Banner by angelalpev.

Most entries are public, but comment here if you want me to add you anyway. 

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It's not likely that I'll use this journal much for personal entries anymore.

NEXT FRIDAY ON TRAVEL CHANNEL

THIS IS COMPLETELY REAL AND ENTIRELY SERIOUS

GHOST SEX

So working the mall is way more stressful than the Petsmart adoptions. I got fussed at by this guy because I was promoting the trap-neuter-release program and he was like "I live in the middle of the woods and we have cats all around outside and if the kittens die that's just how it is." And there was another guy who was complaining about how the South has so many more strays than California and otherwise just kind of seemed creepy. Then there was the woman who opened this cage without asking. What the fuck is wrong with you you don't do that. Not to mention that the cats were generally pissed off because the mall is loud. And I can't tell you how many people I had come up and start poking the animals and then tell me "I hate cats" "I'm scared of cats." Stop poking them in the butt and maybe they will be more friendly.

All that stress aside. We did get two adoptions, which was great. And I am apparently awesome at finding people who want to volunteer. Seriously, there were like four or five people. I still stumble and stutter over words occasionally when I'm trying to explain things and promote the program to people, but it could be worse. Next time I'm bringing a water bottle, though.

Bleh. Trying to write this goals statement, and I'm at that point where I had a nice long start, and then realized half of it was repetition so now it's not even half a page.

In other news, I got around to reading the most recent Dresden Files book. Fucking hell, Butcher, way to ship tease. Seriously, though. I had been spoiled for most of the big plot points, but it was generally really good.  The "obtw you have a daughter who's in trouble" plot sort of irked me at first, but it fits in with a lot of the themes of the series. Dresden Files has a LOT of emphasis on family, and parents especially: Harry was orphaned, but his mother's actions play very heavily into the plot, his uncle nearly ruined his life, Harry spends a lot of time kind of trying to be the father figure he never had for his apprentice, etc. So actually putting him in a position where he HAS a kid makes sense in the narrative of the series as a whole.

The books aren't great literature or anything, but I've never read another series that has more "Oh god, everything keeps getting <i>worse</i>" moments.

Ch 1: "Hey, Harry, vampires kidnapped the daughter I never told you we had." (paraphrased)
Ch 10: Wanted for terrorism by the FBI for blowing up your own office building! Great way to start a day.
Ch 11: Oh by the way have some human-sized killer centipedes.
Ch 18: And also that backup you were hoping for just got themselves written out of the book.
Ch 28: Well there goes your house. Least the cat's safe.
Ch 30: "You're the least evil of my options."
Ch 34: "Admittedly," Sanya said a few minutes later, "normally I do not storm headquarters buildings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And in broad daylight, too."
Ch 35: You know that demigod you pissed off about five or so books ago who wants to kill you? Yeah, he's right behind you.
Ch 49: @#$@^$(*#Q$&@(_++#$#^&@(*#*&%)#(@)^&#*#&WHATNOGODWHY

Really I could do one of these for each chapter, but it would be all spoilers after a point.

So it's better than Voyage of the Damned, but that doesn't really take any effort at all.

I like the twists they put on Christmas Carol, although I still don't care for the plot. I hate remakes of A Christmas Carol. It always feels a bit lazy. I liked the Catherine Tate version because that's a sketch show, and in any case Tennant as a camp gay ghost with Ghostbusters as his ringtone was hilarious.

( SpoilersCollapse )

Hope everyone's had great holidays so far!

eta: Sorry about the formatting; didn't realize it wasn't on HTML mode.

So, I picked up one of those True Blood books earlier out of sort of morbid curiosity. I'm about 60 pages in now, and it's really blah so far. There are interesting points, and I like the bits of worldbuilding that show up occasionally (even though some don't make a lot of sense), but that seems to all take backseat to the "So there's this vampire in town and I guess we're dating or something" scenes. Basically it's a cute book so far, but unless it gets a lot better I don't think I'll bother with the rest of the series.

But oh man winter break, I can actually read things without it feeling like homework.

Project Purr was a lot of fun. As the newbie I got stuck doing the paperwork, but I also got to play with some kitties and tell people about the program. We had three kittens adopted today, and two that had been pre-adopted got picked up to go to their new homes. And plus Ms. Peggy's leash-trained cat was out there being the sweetest mascot. The only problem we had was one little girl who got scratched by a scared kitten, but thankfully her parents had had cats before and weren't mad about it.

My process for making a phone call:
1) Try on the balcony, usually sort of leaning over.
2) Get three or four rings before it tells me I have no signal.
3) Go into the open area between the apartment buildings.
4) Repeat #2
5) Call again, rings once and I get a screeching fax noise even though I'm calling a phone.
6) Repeat #2
7) Rings twice. Hear the answer machine start, then the phone tells me I have no signal.
8) Repeat #2
9) Finally get through to the answer machine.

( Thoughts.Collapse )
And this has been a pointless stream of thought essay when I really ought to be doing homework.