Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Enough With The Relaxing Already

Never thought I'd say those words, but frankly, I've had enough of sitting on my butt doing a whole lot of nothing. Though I must say that I've enjoyed getting in all of this reading lately. That's been nice. I need a job! Regardless of whether or not I choose to go into a PhD program, I still need to work as the earliest I would start the PhD program would be January.

I do have a job and I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here. I've been a PCA (Personal Care Attendant) for the past 5 or 6 years...lost count there. I love my job, but it's time for me to move on. I work with a family of 3 people with disabilities. 2 guys and a girl who have a VERY rare musculoskeletal degenerative disorder that is called mucolipidosis type IV (4). They all use wheelchairs, are considered profoundly mentally retarded (though I beg to differ in some respects), and are all balls of joy. They live with their mother and father and their father has Multiple Sclerosis which is not related to their disability. They are one of the reasons I chose my profession. Their family has become part of my family and I've become part of their's. I'll never be separated from them, but I will have to throw in the hat soon as far as working for them. I'll miss seeing them every week. I've never seen a stronger, more positive family in all my life. I'll have to post pictures of the gang one day! So any way, I still do have a little money coming in, but I only work with them 2 days a week now as I've cut down my hours over the years to make time for more advanced schooling.

Lately I just apply away for jobs but don't hear anything back. I've applied for a bunch of jobs at Children's Hospital. Today I applied for one as a counselor working with families of children undergoing dialysis. We'll see if we hear anything back from that. I like down time every now and then, but I need things to be happening in my life...I need action, movement, progression.

Ah well, for now I'll try to enjoy the down time while I have it. I got two new books in the mail today. One is the Dabel Brothers' graphic novel adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Red Prophet. Red Prophet is the second book in OSC's Tales of Alvin Maker series and it's my favorite in the series. I am totally loving the graphic novel, though I don't know if just anybody would love it. I think you may have to read the book to be a fan, though I may be wrong. This is actually a hardcover collection of the first 6 comic books in the series which is being done by Marvel. So this is Volume 1 of the hardcover series. Looking forward to the rest of them! Also included in the back is a brand new Enderverse story in comic form called Gold Bug. Haven't gotten to it yet, but I'm always up for a new Ender story.

The other book is No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty who is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. I read the first few pages online and it looked like a good little book for some tips on writing, so I picked it up. I've decided that I'm going to give NaNoWriMo a try this November. What have I got to lose?

On a final note, I just saw an advertisement for the DVD release of Bridge to Terebithia and they make it look like this magical, feel good movie of the year. Now I didn't see the movie, but I'm guessing that's not very accurate, though I'm sure that it's a great movie from what I heard and I definitely want to see it....when are these people going to get a clue. I'm so sick of people advertising movies so incorrectly. Perfect example is M. Knight Shyamalan's movies. I remember when The Village came out, they advertised it as this scare the hell out of you horror movie, and it wasn't! Now, I still loved it, but most people hated it and it got horrible reviews.....because people didn't get the movie that they thought they were paying to see. They did the same thing with Lady in the Water, though that one may have gone over a little bit better, I don't really remember. The point is....that trick doesn't work. It just pisses people off. Geesh...

17 comments:

Carl V. Anderson said...

The trailers for Bridge were horribly misrepresentative of the film, but the film was wonderful. Sad? Yes, but sad in that good, inspirational, "I better get off my ass and start living" way. I'll be picking it up. I reviewed it back when it came out. Really, really enjoyed the movie.

chrisa511 said...

I remember your review. It was one of the ones that made me decided I'd see it...just didn't get to in the theaters...I'll have to see it on DVD though...wait til you see this new trailer for the DVD though, made me laugh.

Ana S. said...

That drives me CRAZY as well. The perfect example here was Pan's Labyrinth. The advertisement for it included sentences as "As delightful as Alice in Wonderland" or "A darker version of Oz". The result, of course, was that a lot of people took their young children to the cinema expecting to see a light, feel-good fantasy movie, and ended up leaving half way through it.

Good luck with NaNoWriMo! I've always wanted to try it, but somehow in November I never have the time. It should be in August or something!

chrisa511 said...

Pan's Labyrinth....delightful?! People are really nuts! That movie could scar a young child! It was my favorite movie of the year, but I'd never take a young child to see it. You should give NaNoWriMo a try! The worst that could happen is that you find out that you can't do it. That's what I'm doing!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...NaNoWriMo...I have pondered before...maybe...

I think I am still bitter about Jeepers Creepers. Everything I saw before watching the film led me to believe it would be scary, and nothing suggested that it would be a campy monster flick. The first half an hour or so was promising, and I was expecting a twisted serial killer...not a campy monster. If I had been expecting the latter I would have enjoyed the film a lot more, rather than being utterly disappointed. Yep. Still bitter.

Anonymous said...

Oh and The Village - loved it. Was very pleased that it turned out *not* to be what the ads suggested. Also loved Lady in the Water.

Scottula said...

Muh, a new job. That's a challenge I should be participating in. It'll be called "Put the Damn Book Down, Turn Off the TV, and APPLY ALREADY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD APPLY!"

Good luck in your search. I know in my bones you'll find the absolute perfect thing.

DesLily said...

hey Chris. You are so right about the trailers for Bridge!..it's almost funny, because I bought the book thinking it's just a story about kids imaginations ..duh. I was shocked at the (almost) ending!

The Village was just on tv here over the weekend and I watched it for the third time lol.
However.. I skipped watching it a number of times before, since I'm not big on "scary movies"..

I sure hope you find a job you are happy with. (it always helps having enough cash to order more books lol) It's not so bad taking most of the summer off, if you can afford it. It's a proven fact that it takes about 6 weeks for both the body and the mind to really be ready to ignite and work well again. The folks in Europe know this and make their workers take a 6 week vacation once a year..they've proved they get more work and more "accurate" (that's the mental part)work from people that way... one day maybe America will wake up to that fact, but somehow I doubt it. Anyway..enjoy your rest but keep those applications rolling out!

Stephanie said...

You'll find something. So enjoy the down time while you can!!

Bridge to Terabithia was WONDERFUL! But you are right. It was way different from the trailers. You should definitely watch it. And I remember the trailers for The Village as well. My husband was seriously disappointed with it. I loved it, as I have all of Shyamalan's movies. But scary...nope!

Jill said...

I clicked on "comments" to leave a comment about Pan's Labyrinth only to find that everyone else beat me to it! I just finally saw it a few weeks ago, and luckily read some reviews and noted the R rating, so I did not inflict it on my kids. But even so, we were at the part where the little girl is confronting that horrific giant toad when we heard a sound from the doorway - it was my 6-year-old, who'd come down to tell us she couldn't get to sleep. You might imagine how tough it was for her to get to sleep after watching the toad's stomach come heaving out of its mouth!

Luckily she didn't seem to remember much the next morning. It'll probably come out in therapy years from now, along with every other misguided thing I inadvertently do... :-)

darkorpheus said...

Well, if the money is not too tight, you might like to just enjoy the leisure for a while longer. I bummed for about 6 months after graduation - and it may be one of the most creative period of my life. Just a suggestion. You have your whole life to work, so no rush.

I'm not being a good influence here, am I? :p

I used to love Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, but around the fourth book I thought he was losing steam. And I soon lose touch with the series. Has the Alvin Maker series concluded yet?

Best of luck on NaNoWriMo. I might give it a shot myself. Will see when we come closer to the date.

I'm with you on the movie being marketed by people who might not get it. That especially happens when the movie is not your conventional genre picture that can be pigeonholed.

And I liked The Village and The Lady In the Water - in spite of what critics say. And who made critics the expert anyway? :)

Carl V. Anderson said...

Kudos to you for wanting to try NaNoWriMo. I've thought about it, but it always interferes with NaCaBiMo: National Carl's Birthday Month. I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. ;)

chrisa511 said...

Do it Quix! Oh it'll be fun...come on, that way we can complain together and cheer together and maybe each get a novel out of it :p I agree with you about the Village and Lady in the Water. Such great films. Especially The Village. Loved it! One of my favs.

I hope your bones are right Too Hotty. I just don't' want to settle for some crap job and that's all that's out there. Whatever, something will come around. Your job sounds so cool! You get to make cool stuff with office supplies :p

Deslily...definitely leads you to believe it's something else, eh?

The Village has a few scary parts, agreed. But once you get past those, it's really not scary at all! I can't keep talking because I'll give the whole damn thing away :) But it's a good one!

That's the way I'm doing it for now: Enjoying the rest, but keeping the applications going. It would be nice to have the whole summer off but at the same time I'm ready to work. I don't really know what I'm ready to do though...who knows.

Steph, I'm enjoying it! Just gets a little boring sometimes. Think I may go to the bookstore today though...dangerous..Glad you liked The Village. What a great movie! I'll definitely be renting Bridge to Terebithia. I'm rereading it for a challenge, so I'll prob. read it first then watch it.

Darla, LOL..Hilarious. I'm sure it wasn't funny for you, but that just gave me a pretty good laugh. I guess that since I don't have children I hadn't even thought of that, but I can see now that they did sort of make Pan's Labyrinth look like a fairy tale! That's horrible! Every kid in the world would be in therapy!

Dark Orpheus, Regardless of if you're being the right kind of influence, sounds like my kind of influence ;) You're right though. I have the rest of my life to work. I really should just enjoy the downtime. That's one thing I love about having this blog. I get such great points of view that I never think to look at....thanks!

The Alvin Maker series hasn't concluded yet, but it's about to! It may just be because I'm a HUGE Card fan, but I suggest picking the series back up ;) I was disappointed around that book as well. In fact, I don't know that I even remember that one. Card is working on the 7th book which he said will absolutely be the last book. No publication date announced, but it will be called "Master Alvin".

Do NaNoWriMo!! Power in numbers! I think the more of us who do it, the better our chances of succeeding :)

My thoughts exactly on critics. My opinions on films are usually the polar opposite of theirs.

And last but certainly not least....CARL, NaCaBiMo is SO more important than NaNoWriMo. I think you should publish your own book on how to successfully celebrate NaCaBiMo :p

Bookfool said...

I haven't finished "No Plot, No Problem," but I liked what I read (I got too busy doing the actual writing - didn't finish before November). Definitely, go for NaNo! It's loads of fun. I was shocked when I managed to finish a novel, two years ago. I'd been trying for so long I lost track.

chrisa511 said...

Bookfool, I'm thinking that this may be the thing to actually get the novel done! I surely hope so...that would be so cool ;)

Carl V. Anderson said...

Isn't that what my blog is, Chris? A year long celebration of the wonder of me?!?!?

Wow, its getting deep in here. Send condolensce cards to my wife, please.

chrisa511 said...

Dear Mary, we all send our deepest and sincere regrets that you have to share a house and much less a bed with this ego-inflated man....LOL, just kidding of course, Carl. :)