Intentional Media Consumption

I aspire to be well read, and you know, have a general understanding of the world, society, and all those pop culture references that permeate media like giant inside jokes. I got a Toronto Library card last summer and have never looked back. You can read as many books as you want for FREE and they will send the books you want to read from all over the city to wherever you want to pick them up. Yeah, I'm lame, but I like free stuff a lot.

For the most part, I just read casually while I'm on the subway or waiting somewhere for a while, but in a couple of weeks we'll be going away to the middle of nowhere, so I imagine I will have a lot of time to read while we are there. We'll be a couple of hours out of Thunder Bay so we will not even have internet for essentially a week and we have a super long drive on the way there and back. I'm taking the opportunity today to update my library hold list so I'll be able to pick up books next week before we leave.

I like to watch TV and things while I'm sewing and doing other half-attention activities. There is a lot more to watch during the September to May TV season, and thus in the 2011-2012 season I watched a lot of shows. The trouble is that I start to do it compulsively after a while and just keep watching episodes of things even if I don't particularly like them just because I watched them before. Now that it is summer the process has to change a little because there isn't quite as much being shoved onto our screens by networks.

I haven't been too terribly into anime since high school and yaoi and Beyblade G Revolution, but ever since I finished university and had some more time, I've been trying to get back into it in some way. I watched some of the beginning of Black Butler, Hetalia, and K-ON, and every once in a while I put my Dragonball Z DVDs on because it has always been the perfect thing to work to. I do always watch English dubs though, because my Japanese isn't nearly good enough to understand and not stare at the screen to read the subtitles. Right now, I'm one season into Avatar. I never watched it the first time around and it has been recommended to me countless times. I'm also three DVDs into the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I've been borrowing it from the library, so I can watch it while the internet is being slow. I've been considering doing cosplay. Otherwise, I recently started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, partly to see what all the fuss is about. It is really cute and it's giving me some cute ideas so we can look forward to when I have time to try them out.

In terms of live action, my boyfriend and I are currently watching Breaking Bad, Firefly, and Game of Thrones. I've also been watching Sister Wives sometimes on the internet.

Below is an amalgamation of lists of books that I posted to my old Livejournal a while back. I use it as a guide to what I should read next if I'm not sure. I also have been reading the Hunger Games series, although I'm still waiting for my hold on Mockingjay to come in, so I've been avoiding spoilers.

Being a little productive

I finished a thing. Posted it on Etsy and everything.

It's a weird hybrid of the pattern for the Hylian shield backpack, the one for the Deku shield sachel and some entirely new pattern pieces that I made special for it. Hopefully I can remember which pieces next time I make it.

New computers vs. nuptuals, or I've just made my own long-term commitment

I've been tired lately. This summer is shaping up to be pretty busy; it's a good thing I quit my second job. I don't have the extra time for it anyways.

On Saturday the 30th, we were in Markham for a wedding and on the drive back toward Toronto I asked to go to Tiger Direct so that I could actually finally get a computer. (I've been saying I need a new one for a year now.)  We found one there relatively quickly that fit all my specifications and cost about $100 less than I figured I'd be spending. After a few moments of doubt about warranties and things I left with a new computer.

That evening was the wedding after party and things so I didn't get a chance to open it until the following afternoon. When I did, I was all excited and booted it up to see the "Windows was not shut down properly" screen, which was odd since this was supposed to be a brand new computer. When it reached the log-in screen, I found that the computer was password-protected. They had not told me that this was previously a floor model (especially strange because that would mean that had two laptops of the same model for floor models), and now I could not use it. After spending probably about 45 minutes on the phone with three different people back at the store, they finally gave me the password, but I was pretty upset. They had basically lied to me about giving me a used computer and didn't even give me a discount! I decided I didn't want to give them my nine hundred dollars anymore, especially after the attitude of the last guy I talked to that was mostly "Well I don't know what the salesperson told you or didn't tell you!"

 On Tuesday (they were closed on Monday for the holiday) I ended up getting Logan's dad to pick me up and take me to Markham to return the laptop. After a little bit of an issue where the guy wouldn't return the software that I didn't ask for, we got out of there.

I shopped online a bit for comparable computers over the next couple of days and just ended up buying the same model as the one I returned off of Amazon.ca on Thursday afternoon. Of course I got the free shipping, so it was supposed to come Tuesday or Wednesday, but it actually came on Monday because living in the city is cool. Now I have a new computer and it is fancy and I am using it to type this post. It is an ASUS K53S-DS51, by the way.