Ramblings from the Peanut Gallery

It's been a busy week. I have been mentally preparing for my worker's orientation at Wal-Mart for some time. As it's tomorrow, it's finally coming to a head and although I am nervous as hell, I think I am ready. I did get several sets of work clothes (here and there, thrift shops are my best friend), so I am ready in that respect. I also got my bicycle fixed today so I can bike the two miles to work whenever I need to come in.



Other than the work stuff and running errands, it's been pretty chill here. I'm attempting to knit slippers (though when it hits 90, my hands sweat too much, I found) and after that I'll be probably trying my hands on a hat or a scarf. We'll see. I will knit bookmarks for anyone--I've been getting really good at it. I found that knitting is just like anything--the more you practice, the better and more skilled you're going to get.



Something else I've been doing is reading--my newest favorite author is a thriller writer named Nate Kenyon. I think he's fairly new on the market, as the book I am currently reading was published in 2008. At any rate, his writing is amazing—the descriptions of things and people in the book make you fall right into the writer's world. The characters are life-like and not static in the least. The way he describes things makes you want to turn the pages faster and faster so you can find out what happens. The best way to describe Kenyon's writing is that it's better than watching any thriller/suspense movie on the market. It's simply so real—the character's backgrounds are revealed ever so slowly, and one can tell that Kenyon carefully picks and chooses his scenes and words. He works out the plot like a master, and I'm really glad I stumbled upon his work. I want to use his technique and style in my own writing—hopefully some of his style will rub off on me. Oh, the book I am reading currently is called “The Reach,” by Nate Kenyon. I will write a book review when I finish it.



There is something I am going to rant about today, though, and if you don't want to hear it, please stop reading. I am very irritated over something that happened on Facebook today. I won't go into details, but nevertheless. So I posted a picture that said who I was going to vote for president in the fall (I am old enough to vote in this upcoming election). Some people were obviously butthurt over my opinion and caused a shitstorm on my page. Needless to say, I am subsquently annoyed at some people's immaturity and am actually afraid to post political things like that in the future. I should be able to post what I want on facebook without people having a cow about my opinions. Come on, people, we are all mature adults here. Just because it's the interwebs doesn't mean that that rule ceases to apply. Everyone is going to see what is on my page, and I was not immature at all. You don't like my opinion? Don't make a huge freaking deal about it. Agree to disagree, guys. Ugh.



Now that's off my chest, I am going to wish everyone the best of weekends. It seems like a busy weekend for everyone—I'm going to be busy all day tomorrow, my sister will be going to a wedding on Sunday, and my boyfriend is going to be busy himself toying with his newest obsession. It all sounds like a lot of fun for everybody.

Awesome Postcards

I thought I would take a break from rambling on about myself (not that anyone reads this) and show some awesome postcards I have received from Postcrossing, and have an update at the end of the post. If you don't already know what that is, it's a site where you can send postcards back and forth to and from users around the world. It's a very fun hobby, and I've learned a lot about different cultures through it. Postcrossing is very fun, indeed. However, there is only one drawback to this fun, free project--international stamps have really gone through the roof. The price of postcards themselves isn't much better, and it's awfully hard to find good ones, sometimes.

This is one of the very first postcards I received. It's from the Czech Republic, and I received it mid-February. A couple people I showed it to were a wee creeped out--however, I found this postcard to be adorable. These puppets are actually Czech puppets from a famous puppet show called "Spejbl and Hurvinek." Intrigued, I looked up videos on youtube to see the puppet show. Alas, I found none in English or with subtitles.

This is a relatively recent postcard, I received it a couple weeks ago from Belgium. For those of you who don't know about TinTin, it was a comic written by a Belgian artist named Herge from the 1940s to the 1960s. It detailed the adventures of a young reporter/adventurer named TinTin, his dog Snowy, and his friend Captain Haddock, as well as others. This postcard in particular is the comic book cover of the last TinTin comic book Herge ever wrote (the book published posthumously does not count). Having actually read some of the comics myself and being urged to watch the movie (The Adventures of TinTin, 2011), I am truly fascinated by the fandom in general and absolutely loved this postcard.

Not too much to say about this one--it's an Alice in Wonderland postcard from Russia. Not very dark, but a very fun postcard, overall. The writing on the top is the very first paragraph of... You guessed it, Lewis Carroll's famous novel, Alice In Wonderland.

This postcard is actually one I really like a lot--mostly because of the history behind it. I received this just a couple days ago from Belarus, a country bordering Russia. I was boggled for some time because I didn't know who the man on the postcard was. The description on the bottom left of the postcard explaining who it was was unfortunately completely in Russian. Also cool about this postcard--the person who sent it had placed a banana scratch and sniff sticker on the back. Funnily enough, it still smelled like bananas after traveling over half the globe.

Anyhow, I messaged the user asking him who the man was on the postcard. He told me the person was "Vitovt, an ancient king." Well, I looked up the name, and actually found out Vitovt was the Rusyn (a dialect of Belarusian I believe) for the apparently very famous ruler of ancient Lithuania, Vytautas the Great. He ruled Lithuania (Then called The Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and other countries during the late 1300s and early 1400s.Vytautas has apparently become a legendary hero among the people of Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and other countries. I was amazed at the amount of knowledge about ancient history I got from just one postcard.

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I have a few updates about life and what you could call personal things. I just got hired at Wal-Mart and will be going to the hiring appointment and interview bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm glad I got a summer job--I can save the money for a car or an apartment when I finally move out of the college dormitories.

Also, I can see again, as I got my frames and lenses yesterday. It's pretty amazing how much of a difference they make. Apparently my eyes are bad enough that people were worried that I was driving without them. Unfortunately, I don't have neither a license nor a car--but I wouldn't drive without glasses anyway, as I could cause a serious accident or get fined if pulled over without them.

I have also been writing different things. If I feel daring enough, I'll post excerpts on this blog in the near future.

Possible Job and an Injury

As I said in my last blog post, I have been very very gung-ho about getting a job for the summer. I've applied online, I've harassed nearly every store employee, I've went door to door. Until yesterday, however, I was quite dejected because nearly no one is hiring and I was practically at the end of my rope patience wise. Then I received a phone call requesting an interview for a job at the gas station a little bit out of town. I went to the interview, and it sounds very promising.

Now about the injury that I mentioned in the title--the day before yesterday, I sprained my ankle riding my bicycle. I wasn't being very smart on my bike, but I suppose I got what I deserved after all. Of course, that didn't look very good at the job interview--despite being presentable clothing-wise, I was on crutches, and she did ask about it. However, there isn't much I can do. If I get the job, that will be awesome and I will be able to FINALLY say, "I worked this summer," when people always ask that question, "So, what did YOU do this summer? (expecting a miraculous answer)" If not, I'll keep on trying. I won't give up on a job for a while; after all, my experience working at food service during the school year looks good and I can say how awesome I was dealing with nasty, impatient people on a regular basis.

I remember vividly how rude my fellow students were to me when I was making them sub sandwiches; the snide glares, the stuck-up air... I am not ashamed at working food service. I have to work somewhere. What really makes me mad is when people complain to me, "I can't find any part-time job anywhere!!" I reply, "Why not work at PACES? It's better than nothing." At that point, they metaphorically stick their nose up and say, "PACES? Ew, I would never work there." The conversation peters off, and I am standing there thinking, You're just not desperate enough.

Random, needful rant over, I guess that's all I have for today. I suppose there is one more thing I could mention...

I now know how to knit AND crochet. Having been personally taught how to knit, I took it on myself to learn crocheting... Crochet for Dummies, did its job fairly well. Unlike a person, a book has unlimited patience... That is in all jest, of course. I would take people over books any day.

That being said, once I get better at crocheting/knitting, I want to try my hand at anigurumi... There are many books on that in the library, but that's going to wait until I'm fairly decent at crocheting.