Autumn Ponderings

The season of autumn is still prevalent here--the colors are starting to fade, but there is still beauty in the trees and in the scent. In fact, the past couple of days have been extremely mild, and I'm pretty sure it hit 70 here today.

The paper I was talking about last week; I finally finished it. I completed it the night before it was due, and though I thought I would never get it done, I did. That was the probably the most challenging thing I have ever written before and it caused me a lot of stress. I have to write another paper similar to it at the end of the semester, but I'm not worried about it because I'll have a structure to borrow off of. We're reading some really interesting books in this class--I'm thinking of reviewing one of them for this blog if I ever get the time.

I'm pretty excited about Halloween and similar festivities--I decided to do a quick throw together costume and be a vampire. One of these years I would like to sit down and actually do a elaborate costume but I don't see when that would happen. Last year I dressed up as a scarecrow and it looked great. I'm carving pumpkins a couple of times and might just be daring enough to go to my campus's annual midnight showing/re-enactment of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's something the campus does every year, but I've never went because I've heard stories about people wearing negligible amounts of clothing and a lot of sexual implications. But I think I might as well give it a shot and leave if things get too awkward.

Also, with every post I figured I would showcase three postcards from Postcrossing. Maybe some of these more frequented blog posts will lack postcards, but I think it's something I would like to do on a general basis. There will probably be a theme every week as well.

This Week's Spotlight is postcards from Germany!

Through Postcrossing, I get many postcards from Germany. Some of my most favorite postcards come from there, and as I have always wanted to learn German, I am a bit impartial to cards from there. I specifically chose three with German on them because I think it's pretty awesome.

Received October 2012, Dortmund, Germany

This has become one of my personal favorites, not just because of the kitten and the tortoise (which is a sure winner in my book), but because of the German on the postcard. This kind of reminded me of an American photo one would put on their wall as a poster (minus the German).
The English translation is crappy due to Google Translate's suckiness, but it basically says happiness is a friend who can help you out when times are tough.

Received August 2012, Nordhorn, Germany

I laughed when I received this one. Google translated the German as "Prince Charming is waiting!" I thought it was pretty hilarious and I enjoyed it. Out of the frog cards I have received, this one is probably the funniest. By the way, it is actually white, not brown; that's the lighting on the card when I took the picture.

Received June 2012, Wilhemshaven, Germany

Another one of my all-time favorite cards, the German on this one translates to something about running birds? I'm not sure. At any rate, it looks pretty awesome. I get a lot of bird and frog cards because I ask for them, and I really think that this is one of the nicest ones I have.
I've never actually been to a beach or the sea, so getting one with water on it also reminds me I've got to visit a beach sooner or later!






Even though this week has been stressful, I've eliminated most of it by spending time with friends and enjoying myself. After all, isn't that what college is for?

Postcards, Poems, and Perils

Six weeks have passed in a flurry of budding friendships, new experiences, and new schedules. I am writing this as I am taking a break from a very large paper that is 45% of my grade and is proving extremely difficult for me. I love the professor's class, Contemporary British Literature, but this is becoming a challenge that I don't even know I can achieve. Thankfully, I have come together with my thesis and will be meeting with my professor in a couple of days about the paper. I really hope that this can release any stress I am having about this paper.

I just got back from my "October Break," and even though it was supposed to be a time for me to relax, priorities and stress from other sources besides school keep piling up. Life is not easy, especially at this time in my life, apparently. Things are going to be picking up again on campus starting tomorrow and it's back to my regular schedule. I am, of course, looking forward to another class with Dr. Novak, the newest professor on campus and one that I have become quickly fond of. The other day she invited me to her office and we had a interesting talk about politics (of course), society, and where the world is going. This blog is not for sharing my political opinions because I don't want to piss people off, but I do rather enjoy a good political discussion. During class last week, though, she did say something that depressed me (and probably the rest of the class). "I am really glad I am as old as I am," she said, "because then I don't have to see what this country will become." As depressing as that statement is, it's kind of true. I for one fear for the future; what will become of this country and what exactly will result out of this endless bickering between two ideals, two visions for this country? That is a question that will be pondered by me and countless others as the world moves on, I suppose.

Anyways, I threw in a poetry entry for Silverinkblot's (deviantArt) Color Poem Contest. It's been so long since I've written poetry that I thought I sucked at it. For a first try in a while, it was pretty good. I want to maybe try my hand at some more prose (for deviantArt contests generally) in the near future.

And now a couple of postcards from my ever-growing collection of postcards from Postcrossing. Right now I don't have the money to send any more postcards, but I have amassed a nice collection from the time when I did have the money for stamps. Here are three of my favorites:

South Germany, received September 30, 2012

This postcard I received from a woman named Sabine, who lives in Germany. She said that on clear days she could see the Swiss Alps, because she lives close to the borders of Austria and Switzerland. I love birds, so this is one of my favorites because of that. It's just such a crystal clear photograph that I fell in love with it.

Sent from Washington, United States, received September 25, 2012

This is one of my personal favorites as well, and the photo I took of it with the camera on my cell phone simply does not do it justice. Even though the sender was from Washington State, not Idaho, it is still a beautiful homage to autumn and fishing (the little shadow there is fly fishing in the Salmon River).

Sent from Belarus, received September 15, 2012

Even though this was sent from Belarus, this is a photograph of the Empress of Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I. The sender said that since she was born in Russia, she wanted to share this with me. With the empress Alexandra is her only son, Alexi, heir to the throne of Russia. However, Alexandra, the tsar Nicolas, her husband, Alexi, and the rest of her children were killed at the end of World War I by the Bolsheviks that were imprisoning them. I really enjoy postcards that force me to look up historical backgrounds and events of other nations; there are many things about the world that I don't know and I still have yet to learn.







With that, I should probably work on some more of my paper.

We Now Continue Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Following my lack of blog posts this summer, we now continue with our regularly scheduled programming. Also known as rambling on about things that interest me, and hopefully interest the literature buffs/students such as myself out there.

Classes have begun this week, preceded by several things, which I will describe in a small amount of detail. My job at Wal-Mart ended the second week of August. The strange thing about that was that a part of me was sad to go. Of course, that kind of job is physically tasking as well of mental, and although I learned a lot, it is not something I want to do as a career. I could say more about what I think about Wal-Mart, but I'm not going to speak out against it.

The week before classes started (last week) I attended a leadership conference through the college; mostly aimed towards "student leaders" in charge or putting together student organizations on campus. I learned a great deal from the conference--honestly more than I thought I would. As I said, there was a lot of emphasis on how to keep a club or organization together; the subjects discussed were recruitment, event planning, and knowing how to keep the leadership going after you graduate. I attended all of the recruitment ones, because my friend and I are desperately trying to keep the campus's English club staying afloat. That will be a challenge this semester.

Speaking of campus and academics, I'm taking several classes that I'm really excited about. I'm taking three sociology classes; sociology of gender, individual and society, and research methods. All three of these classes seem pretty promising, and I'm enthusiastic about them. But the two classes that I'm really excited about are Journalism and Contemporary British Literature. I have a feeling I've already fell in love with both of the professors. The professor for Journalism is brand new to the college and to the area, but she has a really great, friendly attitude about everything. I think I'm going to really like her class. As for Contemporary British Literature, the professor is crazy. But the awesome kind of crazy. A lot of English professors and teachers have this kind of crazy, where you think, "You are weird but awesome! Where can I sign up?!" Those are my favorite professors--those not afraid to speak their minds.

So, in conclusion, I am pretty pumped for everything that is going on in my life.

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.

Musings

Again, it's been a long time since I've written in this blog. Finals week was very stressful, but that has been over for a couple of weeks now, and now I'm officially a junior in college. Yup, a junior in college. When did that happen? Another school year has passed me by, and I've been on summer break for about a week or so.

So my plans for this summer include (trying) to get a job. Also on the to-do list is getting my creative juices flowing, as well as catching up on things I usually don't have time to do--like reading, playing video games, and watching movies. To those who actually read this blog, if you have any suggestions about any awesome games/books/movies you have watched/played/read, please let me know and I'll check them out.

The job search has been moot so far. I have went on several trips to go job hunting, and it turns out that very few places in town are actually hiring. I filled out a few applications (I fear in vain), but the reply I kept on getting was "No, we're not hiring. Do you want to fill out an application?" There's no point in filling out an application if you guys aren't hiring. This is only a summer job... Anyways, I suppose that this is a testament to the fact that the economy still really hasn't recovered since 2008. If I don't get a job, it won't be the end of the world, but it would certainly be a good thing.

In other news, I've been trying to re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and of course it's proving as difficult as the first time (as I have only read in full the first novel in the trilogy). My boyfriend gave me the whole set as a gift (his attention span couldn't handle the dry, boring parts of LOTR), and I've been trying to tackle the novels ever since. My favorite character is either Frodo or Gandalf, I can never choose. Gandalf is awesome in his mysterious superiority, but Frodo is the real hero of the series.

Also going to read some manga this summer. Got out some InuYasha and Full Metal Alchemist from the library today. I have read FMA before, but that was a few years ago, and it will be fun to re-read it again. I remember that it does get darker and more sadistic as the series goes on, but the awesome art and main characters mostly stay the same.

As for my creative side of things, I plan on working on some new comics with my sister, as well as working on my characters, Victor and Oliver. If you don't remember them, I did place an excerpt from a practice concept that I had here. It's very hard to develop Victor because he originally was a dark hero. Then, coming to a realization, I split Victor into two characters--the original Victor is now a bona-fide evil, evil, antagonist. The character that split off, Oliver, is now the light hero. Of course, coupled with my sister's characters (Jelar, a vampire, Celia, the former lover of Victor, and others), we plan to write several stories, or even perhaps a novel together. That will be fun, and I'll keep you posted on that.