I Feel Sophisticated

Last night I bought a ticket to go see a symphony. Not just any symphony, but the Symphony of the Goddess. It's Legend of Zelda themed, so I suppose it's really not that sophisticated. But hey, I'm going to go see a symphony, so I feel mature. So that's happening not long after my birthday. 

And luckily I'll be working a lot to cover the price of the ticket. Actually, I can work one shift and pay it off, but I also have the Wii U and my new glasses to pay off too... But everyone is getting a lot more hours at work because we're training three new people. Unfortunately, they're all high school students, so that means they're only available nights and weekends, making it very hard to find enough time for them to work when we have people available that can train them. In other words, there are three of us that are experienced enough to train people, so we'll be working out butts off in the next couple weeks. But hey, money!

Other than that, nothing much to report on today. Tomorrow is my last shift before I get a couple days off, so I'm excited. Maybe by Monday I'll have more energy to be creative.

Sexy Nerd Look?

Today I only worked a four hour shift, so I actually had time to go out and do things. And by that, I mean I went out with my parents, because my social life has been reduced to that...

On Monday my new pair of glasses arrived in the mail though. I ordered them through Clearly Contacts, so I was never able to try them on. They're a little bigger than  had originally thought, but I still like them. I look like a true nerd now. And I can see better, so that's always a plus. I guess the real test will be in class on Monday.

And something must be different, because I had two guys talking to me today... which really says something about my social skills if I get excited over that... Heck, I get excited when anyone strikes up a conversation with me... Unless it's some old man at a bus stop, which sadly is what happens more often than not.

Anyway, apparently this first guy is also a creative writing major at my school, but we have never had a single class together. I didn't even know my school, or even my major, was that large. He also works at Chapters, so I'm jealous. I've wanted a job there for ages.

Oh my, I sound like a stalker...

The second guy was probably trying to up-sell a game at EB Games, but hey! Social interaction! You guys should be proud of me. I think a round of applause is in order.

Oh, and completely off topic, but possibly a note of interesting, I'm going to be going back and adding pictures to all of my reviews. I kept meaning to add them when I wrote them, but I always forgot. Since I know some people still judge books by their covers (I do too, I admit...) then seeing the covers may interest people.

Luck in The Shadows Review

I finished this book on Saturday night, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Luck in The Shadows is the first book in the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling, and was written in 1996 (three years younger than I am!) I admit, with books written over fifteen years ago, I get a little tentative. You can see changes in writing styles sometimes, such as in the last book I read (The Gilded Chain). I believe books these days are less likely to sugar coat details such as sex, nor do they spare the reader the heart-rending deaths of characters *coughGeorgeMartincough*. Now this is just based on books I have read, comparing older to newer. But onto the review!

I think what I loved most were the characters. The main character, Alec, is an adorable young man that you can't help but think of as a twelve year old (probably not the aim of the author though...) He borders on being a perfect character because of his quick learning skills, but Flewelling made him perfectly flawed. You see, he's being trained to be a spy, but he's scared of heights, revolted by corpses, hesitant to kill anyone and not all that great with a sword.

The other main character, Seregil, is much closer to being a perfect character. He is basically Alec, but fully trained and without the faults. The only thing that makes this acceptable is that he is thrust into situations that he cannot control, reminding the reader that although he may be damned near perfect, he is not a god. I should add that he's also some of the comic relief.

Now of course the story itself has faults. The biggest one that annoyed me was the beginning. It kind of reminded me of some spy movie, like James Bond (which I'e never seen, so I could be completely wrong). It was tacky, and used pretty much to set up the relationship between Alec and Seregil. *MINOR SPOILERS*The beginning starts out with Alec in a jail cell. This is actually the darkest part of the whole novel, and sets up a false tone for the rest of the book. It's clearly stated that Alec has been tortured many times, and that he is likely to be sold into slavery. Now I've never been imprisoned or tortured, but I'm fairly certain this would scar someone for life, both mentally and emotionally. However, the only time the prison is ever mentioned after the first couple chapters is when Alec is remembering how he escaped, not the experiences during his imprisonment.

Other than that, the plot is enthralling, the character are (mostly) believable, and I would definitely like to read the rest of the series if I can get my hands on it.

And here are some additional cover arts, which I just found to be beautiful.

Money Money Money

I have something to confess. Last night, after seeing the Wii U Legend of Zelda Deluxe Bundle, I couldn't help but spend $300 on it. It looks amazing, and there are so many more games I can play on the Wii U that I can't play on my Wii Mini. But I can play all old Wii games on the Wii U, making the Wii Mini kind of redundant. I'm not sure if I want to sell it or not. I bought it for about $150 (If I remember correctly), so I could probably sell it for about $75, if not more.

In addition, I bought myself a new pair of glasses. They came to about $130, so about half the price that I would normally pay. They're from Clearly Contacts, so I used the First Pair Free coupon, and got a pair of $70 frames for free. They're similar to my current ones, but a little bigger, and of course the prescription will be newer.

All in all, I set my school fund back about $430. At least the shipping was free for both my purchases! I'm also waiting for something I bought in Disneyland, but I'm going to keep that as a surprise. I expect it to arrive in a week or two, so I'll post a picture of it when it arrives.

25 More Days!

I'm still really tired from work. No matter how many times I do it, and no matter what time I got to bed, I'll never get used to waking up at five in the morning for an opening shift. But hey, money! I also think I might have gotten a pay raise for some reason. My last pay cheque I was paid fifty cents more per hour.

On another note, my birthday is coming up in just under a month! I'll be turning twenty, and now that it's coming closer, it kind of feels surreal. All my friends were talking about how they didn't feel like they should be turning twenty, and I'm only just beginning to get that feeling too. I know it's still fairly young, but it still makes me feel old. But to counteract that old feeling, my friend and I are combining our birthdays (I'm on the 13th, she's on the 15th) and going out to laser tag, then dinner. It'll be a lot of fun, maybe I'll even take some pictures (because you know how good I am at that.)

And I think I'll need to put some money into getting my laptop cleaned soon. The down button has been broken for months now, and the backspace button is getting sticky, making it a little hard to type, as my sentences may now be full of spelling errors (thank god for Chome's spell check) It'll also be nice to get the internal computer cleaned and hopefully make it run faster.

Anyway, just a quick update. By Friday I might be more awake and willing to come up with something fun.

Fall 2013

As most people know, school started a couple weeks ago. I'm only taking one class so I can get my associates, and that class happens to fall on a Monday. That means that my first class was cancelled because of Labour Day, and I didn't have my next one until the next week. I'm loving it so far. The one class a week part, that is.

The actually class is a little slow. I'm taking a class on the First Nations of Canada. I took a first nations class in high school, so I figured it would be fairly easy. Then again, the class in high school required a lot of drawing, diagram making and other creative aspects. So far it looks like this class will be a lot of note taking, movie watching and essay writing. So a typical college class... I miss high school.

But on another note, I'm really tired. I have to open at work tomorrow and Wednesday, so I woke up early today (okay, I woke up at 8 and hit the snooze button...) Either way, I'm really tired and my brain probably won't be functioning for the next few days. Maybe I'll come up with something interesting to write by Wednesday.

Happy List Part 2

I did one of these lists a while ago as part of a small writing exercise, and I'm going to make another one. Because if you think about what makes you happy, then you will be happy, right?

-Being told you're doing a good job while by yourself during a busy time at work
-Any sort of cold beverage when you're really thirsty
-That moment when your nose unclogs during a bad cold (especially after a sneeze)
-Getting into a hot shower when you wake up sick
-Walking into an air conditioned building when it's hot outside
-That sudden drop on a roller coaster when you become air born and the only thing keeping you in the seat is a small seat belt
-Playing a new video game for the first time (and not being terrible at it)
-When you walk into a book store and just feel like you belong (or any store that strikes your fancy)
-When that book (or movie/CD) that you've been waiting ages for finally comes out
-Finding something that suits you perfectly and instantly falling in love with it
-Finding out that that thing you fell in love with is reasonably priced.
-Seeing your name published in a book
-That feeling of excitement before a big trip, when you can't sleep despite having to wake up early the next morning
-When you're left home by yourself for more than two days, and realizing you're more responsible than you originally thought.
-When your parents come home after a week of vacation and you don't have to be so responsible any more (and the dog stops howling and whining at two in the morning)
-When you get a day off work, and more than one friend also happens to have that same day off
-Finding someone who shares to same love of an author/book series/movie
-When you favourite author gets and award for a book, and for some reason you feel honoured just because you've read that same book