Indecisive Musings

Today, I started to watch The Borgias, I’m still on episode 1 of Season 1. Currently, the episode is buffering again; unfortunately, my internet is rather slow sometimes.

Thus far, the episode is pretty interesting, and I may actually end up watching the new season when it premieres. Of course, I’ll have to catch up on all of Season 1 first, which may take a while with my lagging internet.

A little known fact about me is that my interest is piqued randomly. It might be as small as a single advertisement in a magazine that suddenly causes me to be seized with a very strong urge to know more. It could be a single TV advertisement that I cannot get out of my head. As simple as an offhand remark made by a friend. One interesting word in a novel I’m reading. Really, it could be anything at all.

The reason I bring this up is because today, I received the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, where there was a full page advertisement (front and back) for The Borgias. The first side I saw was what appeared to be a perfume sampler. You know, the kinds that are a full page, and folded along the side, and you pull it open and can smell the fragrance. The front looked like this:

The back of the page advertised the show itself. 

I became curious and peeled back a portion of the side to see what it smelled like. It was…alluring. Dark and beautiful, mysterious. Not much of a description, I know, but I find myself unable to describe scents even passably well. 

Nevertheless, I was unable to get the scent out of my head for most of the afternoon, and finally looked up the show, and began to watch it. 

Now here I am, waiting for the first episode to finish buffering. 

I realized I never fully summarized my days working at the convention.

I am back home now, we got back around 11 pm on Tuesday, because we got off work at 6 pm.

So I will now summarize what happened on all the days that I worked, for those who are curious.

Saturday, Day 0, Arrival [we begin with eleven workers]

• Arrived in Las Vegas around 2-3 pm
• Stayed at the convention center and helped with a variety of tasks
• Essentially, I was an assistant, fetching this and that

Sunday, Day 1 [still eleven workers on the crew]

• Woke up early, got ready, and headed over to the convention center
• Ate a light breakfast that my cousins bought for us (they, my cousins, also work for my father)
• Handed out bags to passing people while one of my [male] cousins and I joked around about this person or that person.
• Was hit on by some perverted man, who kept trying to ask me out to go drinking, or smoke something, with him
• Continued to pass out bags until around noon
• Went with my cousin [who passed out bags with me] to McDonalds to get lunch for everyone
• We shocked the poor cashier at McDonalds when we ordered 30 chicken sandwiches, 10 fries, 40 chicken nuggets [2 orders of 20 pieces], one fish filet, and one iced coffee. She exclaimed “Who are you FEEDING?” [we were tempted to say just ourselves, but instead, said we were feeding an entire company]
• Came back, ate, and continued to pass out bags until 6 pm

Monday, Day 2 [Four of our crew went back to the main office after Day 1, leaving us with seven]

• Woke up early, got ready, and headed to the convention center. We, again, ate a light breakfast that was bought by my cousins.
• I passed out bags again until noon
• At noon, another of my cousins [different from yesterday’s lunch run] and I went to a restaurant in the convention center and got several chicken tenders baskets for everyone
• Came back, ate, and continued to pass out bags until the throng of people around our booth became too much.
• Took one client’s order, filed it away in our folder, and continued to pass out bags until 6 pm

Tuesday, Day 3 [Three of our crew go back after Day 2, leaving us with four]

• Woke up early, ate at a restaurant for breakfast, and then headed to the convention center
• The day begins relatively slow, and I pass out bags, until a decent sized crowd arrives at our booth. 
• At one point, all four of us are taking down orders, before things quiet down again, and I resume passing out bags
• By noon, I’ve given up passing out bags and am switching between taking down orders, resting, and answering questions from passing people
• Sometime in the afternoon, a big [new] client comes, and I begin to take their order. Their group of 4 split, and my sister goes with one part of their group, and I continue with the other part of the group. Their order ends up taking up 8 pages, my five pages of two columns, and my sister’s three pages of four columns. So if evened out, their order is actually eleven pages
• The day continues with smaller orders, but significant orders, nonetheless. We continue this until 6 pm, and then head back home ourselves.

After Day 3, the majority of us have returned home, leaving just one person behind for Day 4, the final day. However, my father says that on Day 4, usually, we’re lucky if we get even two orders. 

This past Friday, I finished my final exams, and therefore, was finally done with Winter quarter 2012.

Does that mean I get to sleep in for a week until Spring quarter 2012 begins?

No.

I am now currently in Las Vegas for a convention, helping out with my father’s company. And I must say, these past two days have been a drain on my last energy reserves [which were already sorely depleted after finishing exams]. 

I have been on my feet almost constantly from 9 am to 6 pm, passing out free bags stamped with the company information [because people carry them around, resulting in free advertising throughout the convention]. 

I am also usually on the team [of two] going to get lunch for everyone, including clients. 

And when we are especially busy, since people seem to always come all in a rush so that 10 am to around 2 pm are the busiest times, I also help take down orders to be fulfilled when we get back home. If the customer indicates that they need their shipment soon, then we email the employees who stayed behind at the company to fulfill speed orders.

r0lan:

• the one where I’m out-going and loud.
• the one where I’m shy and quiet as fuck
• the one where I hate everyone and every little thing bothers me.

☺More Laughs Here.

I had completely forgotten about the Production video that Peter Jackson released more than half a year ago about The Hobbit.

Today, however, as I was watching the trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hobbit Making-of #4 popped up in the related videos on the side.

As you might have guessed, I was astonished, and quickly looked up the other Making-of videos.

Thus far, I have watched the original Production video released, approximately, in June of 2011, and the Making-of #2 and Making-of #3 videos.

Apparently, there are six currently out. Perhaps more, but the sixth video is the last of them to be found on the first page of the search.

I have to say, I was beyond ecstatic as I watched #2 and #3. My roommate can attest to my fangirl-ish squeals of delight, and the stupidly wide grin on my face the entire time my eyes were glued to my laptop screen.

In the Making-of #3 video, I let out an involuntary fangirl shriek as GIMLI (played by John Rhys-Davis) showed up on set, and on the screen <3

And then…at the END of the Making-of #3 video, who else but SARUMAN (played by Christopher Lee, also in full costume) would also make a surprise appearance.

Oh my…I hope there are more surprises in the following videos. However, I should be careful to not watch these videos when out and about on campus, as I may involuntary turn into a shrieking, squealing, fangirl.

Once, quite some time ago, I found a picture of JRR Tolkien’s signature.

Ever since, I’ve imagined that his handwriting would be similar. Beautiful script that appears almost to be typed with a lovely font.

Recently, I thought of his signature again, and searched, on Google, for his handwriting.

Needless to say, I’m very envious. If I could, I would change my handwriting to look like his.

Now, when I searched for his handwriting on Google, another image also popped up, not of JRR Tolkien’s handwriting…but his son’s, Christopher Tolkien’s, handwriting.

Again, needless to say, I’m still very jealous. And I think beautiful handwriting was one of the first things that JRR Tolkien taught his children.

I finished with the third of my final exams today!

Thursday’s Final, Statistical Computing…I think I aced it. I feel like I’m too confident in that class, but what can I say? That’s how I feel.

Friday’s Final, Information Technology, I think I did okay on. Some questions were a bit tricky, but I did my best.

Saturday’s (today’s) Final, was the Corporate Finance one, and I -gasp- actually think I might have passed…! And hopefully, the professor curves the grades again (like he did for the two midterms)…fingers crossed!

Final exams are nearly here, and one can almost sense the silence on campus.

There are now more people stopping by my Corporate Finance lectures, well…today, anyway. The professor reviewed for the final today, and will do so some more on Thursday. Usually, there’s only a handful of people who actually attend lectures because they’re at 8 am. And no one likes to wake up early.

For me…I have an exam on Thursday (Statistical Computing), another on Friday (Information Technology), a third on Saturday (Corporate Finance), then lastly, one on next Friday (Forecasting, Time Series, and Regression).

However, because my Forecasting/Time-Series/Regression course has its final exam in two parts: an in-class part, and a take-home part, I’ll be staying all of next week until my last exam is done to finish the take-home part. This is because I don’t want to pay $60 some dollars to get the software myself. So, I have to stay, so I can use the school’s computer labs.

A while ago, I blogged about my day helping my good friend with making a yearbook, and shooting pictures for 500+ kids, where I was the assistant/secretary/nanny, and my bff was supposed to be a photographer, but ended up helping us with assistant/secretary type activities.

Today, I finished up filming a short video with some classmates from my business class, the Information Technology one, I believe it was. For this project, I was one of the people in front of the camera. Unfortunate for me, I know…

I…strongly dislike…being in front of the camera. I strongly dislike how I look on the camera, and I strongly dislike how my voice sounds when the video is played back.

However, I noticed that I seem to prefer these types of activities and projects. I enjoyed writing out the script with my team members.

Saturday’s long shoot for the yearbook was loads of fun, chaotic at times, and frustrating every now and then, but I definitely enjoyed it.

If I could, I would do these kinds of projects for a living. This would be my dream job. To have a job where I’m not stuck in a cubicle, hour after hour, day in and day out. To have a job where every day is a mini adventure, a new project, something different to do all the time. Where repetition is discouraged.

I left home around 8 am today to help my friend with the creation of a yearbook. I was the secretary/assistant/nanny. 

We (a total of 9 people involved in this project, I believe) actually ended up ahead of schedule, and had an extra long lunch break. Mmm…pizza. 

Then we all migrated over, lost one of our team (my friend’s mother), and wrapped up the last few classes of students. 

After which, we all headed over to my friend’s house to put it together. 

All in all, there is still so much to do…for them. I’m a business and statistics major…the only non-art major, I think. Therefore, I cannot really help much at this point, aside from basic data entry. 

By the time we left, it was nearly 5 pm. 

I am tired…I really do not like waking up before 10 am on the weekends.