Mostly Alive, Nearly Kicking

I am not dead! I felt as if I was, but alas, am not. I was going through a rough personal time including, but not limited to, death in the family. I’m still trying to get through it and I realize now that had I been regularly clearing out my mind here, I might feel better.

I’ll moving to a new site within the next few days and will be posting much more often.

Despite the bad, a few good things have happened since my last entry:

1) I went to see The Phantom of the Opera when the tour came to Seattle. It was a-effing-mazing and worth every penny of the exorbinant amount I spent on my four row-center tickets. Despite the fact I totally couldn’t afford them.

2) I took a day trip to Bellingham with my friend who was catching the ferry to Alaska.

I loved it, particularly Fairhaven. It was pouring down rain when we arrived by train and the first thing we see is a fish and chip shop being run out of a double-decker bus with a gazebo on the side for indoor dining. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen at that point. We were there for over half an hour and yet our food managed to be burn-your-mouth hot the entire time.

Click on image to go to source.

It’s particularly good that I loved it because I’ll be moving up there when I transfer to Western Washington University for their elementary education program.

I want to get my master’s degree in Library and Information Science (an MLIS) so I want to get my teaching qualifications as an undergraduate while still being able to double major. The education program before the double major is a five and a half year program. Adding in another concentration to that might add a considerable amount of time, but I’m hoping to plan it well.

3) My friend and I have resolved to travel through Europe for three months in 2009, unless one of us wins the lottery in which case we’re replacing the words ‘Europe’ and ‘three months’ with ‘the world’ and ‘forever’. Likely from September to December. I’ve done the math on what I need to save (plus what I was saving for my formal education, but am now deciding to blow on travel–a different sort of education, but arguably of equal importance) so I’m in the process of trying to find an additional job or two that pays the same or better than my current job.

Things on the Brain: Zombies (and Other Stuff)

I’ve been thinking about two things a lot lately.

Number one is I need to get another job. Preferably two more.

In early October I decided to drop my classes at Seattle Central–where I was attending until I transfer to an in-state university due to money–to take care of my mother and earn money for tuition.

Right now I’m just delivering newspapers which, quite frankly, pays shit. I have limited work experience because I was focusing on school and my family before, but now I need a few part-time jobs. The next couple weeks will consist of me applying everywhere that happens to be hiring.

I’m hoping to get one with medical, dental, and optical insurance because I definitely need all three. The fact that I could get really sick at any moment and be totally screwed without insurance scares the hell out of me. Who thought universal health care was a bad idea again?

I’ve also been thinking about zombie attacks and how to escape when one inevitably happens. I have a mental list of things to keep in mind when zombies attack (though a lot of points could go for Maoist rebels or something as well as zombies). Perhaps I’ll make how to guide out of it soon.

Muera, Por Favor

One of the things I’ve learnt in my pursuit of a BA in Spanish and French is that people tend to say stupid things in regards to my educational plans. Because, you know, a degree in anything besides IT or medicine or whatever is a waste of time. Clearly.

Below are examples of idiotic things said to me on a weekly basis as well as either the response I give or the response I wish I could give depending on who is doing the commenting.

“Oh. A useless degree.”

First of all, kindly fuck off.

Is there such thing as a useless degree, honestly? I don’t believe so. Least of all a degree in languages. Many people in English-speaking countries are monolingual; being multilingual is a sought-after skill in today’s job market. There are tons of things you can do with a BA in Spanish and French. Many people are unwilling to learn a second language. For some reason, this seems to be more rampant in countries where the predominant language is English.

Mostly, I’m getting a BA because I love languages and I like to learn, not because of the job I’m seeking.

“Nobody speaks French.”

I think the people of the 29 countries of which French is an official language would disagree with you. About 300 million people on the planet speak French. There is a French speaking country on every continent aside from Antarctica–as far as I know, emperor penguins don’t speak French. Or at least they didn’t in March of the Penguins which is clearly a vital source of penguin language information. It’s also an official language of both the United Nations and the European Union.

“French is useless.”

See above.

“Can you get a job with that? What are you going to do with that degree?”

I’m not getting a BA in Spanish and French to get a job; I’m getting a BA to learn more about something I love. I love to learn. I’ve always been that girl who’s constantly reading up about random things. When I was a kid, sometimes it was animals or dinosaurs or space or Sweden. Sometimes it’s still animals or dinosaurs or space or Sweden. I’m filled with tons of random bits of information about everything.

And, as I said earlier, multilingualism is a sought after skill even in non-interpretation or translation fields.

The Internet Is Like High School

A year and a half ago my mom (and the four other moderators who voted) banned this woman from a board because she was seriously harassing and stalking another poster. (Ack, parents on the internet! Weird!)

Now, this woman has been banned from every board ever created. She even got AOL for the dynamic IP addresses so she could no longer be permanently banned by IP. She posts with a million different usernames, but apparently you can always tell it’s her because of her writing style. Clearly, since she’s been banned hundreds of times from other boards, this one ban shouldn’t have been any big thing, right?

No. She went insane. For some reason, she targeted my mom and blamed her for the ban; perhaps because my mom has been the only one to stand up to her in the past. My mom and the moderators eventually just closed the board because they were sick of putting up with her friends as well.

Now when my mom posts at other boards about random completely unrelated topics this lady starts attacking her, accusing my mom of being obsessed with her¹, makes extremely rude comments, spreads my mom’s personal information, etc.

Yesterday my mom posted about something–perhaps French toast², I’ve no idea–and this lady started her attacks again except this time she’s gathered about fifteen minions and they’ve started mocking my mom for having cancer³.

You know what? Fuck. You.

These women are over 40 and they’ve spent the better part of 24 hours relentlessly spamming my mother and now two other people and acting as if my mom has no life. If you’re over 40 and you still gather your friends to gang up on one person and flame them, I almost pity you because you’re pathetic.

Oddly enough, my mom finds this all hilarious.

Ahem. And this is why the internet is like high school.

1. Who’s obsessed with whom here? I mean, my mom never mentions this lady anywhere, but she goes about looking for my mom so she can attack her! Somebody’s brain is in off-mode. ↩
2. Example of this lady’s madness: My mom will post about French toast. This lady will come along and go “G-D, WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH ME?!” and then proceed to spend the next few days flaming my mom. ↩
3. My mom had surgery two days ago because she has breast cancer. She’s doing fine right now and will likely be completely cleared after she undergoes radiation therapy. ↩

Excuse Me, That Translation Isn’t in My Dictionary

I started my classes last Monday. I’m taking Spanish 201 and French 101 this quarter as I plan on getting a BA in Spanish and French.

You know your previous teacher has messed you up when your teachers tell you they want you to be comfortable and it’s okay to make mistakes and that makes you nervous.

My previous Spanish teacher was amazing, but he scared the hell out of me (and everybody else) which worked; fear motivates me. The class started out with 40 people at the beginning of the quarter and ended up with 10. He was definitely good about weeding out the people who weren’t serious enough about the class.

When he said gracias what he really meant was shut the fuck up. Once he called me by my first name and I didn’t know who he was talking to–he usually just abruptly shouted my surname.

But he was hilarious and definitely overprepared us. He didn’t want us to miss out if we transferred to university because we started out at a community college.

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