Just a quick note to catch y’all up, those few of you still reading here. I’m back from North Conway for good. Two weeks in a hotel was less than glamorous, and working in a store where new and training partners comprised 50% of the staffing was most definitely stressful, but some good came of it: I learned the true meaning of composure, and I got some sick kicks at the Adidas outlet.
Now that I’m back, my time away from work is largely being spent catching up on Bleach. Despite watching the first 46 episodes in rapid succession when the show was new, even at one point catching up to the show as it was being broadcast in Japan, I stopped watching for the better part of three years. I’m now on number 93, but I think the newest episode released was 172. I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’ll get current again. This sort of show never appealed to me before; Bleach is a shounen anime after all, but there seems to be some imperceptible differences that allow me to get absorbed in it, something that never happened with any of the other popular shounen series.
I’ll put some more words down later when I get home from work. ![[WS]](/blog/media/end.gif)
Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Life, Maine | No Comments
Due to the delayed onset of snow today, I made it to work pre-storm, then left two and a half hours early for want of business, hot chocolate in hand. Now I’ve got the whole rest of the day and all of tomorrow to play in the snow and generally entertain myself. I’m excited like a schoolchild. I might just get suited up and go tramping through the woods across the street later this afternoon. I will probably be enjoying more hot cocoa somewhere along the line. Also knitting. Hooray winter!
P.S. I just received a phone call informing me that the glasses I ordered a month ago yesterday have finally arrived back from the lab, but of course I can’t get there to pick them up, what with the many inches of snow on the road.
Posted on January 14th, 2008 in Maine, Work | 1 Comment
Dance party in my room, right now. Hacking and coughing encouraged. Soundtrack provided by slew of Japanese DJ/producers. Microwave pizzas will be served.
What are we celebrating, anyway?
Posted on October 11th, 2006 in Maine | 1 Comment
http://www.wmtw.com/education/9895486/detail.html
Abstract: a bunch of residents don’t like their children reading rhymes involving the word “underpants.”
Read With Me is a Maine state program that yearly provides books to incoming kindergarteners. Now, I don’t particularly have a problem with parents thinking this year’s selection, Schoolyard Rhymes, is questionable; after all, it sounds like there are some rhymes that might be inappropriate for children of that age level. “I threw him over Shanghai / I threw him over France / I threw him over Grandma’s house / Without his underpants.” Frankly, I find that fairly amusing. I’d probably enjoy this book. Therein lies the problem: someone decided wrongly about the audience. Perhaps this book is really intended to tickle the whimsy of slightly older children who understand the dark humor implicit in real schoolyard rhymes. It’s not as though anyone really needs a book to further their playground insult technique.
The real beef of the piece, though, came to me in the form of one Erica Smith of Hampden, mother of a five-year-old recipient of Schoolyard Rhymes. Apparently Ms. Smith doesn’t allow words such as dumb, stupid, and fat to be used in her house. Children will often use those words in an insulting fashion, but can we reasonably expect not to ever need to use them? None of them need necessarily carry horribly negative connotations, although principally we should understand that they are qualities we attempt to avoid. Does she genuinely believe she is protecting her child by banning the concepts of low intelligence and obesity?
Posted on September 20th, 2006 in Maine, Media | No Comments
