“That Night That Had Too Many Memories To Remember Them All”

Jesus. Mother. Fuck. How do pigeons live? Their nests are pieces of shit, they live in filth, and they stand dangerously close to the yellow line.

I give up, pigeons, I give up on balconies. I shall henceforth be satisfied with solariums or even just windows with big sills. God. I give up on tomatoes and peppers, you have me beat, filthy shitbirds.

Currently working on:
praying to my non-god for the seven month contact
getting this bloody song out of my head

eat more fruit, plant more trees

I managed not to word vomit the recruiter and also got a new banana bread recipe out of the deal.

Anyway, she gave me resume tips, which I then applied liberally like topical cream. If they (ominous) are equally impressed, I will be very pleased. Located in the initially vast sounding: “MISSISSAUGA!!!”, the job is only thirty minutes away. Given the potential for commute living in the GTA, thirty minutes would be some kind of transit nirvana.

CTV seems to be attempting Sympatico/MSN levels of stupidity, referring to rats as “fabled creatures” and asking: “Are we losing the war against bears?” in their teaser commercials.

Update: Got a call today, they were equally impressed and I have an interview with the actual place on Monday*. Wish me luck**.

*While the word vomit threat is still an issue, my more urgent fear is that they will ask me Obscure JavaScript Question™ and I will stutter like a moron and they’ll pat me on my pretty little head and send me on my way.

**Employment.

Currently working on:
reading P&P, Running for Women, RGD’s Professional’s Handbook
baking apple streusel coffee cake
integrating shiny new resume into portfolio

wherein I spew word vomit and consider a life hiding under rocks

I’ve got a meeting with a recruiter tomorrow for a web design position. Yes, that’s right.

For once, the other Sarah Graves will come in handy for employer google searches. As long as they don’t confuse me with this Sarah Graves, I should be fine. Unless I start to spew word vomit which, as boys I think are cute can attest, is like an eighty percent likelihood.

“Blah blah blah I’m poor and also sick and kind of creepy date hire me!”

Anyway, hopefully it pans out and I can get some more experience on my resume. It’s a contract thing, which I figure would provide ample incentive to get another job lined up while it is going on lest the g-men catch the scent of my tender bloodmeats in the water. Or it could not pan out and I will sound like a jackass a week from now. Asciting!

Currently working on:
a more timeline oriented resume
hoping potential employers never find my swear-y swear-y blog

I have a nerd crush on Ben Croshaw

Also, he’s not 16 or 40 so I come off as less skeevy than typical.

Currently working on:
compensating for death of ID3 trial
watching Strangers with Candy

you are the life of this, and indeed every, party

I initially started writing this post in between bursts of playing Final Fantasy IV DS. It was pretty terrible and I guess if you still want to experience what it may have been, you can just ask me to squeal and wave my arms about next time we see each other.

For the most part playing it makes me tingly, my nitpicks so minor even the staunchest Rules Lawyer or Factoid Nerd would be rolling their eyes as I listed them. Luckily, being the internets, I don’t have to see any of that eye rolling and can pretend it is actually praise for my astute observations or, at the very least, girlish charms and good lookings.

Onward: Remember in FFIIIDS, in the job screen, how the characters are moving a bit? None of that here. For the most part, the menu screen is just uglier than III’s. The characters are static, the only movement is in the background which is uncomfortably reminiscent of the web textures that were so popular when I first learned to internet. Besides that, there is no zooming a la III, you can’t change the menu colour like in the snes version, and Kain is now right handed?

Additionally, Rydia? GREEN EYES. I don’t even know why this bugged me so much, but I found myself skipping the summon animation just to avoid the close up (except for the chocobo one, which is SO AWESOME).

The translation is so so good, I mean, they changed all sorts of shit and I liked it. Anyone who has had to suffer through my TNT v. nitropowder rant will find that pretty astounding. They left the essential alone though, Spoony Bard remains.

Currently working on:
getting back to job hunting after a week of gaming /shame
trying to get out some ideas congealing in the back of my head
reading my shiny new copy of P&P

badly-mangled Latin and questionable logic

I’ve been reading The Complete Book of Running for Women, lent by Larissa. It’s a really good read, I am much bolstered by the fact this lady also waited two decades or so before finally deciding to get into some semblance of shape. I’m still pretty out of shape, my endurance is laughable (or maybe the hard breathing just goes to my head and makes me think the jump rope and cat are laughing at me), but being able to flex an arm or calf muscle is awesome. I feel like I could now manage to swing my handy/trusty cast iron fry pan in case of zompocalypse or alien invasion.

The job search continues, slowly, interruptedly, I keep getting distracted. I got an emails saying Amazon had shipped my shiny and clearly-going-to-rock FFIVDS cartridge out. Then I started reading some dramas between prosexwork and radfem bloggers. It’s so trainwreck-y. My lack of work ethic became achingly apparent sometime last night whilst I oogled Daniel Radcliffe, thanks to the CBC’s irritating habit of showing not entirely horrible films (seriously, next week is Syriana. What is up, CBC? And when will you start airing Gosford Park to satiate elderly British women and also me?).

I’ve been trying to pump out this breakfresh annual reportesque, I should probably get some second opinions from graphic design school types. My stomach just churns at the thought of it, like I should hide under my covers away from the sight of wo/man until I get employed. It’s a strange all-in-my-head catch 22. Like my nerves feel they need wracking.

I had a dream about dark chocolate orange scones. I am going to do my best to make that dream a reality.

Currently working on:
breakfresh reportesque
naming bogre’s barbarian lady friend (no good rhymes to be found there)
FanExpoed! (in a few weeks)
feeling less vaguely nervous/tingly
badly-mangled Latin and questionable logic

goodbye girl, bye bye boy

“Bread is Back”

Oh weird, diet obsessed sympatico/msn, bread never left!

Every time I sign out of hotmail, it’s an assault of stupidity. The entire world, according to sympatico/msn, is dieting and feuding celebrities. The only barely substantiated feuds I care about involve people I know, like Sherry v. ADORABLE KITTENS. Why does Sherry hate kittens so much? And isn’t that much more interesting than video highlights about “SJP’s missing mole”? Sherry might have missing moles, who knows?

I made a pie with the fruit we had on the counter: nectarines, blueberries, strawberries, and apples. It was fucking awesome. I just, I thought you should know.

later: poopin’ wallpaper, also, hurr hurr hurr

Currently working on:
stuff for amy
job hunting
pastry making

passionfruit punch

Sometimes, a few days later, I think: “that is probably not something I want online.”

In other news, I preordered FFIV DS even though it totally isn’t in the budget. I figure/hope/etc I will be employed soon enough that I can make up the money then. I can’t wait to see how they retooled it. If it’s half as nice as FFIII DS, I shall be mightily pleased.

YES.

Currently working on:
a couple job specific portfolio pieces
being an inadvertent shoplifter

one part disappointment, one part meh, one part yay

Disappointment was the panel I wanted to see at Paradise Comicon, Women in Comics: Why Are There So Few of Us, and Why Are We Wearing So Little?. There were a few telltale signs of its suckitude to which I should have paid more heed. The description, for one (bold mine):

Normally women in comics discussions are panels that focus on the hardships of being a female creator, or a discussion of the stereotypes of female characters. Rarely are they celebrations of female creators and female creations alike. With this playfully titled event, that’s about to change.

And the location: Canadian Bar and Grill. The rest of the events were held in the Oak or King Rooms, actual conference rooms. We figured there must be a room off of the side of the bar or something, like when large parties go for dinner. Not so much. There was one table with reserved seats for the “panel” guests, and the group of con attendees that showed up sat on the floor or stood around the parameter. Liana K was presenting (yea yea, more heed should have been paid), dressed in the ‘So Little’ of the title, and expressed surprise that people not directly involved in the event actually showed up.

She spouted a couple sentences about how if we (women) were lucky we might get a conference room next year, said more women should get into comics, then introduced the creators at the table (”This is so and so, she writes/draws so and so, she’s super!”) and that was it. Pam and I kind of looked at each other and said “that’s it?” and an equally disappointed guy nearby said “gee, I guess we won’t find out whether the so little she’s wearing is sarcastic or not now.”

Either the event was just for insiders, or a combination of the organizers of the con and Liana K have no fucking clue what ladies and interested males would like to see in a discussion about women in comics.

Here is my suggestion: How about a discussion about women in comics?

Meh was Bikkuri, the Japanese place I’ve been wanting to check out since I started school at GBC. The tempura was okay, but underdone. The tamago was good. And the Kamimaze Maki, described as “tempura bits, avocado with spicy sauce”, was actually tempura bits, avocado with spicy sauce, tuna, roe, and sesame seeds. So that was a real lunchbox letdown. I don’t think I’ll go back, not with Toku Gawa so close by.

Yay was Hellboy II. I love Hellboy everything, so I’m probably not that hard to impress. Loved the makeup and costuming. I should probably watch Pan’s Labyrinth. The Hellboy movies are probably the only comic book movies that can completely crap on continuity and have me eat it up and beg for more. The Liz/Hellboy thing is pure fanservice though. It’s a bit different than making the Phoenix Force into multiple personality disorder.

Currently working on:
The Job Hunt (sigh)
trying to draw mans that look like mans
random portfolio goods
social lifed?

Later: A while back a male friend asserted that a man getting badly beaten was as bad as a lady getting raped. Potentially worse, even, if the beating was severe and the rape was ‘gentle’. I had trouble at the time putting words to how very wrong I felt that statement was, and I wish I had’ve read Shrub.com’s post on privilege before having that very uncomfortable discussion. I don’t agree with the whole post, but there are a few things there that really made/are making me think.

I’m secretly disappointed when you do

So it’s up. I hope I didn’t miss any spelling errors. If you see one, please please please let me know. ASAPery.

I did up some oneshot articles to showcase my editorial skills. I feel kind of iffy about them, but I felt like the nerdgirl and scratch (cookbook) stuff that was there didn’t have enough going on. Visually they are neat/clean, but I’m not sure it would be enough to spark someone’s interest. Anyway, I’d be interested in feedback in the new stuff if you have a moment.

Last night I bought a great pea-green soup mug and after I had whipped the soup and milk together in the blender and plugged in my george for the grilling of bread and cheese, I noticed I had NO CHEESE. Well, there was some breemster left, but nowhere near enough to cover even a tiny slice of munich rye.

Anyway, the soup was great (tastes better from a mug), but dipping toast is not the same as dipping delicious sandwiches. So I stopped by St. Lawrence Market today to get some cheese and I ended up picking up some maple smoked cheddar (tastes even better than it sounds, Wiggy agrees) and some organic old cheddar from Quebec. St. Lawrence is shockingly well priced and since Balderson’s has gone to the crapper, there isn’t much in the big grocery stores anymore. I don’t know if they got bought out or what, but last time I got some of their extra old it was awful.

When I get a job I will buy many exotic cheeses with the dollars I have left after OSAP has its way with me. The only thing that will keep me from waddling is my brand new jump rope.

Speaking of job(s), is there anything more corrosive to self esteem than sending out your resume/portfolio? I close my eyes and click send, envisioning some far off art director perusing my pdf with looks of disgust. Then forwarding it to her/his friends to showcase the sorry state of today’s design grads. One of the jobs I’m applying to is for a children’s site/line of toys. I should have drawn more family friendly stuff, instead of nudie mermaids and nightmare fish.

Currently working on:
applying to jobs jobs jobs
looking forward to Comicon!
looking for more books to read