Ketchup
Gooood morning.
July was a crazy month, if my comparative lack of postage (when I don't really post all that often to begin with) was any indicator. I'm staring at my blank calendar for August in disbelief; every time someone contacts me to make plans for an upcoming day or weekend I have a mini panic attack because I still feel like my schedule is bursting at the seams, when really, it's not. It's been strangely quiet all week and I'm kind of not trusting that fact.
Boy, are we burned out. We're so ready to move. And yet the right opportunity hasn't presented itself yet, so we're hanging tight for the time being, trying to enjoy where we are and all that jazz. But we're so ready to move.
Luke made it onto the Best Qualified certificate for his government promotion, which is a Big Deal. It means all the nights we've spent up late pulling our hair out over KSA essays wasn't wasted, and we now have strong enough material to throw at other job openings that might come along in the next few months with all the other nationwide agencies. Because even if Luke gets this promotion, we've decided we're just going to use it as more leverage to get out of here.
It's weird how acutely I feel this transitory period, even though it could very well last another year or so. I feel like I can't settle in any part of my life. I'm so restless. And yet! I am not stressed - not in the traditional sense. I go to work every day and practically sleepwalk through my eight hours; my job is so familiar by now I really could do it with one eye closed. My circle of support at home and at church always gives me a shot of love and perspective when I need it. And my reading, man, my reading - I consume at least a book a week now and it's hard to worry about my little life with such constant exposure to wisdom and truth. I just started Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen - it's non-fiction about this guy's crazy experiences running dogs in Alaska - and it's the kind of life-as-storytelling I love best. (It helps that I've always had a strong interest in that whole culture. Blame Jack London and Balto.)
Fannishly, I am keeping myself edified and entertained, of course! (When am I not?) I'm watching S3 of Veronica Mars, which I never did get around to a year or so back when I first watched the series - I have this paranoia that strikes every time I finish a REALLY AMAZING season of TV that says: "CRAP, you'd better put some space between this and the next round, because there's NO WAY it won't disappoint you." And you know what, usually that break from the show yields good results. I'll return to it later and really enjoy whatever's next for what it is. It happened with Buffy and even X-Files back when I was first discovering it. Anyway, I digress. I'm enjoying S3, despite all the "ARGH, TROPES MUCH" moments that come along. Bonus: I have conned Luke into liking it. He makes a big brouhaha about not being able to stand my "teen shows" but he'll wander around the house when I'm watching VM and pause for long periods of time to sneak a look. He's even watched two full episodes with me on the couch without a peep! I haven't called him out on it yet because the moment I do he'll deny he digs it (and Kristen Bell, natch). But it's only a matter of time before I propose watching S1 from the start and he agrees. A MATTER OF TIME.
Otherwise... things are going explody in the Marvel universe, centering around Hell's Kitchen and my favorite high-strung superhero. There is this alarming trend now on the Daredevil book for every new writing team to "leave their mark" on the canon by screwing up Matt's life BEYOND BELIEF in some new and previously unfathomable way. Identity outed? Check. Declaring himself Kingpin? Check. Going to jail? Check. Becoming leader of the Hand? Check. KILLING HIS MORTAL ENEMIES? CHECK, APPARENTLY. Yes, that's right, Daredevil has now committed the Superhero Cardinal Sin. HE KILLED BULLSEYE. SHADOWLAND #1 TOTALLY TRUE. MY WORLD IS TILTING but... I kind of like it NGL. And he is the only superhero I would ever say that about. As soon as Batman kills people in some AU world (I'm lookin' at you, Tim Burton) I get bored. But DD? Shit, it's been like watching a timed bomb count down to zero at a slow and painful pace for YEARS. if anybody's got his reasons for losing it it's Matthew Michael Murdock. And if anybody deserves his homicidal rage, it's Bullseye. I'm waiting to see what the explanation is for the internal battle depicted in #508 before I try to meta the character reasoning behind everything, but in a word: wow. Now to catch up on all the Shadowland one-shots...
One more thing before I go: I picked up Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands at Target over the weekend for $20, brand new! Snap! Color me impressed, because it's actually quite a lovely addition to the Sands of Time series. Necessary? No. But there's so much love for SOT in there I can't help liking it. As soon as Yuri-Prince started talking to himself again and bantering with his loser brother Malik, I was won over. Brings back a lot of good memories. Yeah, you could say it runs solely on nostalgia and goodwill leftover from the old series, but so what? It's pretty, the level design and environments are stunning, the platforming is appropriately nutty. I've missed this iteration of the Prince. I'm still up for a sequel to the 2008 POP, but it's nice to be reminded of why I got into this series in the first place.
Is that enough rambling for one Thursday morning? I think so.
July was a crazy month, if my comparative lack of postage (when I don't really post all that often to begin with) was any indicator. I'm staring at my blank calendar for August in disbelief; every time someone contacts me to make plans for an upcoming day or weekend I have a mini panic attack because I still feel like my schedule is bursting at the seams, when really, it's not. It's been strangely quiet all week and I'm kind of not trusting that fact.
Boy, are we burned out. We're so ready to move. And yet the right opportunity hasn't presented itself yet, so we're hanging tight for the time being, trying to enjoy where we are and all that jazz. But we're so ready to move.
Luke made it onto the Best Qualified certificate for his government promotion, which is a Big Deal. It means all the nights we've spent up late pulling our hair out over KSA essays wasn't wasted, and we now have strong enough material to throw at other job openings that might come along in the next few months with all the other nationwide agencies. Because even if Luke gets this promotion, we've decided we're just going to use it as more leverage to get out of here.
It's weird how acutely I feel this transitory period, even though it could very well last another year or so. I feel like I can't settle in any part of my life. I'm so restless. And yet! I am not stressed - not in the traditional sense. I go to work every day and practically sleepwalk through my eight hours; my job is so familiar by now I really could do it with one eye closed. My circle of support at home and at church always gives me a shot of love and perspective when I need it. And my reading, man, my reading - I consume at least a book a week now and it's hard to worry about my little life with such constant exposure to wisdom and truth. I just started Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen - it's non-fiction about this guy's crazy experiences running dogs in Alaska - and it's the kind of life-as-storytelling I love best. (It helps that I've always had a strong interest in that whole culture. Blame Jack London and Balto.)
Fannishly, I am keeping myself edified and entertained, of course! (When am I not?) I'm watching S3 of Veronica Mars, which I never did get around to a year or so back when I first watched the series - I have this paranoia that strikes every time I finish a REALLY AMAZING season of TV that says: "CRAP, you'd better put some space between this and the next round, because there's NO WAY it won't disappoint you." And you know what, usually that break from the show yields good results. I'll return to it later and really enjoy whatever's next for what it is. It happened with Buffy and even X-Files back when I was first discovering it. Anyway, I digress. I'm enjoying S3, despite all the "ARGH, TROPES MUCH" moments that come along. Bonus: I have conned Luke into liking it. He makes a big brouhaha about not being able to stand my "teen shows" but he'll wander around the house when I'm watching VM and pause for long periods of time to sneak a look. He's even watched two full episodes with me on the couch without a peep! I haven't called him out on it yet because the moment I do he'll deny he digs it (and Kristen Bell, natch). But it's only a matter of time before I propose watching S1 from the start and he agrees. A MATTER OF TIME.
Otherwise... things are going explody in the Marvel universe, centering around Hell's Kitchen and my favorite high-strung superhero. There is this alarming trend now on the Daredevil book for every new writing team to "leave their mark" on the canon by screwing up Matt's life BEYOND BELIEF in some new and previously unfathomable way. Identity outed? Check. Declaring himself Kingpin? Check. Going to jail? Check. Becoming leader of the Hand? Check. KILLING HIS MORTAL ENEMIES? CHECK, APPARENTLY. Yes, that's right, Daredevil has now committed the Superhero Cardinal Sin. HE KILLED BULLSEYE. SHADOWLAND #1 TOTALLY TRUE. MY WORLD IS TILTING but... I kind of like it NGL. And he is the only superhero I would ever say that about. As soon as Batman kills people in some AU world (I'm lookin' at you, Tim Burton) I get bored. But DD? Shit, it's been like watching a timed bomb count down to zero at a slow and painful pace for YEARS. if anybody's got his reasons for losing it it's Matthew Michael Murdock. And if anybody deserves his homicidal rage, it's Bullseye. I'm waiting to see what the explanation is for the internal battle depicted in #508 before I try to meta the character reasoning behind everything, but in a word: wow. Now to catch up on all the Shadowland one-shots...
One more thing before I go: I picked up Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands at Target over the weekend for $20, brand new! Snap! Color me impressed, because it's actually quite a lovely addition to the Sands of Time series. Necessary? No. But there's so much love for SOT in there I can't help liking it. As soon as Yuri-Prince started talking to himself again and bantering with his loser brother Malik, I was won over. Brings back a lot of good memories. Yeah, you could say it runs solely on nostalgia and goodwill leftover from the old series, but so what? It's pretty, the level design and environments are stunning, the platforming is appropriately nutty. I've missed this iteration of the Prince. I'm still up for a sequel to the 2008 POP, but it's nice to be reminded of why I got into this series in the first place.
Is that enough rambling for one Thursday morning? I think so.