We have reached the second month of spring and one of my faves. Totally biased pick, because it is my birthday month! Yes, soon I will be turning the dangerous age of 27 (if I was famous, which I'm not, phew). I can't believe the luck that this monthly spread fell on April for me, it's got a cake and a cat, and what else does one need? Anyway, here's to a month of better things, I hope.
Hey everyone. Doing something new starting this month. I'll be slowly phasing out my media blog on the account of I realized it's not really the way I want to do media analysis and reviews. I'd rather have dedicated pages on my site for really in-depth stuff in the future and I don't really need a blog for the short stuff cuz I can just drop it here and on the media log. As such, there's gonna be the usual rundown of my monthly goals, accomplished and not, and the best stuff I watched/read/played/listened to during the month. Without further ado...
Goals
1. Nanoreno project
Well, it was going very well until my tablet pen decided to die and the Parblo shop decided to make ordering a replacement borderline impossible. I'm still trying to get that damn pen.
2. Job search continued
Worked for 5 days at the end of the farm planting kiwi fruit. Also went to the job fair and gave my CV to three job-search groups. They always have a laugh about the fact that I'm an illustrator in the Lot-et-Garonne region. That's like saying you came to Ohio to pursue your dream of becoming a movie star. Maybe it's possible?
3. Apply for titre de voyage
Actually totally forgot to do this... need to get on that.
4. Portfolio website
Done. Not happy with it but it's done.
5. A-Z blogging prep
Sorta.
6. Prepare for driving test
Put that away for now as I've had some work to do. But I did learn to drive a tractor!
Best Of: March
Movies
Terrible month for movies, I barely watched anything. But I did enjoy something very late into the month and that was One False Move. Bill Paxton is always a pleasure, don't think there's ever been a performance of his I wasn't totally riveted by. But everyone else didn't lag far behind, I was especially taken with Cynda Williams who plays a girl who both permits and commits horrific acts but you can't help but understand, she's dealt a shit hand like no other. It's a crime thriller with a horror-movie opening scene and before you know it it's become an exploration of some really dark shit at the interpersonal, class, and race level between two characters. Billy Bob Thornton's hairstyle is intriguing and evil at the same time.
TV Shows
Another re-watch but damn if it isn't one of the best TV shows to ever exist. You may say... is vulgarity really so funny? First of all, yes. But that's not what this is about. It's another excellent work on the failure of the justice system that starts all the way back in school. I love this show both from Peter's relentless need to find the truth, even when it ends in him in flailing between moderate but sudden fame and alienating nearly everyone he knows and Dylan's jumping from wanting to be better and giving up at every turn, because of himself but also because of how the world treats him. This shit is so serious. I wasn't Dylan-level of burnout in school but I 100% had a sign high above my head placed there by teachers and students alike: anger issues, stupid, a level below everyone else.
Games
Everything comes to your life at the right time. Probably. My brother has been shilling GTA anything at me for a while now and as a kid I liked San Andreas and the PSP games well enough but something always held me back from playing V. We literally had it on our old 360, I even remember trying the North Yankton prologue and just not caring... it seemed so low-brow to 14 year old me, who somehow had such high standards? I'm joking, I thought Assassin's Creed was like deep as fuck and I still love the pre-Origins games but I will absolutely not stay on that hill that it has superior 'substance' to GTA or something. I was a real snob as a pre-teen. Whatever, it was a dumb boy game. Probably good that I only played it now because with a whole lotta more crime-movie trivia under my belt, this was a fucking ride! I love shitty scheming dudes, they are the best. Yeah, this game is still totally stuck on my mind.
Books
Started the Westing Game but have not gotten far. It's not been a great book month for me, I barely read anything. Not even some recent leftie nonfiction. Things are dire. Had a chat with Alice and she gave me some good advice that when you're in a slump, go with a highly rated classic cuz it's probably gonna be good. Gotta agree, and if it's not you can lord it over other people that you read it anyway and everyone's opinions are wrong.
Music
Listened to a lot of indie bullshit from the GTAV radio. However, from albums, I really loved Helmet's Aftertaste and Number One Gun's Promises for the Imperfect. Not similar at all but both pretty excellent albums. Here's two great tracks:
Animation
Finished my season 2 re-watch of Venture Bros. I remember getting super into the characters and story much later, maybe sometime in Season 4 but it's taken me much faster this time. Weird what time does to the brain! I shouldn't be surprised but I didn't know Chris Prynoski had a hand in this too. Makes sense, he makes no mistakes. Should probably list some of my fave episodes of the season: Assassinanny 911, Fallen Arches, Victor. Echo. November., and I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills.
So late. Again! And on many fronts. As I write this I'm already really late to the start of the A-Z blogging event but you bet your ass I'll be playing catch up even if it kills me. Emotionally, of course. I had a hell of a week. Some work finally slid my way, nothing permanent sadly. But work is work. And more importantly... tractor! Trying to keep these little icons on theme and how hilarious is this one? I don't know what a John Deere is though because I'm a fake country girl.
Start!
Got an annoying letter last week saying that the government wants a copy of my birth certificate. That I mailed them near to a year ago. Fantastic. So I did that on Monday. Very surprised to get my own letter back on Tuesday. Turns out my dumb ass as always had a moment of spatial dyslexia along with my regular dyslexia and mixed up the sender and recipient address placements. This is so dumb! I always think, man, I should really just double-check in case and do I ever? Obviously not. Good to know that if I ever want to send something to myself from the post-office a 100 meters from my house that it will likely be next day delivery. Anyway, had to send it again on Tuesday, a perfect 3 euro wasted.
My cat being dumb.
On Wednesday I took the 9 AM train to a nearby town for the job fair. It was mostly full of employment agencies that get you some part-time/seasonal work. I think the job market in my department could very well be fucked. It wasn't the usual assembly on middle-aged folk and immigrants (like me) who are fumbling through the bureaucratic job searching nightmare that is French work options. There were also a bunch of people my age or younger too. Things are fucked.
I also didn't expect there to be that many booths so my dumb ass only printed 3 CVs. I mostly printed them for just in case, like if they wanted to read them over but every booth's representative actually took my CV and kept it. So 90s, I love it. Every job I've ever gotten with a CV before has been online so this was pretty fun, I guess. It will be fun if anyone calls me back.
I had so long before the train that I had a whole two hours to just wander. Went to see one of my fave buildings first. It's very retro-futuristic and I love buildings like it. Bring this goofy architecture back!
She's perfect.
I also went by the cultural exchange bell this town shares with a Chinese town. I've not heard it actually ring which is a shame, because apparently it's supposed to do that when the horoscope signs change. The overall translation of all the info boards into English was good with some minor mistakes, repetitions, and one hilarious instance of direct translation.
Is your zodiac sign The Beef?
A nice way to live.
I'm the wild orchid. You?
Some good news on that front actually. Half-good anyway. We are going back to work for the kiwi farmer-friend for a few days. When I say I work on a kiwi farm I mean that very literally, I'm not talking about the harassment website. Anyway, he's looking to plant some new saplings/trees as his last batch died due to some calcium-rich water. We got there just before 8 AM, work consisted of this: dig up some shallow holes about 50cm in diameter, plant the kiwi plant, move on. Wanna know how many there were to plant? 1000 female and 100 male trees. I didn't know that apparently it's got to do with the type of flowers the kiwi tree has. Woke trees with their pronouns, ugh! Am joking.
Struggling to get that Lily Chou-Chou shot on a budget.
It rained and it was gross.
There was a highlight to my day though. The mother of all highlights! We were allowed to drive a tractor up and down the rows, on the account of we're not gonna carry all those plants by hand. Anyway, I was kinda stressed to try at first but I did drive it just up and down the row a few times and then did some turns as well...guys, tractors are fun. I kinda get what all the hillbillies are on about now.
Get in loser, we're going farming.
They call me a killer, a monster, a terrorist... I'm all of these things.
View from hill not too far out of town.
I feel powerful!!
Anyway, on Friday my brother almost took out an entire barn wall backing the tractor out of a real narrow spot. He moved the bottom brick's beneath the wooden wall... significantly. We thought we were truly fucked and we still couldn't get the tractor out. Anyway, the boss sent a farmhand who said it wasn't a big deal and that we'd just help fix it later. Phew... Anyway, here's a POV video: we are slowly going to run my brother over with a tractor for his crimes.
But yeah my brother will never live this down and anytime he brings anything up it will be followed by 'and then you wrecked the barn wall, right?'. He was pretty traumatized by the events sadly and refused to drive the tractor all day. Here's just me tractoring on his behalf.
On Saturday it was just me and my brother as my mum had to take my sister to some open door events at local high schools. She's starting high school next year likely, unless they will hold her a year back. I do have some fond memories of that time for myself but I'd hate to go back so I don't totally envy her.
Sure was sore by Sunday but it still felt better than any service job I've ever done. Maybe a little better than teaching. Mostly on the account of the fact that the boss just let us work in the field and wasn't hovering.
And I live by that.
But yeah, digging all day by hand with a shovel and constantly squatting down to plant shit is exhausting. No surprise that farm work is hard work but does make me think. Every kiwi I never finished... yeah, if you've ever went and bought kiwis and you let them rot away... think about me toiling the fields, man. I won't be mad, just disappointed. Finish your kiwis!
End of week 13!
This Week I'm Excited For...
Excited to get paid, baby. We're scheduled to work next week too so it will be pretty neat to make a little cash. Most of it will go to house renovations. We got holes in the roof, man. And the windows are shit, letting all the warmth out in the winter and letting all the heat in in the summer. But I might put about 100 away for the Huion I'm trying to buy.
Song Of The Week...
I will stop talking about GTAV one day, I swear. But there's no denying that this made-for-the-game song has been stuck in my head. I try not to include songs from my 365 playlist on the SOTW playlist but when a song is a song of the week, it's a song of the week, man!
