Kat

I heard from a fellow student that her place of work needs servers desperately.  It's a bit farther than I would care to drive, but I do need the work.  I just hope they're willing to hire me only for the lunch shift; that's the only time I can guarantee I'll be available no matter what my other work schedule is like.

So I did manage to only miss the first fifteen minutes of Heroes last night.  It was good, but I am so so confused.  I need to find season two to refresh my memory.

And I was finally, finally, a designated team captain last night, and I finally, finally, got to make an entree and not a damn appetizer!  Sesame seared tuna steaks with a passionfruit gastric and tomato coucous.  Although we had steamed broccoli and cauliflower again.  That's been on the menu every Monday night.  I suppose they must be getting a deal on it or something.  It's fine, I guess, just boring to do the same vegetable the same way every week.  

Oh yes, and we've only just been told that Monday night we will always be serving customers.  What The Fuck.  I cannot believe the absolute lack of forethought in scheduling an intro class during Monday night service.  We seem to be doing okay, but jeez, give a chance to master the basic skills first, please.  This is one of the issues I have with That Damn Chef aka the program director.  And he's especially fond of changing the menu at the last minute, and coming up with these insanely complex dishes.  Like the chicken roulade.  It's supposed to essentially be a chicken sausage stuffed in a pounded chicken breast and poached.  He changed it around and we made chicken and duck wontons with bearnaise.  Which is totally awesome and it tasted fabulous, but!!!  It was the most complex dish of the evening and we ended up having to pull in other teams to get it finished on time.  Whereas the entree?  Put sesame seeds and seasoning on tuna, plop on griddle.  Poor boiling water over the couscous.  Steam the broccoli.  It took less than half an hour, total.  It's just he would be better off with an advanced class that didn't need a lot of direction, just practice.  Whereas we are flailing around and don't know exactly what we are supposed to be doing.  A least he doesn't disappear the way he used to.  However he sill acts...weird.  Like he's been drinking or taking pills.  And he still calls me Kathleen.  I have Kathryn embroidered on my damn uniform and he still gets my name wrong. 

At least the lectures have been getting a little more structured, and are from the book and not these handouts he copied out of a magazine.

So how about the new Doctor Who? That was a pretty intense episode. My favorite of the season. It lacked the semi-goofy quality that other episodes seem to have, and had more than a touch of what felt like real peril. I liked it.

But I am more than ready for the new season of Torchwood. Although what it will be like minus Tosh and Owen, I can't begin to speculate. I am still bummed about Tosh. She was the best. My favorite characters always get killed off. It's like my affection is a curse. 

If any of you were within a five mile radius of me, you would have heard the exclamations of joy when I discovered a few minutes ago that Temeraire, by naominovik  one of my most favorite fantasy series, is in the works to be made into a movie--by none other than Peter Jackson.  

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very, extremely, unbelievably delirious with joy.  

The fact that it's probably going to be a while, a looong while, before it happens, and that it's not even set in stone yet whether or not it will happen does not detract from my happiness in the least.

"Why do I drink diet soda?  So I can eat regular cake!"  There's a comedy special on, and oh, another good one--"I don't have to make fun of the president, he makes fun of himself!"  Ha!  Gabriel Iglesias I think is his name.  Sometimes it's a pain having a tv right next to the only computer with internet acess, but right now it's not so bad.  When FOX news is on, it's another story.

Oh, damn, Mother's Day is coming up, and I do not know what to get her.  I think I'll go to town tomorrow since I don't have to work.  One of the perks of working weekends and having two weekdays off. : )  No crowds.

Finshed A Knight of the Word, and now I'm on to the last Terry Brooks book, Angel Fire East.  Overall I've really enjoyed this series; Brooks has surprised me.  I decided to wait and review all three at once, since it's all one big book, anyway.

I am exiled to the computer room for the time being because everyone else is in the living room watching a horror movie. I can't hide in my room, because it's adjacent to the living room, and I can hear the tv perfectly clear.

I hate scary movies! I really cannot handle them. Especially if they're gory. This is a source of constant amusement to my family. They call me a chicken, and I reply, damn strait! Proud of it! I think the main problem is I have such a vivid imagination. When the movie is over, it's not over to me. I get so creeped out imagining whatever monster that was in the film is lying in wait for me...I have slept with the light on before. And of course, the fact that everyone knows this about me makes it so easy for them to play practical jokes on me, sneaking up behind me and grabbing me, or jumping out from doorways. Ugh. I've sworn off horror, for good. There is absolutely no way anyone is persuading me to watch another one as long as I live. I have long since realized that when my dad or sister tell me "it's not that scary" they are lying. It's not that their sense of judgment is skewed, they are evil and are only trying to make me pee my pants. The only retribution I have is to put all the tv's on one of the XM rock or classical channels and hide the remote controls; my dad hates that music ;)

My erratic work schedule often leaves me with lots of unexpected time off, and such is the case today. Instead of finishing a book, I was flipping through the gazillion channels looking for something to watch, and I came across this show called My Super Sweet 16. I stared in horrified fascination, just like we all crane our necks and stare at wrecked cars on the side of the road.

I just have to talk about this. It is so unbelievable; I'm tempted to believe it was all staged.

Apparently, the premise of the show is a bunch of cameras follow a girl around as she makes plans for her sixteenth birthday. This episode featured a stupid, self absorbed and spoiled little princess, who casually throws down ten grand for her party dress, a dress that her mother disapproves of and says she can't have, because it made her look like a whore (and it did). So later on the little brat lies to her mother and sneaks off to buy it with her credit card. (First of all, a fifteen year old with a credit card? Mistake). Her mother discovers her daughter has gone AWOL and figures out where she's at, and so calls the credit card company and has it cancelled, while she was at the store. The girl was whinging and whining about how, that is like, so not fair; she even called her mother a bitch! Now, who among us has never been mad at our mother? No one. But still, to call her a bitch, even if it wasn't to her face--unbelievable. As punishment, her parents tell her she can't have the Land Rover she wants for her birthday. She breaks down, sobbing uncontrollably. If I had just turned it on at that moment, I would have thought someone had died, or something else tragic--she was carrying on so dramatically. But no, she was heart broken because her parents were mean and weren't getting her a Land Rover. And then, her parents go and buy her one anyway, on the condition that she be a good girl. At the very end of the show the brat says, "My parents spending this much money on me shows me that they love me."

What kind of twisted values have these morons given their daughter? And worse, by putting their mistake on MTV, countless impressionable teen girls are being influenced by it, absorbing the materialistic, self absorbed mindset that is being projected at them at every flip of the channel. After seeing that, and then going back to their humdrum, average middle class lifestyle, these poor girls are being set up for a lifetime of poor self esteem, self image, and depression. They won't be satisfied with what they have; they'll always want more, more, more, because the more you have, the more you say to the world that you are important; you are loved.

All in all, her parents spent $200,000 on her. For just one birthday. $200,000. I can't wrap my mind around that. I just cannot. Most parents don't spend that much on their children in their entire lives! Whenever I hear about people throwing that kind of cash around, I can't help but to think about how many better uses it could be put to, other than to gratify a spoiled, idiotic, selfish bitch who has no idea how fortunate she is. Or unfortunate, to my way of thinking. That much money could have done an incredible amount of good if had gone to a battered women's shelter, an animal shelter, or cancer research...the possible ways it could have helped others are limitless.

After watching that, I feel indescribable. Almost like I've been tainted, or something. *sigh* This is why I stick to books, mostly.