A list

About a week ago, Fanny and I talked (online, since we live in different cities) and decided to revive this blog. I volunteered to write the first post (supposed to have been up days ago). In the days since, I have been thinking--after all, we need the perfect post to lure people back. It had to be brilliant. Except I couldn't think of what to write about. I started but did not finish quite a lot of posts. Today, I'm giving up. Next time, you'll have a better thought out piece of writing but this is not it.

So you'll have a navel-gazing list:

- I'm currently trying to put together a book proposal.
- A colleague and I have written an article that we'd like to send off to a journal.
- I stay home and write my thesis but the more I write, the more it seems still needs to be written.
- I have no social life at all. I don't even watch soccer or go to the cinema anymore. This is because...

I'm now unemployed. No job. Surprisingly, the unemployment part is not much different to being employed except now I seem to spend 2-3 days in a row wearing pajamas and t-shirts, not leaving home.

This could be a problem since social interaction was (is) not my strong point. It turns out I am quite happy of spending days in solitary musings and/or writing without actually having any desire to talk to people. I have also become (more) cranky so that when I do have to interact with people, I give a passable imitation of a werewolf.

The fact that, these days, I'm living off my meagre savings means I have no desire to go out and about. Going out would mean restaurants/pubs/bookstores, all of which are places where I tend to spend money. Since I returned to the USA 4 weeks ago, I've eaten out once.

Something has to change.

Heh.

I'm hoping this will be the sentiment on Wednesday. (Vote!)

From Gennita Low's site.

Mmm

Because I can.



Fanny came for a visit and we ate our way through my city (and a neighbouring city), got lots of free books (and paid some money for others) and ate brownies and ice cream late at night. Fanny also introduced me to this awesome sushi place, near my university.

Perfect. Just like Mr. Ackles.

In two days...

Fanny'll be visiting me! I'll have to put on my party hat.

Bummed

Like Fanny, I don't have much to write about either. Work, writing and actually having a social life is taking up heaps of time. Then I got hit by a bike on Friday and spent much of the weekend limping about or in bed.

So, another recommendation for yous. This is from the finale of The Vicar of Dibley. You can catch it on YouTube. It's highly recommended for Richard Armitage: check him out in those jeans and leather jacket. Perfect "comfort viewing" as it were, great for the upcoming colder, winter-y days.

Nothing can compare

I meant to post this on Friday--Talk like a Pirate Day--but was too busy being sick and wondering whether the feeling of wandering in a world filled with cotton wool would go away. I found this at my local library's book sale last week (for 50c!). I love the yellow shirt/eyepatch combo on the bloke (and that he appears to be wearing wellies--well-prepared, you might say) but am a bit concerned that the lady appears to have come up on deck wearing a nightie and a (fur?) neck wrap.

I've actually not managed to make myself read it--mostly because I've been swamped with work but also because I fear the actual story will be a sad letdown after that cover.

Hector Neglector.

I've been absent for a while. I don't have a good excuse or exciting adventures to retell. I think that's the problem. That there are no exciting adventures to post here and so I haven't.

I'm in this weird place of unemployment right now and I hate. I hate explaining why I'm not working, why my job prospects are defined by certain requirements so as not to render the past six years null and void, why I'm living at home,why I have no money, why I'm in this weird dependent stage again.

And yet I'm kind of having a good time. There's this certain amount of irresponsibility and flow and yes, I can do that because I have no appointments, no time I have to be at work or time I have to be at work until. It's kind of awesome.

But I need to be working again. I need to feel like an adult, like I'm responsible, that my life is moving onward, not stagnating. And it will happen, I have no doubt. But this interim time, this slice out of real life is bizarre. I'm kind of ashamed (read: a lot. Damn stupid work ethic), and still find myself thinking "I should savor being able to wake up when I want to because this isn't going to happen again for the rest of my life." Like I said, bizarre.

There are reviews to be reviewed. I think Bum has one about the certain object of a stalkery adolescent vampire.

Though not much can top Samurai Girl.

recommending

Yous probably won't realise that I'm doing you a favour but I am. Go and watch Samurai Girl (broadcast on ABC family today; available online, I'm sure). It's full of cheesy (Asian and otherwise) stereotypes, an awful storyline and general all-round badness that yous should enjoy.

And the Japan scholar chap is hot. Why aren't more of my academic mates like him?

ETA: I was talking (off blog) with Fanny just now and she asked whether we should be happy that there was a show with an Asian leading lady/cast or whether we should despair at the rampant propagation of stereotypes (not just Asian, but the culturally-sensitive martial arts bloke, the geeky guy, the brilliant scholar who gives up a job for his principles, etc etc). In honour of a show that, in my youth, did a lot to skewer stereotypes, I give yous this: Goodness Gracious Me* and "Going out for an English".



* For those unfamiliar with GGM, check out Youtube for some classic clips. It ran for a few years in the mid-late 1990s and starred folks who would later go on to bigger (and better?) things.

Date

In the hopes of acquiring a social life, I went out to dinner tonight. The chap was fantastic--French and, like all French stereotypes, sophisticated, charming, and all consideration. I was wined (he picked the wine), dined (the restaurant was posh and absolutely beyond my usual student budget) and walked home (he accompanied me).

However, having recently discovered Professional Bull Riding (my sister and I were hooked after a couple of viewings), I'd rather have had one of these types (except without the bull, of course):

Romance at Borders

On Sunday, I accompanied my sister to my local Borders. While she dithered about, trying to decide what to buy to take on her long train journey, I saw that Nalini Singh's Mine to Possess was already available, despite having a release date of 2 September (said date having been etched in my mind since this series is, so far, the only series I have followed since its start). I picked it up and went to pay for it.

The lady behind the counter smiled. I smiled back, gave her my book and waited. She looked at the book, looked at me (decked out in "I'm an astronomer in training" T-shirt that I'd picked up during my summer travels) and said, "I always thought these books were only for one thing. You can tell, can't you, looking at the cover"
Me: Eh?
Her: Well, he's hot, isn't he? Look at that (points out the cover model )
Me: And you can't see his face, which makes him perfect.
Her: Bursts out laughing. Continues laughing loudly. Keeps going until my sister, the other people in line, other staff and even people at the back of the store are looking over . Ohhh....that's funny...hahahah...that is really good. I've not laughed…hahhahah.
Me: Umm...great. Can I take the book, now? (and put it in my bag )
Her: holding on to the book I remember this other book. It had a couple and they were wearing very little, you know, you could see her breasts and it was winter! There was snow everywhere! I couldn't think how they would...
Me: These books are just for fun, I reckon. Not for thinking. Logic doesn't come into it.
Her: Still...this seems a good one...haha... I wonder what he does?

my sister, who'd had enough socialising by now, interrupted and dragged me away but not before I saw two of my current students among the group of people observing all this.


ETA: For some reason, I can't upload pictures or anything right now. Maybe Fanny'll help? Or, just go here to have a look at the cover. I think I've fixed it. I also think I've killed the computer my department gave me. Ah well.