| | | | | | Saturday, October 29, 2005 |
I'm back
| | So, I bet you wondered what happened to me. Nothing much, I spent like three days figuring out if I wanted to respond to Adam's comment. Or rather, I -did- want to respond, but I was trying to frame how to respond.
I got about two pages into a film essay, and then... decided fuck it. This is my blog, I shouldn't feel the need to hunt around for secondary sources (I kid you not, I flipped through my assorted film books, got looking up in Robert Stam... realized this was silly) in order to discuss how I feel about movies.
And now that -that- is out of the way... I'm sorry I have to tell you all about the Player.
No, seriously, it's really good. I saw Nashville... and I saw Ready to Wear... and I remember bringing up Ready to Wear in 161B and they all stared at me (just like Patrick Bauchau as Sydney in the Pretender and not the director in the State of Things... which I -still- don't like, and I don't want to hear about how great it is, I have yet to forgive Wenders). Huh, I seem to have wandered from the point...oh yeah, The Player, with Tim Robbins (I -really- like him, why doesn't he get better roles? ). This film is what Adaptation with Nicholas Cage was -trying- to do. Or, you could talk about Sunset Boulevard... everyone seems to talk about it. I think I may actually be on a Vincent D'Onofrio kick, I keep finding him in movies I watch. He is the reason my father won't watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent (which is crazy, I think, Frank feels the same way).
Alright, enough about the movie... or the movie ramble I guess. I've been so sick this last week, it's been awful. And I paid my phone bill... that was rather large. BUT I have a bed!! Okay it's a mattress, but the difference between sleeping on a mattress and on the floor is enormous. I also saw MommaDawn yesterday. She was supposed to be home at seven pm... she showed up around 9:45... which meant that we couldn't go to Pam's sister's party. So, a lot of driving, but WORTH IT!
Okay I'm going to bed!
posted by Amber at 11:05 PM
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filim
| | There is a post between this one, and the one lined one... but it does not show up
Weird.
Well anyway, I ended up having today off, which was nice. I think I may be getting sick, I've only had the energy today for sleeping, and I did -a lot- of sleeping... like fourteen hours. Now, I sleep a good deal, but not that much.
I saw a History of Violence today, and it was, in a word, slow. So very very slow, with lots of silence and long takes. For a movie with a good amount of blood, this is unusual. I think Frank is right, I think film may be suffering from a bout of ambiguous minimalism. I am not sure if A history of violence was Hollywood produced or indie, it had an indie feel (not like Crash which was Hollywood's idea of an indie film... but I need to focus). Think Broken Flowers, which was Lost In Translation meets High Fidelity.
Is it sad that with my super B and N discount I keep thinking of ordering a whole bunch 'o films rather than books? We have such an incredible library, I could own the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, wouldn't that be too cool for words? If I want to see the 400 blows, I totally could, over and over again. eee!
Well, other than that, not much went on today (mostly sleeping), I'm working tomorrow, which will be nice, to you know, get out and such.
PS Ed and I missed our one year (September 16th), crazy eh? I can hardly imagine my life without Ed...what would I -do- on AIM? Here's to Mystery Science Theatre 3000!
(ooh I could own that movie!)
posted by Amber at 10:11 PM
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meh
| | oy, I was utterly horrendously and terribly ill last night. Too much alcohol, one Amber, a large mess...
But, I'm better now, and I find myself... actually ill. I've been fighting off a cold I think and I may be losing.
Other than that, nothing much is going on. I may work tomorrow, if they need me, I hope they need me... and at the same time I want the day off... grumble.
Sterling hasn't written me in -forever- (since the thirtieth of September)... and that, while understandable, hurts a little. Lata who is in Singapore is a better correspondant. Jeeze I know he doesn't love me, but couldn't he fake it a little?
Well, I'm heading off to bed, where I can curl up into a ball and wait for morning.
posted by Amber at 1:42 AM
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| | | | | | Wednesday, October 19, 2005 |
| | eh, my life is really uninteresting right now... sorry
posted by Amber at 1:49 AM
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| | | | | | Tuesday, October 18, 2005 |
Denouement
| | You know, I think that life right after the end of a quest must be really a letdown. Imagine spending years looking for something, even if you get it, then what do you do with your time? Think of Inigo Montoya, he killed the six fingered man, and even though he makes it away in the movie (its not so clear in the book), will he ever fence again? What was the point?
I've been thinking about this lately, because it turns out I was the object of a quest for someone, or rather, I had the answer to a question long pondered. When you think over the potential outcomes of an event long over, of an opportunity missed, the importance of the outcome can grow in your mind like a tumor. What if everything had hinged on this one moment? What if, by doing something differently, everything else changed? When you turn something over and over in your mind, a regret you shelter deep inside yourself, sometimes knowing the answer makes things worse.
I think I made things worse, and I'm sorry. But what could I do? I keep thinking it over and not coming to a satisfactory answer.
I don't like the idea of being a person that someone would spend four and a half years looking for; it doesn't sit well with me.
I feel decidedly troubled.
posted by Amber at 1:42 AM
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inventory
| | So... today was inventory day/night in the music department at Barnes and Noble. It was alright, sort of fun. I got to practice my mad counting abilities (being as I had to go and count cds over and over again). We counted the whole department, this is the -pre-count, then we sat about as the inventory people (with awesome beeping machines) counted, and then we did a check count to see if our numbers matched theirs, and then we recounted when it didn't. Then we checked the recounted twice.
It was a lot of counting. I used more post-it notes in an eight hour period than I think I may have used in the last four years of my life. I ran through three packages. I got my own highliter it was green.
I had my "lunch" at 9:15pm, it was weird. And the last two hours they had me stand guard at the customer service desk. The cleaning people were cleaning and the doors were open so we had to post a guard at the desk to "monitor" the goings on (making sure no unreputables wandered in). It was -so- boring, I did, however get through half of Miss Marple's mysteries. I wasn't able to sit though, which was... terrible. Sitting is nice.
So yeah, I got off work a little after two. Reno never really seems to sleep completely. Its a somnambulist.
I'm going to bed
posted by Amber at 3:14 AM
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| | | | | | Tuesday, October 11, 2005 |
gnome troubles
| | I've been meaning to mention this for a while now. My bathroom has, ever since I moved in here, randomly smelled of cigarettes. I don't smoke, Frank doesn't smoke... I don't know what that is about. Its not a continuous smell though, it comes and goes. Sometimes I will be in my bathroom taking a bath, and then the smell will wash over me.
I have decided that under my sink must be a portal, and a gnome will occasionally step out for a moment to have a ciggie.
I could live with that. Its sort of an otherworldly charm thing.
But things have lately gotten worse.
Sunday my bathroom smelled of pot. I don't smoke pot, I can't smoke pot (it causes convulsions for about a week afterwards, no, no one in the medical community had ever heard of it, yes, I'm telling the truth, please stop laughing). So, I decided maybe my gnome was on vacation (frank seems to think he just got paid, scored saturday, but of course was -out- Saturday and only started to smoke under my sink sunday).
I came to the conclusion I should live and let live. As long as he didn't start a meth lab under my sink, it was okay.
Today, he went too far.
I live in a one bedroom (really one -room- with a divider) apartment. There has only been me all day.
Currently I cannot get into my bathroom.
It is LOCKED from the INSIDE and the water is RUNNING.
I don't know what this is about, but it has to stop. I am going to have to either find this gnome and set some ground rules or view this locked door as a hostile act, like maybe he's trying to annex my bathroom (I wouldn't blame him its the nicest and cleanest area in the house). There is no key hole on my side of the door, the hinges are on the inside. I tried using a credit card to jimi the door. No such luck.
I know I should be a little more freaked out that my bathroom may have been taken over by another entity (if not not a gnome maybe a poltergeist or something), but I am more curious than anything. See it sounds like the -sink- is running (full force) not the bathtub, does it have OCD and is washing hands over and over again? Is it bathing in the sink? What if it dissapears back to where it came from without unlocking the door?
Will I ever be able to pee in peace again?
EDIT: I was finally clever enough to unscrew my doorknob from the door proper and get in my bathroom that way. I walked in, the lights were off, the sink running like crazy and the whole place smelled strongly of cigarettes. I think I had just missed him.
posted by Amber at 3:53 PM
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AAARGH! (bureaucracy)
| | I exist! I know you, Internet, will have to take my existence for granted, however people I come in contact with on a daily basis cannot say the same!
I spent four hours today dealing with a bureaucratic nightmare. See, SEARS wouldn't pay me with a check, because that would be simple. They gave me a paycard, or rather an empty envelope with information about a paycard. Then they gave me two more paycards. Then when I tried to activate ANY of the paycards, I was told by the electronic system that I couldn't, then they hung up on me. So I last Sunday, after I had already quit SEARS, I went in to the HR office, trying to get money. Pam, the HR lady, had no better luck with the phone system than I did, but advanced me my last weeks pay so that I could make rent. She said she call them
I tried my paycard again today, still blocked. So I went -back-. Pam called them again, they STILL don't have a record of my existence, at all, ever. She checked all the SEARS info, I exist in their computer, they've been sending money to an account, she calls Comstar (the paycard people) they don't know who I am. She does this for an HOUR AND A HALF. A lot of arguing ensued, mostly her saying "no her card was never activated, yes she's in our system." over and over again. After this rigmarole finished, they decided on a course of action:
THEY ISSUED ME A CHECK*.
fuckers.
PS the Barnes and Nobles Punchclock doesn't recognize my social security number... it keeps accepting me for the day all the while telling me that I'm not in the system. I told them that today... they couldn't get on the computer to check it out. I swear to God that I exist.
* of course it wasn't a -real- check. It was called a draw, and then I spent another half an hour on the phone with the Comstar people getting my "check" registered. First I had to register a card I never received (an idea which makes no sense), then I had to put the money from the mythical card onto a physical check. Then I had to go to the bank, where THEY spent twenty minutes on the phone confirming that actual money had come from the mythical card onto the piece of paper, and that I was who I said I was.
posted by Amber at 3:52 PM
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| | man... stuff happened today. Not like big important stuff, but stuff I wanted to blog about.
But I'm so tired, I just can't do it.
I've been having this problem lately, and I don't know what that is about.
posted by Amber at 12:57 AM
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Barnes and Noble
| | I LOVE MY JOB
(more to come later, maybe, if I can be buggered. Hehe, silly British, I guess I -can- be buggered, but you know what I mean).
posted by Amber at 8:17 PM
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| | | | | | Wednesday, October 05, 2005 |
| | So, I'm home... and by home I mean, at my parent's home, which isn't my home, except if I call it my parents house and my mother hears me, she tears up. So, home.
Anyway, I'm doin' alright. Not fantastic, but you know how it goes. Orientation is Thursday, which should be all kinds of awesome.
So, about the money... well, what about the money. I got last weeks wages, which should I guess be enough for me... currently if this is all the money I get from SEARS i will have worked this last month at an hourly wage of $2.13/hour... please someone kill me. Apparently the bank where my money is claims they've never heard of me... which is disturbing.
In other news, the family party I was supposed to go to, was Saturday, and it was lame, so I don't feel bad for missing it. Also, I visited my grandparents and hung out with my parents. I saw Serenity (it was good). I saw Jacob, and that was fun, and then not so fun. Sometimes I wonder why we feel compelled to make the same mistakes.
"as always it was a dance, without an end" Today, I didn't do much. I called Sterling, and didn't hear from him until six thirty, I'm seeing him tomorrow. It was bad planning on my part to try and reach him the day 0f, and it was so totally not his fault that I sat around most of the day waiting on him. So, yeah, after we decided tomorrow would be better, I had to figure out what to do today (at um seven pm). I went to visit MommaDawn, she wasn't in. I did meet her new dog, he was nice (not like the huge almost lion that Buck is). She should consider locking her doors. I ended up watching Corpse Bride with one other guy in the theatre at 8:55... and running into Patrick, who I think took a while to figure out who I was (or rather why I was grinning like an idiot at him). Whew, he's sexy, and his girlfriend is perhaps one of the sweetest people, you know, ever. Yeah, I made it home around ten thirty pm... today was a waste of makeup. Now, I'm heading to bed, because I am exhausted. All this lazing about takes a lot out of a girl.
posted by Amber at 12:52 AM
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How to get in my pants
| | So, I've been thinking about this lately, and I think I figured it out (I am the kind of girl who sits up at night trying to figure out how to seduce myself), and it has nothing to do with snaps buttons or zippers.
1. be witty: if you can manage to quickly impress me with your wit you will look 1/3 more attractive than you did before you opened your mouth.
2. don't be afraid to be geeky (but -socialized- geeky). I like geeks (and nerds).
3. if you must use a "line"you have to do it right. And for me the proper way to deliver a line is to believe utterly in what you're saying while managing not to take yourself seriously (the whole this is cheesy and I know it, but I also believe it)
For example... if you were to come up to me introduce yourself and say "are you a differentiable function" (the answer to this line being "because I want to be tangent to your curves"). You're in. I can't guarantee we'll be having sex (mostly because... I'm sorta kinda -involved-), but you have managed to become a person I want to know.
Of course this is just the -best- way, not the only way. You can also try the pathetic card, start stammering and be overly sincere, its not as good, but I might become interested (at least I'll hear you out).
Alright Internet, there you go. I've divulged my secret. I know its been confounding people for a long time, now you know, you have run out of excuses.
posted by Amber at 12:40 AM
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