Natsumi's Journal
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Saturday, April 10, 2010
I was in a situation recently where I was about to be verbally attacked. That's not important. What is important is that there was a dog there. This dog knows me, and likes me, but usually doesn't glue herself to my lap. Yet this night she did glue herself to my lap. I was amused for a while wondering at the outpouring of love, but didn't think much of it at the time. And of course once the conversation turned nasty, I was aware that it was good to have the dog on my lap, because I had something to do with my hands, so I petted the dog as I got more upset. At one point she shifted around on my lap to face the other people in the room, but she didn't leave my lap until I got up to leave the room. I was telling my husband about the super-lovey reaction I got from this dog the last time I saw her, and how it was a little strange when I had an epiphany. She was PROTECTING me. This little ball of fluff, who might be 10 pounds soaking wet, knew the situation was tense before I did, and she chose to sit on my lap to guard me in the coming storm. And though I'm done crying over the situation; I keep tearing up when I think about this little dog and her loyalty to me. This is why I like dogs.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
I know I haven't posted in a very long time, but this really needs to be shared. :-)
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Eli's also giving up his Nintendo 64. Comes with official carrying case (black this time), 2 controllers, and 6 games:
Super Mario 64
Star Wars Rouge Squadron
Nascar 99
Pokemon Stadium 1
Pokemon Stadium 2
F-Zero X
Again, make an offer in the comments. :-)
We're moving, and it's time to get rid of stuff. Most is going to goodwill, but a few items still have some value. Eli has decided to get rid of his original nintendo. Comes with the official Nintendo carrying case (crazy primary colors), three controllers, a game genie, the orange gun, and 14 games:
Castlevania
Double Dragon
Metroid
Mario Bros
Maniac Mansion
Shadowgate
Final Fantasy
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
T&C Surf designs
Super Mario Bros 2
Legacy of the Wizard
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Legend of Zelda 2: Adventure of Link
Rygar
Make an offer if you want it. :-)
Monday, January 8, 2007
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, September 4, 2006
Monday, August 7, 2006
My friend Jo recently loaned me Eric Brende's "Better Off." (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000FTWAYU/ref=cm_rev_next/103-9649686-7958247?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=11 This is also available at the Athens Public Library if anyone is interested) It's a pretty interesting premise. An MIT masters student who is studying technology's effect on society decides to see how much modern technology he can live without. He and his wife go to live in a settlement of religious/amish-like people (not actually the amish, the people come from several different religious backgrounds, although all are christian, but all came seeking a strict lifestyle) without electricity or running water. The book was frustrating to me at times, because the author wouldn't acknowledge some of the contradictions inherent in choosing that life in today's society. He and his wife put their car in storage for the most part, but took it out for "emergencies." One such emergency was that they weren't paying attention to their pumpkin crop and had to move all the pumpkins in one day. They did this by loading the car for multiple trips. Pulling your car out to make up for your own procrastination hardly seems in keeping with his experiment, but I suppose I should be happy that he at least reported his mistakes instead of glossing over them. But that was one of my issues with it. He claims that he worked fewer hours tending his pumpkin and sorghum patches than he would have with a typical 9 to 5 job. But he took shortcuts (like the car) when he got in too deep, and he clearly had more help from his neighbors than he was able to give back. He made a big deal out of riding bicycles everywhere, and yet I couldn't stop thinking about how those bikes were manufactured products. Lightweight, modern aluminum frames, rubber tires, precision cut gears. This is a machine that a blacksmith could put together, or if one could, then I guarantee that it would be alot harder to pedal uphill. The same with their clothes. His wife started sewing them; oneof their neighbors fitted her modern machine with a treadle foot. So it ran on foot power, but again was a modern, manufactured machine. There is no mention of anyone keeping sheep, or spinning, or weaving cloth. So we all know where the cloth comes from. So while I applaud his willingness to give up tv, running water, electric lights, and the telephone; I have a hard time recognizing his experiment for what he thought it was. He as an individual might have been able to give up technology, but but he (and his community) did not have the skills to be self sufficient. And yet he constantly described the various families in the community that way. To me, their way of life is only possible because there are others not living it. He also does point out that they sell their produce to the "city folk" who come to the town looking for homegrown vegetables. Again, they do need money to buy the things they can't make, and they rely on people from outside the community to drive to them and purchase their goods.
All of my frustrations aside, the author raises some good points. One of them being the cost of maintaining a car. What we spend on gas, insurance, repairs, and the cost of the car itself is a good chunk of our paychecks. There are places you can get by in modern life without a car. New York city is often cited as an example, although the cost of living is so very high as to equal the cost of keeping a car elsewhere. I spent a year in Athens without a car. I wasn't in school at the time, so I found a job within walking distance of my apartment (1/2 hour one way if you are curious). I managed to buy a bike which cut my commute down to 15 minutes. I also walked/biked to the grocery store (1/2 hour to 45 minutes depending which one I went to. There was absolutely no point in buying frozen food as it would not be frozen by the time I got home. I didn't buy many soft drinks either, because they were heavy. The milk was usually verging on warm. Grocery shopping really was easier in the winter. You would think that I saved a ton of money during this time, but I didn't. I was making minimum wage at my job, and it was eaten up by rent, groceries and utilities. I didn't have cable or internet (I didn't own a computer at this time). Not that I would have cared too much at the time, it was 1996 and I hardly used email. So that was my own low tech period of time. Was I happier? Not really. I was stressed trying to the make the bills on my low pay, and my job was pretty miserable (I unloaded trucks at kmart). According to the author, I should have been relatively carefree and happier to be doing manual labor. We later got a car, Eli and I moved to a different part of town (after a brief time in Atlanta), and soon after is when I drove to Oregon to work for a summer. So there you go. The vehicle made it possible for me to have one of the best summers of my life. I didn't continue in wildlife, but my career would never have started without some form of transportation. And there is probably the basic problem with going back to an earlier lifestyle. I know about the world beyond my little corner of it. I want to travel and see it. This religious sect that the author joined had their own school, their own society, and little influence from the outside world. And maybe that's the only way to be happy. One of the community leaders even says it; if they had time to read books, then they would become something else, so they discourage it.
So here I am, wanting to be a good environmentalist and give up my car (never mind that I can't afford the rent within walking distance of my place of work), but the car also represents freedom. The irony of driving to a hiking trail in another part of the state isn't lost on me, and yet being stuck at kmart and seeing only my coworkers and my roommate for a whole year was a kind of hell. It very nearly destroyed my relationship with Eli. My existence boiled down to a crushing monotony. And maybe that's why the internet has become what it is. It is an escape, maybe not as satisfying as going to another country or a trip to the beach. But we get online, and play our virtual selves in games and we escape from going to work and doing the same motions every day. So what is the happy medium? Would I be happier if I stopped playing on the internet? Maybe. I always complain that I don't have enough time, and yet I manage to play guild wars usually at least once a week. Do I really need to see what everyone in the knitting community has made today? I could be knitting my own projects instead of checking out theirs. Wouldn't I rather hear my friends stories from their own lips rather than reading about them on lj?
So while the book was flawed, it did get me thinking about what I really need. And while I don't have that figured out yet, it is good to at least think about it.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
In my move up at the library, I also have to give up most of my hours at the salon. I found out this weekend that the other receptionist, Candace, is also leaving when classes begin again. So I'm feeling pretty bad for leaving Kim without any receptionists. So if anyone is interested in working at the salon: it is part time; duties include making appointments, greeting customers, answering the phone, and light cleaning; the perks are free haircuts and colors (you do have to pay for the chemicals used, but that is nothing compared to the cost of the service itself), and Renata and Jo will have you giggling all day with their stories. Kim provides a parking space, so you don't have to worry about parking downtown. And they are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so you always have those days off. Anyone interested should come down to the salon (269 N. Hull St, ste 2) which is at the corner of Hull and Clayton, and fill out an application.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Well, I may be switching to the YA department at the library. I interviewed this morning, and things went well. It would be a full time position, and I'd have to leave the ETC. And so that leaves us with an announcement: The ETC will most likely need a new part-time afternoon staff member some time soon. My boss asked me to ask within my friend group, since the last friend I suggested turned out to be so incredibly awesome. :-) So if any of my other super talented friends would be interested, here is all the info:
The job is 17.5 hours/week. Usually the schedule is Mon: 1-5, Tues: 2-5, Wed: 1-5, Thurs:2-5, Fri: 12-3, but every 5th weekend you work Sat: 9-6 and Sun: 2-6. You get some days off during the week when you work weekends, since you can't go over the 17.5 hour limit. The pay rate is $8/hour. Your duties include answering questions about how to use the computers and the software (standard Microsoft office suite, some graphics with photoshop and illustrator, typing tutorials, Nero), how to use the scanners and cd burners, unjamming the printer when needed, playing bouncer to a certain extent (no one under 17 is allowed to use this lab, so you have to card people who look too young). You will get alot of senior citizens asking about that crazy internet thing. You will get some crazy patrons (those are the ones I tell stories about), but for the most part people are nice and want to learn. Some days you will have so many questions, you never even get to sit down. Some days you will not hear a peep out of anyone. My boss doesn't mind me knitting or working on my own projects when it's slow. That is another advantage of my job: Greg. He is a great boss. He will bend over backwards to make sure you are comfortable with the job. I am sad to be leaving him. And Karen is one of the best co-workers I've ever had. She is always there for me, and is one of the sweetest people I could ever hope to work with. So there is a great support network here that makes the difficult days worth dealing with. The library does offer jobs in house first, so if anyone is interested in getting into the county system, this could be a stepping stone to other positions. So let me know if anyone is interested, I would like very much to recommend another dependable person to Greg, so I won't feel like I'm abandoning him.
Sunday, July 2, 2006
So I was just explaining to a guy how to use Winway Resume, and he unbuckled his belt and unfastened his pants while I was talking to him. He didn't do this in a sexual way, but I'm still weirded out. I mean, even if your stomach hurts, a public library is not the place to get THAT comfortable. I know I rant about this alot, but why do grown adults not have any sense of how to behave in public? And I'm not even talking about the constant ringing of cellphones. We already have several signs about that. Do we really need a sign for "please keep your clothes on?" Or a sign for "don't let your child destroy the stapler while you browse online dating services?" How about "don't save pornographic images to the my documents folder where they will give some poor 85 year old woman a heart attack?" Or "please don't roll joints while sitting in the computer lab?" (I don't think I wrote about that story at the time, but it's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?)
Monday, June 26, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
2:26PM
I'm about 2 0r three days behind on lj right now, so I feel bad asking for info when I'm not keeping up with everyone's lives, but I need info. Specifically info from everyone who has an ipod. The library is trying to determine whether it would be helpful or not to install itunes. Ipods are becoming popular enough that people have started asking, so here are the questions my boss wants answered:
"In case it comes up again, though, does anyone know what's involved in hooking
ipods to our machines? Do we need special software? Are there problems related to
downloads/coywrite issues/user account issues we should be aware of? Other issues?"
Not a single one of us at the library has an ipod, so we can't test it out. I think you need itunes installed to download music to an ipod (i know you need it installed to purchase music). Do you log into itunes even when not purchasing? Can we set a default where you have to log in? Are there any issues with the ipod like with Sony's magicgate technology (where it matters which computer you download from?). I know zero about them, so any info would help. Thanks.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
2:51PM
I've never thought of myself as much of a teacher, but I think I'm developing more patience the older I get. I just taught a guy how to change the contrast, use the layers palette, and the text tool in photoshop. And he listened so well, and got so excited, that I might finally understand the thrill of teaching. But it all comes from the student wanting to learn. I still don't think I could survive in a traditional school system. It's too bad that learning can't be more organic. I've always been interested in everything, so I did okay in school, because I could always find something to interest me. But if kids could choose their subjects while they have the interest, wouldn't that work better? Instead of forcing math, science, English, Geography, etc on them all at once, maybe a system where they could say, "I want to learn Chemistry today." and really immerse themselves in it with no interuptions would be better. I guess the problem is that with too much freedom, most kids would never learn math, or avoid reading like the plague (Eli, I'm talking about you ^_~). So the system forces you to be well rounded, but lacks the joy of *seeking* knowledge.
That's my totally random thought for the day.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
4:07PM
 blaueteufelin posted a link to this article about the Narnia movie: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,,1657756,00.html
I read the books when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I never had copies of my own, I just checked them out of the local library. So I guess that's why I never revisited them. But as a child, I was clueless enough to not have any idea about the religious subtext. *Spoiler* When Aslan came back to life in the books, it was magic to me, not a christian resurrection. Afterall, the children had just walked through a wardrobe; once magic is established as a force, why look to any other explanation? But I wonder how the books would read to me now. I also found the sort of dual advertising campaign that disney is running to be kind of funny. Including the two different soundtracks, so each household can decide what kind of slant they want to put on it. I'm still looking forward to it, cold, bitter, black-hearted aetheist that I am. :-)
Saturday, December 3, 2005
10:01AM
Holy crap, it's cold in the library today! Do they not run the heat on the weekends or something? Perhaps they turn it off at night and it takes all morning for the building to get warm again? It's been a little chilly in the afternoons during the week, but it's okay. I have enough body fat that I like it a little cooler than everyone else. I haven't turned the heat on at my own house yet, although it was cold enough this morning that I probably will soon. But today I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt and an ankle length skirt, and I just can't get warm. I put my denim jacket back on even though it's not "business casual" in the strictest sense. I need a sweater and some legwarmers or really thick tights too. Tomorrow I will be prepared.
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