Thrihyrne

In my LJ I received this slightly edited comment about work in general:

I think that it is not necessary to be so emotional about employment. It is a job, not a profession, vocation or long-term career. Your obligation is to give them an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. It is not a personal relationship, and there should be no occasion for either euphoria or heartbreak.

I'm taking this on as more in my new neural pathways, and I'm determined to see this as not only liberating, but taking so many unnecessary emotions out of it. I work for them, they pay me. End of equation. I even get to work by myself if I want, every day that I work and don't have a meeting. And now, to internalize that.

Two other unrelated items:
✍ A.Word.A.Day, with Anu Garg

A guinea pig is not a pig, nor is it from Guinea. It's a rodent from South America. Sweetbread is neither sweet nor bread. It's the pancreas or thymus of an animal used for food. The movie director Norman Jewison is neither a Norman nor a Jew. He's a Canadian Christian. Nobody said names for people or things have to make sense.

This week we'll feature five terms that do not mean what you might think they mean.

I'm excited!

☯ evannichols and I watched "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" over the weekend. Somehow it had escaped me that this was a documentary. LOL. I love documentaries, and mostly was getting this because it had been recommended and it had a great title. I quite enjoyed it. I have a new appreciation for sushi and finding passion and pursuing excellence in one's life calling.

Christmas Day I treated myself to an actual movie in a theater! Haven't done that since the 10 year anniversary showing of The Two Towers. I saw a film called Shame. I went because it had a decent review and for the novelty of seeing an NC-17 film on the big screen. It wasn't the most uplifting film, but I think I'm glad I went. This evening I've just watched another in the selection of New Zealand films I'd been getting of late due to my increased interest in the country, this one a coming of age story, Rain. My favorite character was the young boy, Jim, an adorable fiery haired youth who looked familiar. In looking him up on Wikipedia, I now see why— he was in The World's Fastest Indian which I saw a week or so ago! Rain took a turn I didn't expect at the end, and it was an interesting film. I really am fond of the NZ accent, I must say. ;)

I've also gotten turned on to the BBC Sherlock series after snottygrrl and evannichols told me about it xmas eve. It's marvelous! The writing is superb, as is the acting. It's just so unfortunate that there are only three episodes, but I was happy to see that there will be more in January.

I finished the cardigan last night! But… in putting it on and modeling it, I realized that the sleeves were way too wide. It's an aesthetic thing; most people wouldn't notice (and Julia didn't really until I pointed it out), but the rest of the garment is fairly fitted and I will notice. One thing I've learned in almost 20 years of knitting is that I can fudge a lot and still enjoy wearing something I've made. But if it's annoying enough, then I won't wear it, or I'll begrudge it every time I do. So I've decided to take the sleeves back out and undo them back to a few inches up the forearm and redo them. I know I'll be happier in the long run, and given the beautiful and neutral colors of it, I should be able to wear the hell out of it for decades. I don't see Aran sweaters going out of style anytime soon. ;) I want to be happy when wearing it, so taking the time to undo them and redo them is worth it. Kind of like when I discovered I'd knitted the thistle pattern upside-down on the first sleeve of that complicated sweater I also finished this year.

edit: AUGH!!! In undoing the sleeves I've managed to cut the front on one side and will now have to get quite creative to repair it. Insert multiple expletives here. :(

I also stumbled across a movie called Oranges and Sunshine. I'm not even sure how I did find it, but I watched it recently and found it incredibly powerful, especially given the content and that it's about real events that happened from the 1940's to early 1970's. In a nutshell, the British and Australian governments conspired and deported something like 130,000 children from Great Britain to Australia, lying to parents and children alike. The respective governments didn't apologize until 2009, which is simply unfathomable. Anyway, excellent film, with Emma Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, among others.

So I was watching a movie I consider to be a 'comfort' movie, and thought I'd list the top five movies I consider to be comforting movies that I go to again and again for my viewing pleasure and because I just can't seem to watch them enough times. If anyone else would care to meme this, feel free.

1) Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers
2) The Secret of Roan Inish
3) Wargames
4) Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
5) But I'm A Cheerleader

There are some similarities, and some differences. I happened to be watching #5 tonight, which, featuring RuPaul, just fills me with glee and subversive happiness. Anybody else have comfort films?

I watched another Film Movement movie Friday night, a truly quirky Australian film that somehow I'd missed since it's coming out in 2003 (I do try to keep up somewhat with Aussie films), He Died With a Felafel in his Hand. I really enjoyed it, especially since the first part of it takes place in Brisbane in an old Queenslander, which just reminded me of how much I need to go back and visit! I don't think any review of it I can cobble together would do it justice; the lead character keeps insisting he's a thwarted writer and keeps moving and living with a slew of seemingly random people (I wasn't sure if some were former school or uni friends or what) with a truly eclectic cast of characters. He goes from Brisbane to Melbourne to Sydney, and I was proud of myself to note that the intro scenes for each location start out the same way, but different; variations on a theme. Recommended. And any movie that starts out with "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers (see icon!) is excellent in my book.

I spent most of today at church which is a rarity for me these days. I don't sing regularly in choir anymore since my hours mean that I can't attend any rehearsals, and frankly, I enjoy having my Sundays as down time. Still, I'd been asked to sing a Lenten Evensong, and so I did, but I went in in the morning for a soprano sectional and then regular rehearsal and the service. Between that service and the afternoon rehearsal I had Grand Intentions of getting my oil changed, but the place only had 2 people working, one of whom was the front desk person. So I gave up. I went to TJ Maxx instead, and then rocked out in my car to Xavier the iPod and my knitting. The Evensong went pretty well.

I've had good conversations with some friends this weekend, though one person is going through a particularly excruciating time emotionally and psychologically, and I feel wounded for him. I'm about to write the last complete post for my first ever foray into Wraeththu fanfic which, being me, has become a novella. This last part is going to be rough emotionally, as are the first few from the other character's POV, and I continue to struggle with Ashmael's reasonings/outlook on things, so I may post in raythoo about it to see if I can get insights from other folks. I do still struggle in that I can't talk with most of you lovelies about it because my flist is primarily HP and Tolkien fan-based. Nothing wrong with that, but I guess I do feel a little isolated. Oh well. It's all callumjames' fault for telling me about the series last summer and then buying the initial trilogy as a house-warming gift. I'm so glad that sexyscholar is starting to read Wraeththu so I can squee with her about stuff.

Speaking of Callum, a special congratulatory shout out to you and wolfiekins for your wins at bestmates! I'm a bit sad that I didn't make it into the winner's circle this year, but that's how these things go.

Due to so much overtime that I've worked, as a way of saying thanks, my supervisor has given me (and my coworkers) movie tickets which don't expire. I doubt that December Boys will ever come here, and I'm just not up on what else is out there, so I went over to Apple's trailers site— I'm an unrepentant Mac User. ::looks lovingly at months-new Mac mini, hereby named Bianca:: Before that, even, Friday afternoon I looked to see what actually was playing here, and both Elizabeth and Into the Wild caught my eye. I've decided that going to see wide expanses of Alaskan landscapes is going to be the one I see on the big screen today. In looking at the trailers, though, I also noticed Control, about the lead singer of Joy Division, which looks fabulous; and probably will never come here. The other one which caught my heart and already pulled — hard — on my heartstrings, is Grace is Gone with John Cusak. John Cusak's name was more than enough to get me to click on it, but seeing him as a father (which is totally plausible; he's only four years older than I am), and the circumstances... I'm so there. And in a very melancholy way, it made me think a bit of my own former situation. Still, it looks like a definite winner, coming out in early December.

In music news, my High Sister of Music Holiness, sexyscholar, loves to make mixes, and she's made a special Ron/Draco mix that she shared with stuckinsea and myself and now I can't stop listening to it. I find the cross-pollination, as it were, of music combinations and the thought processes behind it from my friends absolutely fascinating. I'll admit it: I love being a recipient of CD mixes, because inevitably I'm exposed to artists and songs I'd never otherwise know about. To beat this metaphor into the ground, it is indeed creative and all kinds of inspired stories influenced by their musical gifted offerings have blossomed from my purple-ink pens. As I wrote to sexyscholar in an email last night, I've now had multiple exposures to groups like Garbage and Muse and Bjork and Interpol from different mixes from different friends, and the kaleidoscoping creativity behind all of this is really enough to make me dizzy at times.

You all awe me, truly.

Got to unplug here for a bit and go write, and then escape into the world of a guy who I could have gone to college with. And I very unwittingly left out eldritchhobbit in my previous post of people who have sent gorgeous correspondence through the post. I also have a dedicated space for music mixes from her. You rock, m'dear!!