![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This entry is an hour of my life that I'll never get back!
I was going to use my Ayumi "Ourselves" icon for this entry because I have yet to use it, but it is so DEPRESSING. I like this violent one much better.
A bunch of our relatives and family friends have taken up the habit of writing family newsletters, and I love these things to pieces because they are adorable, but at the same time they are painful reminders of why I would rather talk to these people. Basically, I have yet to see a newsletter that appears to have been written by someone who knows how to write. And I try to be fair, I know not everyone likes writing or loves grammar or anything like that, but I don't know, it still pains me. The latest one we received featured a picture of the oldest son in his role as Billy from their school production of Chicago - said the caption, "He was very, very good." Just ... honestly, I'm sure you could have thought of something more powerful to say than that.
Not to say that I'm any better. I mean, I could pretend I'm a better writer than that, but you guys have all seen my LiveJournal, let's get real here ...
At work yesterday the fire alarm went off. It's gone off while I was there before, but that time my supervisor was standing at the counter talking with her boyfriend when she saw someone run down the washroom hall and pull it. This time it went off and by the end of the day we hadn't learned the reason why. Last time, the food court had been so empty that I didn't even notice whether or not people were evacuating, but yesterday it was a mildly busy Sunday afternoon and so you could tell that most people were sort of streaming towards the doors, although there were those who stayed to finish their food, or who just stood trying to judge the reactions of others, or - my favourite - the guy who sat there with his hands over his ears. And, oh my gosh, the two ladies who stood in front of my till, menu in their hands, trying to decide whether or not they should order or leave. "Is that a prank?" one of them asked. "I don't know" is what I said, but if I wasn't a wuss I would have been all "Hello? Does it matter? That's a fire alarm! There could be a fire! And you are standing here trying to decide between a taco or your life! If I was allowed to leave do you know how fast I would be out of here?" Because yeah, we're not supposed to leave until a marquee comes around to tell us to leave. Which is ridiculous in all sorts of ways, but apparently it is more important that we stay to guard the money than we make it out of the mall alive.
There was also a woman who asked, "Is that the fire alarm?" And my mother was annoyed when I told her how we made fun of this woman, because it could have been some other sort of alarm, but honestly, it is still an alarm. Actually, a Bay employee came by after the alarm had stopped, and she was worse than us - in her scenario the customer asks, "Is that the fire alarm?" and she replies, "No - it's recess!" XD
So anyway. The alarm rang for less than five minutes, was turned off (although we could still hear one in a different part of the mall ringing in the distance), and then came back on again, during which time I served two customers ("WOULD YOU LIKE THAT FOR HERE OR TO GO? I CAN'T ACTUALLY HEAR YOU, SO WHY DON'T I JUST MAKE IT TO GO."*) and my supervisor and I tried to hide in the back where the noise was perhaps half a quarter of a decibel quieter. And then, a good ten minutes later when the ringing finally stopped for good and we were just starting to realize we'd be finishing our shifts with headaches, my manager decided she wanted to try to break one of our unbreakable plates (it is becoming the hobby of everyone I work with), except she didn't tell me she was going to throw it to the floor, and oh my god, if ever I was to have a heart attack, that moment would have been it. We decided at the end of the day that no longer were we seventeen and nineteen, but rather sixty-eight and forty-nine, due to the damaging effects of having to put up with the sounds of a nearby fire alarm for a good ten minutes.**
In conclusion: when there is a fire alarm, please leave the mall. Even if you don't value your life, odds are the employees will have become too deaf and distracted to serve you, man.
Sort of related to work, I get a huge kick out of those new Wendy's commercials with the disgruntled employees. I think they are a quirky look at the frustrations fast food employees go through - frustrations both justified and not. I love the part where the guy's like "Don't sit there! I just cleaned that table!!" Because if I cleaned the tables, that would totally be me. XD XD XD;;;;
*
Today I spent $5.30 on photocopying. Which, considering it's the first time I've spent money on photocopying, is probably not as horrendous a thing as I feel it is. In the process I managed to break both the photocopier and the book I was photocopying. Perhaps I exaggerate, but I did manage to scuff them up a bit. Also, I was trying to be quick about it, so half of what I photocopied is crooked, and there is one page where I think I chopped off most of a paragraph. IT'S ALL GOOD. I am just artistic, that's what I'll tell people.
So now I have to read 53 pages of modern Japanese short story. I am actually sort of looking forward to it. I hope they're good stories. I hope they inspire me to pursue my own short stories, which I have sort of been working on but only sort of. But I do want to enter my high school's writing contest in March, so I better get a move on I guess ...
*
I have been watching Escaflowne again, one episode a day, for listening practice but also because I haven't watched any since grade eleven and I kinda want to watch it again. Last night I watched the third episode. I was going to skip the first four episodes because I was never a huge huge fan of them - I mean, they're needed and they're fine and everything but they're not what I think of when I think of the series, and anyway the fifth episode is my favourite (nice animation, the real introduction of the Van vs. Folken storyline, and the scar makes its first appearance!). But then I decided I might as well watch the first four. I was surprised to realize I've forgotten stuff! There have been a couple scenes where I've had no idea what exactly was going to happen next (Allen's intro scene was one - all I really remembered was that Van pukes, ew), although I of course recognize it when I see it. I never used to pay a huge amount of attention to Hitomi's visions, other than to make fun of them, but now I'm thinking they're actually really interesting, in a sort of artistic way. Like, when she's looking at the Death card and it suddenly starts to move, or when she's yelling at Allen to run away and the building behind her starts to blow up - that's actually really cool! I still like the camerawork (can you call it "camerawork" if it's animation? well, I can) in the part where Hitomi pictures Allen with wings, but I didn't remember it as being so short. Oh well~
One thing that I think is interesting now is how Amano is portrayed. Like, he's supposed to be a high school senior, and when I saw this series in my first three years of high school I totally bought it. But now I am older than him and it seems skewed, the way he's shown. Like, I watch his scenes and he's all calm and mature and sort of lacking personality but it still seems like he's older than me. I guess it's because we're seeing him through Hitomi, I guess, and that's how she sees him. Weirds me out though.
Which reminds me. On the bus the other day when I was thinking about watching Esca again, I realized I am now closer in age to Allen than to Van or Hitomi. WHAT THE. When I first saw this show at the beginning of ninth grade I was thirteen! --!! All through ninth grade, Van and Hitomi were at least a year older than me. And now they are younger than my brother!! I see kids their age on the bus and think how much they are annoying me! I hate that I compare my age to that of animated characters, but I always have, even before Escaflowne. They avoided saying it in the movie, but it is pretty well agreed upon that in Aladdin Jasmine is awaiting either her sixteenth or seventeenth birthday. (They do give a hint of an age in the episode "The Prophet Motive," where Aladdin says he's been walking Agrabah's streets for seventeen years, or something like that - but I think the way the line is written it's open to debate whether he means his whole life or just from when he started living on the streets.) All these characters who used to seem so old to me! Now they are BABIES! AND I AM SO OLD~~~~~
It's good, then, that I'm also a fan of The Mummy. I will never seem old when compared to Imhotep! XD;
Anyway, what was I talking about? Escaflowne. The animation is not as good as I remembered it being, but the opening is still very awesome. I am understanding a lot more of the Japanese than I ever did before, which is encouraging, but it also makes the series seem a lot more normal and a lot less exotic than it was back when I didn't understand a word. Not that that's a bad thing, just that it's a change. Oh - and Van and Allen's guymelef fight in episode three? I dearly hope I recognized that as crazy foreshadowing before, because I watched it last night and it was so obvious. Maybe not the whole thing, but the fact that they're fighting, and Van is better than Allen thought, and mostly that Hitomi is all "Van, why are you fighting him?" which is all HELLO, LAST EPISODE, VAN KILLS ALLEN.***
Here is the sad fact: whenever I see "Van" now I have to fight to remember which way it is supposed to be pronounced. Because in Esca it is one way and I was down with that but now I am watching Reba and it is pronounced like the vehicle (which leads to much punnage) and it is just so confusing.
*
* "Why don't you just TELL me the name of the movie you selected?" is perhaps my favourite Seinfeld line ever.
** This reminds me of the end of The Halloween Tree. I mean, everything reminds me of the end of The Halloween Tree, but I mean it this time. Where Tom and the other kids give years off their lives in order to save Pippin. I think it's neat, treating age as something more malleable like that. I mean, in fiction. I don't honestly believe I am now forty-nine.
*** I told one of my friends this and she totally bought it and she JUMPED when Allen jumped out of his guymelef afterwards. It was FAN.TAS.TIC.****
**** Unfortunately, "Van kills Allen!" does not have the same ring as "Snape kills Dumbledore!"***** Sad face! :(
***** I AM WEARING MY GRYFFINDOR SCARF AGAIN OH YAH
A bunch of our relatives and family friends have taken up the habit of writing family newsletters, and I love these things to pieces because they are adorable, but at the same time they are painful reminders of why I would rather talk to these people. Basically, I have yet to see a newsletter that appears to have been written by someone who knows how to write. And I try to be fair, I know not everyone likes writing or loves grammar or anything like that, but I don't know, it still pains me. The latest one we received featured a picture of the oldest son in his role as Billy from their school production of Chicago - said the caption, "He was very, very good." Just ... honestly, I'm sure you could have thought of something more powerful to say than that.
Not to say that I'm any better. I mean, I could pretend I'm a better writer than that, but you guys have all seen my LiveJournal, let's get real here ...
At work yesterday the fire alarm went off. It's gone off while I was there before, but that time my supervisor was standing at the counter talking with her boyfriend when she saw someone run down the washroom hall and pull it. This time it went off and by the end of the day we hadn't learned the reason why. Last time, the food court had been so empty that I didn't even notice whether or not people were evacuating, but yesterday it was a mildly busy Sunday afternoon and so you could tell that most people were sort of streaming towards the doors, although there were those who stayed to finish their food, or who just stood trying to judge the reactions of others, or - my favourite - the guy who sat there with his hands over his ears. And, oh my gosh, the two ladies who stood in front of my till, menu in their hands, trying to decide whether or not they should order or leave. "Is that a prank?" one of them asked. "I don't know" is what I said, but if I wasn't a wuss I would have been all "Hello? Does it matter? That's a fire alarm! There could be a fire! And you are standing here trying to decide between a taco or your life! If I was allowed to leave do you know how fast I would be out of here?" Because yeah, we're not supposed to leave until a marquee comes around to tell us to leave. Which is ridiculous in all sorts of ways, but apparently it is more important that we stay to guard the money than we make it out of the mall alive.
There was also a woman who asked, "Is that the fire alarm?" And my mother was annoyed when I told her how we made fun of this woman, because it could have been some other sort of alarm, but honestly, it is still an alarm. Actually, a Bay employee came by after the alarm had stopped, and she was worse than us - in her scenario the customer asks, "Is that the fire alarm?" and she replies, "No - it's recess!" XD
So anyway. The alarm rang for less than five minutes, was turned off (although we could still hear one in a different part of the mall ringing in the distance), and then came back on again, during which time I served two customers ("WOULD YOU LIKE THAT FOR HERE OR TO GO? I CAN'T ACTUALLY HEAR YOU, SO WHY DON'T I JUST MAKE IT TO GO."*) and my supervisor and I tried to hide in the back where the noise was perhaps half a quarter of a decibel quieter. And then, a good ten minutes later when the ringing finally stopped for good and we were just starting to realize we'd be finishing our shifts with headaches, my manager decided she wanted to try to break one of our unbreakable plates (it is becoming the hobby of everyone I work with), except she didn't tell me she was going to throw it to the floor, and oh my god, if ever I was to have a heart attack, that moment would have been it. We decided at the end of the day that no longer were we seventeen and nineteen, but rather sixty-eight and forty-nine, due to the damaging effects of having to put up with the sounds of a nearby fire alarm for a good ten minutes.**
In conclusion: when there is a fire alarm, please leave the mall. Even if you don't value your life, odds are the employees will have become too deaf and distracted to serve you, man.
Sort of related to work, I get a huge kick out of those new Wendy's commercials with the disgruntled employees. I think they are a quirky look at the frustrations fast food employees go through - frustrations both justified and not. I love the part where the guy's like "Don't sit there! I just cleaned that table!!" Because if I cleaned the tables, that would totally be me. XD XD XD;;;;
*
Today I spent $5.30 on photocopying. Which, considering it's the first time I've spent money on photocopying, is probably not as horrendous a thing as I feel it is. In the process I managed to break both the photocopier and the book I was photocopying. Perhaps I exaggerate, but I did manage to scuff them up a bit. Also, I was trying to be quick about it, so half of what I photocopied is crooked, and there is one page where I think I chopped off most of a paragraph. IT'S ALL GOOD. I am just artistic, that's what I'll tell people.
So now I have to read 53 pages of modern Japanese short story. I am actually sort of looking forward to it. I hope they're good stories. I hope they inspire me to pursue my own short stories, which I have sort of been working on but only sort of. But I do want to enter my high school's writing contest in March, so I better get a move on I guess ...
*
I have been watching Escaflowne again, one episode a day, for listening practice but also because I haven't watched any since grade eleven and I kinda want to watch it again. Last night I watched the third episode. I was going to skip the first four episodes because I was never a huge huge fan of them - I mean, they're needed and they're fine and everything but they're not what I think of when I think of the series, and anyway the fifth episode is my favourite (nice animation, the real introduction of the Van vs. Folken storyline, and the scar makes its first appearance!). But then I decided I might as well watch the first four. I was surprised to realize I've forgotten stuff! There have been a couple scenes where I've had no idea what exactly was going to happen next (Allen's intro scene was one - all I really remembered was that Van pukes, ew), although I of course recognize it when I see it. I never used to pay a huge amount of attention to Hitomi's visions, other than to make fun of them, but now I'm thinking they're actually really interesting, in a sort of artistic way. Like, when she's looking at the Death card and it suddenly starts to move, or when she's yelling at Allen to run away and the building behind her starts to blow up - that's actually really cool! I still like the camerawork (can you call it "camerawork" if it's animation? well, I can) in the part where Hitomi pictures Allen with wings, but I didn't remember it as being so short. Oh well~
One thing that I think is interesting now is how Amano is portrayed. Like, he's supposed to be a high school senior, and when I saw this series in my first three years of high school I totally bought it. But now I am older than him and it seems skewed, the way he's shown. Like, I watch his scenes and he's all calm and mature and sort of lacking personality but it still seems like he's older than me. I guess it's because we're seeing him through Hitomi, I guess, and that's how she sees him. Weirds me out though.
Which reminds me. On the bus the other day when I was thinking about watching Esca again, I realized I am now closer in age to Allen than to Van or Hitomi. WHAT THE. When I first saw this show at the beginning of ninth grade I was thirteen! --!! All through ninth grade, Van and Hitomi were at least a year older than me. And now they are younger than my brother!! I see kids their age on the bus and think how much they are annoying me! I hate that I compare my age to that of animated characters, but I always have, even before Escaflowne. They avoided saying it in the movie, but it is pretty well agreed upon that in Aladdin Jasmine is awaiting either her sixteenth or seventeenth birthday. (They do give a hint of an age in the episode "The Prophet Motive," where Aladdin says he's been walking Agrabah's streets for seventeen years, or something like that - but I think the way the line is written it's open to debate whether he means his whole life or just from when he started living on the streets.) All these characters who used to seem so old to me! Now they are BABIES! AND I AM SO OLD~~~~~
It's good, then, that I'm also a fan of The Mummy. I will never seem old when compared to Imhotep! XD;
Anyway, what was I talking about? Escaflowne. The animation is not as good as I remembered it being, but the opening is still very awesome. I am understanding a lot more of the Japanese than I ever did before, which is encouraging, but it also makes the series seem a lot more normal and a lot less exotic than it was back when I didn't understand a word. Not that that's a bad thing, just that it's a change. Oh - and Van and Allen's guymelef fight in episode three? I dearly hope I recognized that as crazy foreshadowing before, because I watched it last night and it was so obvious. Maybe not the whole thing, but the fact that they're fighting, and Van is better than Allen thought, and mostly that Hitomi is all "Van, why are you fighting him?" which is all HELLO, LAST EPISODE, VAN KILLS ALLEN.***
Here is the sad fact: whenever I see "Van" now I have to fight to remember which way it is supposed to be pronounced. Because in Esca it is one way and I was down with that but now I am watching Reba and it is pronounced like the vehicle (which leads to much punnage) and it is just so confusing.
*
* "Why don't you just TELL me the name of the movie you selected?" is perhaps my favourite Seinfeld line ever.
** This reminds me of the end of The Halloween Tree. I mean, everything reminds me of the end of The Halloween Tree, but I mean it this time. Where Tom and the other kids give years off their lives in order to save Pippin. I think it's neat, treating age as something more malleable like that. I mean, in fiction. I don't honestly believe I am now forty-nine.
*** I told one of my friends this and she totally bought it and she JUMPED when Allen jumped out of his guymelef afterwards. It was FAN.TAS.TIC.****
**** Unfortunately, "Van kills Allen!" does not have the same ring as "Snape kills Dumbledore!"***** Sad face! :(
***** I AM WEARING MY GRYFFINDOR SCARF AGAIN OH YAH
Work
Sorry, but when I read that, it really got me steamed up. People are idiots. Except for you, of course.