in my life...

no, I'm not going to put the Beatles' song on my blog. I *could*, but that's not the point of my post.
I'm just going to give you the most recent updates in my life. This morning I was freaked out once more, as the bus was 30 minutes late (again!!! I actually said something to the driver, I don't think I was rude, but he just said something lame like "it's impossible to be on time". I'm just happy for him that he doesn't live in Japan. The buses and trains are ALWAYS on time in Japan.)
But my driving lesson went great. I validated my step 2 AND worked on parking some more (that's going to need a lot more work, I find it rather difficult, thankfully that's one of the rare things I can actually practice at home without risking problems with the police.)
It's official: I'll do my driving exam in August!! I don't know exactly what date yet, the school won't even know until the end of July (they don't really get to decide of that, I think it's the city or something).
Apart from that, I'm moving all my things home for the summer tomorrow, so I have some packing to do, and then I'll go swimming. I would go now, but the pool is probably so full that it'd be no fun anyway.
I can also play the guitar while I'm waiting... Waiting and wishing I could be swimming right away :p

Better together...

For the lyrics and chords, click on the title/link... I've been listening to that song 24/7 recently lol ( but not really playing it yet. I know I said so, but it's not true; I havn't had time. I mostly linked it so I wouldn't forget it so I could print it (didn't have a printer on hand at the time)...

The Terminal

I just watched that movie last night, for the first time, and I enjoyed it very much. Honestly, I was expecting a rather boring movie: waiting in an airport, how exciting can that be?
Actually the characters are endearing, you're interested from the start by the relationships he develops.
In a world where everyone is perpetually moving, and in a hurry, or temporarily waiting, he's just there, waiting, delayed for a very long time (months? years? I'm not quite sure). We don't know why he wants to go to New York, not until the end, anyway. When he finally gets to the end of his quest, fulfilling it, there's a feeling of satisfaction, accompanied by a tinge of sadness and bewilderment: what now?
And the people he's met along the way, and helped...
His relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie is interesting, although sad. She's even more lost than he is, always waiting and wishing for a man who will never truely be hers.
His friendship with the waitor in love with a woman he sees every day to ask for the green stamp, with the mopping man ("wet floor"!) with the men he helps restore the airport, but also the "oh-too-true" scene where, in his first night there, he practically needs to destroy the seats to be able to sleep at all (I experienced somthing similar a couple years ago when one of our flights was delayed, or perhaps we just had a longer wait then usual, I can't remember... all I know is that I couldn't sleep!).
And the way he helped the man save his goat (father)...

Listening to Bryan Adams...

My sister is really into his music right now, I guess it's wearing off on me :D
It's nice, here are a couple of my favorite songs by him:

it's selling magazines, for crying out loud!!

Seriously. Who CARES if you're good at interrupting people in a debate? Who CARES if you're good at talking to a group. What you need is to be able to go up to people, and talk to them one-on-one, listen to their needs, counsel them, and not get discouraged if they tell you to get lost, but keep on doing it!!!

I'm good at that. I'm a christian for crying out loud. I spend my summers inviting people to gospel concerts and telling them about Jesus. Of course some people reject me. Of course I have to walk up to them. And keep on going.

Who are they to judge me for a performance at talking to a group? I'm not going to sell any magazines by standing on a box in front of a crowd and talking to them!!! I'd be AWFUL at that.

warning: extremely cynical post

My feet hurt. The map the OFUP provided to get to the location of the interview was extremely simple, and I was pretty happy about that. It was right next to the La Potrie metro station, according to the map. I got called this morning to confirm the interview, and I asked for confirmation that it was really at that stop. All seems good, and my high-heel shoes seem quite adapted to the situation.

Well, I was WRONG. The "metro" displayed on the map is actually the name of a store, located 15 minutes ON FOOT from the station. I finally found it, but now my feet are still killing me. They should have told me to take bus 17 from the centre of town, it's direct and so much easier.

Then the interview itself... Lasted 4 hours. There were 12 people who came, and only 3 were taken. For about an hour, he talked about the job itself (as if we didn't do the research ourselves before application!!). Then there was a break, and we did some "games".
The first game was we had to pretend we won the lottery with 2 friends, and we aren't allowed to split the chèque. So we need to propose a project that everyone needs to agree on and be the most convincing possible.
My project was actually the one that got the majority of votes. I wanted to open a japanese inn in France, because I'm sure people would enjoy that, as more and more people love Japan and japanese culture, but don't necessarily have the money to go all the way to Japan.
The second "game" was actually a debate for or against legal prostitution houses. And we couldn't choose which side of the debate to be on. Guess which side I had to debate for? Ironic, isn't it? I think that's one of the subjects on which I'm the most passionnate.
But I did find a good argument. If prostitution is going to be legal, might as well ensure the safety of the women, because if they're doing it off the street, it might be days before somebody finds their body chopped to pieces in a garbage can.
All the girls (10 out of 12 candidates) were sure I'd be taken because I did good on both, but apparantly they said I didn't talk enough. At least not SOON enough in the debate. But a debate is a debate, and they started it talking on a completely different angle. I couldn't just jump in and say something that had NOTHING to do with the previous argument!!
Ugh I'm soooooooooo annoyed.

And now I have backaches because I had to walk 30 minutes on heels with a heavy backpack containing a computer along with other objects.

And it lasted 4 hours. I wasted my afternoon. And I missed my train. By a few minutes (like 5 minutes). So now I have to wait for 8:00 to take the train.

This was NOT my day.

Subway sells breath-mints now!!

Just on time for the day I actually need them :D
Perfect for my job interview, and they're in a cute little can, and are VERY refreshing. There are quite a few, too, and it's affordable. I'm very happy :)

I'll eat my sandwich now.

I ate at Subway at least 3 times a week all year, it's my favorite place to hang out, they offer free wi-fi (it's the only hotspot in my city, apart from my college, but they restrict access to adium so I like going to Subway better).

It's pretty expensive, but they have a good offer: the sandwich of the day. Only 2,5 euros, which is respectable especially since it's very filling and it's less expensive than buying a sandwich AND going to an internet-café. There's a different sandwich every day, and since I eat here very often, it doesn't bother me. The only one I don't care for is Friday's, tuna fish. Not very good. So on Friday I pay up if I eat at Subway :p

I hate driving in the center of town!!

Especially during the braderie...
I had the hardest time even getting to the driving school, my teacher had to come pick me up. The busses couldn't circulate, thankfully I need to take the metro to go to the job interview, and not the bus!!
Which meant that I was so stressed out that I drove terribly. My teacher quickly realized that and so we went to a parking lot and practiced parking for an hour, I think I'm getting it down :D
It's impossible to drive during the braderie, so on Friday I'll validate step 2.

Bye Bill Gates...

A friend e-mailed this to me, the credits are on the picture, so I figured I'd post it haha.

First job interview

I have a job interview (my first "real" one, at that! Before I only had to talk to parents and meet their kids to give a couple classes- which isn't quite the same thing- not saying it's necessarily easy, just different!).

If I get the job, I'll be selling subscriptions to magazines in high-schools and colleges next year :)

I got the confirmation SMS, telling me my particular RDV is at 14h, (I didn't know the exact time until now, it could have been anytime in the afternoon).

I think I've figured out what to wear. I need something confortable to drive in (as I have a driving lesson before the interview), something somewhat classy but also laid-back enough to suit the sort of job I'm applying for. So I think my black and white dress with a nice sweater should do the trick, along with a nice hairdo and some light makeup. I have the perfect shoes for the dress, too (which means I'll have to bring tennis shoes in my backpack for driving).

Tomorrow I'll probably validate step 2 of my driving. I didn't make it today (I guess I was too stressed out by driving in the center of town for the first time.) But now I know what mistakes I made and I'm bound to do much better tomorrow.


I'm hesitating to sign up for swimming lessons next year. I took a year of lessons in high-school, and I made a lot of progress, and now I'm a fairly good swimmer although competition is DEFINATELY out of my league, and probably will always be. But lessons are more expensive than just a monthly pass, and only 1h per week. Also, it's kind of hard to sign up NOW, the deadline is Friday. If I do it, what will I do if I have classes in college at that time next year? Sometimes classes run very late. If I get a monthly pass, it'll be MUCH more flexible, and it's not like too many people go swimming in winter, so I shouldn't get as many bruises as I did today. Also, I could swim maybe 4 hours a week instead of just one. And enjoy 30 minutes in the jacuzzi per week as well :)

Anyway, I'll tell you if I get the job :) And also if I validate step 2 :)

finished reading Surface Tension

When I had posted about it, I was only about halfway through, and the end really surprised me. My intuition on each and every character was completely off!!!
At the end the suspense was nearly unbearable because you know there's a deep dark secret to be revealed, you also know that it's probably worse than you've imagined, but you just can't guess it. Or maybe I couldn't, my mind isn't twisted enough :p
In a sense it's a lot like the other book I read recently, Beautiful Lies, which probably explains why there was a special offer if I bought both at the same time. At first I thought it would be a book about cults, and although it IS an underlying theme, it's not the most important one. A bit like in Murakami's Kyoko, the friend she wants to help is gay, dying of AIDS and doesn't remember her, but the main theme of the book isn't homosexuality, or AIDS, but rather love and salsa.

So the questions this book raises are:
under what circumstances, and to whom, must the truth, as unbearable to hear as it may be, be told?
the question of child custody
secrets, especially of women who are beaten by their husbands
the truth and how it can be twisted
who to trust?

and many more, but sort of hard to formulate without revealing the entire plot.



books

More look-alikes...

Also, my sister looks like Hilary Clinton, and I look like Jamie Spears. My mom also looks like Kirstin Kreuk AND- Alizée!!! Was right on that one :)

BTW you need to use Firefox on that site, there's no Safari support.

sooo cute!!

Prefiro morrer em p�do q viver de joelhos!!!

I was pressing the random blog button, and I don't understand a word on this blog, but I'm posting the picture anyway because it's soooo CUTE!!!!

blogger vs. other blog services

I really like Blogger, it's one of the best I've used, but I'm really frustrated I can't make any categories, which would be necessary given the amount of subjects I talk about, for example I could have a category for each of my short stories (one for now), for thoughts/light philospohy, for book reviews, for mac stuff, etc... for my japanese and my driving, as well, and even some poetry, although I havn't put any up yet. Also for the posts about music...
But that just isn't possible. So I've started tagging my posts, I hope this helps.

blog

my poor battery... :(

To get this info, I use a cool little app called Coconut Battery, it's very nice because you can keep a log of your battery usage and see how you use it gradually.
My mac is 10 months old and my battery only had 96% of it's original capacity left (I guess that's not SO bad). But I definately ran it down this time :p.

I still can use my mac for about 4 to 5 hours straight, depending on what I'm doing with it, so I guess there's no reason to complain.

mac

Surface Tension

I'm reading this book right now, about a woman, who, in order to save her marriage which is falling apart ever since her husband's niece, Jenny, came to visit, decides to find Jenny, who ran away and got involved in a cult, trying to solve the mystery of her father's death, presumably by the guru of the cult.
I havn't reached the end, so that pretty much sums up what I know without going in to too many details.

Books

I look like Kristin Kreuk!

Click the link to see my sources, it's a face recognition site that compares my facial features to celebrities!!!!
But I look even more like Carrie Underwood (never heard of her, but she sure does look a little like me except she's blonde).
Warning: it can quickly become addictive!!!
Although I tried a second one and apparantly I look like Halle Berry. Doesn't seem credible. And c'mon, I don't look AT ALL like Paris Hilton. OK I guess it's more a toy than anything else lol...

I just thought it was funny that I'm supposed to look like Kristin Kreuk, her character always gets on my nerves in Smallville.
This is dumb. I should get some sleep now.

This is just my own observation, but I really think I look like Alizée. Not a fan of her music, although there's worse, but I think I really look a lot like her. Especially when I have short hair. Maybe less now than a few years ago, I don't know.

An interesting article (this is a link)

On the blog of a friend of a friend. Mostly a long quote from Raymond C. Ortlund, but I had never read that before and I found it very interesting. It's about Adam and Eve, and temptation, and the way it works.

christian

online books

Today I was discussing this topic with a friend, saying how annoying/dissappointing it is when a free book (because old enough or because the author intended it so) is offered online, but actually isn't a text file, but just image files from a scan of the actual book: impossible to search the text, which is dumb because that's what Spotlight is for, very long to load in a time and age where everything needs to be immediate, impossible to copy/paste sections of text (for quoting in an article or e-mail).

books
thoughts

a mac bug!!

Tell me, did I catch your attention?

My mom got a bug yesterday. It crawled into her screen somehow, underneath. But it's gone now so I can't take any pictures. :(
Must have crawled in through a small hole in the side, don't know exactly what they're for, I guess to mount the machine.

mac