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Mar 04 2012
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books, library, photography, school

plastic people buckling their swashes

I have had a busy weekend making stuff, which is a pretty good way to spend my time, even if it is technically for homework.

I’m doing a video booktalk/trailer for an excellent YA pirate novel (A.S. King’s The Dust of 100 Dogs), and I own a bunch of pirate Lego, so using that Lego to illustrate the trailer seemed like a great idea. A few weeks ago I supplemented my Lego collection with extra hairpieces and some less masculine torsos and I was good to go.

Now, everybody in class has to make a video, but you can also just do a video booktalk. Getting out the Lego and building sets and taking umpty million macro shots isn’t a course requirement. But I’ve realized this term that what I’m really excited about in librarianship is doing cool stuff with young people. Playing with Lego and making something cool to show people is something I’d actually like to do professionally (and doing media-creation YA programs is something libraries can get into). This was completely the kind of project I can get lost in. If only all homework was like this (I’m sorry to my friends in cataloguing this term).

As of now I’ve got 30 pictures for my 90 second trailer and I’ve figured out exactly what gaps need filling. I need to do at least one more action sequence, a leaving home sequence that’ll recall the one already shot in the other timeline and a handful more Lego dogs (so I can turn them into 100).

I also appear to have left my phone in my jacket pocket with the ringer off since Friday night and never even thought about looking for it, so engrossed was I in Lego. Apologies to the person who tried to call me.

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Jan 16 2012
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books, library, school, vancouver

the difference a phone call makes

My weekend was spent working on an annotated bibliography, a topic briefing, and reading. There was reading involved in the first two parts as well, but well, yeah. Yesterday I took a break from my indoorsyness and went for a walk down to the water to watch the seaplanes land and take off again. I enjoy how Canadian that feels, with the mountains and the water and the trees, right here in the city.

My weekend was also kind of crappy with my lack of being called about the most recent student librarian gig I’d applied for. On the posting it said the interviews were going to be today, so when I didn’t hear anything by 5pm on Friday I figured that was yet another job missed somehow. I dwelt on what I could possibly have done to make my application better, brooded on the possibilities of ever finding a job when I graduate without recent library experience, and generally buried my head in books.

And then this morning I got a call saying I’ve got an interview tomorrow. So that’s all right then. I still might not get the job, but I’ve got a chance. A little bit of income, and the experience in a university library setting, would be so very excellent.

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Jul 31 2011
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australia, travel, vancouver

gallivanting on train and bike

On Saturday I got to go on an adventure. Holly needs a bike to get to work. It’s a half-hour walk that’s really crappy at the end of a twelve-hour day running around a kitchen lifting 20kilos of butter at a time, smashing your fingers under said butter and getting yelled at/needing to dodge the occasional cupcake being thrown by the chef. (I’m leaving out the story about the panicky bike-borrowing that happened this week, because I’m not sure if she’s got it in her queue of blog posts.)

So she went on Gumtree and found a used bike for a decent price. You can get a new bike from KMart for less, but she wanted a bike that was actually going to be good to ride, that was light and fast. Having bought such a bike in Vancouver last fall, I know what she means.

Anyway, this bike was out in Woolooware, across Botany Bay from where we live (yes, that Botany Bay), so I took a couple hours from my Saturday to take the train out there. I like how these suburban trains work here. If you live in a little town like Woolooware you’re still only half an hour from downtown Sydney. I don’t know if that’s what it’s like on the Go Train in Toronto, but this feels even more extensive than Vancouver’s Skytrain network.

I got to Woolooware and phoned the guy to get directions through the town to his house. Now, we have trouble with Australian accents, Holly and I. I especially find it difficult when it comes to names, since you can’t necessarily just figure it out from the context when there’s a word you don’t get. Case in point: Woolooware is down the Illawara Line though Holly’s best guess was Yellow Wire. We just looked at a map until we could piece something sensible together and happily it worked. For getting to the guy’s house I knew his street had a F in the middle and vowel sounds on either side. Maybe an R in there somewhere. It took a bit of getting lost but eventually I made it to Alfred street and went “That makes sense!”

I brought the bike back to Central Station on the train and then rode it home from there. My first time riding on the left hand side of the street. I remembered to be in the left lane, but I kept on trying to hug the right hand side of it. It was a little hard on my nerves but I got the bike home safely, and missed my bike back in Van City (but not that hill up to UBC).

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May 01 2011
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australia, comics, games, library, travel

lazy sunday

Today I woke up to the snores of an Irishman. From across the room in the hostel, but still. Very loud. The Americans who woke up to the noise were vocal about their displeasure. I merely lay there waiting and figuring out how to spend my day.

See this is the thing about being in a country that isn’t cheap when you have no real money, you can’t just head off into the void and do whatever, confident in your ability to make it out financially unscathed. Relatively I mean. If you go ahead and crash a scooter even in a country where they’re as cheap as Armenians well yes you do have to pay a bit even then. You need to plan out your day so it’ll work.

Having not a tonne of money in Sydney means I’m spending a lot of time in parks and libraries. It seems a waste to just hang out here at the hostel reading, but too expensive to justify going to have afternoon beers by myself. It’s nice out, 20 degrees during the day, so it’s no great hardship to go sit in the sun. Today I found the local branch of the city public library (as opposed to the state library I was in yesterday) and read some comics.

Also, I got a SIM card and now have a phone number. Not that I use the phone part of my phone very often, especially when I don’t know anyone in this city, but it’s probably good for my future employer (assuming the visa comes through eventually) to have some way of contacting me.

Yesterday I found a really swank comic shop and a decent game store. I’m going to wait until I have an apartment before I start buying books/comics/games, but gamers are the only community I feel any confidence in dropping into. My first forays in Vancouver were to game stores too.

Anyway, I guess the point of this post is that I’m really looking forward to when Holly arrives in a couple of months.

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Apr 29 2011
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books, library, travel

a saturday of acquainting

I’m slowly getting things together here. And by getting things together I mean, haven’t dissolved into a gibbering wreck just yet. In some ways it’s crappy that my work permit hasn’t come through, since it means I’m not, you know, earning money to pay for living here. But this enforced delay is giving me a bit more time to get acquainted with Sydney.

I went out walking again this morning. I read for a while and watched some birds in Hyde park. Then I took an excursion around the long way to get to the Rocks, the touristy harbour zone where the opera house is. While I was sitting on a bench watching a “sail” boat leave the wharf, I saw a crowd of nicely dressed (probably for a wedding) people running for cover. I got my rain jacket out of my bag just in time to get caught in the pissing rain. I went to share the wedding-folk shelter for ten minutes and then it eased off and then stopped and now it’s sunny and beautiful out.

I’m in the State Library reading room which is quite nice. It’s a huge old building with wooden shelves lining the walls three floors up, but the centre is completely open, with tables and computers and a couple of information desks. There’s a passage way down to the reference library which is housed in the neighbouring and more modern building, but I’m kind of a fan of this space.

Soon I’ll have to set out again. I need to get a SIM card to phone my boss to see when I should show up on Monday to meet people (and definitely not work because that would be illegal). There’s also a game store a not unreasonable distance away. I’ll keep busy.

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Sep 20 2010
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food, vancouver, 中国

not terribly subtle, no

So this weekend I did a bunch of homework and saw a couple of Fringe plays. The Fringe here felt super expensive compared to Winnipeg. Many people I know here have been talking about how expensive food is here, but it’s plays and movies that I’m noticing. Because really, who eats?

Both plays were one-person shows. One was pretty good, the other was less so. The less good one was a performer I’m now convinced I saw at WInnipeg Fringe a couple of years ago. This performance was six or seven monologues in different characters. She started strong (“I will kick you in the box until you pass out and reach your weight loss goals!”) and ended strong (a sketch with only the words “Mom! Ice cream!”) but the middle was a whole lot of Mad TV reject material. The other play, When Harry Met Harry was good. A guy working in an office who had to go to an Interpersonal Skills seminar. Predictably he failed funnily but grew from it. The actor was really good though. The lighting cues were impeccable and really played well with his performance.

Today I bought a flashing red light for my back, so when I leave the house at my ungodly time in the morning tomorrow, traffic will be able to see me better. I don’t understand why we have 8am classes. We’re grad students. Why are we not starting at 10 or 11?

Tomorrow Holly flies back to China. Really that shouldn’t make that much of a difference to me, right? Talking on the phone/Skype isn’t terribly different if we’re across a continent or an ocean. I’m still not with her, which is where I want to be. 75 days.

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May 05 2010
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whining

not my problem. at all.

I’ve been out of my old condo for a month and a half and resigned from the condo corporation a month and it’s been great. Then tonight after I fell asleep watching hockey my phone rang.

“Wha? Za! Ba!” I answer it. It’s the property manager from the condo. Apparently no one told him I’d resigned. “Are you home?” he asks, and because I’m fuzzy from the nap I say yes. Someone’s locked out of the building and he wants me to go let the person in. Oh. Well. I think, sure, I can do that. I’m only a block away and I’m sure they haven’t changed the keyless code. I’m putting on my shoes.

“I mean, you got home. I don’t know what his problem is.” And the fuzziness catches up with me. I don’t have to do this. I shouldn’t have even said I could. What the fuck am I doing? I momentarily feel for people who go back to bad relationships.

“Oh,” the manager says, “So how’s your selling going?” And I have to explain that I’m not there, it’s sold and I don’t know why no one told him. It also means they probably haven’t paid their bills. He apologizes but I still say I can go over to the building and check the front door. I don’t know why I say this. I hate telephones so much.

I get there and it is the very front door that’s locked. The one before the keyless entry. I don’t have a key for that and there’s no one outside. I immediately turn around and come home. I think the person who’d called the property manager might have been in a car across the street, because a horn honked as I left.

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Feb 29 2008
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travel, 中国

digging all the way with a silver spoon

I’ll be leaving for China in a few hours. The blog may not be updated super regularly since Holly doesn’t have the Intertubes running into her apartment. But if you look on the right hand column under Twittering you might see some tiny updates. I can text message those in. Also, if you are reading this and we communicate primarily by Facebook status update, I do get those sent straight to my phone and that doesn’t cost me anything (even if I am in China). Please don’t call because those charges are ridiculous. Text messages are your international communication buddies. I don’t know how much my phone will actually be on but there you go.

Have a good month. There will be massive updating when I return. Sporadic until then.

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Aug 08 2003
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books

reading

I’ve been reading a lot this last week. It’s been really good. For some reason I hadn’t been reading as much as usual for a while there. But now I’m back. I got the H2G2 radio scripts and they are too funky. It’s really neat to see where the five part trilogy came from. Reading is good. Selah.

Wednesday was a very odd evening. I swear I was on the phone for three hours. I never talk on the phone. I hate the phone. But people kept calling. They were people I was happy to talk to, but I was wiped out after all that. I pace when I’m in the telephoning process so combined with all the mental effort I have to go through to keep up a conversation (where there are no visual cues that I’m listening even if I’m not saying anything) I’ve got a whole physical thing going too. I’m not complaining, but it was a bit much. All you people who have nothing to do with each other should really get organized and space these things out for my benefit.

I finished off all the radio stuff that I’ll be marked on, so all that’s left is the paper. Which I’ll finish tomorrow.

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