Hello!
I'm sorry I haven't been posting for months. Since mid-May I have been working the 2 jobs, the museum job and then a second job 3 nights a week at the vet clinic I used to work at as an undergrad, where I now take my own pets. This summer was really bad with lots of strays and irresponsible pet owners whose animals had hideous diseases because they hadn't been vaccinated and/or flea treated, and so I never got out earlier than 1:00, and usually wound up working until somewhere between 3-5am (starting at 9pm). That translates into 20+ extra hours of work a week, in addition to the 40 at the museum.
Highlights from the clinic include the taming of the near-feral Butterscotch, Skeleton Kitty, Kittyvision, Sirus the Biter-Through-Of-Webbing-On-Hands, and Mama corgi and her hours-old puppies. I intend to write a post or two on everything as soon as I settle back down.
But last night was my last night at the clinic, and I've taken this week off to try and get my very screwed up sleep schedule re-adjusted. J, who has been working at Borders and at the museum both part-time, is also down to one job now (at the museum, which is very nice) and took this week off too, so we could have some time together before he starts school next week. Also within the next few days I'll have news, either good or bad, on a new rental house we're hoping to move in to, which is much nicer but a TON smaller than our current place.
Other news, good and bad:
* We've finally found a couple of people who tabletop game and/or would be interested in joining a tabletop game (one girl has never gamed before but only because she never knew anyone who ran), so a new group might be imminent. We've missed it terribly.
* Museum work has been still going much the same, though I am rather more behind than I had hoped to be, as a lot of it (the database work) requires concentration and sitting at the computer for long periods of time, both of which are more of a challenge on little sleep. There has moreover been Much Political Drama at the museum, which I'd be glad to discuss with people over email if you're interested, but the short version is that I'm probably not going to be as upset as I had thought over leaving here a little earlier than I had anticipated when J finishes school in 2010 and we are job hunting.
* I saw Wall-E and loved it, but not without some irritation at parts; I saw the new Indiana Jones and did not love it at all. We've also been watching a lot of really, really terrible horror and SF movies from Netflix, which by and large haven't even been the so-bad-it's-good type of horror, though "Black Sheep" was kind of fun. Non-horror "Death At a Funeral" was quite well done, especially Alan Tudyk's character on acid, and "The Orphanage" wasn't as good as I'd hoped, though incredibly creepy in parts. We also started watching HBO's Rome series on DVD, and neither of us were particularly impressed after watching 3 episodes so that's where we stopped watching. If you've seen it, does it pick up?
* Making much use of the public library this summer; I'm reading lots of really interesting stuff (to me), the most recent being Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood; I like C.J. Cherryh and have been reading lots of her SF stuff, but for some reason it is incredibly slow going, despite the fact that I find the worlds and characters really interesting and the writing very well done. Reading lots of non-fiction too; the book I've been thinking about the most has been The Middle of Everywhere by Mary Pipher, a Nebraska therapist, on her work with relocated refugees - it's kind of a pop non-fiction book, so I don't know if anyone has read it... I have terribly mixed feelings about the book but I'd really love to talk about the issues it brings up (J is reading Cyteen and hasn't gotten to Pipher's book yet) so on the very off chance someone else has read it I thought I'd mention it.
* One of the curators at the museum has gone all digital with his personal cameras and gave me a very nice Canon Rebel 2000 E05 camera for free; I am an utter novice at anything beyond basic photography, and 35mm film is going to be expensive to practice with (and the camera is sans manual, so that doesn't help) but it's easily the nicest camera I've had. Any advice for beginning photographers would be very helpful (looks hopefully at wadam...)
* galiyah's wonderful husband found us a scanner, so hopefully our old pics--and maybe now some new pics!--will be making their way online soon. Not sure where; Facebook for sure, and maybe Flickr? Any recommendations for online photo sites?
* Lots more stuff, but I need coffee so I'm going to cut it short. I will be posting more soon...
I'd like to start up the Diligent Gnomes again, because there's lots of stuff I want to get done. If people are still interested :)
Lots of posts to catch up on - looks like you all are doing some cool stuff! Hope that everyone is well...
Highlights from the clinic include the taming of the near-feral Butterscotch, Skeleton Kitty, Kittyvision, Sirus the Biter-Through-Of-Webbing-On-Hands, and Mama corgi and her hours-old puppies. I intend to write a post or two on everything as soon as I settle back down.
But last night was my last night at the clinic, and I've taken this week off to try and get my very screwed up sleep schedule re-adjusted. J, who has been working at Borders and at the museum both part-time, is also down to one job now (at the museum, which is very nice) and took this week off too, so we could have some time together before he starts school next week. Also within the next few days I'll have news, either good or bad, on a new rental house we're hoping to move in to, which is much nicer but a TON smaller than our current place.
Other news, good and bad:
* We've finally found a couple of people who tabletop game and/or would be interested in joining a tabletop game (one girl has never gamed before but only because she never knew anyone who ran), so a new group might be imminent. We've missed it terribly.
* Museum work has been still going much the same, though I am rather more behind than I had hoped to be, as a lot of it (the database work) requires concentration and sitting at the computer for long periods of time, both of which are more of a challenge on little sleep. There has moreover been Much Political Drama at the museum, which I'd be glad to discuss with people over email if you're interested, but the short version is that I'm probably not going to be as upset as I had thought over leaving here a little earlier than I had anticipated when J finishes school in 2010 and we are job hunting.
* I saw Wall-E and loved it, but not without some irritation at parts; I saw the new Indiana Jones and did not love it at all. We've also been watching a lot of really, really terrible horror and SF movies from Netflix, which by and large haven't even been the so-bad-it's-good type of horror, though "Black Sheep" was kind of fun. Non-horror "Death At a Funeral" was quite well done, especially Alan Tudyk's character on acid, and "The Orphanage" wasn't as good as I'd hoped, though incredibly creepy in parts. We also started watching HBO's Rome series on DVD, and neither of us were particularly impressed after watching 3 episodes so that's where we stopped watching. If you've seen it, does it pick up?
* Making much use of the public library this summer; I'm reading lots of really interesting stuff (to me), the most recent being Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood; I like C.J. Cherryh and have been reading lots of her SF stuff, but for some reason it is incredibly slow going, despite the fact that I find the worlds and characters really interesting and the writing very well done. Reading lots of non-fiction too; the book I've been thinking about the most has been The Middle of Everywhere by Mary Pipher, a Nebraska therapist, on her work with relocated refugees - it's kind of a pop non-fiction book, so I don't know if anyone has read it... I have terribly mixed feelings about the book but I'd really love to talk about the issues it brings up (J is reading Cyteen and hasn't gotten to Pipher's book yet) so on the very off chance someone else has read it I thought I'd mention it.
* One of the curators at the museum has gone all digital with his personal cameras and gave me a very nice Canon Rebel 2000 E05 camera for free; I am an utter novice at anything beyond basic photography, and 35mm film is going to be expensive to practice with (and the camera is sans manual, so that doesn't help) but it's easily the nicest camera I've had. Any advice for beginning photographers would be very helpful (looks hopefully at wadam...)
* galiyah's wonderful husband found us a scanner, so hopefully our old pics--and maybe now some new pics!--will be making their way online soon. Not sure where; Facebook for sure, and maybe Flickr? Any recommendations for online photo sites?
* Lots more stuff, but I need coffee so I'm going to cut it short. I will be posting more soon...
I'd like to start up the Diligent Gnomes again, because there's lots of stuff I want to get done. If people are still interested :)
Lots of posts to catch up on - looks like you all are doing some cool stuff! Hope that everyone is well...