Winter is Coming, no, wait, it's here and it's pretty dull
Let's see.
Mom has been gone for a month now. I've been scanning old pictures. Came across this cute little article, which for some reason was lamnated as a bookmark. First of all, the photo is stunning. Second, why a bookmark? Anyway, I'm going to use it as a bookmark, because there is nothing Mom loved more than books, and she passed that love along to me as early as possible. I still remember with great humor her pushing Travis McGee books on me when I was eight. No censoring books for appropriate age level for her.
There are some other articles I've scanned, including ones with titles like "David Peterson and Bride Locate to Maryland". Oh, interesting, does Bride have a name?
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Job search continues apace. I got some contact from a recruiter about a job at a fancy famous law firm and rewrote my resume according to his specs. "I don't love your resume", he groused. I rolled my eyes and said, 'the only thing I've been able to determine about proper resume format is that no matter what format your resume is in, the next person who reads it will hate it and want you to rewrite it'. 'Oh, but I've been in this business for X years, I know what my clients want to see'. Me, unsaid, 'yeah, that's what the last recruiter said, the one who wanted me to rewrite into the format you're looking at now.'
Then I got a request for a phone interview (as yet unscheduled) for a different fancy law firm. Both of these fancy law firms were places I interviewed at the summer of 1994 when I was trying to move to here from Philadelphia. I ended up at a not-quite-as-fancy law firm, and that job was hideous. I did swear once upon a time to never work at a law firm again, but I'll bet I could handle the weird social structure now and they do pay well and have good benefits (and the offices are fancy, even though the rank and file aren't in the fancy part of the office). Most of my business line experience as a BA is in legal services, so at least I wouldn't be starting from zero. We shall see.
Other excitement for the week. Meeting an old work friend for lunch today before I go to the dentist and get a filling replaced, whee. Tomorrow night being taken to the Met to see "Agrippina", that will be fun. Then the schedule empties out for quite a while.
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I did get some good financial news. Because of the contract-to-hire weirdness of last year, I overpaid in taxes, and that overpayment is coming back to me just when I need it. It doubles the financial cushion I had, which means I have more leeway than I thought I did, and I may not lose my savings over this. Plus I can be a little less penny-pinching (not that I've been particularly good at that). I've signed up for the next semester of skating classes (yay!) and even better, it looks like they have an adult class for exactly the level I'm in. (I was worried that I'd be placed with beginner-beginners which is kind of a waste of time for me now.) So that's cool.
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Lots of media consumption. We finally watched the last season of "Game of Thrones". I knew there was a lot of hair-tearing about how it ended up, but I thought it mostly made sense. I had gotten completely bogged down in book 4 (twice) so I don't know how it compares to the books. Great effects, good acting, lots and lots of scruffy bearded men. I do wish they'd addressed some of the weirdnesses, like 'why are seasons unpredictable in this world', but maybe it's more fun that they didn't. Also, are there no more White Walkers left at all now?
We finished the latest Grace & Frankie, are working our way through Madame Secretary, have The Good Place and Will & Grace and Handmaid's Tale cued up, not to mention a dozen Netflixxy shows behind it.
Saturday night, we watched "Motherless Brooklyn", which is excellent. My friend Susan is an extra in it and gets some quite obvious screen time. She'd told me some really nice stories about shooting the film, which was a really nice experience. Then last night we watched "Hustlers", which wasn't what I expected and wasn't particularly good. I loved Constance Wu in "Crazy Rich Asians" and I have nothing against JLo and holy crap, is that Mercedes Ruehl? Where has she been? And Julia Stiles, who is really quite wonderful and has a deep lesbionic voice. Oh, and that's Lizzo, complete with flute. But not a great movie.
Also, I finished Fall, or Dodge in Hell. Much as I love Stephenson, and loved "REAMDE", I did not like this at all. Vance and i had an interesting little text discussion about this - I found the tech part really interesting, but the 'creating a mythological world' part dull dull dull, where he felt the opposite, and loved it. Ah well.
Now still working on my other print books, but started a bio of Mary Wickes. According to C, it does indeed touch up on her brief appearance as Lady Bracknell in my college theater dept's "The Importance of Being Earnest" my freshman year.
Mom has been gone for a month now. I've been scanning old pictures. Came across this cute little article, which for some reason was lamnated as a bookmark. First of all, the photo is stunning. Second, why a bookmark? Anyway, I'm going to use it as a bookmark, because there is nothing Mom loved more than books, and she passed that love along to me as early as possible. I still remember with great humor her pushing Travis McGee books on me when I was eight. No censoring books for appropriate age level for her.
There are some other articles I've scanned, including ones with titles like "David Peterson and Bride Locate to Maryland". Oh, interesting, does Bride have a name?
---
Job search continues apace. I got some contact from a recruiter about a job at a fancy famous law firm and rewrote my resume according to his specs. "I don't love your resume", he groused. I rolled my eyes and said, 'the only thing I've been able to determine about proper resume format is that no matter what format your resume is in, the next person who reads it will hate it and want you to rewrite it'. 'Oh, but I've been in this business for X years, I know what my clients want to see'. Me, unsaid, 'yeah, that's what the last recruiter said, the one who wanted me to rewrite into the format you're looking at now.'
Then I got a request for a phone interview (as yet unscheduled) for a different fancy law firm. Both of these fancy law firms were places I interviewed at the summer of 1994 when I was trying to move to here from Philadelphia. I ended up at a not-quite-as-fancy law firm, and that job was hideous. I did swear once upon a time to never work at a law firm again, but I'll bet I could handle the weird social structure now and they do pay well and have good benefits (and the offices are fancy, even though the rank and file aren't in the fancy part of the office). Most of my business line experience as a BA is in legal services, so at least I wouldn't be starting from zero. We shall see.
Other excitement for the week. Meeting an old work friend for lunch today before I go to the dentist and get a filling replaced, whee. Tomorrow night being taken to the Met to see "Agrippina", that will be fun. Then the schedule empties out for quite a while.
---
I did get some good financial news. Because of the contract-to-hire weirdness of last year, I overpaid in taxes, and that overpayment is coming back to me just when I need it. It doubles the financial cushion I had, which means I have more leeway than I thought I did, and I may not lose my savings over this. Plus I can be a little less penny-pinching (not that I've been particularly good at that). I've signed up for the next semester of skating classes (yay!) and even better, it looks like they have an adult class for exactly the level I'm in. (I was worried that I'd be placed with beginner-beginners which is kind of a waste of time for me now.) So that's cool.
---
Lots of media consumption. We finally watched the last season of "Game of Thrones". I knew there was a lot of hair-tearing about how it ended up, but I thought it mostly made sense. I had gotten completely bogged down in book 4 (twice) so I don't know how it compares to the books. Great effects, good acting, lots and lots of scruffy bearded men. I do wish they'd addressed some of the weirdnesses, like 'why are seasons unpredictable in this world', but maybe it's more fun that they didn't. Also, are there no more White Walkers left at all now?
We finished the latest Grace & Frankie, are working our way through Madame Secretary, have The Good Place and Will & Grace and Handmaid's Tale cued up, not to mention a dozen Netflixxy shows behind it.
Saturday night, we watched "Motherless Brooklyn", which is excellent. My friend Susan is an extra in it and gets some quite obvious screen time. She'd told me some really nice stories about shooting the film, which was a really nice experience. Then last night we watched "Hustlers", which wasn't what I expected and wasn't particularly good. I loved Constance Wu in "Crazy Rich Asians" and I have nothing against JLo and holy crap, is that Mercedes Ruehl? Where has she been? And Julia Stiles, who is really quite wonderful and has a deep lesbionic voice. Oh, and that's Lizzo, complete with flute. But not a great movie.
Also, I finished Fall, or Dodge in Hell. Much as I love Stephenson, and loved "REAMDE", I did not like this at all. Vance and i had an interesting little text discussion about this - I found the tech part really interesting, but the 'creating a mythological world' part dull dull dull, where he felt the opposite, and loved it. Ah well.
Now still working on my other print books, but started a bio of Mary Wickes. According to C, it does indeed touch up on her brief appearance as Lady Bracknell in my college theater dept's "The Importance of Being Earnest" my freshman year.