How long has it been since I did a real entry?
(What amounts to a "real" entry?)
I really need to fix this. By "this," I mean my hesitance to write here. I used to be pretty decent at journaling; now if I post more than twice a month it's "a lot."
It's not that I'm not thinking about things or avoiding events of any story quality. Lots of little stuff happens from day to day, and some big stuff too.
For the big stuff: I alluded to it in my last entry, but my dad's family excavating business is officially history. With the lack of work in the construction field, continuing the business was just not possible. They weren't making enough to pay off old debts, so they needed to start selling off equipment, and it's hard to do work without equipment, so ... well, I suppose it was a whole mess of things that's been gathering together over the last three or so years, and it came to a breaking point when the company didn't get the last hope of a job. One of my uncles has already retired. My other uncle said this was it for him. My dad didn't want to continue the business on his own ...
This has meant the last few weeks of 2009 had a whole lot of confusion and uncertainty. We still don't really know how things are going to go from here, but my dad decided to retire (though he's only in his mid fifties) and cash in on his pension. He still plans on looking for work to supplement that, but at least there's some money guaranteed.
It also means that my brother is looking for a job, since he worked for my dad's business too. (Yes, I am now the only one in my family with a job ... terrifying, considering how little I work and how relatively small my paycheck is.)
The bright side of this (if one wishes to be positive) is that even though my dad's company is over, at least my family is currently OK financially. The company is in debt; we are not. We can weather this storm.
The not so bright side of this (besides the obvious, you know, loss of jobs) is that we also lose out on some of the business perks. The company paid for our gas and our cell phones. I will now be buying my own gas (fortunately I don't use a lot) and I no longer have a cell phone. Maybe I'll get another cell in the future, but spending $40 a month (or however much it would cost) on a phone that I barely use just does not make sense.
That's it for the big stuff. I've been trying to avoid thinking about it, honestly, especially since my parents have hashed everything out again and again. My dad even talks about selling or renting out our house and moving to our cottage, but that's just ridiculous enough at this point that I try to ignore him.
So, let's talk about something else. Perhaps it is in bad taste to go from talking about how "poor" my family is becoming to talking about what I'm spending my money on, but ... I think I'm pretty good about budgeting and allotting a small portion of my income for entertainment, so whatever.
I get to back up all the way to November anyway. That's when I purchased the full series of Gundam 08th MS Team and Cowboy Bebop for $10 and $18, respectively. Which is the cheapest I've ever seen either of them *preens* These series (probably) mark the end of my nostalgia buying -- 08th MS Team is the first Gundam I finished (technically I watched the original Gundam first since they started airing on the same day, but as CN didn't properly finish airing the original, I've yet to see the end), all the way back in 2001. I think it's probably my favorite Gundam ("probably" because I love Seed, but parts of it are really dull/silly). Cowboy Bebop is another series I watched on TV, on Adult Swim. I wouldn't rank it as one of my favorites, but I did definitely enjoy it and I do have a certain respect for it still. I'd considered buying both these series many times before, but I was waiting for prices like these.
In December there was a good sale on some Media Blasters titles at Best Buy.com, so I picked up Here is Greenwood. The success of the PSME anime has encouraged my interest in early 90s shoujo OVAs, and Greenwood is one I'd been curious about for a long time. It was a good choice -- Greenwood is the perfect light, character-based comedy. It sets up some interesting characters (four good-looking boys who live in a high school dorm) and then puts them through a few silly situations (amateur movie-making, being haunted by a ghost, kidnappings by jealous siblings, etc.) and a few more slightly more serious ones (second love ♥). It's based on a much longer manga, but since it focused on one or two episode situations, it didn't feel cramped or confusing. It was all-around really enjoyable ^_^
At the end of the month, as a result of a random $5 in Borders Bucks arriving at my inbox, I finally went to the local Waldenbooks, which is closing down (possibly is closed now? I'm not sure), to see what was left. I really never go to the WB anymore because the mall it's in is in kind of a bad area (several people have gotten shot there) ... but my mom offered to go with me, and I figured this would be the last time. It was definitely worth it. They still had quite a bit left, and all manga was 50 percent off. I had just planned to buy one thing to use my free $5, but I ended up buying 8-11 of the Fruits Basket manga (now I own 1-15) and the first two Haruhi Suzumiya light novels. ... I wouldn't say I'm a huge HS fan, but I enjoyed the first series, I enjoy light novels, and ... I figured I wouldn't get a much better opportunity to give in to my curiosity.
I've been thinking a lot about what my next purchase should be, especially with that VISA gift card (from the staff Christmas party) burning a hole in my pocket. I'm so wishy-washy when it comes to shopping though ... I really want to buy Baccano after chatting with
kazenokaitou about it and thus remembering how much I enjoyed it, and it is on sale at RS right now, but I'm still pondering what else to get to fix the order price beyond the free shipping threshold without exceeding the amount on my gift card. There are *lots* of options for that ... (I could call in to have any excess charged to my credit card, but I want things to be neat as possible.) And I could buy that on my credit card normally instead, and use the gift card on something else. Video games? I've been eying Avalon Code for oh-so-long, but again, I'd need to get something else to get free shipping from amazon.com (which is where I would likely buy it). Again, plenty of options. I'm trying to limit myself to "stuff that I really want," but I admit a tendency to jump at shiny sales on stuff that merely qualifies as "stuff that I'm really curious about."
I've also toyed with the idea of saving it toward the price of a Wii ... but I'm not quite ready to commit to getting a Wii yet.
Or maybe I should use it toward something entirely different. I have been wanting to get a new winter coat ...
(See, this is the trouble; I don't have so much trouble with the money I normally budget for "entertainment," it's just when I randomly get something like this that I get all sorts of big ideas because it's "special" and I can't decide, ha ha.)
Yeesh, I think that's quite enough rambling about that ^^; This is one aspect in which I am much the same as I was at the beginning of the last decade (except I like to think that I am better at finding sales now).
Hmm, I was going to talk about recently watched anime -- Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Emma seasons 1 and 2, and most recently Ergo Proxy -- but I guess that's not going to happen.
Right now I'm playing Tales of the Abyss again, yay! (I started a bit before Christmas, I think; I'm now about ~40 hours in.)
Right now I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen (no relation to the anime Emma). I've been reading it for a long time. I'm almost done though. (And it's good, just long and ... leisurely.)
OK, the end.