Saturday, May and June; Books Past and Authors Future

[ase]

Have not managed to do that chem studying. Sprawled out with the textbook, started trying to remember why enthalpies were so important, and was out for two hours before I knew it.

Am slightly annoyed with myself for this. Am tempted to take it out by enumerating the people who have annoyed me in the last two days, but that's incredibly childish, and besides, the rest of my life's going too well. This evening brought a fantastic thunderstorm that tempted me to dance in the rain like I was twelve again, I had delicious french toast for dinner, miriel is back from her Japan trip, and I've still got a day before the Class That Will Move Fast (at eight in the morning!) starts.

Also, am looking back at May as June comes roaring up. Classes ended, I got my grades (which I can only describe as shameful), I had a good time with a lot of my friends, I didn't read all the books I wanted to, and missed the lunar eclipse. It was better than, say, February, which had to be a signifcant low in my life so far, and I didn't ruin everyone's Mother's Day by posting a detailed explanation of the current state of my current feelings toward my mom. It rained a lot, and was cloudy and cool when the skies weren't drizzling the mid-atlantic with much needed precipitation.

I didn't get a job. Am currently having resume angst. I really want to get my aunt D. to look at the rough draft I have so far before I try to hammer out and submit my current resume. Unfortunately, she flaked on the friday date we'd agreed on, so I may be hammering on friends' doors and manipulating the Career Center people into telling me what to do, or where to look for what to do. (I hate asking for help. It's one of the reasons I didn't do well this semester.) I can get a job: if the vast majority of people I know can find employment, it stands to reason I ought to be able to find something.

It looks like June is going to give me plenty of opportunities to improve or screw up everything I did in May. If I do well in chem, I can pull up my GPA. I've still got a little savings before I've drained my savings account to the muddy bottom, so I don't have to take a job flipping burgers 40 hours a week right now. Hopefully, Chem won't suck up my entire life, so I'll have time to read some of the books I didn't during the school year. On the other hand, there's still the chance to screw up Father's Day bigtime. That would be doubly dismaying, since dad's February birthday totally slipped my mind.

And hopefully, we'll see the sun once in a while.

Books read this month:

Brightness Falls From the Air, James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice Sheldon]. I want to say I started it in April, but it's been long enough I'm not sure. Interesting premise, but something about Tiptree's characterization always irritates me, which made the story drag.
A Grave Talent, Laurie R. King. A little light rereading during exam week.
Vacuum Flowers, Michael Swanwick. Nifty but overwheling. Of course, my opinion's probably been influenced by the astonishingly middle-of-the-road '80s cover. Not as incredibly awful as the Warrior's Apprentice Battle Nightie cover, but bad in a similar, less dynamic style.
The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett. A fluffly reread on one of the few sunny afternoons.
The Memory of Whiteness, Kim Stanley Robinson. And I thought Icehenge was irritatingly manipulative in the name of Making A Point. The Memory of Whiteness annoyed me even more because I couldn't figure out what the Point was.
Also skimmed significant portions of several B5 novels- To Dream in the City of Sorrows and most of the Psi Corp trilogy- during an IM conversation with herewiss13.

This month I am so reading better books, or I'm going to go into withdrawl. I'm backlogged on multiple authors- Diane Duane (blog feed available for LJ at outofambit), Kim Stanley Robinson, Steven Brust, and Garth Nix, to name a few- so if I can get myself to a library, I should be set for weeks.

Comments

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

Not as incredibly awful as the Warrior's Apprentice Battle Nightie cover, but bad in a similar, less dynamic style.

Hey, I grew up with that cover! That cover has many fond memories for me...even though it took a while to realize that Miles wasn't a fascist. ;-)

[ase.livejournal.com]

Now that I've read W'sA I can look on that cover with fondness and humor, but do you know how many times I decided not to check it out of the library before Lois was reccommended to me? Let's just say it was more than once. *S*

On the other hand, I'm not sure how much better the current cover is (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/067172066X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg).

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

I am always available for resume reading. At the very least, I can tell you what not to put in your resume.

[ase.livejournal.com]

*G* Thanks. I might be asking you to look at mine later this week, then.

[cathydalek.livejournal.com]

Is Vacuum Flowers the one with the woman in a see-through bikini on the cover? I remember being annoyed about that because I was too embarrassed by the cover to read it on the subway to and from work.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who had a "meh" reaction to Brightness Falls from the Air.

I'd be happy to look at your resume this Friday at the Ginters. I may not be able to make it look great, but I can at least review it for stuff I've removed from my resume over the years because various HR professionals and others told me "no, you shouldn't do that". Also, don't be afraid to have more than one version of your resume. Generally at your age/stage of your work life, you want to keep a resume to one page. Therefore, you may sometimes need to tailor what you have on the page to the type of job you're applying for.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I don't think my copy of VF has the see-though bikini: my cover's got a blond, short haired woman with a rifle wearing a fishbowl spacesuit helmet, scanty top, open yellowish vest and shorts posed against a distant nighttime cityscape. I've seen more embarrassing covers (the DAW '70's cover for Tanith Lee's The Birthgrave (http://pc1.klmsz.sulinet.hu/gabo/daw/DAW24/DW463_X.JPG) comes immediately to mind), but my VF cover is just ugly.

I'm stressing about my resume because I have no idea how to fill it up to a page! *S* I suspect 15 pt font and digging out some academic awards may be in order. Also, I probably need to print out the extremely rough draft and throw myself on the mercy of the campus career center. After I've done that, I'd really appreciate it if you did look at my resume, thanks.