Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it! ..

The journey of almost an entire year is at an end.  This is the final line of the poem that has been titling my posts since last April.  I can move on to something else!  Maybe “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot.. nah, that poem is very long and, well, frankly I don’t really feel like doing it again.  The post titling in a pattern, that is.  I love “The Waste Land”; good times, but from here on I think I’ll go back to something a little more, well, I dunno.  Something.

For those in the know, I recently acquired a rather large video display device.  I was torn between a couple of rivaling models, specifically the LNT71F series by Samsung or the KDL-XBR4 series by Sony.  I decided finally on the Samsung, 40″ no less, due largely in part to the two hundred dollar price reduction I was able to get the other day.  I do see that, like what some reviewers have noted, the high gloss finish of the unit does lend itself towards glaring but happily my abode doesn’t really have a light setup that would interfere with the picture at all.  All I have to do now is pick up an HDMI cable to connect the cable box to the television.. I might need a new cable box (again) as well: I picked up the HD-DVR unit from my local Time Warner Cable outlet and I asked for the grey one because, well, I think the kinda gaudy golden one looks stupid.  I asked the sales representative if there was any difference other than visually with the units and she assured me that there was not and in fact gave me a set of component cables to run from the box to my new set.  I think the picture is good with these cables but not nearly as nice as the connection from my PS3 to my TV.  So, we’ll see.

I’ve been somewhat of a bad student this week; I’ve missed a good number of classes.  Luckily I don’t think I’m over the limit yet on the ones I was close to, I’m just making it such that if I take off additional days I’ll be doing myself a disservice.  I really need to delegate time more effectively towards study and school work so that I don’t fall behind in my classes.  I feel like I’m struggling a little bit in some of my classes and I think that it’s because, as I noted before, that when I get free time I’m all too willing to give it up for the first opportunity.  I’ll be taking Saturday to myself to work on an essay for my Modernism class; it only has to be three to four pages and I was not entirely correct in believing that it was on material I had not taken time to cover yet: I have a choice between two sources, Mrs. Dalloway and Malenctha.  Now, I never actually finished either work, but I got to the last few pages of Dalloway before I had to move on to new reading so I think I should have ample ability to compose such a short paper in the next day or so.  It’s due on Sunday at five in the evening; a time when I will be at work, so it’s best that I get it done between tonight or tomorrow.

I continue to be one of the two escalate technicians in my department that is still a contractor and hence only receiving contractor pay.  I heard the other day that the office is in a hiring freeze as well.  My manager assures me and the other like person that he is doing his utmost to get us hired on as actual employees but it’s going on half a year at having effectively an at least double workload for the same pay range as those who only take calls.  I am, of course, looking forward to my upcoming raise when it does finally go through.  Maybe then I can afford a better apartment.

See, I have a studio apartment, as many of you know, and it’s got somewhat of a dearth of space.  My parents have visited twice in the past couple of TV toting days and my mother in particular has been pushing me to move up to at least a single bedroom apartment.  As things stand currently I only somewhat squeeze by living alone in a studio.  In fact, due to some poor spending on eating out at work lately that I forgot to account for, this next week is going to be rather tight monetarily.  I’ll make it through, though.  I always do.

The Kings and Nobles of the Land have done it! ..

Well well well.. August, huh? I never promised to be fast ..

I guess I have a bit of everything to attend to here and since it’s Sunday, I’m mostly cogent, and the workload is currently tepid I figure I will finally get around to putting something down for posterity. I really need to get better at this whole blogging thing.. something I am mostly certain that I say about every other post or so. I have never been able to even keep up with a journal; which, as an English major, I should excel at.. maybe. In all honesty, while I am heading towards graduate work in Linguistics, I do, occasionally, fancy myself able to put pen to page in a fashion that does not merely end in disappointment. Of course, if I were to stack up the amount of actual writing I have completed (discounting all the essays I’ve had to do for classes over the years) against those things which will probably never be finished it would be rather simple to see which one outweighs which (psst; it’s the unfinished ones). But! Here I am to write something at least, however brief.

This chapter of my continuous existence can be summed up as the search for the brass snake. Candlestick holder, that is. My folks sent it to me from Europe some years back and I guess during my last move it got shunted into some edifice that I have yet to uncover. I only have one box that’s never been unpacked at my apartment; though I can’t say for certain why it has continued as such. The afore mentioned box is mostly empty, containing an old copy of the BESM rules and those wire templates that Steel Sqwire created amongst a brief menagerie of papers. I’ve been through the box numerous times, along with my bookshelf, the entertainment center, and a few other spots to no avail. Considering that my particular apartment has very few spots in it to begin with I’m starting to get a bit distressed. This leads into my current predicament: clutter.

My studio apartment has a notable dearth of free space within it that you would think that to find a single object would not require a herculean effort. You’d be correct if I hadn’t throughly coated every available surface with sundries of various sorts. My kitchen alone has so little room that my wok has taken up permanent residence on my back left stove burner and my somewhat recently acquired slow cooker, coffee maker, and microwave vie with my toaster and rice cooker for counter space. The rice cooker, after being fed up with the situation, has retired to the top of the refrigerator. The area to the right of my sink, including the bar like region, was coated in old mail and bags of random cards and miscellany. So began “Operation: Usable Kitchen”.

I am happy to report that the operation is well underway, all the dishes are in varying states of cleanliness and the counter beside the sink has been by and large cleared off making a new home for the slow cooker to reside in, unfortunately it is nowhere near an electrical outlet which makes it difficult to use, but it can be moved closer to one when needed so that’s somewhat of a solution. The fridge still needs cleaned out; it currently contains a few objects that require suitable time with the garbage disposal and a healthy amount of air freshening to get back into check. My current ministrations on the tiny roomlet have also produced a decent sum of garbage collected into one overflowing garbage sack and one somewhat full sack. These, of course, require some consolidation and beyond that I need to venture further out into the wilds of the studio, tracking old mail and crumpled receipts, straightening up as I go, until finally I can actually move as freely as my current furniture layout will allow .. which is, admittedly, not a whole lot. This, however, should be rectified somewhat soon. I’m going to get a new TV.

Or at least that’s the plan.. see, the old TV seems to have received some damage to it at some point, most likely during its lengthy incarceration in storage, and has blurring, discoloration, and a terrible geometry issue. I’m going to switch to LCD. As soon as my tax returns arrive. I’m going to get as nice of a set as I can swing with the money. I do have some bills that I need to pay down but I’m making progress on those with plodding gait and, generally, figure them into my monthly budget (presupposing, of course, that what I do monetarily could be considered budgeting). What I’m hoping for is to acquire a decently sized flat panel model and, apartment management allowing, wall mount the unit. The entertainment center currently in place in my abode is somewhat in shambles due to repeated dismantling for moving purposes of a unit that was never designed to be taken apart after it was built. The glass doors sit atop it and the sides are held on by what might actually be magic or the dreams of children. And it’s too small for the television sizes I’m looking at anyway. So out the door it goes when the new TV enters the scene. With that cyclopean structure removed from the geographic center of my studio I should be able to increase that three foot walking space between center and love seat to an easy 5 foot space between love seat and wall with the small console table moving from beside it to against the wall where the love seat currently rests and the bookshelf moving to the wall beside my bed. Sure, my bed and all its horrors will be visible to the general public (if they happen to be inside my apartment), but the area will be so much more open. I dream of the day. A bonus would be the possible ability to watch television from my bed. A dangerous proposition, to be sure. The only thing left to accomplish with this future furniture format would be to find a new home for my dressers.

The dressers are somewhat of a misnomer anymore. While the occasional clothes item ends up somewhere near one or the other (with the other being placed somewhat anachronistically within the walk-in closet in such a way that has mostly removed the ‘walk-in’ portion) they generally are nothing more than repositories for stuff. And considering that the dressers have moved multiple times in the past 10 years or so with their contents more or less intact due to clever use of lawn bags as something to portage the drawers around in, they’re full of many items that I haven’t even given a passing glance towards in years. Not that there is nothing of interest within, but that the items are not of pressing enough nature to warrant going through them on any sort of regular basis. This lead to my discovery last year of a cache of manga that I had forgotten I had. Happy times. I’ve sifted through the dressers a few times now for my snake candlestick holder (which is a cast from a cathedral somewhere in Eastern Europe) to no avail. I’m hoping my folks will find a place for my dressers for the time being; while they’re of little use currently in my minuscule lodging once I upgrade to actually having a bedroom again I plan to start being a bit more organized with my clothing.

Anyway, once these furniture issues are arranged such and so I should end up with my love seat in a somewhat central location, no longer located almost directly behind my computer desk, pointed at the wall where the TV and its varied accessories will be located. My bed will be in the same spot as before, as will my computer desk. The addition of another power strip or two should make it easy to have my end table and lamp over beside the love seat and by the window (which will actually be able to be opened fully for the first time since I moved in). The bookshelf will be against the opposite wall from the TV, beside my bed and nightstand. The way I envision this makes the apartment much more open and livable. We’ll have to wait and see if it can actually pan out to be such. It’s said that clutter causes stress, and with work and school both bearing down hard upon me stress is the last thing I need.

I would be remiss in saying that this particular semester or my current work situation is really all that much different than they have been before except for a couple of notable differences. At work I was “promoted” somewhat to an essentially level two position. To my dismay, though the increased workload began at the end of September prior, I have yet to actually get the pay increase that generally goes with it. I have been assured, however, that certain gears are turning and hopefully this situation will change for the better in the future. That could make my move up to bedroom owner (er, renter) much easier. School is, seemingly, easier this semester: I only have four classes. This sounds great until it’s revealed that two of the classes are three hundred plus level Literature classes (Modernism and Realism), one is sixth semester Japanese, and the last .. well, it’s an introductory Linguistics class that doesn’t check attendance. One out of four isn’t bad. Still, the literature classes seem to require around one novel a week apiece and the Japanese class I really should be spending a good three hours of study on nightly to both practice and keep up with new material. With working now at least forty one and a half hours a week I find this somewhat difficult to say the least.

I have two days off, of course.. but they’re both school days and further more are days that I have standing plans with my parents and friends depending on which of the two days it happens to be. I have recently been moved to first shift on both Saturdays and Sundays on what seems to be a permanent schedule which gives me two more afternoons off a week but in general I have people requesting my time those days as well and, due to having to mobilize relatively early for one such as myself those days, I am generally exhausted each of those evenings. For example, last night I fully intended to get some work done on an essay due on Tuesday. My folks called me before I was even off work and left a voice mail that did not ask if I could come over, but rather simply asked that I tell them when I would be over. Now, I have to admit to being overindulgent when it comes to visiting with people. In general I have a very difficult time in turning down a request to spend time with others. I had started to agree to a Rock Band get together with some people from work that same night until I remembered all the school work I had to do (the essay mentioned above, a Linguistics test on Tuesday, reading for both my Literature classes, and general studying for Japanese) and begged off. So, when my parents called and, without asking, essentially told me that I would be coming over that night I was, at first, a little annoyed. Beyond that I did go and spent a pleasant hour and a half having spaghetti and conversation before I rushed home to dive into my homework. I sat down with my book for my essay and promptly fell asleep on the love seat. That chair is too comfortable for my own good. I did agree to come over again tonight for dinner but I made them aware that I would only be able to stay for a little while tonight as well. On my way back to my studio afterwards my current plan is to gather caffeine for its wonderful properties. That essay will get finished tonight.. at least, that’s what I intend. Sometimes I know I need to be a little more firm in requesting time for myself, but I never do. Kind of like with my job; when I’m sick it’s highly unlikely that I’ll call out. If I’m expected to be somewhere I generally do my best to meet expectations.

There’s only one line left in the Blake poem I have been titling these posts with, I guess I’ll need to try something else afterwards. Hopefully it will require less than half a year to come into fruition.