work stuff and a meme

[guingel]

Um, what the hell? I am fairly confident that I did not favorite NEWS's "Happy Birthday" PV on youtube. D:

So, I've done diddly-squat today. I took two naps and watched a lot of Coupling on DVD and unfortunately gave myself a headache. I like idleness, which sucks because I'm so poorly suited to it? Or maybe I'm just poorly suited to having a huge sleep deficit. And it's only going to get worse! Work is about to start kicking my ass for the next, um. 11 months. D: Feb was going to be a lighter, easier month and I was going to go up to Smith and see a hockey game. And instead, we're having a special election for three City Council seats and there are going to be disclosure statements coming out my butt. Then right after that ends, another big one (we have a big one coming up this Thursday) in March, and then hopefully a moderately gentle April.

This summer on to November is going to be madness. Which sucks because I might be looking for a roommate again this summer. It just makes it really hard to schedule to show people the apartment and meet with them if I'm working lots of overtime and am in on the weekends and stuff - especially if the overtime is unpredictable. On the other hand, money!

I was going to say it's good because I like my job and the people I work with, and it's true, but someone new is starting in my unit on Monday and I'm quite nervous. My boss and I work so well together! On the other hand, with all the craziness coming up we really do need the extra support. Augh, though, it's going to be so disorienting for them, starting a few days before the disclosure statement. And then I'm also going to have to help train her? Which isn't that onerous or anything, but I have a bunch of other things to finish before we start doing our reviews - and people will start filing on Monday.

This review is going to involve three main programs/information aspects and all three have problems right now. XD It's very exciting. I'm doing a lot of testing things and finding mistakes and problems and what-not. Oh, I remembered the skill I have that I was trying to think of the other day - I'm good at breaking down problems into smaller, easy to solve parts, or breaking down the different factors that go into making a decision.

But work isn't that stressful, I should say - just tiring. Maybe it should be, but I have a lot of faith in my boss, and I always know that she's ultimately responsible. Not that I feel like I don't need to do my part, but when things get weird, I know that she's the one in charge of making things work and making decisions. Which is I guess how it's supposed to be when you're not that well paid and don't have power. But it's nice, because it isn't always that way.

A meme, in which ilanabean42 asked me awesome questions. If you like, leave a comment and I will try to come up with something cool to ask you.

1. How did you choose your major in college?
For those just tuning in, I was a religion major at Smith. A theme of my young adult life was having no clue what I wanted to do. God, I thought things were going to end badly. Luckily I eventually latched onto public service. Anyway, yes. All senior year of high school was like "What are you going to major in" and I was like "I'm going to a liberal arts college so I don't have to know now!" But I think I actually said "I'm thinking art history maybe?" Anyway, I ended up taking an art history class first semester and hating it (although Katie ended up majoring in art history, and I did take one other class on the Golden Age of Dutch Painting and adored it). But I also took "Intro to World Religions" because it seemed interesting and I loved it.

And then, what Smith does is has these "presentations of the major" - this is probably normal, you know, you meet the faculty and some current majors speak. So Intro to World Religions was already a good class to start with because a lot of the department did guest lectures. But the two main professors in charge were really cool (two profs teaching a class is often hilarious - they were very Abbot and Costello) and one of them said we should go to the presentation of the major because there would be indian food, and. . . a diety might appear. So I had to go. And, indeed, he came dressed as Hanuman, Hindu god of learning and general awesomeness (possibly my all-time favorite divine figure). Anyway, the faculty just all seemed really awesome and I decided I was interested in the subject matter and there just ended up being loads of classes I wanted to take. But I always knew I wasn't really planning on just doing religion for the rest of my life. Unless I go back and become a scholar of rabbinic literature. . .

2. What's the best thing about having a twin?
Not to be smug, but - everything? Actually, to go off-topic a little, the worst thing about being a twin is how spoiled it makes me - we're allowed to depend on each other and it'd made it difficult for me to make friends, I think, and it also makes me expect a lot from my friendships. Because. . . the best part of being a twin is having someone who really, really understands me. We joke about twin telepathy but actually there's just a lot of shorthand, where we can be like "you know that thing? with the?" and stuff like that. Same experiences, same interests - of course, she's a raging Takki fan. It's always disorienting when I get into a fandom that Katie isn't into. I was into JE for about 6 months before I hooked her and it was tough!

3. If you had to be stranded on an unescapable island with only one book for entertainment, which would you take?
I was going to say the Neverending Story but you guys won't be able to hear the rimshot noise. Um, what's really rereadable? And long. Right now I'd say ASH: A Secret History cos it's long but I haven't read it once yet (oops). Lord of the Rings? RotK if I can only bring one volume. ::sigh:: i don't read enough these days. Inescapable island sounds just really frightening and horrifying, though. It wouldn't even matter what book I took. Eventually I would start trying to make patterns by looking at every other letter or something ridiculous. I would just go crazy, if my only entertainment was one book. And I guess survival.

4. If you were given a teleporter that would only work once (round trip) and had to be used immediately, where would you go?
Ahhh, this is tough! I really want a teleporter but that was sort of when I was at Smith and Katie was at Brandeis, to go back and forth loads. Ah, I see round trip, not one way. Where do I want to go? Toronto, maybe. Or New Zealand - can I bring people? Oh, or somewhere with beautiful crazy mountain scenery that would be really hard to get to. Oh, or Prague! Or back to Vienna. Or a TOKIO concert! Or somewhere where I'll learn how to be decisive?

5. What one clothing item/accessory would you like to see become more fashionable?
Hahaha, such a good question. Monocles, I think! I am desperate to see people wandering around wearing monocles. I'm also, this isn't a clothing item but I'm on a whole muttonchop campaign. As you may have noticed.

Comments

[fuunsaiki.livejournal.com]

I like your answers. :D Neverending Story, despite the misleading title, is a totally awesome utterly rereadable book though. :3

Question meh? *puppydog eyes*

[kegom.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. ^^" It seems it will be a very busy summer/year for a lot of people... v-v"

Good luck on getting through it! ^__^ (For all of us. ^^")


I'm just doing a short comment here, because I'm tired, but I just wanted to say, about the twins thing - yes. You totally nailed it.

And honestly? Sometimes it sucks when you're a non-twin surrounded by twins. :(

My mother is a twin, my brothers are twins and quite a few other people in my family are too and I'm not - but I still got taught, if you will, the "twin mentality", which, in my teenage years, was really difficult for me, because I instinctively shied away from confiding into anyone outside of my family, because - well, no one in my family ever did that, so why should I?

It actually took me a few years to realize that, since I didn't have a twin to be my confidante and my friend for the rest of my life, I didn't have a choice but to find friends to confide in outside of my family...

[elyndys.livejournal.com]

I am desperate to see people wandering around wearing monocles

I am in complete agreement! o_.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

It is! I do adore it, but I just reread it, so at the moment I'm like "Well, can't bring that, because I just read it!" I also get kind of precious about it, so I don't want to be stuck with it so I have to dissect it. XD It will lose its magic if I think about it too much, I think.

Hmmm. . .
1) What's the path of different fandoms that you've been really into since you started internetting a lot?
2) What are your top three favorite plays at the moment?
3) If you could live anywhere you wanted for one year, where would it be?
4) What type of non-conventional animal would you like to have as a pet?
5) If you could relive any point in your life, what would it be?

[ilanala]

I'm sure it's different with a twin, but I sort of understand what you mean about being spoiled for friendships, since I'm close to my siblings. It's nice having friends who've known you your whole life (more or less) and have a family background and a ton of experiences and interests in common with you, but then it's weird when you have to remember that not everyone will understand your strange references or personality quirks without a lot of explanation.

I always associate monocles with old, distinguished British men, so it would be rather hilarious if I started seeing people randomly wearing them. That would be a fun trend to watch. XD

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

Those were good questions. But what about these!

If you could only watch one sitcom for the rest of your life, what would it be, and how many re-runs would it take before you went crazy?

You're forced to wear either a captains hat, a party hat, or a sombrero for a year. Which would you choose?

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that sounds like it would be really tough, surrounded by so many twins! We sometimes feel bad for my brother, but even if there was only one of us, we probably wouldn't be that close to him, and there aren't really other twins in our family. But we always thought he would just feel lonely, or left out, you know. I never thought that it could actually affect the way someone else acts towards their friends. Aww!

But i think it is better to have to learn to find really close friends outside your family, and depend on people outside and get close to them, because. . . so many more people in the world are not your twin? XD And they can never quite live up to my expectations.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Ooooh my god, monocle emoticon! SWEETNESS. Also, excellent icon.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's just a feeling of comfort with family. I mean, no matter what, I'm never going to have taken baths with my friends at the age of three. And family are stuck with you, too. (Or at least, it takes a lot more to get rid of them permanently D:)

I'm probably quite bad at kind of expecting people to be with me and just sort of unleashing randomness on them. At least I'm good about explaining inside jokes and references after the fact, though - even if it's boring for the other person - because I had friends in elementary school who always had all these inside jokes that they wouldn't share with the rest of our group, even though we were all close, and it always upset me.

They seem hard to keep on, but whatever - lots of people have much worse vision in one eye! I would have to wear two monocles, though. . .

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that's tough. What's a sitcom that ran for a really long time? How long did Fresh Prince of Bel Air run for? That one would probably drive me crazy fairly soon. I would normally say Coupling cos I have already watched them so many times and so far not crazy, but there's only about 25 episodes of that total. Um. Scrubs? It depends on how often I have to watch it in this scenario! I think I would be driven to madness within 4 years if I have to watch it frequently, but if I can also read and stuff, I could make it to 10 or 15, i bet! I would be irritable for most of it, though. XD

Hmmm. I'm going to rule out a party hat right away because I don't like them. Captain's hat or sombrero would both be AMAZING though. I can't choose. Uh. Oh, I would go with captain's hat because if I was wearing a sombrero people would expect me to speak Spanish and I can't! And I can't do Mexican hat dances. Captain's hat seems safer, but still awesome. Plus, Katie's nickname for me is dudecaptain, which I think is the best nickname ever.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, your answer for the first wasn't totally decisive, but acceptable! Scrubs has a lot of episodes, so 10 to 15 years of on/off watching sounds reasonable. Good answer!

I agree about the party hat. Somehow that seems the most humiliating to be walking around with. And yes, you might be expected to be part of a mariachi band of some sort with the sombrero.. I like how you seriously think these things through. XD The thought of you constantly having to wear a captains hat is hilarious, btw. XD

[kegom.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not that bad nowadays, because I've got great friends and I do have a connection with my brothers, too. ^-^ It's still not the same as having a twin (though, of course, there are twins who are so dissimilar that they'd rather have nothing to do with each other...), but - well, I think it's not too bad. ^-^ I'm sure twins will still pity people without a twin, but then people with siblings often tend to pity people without siblings too, so I guess it's mostly what you're used to. ^-^

[floria-del-guiz.livejournal.com]

You've not read A:aSH yet? FOR SHAME! :O

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i've had friends with twins who weren't particularly close to their twins at all. Seems wasteful. XD And it must be at least a little different if you're different genders? Or identical - I would hate to be an identical twin!

[guingel.livejournal.com]

D: I was hoping you wouldn't notice that. The problem is, now is the first time in years that I actually have time to read books for pleasure, but most of my reading is done on the subway and Ash is too big to be carried back and forth. It'd barely fit in my bag! But. . . I like knowing that there's such an awesome book waiting for me on my shelves? >.>

[guingel.livejournal.com]

XD I gave your questions the consideration they deserved! :D

I used to have a pirate captain's hat, but it didn't fit that well and I willed it to an adorable first year when I left Smith.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

I know some different-gendered twins who're extremely close to each other, so I don't know how much difference there is... but then those different-gendered twins haven't hit puberty yet, so some of that is probably still to come. ^-^ I know from a different gendered twin on my friendslist that her brother is quite protective of her? (In the way that he likes to know that she's OK and stuff, even if they live quite a distance from each other.)

As for identical twins - I don't think it's all that bad, actually. There was a couple of identical twins in some of my courses in junior high and highschool, and I know that, while they looked completely identical before puberty (which seems to happen to a lot of twins, regardless of whether they're identical or not), when puberty hit they cut their hair differently and they both had pimples at different places on their faces (not willingly, of course ;P), so it was no problem for anyone to identify them. The only things completely similar back then were their handwriting and their voices, but as soon as you saw them, you know who they were. XD