Scattered Brainings XII

* Who invented the bags that flour, sugar, and other necessities/ baking materials are packaged in? How do they think we’re supposed to get it open without ripping it apart (okay, I exaggerate, let’s rather say ‘tear’) since the glue is so stubborn?

* I’ve been really lazy this last week or two when it comes to reading… and yet, when one takes into consideration that we’re nearing the end of February, is it amazing, sad or scary to think that I have already read 26 books this year?

* My Significant Other’s a programmer, while I’m pro-grammar. It works.

* I have learnt that boredom leads you to doing things that you haven’t done in a very long time: painting your toenails… then adding a top layer with golden glitter/ shimmer in *sigh*

* “For a crazy cat lady, what comes first? The cats or the crazy?”

* We had quite a fon-due (fun do, get it?) over the weekend with amazing friends of ours. Pity that I don’t eat pork – besides bacon & ham – but I’m very pleased with myself that I wasn’t nauseous… although it was close, at one point during the evening. Hurray for endurance!

* I cried while watching EAT PRAY LOVE. Not really because of the film, but because I was feeling oddly emotional at the time. It was fun watching it with two programmers/ developers, though.

* Smudgy is a real opportunist. While I was taking a shower the other day, she stole the rest of my oats cookie (she did look a little bit guilty). And if I’m sitting on her chair, she’ll meow at me to get off… and sometimes even meow some more until I put the fan on! Such a demanding little miss.

* I love buying people gifts that they love, want and appreciate 🙂

* FUTURAMA is better than I remember. Back in the day I watched the first season, found the characters annoying, then dropped it. Now I even laugh or smile in amusement at times… because yes, stupidity is funny.

* Found out that a writer friend of mine is going to name a very minor ‘character’ (who the reader only hears about) after me in his latest book. Then a lot of other people can mispronounce my name – goody! 😉

* Some Facebook games are really stupid. Take your relationship, match it to the fruit on this list and then post it on your status to show your support for Breast Cancer Awareness? Uh-huh… Some people have whole fruit salads going on!!…

*…Soon (i.e. upon getting married) I’ll be going from an apple to a banana – what a transition!

* Thank you very much, Universe. You seem to want me to be jobless.

* Cats are disgusting. Then again, they probably feel the say way about humans. Smudgy is busy playing with a huge grasshopper… in. our. apartment.

* I ❤ Stephen King. You’ll be hearing it until you get sick of it (and me) – and then some!

I <3 Simon’s Cat

You’ve all heard of Simon’s Cat… right? I hope so!

If you’ve watched the videos and seen some of the pictures/ cartoon strips  that Simon Tofield has done, you’ll smile knowingly about the antics his cat gets up to, only to end up asking for food (that’s how the videos end, mostly). And if you’re a cat person, you’ll be nodding in agreement, understanding what Simon has drawn 150%

That said, I was delighted to learn that the great Master Tofield now does a Simon’s Cat strip for the Daily Mirror (this started on Monday, 21 February, so luckily we’re only three days in and you haven’t missed much). As such, I’ll be sharing today’s comic with you, since it reminds me a lot about my cat Smudgy. Not so much the ending, although it does happen at times, but the fact that she’s always very excited when it comes to food…

She meows me awake every morning before 6AM, after all.

Today’s word: depression/ depressed

I’m feeling it again… the depression…

Unhappiness, despair, sadness, downheartedness, misery, hopelessness, melancholy, dejection, gloominess – yeah, pretty much all of that.

I’m depressed, unhappy, miserable, blue, disheartened, despondent, dejected, down in the dumps… discouraged to say the very least.

And why, you might ask?

Because the internship ended on the 13^th of January, and I am the only one out of the total ten ex-interns that has yet to be employed. I am, in other words, the only one that is JOBLESS.

Spell it out: J-O-B-L-E-S-S-.

If that’s not enough to depress you, then I don’t know what is.

I’ve done some ‘personal’ freelancing – personal in the sense that I’ve done a translation for my future father-in-law and proofread & copy-edited a friend’s 250-page Masters thesis. Yesterday I signed up on the PASA (Publishers’ Association of South Africa) freelancers database, though I have yet to hear from them. The one or two jobs that I have applied for have resulted in fruitlessness… and it’s likely that, upon hearing how I won’t be available for about three weeks in May due to my honeymoon, nobody will want to employ me.

This after my hard work, efficiency, can-do attitude, no complaints about my work whatsoever… and just wanting to feel like I’m doing something worthwhile for the industry.

After sitting at home feeling very depressed for eight months after completing my Honours, and after six wonderful months at a great publisher and amazing publishing team, I am back to the drawing board: I have been at home for just over a month now, again unemployed, and the prospects are not looking too peachy-keen.

Although having an income (no matter how small it may be) would be great, since I feel like the biggest leech ever for not paying for the rent or groceries or even the payment on my own study loan, the fact of the matter is that I feel lazy because I am at home doing nothing – I feel like I’m wasting my time, that my talents are becoming ‘dulled’ and that the lack of accomplishing something in the workplace will somehow set me back later when I actually am employed again. After all, how bad does it look on one’s CV that you haven’t worked for months? Do they actually care that you have been putting in a lot of effort to search and apply for jobs? *laugh* Please…

But that’s enough of a rant from me. Guess I’ll just go back to my reading… I already baked oats cookies this morning (at 6AM, actually) – let’s see what else I can get up to.

Oh, wait, is that the bed calling to me? Gosh, it’s noon – should I take a nap? *zzzzzz*

I live with my Significant Other - but he's got the gist of it.