Switcharoo

Hello to those who have stumbled upon this blog. I have transferred it over to WordPress.

http://melancholycat.wordpress.com Hope to see you there!

I Could Eat a Zebra

Hey all,

I am starving and I do not know what to eat - incredibly frustrating. I will likely order something. 

Just finished Sex Trafficking by Kathryn Farr. I have a review of it on my librarything page and my livingsocial page. Ultimately my biggest issue with the book was its repetitiveness - it really bogged down the reading, taking me a lot longer to finish than it should have. 

Another friend of mine got a job, a good job. Congrats to her. But I cried last night, drank some wine on an empty stomach ... Let us just say that the stress about post-graduation occupation is wearing me down considerably. Though I did get approved for an interview as an "alternate." I think they were having a laugh, as it is financial, but I would be stupid to pass up the opportunity for an interview. I still have to sign up for the interview, I think that is where the "alternate" part comes in, I get lowest priority in signing up, and could ultimately not get a time slot. Oh well. 

Nothing really new going on. Boiled some eggs, did laundry, and got a haircut. Oh and I ordered a hookah and it came in the other day :) I will only be able to use it at the girls' apartment, though. The company sent me some apple shisha as well as strawberry. I will go out and buy some more when I get the opportunity.

That is about it. I am supposed to read some more tonight, but I may just watch a movie. One can only read so much about gender violence, et al. in one night. 

"I write stories about poop"

Hello all :)

I'm going to have to figure out posting pictures more, definitely did not come out as neat and orderly as I was hoping in my room post, but oh well. 

Life has been consumed with reading for classes, and another trip to Richmond. Jenifer and the boys (after a whole host of issues, long story) finally came up for dinner and post-dinner hanging out with me and Heather at the apartment. (Robin had to go to work.) Little Sean has gotten so big! and Ethan of course remains a handful. He's too smart for his own good, and he speaks much better than the 3 1/2 year old he is. Hmmm, let me post a picture of them: 

There we go, aren't they precious ?? :) That is a picture Jen sent me a few months ago; unfortunately we did not get very many shots with them on Friday, and what ones we did are on Heather's camera, and who knows when I will actually receive them. I love my little nephy-poos. 

Anywho, like I said, life has not been terribly exciting as of late. School School School. Oh! I bought a hookah online, haha. (not for the illegal stuff) Though whenever it comes in, I am going to have to buy some shisha (sp?). Rose and orange are the only ones I have tried thus far. I'll put a picture up when I get it in, I have already had enough of dealing with blogger and pictures. 

I also picked up my cap and gown today, eek! It's frightening; on the one hand I am super excited to be graduating, being free from school and homework and long papers, and starting to live my own separate, adult life. On the other hand, though, this finding  a job crap is ridiculous. I have posted on it before, so I will not get into it here, suffice it to say: someone give me a decent job! With that my life will be off to a good start :) I also put it in an order for graduation announcements, and then got into a minor tiff with my mother for being cheap. She refuses to buy a diploma frame from the University, convinced that it would come in some holder on its own (which it does not!) Then she said we could get it framed at Michael's or some other arts and crafts store. I am going to have to work on her, see if I can get her to pay half or something (the frames ain't cheap!)

That shall be all, for now. Time to surf the net a bit and hit the hay for some beauty sleep. Night all! :)

Room Pics

Ok, finally getting around to posting these. Probably not that interesting since it's 

been over a week, but sort of a matter of principle, if I didn't post these then the blog would have died (my logic makes sense to me). But yeah, it was disgusting. 

Now for some after pictures :)

Unfortunately I must say that my room is not as clean as it is in the pictures anymore. But I've kept it in pretty good order, not nearly as bad as before ;) 

2009 Book List

the Favorites:

Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer

Julia's Chocolates Cathy Lamb

the Good and/or Average ones:

The Book of Hours T. Davis Bunn

Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out edited Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West

the "Engh" books:

School Books

Gender Violence edited O'Toole, Schiffman, Edwards

Sourcebook on Violence Against Women edited Renzetti, Edleson, Bergen

A Choice of Enemies Lawrence Freedman

The Arab-Israeli Conflict David W. Lesch
Sex Trafficking Kathryn Farr

Freak OUT!

Hey there whoever is actually reading this!

Been a couple days for me to get back to this due to my weekend preventing me from getting reading for classes done - so the past few days I've been doing some rapid catch up. Tonight I couldn't focus so I figured I'd blog a bit before bed.

Since last Saturday was so devoted to cleaning, I wanted to post some pictures I took (a bit lame, I realize), but I'm proud of it. Plus, it was really messy! Have to prove to someone, even if it is the blogsphere, that I am capable of cleaning and maintaining. But anywho, I'll post those in a few days or something, I'm too tired at the moment to fight with my camera and its memory card.

I have also written down some topics I want to blog about, so I think I might actually be able to keep up with the blog this go-around!

So, title today is "Freak OUT!" The reason being that I am literally freaking out. Minor panic attack, of sorts. Graduation from college. May 17. Less than 4 months away. Bad economy. I need a job! A full-time job! With benefits! It is really difficult right now to find anything. Well, I can find jobs, The problem is that I am not qualified for 99.9% of them! Some want 2-3 years of professional job experience, most want super-high GPAs, internships, you name it. I've got 5+ years of consistent job experience - but not professional. I am majoring in Foreign Affairs, with a 2.7 GPA. Not great, I realize. I'm not dumb. I got into this University, so I must be at least "somewhat" intelligent. I am a quick-learner, a perfectionist, and actually like to work (though I may complain about certain aspects of my job).

Anything with the federal government would be great. Unfortunately USAJobs.com is confusing, and again, it is difficult to find anything truly entry-level that I qualify for. I have also been looking at non-profits and NGOs. Not too much luck there, either. And then I have been looking for secretarial positions through CraigsList and various regular job sites; can you believe that almost all secretarial job postings require 2+ years secretarial experience? Answering phones, typing, scheduling...Not to say that some of these thing do not require some skill and a certain finesse, but really? It is not the kind of job that is going to take you that long to pick up the necessary skills. Attention Employers: We can't get this required experience unless you hire us!!

I will try not to bitch this much in the future - but the whole job thing simply frightens the hell out of me! With school work, it is difficult to find the time to looks for jobs, get reading done, do my job, AND maintain some kind of social life in the attempts to maintain my sanity!

Anyway, this latest freak out was brought about by the arrival of a Spring Job and Internship Fair taking place this Thursday and Friday here at the University and my non-existent desire to attend. Last career fair I went to was disastrous (recruiter for the CIA - I just wanted info btw - was a complete ass and told me my GPA wasn't high enough to even be considered, regardless of the rest of my resume). Oh, he was an ass prior to his claim, he is not an ass just because he rejected me, just wanted to make that clear. Anyway, since then I have not had any desire to go back to any career fairs, and while I know I need to get over this (immediately), I just do not see much of a point in going. And I have class during the time of the fair, so I honestly cannot go. In addition to the career fair I recalled an info session for University Guides, a program started by an alumnus/alumnae and now endorsed by AmeriCorps. I had initially nixed it because 1) it pays $20,000 a year for you to help troubled or weak high schools increase their number of students going into some kind of secondary education (either vocational, 2-year, or 4-year). Not a lot of money for you doing a 2-year commitment. And the second reason was that I was not sure if I would be ideal for such a job - I get annoyed easily and while it is more of a counselor position than teacher, I never planned on going into an educational setting. But anyway, I started thinking about it tonight and was like "you know, no one else is responding to me, and it is a guaranteed full-time job, with benefits, for 2 years..." But I looked up the application and it and 2 recommendations and an essay are due in 2 days, so that dashed any chance of that happening. I cannot expect Debbie and Pam (the supervisors I have had at the library, and who love me) to come up with recommendations that quickly. So, I started freaking out.

Alright, that is enough bitching and moaning. Hopefully typing it all out has helped me some, so I can go to sleep without resumes and applications and cardboard boxes and jerk recruiters running through brain over and over and over again. But for some assurance, I took some tylenol PM so it will keep the obsessing brief, hopefully.
Again sorry about the negativity! I promise that it will be more pleasant in the future (though I am sure this will not be the last time I worry about jobs here on the blog).

Night loves!

2008

I just cannot stop, can I? haha. I was looking through my journal and noticed that I had kept a list of books I read this past summer. And I can look at old syllabi to find out which books I read in my classes. I am a total nerd, I am fully aware of this fact, haha.

the Favorites:

The Vampire Lestat  Anne Rice

The Queen of the Damned  Anne Rice

Dead Until Dark  Charlaine Harris

The Thirteenth Tale  Diane Setterfield

New Moon  Stephenie Meyer

A Wolf at the Table  Augusten Burroughs

The Omnivore's Dilemma  Michael Pollan

Living Dead in Dallas  Charlaine Harris

Eclipse  Stephenie Meyer

Club Dead  Charlaine Harris

Dead to the World  Charlaine Harris

People of the Book  Geraldine Brooks

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil  John Berendt

Dead as a Doornail  Charlaine Harris

The Shadow of the Wind  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure  Shawn Decker

the Good/Average ones:

Garden Spells  Sarah Addison Allen

HeartSick  Chelsea Cain

The Story of French  Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow

The Society of S  Susan Hubbard

The $64 Tomato  William Alexander

Sex With Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry & Revenge  Eleanor Herman

the "Engh" ones:

Fat Girl  Judith Moore

Bleedout  Joan Brady

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself  Young-Ha Kim

texts for Classes:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers  Mary Roach +++++

Life After Life  Raymond A. Moody, Jr 

Confronting Death: Values, Institutions, & Human Mortality  David Wendell Moller 

50 Facts That Should Change the World  Jessica Williams

Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction  Adam Jones 

Night  Elie Wiesel 

Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Break-Ins  Richard T. Wright

Why Crime Rates Fell  John E. Conklin

In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula & Vampires  Radu Florescu

Vampire Lore  Jan Louis Perkowski 

Dracula  Bram Stoker

Alright, so 36 books. Not too shabby I would say. And there are likely a couple more left unmentioned simply because I cannot remember back to the beginning of 2008. Noticing the titles, yes, I do have a fondness for vampire stories of all kinds, and then ended up taking a class on Dracula and Slavic Culture, so lots of Vampirey titles. Hopefully I can beat that number this year!