A very long week...

And thus concludes my 8-day work week! Or, it concluded 2 days ago, which means...I SURVIVED! To be fair, working the 8 days wasn't as horrible as I thought it might be. It's been a while (half a year or so) since I've worked more than 5 days in a row, but I started my 8-day work week with a 12-hour shift. Not the greatest way to start off. In addition, I *almost* worked 9 days in a row, so I guess I should be happy it was only 8. :) However, as my co-worker said, it's all in your expectations. Since I knew I was working the 8 days, I mentally prepared and I did. I was trying to get more sleep, take my breaks, and pace myself. It's unfortunate, though, that most of my work week was spent being a little short staffed. I think I started my 5 week stint as "manager" under stress and ended it under stress. Somewhere in the middle I definitely hit my stride. Not to say I totally lost it towards the end, but with everything going on at the store and with our manager coming back, I definitely was reverting more back to my being the assistant manager and just trying to keep the boat afloat.

With that said, my last week as acting manager was a total success as we dug ourselves out of the hole we made in making our plan and I think it ended well. I felt like the 5 weeks as acting manager were both good for me in the ways of character building and leadership skills, but also just solidifying my place at Goodwill. Not to say I really want my place "solidified" (I do not want to be a manager at Goodwill, tyvm), but I felt like I finally got some notoriety with the higher-ups. When our manager returned, he said that the higher-ups had noted how well I handled the store and it went better than they could have hoped. I always feel like Goodwill leans a little too heavily upon the managers when I can do things just as well as he can (granted, not all assistant managers can do that, but I can!). It was also nice "getting to know" other people at Goodwill I normally never had any contact with because my manager handled it all.

I'm really proud of my co-workers too. They stepped up and were understanding (mostly) with everything going on and were flexible with changes and with me sometimes just running around having to let them run the store while I went and did whatever administrative thing I had to do. I think, in a lot of ways, we proved something as a team. Not that I thought the store was going to fall apart without our manager, but I also wasn't sure how smooth it was going to be or how everyone was going to take me being at the helm for 5 weeks. People stepped up where I needed them and it worked out. Course, saying all that, THANK GOODNESS my manager is back! :P I think being the leader on your own is one thing, but filling a place for 5 weeks is a totally "other" thing because you're both having to manage and try to keep the spirit of your manager there. It's not like he even left the job, so it was kind of weird sometimes since I wouldn't always get forwarded emails and had to keep up on some of those also.

At any rate, now that he's back, I can go back to my own duties and projects I liked to do. I noticed while he was gone the things I used to up keep and do fell by the wayside and I focused more on his areas and things he did. I just couldn't find the time to do two people's projects! I'm kind of excited to get back to my own routine. I liked my routine and I got back to it the minute he walked through the door. I actually got to clean two sections I like and get things out!

With my manager back, I saw him for one day and then took 4 days off. LoL I really needed the 4-days turns out. I was going to take 3 days off split up, but decided the last minute to do 4 and I'm glad. It's been nice having this time off. My last 4-days off were spent finishing my Aquarium report so this is kind of like the first time in a while I've had NOTHING to do. I tried a new manicure technique I haven't done before (gradient) and I'm rereading a ton of books and generally just enjoying my time off!

I have watched several movies in the last few weeks and might go see another this weekend. So, movies!

Dead Man Down (Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace) - Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I feel like Farrell does the same type of movie or he's a similar type of person in a lot of them. Then again, I could just be thinking of just a few movies of his I have seen. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical mob-vengeance type of movie. I think the acting is good, but the story doesn't really work for me. It also doesn't bode well when I can tune out the movie for 20 minutes and know where I am too... Grade: C-

The Host (Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, etc) - This surprised me. I've read the book and between Twilight and The Host, The Host is generally favored between Meyer's written works. I, too, fall into that category. The Host came out the year Breaking Dawn came out and I liked The Host, but it's a novel that takes place, mostly, between one entity or body. In other words, an alien takes possession of a human body and the human fights back and communicates with the alien. To say the least, I was really dubious how the movie was going to play out given there's so much talking to each other in their head. Turns out, they handled it pretty well. I never realized how slow the book is, though, until I watched the movie. It is a rather slow paced movie, but it was okay for me. The only time I really thought the talking-to-each-other thing was awkward was at the end where you're in a close-up of the body and they just talk to each other. It was a little weird and really showed the "slowness" of the book, but at least it moves past it. To say the least, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't fantastic either. Grade: C

Spring Breakers (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco) - What in the world did I watch? LoL I can get its allure from the critics and sort of its point (wait, am I sure there was a point?), but it's definitely NOT for everyone. It's definitely a polarizing film where some people will love it and others will really dislike it. With that said, I thought Franco's acting was really different than you normally see him and good and I didn't mind the girls either, but the whole premise of the story is...different. I suppose the main point is to look at our culture and what is the point of spring break. In ways, that's what the director wanted to do and I suppose he accomplished that. I think watching the movie took up precious memory space, but it was an interesting watch to see what the "buzz" was about. Wouldn't recommend it, though. Grade: D

Pacific Rim (Charlie Hunnam, Mako Mori, etc) - Now THIS is what I think of a summer blockbuster...Not to say Star Trek or Man of Steel weren't blockbusters, but I somewhat miss the mindless action that films bring and Star Trek and Man of Steel required too much analyzing at the end (or disappointment?). I'd buy this on DVD. It's a great action packed film with fantastic special effects. Sure, it feels a little Japanese-western sci-fi cliche-y movie, but it works. It could have been really bad (and the trailer does make it look pretty bad -- even *I* thought it was a DVD renter!), but it works. I liked it. I did keep thinking, "They're destroying precious ocean habitat!" throughout the movie, that's probably a problem few people had watching it. :) It's a good theater watch for the special effects and the sound quality. I'm glad I saw it in theater. It's not an original story and the story is REALLY predictable (there's various levels of predictability and this near the top -- I could predict which actors were dying and whether it was a heroic death or just a casualty), but it somehow works. It is a little more mainstream for a del Toro film, but it was interesting to see him direct a big movie like this. Grade: B+

Despicable Me 2 (Steve Carell) - Cute sequel. I can't say whether it was better than the first one or not because I don't remember the first that much, but this one is cute. I liked the minions, I liked the relationship between Gru and the kids, and I liked the story (generally). It's just about what you would expect so not a whole lot to report on it. Grade: B

Jack the Giant Slayer (Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Elanor Tomlinson) - Well, this was better than I thought it would be, but still nowhere near as good as it could have been...? It does give a slight feel that's ala Princess Bride, but it is its own movie. I'm not sure what really turned me off from it, but something doesn't work. I'm not sure if it's Hoult, the feel, or the story. Could be all three. It's a mindless watch, for the most part, and there are interesting moments, but, mostly, it's nothing fantastic. Grade: C

Welcome to the Punch (James McAvoy, Mark Strong) - I was distracted by Strong the entire time! I couldn't figure out what was bothering me till I looked at photos of him in Sherlock Holmes and then it dawned on me -- Hair! Who'd of thunk that'd bother me so much? At any rate, I like McAvoy so that's why I decided to rent this. You saw the pairing of the two former enemies to take down the "greater" enemy coming from a mile away, but it was something you still needed to watch. The movie was paced kind of weird. Normally, films like these you can tune out for 5-10 minutes, tune back in, and know where they are (more-or-less). I had to rewind the movie several times and then finally resigned myself to needing to watch it with my whole attention. There were things they left "sitting" for a while (to get back to at a different time) and they didn't need to. I thought the acting was good, but I wish the story flowed in a different way. I guess the attempt was to make it "different," but it just didn't work. And then, the semi-non-ending was kind of weird too. I don't know. Not my favorite. Grade: C-

Identity Thief (Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy) - Pretty much what you'd expect even towards the end because you could see it coming midway through. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't anything really interesting too. I did find it hard for Bateman's character to steel the identity of his boss, but maybe that's me. He couldn't be the saint the whole movie or that'd be "boring," but still...With that, it's a little haphazard of a film and the laughs weren't there. You expect more from a pairing like that (or maybe you don't) and they didn't really deliver. Grade: C/C-

It occurs to me that I haven't given a movie that came out in 2013 an "A," ye t...In fact, Pacific Rim at a B+ is the highest this year! I can't tell if I'm becoming more jaded given how many movies I watch or if there truly hasn't been a "great" film this year. I guess I'll have to wait till the latter half of the year where the Oscar dramas start pouring out of the woodwork. Plus...Who can't wait for Thor or The Hobbit?! I don't know if I'll make 100 movies this year, though. I have 44 more movies to go and 5 more months. That's about 9 movies a month and I tend to slow down towards the end because the summer movies haven't come out or I've watched them all. We'll see!

"Happy Holidays!"

Perhaps it's me and the fact I like Christmas and call it "Christmas," but it always bothers me when people say "Happy Holidays" to me. I don't mind it when the corporation or educational institutions require you to say it (Goodwill requires us to say "Happy Holidays," as did Borders) because I can see a small logic to it, but it bothers me when on a one-to-one interaction people say "Happy Holidays." If you truly mean ALL the holidays or don't celebrate Christmas, I'm completely fine with it, but most times people are not saying that because they truly mean it in the context I gave, but because you are being "sensitive" to the fact I may not celebrate the same holiday as you.

We as a "tolerable" country have gone completely the opposite direction of tolerance and gone for boring. How boring is it that we completely remove the individuality of each person by requiring us all to say, "Happy Holidays." I feel like we remove a fundamental part of who we are when the holidays roll around. I like it when people wish me a Happy Hanukkah. I've never been wished a joyous Kwanzaa, but it'd be great if someone did! I have been told a Happy Festivus. With that said, sure, there is individuality, but aren't we being "insensitive" (or presumptuous) to those who don't celebrate the holiday we have wished them? Honestly, that's where our tolerance comes in play. I should be able to accept someone's wishes for a happy whatever without being offended they do not celebrate the same holiday as me. To me...THAT is tolerance and understanding, not this removing of individuality to create a "level playing field." As I said, if you say what you mean, then I'm cool with a "Happy Holidays," but don't skip the Christmas or Hanukkah because you're "protecting my feelings."

This all comes up because I found this thing on Facebook that pretty much is my sentiment about the whole thing:

If you are Jewish, feel free to wish me a "Happy Hanukkah"
If you are Christian, you can wish me a "Merry Christmas"
If you are African American/Canadian, wish me a "Joyous Kwanzaa"
If you have no affiliation, you can still wish me "Happy Holidays"
I promise not to be offended!
I will be thankful that you care enough to wish me well.

How amazing is that? Can I post this everywhere in the world? Because, honestly, this needs to be read by a LOT of people...

On that note, might be seeing Twilight this week. I was going to rent a movie tonight, but thought I'd be too tired to watch it. Turns out I'm not *that* tired, but oh well. It's my Friday! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Here's my fun customer story of the week (it truly boggled my mind): My co-worker picks up the phone and after a while asks me to take the call. I take the call and this customer explains to me that he doesn't want the piece of furniture he bought earlier today because it won't fit. It was hard to hear, but it was either it wouldn't fit in the truck he was going to haul it in or it wouldn't fit where he wanted to put it (it was a 2 piece dresser). Then he goes on to tell me that he cancelled the credit card transaction and is NOW calling us to let us know he did this and does not want it. Cue me being flabbergasted by this. He then proceeds to tell me that he's 79-years-old and he's gotten in enough arguments that this is his normal procedure: cancel and then call. I explained to him that I would have accepted the return and resold the piece of furniture if he had called or even stopped in at the store before he did this. He explained to me that he knew our store policy (no returns) and figured he'd just cancel and then call, but since we're "so nice" he'll, in the future, call first about it. I explained to him that there was really nothing else we needed to talk about, but I made sure I had his name and number just in case I had to do something else on my end. Turns out, our regional boss hasn't had this happen before and he didn't know what to do either. Yeah, how often do you get a situation like this?! I can also see this man being a problem down the road and doing the same thing, but we'll see. It still boggles my mind. Who takes the time to cancel a credit card transaction to get around store policies?!

Well, with that, I'm going to exercise or read while it's raining out...Well, obviously I won't be IN the rain (I'll be inside LISTENING to the rain), but you get the point. :) I am really enjoying the rain...Living in Santa Barbara meant I didn't get a lot of rain for 2 years and then last winter was a SUPER dry winter that I find I'm liking the rainy days more than the non-rainy days lately. Course, work is a little more hazardous and annoying, but oh well. Will post my latest Christmas mani later this week (after I change to Christmas mani #3).

Human decency?

Working at any job will have you come face-to-face with difficult people. Most times you bite your lip, hold your attitude, and bear it through as best you can while trying to make the person as happy as possible. Sometimes these "difficult people" come in at bad moments for yourself and are simply high maintenance and require a lot energy to handle (e.g., people who want 2 items in this bag, 3 in this bag, and make sure you double-bag one of the bags). Occasionally, you have a person who doesn't speak English as his/her first language and you have a language barrier and they become difficult because they don't understand. Other times, they generally are difficult to work with and you can't please them no matter what you do (e.g., people who want said items to be bagged in such a way, but you don't do it correctly so they want you to do it again). And then, from time to time, they are sour-minded people who find the world is out to get them and, thus, must treat everyone in a negative manner to make themselves feel better or, in general, they just are rude and intolerable with a chip on their shoulder and feel like they can treat you badly for whatever reason. I'm sure there are more types of difficult people, but mine generally come down to the aforementioned four: 1) I'm tired, 2) language barrier, 3) they're simply picky, or 4) they have a serious attitude issue no matter what.

My questions, though, are why is it that difficult people are the ones who get to act out and get away with it? Why is it deemed "not okay" to be difficult, rude, obnoxious, etc, but we as a society still tip-toe around these people? Why can't we just hit them upside the head and tell them to snap out of it and stop being rude? Why is it when someone sees a portion of a moment with the difficult person (especially if it happens often) does it make you seem like the bad person when you look like you're running out of patience?

I suppose all the answers really come down to confrontation (re: don't like it) and tolerance (re: being the bigger person or accepting it), but they're still fair questions. Why can't I tell a customer to exit the premises without helping them if they're being difficult beyond the realm of tolerance? Okay, so everyone's tolerance levels are different and what is deemed "difficult" is different than someone else's, but, you know, there is a general "level" that most people can agree to. Honestly, where has human decency gone?

I suppose the question to that is: Has there ever been a moment we can say human decency existed on a general level? We as a society do change (e.g., perception of women and African-Americans) and hindsight is 20-20, but you wish there's at least a general level that we can be civil to each other. Unfortunately, apparently that doesn't really exist on a macro-level. Sure, maybe on a micro-level (i.e., person-to-person) it does exist. I'm courteous to my neighbors. I'm helpful to the elderly on the street. Yet, when it comes down to it, how often does it crop up that we question human decency?

This is all mostly just rhetorical thoughts bouncing around my head and you're probably wondering where this all came from. Let's just say that I have had a very (make that a double-underline) trying week (thank goodness tomorrow is my Friday!). What's happening to the world?!

Twice in the last couple of weeks we've had customers come in with a chip on their shoulder from the get-go (difficult person #4 in my earlier list). One lady, for no apparent reason, was really rude to a co-worker (no fault of the co-workers). On top of it, she was a really picky person (difficult person #3). I had to deal with her later and you couldn't even make small talk without her trying to chew my head off and then bagging was difficult nonstop (one in each bag, tie the bag - no, wait, I want to tie it myself - place them gently in the bigger bag, etc). I at least had a heads up about her so I was trying to play it down, but I guess she had a little bit of a cussing episode before I got to her. Then, today, Oh.My.Gosh. The guy threatened a co-worker bodily harm (BEYOND the "normal" realms of difficult person #4)! Who does that?! All over a $20 return! He came in fuming too. The manager got it calmed down (did the return, despite our policy) and then the situation was blown up again. It was like verbal abuse the names he called my co-worker (not the manager) and then threatened us. Yeah, not cool. I hope he never comes back and what are we supposed to do? Act cool and get him out of the store as quickly as possible, while the rest of the shoppers are fidgeting (practically) because of the confrontation (who wants to shop with a guy like that in-store?!). Goodness. Human decency, people, HUMAN DECENCY.

And our favorite difficult person #2 who has been coming in each and every day for the last 1.5 weeks or so. We're pretty much all convinced that she DOES understand English, but plays dumb to try and get us to work around her (to be fair, I KNOW she understood me MUCH better several months ago). At first, we were all nice (she used to come in every few weeks before the recent everyday situation) and she'd come in with her daughter or husband and it wasn't too bad. Lately, it's been bad and VERY bad. Bad to the point of making customers uncomfortable because we sound like we're being mean and/or rude to this older lady who (to them) doesn't understand English. We're not being mean. We're not being rude. Yes, we're being firm with her over our store policies, but it's because she's taken advantage of us enough the past week and we're tired of dealing with it (not to mention we have very long conversations over the same thing everyday...). We've even had customers (a regular) get herself involved because she thought she could help. Yeah, it doesn't. We all basically want to run away when we see her come in, it's that bad. One day she wouldn't leave after I said "no" to her a bazillion times and we threatened to call the cops if she didn't take "no" for an answer and leave (she knows what "no" means for sure and suddenly understood what "calling the cops" meant too). Funny enough, the next customers to come up made a joke of it (it made us all laugh) and they asked how often she came in so they understood why we weren't being nicer or more lenient, but most people don't know the situation. So, in a lot of eyes, I feel like we're seen as the mean guys because we're holding to our policies because this lady keeps taking advantage of us. We're a charity, people, we're nice, but you can't try and take advantage of us everyday and get away with it! Where's the human decency in this situation?!

Truly, no one likes difficult people. I get that. I get that they exist in the world too, but WHY do they need to come around me?! *sigh* As I said, it's been a rough week with difficult people (especially our favorite customer who doesn't speak English...). Ironically enough, I was dealing with the lady who doesn't speak English (another round (after my earlier round) of explaining the same thing that we explain everyday...) and had to go up to the register with her when the whole ordeal of the beyond difficult guy was happening. So the manager and assistant manager were BOTH busy with difficult people, albeit totally different levels. In addition, I had a customer waiting for me to help her, furniture arrived, etc. It was a crazy half hour. After both difficult people left, we had a customer standing in line after the whole thing and I apologized to her profusely and rang her up. Luckily, she was a really nice lady and we actually started talking about Borders, but...man.

I feel so embarrassed to have people like that in-store. It's like you want to tell every customer in-store during the situation that you really are nice people, there aren't these difficult people in-store, generally, and your shopping experience will usually be pleasant! I think the stigma with Goodwill also doesn't help the situation either. Being at a place like Goodwill means people are friendly to you (it's like a neighborhood establishment/family feel with the regulars compared to Borders when you felt all stiff even if they were regulars), but it also means people can think of your store as being "cheap" or "dirty" or has "crazy people" frequent it (won't deny the crazy people, but Borders had crazy people too!). So, yeah.

Difficult people? By far. Human decency? Not so much from them. I'm just glad my week is almost finished. I'm not sure I can take anymore difficult people and the odds of our favorite non-English speaker coming in tomorrow is quite high. Hopefully it's just her and no one else...

In another line of human decency, today I saw a dog get picked up by animal control. It broke my heart. The dog was so friendly that the initial cop on the scene (there were 2 and they were arresting some guy - not sure if the dog was his or not) walked up to it and the dog immediately wanted to be petted and then wanted to play. It was funny because the dog had a crazy minute of running around a nearby tree. I have no clue what led it on, but it was funny. The dog was so happy and really pretty (Shepard-collie mix maybe?). Apparently, it was initially tied up to the tree it was running around because the animal control person (after putting a noose-like leash on the dog) went back and dug around and came up with what looked like a leash (as the cop had the dog). I hope someone didn't tie the dog up and leave it there. I (mostly) hope that the guy who got arrested owned the dog just because at least the dog wasn't abandoned on purpose...It might have been the case too because the animal control person went and talked to the guy through the window of the cop car afterwards. The guy didn't look seriously in trouble, but they did pat him down, cuff him, and went through his belongings and then some other cop showed up in a "community services" truck. No clue. It was weird, but I hope the dog is okay.

With that...

[/rant] ;)

Cha-cha-changes!

Believe it or not, but this will be a life update post! Well, maybe I'll throw in a nail photo or two at the end, but mostly life update with an abundance of work-related stuff.

So, I had hinted in my last post that things at work were sort of up in the air and I would update when things settled down. Well, things have settled down. The outcome? I am now assistant manager! Long story short, a manager position became open at another store and our manager decided to take the position. Our assistant manager became our manager and then the assistant manager position was open. The other lead and I applied for it and I got the position! I should say, from start to finish, this all took about 1.5 months. It did, however, feel significantly longer than that. It's not fun being down a person and not having a manager around (before she officially became the manager at the other store, she was filling in). Not to mention we leads and (former) assistant manager had no idea how the outcomes would all turn out either (our (now) manager also applied for the manager position at the other store) and it was all rather "who knows?" for a long time. Instability is never fun and it was pretty stressful for a while. I do dearly miss our former manager as I really liked her, but there's not a whole lot I can do about that! I do like our assistant manager turned manager and get along with him so that's good. :)

Now it's mostly me getting used to the idea that I'm now the assistant manager. Not much really changed for me, but we do now have a lead position open that we'll have to fill. That is sort of a whole other can of worms that I can't really discuss, but I'm not too worried about it either. It will be nice to have the 4th keyholder so one of us leads or above can be sick and not have to pull a 12-hour day or pull overtime or something. It'll also be nice to have our missing employee back too. We're fine with the numbers we have (we've gotten used to it), but it will be nice to have another full-time person to help round out the days.

Other than the leadership thing, work is okay. We're currently full-swing into Halloween and are currently drowning in the excess of costumes. A glitch in shipping happened early last week and we received 19 boxes of costumes instead of 4. That is a HUGE difference! We just aren't selling enough to keep up with our 4-boxes a day shindig. We'll likely have to remove some of our normal clothes to fit in more Halloween, but we'll see. I'm sure once the end of Sept hits, it'll be pretty chaotic. Halloween is the Christmas equivalent for Goodwill. It's nuts and they save and stash stuff away ALL year just for Halloween. We won't keep getting new things the entire lead-up to Halloween, but I think we'll get a ton of stuff till early October (maybe even late Sept). I've heard horror stories about Halloween last year, so it'll be really, really interesting!

We've been having an unfortunate amount of sticker-switching lately. It's been an epidemic, it seems. Yesterday seemed like it was the case of the $0.99 stickers. It was like, for a time, everything was coming up to the registers with $0.99 stickers on them and, to be frank, not that many things are $0.99! We all wanted to know where they were finding the stickers! I've also had some rather temperamental customers about discounts the last few days too. I get it that people want to be frugal and I get it that you may be struggling so you want deals, but some of these people just want to be difficult to be difficult for a $1 or $0.50 even!

Examples...

I had this guy want a student discount on Friday. Student discounts (10%) are only on Saturday and Sunday with an ID. This guy wanted to talk to me (after talking to my coworker at the register) because he wanted his student discount and wanted to know if I can do anything for him. I told him, no, we can't give him the discount and it's only on the weekend. (Side note: unbeknownst to him, but if I gave him the discount, it sends up a red flag to our loss prevention (LP) guy and I could be in BIG trouble over giving discounts on a day I'm not supposed to.) He looks at me and says, "When does the week END? Not Saturday, but Friday." I look at him in total disbelief and go, "No, Saturday and Sunday are the week end. Mon-Fri are a week DAY." It was a poor comeback, but, come on! Then he tries arguing back to me and I cut him off and go, "It's on the calendar that the discount is only on Sat-Sun. I can't do anything about it. Come back to tomorrow." So he goes, looks at the calendar, comes back and goes, "But I'm not a student on Sat-Sun and I'm a poor student." Oh.my.gosh. I really wanted to do something bad so I just said, "Sorry, I can't do it" and walked away. I felt bad leaving my co-worker there to finish with him, but I was going to lose it if I stayed there! As is, he couldn't really argue since the calendar said Sat-Sun. As it is, I think he bought less than $5 worth of stuff. Really? Was it worth all that hassle for $0.50 savings? I guess the argument for some is more important than anything else.

Another example is the senior discount (55 and older). I know a 10% savings is better than no savings, but people hold onto that senior discount like it's a lifesaver or something. Our senior discount days are Mon-Wed. It's not everyday, but it's 3/7 days of the week. That's not too bad. Well, I can't tell you how many times people will say to us, "Oh, I'm only old those days?" Really, people? You're going to complain about that? Aren't we nice enough to even GIVE you a senior discount at all? Do you go to the movies at 5pm and complain that senior early birds are only in the morning and not all day? Well, probably, but still. I think we get more complaints over the senior discount days than when we lowered the discount on clothes from 50% to 25%. So silly.

My least favorite customer dealings are the regulars who, every time they come in, try and barter with you. On one hand, they're regulars so you somewhat know them, but, on the other, I shouldn't have to go around-and-around with you that no, I won't sell this to you for a lower price and no, I can't exchange it for you and, no, I can't do a damage discount. We have this one customer who comes in once or twice a week and CONSTANTLY tries to get you to reduce the price for an item. Today he wanted an item for $2 instead of $2.25. Every time, we stand there and go around-and-around about 3 or 4 times of "No, no discount. It's this price..." before he finally just gives us the money for the item. Did I really just expend that energy for him to buy it at said price? *sigh of disbelief*

So, last (last) Saturday, I went to Del Mar Racetrack! It's the last of the "Big 3" SoCal racetracks I haven't been to. I got in free through a friend who works at the racetrack. Man that track is small. I had no idea it was THAT small. I almost think Hollywood Park is bigger than Del Mar. It's no wonder everyone says that there is no way that Del Mar could host the Breeders' Cup! It was good to go, though. The tracks all have a different piece of history and culture attached to them so it's fun going to see how they look and feel. I find I still love Santa Anita the most. It's a kind of deep seated instant love. It's also the most handicapper/race fan friendly of the tracks. Hollywood Park is slated to be bulldozed and turned into apartments, but the economy has stalled the project. I think they're still trying to save it too, but it's, so far, pretty imminent. Del Mar is probably upkept the best of them all, but it's definitely got the dazzle of money being poured into it to keep it's very Spanish influenced paddock in shape. Santa Anita is, by no means, run down, but it's not as "pretty." It has a simpler taste and luxury to it that stems more around its layout and its many, many bronze statues and fan accessibility. In other words, Santa Anita feels "homey" while Del Mar feels "richy." To be fair, there's nothing wrong with Del Mar, but it just can't compete with my love of Santa Anita.

The racing was good, though, and the people were fairly nice. It has a little bit more of a "fair" feel to it, but I'm not sure if that was because the beerfest was there too. They also have more eateries on the premises than Santa Anita. Santa Anita has a cafeteria-like eatery and maybe a restaurant or two, but Del Mar had all sorts of things other than the food tents. I got to see my first Grade 1 race in person! I have always had to leave or missed it before. So that was exciting! Most of the races at a racetrack are claimers, maidens, etc so when you get a graded stakes race, it's more exciting because the caliber of horses in the field are much better. The handicapping is much more exciting, in my opinion, in those races. They do tend to be a little easier to handicap also. Claiming races and maidens are hard to handicap sometimes because the horses have had such a varied number of races and such. Course, that might also be because I'm used to keeping up with graded races more than the claimers so I find the claimers harder to handicap. Who knows. I usually hypothetically bet each race, but the heat at Del Mar and everything got me lazy after the 3rd race. I will say, I called the 3rd place winner of the first race and the horse was 23-1! 

Anyway, here are some photos of the track I took (along with some other photos of my weekend): Del Mar Racetrack (Mostly)

So, movies...I haven't seen any movies since my last post. Not much out right now and I haven't had time to go see the Bourne movie with Jeremy Renner. Maybe this week I'll get to see it.

Now, nails...

Been a while and I'm still changing about twice a week. Typically one mani lasts around 4-5 days and the other lasts about 2-3. Not too bad! I need to trim my nails desperately, but I always need a good frame of mind to do that since trimming is sort of tedious and I dislike trimming. :P Here's a few backlog of photos, though!

   

The photo on the left is my favorite mani of the past 2 months and it was the one that only last 24 hours! Crushed me! the white base is Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella Donna (now called "Bella) and it's a great off-white color (sort of a beigey white). The glitter on top is Lynnderella Snow Angel. This photo does NOT do this justice at all. It was really pretty in person. It definitely screamed "wedding" mani, but it was just really pretty. It had a class and sophistication to it that I loved.

The center photo is Smitten Polish Confection. She created a collection centered around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and this is one of them. It's a really fun polish! I like how it's white, but not a really "bright" and "harsh" white. The glitter is mixed into the white color and it's opaque in 2 coats! Opaque glitters are kind of rare in the indie polish world. Most glitters (3/4?) are clear based glitters (so top coats that need a base). I really like opaque glitters because it cuts my work down on trying to pair them. On the other hand, clear based glitters are nice to mix-and-match too.

The photo on the right is also by Smitten Polish and is called Mint Chip. Can you guess why? This polish had me craving mint chip ice cream so badly! I could almost taste it as I was painting my nails! It's also a great fun and opaque glitter by Smitten. Smitten is pretty much my new favorite indie!

My current mani is pretty plain and is just Rescue Beauty Lounge's Oriental Poppy (now called "Poppy"). The shimmer in it is really hard to see and it's a pretty bright coral-red color. On my long nails, it's kind of stereotypical for long nails. :P I need to stay away from glitters for a few changes, though. The glitter removal is wrecking havoc on my poor nails so I'm banned to shimmers and cremes for a little!

Well, with that, after this loooooooong post...Time to go rewatch Hunger Games and/or read and get ready for my 7th day of work! Yes, that would be my 7th day in a row I'll have worked tomorrow. I get Tues off and then work another 2 days and get Friday off and then I work 6 days in a row and then get 2 days off. After that, I should be back to 5 days and then 2 off. Phew!

So much for regularity...

Not only did I fail in continuing to post nail photos regularly (since the 4th of July, I've had 15 different manis, including my current one -- that's about a little more than a change twice a week), I got behind on movies (I've watched 9), and my work atmosphere is totally up in the air. Work is probably the hardest to deal with right now. It's an 8-hour day of draining energy where I come home and just want to not think or do anything. At any rate, the work story is for another day when things do or do not change.

As for the lack of nail updating, I blame it on the books. I've been in book reading mode (read 18 books since July 1st - about 3 a week). I also had a stint in mid-July where none of my manis were cooperating and I was changing them almost daily for about 4 days. Since then, things have leveled off and I'm changing more like twice a week. I had one of my all time favorite manis during the one-day cycles too, which was rather crushing when it didn't make it through 24 hours. I loved it! My nails or my methods or whatever seemed to have been fixed, though. Either that or I'm just not minding as much when a chip happens! I'll post pictures of some of the better ones at some point.

On to movies...Nothing fantastic and I had a few days where I just felt like I needed to wash my brain or something.

Safe House (Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds) - Apparently it didn't make of an impression on me because I couldn't really remember it and had to look up the plot to even remember! It's your basic spy vs spy type of film where Reynolds is the housekeeper for a safe house and Washington is a CIA agent who everyone is after. Washington is brought to the safe house, Reynolds ends up (after a series of events) having to trek around with him and then you find out that Washington is wrongly accused of his information and it's all because he has information that can expose corrupt agents all over the world. It's not a new script and as good as Reynolds and Washington were in their acting, the script is flat. Grade: C

Flowers of War (Christian Bale) - This movie is about the Nanking Massacre that stars Christian Bale in an otherwise foreign actors and produced film. It's a good film and Bale does an excellent acting job, but it was kind of weird having an American be the star of the film. It wasn't really needed, but I assume it had some to do with trying to get more recognition for the film. It's a mix of English and Chinese subtitles and it got across the impact the massacre had on the survivors and the fear they lived in. It is a movie, though, so it has that cinematic feel and effects to it (a little stylized, I suppose), but it was good. The children actors were excellent and the end really pulls at the heart strings. I think I was in a state of panic, shock, fear, or tears through most of it. It is a little graphic, but war isn't a PG film either. Grade: B

Wanderlust (Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston) - Watched this film right before Flowers of War and both films needed me to wash my brain and memory a little before going to bed for drastically different reasons. This film I do NOT recommend in the least. It might be up there with the worst films of the year I've seen. There is nudity in it that, seriously, I didn't need to see (old men and women running nude? Gahhhh!) and it was just a stupid film all around. Yes, I should have known better given it's an Aniston film, but I was curious! I'm not sure there is anything even really redeeming in it other than Rudd was true to his marriage even though they had agreed to go with Wanderlust's "sharing" attitude and Aniston's character slept with one of the leaders. I will say, there were some funny parts, but not many... Grade: D

Friends with Kids (Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt) - Interesting film that's somewhere along the lines of "Friends with Benefits," but more in line with friends with benefits that have kids? Two good friends decide to have a kid together without the ties of marriage as they've seen their friends who are married have kids and seen what it does to their marriage and personal lives. The female could have an unknown donor, but figures...Why not her best friend who also wants a kid in an abstract sense of just wanting one? One of their set of friends ends up not working out and the other ends up being okay, but, in the end, of course, the two main characters end up together through their trials and difficulties. It's a mostly silly premise, but it is a different sort of rom-com than I've seen before. I don't particularly like Westfeldt, but she works in the role (she also wrote and directed it, I believe) and I liked Scott. Not your best rom-com, though. Grade: C

Lockout (Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace) - All I could think of was, "MIB:3!!." To be fair, this movie came out before MIB:3, but I saw MIB:3 first. Future world where there's a space station that is for realllllllly dangerous criminals. They're put into a sort of cryogenic tube so there is minimal needs from them. The President's daughter decides to visit to check out one of the prisoners and the rumors going around that the sleep-stasis they're put into alters their brain/emotions. Long story short, a man who was going to be sent to the station is, instead, given a chance to redeem himself and save the President's daughter before harm comes of her when things go wrong and all the criminals are released for their stasis. I can't say it's that original, but it was interesting. It reminded me of The Rock a little because it's supposed to be sort of impossible to infiltrate and all that. Grade: C

Wrath of the Titans (Sam Worthington) - Was it better than Clash of the Titans? Erm, I don't know. It's been so long since I've seen Clash of the Titans and I can't find my review (did I review it?). Was it what I expected it to be? Yes. It wasn't fantastic and some of the CG is grating. Also, as much as I like Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades, their portrayals don't really work for me. The film was okay. It's not really memorable, which is what the first one is like. It wasn't totally bad, but nor was it really good either. In all, I'm glad I didn't see it in theaters and I'm also glad I saw it just to see it. Grade: C/C-

The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone) - I know they wanted to do the origin story again because it's a new man playing Spider-Man, but, gosh darn it, I'm TIRED of seeing the origin story! Move on to something else! I did like Garfield as Spider-Man. He sort of aligns to what you think of Spider-Man as being (tall, gangly, nerdy, etc). Emma Stone as Gwen was also good. I did like having Gwen instead of MJ (just to be different). They also changed the origin just a little. With that said, I'll probably see the others, but I'm not sure if I really like it better than the Tobey MacGuire ones. I think I like it just a little more, but it's almost par. Grade: B/B-

Dark Knight Rises (Christian Bale) - It's a good film, but it is FAR too long. There is a lot in it that didn't need to be in it to make it shorter. I kind of call it the King Kong syndrome with Peter Jackson where the studios give the director, pretty much, free reign to do whatever they want and the director makes a long winded film that didn't need to be that long. There were also holes in things and Bane, as good as he was, was sort of stripped of his identity at the end for a twist ending that sort of belittled who Bane was. Tom Hardy did an EXCELLENT job as Bane, though, and he was an amazing villain till the end. That whole end...*sigh* It felt a little bit like a cop-out. Nolan is such a great director and he likes those twists and turns that make you go, "huh?" and this one had a weak attempt at it that just felt a little contrived to me given it was Nolan directing. The one thing I liked at the end was of Joseph Gordon Levitt's ending, which was neat, but whether they'll do anything with it, that remains to be seen. I also liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I thought they handled her portrayal well and it was farrrrr better than Halle Berry's. I liked how they snuck in the whole "ear" aspect without going costume-y and it was subtle. I do think Catwoman was a little bit of an unnecessary role and they sort of threw in her origin story in the movie, but oh well. I also liked how it went full circle back to the first movie. Overall, I liked it and it did feel shorter, albeit it was actually longer, than Spider-Man so I guess that's a plus. I just wish it was executed just a little better. Grade: B

Total Recall (Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel) - Having not seen the original, I can't compare it to it, but I liked this version. Bill Nighy had a REALLY short roll and it reminded me of Liam Neeson's Unknown, even though Total Recall is older than Unknown. Not much to say about it other than I thought it was a good film. Nothing really deep in it or anything, but I enjoyed the special effects and thought the acting was good. Grade: B

With that, my movie count is up to 65. I haven't rented a movie in about 2 weeks now. Not sure when I'll rent again, but the Lorax and What to Expect When You're Expecting come out in Sept and Hunger Games comes out soon. So...we'll see.

Nail photos and movies?

I'm contemplating posting photos of my nail stuff here. I'm by no means turning into a nail blogger (that sounds like work!), but I might just post the stuff I do. I post pictures on Facebook already, but since I already do it there, how much more work would it be to post here too? I don't know. I change my nails so regularly (every 2-3 days, if I can manage, but sometimes as long as 4-5 days or as short as, well, every day)...So...We'll see! It will require me to download my photos more. Oh the work! ;)

At any rate, quick update on work. My normal schedule is back! After working 7 hours of overtime in 3 weeks, being short-staffed, having to work 2 hours on a day off (admittedly, it was just for fire extinguisher training so it wasn't really like work and I did get to leave 2 hours early from another shift, but I did have to be up and present at the training), and then working 6-days in a row, I am ready to be back on my normal work schedule! I'm a little worried, though, because it looks like the work-cold might be making its rounds again...I'm waiting for the time when we're all back on our regular schedules and no one is ill! This week is ill person and one person is gone for 2 days to work at another store. Tired of it! At least my schedule looks to be okay.

Okay, on to movies! Really not a great group of movies, but Brave comes out this Friday!!

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Nicolas Cage) - Okay, okay. I shouldn't have been surprised that it was horrible, but...I mean. Come on! The first one was BAD. You'd think if they're going to put the effort into a 2nd one (with a, mostly, totally unrelated plot to the first one) that they'd make it a least a LITTLE better than the first one. Nope. It's bad, if not WORSE than the first one. Probably worse because it isn't even remotely better than the first one and that's just, well, bad. How many times can I say "bad" in this short paragraph? At any rate, skip it. The only even slightly "good" part is that the CG is decent. So much money in a movie that's horrible! Grade: F (I don't think I've ever given a F before!)

The Grey (Liam Neesom) - I knew the movie was centered around survival in the snow with a pack of wolves trying to eat them. With that said, Chris and I started the odds on each person as soon as they crashed and then guessed how many people (if any) were going to survive to the end of the movie. Most times you feel a little optimistic for some people through the movie, but you quickly learn not to get attached to ANYONE in this one. I'm not even sure what the whole point was for? Not to say every movie needs a point, but I just feel like this one had a point somewhere that I missed. Perhaps something about nature? Or surviving? Or past misdeeds? Or resigning yourself to the cards life hands you? I don't know. At any rate, it ends rather depressingly. The tension/suspense in the movie is rather high (they do that well), but I could have lived without seeing it. Grade: D

Red Tails (Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, etc) - I knew Red Tails hadn't received glowing reviews so I wasn't expecting much from it, but it certainly still missed even my expectations. There is something "off" about the film. It's supposed to be a dramatized history drama (whatever you want to call it), but even then I think I expected something more along the lines of a cross between Saving Private Ryan and Secretariat/Remember the Titans/etc. Unfortunately, the characters fell flat. Perhaps there were too many of them, but they weren't particularly likeable and it there were some you knew about more than others and it was just awkward with that many people to focus on. It also had a sense of dramatization to it like you were watching an action film. I liked the combat scenes (CG was good) and the premise is a good one, but it wasn't executed well. I think if the pilots were more likeable it'd have gone better. Grade: C

John Carter (Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins) - Not bad. It fell somewhere within my expectations. It's sort of a cross between Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars Episode I, and Somewhere in Time (with a happy ending). If you can imagine those 3 things together, that's basically John Carter for you. Except, instead of time travel, it's more like planet jumping (Earth to Mars). It starts off kind of different because it starts in the "future" and then backtracks to the "past" to tell the story of John Carter, and ends back in the "future" (or present). So it had an element of "mystery" to figure out at the very end, but wasn't totally surprising either. It's a lot of fighting and traveling. It's not a bad film, but it's certainly not fantastic either. Grade: B-/C+

This Means War (Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy) - It's not too bad. I can't say it's fantastic either, but it walks a very fine line between aiming itself at males and females. It's a romantic comedy, which you instantly think would appeal more to the women, but the main characters are male (most rom-coms focus around females). In that sense, both the guys and the girl have their "relationship" issues where both sides can understand (the guys' competition and the girl's dilemma with picking and dealing with her ex). It's pretty silly and the actual "mission" is kind of thrown into the middle of it to help create an action sense to it and also some "excitement," but it's definitely the back story. I will say, this movie made me think "bros before hoes," which is crude, but that mantra would have made the two guys pitting themselves against each other to win the girl moot. They're also best friends, not only CIA partners. It's cute and they all have a good ending, but it is rather silly (sort of the same feeling as Mr. & Mrs. Smith). I do enjoy Witherspoon, Hardy, and Pine, though. Compared to some other rom-com actresses, Witherspoon tends to have the better rom-coms (unlike Hudson, who I really can't stand...). Grade: B-/C+

Rewatched Sherlock Homes: Game of Shadows too. I like the film. I still think the horse scene is the funniest scene in the movie and still makes me laugh when I see/think of it. Has one of the best lines too: "They're dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle. Why would I want anything with a mind of its own bobbing about between my legs?" So funny.

I just figured out that I've been shooting for 80 films this year, and I, actually, was supposed to be shooting for 70. At the rate I'm going, it'll definitely be easy to hit 70 (I suspect I'll hit 60 by the end of July), so I'm officially going for 80. It's a little harder to obtain, but shouldn't be unfeasible either. We'll see if I can do it! I also realized I totally missed Beginners on DVD. How did I do that?! So I'm going to have to find it somewhere to rent now.

Movies: Snow White & the Huntsman & New Year's Eve

Trying to be better about reviewing more regularly or perhaps my 12 hours of sleep last night have motivated me and given me energy!

This last week at work has been absolutely draining. I worked two 11.5 hours work shifts (we get a half hour lunch) in a row in the middle of my work week on Friday and Saturday, which just happen to be our 2 busiest days. Not to mention, we were seriously understaffed on Saturday since one employee called out and our manager wasn't available. One of the other employees also did a 11.5 hour shift on Sat. Crazy, I tell you! We're doing surveys too, which adds *that* much more stress onto the day. I've been joking, though, saying I run a tight ship because we've managed to never get too behind on getting stuff out while I've been there. Sure, the store could look prettier, but we'll worry about that after our staff all come back! We have all been working really hard, though. I did get to leave early on Monday because I've got fire extinguisher training on Wed so, as to not work overtime this week, I got to leave early! I don't think training is going to take 2 hours, but I guess I'll worry about that tomorrow if it does take less than 2 hours and talk it over with my manager. Be interesting to do the training, though. I thought our acronym "PASS" (Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep) was supposed to make us capable? I get to work 4-days in a row this week, which is great because Saturday is an auction Sat (i.e., ALWAYS crazy Sats!) and I'm doing the auction 100% alone. The other 2 people who help (1 closes out the auction, 1 helps set it up the new one, and I help pack-up and ring-up the closed out and write the paperwork for the new one) are gone. However, I get 4-days in a row, but I then get to work 6-days in a row. Woohoo! Work is treating me well while our manager is gone. I don't get overtime for the 6th day either because in the actual week (Sun-Sat) I'm only working 5 days. My 6th day rolls into the next week (my "normal" days off are Tues/Wed, but I get Mon/Tues off one week).

Anyway, with that...Movies! Because I got off early on Monday, Chris and I went and saw Snow White & the Huntsman and I rented New Year's Eve last week.

Snow White & the Huntsman (Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron) - I liked it, but Chris found it boring. It could have been better and I still think Stewart is a bit of a flat actress, but I thought Theron and Hemsworth were good. Theron really did a good job playing the unstable sorceress queen. Her brother was equally creepy. I liked Hemsworth and thought he was a good Huntsman, but the age situation between Stewart and Hemsworth really bothered me! I'm not sure why, but it did. I was all for William over the Huntsman and I don't think you should be thinking that during the movie. With that said, Chris said to me, "In the medieval time, no one would have thought anything weird about that." True that. The writing could have been better too. There were some really bad lines, especially at the end ("You look fetching in mail" (ahahaha) or after a very poignant pause, "You can't have my heart" (what?!?!)). Chris and I were making fun of them after we left and how some of them could have been changed or left out completely. I will say, I liked the beginning and middle of the movie far better than the end. Something "wrong" happens towards the end and it just doesn't work. I'm not sure if it's because it's sped up (you spend 3/4 of the movie on this "journey" and the last quarter is the battle/finale/everything). They could have cut out some of the journey and made the end flow a little better and I think I'd have enjoyed it better. It is far darker than Mirror, Mirror, but, in that way, this film is more of an adventure story rather than a comedy/family film. It's more to my taste and the soundtrack is really good. I'm not sure if it's a good thing when you start noticing how good the soundtrack is in comparison to the movie, but I thought Newton Howard did a good job. Some pieces did remind me of various movies (Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean), but I listen to so many soundtracks that it's hard for me NOT to hear some notes in other movies. There were some moments in the movie where I went, "NARNIA!" and I was telling Chris during a chase scene I, kid you not, was trying to count the "shadow soldiers" chasing them to see if there were 9 of them (i.e., Ringwraiths from LotR). At any rate, I liked it, but it could have been better with just a few changes in the writing of the script. I wouldn't mind seeing it again on DVD, but I wouldn't readily recommend it. Grade: B/B-

New Year's Eve (Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Effron, Ashton Kutcher, etc) - I like these sappy movie ensemble casts where there are a lot of various well-known actors/actresses in them. Chris just went, "Another one?!" I think I've pretty much seen most, if not all, of them (Valentine's Day, Love Actually, etc) and I enjoy them as fluff films. I don't think this one was as good as the others, but it was okay. I think my favorite pairing was Pfeiffer and Effron. I also like in these films how everyone is connected to each other in some way. Heigl was in this one (totally forgot) and Chris made a comment how I've been watching a lot of Heigl lately. I think I rewatched something of hers the other day and after seeing One for the Money, I apparently have been on a Heigl kick lately. Her pairing is with Bon Jovi and it was okay. In general, this film is as you would expect it to be with all manners of relationships (neighbors, father-daughter, mother-daughter, ex's, etc). Wouldn't really recommend this, unless you were inclined to watch it. Grade: B-

Huge movie backlog (and neon tetra death)

Been too tired, busy, and then totally forgot to actually post my movie list. I've been keeping this post for a while and keep forgetting to post it because I never manage to finish it in one sitting so there is quite a few movies to go over.

Contagion (Gwenyth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, etc) - Interesting ensemble cast and an interesting movie. I can't say it's as "exciting" or "riveting" as it's made out to be in the trailer (it's supposed to be a sort of medical thriller), but it was interesting on how accurate it is on how a disease can be transmitted and stuff. I also like how the movie was set-up, but it did take me a little while to figure it out. You essentially start the movie on day 2 and work your way across the days (several hundred) to how the disease spreads, how the vaccine is created/distributed, how the investigation of what it is, etc. At the VERY end of the movie, it shows you day 1 to know how correct or incorrect the CDC was and how the disease came about. In a lot of ways, the movie has a feel to a CSI episode (I suppose that's sort of fitting since Fishburne was in CSI for 2 seasons). Good rental. Grade: B

Real Steel (Hugh Jackman) - Not too shabby of a movie. Not quite your stereotypical ending, but, at the same time, wasn't earth shattering or anything. I enjoyed Jackman and the robot was pretty neat too. It's a pretty good famly-ish movie and something different than Jackman being Wolverine. I liked the boy too. He was likeable and tough, whereas Jackman's character in the beginning wasn't as likeable. In a lot of ways, it was the instance of the kid teaching the parent, I suppose. If there's not a whole else to watch, I'd recommend Real Steel, but it's nothing to run out and watch or try to watch. Grade: B/B-

50/50 (Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - Well. It's definitely on the "crude" end given it's a Rogen film; however, for a Rogen film, it's not that bad since it is based on the serious side with the cancer. I liked it, but it's definitely not going to be for everyone. It's a film about dealing with cancer and how those around you also deal with it, but it's also about finding your life. I really liked Gordon-Levitt, but I also like him in general too. Grade: B-

Abduction (Taylor Lautner) - I still can't decide if it's not as bad as I thought or if it's as bad as I thought. It's somewhere in the middle maybe? The story is mostly pretty boring and the acting isn't spectacular, but it also somehow passed the time rather well without realizing it. So, maybe it's where your expectations lie. I expected it to be bad, but also had a friend who said it wasn't that bad. At any rate, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you already want to see it. There really isn't much beyond what the trailer shows you, except maybe who his parents really are. Grade: C

What's Your Number? (Anna Faris, Chris Evans) - Well, this went somewhere exactly as I thought. It was rather predictable from the get go, but it wasn't horrible either. Course, it certainly wasn't great even amongst other chick flicks. The concept is rather stupid, though. All starts with an article in Marie Claire that women, on average, sleep with 10.5 (I think) men and Faris's character panics and starts counting and realizes she's slept with 19 people (far more than sister's bridesmaids). She makes a promise that she won't sleep with another man and #20 will be her husband. She gets drunk and ends up sleeping with a former co-worker and panics and, thus, with the help of her male neighbor who sleeps around, tracks down all her former boyfriends to see if one of them is "the one." Yup. That's the premise! It just doesn't work as well as other chic flicks and it's probably to do with the premise.  Grade: C

Scorpion King 3 (Dave Bautista, Bostin Christopher, etc) - Wow...Scorpion King movies have definitely tanked. #1 and #2 isn't too bad (#1, of course, is the best), but I thought I'd see this one anyway. Yeah, it was bad. The acting was bad. The special effects were bad. The fight scenes were sometimes like a scene from a bad wrestling match. It was also predictable too. I knew who Cobra was the first time we saw Cobra, etc, etc. I watched What's Your Number? after this and it made What's Your Number? seem far better than it should have been (at the time) because SK3 was so bad. So, don't bother seeing this. At the same time, it did hold some interest because I did manage to finish it...LoL Grade: D

Rum Diary (Johnny Depp) - Best thing? Harry the jewel encrusted tortoise. Hands down it was the best thing in the movie! Not to say the movie was horrible, but it does appeal to a certain audience. I think Depp's performance is great (when isn't he?), but the movie sort of rambles on as Kemp (Depp's character) learns the culture, lusts after a woman he can't have, and drinks too much. There are some funny moments here and there and the other actors were also excellent, but it just wasn't my type of movie. Grade: C-

Hugo (Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz) - Good film. It's definitely family friendly and makes me want to finish the book. I bought the book when it came out (it's signed by Selznick) and started reading it, but never finished it. It's a rather BIG book, but it's mostly because about 1/3 of it is all illustrations. I liked the filmography too. The look and feel of the movie had a neat non-real look to it so it felt a little more "magical" I suppose. It's a slight mystery, but it comes down to the end of the film about each of us having a purpose and need to have a purpose. I liked it, but it is rather "docile" and I was tired when watching it and had to make sure I was staying awake. You do get to a point where you're engrossed in it and then I was fine. I definitely don't think it deserves Best Picture. It's a good film, but not THAT good. I do think the cinematography is pretty amazing and I liked the "feel" of the movie. The look also worked for the storyline and what the story was. Grade: B

The Big Year (Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson) - Last year I got the opportunity to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers perform in Santa Barbar and, during their performance, Martin talked about filming The Big Year. So, naturally, when it came out I had to see the film. I had looked at the ratings for it, which weren't particularly high, but still wanted to see it. I'm glad I did. It's a nice film. It's got heart in it and has an interesting message/point that winning isn't everything because of what you give up to achieve that. Jack Black's character is the narrator of the film and I really enjoyed all 3 of them. I like Jack Black when he's not doing his "stupid comedies" and this movie is no exception. Owen Wilson was good at being the "bad guy" in this film (more like "the competition") and Steve Martin has a nice role of being the older birder with a wife he's had for a long time, successful businessman, and new grandfather. You also learn a little about birding too. I knew what a Big Year was, but...wow! I didn't think about it being so intense! At any rate, I recommend the movie. It's clean, some funny moments, and it has heart in it. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Grade: B+

In Time (Justin Timerblake, Amanda Seyfried) - I wasn't sure how this movie would play out: bad or good. It turns out it's pretty good. I'm very glad I didn't see the extended trailer before watching it (ironically, saw it in the previews of The Big Year, which I watched after In Time) because it's the entire movie in 2.5 minutes minus knowing if they live or not. It's an interesting concept that currency changes to "time." Humans became genetically engineered to stop aging at 25; however, that's when your clock started. Everyone gets 1 year and if you can't earn more time after that, you'll die when your clock runs out. Timberlake's character is in a different "time zone" as Seyfried's character and is, therefore, living from day-to-day trying to make ends meet with his mother, Olivia Wilde. I will first say, everyone stopping at the age of 25 is interesting, but most of the actors were all around 30 (or even slightly older)! That point sort of annoyed me, but it's mostly besides the point. I liked the feel of the movie because it was our world, but the small changes they made gave it a futuristic feel without hitting you upside the head that it was in the future. Just the simple change of the cut of Seyfried's dresses and the way her hair and make-up were styled was enough to give her that edge. The cars had an electric sound to them, but looked mostly like ours or cars of the 1970's (or earlier). It was a clever tweaking here and there. At any rate, I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would. It's kind of silly at the end, but it has an interesting angle about economics and how "the system" works and the acting wasn't too bad. The premise was interesting too. If you're thinking of watching it, I wouldn't say no to it, but it's definitely not great movie making or anything either. It's a good renter. Grade: B

Puss in Boots - Another Dreamworks and it didn't win Best Animated Picture. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I had a feeling Rango would win since it has some realistic animation in it rather than the more cartoon-y feel of Puss in Poots or Kung Fu Panda 2. Plus, it figures the Academy would pick the movie I have bad memories of thanks to my fellow moviegoers next to me! At any rate, I liked it. If you're a cat owner, I think a lot of the cat references would make more sense -- there are a lot of them. The dance off was funny with the "kitty litter move" and the "butt crawling move" (considering my own cat, the butt crawling one made me laugh in remembrance). This story has Humpty Dumpty, Jack & Jill (thugs, basically), the Goose that laid the golden egg, and the beanstalk/castle in the sky. I really liked Kitty Softpaws. The story wasn't bad and the animation, of course, was excellent. I will say it's a little weird seeing a cat be a "player" (he's a "lover not a fighter") when it's a family movie, but oh well. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't know if I'd buy the DVD. Grade: B

J. Edgar (Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer) - It's definitely a biopic rather than a historical film. It starts with Hoover, in his later years, talking to a writer to tell the story of how the FBI came about. It chronicles the more important parts of his life and culminates with his death. This film does have Hoover be gay and there's a quick kiss between DiCaprio and Hammer after they have an argument and have a physical fight, but it doesn't really go beyond that. I thought the acting was good. I liked DiCaprio as Hoover and Hammer as Tolson. The accents and aged make-up did bother me a little. It's not to say the accent or make-up was bad, but I think I've gotten too used to DiCaprio without any accent and looking like, well, himself that it was just odd seeing him in the make-up with the accent. Sometimes I'd forget, but sometimes it'd come back too. It has a similar style to most of Eastwood's film too. I enjoyed it, but there did seem to be just something small missing. The history facts were interesting about Hoover, but I think the connection to Hoover was slightly missing. Not to say you couldn't like him, but there was just something a little off with the way the movie portrayed him or was organized or something. I will say, just from the movie, it definitely portrays him as an interesting person. Grade: B/B-

With that...I think I'm FINALLY caught up on all the movies I've seen!

Footloose, TinTin, The Three Musketeers, The Muppets, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Tower Heist are next movie rentals. Might rent Young Adult. I'm interested in in Melancholia, but highly doubtful I'll see it. Ghost Rider is in theaters, but not seeing it in theaters. Looking more like Lorax I'll see on DVD too. So I guess that means Mirror, Mirror is really the next movie (3/16) I'll see in theater.

With that said, onto something more personal. My crooked neon tetra was euthanized today. I bought it when it was crooked (v-vent shape in the middle of its body) and I thought it'd die soon afterwards or be the smallest, but it turned out to be my most active and biggest neon tetra. However, last week it lost the ability to float and was struggling to swim. It wasn't too bad for 2 days, but we both thought it'd die within a few days. Last night, after watching it severely struggle (it had been 6 days of this), I decided I wanted to do something to help ease its suffering. It was to the point where it was swimming more and more at a more vertical angle than horizontal, it couldn't swim through the current of my pump (admittedly, it's rather strong), the other fish were out competing it for food (it did okay for the first few days), it seemed to get more cooked (if that's possible), and my shrimp had taken to trying to grab it to eat it (normally my shrimp leaves the fish alone). So, I Googled last night how to euthanize a fish, which then sent me into a panic because I can't deal with dead fish! I think a childhood event with a dead fish left in the fish tank too long so it molded has severely left me severely scarred (and traumatized) over dead pet fish. At any rate, I told Chris he had to do it, but when I was at work! The end result was the fish being put into a baggie with water, put into the freezer, and then flushed when it was dead. The cold water makes it go to sleep and then it dies from the cold (similar to us humans). I just couldn't take watching it anymore, which I suppose says something about my animal suffering tolerance -- it's rock bottom low. If I can't stand seeing a fish suffer, I definitely can't see a bigger animal suffer! So, yes, I had the fish for about 1.5 years (probably alive 1.5-2 years) and it lived a good life. With that said, I'm down to 1 algae fish, 1 ghost shrimp (who is getting quite old at over 2 years old), 2 glowlight tetras, 2 neon tetras, and a bazillion snails. I have yet to find a good private freshwater fish store in the Monterey area so I'm not sure if I'll ever restock. There's a place in Salinas I need to check, though.

Work at Goodwill has been good and I'm still plugging away at my Aquarium report. Work has been exhausting lately and drama issues have cropped up, but it's work. When isn't there some sort of drama? Report is consisting of a lot of emails to people in foreign countries (India, China, Indonesia, Australia, to name a few). It's been an interesting and frustrating process of trying to get information, which isn't really unusual. The report does make me feel like I'm back at school, though.

Well...Time to eat, shower, and go to bed for work tomorrow.

LAST movies of the year! (and mini life update)

Highly unlikely I'll watch anymore movies this year since I've only got one more day and I think I've watched almost everything I want to watch that's out and available on RedBox (whoa is me without any Netflix!).

At any rate, the last 3 movies!

Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts) - It's a cute romantic movie that is somewhere more in the drama realm than the comedy realm. I'm still having troubles with Roberts's and Hanks's characters connecting so quickly, but maybe I'm missing something. I just found it a little unbelievable (or too fast), but I enjoyed the film. It's a little more slow-paced, which works given Hanks's character has lost his job over the fact he doesn't have a college degree and, thus, decides to go to college. Let's also not forget that his house is upside down so he's troubled with money woes too. He meets a young college student who instantly takes a liking to him when they meet each other at the scooter parking zone his first day of school. She takes him underneath her wing and helps "spruce" him up. Roberts's character is basically in a rut with her husband and in an unhappy relationship with him and with her career. Movie really is about finding yourself later in life, especially when your life hasn't quite gone the way you wanted it too. It's cute. If you're looking to waste an hour-and-a-half of your life, this would be the movie to watch. It's mostly gentle and non-demanding, but it is also isn't anything too fantastic or necessary to watch either. You're not missing much if you don't watch it, but it's also just "okay" too. Grade: C+ (perhaps B-)

The Help  (Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, etc) - Yes, it may water down the whole discrimination aspect; yes, it may not be as powerful as the book (though I haven't read the book so I can't judge that); and, yes, it may have some historical things wrong and situations wrong/improbable and yaddy, yaddy, but I found it rather good. The acting is really good and the female cast is a lot of people you see here-and-there in other movies (at least for me). I cried while watching it, but you can't always consider that as I tend to cry through almost any remotely sad part in any film (case in point: I teared up in Conan....Really? Conan?!). The beginning is where it really tries to lay down the foundation for how strong the discrimination between white and black was back in that day in Mississippi and, from there, sort of eases its way around the issue. It made me angry in the beginning, but sad (laced with anger) later on as you really get to know the women and the abuse they receive. There are some funny moments and some tender ones too. I thought Emma Stone did a good job, but it really is Davis and Spencer who make the movie. Dallas Howard is also definitely despicable and comes off really well as the queen bee and no one goes against her. At any rate, I see the Oscar attention, but we'll also have to see when the nominations come out and I start watching those movies. I do recommend seeing this movie if you think it's something you'd like to see. It's a good film and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Don't think I'd own it, but maybe if the price came down to $10 I would. Grade: B+/A-

Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams) - Well, I can't say the relationship between Wilson's and McAdams's characters had a surprising ending. I knew from the get-go the way it was heading, but the film was rather cute. I don't think I've ever watched a Woody Allen film before, but who doesn't know of Woody Allen? At any rate, I enjoyed the concept and the nostalgia. It's fun seeing famous people from the 1920's (e.g., Hemmingway) and Wilson's modern character interacting with them after midnight (in Paris). The film is a mix of modern and nostalgia and is an interesting film about the past and where we think we'd rather be (era or situations). I like to think its underlying message is that the past is the past and we need to come to terms with our present and learn to live within it and with what we have. We can't go to the past to a better time. Even if we could, we wouldn't belong. So it's best we look to our present and find and do what makes us happy. At least, that's what I took from it. At any rate, I enjoyed the film and am glad I watched it. Grade: B+

Well, the last of the movies of 2011 that I watched!

Life is good. Got my first paycheck today! It feels good to be making money regularly, again! I like my co-workers and the environment is pretty good too. It's an interesting and different experience than working at Borders. You think retail is retail, but people treat Goodwill differently. There are some things you'd never do in a Borders or normal department store that people do at Goodwill, but there are also relationships you build with your customers that you don't really do at most department stores too. It's really common at Goodwill to introduce yourself or have a customer introduce himself/herself to you. I don't think any customer at Borders during my 5 years there ever introduced themselves to me. Granted, if they did, it was more because I was ordering something for them and I maybe formally shook someone's hand and gave them my name maybe a dozen times. At Goodwill, it's kind of the norm to get to know your regulars on a more personal level. It's also protocol to greet and say hi to everyone, but it was at Borders too. So, who knows. I am enjoying it, though. It's a little more laid back too. Being a lead is fine too.

Come January, I start my 2nd contract with the Aquarium. It's a big report so I'll start working on writing and researching that. It'll be interesting to work 40 hours a week and do that. I'll also continue to do MOPS twice a month before work at Goodwill. So...life went from basically nothing to a lot! It's kind of nice, but it is also a big adjustment for me too. I'm still adjusting to the standing for 8 hours at work and also just expending more energy throughout the day. I'm basically coming home tired and don't want to do much. I'm hoping after the holidays it'll get better. I've been working now for 3 weeks and all my days off (most of today even) have been filled with something to do and so I haven't had a real day of just doing nothing. New Year's Day -- nothing! At any rate, things are good. :)

Borders is DEFINITELY the Titanic

I just found out that Borders is no longer giving the EGC for Employee of the Month! :( There's no point to being Employee of the Month! You get a certificate, a name badge insert (yay...), a letter, and a supposed lunch with your GM (I don't think anyone has done one in a while...). They're also getting rid of our bottle water in the back room. What the heck. Seriously. What the heck?!

This shifting baseline is changing awfully fast in the negative direction for Borders...

Anti-Motivators

A co-worker of mine at MBARI every once in a while will e-mail all of us assistants these funny unmotivators. Today's, though, REALLY hit the nail on the head. So I'm going to post a few of them (there's a ton) that tickled my fancy, though the webpage has many more that are amusing.


Quality: This is the one that my co-worker e-mailed to us today. It fits finishing the FL report SO well it was almost sad reading it. LoL He sent it in regards to us doing the National report now, but it works for either!


Customer service: I think a lot of m co-workers would agree with this. LoL


Apathy: I know I feel like this at Borders!

With that...I'm off to eat and relax. I took tomorrow off from MBARI. I'm missing the BBQ tomorrow (chicken kebobs, tri-tip, Asian salad, etc for $3), but...I don't think I could make it through tomorrow. LoL

Books and deaths

As just about everyone in the world knows, Tim Russert passed away the other day from a heart attack.

Now, working at Borders, deaths are only important to us if they've published a book or they have a book about them. Tim Russert has published two books: Wisdom of Our Fathers (a book Borders was pushing as a Father's Day gift last year) and Big Russ and Me. We had Big Russ and Me on our Bargain tables for a LONG time and they sold okay. Not fantastic, but they did okay. His other ones you'd get asked about every once in a while too, but nothing spectacular. With his death, though, his books have suddenly become THE in thing to read and buy! Our store is all sold out. The bookstores around us are sold out. We can't order them. The publisher is out! So the publisher is reprinting his books and customers are practically banging down the doors wanting a copy of his books! I had to have told, at least, 5 people that we didn't have the books and the situation with the books yesterday. On top of that, I know a number of my co-workers told many more people the situation.

Having worked at Borders for 4 years this July, when someone dies...they suddenly become the most popular person. Does that just seem wrong to anyone else? Why is it when someone dies, there's such a fascination with them? It's like until they die, the populace just doesn't care about their life or their work. As soon as you die, though, you seem to be worth more. Ironic since they can't create, contribute, etc anymore to society. Take Princess Diana as an example. Do we seriously need to write a new book on her almost every year? Are
we really going to gain THAT much more knowledge of her life or death? Let the poor lady die in peace, people! Presidents and political figures, to me, are a bit different since their "contribution" or "legacy" can't be felt until some years later and most times people won't even regard them in any fashion until they're dead (that's politics for you). That makes a bit more sense, but, at the same time, it'd be nice to be recognized for your work BEFORE your death.

I guess there's something in society that can't heap praises upon you until you die JUST IN CASE you do something completely stupid and ruin everything you've worked for. Course, in that regard, you'd have books written about you in a jiffy because it'd be a scandal of sorts. I dunno, though. I really have no opinion either way of why society does what it does, but I think it's funny and, sometimes, sad that Tim Russert is all of a sudden so popular (book wise) when he's dead than when he was alive. Does his work mean that much more now that he's dead compared to when he was alive?

With that thought, I'm off to eat.

No wonder we have days off...

Today marked the 8th straight day I've worked. I am exhausted. In fact, from Monday, June 2nd, to either Wednesday, June 18th or Thursday, June 19th, I will have only had two days off. Thanks to the aquarium, Borders, and MBARI. Bank account may be liking it, but I am just simply exhausted. I think I've hit my capacity of working without days off. It wouldn't be so bad, either, except this last week at MBARI has been absolutely nuts because of getting a report finished to go to press on Monday. I don't want to see the report EVER again. Seriously. It was just really stressful, tedious, and annoying these past few days getting it finished. Borders tonight wasn't fun either. We had a call out from the cafe and another cafe person left work early because they're sick. So...They pulled someone off the floor to cover cafe and we have virtually no cashiers at all (we need to hire more) so everyone on the floor and the managers kept being called to the registers to help out. I feel like all we had was a line all day. Even then, I don't think we'll finish the day even close to our target. I probably, easily, spent about a third of my time at the registers. Of course, when there's no one on the floor...Customers needing to be helped takes longer and/or the store gets neglected. To say the least, when I left, the store wasn't pretty looking. So I feel bad for the closers and openers tomorrow. I'm sure the store will be trashed (I know kids was a messy-clean).

I put in an application to work at the new Apple store that's opening up at the Del Monte mall last Sunday. I got an e-mail yesterday asking for a day and time for an phone interview and asked to answer a few questions in the reply to the e-mail with a day and time. We'll see how THAT goes! I'm gone quite a bit in July and August,  so I'm not sure how that'll work in favor for me to get the position since, I think, August is when the store's training will happen and the set-up of the store. I think the store will open sometime in September. I'm thinking of taking the part-time job (whichever position I get) and working there 3 days and 2 days at Borders. Not exactly sure yet. I'm taking my micro and macroeconomics in the Fall and that's in the morning-afternoon or afternoon twice a week. So we'll see how everything pans out.

On another Apple news point...I thought about getting an iPhone, but the data plan just kills me. If the data plan was $20, I'd do it, but $30?! That's a bit much for me since $20 was my max on data prices...I have another year on my contract with my current phone anyway, but I'm not happy with the battery life or signal strength. I wish the phone plans were cheaper...I hardly even use my phone for verbal communication anyway. And, even if I do, most people I know have AT&T so it just goes M2M. I use my data plan much more. Oh well. It's not like I'm in immediate need for a new phone!

Well, with that. I'm off to sleep. I'm positively exhausted from working Borders tonight.

Capstone Presentation - *sigh*

So...

I did my capstone presentation practice today. Various things went wrong...I had the powerpoint on my e-mail - didn't work. So I luckily had a back-up, which worked. My presentation was 10.5 minutes long (not bad), but I talked WAY, WAY too fast (I was worried about time) and I stumbled over a lot of words (oops). Then Dan, Judy, and I were going over my powerpoint and I never explained what a HAB is (oops) and some other things. It got down to the point where I was just frustrated with my powerpoint (I don't like it...) and we were going over it and I felt like I was just going to cry. I'm just so OVER this. I got over the urge, though, and we finished. Dan had to leave eventually and Judy and I kept at it a bit longer. I feel better about my practice tomorrow and I feel better about my capstone presentation, but I'm just...I'm tired. I'm just ready for this to all be over with. I just need to rework some of what I say and add in/change a few slides. But the powerpoint, overall, wasn't bad.

On the good news side...My end date with MBARI was supposed to be tomorrow (the 15th), but has been extended to June 27th. I'll be working on the Florida report (they're almost finished). So...that's nice.

Welcome to December

Coincidentally, my birthday and the last day of the semester are the same day this year - Friday, December 21st. It'll definitely be one happy day for me!

I have 3 weeks left of school. I'm about to go nuts. I have 6 presentations to do in 2 weeks. They each need their own powerpoint too. It's not easy making powerpoints! They take time to figure out how much you really need on a slide and finding appropriate pictures to go with them and making sure you're within your time limit.

My presentation schedule:
Monday, Dec 3 - Water Law - Exercise 5, Safe Drinking Water Act
Tuesday, Dec 4 - Marine bio - Ocean Sunfish Biology
Wednesday, Dec 5 - Capstone - Proposal presentation (my advisor is going to be there and other professors!)
Monday, Dec 10 - Water Law - Final paper presentation, San Francisco Delta and Ecological Impacts
Tuesday, Dec 11 - Food Ethics - Final paper presentation, Ecotourism
Tuesday, Dec 11 - Marine bio - Ocean Sunfish Ecology

My papers are due between two weeks and they're papers that require a lot of work. Here's when those are due.
Thursday, Dec 13 - Marine bio - 5 pgs single-spaced (min) on the Ocean Sunfish (ecology and biology)
Wednesday, Dec 19 - Water law - 10 pgs single-spaced (min) on San Fran Delta and the ecological impacts
Wednesday, Dec 19 - Capstone proposal - However long on the economic impacts of domoic acid and saxitoxin occurrences have on commercial shellfish industries and tourism in California
Thursday, Dec 20 - Food Ethics - However long on ecotourism

I also have 2 finals. We're having a marine biology lab final (Tues, Dec 11 - based off the concepts/methods we used during labs this past semester) and we have a marine biology final (Tues, Dec 18 - last 3rd of the semester, mostly).

I'm still working at Borders on Sat and I have the aquarium once between now and then (Sunday, Dec 9th). Not to mention MBARI on Monday (3-6pm) and Friday (10-6pm). I do feel like I'm going to go nuts, but I also have so much to do that I just don't always know where to begin! I've been working more on presentations than my papers, which should be the other way, but that's how it's been working so far. I - for the most part - don't have any schoolwork due in between everything else, but I do have 2 more assignments for Food Ethics on top of our final paper and presentation. Not sure about Marine bio if he'll give us another lit review or not. I hope not!

The end of the tunnel is definitely within sight. I'll have one semester left and then I'll be finished with college!

This last Friday I attended a meeting in Sacramento put on by COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea). I attended because Judy told me about it so I basically went for MBARI/work/school. COMPASS does these Legislative Sacramento Luncheons for legislators (more so their staff) can learn about various ocean issues and why they have an importance to legislators and the public). It was in a building in front of the State Capital building and it has the Appeals Court and State Library in it. It was an amazing building. All marble and everything. The drinking fountains were even marble! LoL The elevator was super fast too. So fast (the meeting was on the top floor - 5th floor) my stomach dropped for about 3 floors. By the time I got over it, the elevator was slowing down for the 1st floor. Anyway, the meeting was on the same topic as my capstone, so that was good. It touched upon what I'm researching and I did learn some new things, but the most important thing I got out of it is NETWORKING! Two of the people I've been e-mailing were attending the meeting as speakers. I got a stiff e-mail from one of them before. When I introduced myself to this same gentleman, we started talking and he said if I need any help to just e-mail him anytime! YES! My first solid west coast contact.

Anyway, with that. I must go. I need to get back to homework (working on my capstone presentation) and go to bed.