Agent Gates and the Secret Adventures of Devonton Abbey: A Parody of Downton Abbey | 2/5 stars
[Amazon | Worldcat | GoodReads | Comixology]
tl;dr summary: A satiric romp through the underbelly of Dovonton Abbey, where the next heir is a dog, the under butler is working with a secret organization, and the Dowager Countess is the head of a secret intelligence agency, all while love, the philosopher’s stone, and intrigue abound.
Review: Just. No.
Yes, I get it. It’s a parody of a blockbuster TV show that everyone and their tithed second cousins have either watched or at least heard of. Even TheHusband, who has tends to yawn when other similar shows are on, watches DA for the drama and the occasional backstabbing.
AGENT GATES’s purpose, I suppose, is taking the best elements of Downton Abbey, a drawing room mystery, throws in a bit of James Bond action, and pulls the downstairs staff in as secret agents working for a royal secret intelligence unit.
But it fails. It fails on a lot of levels. The ability to capture the characters quirks from the TV show is in fits and starts. The art seems like it was rushed, some characters seem to to have more details attributed to them, others are given a few strokes of the pen to give their likeness. The dialogue is beyond over the top and doesn’t even attempt to catch the character’s personalities and attributes.
It felt like someone watched a few episodes of the first season, saw an opportunity to make a few bucks and had some spare time, and came up with this dribble.
There is a subtle art to parody and satire, and this graphic novel is miserable with attempt. Library loan? Sure. But to buy? Only if it is in the clearance bin.
Month: March 2014
the symbol of the thing in the thing itself
Dear Internet,
I want to take Chingy’s Holidae In and gender reverse the roles, something along the lines of Law Revue Girls’ Defined Lines. As I can neither rap and laughably have moves that no way indicate my decade of dance lessons as a child, someone else should get on that toot suite.
««««»»»»
TheHusband asked me how I was doing with the social media sabbatical, I found myself answering honestly — I kind of have not missed it. Oh sure, there have been times when I want to just brain dump and Twitter is a natural fit for that activity or there are times when I find this really awesome link and I can’t really share it excent on my weekly roundup, which doesn’t quite have the same satisfaction.
Before I took the sabbatical, I was often finding myself posting a link or a quote from somewhere and spending more than say 2 or 3 tweets giving my opinion on the matter. Which is, frankly, kind of useless giving the context of how Twitter works. Someone coming in on the middle of me bestowing random commentary would be confused. I was churning how to handle this since I recognize this is not Twitter’s intent and that I often get cross when others do the same trick. I came up with linking, asides of things I want to share but do not want to get buried in the weekly round-up.
««««»»»»
I’ve started Clarice Lispector’s Near to the Wild Heart and it is beyond exquisite. I injected half the book in one sitting last night and had stop because I was getting woozy on a Lispector overdose. She adroitly does things to language and words, even in translation from Portuguese to English that is just breathtaking. I am having trouble reconciling that it was published in 1943 as it reads so contemporary. Reading Lispector is breathing flames under the muse for me and I’m reconsidering how to write fiction.
I’m terrible at fiction. I always feel so damned constricted when trying to form the rules of the game, my writing comes out halting and unsure. I’ve got brilliant ideas for stories, I see the stories in my head as they are played out but getting them onto paper? No. The ease of my language sounds immature and protracted. Sure, you could argue if I practice more it would mature and grow and there is some truth into that. But I think because I’ve been reading tightly bound prose for so long, I’m near drunk on Lispector’s stream of consciousness and realising that yes, this is how you do it. This is how you give birth to a story and how it will end.
Feral. Unstructured and messy, like life.
xoxo,
Lisa
linking: Defined Lines: Wanna landing strip? You’d better get ripped
Auckland’s @LawReviewGirls have put together one of the best variations of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines to date. Well, ever. The lyrics are top notch (and available in the ABOUT tab.)
P.S. Don’t read the comments.
quotidian victories
Dear Internet,
Sometimes you just need to celebrate life’s little victories, even when they feel so tiny against the bleakness of the world.
For today, this entry has theme song, which is Elbow’s One Day Like This. You should see a Spotify embed below to play while you read or you can click here to listen directly within Spotify.
[iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:7oTYgZAZhTlZnZEH45mfpo” width=”300″ height=”80″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true”]
- I have a job interview this week. I am beyond chuffed as chips because I’ve applied for approximately two jobs and sent my resume to a beloved vendor, who seemingly was very, very interested in me. So out of three cautious approaches, I’ve got a definite bite, a very flirtatious interest, and who knows yet on the third. I told TheHusband that for next six months, I’m going to be ultra picky about the jobs I apply for, meaning the ones I really, really, really want and not the mass ijustgraduatedilltakeanythingavailable I did four years ago.
- Elbow’s latest studio release comes out tomorrow, but since I pre-ordered on Amazon, the mp3s were made available to me this weekend. TheHusband argued that since everything is now, more or less, on Spotify, why the deuce am I buying albums on Amazon? Because I’m supporting a band I love and not everything is on Spotify as evident by my massive collection of b-sides and one-offs from Elbow that triples what Spotify has available to US customers.
- I bought tix to Elbow’s upcoming show at the House of Blues in Chicago in May as part of their 11 date North American Tour, so TheHusband and I are going to take a mini-break to Chicago which I’m super excited about.
- Plans have been laid this week for CMMRB’s return to C2E2 in April, which marks our third year attending the con. I love this con with all of my heart.
- Daylight savings. FINALLY. It is not officially spring but it’s getting on towards twilight at 7:30PM now and winter is finally ending. THANK THE GODS. We’ve had 110″ of snow this season. Throbbing Cabin? Oh they got 243″. That is not a damned typo.
- I cleaned and sorted my office this week and no dead bodies were found, which is always a bonus.
- My hair has gotten long enough for mini pigtails. This delights me beyond end.
And in other news:
The social media sabbatical is going surprisingly well. I’ve toyed with the idea of keeping a text file of The Husband’s witticism and my often laments of the world for when the need to depart wisdom gets too heavy and perhaps do a weekly round up of said pithy comments.
The need to tweet was especially bad this weekend when we went to see 300: Rise of an Empire, because holy hell was that a fecking terrible waste of celluiod. Fishnets are not period authentic, okay? I didn’t necessarily have SUPER HIGH HOPES for this movie, but I was expecting more than blurred action shots, bad acting, and convoluted plot lines.
TheThrobbings give it two thumbs down.
I finished two books this week, got caught up on my profesh dev magazine reading, and have cut through some of my RSS feed reading. Plus, I’m back to writing every day. Everything is coming up crocuses right now.
I am still caffeine free and other than a few hiccups, that has also been working out dandy in this development. Thus, I’m feeling pretty good!
Thing you learned today: During triumphal processions, Roman generals would carry a model phallus in their hands to ward off envy. [Source: Veni, Vidi, Vici: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Romans but Were Afraid to Ask]
xoxo,
Lisa
Recipe: Vegan Nutella
Dear Internet,
Truth be told, I’ve been pretty lax on the dairy restrictions around these parts lately because having a dairy allergy is akin to a death sentence. If you don’t live in a vegan friendly area, you’re pretty much fucked in the shopping and eating out arena as (mostly) everything has some sort of dairy-based ingredient in it. Thanks to my BFFs at VeganGR, GR has a growing vegan-friendly restaurant and food scene. But I am not vegan or vegetarian, I’m just allergic to dairy so I cheat.
A lot.
Let me clarify that “cheating a lot” business. I mean that I won’t eat ice cream, but if a product has whey or lactose in it (crackers, chips, etc), and it’s not within the first five ingredients, I will eat it. If I am out to eat and an item has butter in or on it, I will eat it. I’ve been known to imbibe in a pizza or two and eating 2 Benadryl directly after ingestion.
Except cheating is becoming problematic. Before I could get away with having a pretzel stick here and eat eggs cooked in butter there, but the longer I keep cheating, the more compounded my reactions get. Finally, I’ve decided I’ve had enough of the constant heartburn, hives, lips tingling, stomach issues, and so forth. I have resolved no more cheating, and if I want something, I have to find or make a dairy free version of it.
One of the hardest things for me to replace is Nutella. It’s chock full of skim milk and they use milk chocolate. When I find dark chocolate variations of hazelnut spread, milk or whey is almost always involved. I’ve had a variation or two that seemed to be dairy free, but the flavor was off. I figured this was going to be one of the few foods I had to give up forever.
The answer is: No. Not true.
I discovered this particular recipe a few years ago, but I was afraid it was going to be a failure like previous veganization experiments. I once tried to make vegan cheese and it was a science project. Yeah, I’m super hesitate about making vegan Nutella.
But this recipe, this recipe was easy. It had five ingredients, only required toasting of the hazelnuts and the use of a food processor. If I could get the roasting out of the way, as I’ve been known to burn bacon cooked in the oven, then I could totally do this.
I ordered already roasted hazelnuts from Nuts.com and waited for their arrival as I had everything else in stock. Once the nuts arrived (along with my personal mixed trail mix – yum!), I went to work.
First, I measured 2 cups of hazelnuts.
And since they were already roasted (smart thinking Lisa!), I dumped them into a clean kitchen cloth and rubbed the skins off.
After I got 98% of the skins off, because you won’t be able to get them all off, I dumped the lot into the food processor.
According to the instructions, when you start grinding the little bastards, first it goes into a meal, then into a ball, and then thanks to the heat and friction, it becomes butter in about 5 minutes of constant food processing.
Okay, I said to myself, I can do this. So I set the timer for five minutes and started processing.
My nuts went from nuts to butter in 1:30. One minute. Thirty seconds. I did not even get the satisfaction of the ball that would bounce around on the blades for a bit. Now the reason that I think they went almost immediately into butter is because the nuts were probably roasted with a bit of oil on them, so combined with their own natural oils, they liquefied pretty quickly.
After the nuts went into butter, then you dump in the confectioners sugar, vanilla, and the cocoa powder and continue to process until it was thoroughly mixed.
[insert photo I forgot to take of the processing of the rest of the ingredients.]
Now the recipe also calls for up to 1/4 cup of veg or nut oil added to liquefy a bit more if it was too thick to stir. I decided to use 1Tbsp of veg oil and go up depending on the results, and even that was way too much. But since it is living in the fridge for the next month or two (or week, if we end up devouring it), the cold will definitely thicken it up.
End result?
It bloody tastes like fucking Nutella.
I am a domestic goddess. Nigella, eat your heart out.
So a couple of notes:
- If you buy your nuts already roasted (smart thinking!), you may find yourself not in the need of the oil
- If you do use an oil, do not use veg, use a neutral oil instead. TheHusband, who has super human taste buds, claims he can taste the “rancid vegetables” from the oil
- Jessica Su, the author of the recipe, put together another version (on the same page, but farther down) that does not use confectioners sugar. Her reasoning is that as confectioners sugar contains cornstarch, the first recipe seems a bit chalky in taste. We did not find that to be true, so feel free to mix/match between the two recipes she offers
- If you order from nuts.com, a 1lb bag of roasted, unsalted hazelnuts should make two batches, a pint per batch
- I use Hershey’s Special Dark powdered cocoa since it does not contain milk derivatives but any powdered cocoa will do
Recipe
2 cups whole raw, roasted, unsalted hazelnuts
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 1/4 cup neutral oil (grapeseed, coconut, something along those lines)
- Remove the skins from the hazelnuts by putting them in a clean cloth and gently rubbing on them until the skins come off. You can also toss them in a bowl. If some skins are left on, that’s okay.
- Dump the skinned hazelnuts into a food processor and process until they become butter. Time may vary, but it should go from whole nuts to meal to a ball of mass and then into butter. Stop and scrap down sides as needed. Process until you have a nice butter formed
- Once the butter has formed, add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla and process until thoroughly mixed. Scrape sides as needed.
- If the mixture is too stiff, start adding the neutral oil, 1/2 Tbsp at a time until desired spreadability
- Transfer deliciousness into a pint glass, cap tightly and store in fridge for 1-2 months
- You may need to mix it before using
xoxo,
Lisa
P.S. I snuck downstairs a few hours later and the Nutella was divine! I was eating gobs of it with a spoon and had to stop myself from devouring the entire jar.
Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes for March 8, 2014
During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
Reading
The Mystery of Mercy Close: A Walsh Sister Novel by Marian Keyes
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
Status: Finished
Marian Keyes has long been one of my favorite authors, one who can encapsulate a horrible event (abuse, addiction, recovery) in a story that at first glance, seems like some kind of fluff until you dig deeper and get to the heart of the story.
Keyes, however, has failed with this book. Terribly.
At first glance through the reviews, I am apparently the only one who caught the not so very subtle racism against Arabs/Muslims peppered throughout the book. Snide comments about “towel heads,” “arabic-y looking wording,” and the often slights against one of the secondary characters who is Muslim and an Arab. Then once you pick up on the racism, you realise either Marian, or Marian using Helen’s voice, is a bigot against fat people, the mentally ill, and anyone who doesn’t fit into her little world.
Now you’re probably thinking, “But Marian has chronicled her severe depression — how can she be bigoted against the mentally ill?” And you know, I totally get you on that, because I was floored at first. But with Helen’s voice, and point of view, you notice how Helen starts being dismissive against any and all attempts of trying to work on her depression. She rejects drugs (at first), she’s dismissive against any alternative methods, and the constant comments about how she was special with her depression because it wasn’t like anyone elses in terms of symptoms and effects. Okay, we get it, you’re a special snowflake.
This book was a hot mess. Between the bigotry, the lead up to through the mystery, explanation of her past relationship, the foundation of her current one, and really? How she and her BFF ever broke up and why was incredibly weak. Coupled with her depression and the utter lack development for most of the characters, why was this book even published?
Watching
- The Americans
- Survivor: Cagayan
- Moone Boy [Available on Hulu]
- Last Tango in Halifax [Available on PBS]
- Edge of Heaven
Weekly watching: Vikings, The Musketeers, Mr. Selfridge, Black Sails, Top Gear, Stella, University Challenge, House of Lies, Episodes, Archer, True Detective, Under the Gunn, Justified, Banshee, Reign, Elementary
Links
- In Praise of Polyglot Culture—and Multicultural Belly Dancing
- Online mapping tool gives insight into history of London’s streets
- Lost 16th Century Tudor Shilling Could Mean the British Discovered Canada
- The dangerous, beautiful life of a Lego minifig photographer
- A tech panel of all men, aimed at women. So how did that go?
- A Day In The Life: Women Tech Innovators
- ‘Breatharian’ Barbie Valeria Lukyanova Says She Wants To Live Off Light And Air Alone
- Jonathan Ross and the Hugo awards: why was he forced out by science fiction’s self-appointed gatekeepers?
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa
This day in Lisa-Universe in:
Bookstores and Questionable Steakhouses
Dear Internet,
Tuesday night, TheHusband and I went out on a mini-date to a questionable steakhouse, thanks to a gift card we received from my brother. Interestingly, on a Tuesday, the line was longer and thicker then we had anticipated so we opted to head to a local bookstore conveniently located behind said questionable steakhouse to kill some time before heading in for dinner.
This particular bookstore is the one that is part of a local chain and is closing its doors in a few weeks. I felt a sense of foreboding entering the building as the atmosphere was that of vultures picking a carcass clean rather than folks enjoying a nice bookstore.
I speculated on Twitter recently several reasons why I was grumpy about this local chain, why I had issues with its current business model, and why thus was not surprised at the demise of this particular store. A roundup: they started all new employees (with the exception of management) at minimum wage regardless of past experiences; the space was allocated mainly to used titles (larger profit margin) and gifts, with new titles pushed to the perimeter and becoming less prominent; their outreach, which was one of the best things about them, had dwindled down to almost nothing; the location was terrible and hard to get to. Would you not have done a survey before opting to get a lease somewhere?
I digress.
So there we were, book stacks at home piled up past our eyeballs of things we should be reading and yet we were stockpiling more titles in the carnage such as:
- The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes
- Heartwood (Elemental Wars) by Freya Robertson
- The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, and Selected Stories by Nikolai Gogol
- The Barrow by Mark Smylie
- The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson
- Song of the Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown
- The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance, 1427-1527 by Leonie Frieda
Interlude: As I had been toying with the idea of asking for patron support on the site for months, I figured now would be a good time to do so since I’ve been upped my linking to Amazon. A longer think piece will be forthcoming in the near future on this decision, but I can assure you, it was not taken lightly.
It was slight madness. 45% off all new titles, 65% off used titles, and 75% off all gift and merchandise. We picked through the carnage with discerning eyes, pulling out titles we felt we had to have NOW rather then wait because the prices were too good to pass up.
I looked for titles in all my favorite sections (SFF, mythology, fiction, and history) and of things I was desperate to get right now. TheHusband, ever omnipotent snob he is, only looked for the tell-tale spines of Penguin classics. We put things back we knew we wouldn’t touch for months, no matter how good the price.
All but one of the titles is for me. We almost came home with volumes 1 and 3 of the The Graphic Canon, but decided to wait since volume 2 was not available.
With arms bulging with books, we dropped them off at the car and then headed into dinner. Since it was a questionable steakhouse, we opted for burgers rather then the steak. This turned out to be a most excellent decision the burgers turned out to be fairly delicious. Who knew?
Day one with no social media was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had deleted almost all of the apps from my devices and my computer, and cleared out my browser history so no autocomplete when I input the letter, “t”, “p”, or “i”. I kept TweetDeck installed for work purposes and for scheduling out blog tweets. But the desire to look wasn’t really there.
I dug into one of my books from the spree from the night before, covering 2/3rds of if before 3PM. I did more job hunting stuff and had started writing before my brother called to take me out for dinner, so he could whinge about his girlfriend and current theories of government.
Neither he, nor TheHusband from the night before, noticed I wasn’t on my phone during the meal. I had to point out to both that I was not Facebooking/Tweeting/Instagraming/etc anytime during our night out and TheHusband watched sports ball at the restaurant and the brother was furiously text fighting with his girlfriend while attempting to complain to me about her. Next time, I’ll make it a point to them both if we’re going out to dinner, no sports ball even if the game is on at the bar and leaving phones in the vehicles. This was kind of ridiculous.
It should also be noted TheHusband and I had a long standing rule my phone only got pulled out for emergencies at dinner, so it was not as if I was ignoring him all these years before today. But you know, men. Can’t live with them, can’t reasonably feed their carcasses to pigs.
Not that I thought about feeding his carcass to pigs or anything.
It was a very quiet day and I am reveling in the mindfulness away from the chatter. I woke up in the morning with two distinct story lines running through my head, which of course in the few minutes from the time I woke, face down in pillows with one leg hanging off the bed, to being cognizant of what I was dreaming about, the lines were gone.
Tonight, I sleep with pen and paper on my bed stand.
xoxo,
Lisa
This day in Lisa-Universe: 1999
A moment of disclosure
Dear Internet,
I had been toying for months about putting up ways for people to patronize the site and I figured it was time to bite the bullet and get something officially up.
If you’re a frequent reader, you may have found yourself clicking on links to products on Amazon. These affiliate links have been in place for years (actually, for over a decade). In the interest of fair disclosure, you should know if you click on a link from on EPbaB and buy that item or click on an item and then shop and buy something else on Amazon, I get a 4-6% kickback, depending on the item.
As I am hoping to kick start a career doing consulting and freelance work in the next six or so months, any help would be greatly appreciated. While I haven’t made much from the affiliate links, some friends recently said they were more than happy to shop under an affiliate link when they do their Amazon shopping to give me the kick back. So I’m bringing it to the masses.
Thus! If you want to help, you can do so in the following ways:
- Share content here across your social networks you find valuable, for the more people who read me, the better! AND/OR
- If you’re interested in any item I mention and I link to it at Amazon, click and buy OR
- If you don’t wish to buy the item, the cart started when you click will still give me a kick back if you buy something else OR
- You can use a general link (Amazon) to get started, which is also available in the right hand navigation anytime OR
You can make a onetime or reoccurring donation via Gittip
I’ve got a few projects that I will hopefully be making available in the upcoming year to also help support me financially, so be on the look out for those!
There will never be ads on the site. I’ll more than likely never do product endorsements either, because I don’t think there is a big market for pen and paper geeks, office supply nerds, and other tchotchkes I’m fond of that will garner getting products. But just in case, when and if those product endorsements ever happen, I’ll let you know first thing.
If your unable to become a patron, don’t worry! Asking for help is always awkward business and I’ll be mindful of my requests in the future.
I thank you for your consideration!
xoxo,
Lisa
Edit April 29, 2014: As GitTip is powered heavily by GitHub, who recently came under scrutiny for the rampant sexism, I decided to ditch my GitHub account, therefore also eliminating my GitTip account.
40 Days and 40 Nights: Taking a vacation from social media
Dear Internet,
Last November I made the adulting decision to give up Facebook for a variety reasons. I forgot to add to those reasons the “theymeanwellers” and “helpfuladvicers.”
Theymeanwellers are the types who almost habitually post the same shit other people have already posted on your Facebook wall because they think you may like it — even though it’s clear 900 others thought the same. They are kin to the helpfuladivcers, who when you post an image showcasing your meal for the night, will offer up unsolicited advice on how it should have been cooked, presented, or something of that ilk. If you make a statement about your allergy, will start educating you on said allergy even though they are not allergic themselves to OR have any type of medical expertise or education.
You know these types. May the gods save you if you even point out what they are doing is not well or helpful for you’re a terrible, awful person.
The above coupled with Facebook’s continuing disregard for respect and allowing people to control their own privacy, Byzantine rules for posting content and how it was being viewed, I left.
I said,
If we’re friends on Facebook, as of this writing, I’ve deactivated my account. I have a private account I’m using to manage pages since several projects require it, and if we were friends on that particular account, I’ve unfriended you and made it as private as Facebook possible.
…there is an intimacy associated with Facebook that isn’t even available anywhere else, regardless of how many layers I peel back as I write on this site. I need to reign in the control of what the world can see and Facebook was the first to go. At least here, in my sandbox, I’m forcing you to come to me and not the other way around.
Since that time, I’ve gotten the occasional email, text, ran into someone locally who wanted to know where I was and why I hated them. But out of over 300 Facebook BFFs, I’ve heard from about two dozen in some capacity as to why I left. Almost all thought it was personal and about them.
It has not been a totally glorious rebellion as there have been a few kerfuffles on participating on some sites because they ONLY allow Facebook connect to add content and I’ve chosen to just not participate. Or apps that require ONLY a Facebook account to function, so I stop using the app. Overall, I’ve been pretty happy about stripping Facebook out of my life. The private account, which has been stripped of identification, locked down, and only used to manage pages, remains blissfully ignorant of any drama, shitty product endorsement, and related items.
Five years ago, I gave up Twitter for Lent and then wrote about coming back after the break.
Then I noted that all the supposed free time I thought was going to appear, didn’t. But I was wholly naive in the process because I was bloody on Facebook the entire time! Giving up Twitter wasn’t really a hardship rather it was feeding the obsession (Twitter) into another (Facebook). I may have patted myself on the back for being so restrained during that period, but who the fuck am I kidding?
Twitter has started to go the route for Facebook for me in that the bullies, the “theymeanwellers,” the “helfpfuladvicers,” and now the “talkarounders” are starting to grow in leaps. Talkarounders are a breed I’ve identified of people who, for whatever reason, talk about you, your work, or things related to you and your work without engaging you. It’s frustrating trying to work on goals when people dismiss you on a regular basis so while I’ve stopped following and engaging, they still creep into my world.
So I’ve decided that I’m not giving up one or the other, I’m giving them all up for 40 days. But, and I have to stress this, much my work requires me to be socially active. Any content posted will be done automatically and I will not be engaging anywhere. Here are the rules:
- No Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, or any other social media engaging or responding from March 5 – April 17
- Content posted from EPbaB will continue to auto-post to Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Google+, and Tumblr. It is also available via RSS
- If you comment/respond anywhere or send me DMs through any service, I will not respond or engage. If you want to get in touch, I recommend sending me an email
What do I hope to gain out of this? Less stress about being up to the minute on everything. Less frustration from people’s stupidity. More work on the projects that are important to me. More time with TheHusband. More time to read.
More of everything.
xoxo,
Lisa
And so it begins
Dear Internet,
I was thankful to have known ahead of time my position was going to be converted from contract to permanent, which was why I sat on the fence about my decision to reapply for so long. The fall out from the revised job description, plus a few other factors, was the tipping point for my final decision. And that was that — I was on the market once again.
It doesn’t feel like four years since I last job hunted, but here we are once again doing the shuck and jive to win the approval so I can feel like a productive (and wanted) member of society. Go team.
Four years ago I thought I was hot shit because I had all this experience stacked behind me from a variety of career fields that translated well into library speak, which was and still remains true. But I was wholly naive about the depth and breadth of the library world. Even though I had worked as a reference librarian throughout my MLIS program, I was woefully unprepared.
Thanks to the insight from working full time in my current position for the last three years, I can now pinpoint all the mistakes I made in the first go round, and there were a lot of them, that I can now avoid on this round of job hunting. I feel immensely smarter, slightly more wiser, and better prepared then before.
I should feel like I am a better candidate and in a much better place to apply for positions.
But yet.
Yet.
I can’t help but feeling my first thought about this whole process is of soul sucking dehumanization.
I spent most of today, really all of today, tweaking my profesh website, cleaning up my resume and building up my references list. I had started saving jobs to apply for in January , but of course most have now passed, so more time allocated cleaning up that list. In nearly ten hours of working steadily through all of that today, I only completed applications for two jobs and started another two, which I will be picking up on tomorrow.
Last time I went job hunting? 114 job applications over six months.
While I’m praying to all of the gods that a new job will be much easier to find this time around, I am forever cautious on the process.
Don’t worry, I always end up on my feet, but sometimes I can get a bit weary of it all.