Life, or Something Like It
Oct. 30th, 2004 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupI know, I disappeared off the face of the earth immediately after promising a new chapter. *wince* Sorry, writer's block got in the way, and then Real Life popped up and demanded my attention for awhile.
I spent nine hours Wednesday just balancing my accounts. Agh. Remind me never to wait four months to do that, ever again. I thought I had about $500 more than I actually do, because I'd forgotten to record a few things like, oh, my summer course registration fee, the auto insurance payments that were being automatically deducted from my account, etc., etc. *slapping forehead* But now my records on my checking account, student loans, car loan, and credit cards are all in Quickbooks, properly totalled and categorized, and the relevant bills all sorted in my filing cabinet. I felt nicely accomplished afterward.
If it weren't for the promise of unemployment checks starting next week, things might be looking a mite grim, though. Oh, I'm not short on money at the moment, but I only have about a month and a half of cushion for future bills; if I didn't have a source of income, I'd have to put in my 30-day notice with the next rent check. Thankfully, however, it looks like the government will be paying me about 80% of what my employers were, so all I have to do is cut back on things like books and DVDs and fast food and I should be fine until I get hired somewhere.
Thursday I spent some time with Meadhbha. We were meant to have a sewing get-together, but she didn't bring the necessary equipment, so we did a bit of shopping and watched movies instead. The first was "Court Jester", which I am informed is part of the Top Three necessary videos for any SCA member's education. (The other two, of course, are "The Princess Bride" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", both of which I own). It was highly entertaining, but a bit winceworthy, as many of the older comic musicals are. The second movie we watched was "Moulin Rouge", which I never would have seen on my own. Ewan McGregor might be a significant draw factor for me, but my dislike for Nicole Kidman balanced that out, and did I mention that I'm rather picky about musicals? I'm glad to have seen it the once, I suppose, so I can say that I have -- it was quite the experience -- but never again.
Yesterday morning I filled out some applications and voted. Gotta love the Oregon mail-in system, but it took awhile to read through all the informative pamphlets. I may tend to vote Republican, as most of my family does, but I'm registered Independent; I believe in weighing up the facts for oneself and making the decision that feels right, regardless of what the party line or public opinion might be. After that, I spent some time updating some of my other personal files.
Mom's sick. The injectable medication she's been taking for her severe osteoporosis has been making her ill, not as bad as most of the other options, but still not good, so they sent her in for an EKG Thursday to check for the cause of the chest pains she's having and Friday they scoped her upper GI tract to make sure there wasn't any damage there. I hate this. Sometimes it feels like she's been eroding away in tiny fragments for years, and she's only 46. She sounded awful on the phone last night. But at least there weren't any immediately apparent problems.
In slightly better news, my brother scored a 92 on his ASVAB. As long as he does well on his physical, there seems to be no immediate obstacle to his gaining his choice of Air Force career -- air traffic controller. Apparently, due to the high stress nature of the job, applications for the post are a little thin, so he has a decent chance of getting it. Also, as he already possesses an Associate's degree, he'd go straight to Airman First Class. Mom's tense over it, but it's not like he'd be in any combat danger like our friend DS, who is in advanced infantry bootcamp right now and will be on the ground in Iraq after the turn of the year.
Tomorrow, after church, I'm off the parents' house again. Every year, we throw our own private All Hallows' Eve party and watch a collection of horror movies. Not the gory ones, though. A couple of mildly spooky ones like "Sleepy Hollow" are good, but we usually follow them with old cheesy 50's type horror pics like "Them!" or "The Birds" or "Creature from the Black Lagoon". And of course, hot cider and caramel apples and ceramic pumpkins filled with candy.
I did avoid my duty once, 1999 I think, and stayed at Fox instead to host a party.
Madman did not come costumed ... but borrowed from someone else. =)
Likewise, Hildegaard did not come weapon'd, but someone else did ...
Anyway. I suppose I'd better get back to The Mandalorian Armor if I want to have a review for it up within a week of starting it. I bragged about my reading speed, but I'm afraid my AD/HD tends to reduce that drastically when my interest is flagging, and Boba Fett was never the draw for me that the main characters are. Sure, he's cool, but in the end the stories of the various bounty hunters have relatively little impact on the vast story arcs that hold the Star Wars universe together. What I'm really looking forward to is reaching the Thrawn trilogy again, the first EU books I ever bought, but I have the rest of the Bounty Hunter Wars to slog through first, followed by The Truce at Bakura, the first seven X-Wing books, The Courtship of Princess Leia, and Tatooine Ghost. *sigh*
*sniffle* I have a cold, too. First of the fall season; joy. *cough* Hmm. I think I still have a few packets of Earl Grey tea left, and I suppose it's about time I got the lap blankets down out of the cupboard ...
I spent nine hours Wednesday just balancing my accounts. Agh. Remind me never to wait four months to do that, ever again. I thought I had about $500 more than I actually do, because I'd forgotten to record a few things like, oh, my summer course registration fee, the auto insurance payments that were being automatically deducted from my account, etc., etc. *slapping forehead* But now my records on my checking account, student loans, car loan, and credit cards are all in Quickbooks, properly totalled and categorized, and the relevant bills all sorted in my filing cabinet. I felt nicely accomplished afterward.
If it weren't for the promise of unemployment checks starting next week, things might be looking a mite grim, though. Oh, I'm not short on money at the moment, but I only have about a month and a half of cushion for future bills; if I didn't have a source of income, I'd have to put in my 30-day notice with the next rent check. Thankfully, however, it looks like the government will be paying me about 80% of what my employers were, so all I have to do is cut back on things like books and DVDs and fast food and I should be fine until I get hired somewhere.
Thursday I spent some time with Meadhbha. We were meant to have a sewing get-together, but she didn't bring the necessary equipment, so we did a bit of shopping and watched movies instead. The first was "Court Jester", which I am informed is part of the Top Three necessary videos for any SCA member's education. (The other two, of course, are "The Princess Bride" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", both of which I own). It was highly entertaining, but a bit winceworthy, as many of the older comic musicals are. The second movie we watched was "Moulin Rouge", which I never would have seen on my own. Ewan McGregor might be a significant draw factor for me, but my dislike for Nicole Kidman balanced that out, and did I mention that I'm rather picky about musicals? I'm glad to have seen it the once, I suppose, so I can say that I have -- it was quite the experience -- but never again.
Yesterday morning I filled out some applications and voted. Gotta love the Oregon mail-in system, but it took awhile to read through all the informative pamphlets. I may tend to vote Republican, as most of my family does, but I'm registered Independent; I believe in weighing up the facts for oneself and making the decision that feels right, regardless of what the party line or public opinion might be. After that, I spent some time updating some of my other personal files.
Mom's sick. The injectable medication she's been taking for her severe osteoporosis has been making her ill, not as bad as most of the other options, but still not good, so they sent her in for an EKG Thursday to check for the cause of the chest pains she's having and Friday they scoped her upper GI tract to make sure there wasn't any damage there. I hate this. Sometimes it feels like she's been eroding away in tiny fragments for years, and she's only 46. She sounded awful on the phone last night. But at least there weren't any immediately apparent problems.
In slightly better news, my brother scored a 92 on his ASVAB. As long as he does well on his physical, there seems to be no immediate obstacle to his gaining his choice of Air Force career -- air traffic controller. Apparently, due to the high stress nature of the job, applications for the post are a little thin, so he has a decent chance of getting it. Also, as he already possesses an Associate's degree, he'd go straight to Airman First Class. Mom's tense over it, but it's not like he'd be in any combat danger like our friend DS, who is in advanced infantry bootcamp right now and will be on the ground in Iraq after the turn of the year.
Tomorrow, after church, I'm off the parents' house again. Every year, we throw our own private All Hallows' Eve party and watch a collection of horror movies. Not the gory ones, though. A couple of mildly spooky ones like "Sleepy Hollow" are good, but we usually follow them with old cheesy 50's type horror pics like "Them!" or "The Birds" or "Creature from the Black Lagoon". And of course, hot cider and caramel apples and ceramic pumpkins filled with candy.
I did avoid my duty once, 1999 I think, and stayed at Fox instead to host a party.
Madman did not come costumed ... but borrowed from someone else. =)
Likewise, Hildegaard did not come weapon'd, but someone else did ...
Anyway. I suppose I'd better get back to The Mandalorian Armor if I want to have a review for it up within a week of starting it. I bragged about my reading speed, but I'm afraid my AD/HD tends to reduce that drastically when my interest is flagging, and Boba Fett was never the draw for me that the main characters are. Sure, he's cool, but in the end the stories of the various bounty hunters have relatively little impact on the vast story arcs that hold the Star Wars universe together. What I'm really looking forward to is reaching the Thrawn trilogy again, the first EU books I ever bought, but I have the rest of the Bounty Hunter Wars to slog through first, followed by The Truce at Bakura, the first seven X-Wing books, The Courtship of Princess Leia, and Tatooine Ghost. *sigh*
*sniffle* I have a cold, too. First of the fall season; joy. *cough* Hmm. I think I still have a few packets of Earl Grey tea left, and I suppose it's about time I got the lap blankets down out of the cupboard ...
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-31 05:57 am (UTC)Moulin Rouge
Date: 2004-11-02 11:55 am (UTC)Mostly, my problem with the movie was that while Baz Luhrmann may be a genius at the huge fast-paced flashy group scenes, the supposedly dramatic interludes between the writer and the courtesan were painful to watch.
The Sound of Silence
Date: 2004-10-31 09:06 pm (UTC)Ugh! I did that last year, and vowed never to let it happen again! In the end, I basically just hoped my bank account balance was correct, and started over on Jan 1 of this year. What a pain. Glad you felt a sense of accomplishment in the end, though!
...all I have to do is cut back on things like books and DVDs and fast food and I should be fine until I get hired somewhere.
All I have to do is stop buying large items like a treadmill and a game table. What am I thinking? Must be more fiscally responsible... *grin*
The first was "Court Jester", which I am informed is part of the Top Three necessary videos for any SCA member's education.
Well, now I have to go out and rent this! I've seen the other two, of course. By the Sword (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0101524/) is generally acknowledged as a movie every fencer should see at some point. I've been meaning to see Moulin Rouge, glad to hear you think it's OK (if not great).
I believe in weighing up the facts for oneself and making the decision that feels right, regardless of what the party line or public opinion might be.
Me, too! I don't want to conform to party lines, especially since I'm a political moderate. On some things, I'm very right-oriented. However, I have some topics that I lean very left on. So, I like to keep my options open and see who I relate to the most.
Also, as he already possesses an Associate's degree, he'd go straight to Airman First Class.
Hope he does well with that, it sounds pretty cool. And as you note, it's not like he would likely be directly in harm's way. My friend AirMan was recently promoted, so he's technically an airman anymore. He'll always be that to me, though! *grin*
Tomorrow, after church, I'm off the parents' house again.
Hope you had a nice time with your family. Did you tell them you've been posting pics of them online and having your friends comment on them? :)
*sniffle* I have a cold, too... Mom's sick. The injectable medication she's been taking for her severe osteoporosis has been making her ill
Sorry to hear you're both under the weather. I will be sure to pray for each of you, and hope you're feeling peachy keen in the very near future!
Re: The Sound of Silence
Date: 2004-10-31 10:30 pm (UTC)*sigh* I hate it when I make dumb oversights like that after I proofread the darn thing. :)
Re: Re: The Sound of Silence
Date: 2004-11-02 12:14 pm (UTC)Re: The Sound of Silence
Date: 2004-11-02 12:11 pm (UTC)Hee. I did that once, a couple of years ago. I'd lost a couple of bank statements in the months between balancing it all out, so there was no hope of catching all the errors properly. I regretted it later, though; I lost years worth of expense tracking. I like being able to tell how much I've spent on books in the last year, or gasoline, or electricity.
All I have to do is stop buying large items like a treadmill and a game table. What am I thinking? Must be more fiscally responsible... *grin*
Hey, as long as you don't practice my brother's method of cash management. "Oh, I had about $30 in my account last I checked. Hey! That means I can afford another DVD! Must go to Best Buy ..."
Well, now I have to go out and rent this! I've seen the other two, of course. By the Sword is generally acknowledged as a movie every fencer should see at some point. I've been meaning to see Moulin Rouge, glad to hear you think it's OK (if not great).
See my comment above to
Me, too! I don't want to conform to party lines, especially since I'm a political moderate. On some things, I'm very right-oriented. However, I have some topics that I lean very left on. So, I like to keep my options open and see who I relate to the most.
I do have a few hot-button issues that I won't bend on, no matter what else might annoy me about a given candidate. Hence, my being a Bush fan. But I still have to laugh ruefully when I see bumper stickers like this one:
"CTHULHU IN 2004! Why vote for the lesser evil?"
Did you tell them you've been posting pics of them online and having your friends comment on them? :)
They know, in a vague way, that I have websites up. And I told them I'm posting a few of my better photos. I'm not going to come right out and tell them that their faces are on the Internet now, though. =)
By the Sword
Date: 2004-11-02 03:15 pm (UTC)Hmm, this probably would fall into that category. It's a decent movie, but the reviews on IMDb (click on link above) were not all that flattering. I enjoyed it, though.
Re: By the Sword
Date: 2004-11-05 03:21 pm (UTC)