Okay, the Cowboys are not literally ruining my life. Like, I have not been kicked out of my home to make way for a bigger stadium and/or parking lot. That happened to a lot of other people, but it did not happen to me personally. They are just making life annoying at times.
The Rangers were annoying enough. Then the Rangers got a bigger ballpark and got more annoying. The Cowboys were in Irving, in a part of Irving right next to Dallas, and I hate Dallas, so I was rarely there. The Cowboys were still annoying, just not in the same way as the Rangers, as long as they were staying near Dallas were I would probably not have to deal with them or their fans or the traffic problems involved with games.
But then they moved to Arlington. They moved to Arlington right next to stores that I shop at and restaurants I eat at and so forth. So they are now a problem for me. And as I care nothing for sports, I don't remember which days they plan to be a bother, until it is too late to do anything about it.
So today was one of those days. But it was early in the day, and we safely escaped from it all (though it would have been nice to eat an early dinner in the area, but we decided against it). But they are still annoying, as right now I am not watching The Event and such on TV, cause my husband is watching the game. Yet another lie that he told me, so on top of all the other things I have to put up with from him, he now watches football games, even when there is something else to do or something better to watch.
Anyway, the main reason for the football fans being a problem that had to be dealt with earlier in the day is that on top of whatever ridiculous price the fans paid for their tickets, they are expected to pay yet another $67 to $82 for parking their cars (this amount will go up another twenty dollars for next year's dreaded Super Bowl Game). And, while they have somehow been persuaded to give up whatever amount they paid for the tickets, they don't really want to pay $67-$82 just to park their cars. And it is a really big parking lot, so even after paying the $67-$82 for parking the car, that doesn't guarantee that your car will end up being parked near where you want to be, and you might still be in for a long walk even after paying that much. So many of the local stores and restaurants were charging $35-$40 dollars to park in their parking lots, and from their you might have an even longer walk, but since you're going to have a long walk anyway you might as well get a parking space for half-price.
The best deal seemed to be that of Half-Price Books. If you spend $40 dollars or more that day, you got to park in front of the bookstore for free if you taped the dated receipt onto your windshield. And, to make things even easier, instead of looking all through the store for something that you want to spend $40 on, you can just buy a $40 gift card and spend the money later. So that almost makes the parking free, if you are someone who buys a lot of books, and if you are willing to walk the extra couple of blocks to get there.
Not that I picture many of these people being readers, but perhaps these people have friends who are readers, and they can give these bookstore gift cards to their reading friends for Christmas.
Then there were also people walking from really far away places on the other side of the freeway. I have no idea where they were coming from or how much they paid to park their cars, but I can't imagine that they got a better deal than what the bookstore was offering. And even if you really just do not like the bookstore and don't have any friends who read and therefore have absolutely no reason to go to Half-Price Books, most of the other stores and some restaurants had a similar deal, and you might find something that you would want to spend $40 on.
Anyway, now I'm going to find something to watch on Hulu or Youtube, because I can't watch The Event like I'm supposed to, because the Cowboys are still on.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
A trip to the library to find The Road
If you have been reading a while you know that I used to read a lot of books, but now, not so much. Most of the time, I don't have the attention span required to enjoy reading books, and my eyesight isn't so good either. So I don't read that many books now.
Which isn't to say that I don't go to the library a lot. Most weeks we go at least twice, as there are several libraries to choose from, and we are nearly always near one. He still reads plenty of books, and he gets audio books for long trips. And I get the occasional book to read, and a few books that I don't read so much as flip through and look at the pictures (cookbooks, how-to books, etc...), and once in a great while I look at a magazine.
And I get a lot of DVDs. I check out tons of DVDs. I very rarely go to a video store unless I am really wanting to see a particular movie. The newly discovered Redbox has only been used about five times. But I tend to get a minimum of three DVDs per week at the library.
So while I am often at the library, I don't use the library catalog as much as I used to. Which is a good thing, since I don't like the newer programs as much.
The first program we used was just like the card catalog. You selected author, subject, or title, and then typed in something, and you were taken to what you had typed, or the closest thing to it. If you typed in Asimov, you were taken to lists of books written by people named Asimov, and you would scroll down a bit til you found Isaac, and then you would scroll down more to find the particular title you wanted. If you did not spell Asimov correctly or otherwise made a typing error, you would be taken to the nearest thing that the computer could find, and then maybe you would notice your error and correct it. If you still couldn't find what you were looking for, maybe you would have to get help from a librarian.
So that was the old program, which was very useful to people already used to the old card catalog, if you could type. It was fast. It wasn't very pretty, as it was yellow letters on a black screen. No pictures. But you could see about twenty-five titles per screen before you had to scroll down.
Then the bigger libraries got some new programs, which I found to be a bit of a headache.
These programs showed pictures of the books. But, in return for that added feature, you could only see about three titles at a time instead of twenty-five. And it took time to load all of those pictures. When they first got the new program, they didn't yet have the new computers, and it seemed to take a long time to find anything. They soon got new faster computers and all was well.
Except that if you misspelled or otherwise incorrectly typed Asimov, it didn't take you to the nearest thing. You just get a message that says no entry found. Since it is inconceivable that there are no books in the library by Isaac Asimov, you must have made a mistake. Try again. But when you are not looking for Isaac Asimov, when you are looking for a lesser known author with maybe only one or two books, then maybe you have misspelled something, or maybe the library just doesn't have any of the books you want. There is no way to know.
You have to go and bug the librarian.
Now that we have computers, we can list things under more than author, subject, and title. We can also add things like series. You can look up a list of all the Star Trek titles the library has.
The computer can now search through everything in the library with something called general keyword, which would have just been impossible with the paper card catalog. Like, if someone recommended a book to you, but you didn't write down the name, and you think that it had the word roses in it. Under general keyword, you can type in roses, and then you will get a list of everything the library has that roses in the title, and if you are patient enough, you might find your book.
Okay, so yesterday we went to the main branch of our little library. Our little library has three branches now, though one of the branches is so small that I have only been there once. And I don't use the catalog much anymore, unless I am looking for a particular title, cause I already know where the DVDs are and where the cookbooks are and so forth. I just walk around and see if anything gets my attention.
Recently, we had seen the movie The Road. The Road is a pretty depressing movie, which makes you want to go out and see a nice happy movie, like The Book of Eli. But someone had said that the book was better, and that it had a more uplifting ending, and I should read it. And I like to read books after I have seen the movie, and I like post apocalyptic stuff, so I thought that I would check out The Road, only I forgot who wrote it.
Okay, so I go to the computer and type in The Road. Only the thing seems to be stuck on general keyword search. In alphabetical order it listed six hundred and something entries with the word road. The Road, which probably would have been the first entry in a title search, was on page 35 of the general keyword search.
But I do eventually find it, and I find out the name of the author is Cormac McCarthy, which is what I need to go and look for the book on the shelf. And I see that the library has two copies, and that one is checked out and that one is checked in.
Also, it is on the adult fiction shelf instead of the science fiction shelf, but we won't get into that.
Anyway, I go and look, and I can't find it on the shelf.
Time to bug the librarian.
Maybe the second copy is in paperback or something, and I will have to look somewhere else. Or maybe it is on display. Or maybe it is still in shelving.
So the librarian tells me that their copy is checked out, but I say that I thought there were two copies and that the other one was checked in. She says that the other copy is at a different branch. But then she tells me to wait, that she'll look for one in the large print section.
For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me to look for things in the large print section. I guess that I hadn't even noticed that this particular library had a large print section. The bigger libraries have one, but rarely got anything from there. I left those books for the old people who needed them.
The librarian said that the large print edition was checked in and pointed me in the right direction. I found the book.
I read the book yesterday. I can read the book without taking off my glasses and putting my nose an inch away from the paper. I might have to start reading again on a regular basis.
The Road the book is not much different from the movie. You still don't know for sure what the catastrophe was, though you can still assume that it was a nuclear war or a big meteor. As for the supposed uplifting ending, it is the same except that the woman talks about God in the next to last paragraph.
Which isn't to say that I don't go to the library a lot. Most weeks we go at least twice, as there are several libraries to choose from, and we are nearly always near one. He still reads plenty of books, and he gets audio books for long trips. And I get the occasional book to read, and a few books that I don't read so much as flip through and look at the pictures (cookbooks, how-to books, etc...), and once in a great while I look at a magazine.
And I get a lot of DVDs. I check out tons of DVDs. I very rarely go to a video store unless I am really wanting to see a particular movie. The newly discovered Redbox has only been used about five times. But I tend to get a minimum of three DVDs per week at the library.
So while I am often at the library, I don't use the library catalog as much as I used to. Which is a good thing, since I don't like the newer programs as much.
The first program we used was just like the card catalog. You selected author, subject, or title, and then typed in something, and you were taken to what you had typed, or the closest thing to it. If you typed in Asimov, you were taken to lists of books written by people named Asimov, and you would scroll down a bit til you found Isaac, and then you would scroll down more to find the particular title you wanted. If you did not spell Asimov correctly or otherwise made a typing error, you would be taken to the nearest thing that the computer could find, and then maybe you would notice your error and correct it. If you still couldn't find what you were looking for, maybe you would have to get help from a librarian.
So that was the old program, which was very useful to people already used to the old card catalog, if you could type. It was fast. It wasn't very pretty, as it was yellow letters on a black screen. No pictures. But you could see about twenty-five titles per screen before you had to scroll down.
Then the bigger libraries got some new programs, which I found to be a bit of a headache.
These programs showed pictures of the books. But, in return for that added feature, you could only see about three titles at a time instead of twenty-five. And it took time to load all of those pictures. When they first got the new program, they didn't yet have the new computers, and it seemed to take a long time to find anything. They soon got new faster computers and all was well.
Except that if you misspelled or otherwise incorrectly typed Asimov, it didn't take you to the nearest thing. You just get a message that says no entry found. Since it is inconceivable that there are no books in the library by Isaac Asimov, you must have made a mistake. Try again. But when you are not looking for Isaac Asimov, when you are looking for a lesser known author with maybe only one or two books, then maybe you have misspelled something, or maybe the library just doesn't have any of the books you want. There is no way to know.
You have to go and bug the librarian.
Now that we have computers, we can list things under more than author, subject, and title. We can also add things like series. You can look up a list of all the Star Trek titles the library has.
The computer can now search through everything in the library with something called general keyword, which would have just been impossible with the paper card catalog. Like, if someone recommended a book to you, but you didn't write down the name, and you think that it had the word roses in it. Under general keyword, you can type in roses, and then you will get a list of everything the library has that roses in the title, and if you are patient enough, you might find your book.
Okay, so yesterday we went to the main branch of our little library. Our little library has three branches now, though one of the branches is so small that I have only been there once. And I don't use the catalog much anymore, unless I am looking for a particular title, cause I already know where the DVDs are and where the cookbooks are and so forth. I just walk around and see if anything gets my attention.
Recently, we had seen the movie The Road. The Road is a pretty depressing movie, which makes you want to go out and see a nice happy movie, like The Book of Eli. But someone had said that the book was better, and that it had a more uplifting ending, and I should read it. And I like to read books after I have seen the movie, and I like post apocalyptic stuff, so I thought that I would check out The Road, only I forgot who wrote it.
Okay, so I go to the computer and type in The Road. Only the thing seems to be stuck on general keyword search. In alphabetical order it listed six hundred and something entries with the word road. The Road, which probably would have been the first entry in a title search, was on page 35 of the general keyword search.
But I do eventually find it, and I find out the name of the author is Cormac McCarthy, which is what I need to go and look for the book on the shelf. And I see that the library has two copies, and that one is checked out and that one is checked in.
Also, it is on the adult fiction shelf instead of the science fiction shelf, but we won't get into that.
Anyway, I go and look, and I can't find it on the shelf.
Time to bug the librarian.
Maybe the second copy is in paperback or something, and I will have to look somewhere else. Or maybe it is on display. Or maybe it is still in shelving.
So the librarian tells me that their copy is checked out, but I say that I thought there were two copies and that the other one was checked in. She says that the other copy is at a different branch. But then she tells me to wait, that she'll look for one in the large print section.
For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me to look for things in the large print section. I guess that I hadn't even noticed that this particular library had a large print section. The bigger libraries have one, but rarely got anything from there. I left those books for the old people who needed them.
The librarian said that the large print edition was checked in and pointed me in the right direction. I found the book.
I read the book yesterday. I can read the book without taking off my glasses and putting my nose an inch away from the paper. I might have to start reading again on a regular basis.
The Road the book is not much different from the movie. You still don't know for sure what the catastrophe was, though you can still assume that it was a nuclear war or a big meteor. As for the supposed uplifting ending, it is the same except that the woman talks about God in the next to last paragraph.
Friday, February 19, 2010
I have been lazy
I guess that is nothing new. But I can't seem to get much done, and I get even less done when my husband is around, which is pretty much all of the time now.
The people who run the company my husband works for are about to do something that most of us think is pretty stupid. I won't get into it much here, because it deserves its own post, but let's just say that they are going to change things in such a way that either they will have to have to fire half of the sales people or hire a bunch of other people so that everybody can work in pairs instead of how they work now. If they fire half of the salespeople (the half that never make any money anyway) that would be good for my husband. But they rarely fire anyone, they just make things annoying so that people will want to quit. So that probably means that they will hire a bunch of extra people, and as it is they don't have enough work for the employees that they already have.
So this is bad.
I will have jury duty next month, and I have to schedule a few things so that they don't interfere if I get picked to be on a jury. Not that I expect to get picked, cause I never have been picked before, but I think that I should try to be ready just in case. I should set deadlines for myself, so that I have a lot of stuff done by the middle of next month. It would be nice if I didn't have anything major to do in April. I keep talking about all that I need to do, but I never get started with it. Something always comes up.
In the few moments that I did feel like I could get something done, I started painting that scrap lumber I bought recently. I have a few pieces left to do, but I'll probably finish with that today. Other than that I managed to finish the pilot's Christmas gift attempt number three, which looks nothing like the other two, but he made a suggestion for something he would like and that gave me an idea for something else. So hopefully I will show it to him on Saturday and see if it meets with his approval.
And while I was briefly doing useful stuff, I thought that I would go through a couple of boxes of stuff, thinking that I would take three or four things out of the box and want to get rid of the rest of it. And it turned out to be the other way around, with my getting rid of three or four things and then putting the box back where it was.
There is this theory that if you put something in a box and don't use it for a year that you don't need or want it and that you should get rid of it. Except that I can't seem to get that to work for me. For one thing, seasonal stuff goes in boxes that don't get opened except for once a year, and if you are busy during that season the boxes don't get opened that year at all. But that doesn't mean that the stuff in the box is unwanted, just that you didn't feel up to the whole seasonal decorating thing that year. The decorations will still be good for next year. I can't see any reason for getting rid of the decorations, unless maybe a person has suffered a crippling injury and will never be able to put up the decorations in the future, or maybe if the person becomes Mr. Scrooge and doesn't like holidays anymore. So I have just stacks and stacks of those boxes, and I have no intention of getting rid of them.
Same with the craft stuff. Just cause I didn't do ceramics this year is no reason to get rid of the stuff. Soon I'll be old and I'll join the senior center and do ceramics there.
Okay, the senior center is still years away. Just not as many years away as before. Anyway, the craft stuff stays.
It is the other boxes of odd things that bother me. I would think that stuff should be gotten rid of if I haven't used it in a year. Except that it turns out the main reason I didn't use it all year is that I forgot where I put it. Now that I've found it, getting rid of it doesn't seem like such a good idea.
Like I found one of those cookie sheets that I misplaced. Not that it was in this box, but still, I found a cookie sheet. Maybe I will get back to the whole cookie making thing soon.
Anyway, so I went through this box of stuff, thinking that I was going to get rid of most of a box of stuff, and I just ended up with a slightly lighter box of stuff. And then I also went through a box of paperback books, thinking that I would want to get rid of most of them since I don't read much anymore, but of course the box contained those few books that I would actually want to re-read if my eyes felt better. In fact, I've pulled out a few to re-read anyway. So I still have most of a box of books, though I did find that I had two copies of a certain book, and I have decided that I probably won't re-read the Joy Adamson stuff, and I don't think I will be re-reading this Blake 7 book. Watching Blake 7 is one thing, but taking the time to read it is something else entirely. And how many years has it been since I've given any thought to Blake 7 anyway?
Saturday, I will try to find good homes for these six paperbacks, otherwise they can go in another box that will eventually end up going to Half-Price Books. The rest of the books went back in the box.
But it isn't really the stuff in boxes that bothers me, it is all this other stuff. I have boxes of stuff, and I have books and art on the shelves, and then there is all this other stuff. If it doesn't go on the shelves and it isn't a book and it doesn't go in a seasonal box and it doesn't go in a craft box, where is it supposed to go?
The people who run the company my husband works for are about to do something that most of us think is pretty stupid. I won't get into it much here, because it deserves its own post, but let's just say that they are going to change things in such a way that either they will have to have to fire half of the sales people or hire a bunch of other people so that everybody can work in pairs instead of how they work now. If they fire half of the salespeople (the half that never make any money anyway) that would be good for my husband. But they rarely fire anyone, they just make things annoying so that people will want to quit. So that probably means that they will hire a bunch of extra people, and as it is they don't have enough work for the employees that they already have.
So this is bad.
I will have jury duty next month, and I have to schedule a few things so that they don't interfere if I get picked to be on a jury. Not that I expect to get picked, cause I never have been picked before, but I think that I should try to be ready just in case. I should set deadlines for myself, so that I have a lot of stuff done by the middle of next month. It would be nice if I didn't have anything major to do in April. I keep talking about all that I need to do, but I never get started with it. Something always comes up.
In the few moments that I did feel like I could get something done, I started painting that scrap lumber I bought recently. I have a few pieces left to do, but I'll probably finish with that today. Other than that I managed to finish the pilot's Christmas gift attempt number three, which looks nothing like the other two, but he made a suggestion for something he would like and that gave me an idea for something else. So hopefully I will show it to him on Saturday and see if it meets with his approval.
And while I was briefly doing useful stuff, I thought that I would go through a couple of boxes of stuff, thinking that I would take three or four things out of the box and want to get rid of the rest of it. And it turned out to be the other way around, with my getting rid of three or four things and then putting the box back where it was.
There is this theory that if you put something in a box and don't use it for a year that you don't need or want it and that you should get rid of it. Except that I can't seem to get that to work for me. For one thing, seasonal stuff goes in boxes that don't get opened except for once a year, and if you are busy during that season the boxes don't get opened that year at all. But that doesn't mean that the stuff in the box is unwanted, just that you didn't feel up to the whole seasonal decorating thing that year. The decorations will still be good for next year. I can't see any reason for getting rid of the decorations, unless maybe a person has suffered a crippling injury and will never be able to put up the decorations in the future, or maybe if the person becomes Mr. Scrooge and doesn't like holidays anymore. So I have just stacks and stacks of those boxes, and I have no intention of getting rid of them.
Same with the craft stuff. Just cause I didn't do ceramics this year is no reason to get rid of the stuff. Soon I'll be old and I'll join the senior center and do ceramics there.
Okay, the senior center is still years away. Just not as many years away as before. Anyway, the craft stuff stays.
It is the other boxes of odd things that bother me. I would think that stuff should be gotten rid of if I haven't used it in a year. Except that it turns out the main reason I didn't use it all year is that I forgot where I put it. Now that I've found it, getting rid of it doesn't seem like such a good idea.
Like I found one of those cookie sheets that I misplaced. Not that it was in this box, but still, I found a cookie sheet. Maybe I will get back to the whole cookie making thing soon.
Anyway, so I went through this box of stuff, thinking that I was going to get rid of most of a box of stuff, and I just ended up with a slightly lighter box of stuff. And then I also went through a box of paperback books, thinking that I would want to get rid of most of them since I don't read much anymore, but of course the box contained those few books that I would actually want to re-read if my eyes felt better. In fact, I've pulled out a few to re-read anyway. So I still have most of a box of books, though I did find that I had two copies of a certain book, and I have decided that I probably won't re-read the Joy Adamson stuff, and I don't think I will be re-reading this Blake 7 book. Watching Blake 7 is one thing, but taking the time to read it is something else entirely. And how many years has it been since I've given any thought to Blake 7 anyway?
Saturday, I will try to find good homes for these six paperbacks, otherwise they can go in another box that will eventually end up going to Half-Price Books. The rest of the books went back in the box.
But it isn't really the stuff in boxes that bothers me, it is all this other stuff. I have boxes of stuff, and I have books and art on the shelves, and then there is all this other stuff. If it doesn't go on the shelves and it isn't a book and it doesn't go in a seasonal box and it doesn't go in a craft box, where is it supposed to go?
Monday, January 18, 2010
A few things in no particular order
A friend sent me a link about a job, and I can't get it to work. I will try again later, but maybe it isn't worth the effort, as I missed four or five questions on what seemed to be an easy practice test. I'm getting old. I'm slipping.
We have finally figured out the whole unemployment thing. The thing about the unemployment is that you have to file all the time, even when you worked and don't need it, even when you didn't apply for a job and won't get it, even if you turned down work and won't get it, even when all this is going to do is waste time and make people at the unemployment office do more work that is totally unnecessary, and that way you are still in the system on the week that you don't work and need the money, and they send you your money in a reasonable amount of time and such.
So that is what we are doing. Unfortunately, now that we have figured all of that out, we are told that we only have ten thousand dollars left, and the way things are going that isn't going to last us very long.
My husband seems to be making an effort to be especially nice to me, if you can call it that after more than three years of him still not having done one thing that he was supposed to do for us to be roommates, much less actually be back together like nothing had happened. On my part I was having one of those moments when I think that I might as well try to enjoy myself with the way things are, as they will probably not change in the near future. He worked two days last week and two days the week before, and then he is not likely to work at all for the next two weeks, and then we don't know what is going to happen after that. So of course what we tend to do when he has all this time off is go to restaurants and go to movies and go shopping. Well, we are short on money, though not as short as we would be now that we have figured out the whole unemployment thing. We have not been going out to nice restaurants, just now and then going to Arby's and such, cause we have coupons. And we haven't done that much shopping, but we have bought a few things. While I feel some guilt over that, I can't really say that I feel bad about seeing a few movies, as we have a couple of inexpensive theaters. But there are still days when we stay home and do absolutely nothing, and it tends to get on my nerves spending all that time together doing nothing, sort of getting in each others way.
Not that the day I had to myself went any better. I had planned to spend it knitting, and something went wrong, and I don't know if I can fix it. And he was really trying to be nice to me after that, but there is just nothing to be done about it. I will just have to put the thing away for a while, and maybe after some time has past I will see a solution and not get so upset when I look at it. I instead spent the day watching videos, but I did not feel much better. The next day when he was trying to be nice to me, I did make an attempt to just forget about everything that is stressing me out and just enjoy the day, which I did, for a while. And then the next day I noticed something, and that made me think that something is going to go wrong, and that he knew about it and intended for something to wrong, or at least that he was okay with it. But even if nothing goes wrong, that is what I think of him now, that he is very selfish and this attempt at being nice is just to hide the fact that something else is going to go wrong and that he is responsible.
Christmas Eve dinner was finally rescheduled for yesterday. I ate a half dozen oysters and have no need to see anymore oysters for a while. They were really big oysters too. I'm not really complaining, the food was good, and it was good to see everyone and it was good for mom to have a break, as grandma did not get better like we thought from her most recent hospital stay.
Saturday was fun, though not what I had imagined. We did trivia as planned, but just regular trivia, not sci fi stuff like usual. So I did not win, even after having put together a really great team. And we were playing Family Feud, and the answers are based on what people think is the answer, even if that in fact is not the answer. So we were trying to "steal" points from the other team, and we just don't have any good ideas. The question involved things that turn from green to yellow, and all the good answers have been taken, and all I can think of is pears. My friend thinks maybe the answer is yellow squash, except that I and another friend have gardens, and we know that yellow squash starts out yellow, or maybe even white, and is never green to begin with. So we go with pear, cause no one else can think of anything, and the answer was squash. And then there was a question involving things associated with Texas, and the answers to this question obviously did not come from Texas, and no one was getting those right. And then there was a question about haunted houses, and I was thinking theatrical production, and I guess that the people taking the survey were thinking real house that no one lives in anymore. So we got all of that wrong too. But it was still fun, and I didn't need a silly plague anyway.
I have really had it with all the junk. This helps somewhat when we are shopping, as I have several times put things back, cause I'm thinking that I don't need it right away and I don't want it enough to find someplace to put it, and if something happened and I had to move away, would I want to pack this? Probably not. So I have stopped myself from buying a few things, but I still don't manage to get rid of much.
I know all the experts say that if you don't use something for a year (especially things that you have had in box that hasn't even been opened for a year), you should get rid of it. And I know that makes sense on some levels, but on other levels it just doesn't work for me. Like I have many craft things that I don't use for a year, but that doesn't mean that I should throw away tools or supplies that are still good (or even still new in the package). And seasonal things stay in boxes most of the year, should I throw them away cause I was too busy to put everything out this year? Throw out the stuff that I didn't put out cause it looks too old or I just don't like it anymore, sure, but just because I didn't use a particular decoration this year doesn't mean that I won't want them next year. And I haven't done any baking in forever, but I just have a feeling that in the future I will want to, maybe because of the financial situation, and then I either wouldn't be able to do anything or else I would have to go and buy all new stuff, which would be hard to do because of the financial situation.
And then like all people who have either been on a diet and gained it all back (or people who keep thinking that they will diet but don't), there are all these clothes to think about. And even if I haven't worn them in a year, it still doesn't seem to be a good idea to throw them out. If my weight changes by ten pounds either way, if I didn't keep the clothes, I would have to go out and buy clothes (clothes that might not even fit for very long), or else I would have to stay in the house all the time naked.
So I guess I would rather live with all the junk than live in fear that I'm going to be stuck in the house naked without bakeware and holiday decorations.
The other thing that I have a lot of that I don't really do much with anymore is books. For the last three or four years I have done little reading. My eyesight isn't what it was, and most of the time I just don't have the attention span necessary to enjoy reading a book. But reading has been such a big part of my life, and I keep thinking that someday I will feel better and want to read again. And it also seems silly to get rid of the one thing that is somewhat organized and I actually have a place for. I have many bookshelves, and the books that I've had for a long time have places on the bookshelves and I know where they are and I can find them when I want them. And then there are some additional books that I'm not quite sure where to put, cause they don't quite go with the books that are already on the shelves. And then there are really new books that I didn't put anywhere, cause I was reading them (or at least I meant to), and they are just here and there. So there is the dilemma about the books that on the one hand I shouldn't get rid of them because if I really put some effort into it that is the one thing that I could get organized and every book would have its place, and on the other hand books are the one thing that I could easily get rid of and there is a place to take them where I wouldn't feel that they had just been tossed out. I could even get some money for them, though not enough for that to be the deciding point. Still, I think today I will make another attempt to cull some of the cookbooks. There are two boxes of them that I meant to look through, and it may have even been a year since I last looked at them.
And while I am trying not to spend money and buy things that I will just have to put away somewhere, I am thinking of buying yet another black dress. I was invited to a party, and it is less than a month away, and since I just now learned of it I haven't been planning what to wear. Ideally, it would be something goth, and while I have plenty of black I don't think that just being black makes it look goth, and of course a lot of my things just don't fit at the moment. So I am looking through my things trying to find something that looks goth, or something that I can add to something to make it look goth. I don't think that my best black dress looks goth, but if I add enough stuff to it then maybe it does, except that I wore all of that to a party this time last year that was for the same people, and I'd rather not wear the same thing two years in a row. Though they do not have the same reason for the party as last year, they are thinking of just having a theme party as an annual event. So this may require a whole series of black dresses and gloves and hair ornaments and such.
I thought that there was more, but now I can't remember what.
We have finally figured out the whole unemployment thing. The thing about the unemployment is that you have to file all the time, even when you worked and don't need it, even when you didn't apply for a job and won't get it, even if you turned down work and won't get it, even when all this is going to do is waste time and make people at the unemployment office do more work that is totally unnecessary, and that way you are still in the system on the week that you don't work and need the money, and they send you your money in a reasonable amount of time and such.
So that is what we are doing. Unfortunately, now that we have figured all of that out, we are told that we only have ten thousand dollars left, and the way things are going that isn't going to last us very long.
My husband seems to be making an effort to be especially nice to me, if you can call it that after more than three years of him still not having done one thing that he was supposed to do for us to be roommates, much less actually be back together like nothing had happened. On my part I was having one of those moments when I think that I might as well try to enjoy myself with the way things are, as they will probably not change in the near future. He worked two days last week and two days the week before, and then he is not likely to work at all for the next two weeks, and then we don't know what is going to happen after that. So of course what we tend to do when he has all this time off is go to restaurants and go to movies and go shopping. Well, we are short on money, though not as short as we would be now that we have figured out the whole unemployment thing. We have not been going out to nice restaurants, just now and then going to Arby's and such, cause we have coupons. And we haven't done that much shopping, but we have bought a few things. While I feel some guilt over that, I can't really say that I feel bad about seeing a few movies, as we have a couple of inexpensive theaters. But there are still days when we stay home and do absolutely nothing, and it tends to get on my nerves spending all that time together doing nothing, sort of getting in each others way.
Not that the day I had to myself went any better. I had planned to spend it knitting, and something went wrong, and I don't know if I can fix it. And he was really trying to be nice to me after that, but there is just nothing to be done about it. I will just have to put the thing away for a while, and maybe after some time has past I will see a solution and not get so upset when I look at it. I instead spent the day watching videos, but I did not feel much better. The next day when he was trying to be nice to me, I did make an attempt to just forget about everything that is stressing me out and just enjoy the day, which I did, for a while. And then the next day I noticed something, and that made me think that something is going to go wrong, and that he knew about it and intended for something to wrong, or at least that he was okay with it. But even if nothing goes wrong, that is what I think of him now, that he is very selfish and this attempt at being nice is just to hide the fact that something else is going to go wrong and that he is responsible.
Christmas Eve dinner was finally rescheduled for yesterday. I ate a half dozen oysters and have no need to see anymore oysters for a while. They were really big oysters too. I'm not really complaining, the food was good, and it was good to see everyone and it was good for mom to have a break, as grandma did not get better like we thought from her most recent hospital stay.
Saturday was fun, though not what I had imagined. We did trivia as planned, but just regular trivia, not sci fi stuff like usual. So I did not win, even after having put together a really great team. And we were playing Family Feud, and the answers are based on what people think is the answer, even if that in fact is not the answer. So we were trying to "steal" points from the other team, and we just don't have any good ideas. The question involved things that turn from green to yellow, and all the good answers have been taken, and all I can think of is pears. My friend thinks maybe the answer is yellow squash, except that I and another friend have gardens, and we know that yellow squash starts out yellow, or maybe even white, and is never green to begin with. So we go with pear, cause no one else can think of anything, and the answer was squash. And then there was a question involving things associated with Texas, and the answers to this question obviously did not come from Texas, and no one was getting those right. And then there was a question about haunted houses, and I was thinking theatrical production, and I guess that the people taking the survey were thinking real house that no one lives in anymore. So we got all of that wrong too. But it was still fun, and I didn't need a silly plague anyway.
I have really had it with all the junk. This helps somewhat when we are shopping, as I have several times put things back, cause I'm thinking that I don't need it right away and I don't want it enough to find someplace to put it, and if something happened and I had to move away, would I want to pack this? Probably not. So I have stopped myself from buying a few things, but I still don't manage to get rid of much.
I know all the experts say that if you don't use something for a year (especially things that you have had in box that hasn't even been opened for a year), you should get rid of it. And I know that makes sense on some levels, but on other levels it just doesn't work for me. Like I have many craft things that I don't use for a year, but that doesn't mean that I should throw away tools or supplies that are still good (or even still new in the package). And seasonal things stay in boxes most of the year, should I throw them away cause I was too busy to put everything out this year? Throw out the stuff that I didn't put out cause it looks too old or I just don't like it anymore, sure, but just because I didn't use a particular decoration this year doesn't mean that I won't want them next year. And I haven't done any baking in forever, but I just have a feeling that in the future I will want to, maybe because of the financial situation, and then I either wouldn't be able to do anything or else I would have to go and buy all new stuff, which would be hard to do because of the financial situation.
And then like all people who have either been on a diet and gained it all back (or people who keep thinking that they will diet but don't), there are all these clothes to think about. And even if I haven't worn them in a year, it still doesn't seem to be a good idea to throw them out. If my weight changes by ten pounds either way, if I didn't keep the clothes, I would have to go out and buy clothes (clothes that might not even fit for very long), or else I would have to stay in the house all the time naked.
So I guess I would rather live with all the junk than live in fear that I'm going to be stuck in the house naked without bakeware and holiday decorations.
The other thing that I have a lot of that I don't really do much with anymore is books. For the last three or four years I have done little reading. My eyesight isn't what it was, and most of the time I just don't have the attention span necessary to enjoy reading a book. But reading has been such a big part of my life, and I keep thinking that someday I will feel better and want to read again. And it also seems silly to get rid of the one thing that is somewhat organized and I actually have a place for. I have many bookshelves, and the books that I've had for a long time have places on the bookshelves and I know where they are and I can find them when I want them. And then there are some additional books that I'm not quite sure where to put, cause they don't quite go with the books that are already on the shelves. And then there are really new books that I didn't put anywhere, cause I was reading them (or at least I meant to), and they are just here and there. So there is the dilemma about the books that on the one hand I shouldn't get rid of them because if I really put some effort into it that is the one thing that I could get organized and every book would have its place, and on the other hand books are the one thing that I could easily get rid of and there is a place to take them where I wouldn't feel that they had just been tossed out. I could even get some money for them, though not enough for that to be the deciding point. Still, I think today I will make another attempt to cull some of the cookbooks. There are two boxes of them that I meant to look through, and it may have even been a year since I last looked at them.
And while I am trying not to spend money and buy things that I will just have to put away somewhere, I am thinking of buying yet another black dress. I was invited to a party, and it is less than a month away, and since I just now learned of it I haven't been planning what to wear. Ideally, it would be something goth, and while I have plenty of black I don't think that just being black makes it look goth, and of course a lot of my things just don't fit at the moment. So I am looking through my things trying to find something that looks goth, or something that I can add to something to make it look goth. I don't think that my best black dress looks goth, but if I add enough stuff to it then maybe it does, except that I wore all of that to a party this time last year that was for the same people, and I'd rather not wear the same thing two years in a row. Though they do not have the same reason for the party as last year, they are thinking of just having a theme party as an annual event. So this may require a whole series of black dresses and gloves and hair ornaments and such.
I thought that there was more, but now I can't remember what.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Last day for videos
Here I am typing on the laptop, which I really don't care for when I have the choice. But, this is where the Internet is connected at the moment, despite the fact that I've made it quite clear how I want things left, with the older computer connected to the Internet and the printer, and the laptop not connected to anything (except when we are uploaded videos or doing business stuff with it). Laptops do not so much function as laptops when there are all these wires and such coming out of them.
So, here I am trying to type on the Mickey Mouse keyboard that is part of the laptop, looking at the little screen that is part of the laptop, etc.... I did ask yesterday about the process of switching the Internet from one computer to the other, and I was told that I neglected to turn something off and on again. So, I tried that this morning, and it didn't seem to do anything. So, I thought that maybe in addition to that I was supposed to also turn the computer itself off and on, but again that did not seem to accomplish anything. So I guess I will have to watch him demonstrate the process, I will need to do that later today, unless I leave the Internet hooked up to the laptop all day, which I do not think that I would care for.
The extended deadline for the video contest is today, and I am debating about doing one last video. I have redone the three others, and posted two of them. I think I will leave the first one alone, just in case those votes do count for something.
The videos are not as fun as they were to begin with, but now I really need the money. So I have to keep trying. And even with that it is probably time to give up and go work at McDonald's. Not that McDonald's is hiring, and I don't speak Spanish so I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone anyway.
I went to Irving yesterday, and while it took longer than I expected and I got a bit of a headache and such for going out so long without lunch, I got most of what I wanted accomplished, except in the Halloween costume department. And with all that is going on, I shouldn't be thinking about Halloween costumes anyway. But I have this dress, and this idea, and this is really the only year that I would want to use this idea, and probably the only year I would want to use this dress. I could just wear it the way that it is and just try to find shoes for it, but I'm thinking at my current weight it would look so much better as a long dress with sleeves. But so far I haven't any luck finding appropriate material to make the alterations.
At this point, I haven't even had any luck finding a bra that will work with it.
But as for the rest of the shopping, it went well enough. Not finding a lot of things that you want also means that you don't spend very much money. So that part was good. He found a couple of books that didn't cost much, and I found a toy knitting machine for two dollars. And I sold two more boxes of books. I can't remember how many that is now, but it must be at least five boxes. Somehow after selling all of those books I still have three boxes that don't fit on the shelves, but I am making a little progress. And I managed to remember to pick up my pills, so I don't think I'll be needing to go back to Irving for a while.
After the late lunch I was still hungry. I seemed to stay hungry for the rest of the day. Then I remembered that this was the last few days that I could buy a three dollar pizza, so we went to get one of those. So (not counting the pills, which I already put aside money for) I gained fifteen more dollars from selling the books than I spent. Today I will go and use the last of my rain checks and buy another ten or twenty pounds of chicken. Then I will be out of money again for a few days.
I think that I will have a very busy day if I try to work on a video in addition to all of the other stuff I have to do. But it is just the one day, so I can probably handle it.
So, here I am trying to type on the Mickey Mouse keyboard that is part of the laptop, looking at the little screen that is part of the laptop, etc.... I did ask yesterday about the process of switching the Internet from one computer to the other, and I was told that I neglected to turn something off and on again. So, I tried that this morning, and it didn't seem to do anything. So, I thought that maybe in addition to that I was supposed to also turn the computer itself off and on, but again that did not seem to accomplish anything. So I guess I will have to watch him demonstrate the process, I will need to do that later today, unless I leave the Internet hooked up to the laptop all day, which I do not think that I would care for.
The extended deadline for the video contest is today, and I am debating about doing one last video. I have redone the three others, and posted two of them. I think I will leave the first one alone, just in case those votes do count for something.
The videos are not as fun as they were to begin with, but now I really need the money. So I have to keep trying. And even with that it is probably time to give up and go work at McDonald's. Not that McDonald's is hiring, and I don't speak Spanish so I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone anyway.
I went to Irving yesterday, and while it took longer than I expected and I got a bit of a headache and such for going out so long without lunch, I got most of what I wanted accomplished, except in the Halloween costume department. And with all that is going on, I shouldn't be thinking about Halloween costumes anyway. But I have this dress, and this idea, and this is really the only year that I would want to use this idea, and probably the only year I would want to use this dress. I could just wear it the way that it is and just try to find shoes for it, but I'm thinking at my current weight it would look so much better as a long dress with sleeves. But so far I haven't any luck finding appropriate material to make the alterations.
At this point, I haven't even had any luck finding a bra that will work with it.
But as for the rest of the shopping, it went well enough. Not finding a lot of things that you want also means that you don't spend very much money. So that part was good. He found a couple of books that didn't cost much, and I found a toy knitting machine for two dollars. And I sold two more boxes of books. I can't remember how many that is now, but it must be at least five boxes. Somehow after selling all of those books I still have three boxes that don't fit on the shelves, but I am making a little progress. And I managed to remember to pick up my pills, so I don't think I'll be needing to go back to Irving for a while.
After the late lunch I was still hungry. I seemed to stay hungry for the rest of the day. Then I remembered that this was the last few days that I could buy a three dollar pizza, so we went to get one of those. So (not counting the pills, which I already put aside money for) I gained fifteen more dollars from selling the books than I spent. Today I will go and use the last of my rain checks and buy another ten or twenty pounds of chicken. Then I will be out of money again for a few days.
I think that I will have a very busy day if I try to work on a video in addition to all of the other stuff I have to do. But it is just the one day, so I can probably handle it.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
I got some odd questions the other day
They were from my brother. Apparently, he doesn't know anything about libraries.
This is odd, because when we were kids, we were in the library all the time. We like to read. Mostly, we still like to read, but I'm not doing that so much anymore because of my eyes.
Even people who don't particularly like to read generally become acquainted with libraries when they go to college. College libraries are different, with their odd number systems and such, but even when they don't use the Dewey decimal system I would think that they are primarily the same. You look up a book by name or author or subject, you get the number of the book (or the general area if it is fiction), and then you go and find the book (or the CD, or the DVD, or whatever). Then you check out the book or whatever, and they tell you to bring it back in two weeks (or three days, or three weeks, or whatever). And if you don't finish with it in that time, you bring in back and have it renewed, or at least you ask for that, but if someone else is waiting on the book you have to turn it in.
Apparently my brother has purchased so many books since college that he hasn't bothered to get his own library card. So fifteen years later, he doesn't know any of this stuff. So he's asking does the book have to be brought back on the due date, or is it already late by then? Can you renew books? How much does it cost to get a library card?
How much does it cost to get a library card?
Well, the thing about the public library is that it is for the public. It is usually free to the public, after you prove that you are part of the public that the library is for. So, to use the Dallas public library, you would show your driver's license and maybe bring some bills and such to prove that you live in Dallas, and then you get a library card for free. And if you don't live in Dallas, you get a library card in Fort Worth or Arlington or Irving or wherever you do live. And then if you want an extra library card where you don't live, like maybe a card for a library near where you work, then you might have to pay for that. But right now if you live in Texas you can probably just get the library card for where you live and then get a TexShare card from them, and then you take that card and you can use other libraries in Texas for free.
I'm trying to think of other libraries that you might have to pay for, but except for school libraries (which are "free" to the students and might charge for non-students), all the libraries I can think of are public libraries.
Maybe Blockbuster counts as a library?
Anyway, I always think that it is odd when a grownup doesn't already have a library card (unless he is new in town), much less totally doesn't have a clue about them. And this was all from someone who actually likes to read. Weird.
This is odd, because when we were kids, we were in the library all the time. We like to read. Mostly, we still like to read, but I'm not doing that so much anymore because of my eyes.
Even people who don't particularly like to read generally become acquainted with libraries when they go to college. College libraries are different, with their odd number systems and such, but even when they don't use the Dewey decimal system I would think that they are primarily the same. You look up a book by name or author or subject, you get the number of the book (or the general area if it is fiction), and then you go and find the book (or the CD, or the DVD, or whatever). Then you check out the book or whatever, and they tell you to bring it back in two weeks (or three days, or three weeks, or whatever). And if you don't finish with it in that time, you bring in back and have it renewed, or at least you ask for that, but if someone else is waiting on the book you have to turn it in.
Apparently my brother has purchased so many books since college that he hasn't bothered to get his own library card. So fifteen years later, he doesn't know any of this stuff. So he's asking does the book have to be brought back on the due date, or is it already late by then? Can you renew books? How much does it cost to get a library card?
How much does it cost to get a library card?
Well, the thing about the public library is that it is for the public. It is usually free to the public, after you prove that you are part of the public that the library is for. So, to use the Dallas public library, you would show your driver's license and maybe bring some bills and such to prove that you live in Dallas, and then you get a library card for free. And if you don't live in Dallas, you get a library card in Fort Worth or Arlington or Irving or wherever you do live. And then if you want an extra library card where you don't live, like maybe a card for a library near where you work, then you might have to pay for that. But right now if you live in Texas you can probably just get the library card for where you live and then get a TexShare card from them, and then you take that card and you can use other libraries in Texas for free.
I'm trying to think of other libraries that you might have to pay for, but except for school libraries (which are "free" to the students and might charge for non-students), all the libraries I can think of are public libraries.
Maybe Blockbuster counts as a library?
Anyway, I always think that it is odd when a grownup doesn't already have a library card (unless he is new in town), much less totally doesn't have a clue about them. And this was all from someone who actually likes to read. Weird.
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