For a bit anyway. Actually, probably no longer than I would usually make you wait between posts, oh my adoring public. But anyway, just wanted to let the peeps know that I'm smack in the middle of ALA and the painful moving process (well, BF assures me it's painful. I've been standing on the sidelines working and going to conferences and getting offered jobs while he's been doing the packing and running errands. Hey, it takes a village.) Where was I? Oh yeah, going to a conference. So I won't have much free time to post for awhile. The official move takes place on Wednesday, and then the following Thursday I go up to Olympia to check out that job - if all goes as planned, we'll probably be on our way up there for good in a few weeks.
Stay tuned.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
My life, and the suckage it contains
It's true, I really do never stop complaining. Wait till you hear what I'm complaining about now: I got a job offer from the place in Olympia (that's good). But the offer is for the same salary I currently make as a paraprofessional (that's bad). True, the cost of living in Olympia is cheaper than here by about a bajillion percent (that's the official number, look it up); however, as it stands now I am somewhat of a kept woman, with the BF largely taking the hit as far as rent and other "shared" bills are concerned. Which means, other than the fact that I now have to give up my feminist credentials, that my personal bills will not substantially diminish once I move, which means that I will continue to be on the verge of homelessness. Yes, I exaggerate, but it does mean that I won't be able to start saving for a house or for Canadian permanent-resident status or for retirement, all things that I had wanted to start doing sooner rather than later. As it stands now, I might be able to afford the down-payment on a house by 2040. But my children, should I have any, will just have to settle for working at the local Arco station, since I won't be able to send them to college. Especially since college tuition will be up to about $500,000 a semester, and that's just the state schools.
But seriously, think about this: I recently went to a budgeting-your-money type seminar, in which I was told that--prepare yourself, now--people our age (20-30) will need to have THREE MILLION DOLLARS saved in order to retire comfortably at the age of 65. That number is of course taking inflation into account, but still. That number scared the shit out of me. THREE MILLION DOLLARS. Just repeat that to yourself a few times and let the terror wash over you.
Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, the job offer. So now I'm all conflicted - do I accept the job knowing that I will be poor for a few more years at least, but at least secure in the knowledge that a job is waiting for me, and it's a job that sounds to be interesting and secure (and btw, does not include evening or weekend hours)? Or do I refuse it, on the risky hope that I will receive a larger offer somewhere down the line? And even if I do receive a larger offer, will it come soon enough to offset the broke-ness of being unemployed for however long? It's a gamble, and I'm not a gambling woman.
But seriously, think about this: I recently went to a budgeting-your-money type seminar, in which I was told that--prepare yourself, now--people our age (20-30) will need to have THREE MILLION DOLLARS saved in order to retire comfortably at the age of 65. That number is of course taking inflation into account, but still. That number scared the shit out of me. THREE MILLION DOLLARS. Just repeat that to yourself a few times and let the terror wash over you.
Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, the job offer. So now I'm all conflicted - do I accept the job knowing that I will be poor for a few more years at least, but at least secure in the knowledge that a job is waiting for me, and it's a job that sounds to be interesting and secure (and btw, does not include evening or weekend hours)? Or do I refuse it, on the risky hope that I will receive a larger offer somewhere down the line? And even if I do receive a larger offer, will it come soon enough to offset the broke-ness of being unemployed for however long? It's a gamble, and I'm not a gambling woman.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Meh.
I've just been looking around BookSwim (see below) and that is my official assessment: meh. First of all, their cheapest plan is $23.99 a month, which is 3 books at a time. You know what? I'm willing to take the extra 30 minutes out of my day to drive/walk/metro to the public library to avoid having to pay $24 bucks a month for my books. And the sad thing is, I very rarely read more than 3 books in one month anyway--in fact, I'd go out on a limb and say I NEVER read more than that. I'm too busy watching my Netflix DVDs.
Also, their searching mechanism sucks. I did a search for Pride and Prejudice and the actual book, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, did not show up anywhere within the first two pages of results. And when I browsed through their "British" books, the first two results were by American authors, A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Dude, hire new indexers. Books by Hemingway and Augusten Burroughs also show up in the top ten "British" books.
So browse their web site and decide for yourself, but unless you're stuck somewhere without a public library, I would say skip it for now. To be fair, BookSwim is still in beta, but I say it's probably not worth trying till the kinks get worked out.
Also, their searching mechanism sucks. I did a search for Pride and Prejudice and the actual book, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, did not show up anywhere within the first two pages of results. And when I browsed through their "British" books, the first two results were by American authors, A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Dude, hire new indexers. Books by Hemingway and Augusten Burroughs also show up in the top ten "British" books.
So browse their web site and decide for yourself, but unless you're stuck somewhere without a public library, I would say skip it for now. To be fair, BookSwim is still in beta, but I say it's probably not worth trying till the kinks get worked out.
Update on brainwave
Well, the BF (aka KILLJOY) has informed me that he read somewhere last week that someone is going to start doing just the thing I had the brilliant idea for yesterday (you know, the Cybrary). Fine. I accept the fact that I have no new ideas, and will never get rich. That's just fine.*
*OK, I just did a quick Google search and the new service, called BookSwim, is already up and running. I'm going to poke around and see how much it costs, but I think we should all take a moment and note that "Cybrary" is a much more clever name, if not terribly original.
**I guess we should also take a moment and note that a librarian, who gets paid to work in a place that lends out books for free, is now pimping what is essentially a fee-based library. Although libraries generally will not mail books directly to your lazy ass, and therein lies the genius of this service.
*OK, I just did a quick Google search and the new service, called BookSwim, is already up and running. I'm going to poke around and see how much it costs, but I think we should all take a moment and note that "Cybrary" is a much more clever name, if not terribly original.
**I guess we should also take a moment and note that a librarian, who gets paid to work in a place that lends out books for free, is now pimping what is essentially a fee-based library. Although libraries generally will not mail books directly to your lazy ass, and therein lies the genius of this service.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Forgot to mention...
I had a phone interview for a position in Olympia, WA, on Friday. While it didn't go too grotesquely awry, my hatred for phone interviews continues unabated. Nothing says "I'm your top candidate!" like awkward, blaring silences. And apparently my interview skills have improved zero percent in the past two years, since I still seem unable to BS my way through questions that throw me off balance. "Ummm..." just doesn't wow people the way I think it should.
Also, we tried unsuccessfully to rid ourselves of the automobile this weekend. We took it to Carmax and I told myself I was being reasonable to expect around $800, and really tried hard not to hope for more, even though I continued to have fantasies about getting an offer of $900, or even $1000. Because let's face it, this is no luxury vehicle we're talking about. It's about one step above a rickshaw, actually. But I have to say I died a little inside when the offer came back at--wait for it--$250. Uh. What? As BF pointed out, we could probably sell it for scrap metal and get more than that. So Carmax can kiss my ass. On to Plan B--pawning it off on an unwary stranger sometime in the next two weeks.
Also, we tried unsuccessfully to rid ourselves of the automobile this weekend. We took it to Carmax and I told myself I was being reasonable to expect around $800, and really tried hard not to hope for more, even though I continued to have fantasies about getting an offer of $900, or even $1000. Because let's face it, this is no luxury vehicle we're talking about. It's about one step above a rickshaw, actually. But I have to say I died a little inside when the offer came back at--wait for it--$250. Uh. What? As BF pointed out, we could probably sell it for scrap metal and get more than that. So Carmax can kiss my ass. On to Plan B--pawning it off on an unwary stranger sometime in the next two weeks.
Brainwave!
I think someone, possibly me, should put into effect a service similar to Netflix, only with books. Because I'm always thinking to myself, "That's a book I'd like to read," and then I always forget to write down the title and the next time I'm surfing the library catalog my mind goes blank and I can barely think of a single book I want. So wouldn't it be cool if you could just keep a running queue of books in your "Cybrary" (I'm quite sure I'm the first person to ever think up that word), and so when you finish one and send it back to the library, they automatically send you the next book on your list? No? Because keeping a running list of your own would just be too much trouble.
All of which is just my way of avoiding the packing process. Damn the boxes!
All of which is just my way of avoiding the packing process. Damn the boxes!
Saturday, June 02, 2007
New York, NY - it's my kinda town
I've been back from NYC for five days now, but I've been too busy doing things like sitting on my ass to update the blog. Actually, it's all part of my grand plan - I've been slowing down on the updates lately so as to wean you all for the time after I move, when my updates may become even more sporadic (as if). I say may because it occurs to me that after I move I will be unemployed once again, and will have plentiful time on my hands for writing all kinds of blogs. (Access to the Internet is another matter entirely, however.)
Anyway, this is all to say that I'm sorry, I know I suck for not updating more often. On to New York.
For someone who hates DC for its unrelenting urbanity, I actually really enjoyed New York, although I must qualify that by saying that I only experienced it on a holiday weekend when most of the locals were out of town, and I never had to deal with rush hour anything. The weather was stultifyingly hot and humid, which normally I find repugnant but under the circumstances I wasn't too perturbed by it. I finally see why all the tourists around here can walk around smiling inthe middle of our August heat waves, when all I feel like doing is punching someone in the face and making them drink my sweat. (Ew. That was a little over the line, eh?) I guess marinating in your own perspiration is a lot more tolerable when you're not trying to get to/from work without your melting the make-up off your face or sweating through your shirt.
We saw all the typical New York stuff, walked around a bunch, ate bagels for breakfast and pizza every other meal, saw Rent on Broadway, did the shopping on Fifth Avenue (I bought shoes at a Payless Shoe Source - yes, there's one on Fifth Ave.!). We also went to the top, actually the 86th floor, of the Empire State Building. This was the only sour note of the trip, as it became foot-achingly clear that trying to see the view from the Empire State Building at night on a holiday weekend was perhaps the stupidest plan we could have concocted. We also had the asinine-ness to try to do this immediately after seeing Rent, when I was still wearing heels and we hadn't had anything to eat or drink in several hours. Let's just say, after the first 45 minutes of waiting in an interminable line, I demonstrated some disgruntlement. The next 30 minutes became an exercise in pissed-offedness-to-the-extreme-degree, as the whole experience started to look like a facade to trap unwary tourists in a time-warp vortex where we continued to stand in line like idiots, hoping against hope that the elevators will appear just beyond the horizon, while eons pass in the outer world. Eventually, we did finally make it up, the view was very nice, and now I hope I never have to do that again.
All in all, though, I felt like I could actually fit in there - there's such an ecclectic mix of people, no one ever has to feel out of place. Plus everyone is always pushy and extremely irritable - finally, I've found a land where I could be my true self!
Anyway, so we had our nice little gut-twistingly expensive vacation, and now the real stress begins. We are now fully-offically moving at the end of June, with our plane tickets purchased and space on a moving truck reserved, so all that's left to do is sell the car, comb through all our belongings deciding what to pack, what to ship separately, and what to throw away, and combine that with applying for jobs and finishing up my last month of work on this coast. Piece of cake.
Anyway, this is all to say that I'm sorry, I know I suck for not updating more often. On to New York.
For someone who hates DC for its unrelenting urbanity, I actually really enjoyed New York, although I must qualify that by saying that I only experienced it on a holiday weekend when most of the locals were out of town, and I never had to deal with rush hour anything. The weather was stultifyingly hot and humid, which normally I find repugnant but under the circumstances I wasn't too perturbed by it. I finally see why all the tourists around here can walk around smiling inthe middle of our August heat waves, when all I feel like doing is punching someone in the face and making them drink my sweat. (Ew. That was a little over the line, eh?) I guess marinating in your own perspiration is a lot more tolerable when you're not trying to get to/from work without your melting the make-up off your face or sweating through your shirt.
We saw all the typical New York stuff, walked around a bunch, ate bagels for breakfast and pizza every other meal, saw Rent on Broadway, did the shopping on Fifth Avenue (I bought shoes at a Payless Shoe Source - yes, there's one on Fifth Ave.!). We also went to the top, actually the 86th floor, of the Empire State Building. This was the only sour note of the trip, as it became foot-achingly clear that trying to see the view from the Empire State Building at night on a holiday weekend was perhaps the stupidest plan we could have concocted. We also had the asinine-ness to try to do this immediately after seeing Rent, when I was still wearing heels and we hadn't had anything to eat or drink in several hours. Let's just say, after the first 45 minutes of waiting in an interminable line, I demonstrated some disgruntlement. The next 30 minutes became an exercise in pissed-offedness-to-the-extreme-degree, as the whole experience started to look like a facade to trap unwary tourists in a time-warp vortex where we continued to stand in line like idiots, hoping against hope that the elevators will appear just beyond the horizon, while eons pass in the outer world. Eventually, we did finally make it up, the view was very nice, and now I hope I never have to do that again.
All in all, though, I felt like I could actually fit in there - there's such an ecclectic mix of people, no one ever has to feel out of place. Plus everyone is always pushy and extremely irritable - finally, I've found a land where I could be my true self!
Anyway, so we had our nice little gut-twistingly expensive vacation, and now the real stress begins. We are now fully-offically moving at the end of June, with our plane tickets purchased and space on a moving truck reserved, so all that's left to do is sell the car, comb through all our belongings deciding what to pack, what to ship separately, and what to throw away, and combine that with applying for jobs and finishing up my last month of work on this coast. Piece of cake.
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