3:17, and read that and the next few verses first. Then I went back to Habakkuk and found the hinds' feet verse, the last verse in the 3rd chapter. I decided to read the whole chapter -- that old "context" thing I learned back in junior year doing hermeneutics -- and I found the verse above. The wording seemed interesting to me.
I just checked to see what the NIV says. This is its version: "You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. Selah." The Message is even more blunt: "You were out to save your people, to save your specially chosen people. You beat the stuffing out of King Wicked, stripped him naked from head to toe, set his severed head on his own spear and blew away his army." The NLT says, "You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save your anointed ones. You crushed the heads of the wicked and laid bare their bones from head to toe." The older translations (New King James, New American Standard, etc) and even the French translations (Louis Segond, La Bible de Semeune) say basically the same as the King James does.
Somehow I like the King James rendering best.
I saw the word Selah several times in what I wound up reading, which were these passages and some Psalms. Selah is one of those untranslatable words that nobody seems to be able to assign a meaning to, or if they do assign a meaning, it's relative. Like schaddenfreude. The most common interpretation is that it is a signaling word, signaling one to pause and reflect on what one has just read or heard. One Bible I used to have translated the word Selah as "Interlude" in the Psalms, which makes sense since the Psalms are "songs" of a sort, and lots of songs have "interludes."
That was how I treated it. Every time I read the word Selah, I would stop reading for a moment and think. Kind of how...well, you know when someone important dies or something, they ask you to take a moment of silence out of respect? It was sort of like that.
The reading helped some, but I still think my sleep won't be easy tonight. But then again, with how chronically tired I am, I doubt I sleep well any night.
I may go to bed soon. I want to get up early tomorrow and go buy some toothpaste and some more soda since I'm running out of both.
I'm gonna buy a prayer journal when I get the chance as well. And an actual journal too, not just one of those cheap spiral notebooks that I buy on whims all the time, and usually don't do much with. At work, there's one specifically labeled "My Prayer Journal" that's only $4.97. Though there was only one last I checked (we had 3 but I sold 2 to this one customer). If it's not there, I can just get a regular journal, or a different prayer journal if there are any (which I think there are).
I'm going to look into spiritual disciplines as well. No, I'm not thinking of going ascetic and going to the mountains and being a nun. But I need some structure to my spiritual life, and I think something like that would help.
Good night!
