In which Rose's writing style takes a swing towards Narrative...

Waking up this morning, it was hard not to groan in anticipation - the rain was coming down pretty steadily. And not the pleasant, ignorable misty-type rain, but the thick, driving kind that has a special talent of soaking through sweaters and hair with all the enthusiasm of a shower head set to "lukewarm". It didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon, so chances were I was going to have to stand out there and get soaked while handing out semi-soggy coupon books to disgruntled tourists.

Fortunately, however, I was saved the ordeal when I called my supervisor to confirm today's schedule - someone had (for mysterious reasons) moved our boxes of books to the top shelf of the Juneau Empire's warehouse (a not inconsiderable height), and no one was available to work the forklift and get them down. So I got to have a full weekend for the first time in a month.

I have to say it's been rather enjoyable, for all that I've accomplished so little of note. We watched the musical version of The Producers in our theater, spent some time grooming Mr. Jerry Brown and cutting out the distressing number of mats popping up in his fur, cleaned the kitchen so I could promptly dirty it again by making what turned out to be (if I do say so myself) a fantastic chicken pot pie, and generally had a nice lazy day. I also spent some time catching up with the archives of Absurd Notions, which, while more in the "gag-a-day" vein than the authorial vein of Something*Positive, is still a well-written and often giggle-worthy comic strip. The update schedule seems a bit haphazard, but I think it'll go on my daily-check-list of webcomics anyway - something of an honor where I'm concerned, since the vast majority of webcomics I've seen have really failed to grab me in any particular way. I don't know if it's because I'm a snob, or simply frustrated by the legions of people out there who have middling-decent-to-excellent art skills but mediocre-to-no writing skills when I have the opposite problem. So if there's anyone out there who can draw and would like to start up a comic strip, let me know.

Also, I have to give Mr. Pease credit - I think he came up with the most succinct explanation of how fed up with college administration I got: "If a school is making money from you, do not delude yourself into thinking you are the customer. You are not the customer. You are the inventory." In a lot of ways, I think I'm lucky that I went to college in the generation that I did - judging from my few experiences with actual pen-and-paper-and-surly-secretary registration, I would have given up a lot sooner if I'd had to do it that way every semester rather than by web like I did most of the time.

Registration difficulties aside, however, I have to say that there are times when I miss college - it really was fun, getting to read literature and whatnot and discuss it in class with people who actually cared about it (rather than the sullen circles we got in high school and lower level English courses). Unfortunately, given the decision between busting my butt to save money over each summer/taking out loans and then spending eight months out of the year utterly broke or keeping my good job, nice car, nice apartment and cats...it's pretty difficult to convince myself that I need another two to three years of all that frustration. So I guess I'll just keep saving money, and seeing how things go...

In which Rose's writing style takes a swing towards Narrative...

Waking up this morning, it was hard not to groan in anticipation - the rain was coming down pretty steadily. And not the pleasant, ignorable misty-type rain, but the thick, driving kind that has a special talent of soaking through sweaters and hair with all the enthusiasm of a shower head set to "lukewarm". It didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon, so chances were I was going to have to stand out there and get soaked while handing out semi-soggy coupon books to disgruntled tourists.

Fortunately, however, I was saved the ordeal when I called my supervisor to confirm today's schedule - someone had (for mysterious reasons) moved our boxes of books to the top shelf of the Juneau Empire's warehouse (a not inconsiderable height), and no one was available to work the forklift and get them down. So I got to have a full weekend for the first time in a month.

I have to say it's been rather enjoyable, for all that I've accomplished so little of note. We watched the musical version of The Producers in our theater, spent some time grooming Mr. Jerry Brown and cutting out the distressing number of mats popping up in his fur, cleaned the kitchen so I could promptly dirty it again by making what turned out to be (if I do say so myself) a fantastic chicken pot pie, and generally had a nice lazy day. I also spent some time catching up with the archives of Absurd Notions, which, while more in the "gag-a-day" vein than the authorial vein of Something*Positive, is still a well-written and often giggle-worthy comic strip. The update schedule seems a bit haphazard, but I think it'll go on my daily-check-list of webcomics anyway - something of an honor where I'm concerned, since the vast majority of webcomics I've seen have really failed to grab me in any particular way. I don't know if it's because I'm a snob, or simply frustrated by the legions of people out there who have middling-decent-to-excellent art skills but mediocre-to-no writing skills when I have the opposite problem. So if there's anyone out there who can draw and would like to start up a comic strip, let me know.

Also, I have to give Mr. Pease credit - I think he came up with the most succinct explanation of how fed up with college administration I got: "If a school is making money from you, do not delude yourself into thinking you are the customer. You are not the customer. You are the inventory." In a lot of ways, I think I'm lucky that I went to college in the generation that I did - judging from my few experiences with actual pen-and-paper-and-surly-secretary registration, I would have given up a lot sooner if I'd had to do it that way every semester rather than by web like I did most of the time.

Registration difficulties aside, however, I have to say that there are times when I miss college - it really was fun, getting to read literature and whatnot and discuss it in class with people who actually cared about it (rather than the sullen circles we got in high school and lower level English courses). Unfortunately, given the decision between busting my butt to save money over each summer/taking out loans and then spending eight months out of the year utterly broke or keeping my good job, nice car, nice apartment and cats...it's pretty difficult to convince myself that I need another two to three years of all that frustration. So I guess I'll just keep saving money, and seeing how things go...