Peter Capaldi in The Greatest Store in the World

Peter Capaldi who is a well known Scottish actor in the UK is currently the 12th Doctor in Doctor Who. Here is a Christmas movie that I discovered with Capaldi playing a doorman named Brian aka Mr. Whiskers. In the movie, a struggling mother from London attempts to give her daughters shelter in a department store during the holidays without getting caught. I thought this movie was really unique to general genre of cheesy, kid holiday movies and Peter Capaldi was just an excellent bonus to the story.

Shonda Thursday

It's Shonda Thursday, I have the day off and it's been a month since I started working in retail. A week ago I got trained at the cashier and my hands no longer shake with anxiety when I start the transaction so that's good. Part of the anxiety was that I was afraid of messing up. The last two days at the cashier, it was out of wack and wasn't taking the 40% discount automatically. The screen was displaying the wrong prices thus, I had to use the calculator. I come back to work on Friday and I hope the computer is calibrated well with the current prices.

Now Grey's Anatomy is going on and I'm watching the tension between Meredith Grey and her sister (who came from way out of left field- plot wise) Margaret Pierce. Dr. Webber keeps hesitating on telling her, he's her father. Eventually, I know there'll be a dramatic confession. Dr. Pierce seems like an interesting character to get to know and her parents sending the awkward hotdog singogram showed the difference between Meredith's and Margaret's upbringings. While Grey's Anatomy is okay, I'm more looking forward to the political drama on Scandal and the murder mystery in How to Get Away with Murder.

Spoiler:

Margaret Pierce actually told Meredith Grey. I thought this was going to dragged through for the rest of the season.

Working and Who

Two great things have happened. One, I got a part-time job at an outlet mall and two, season 8 of Doctor Who has started. I've already completed a week in retail and haven't learned how the cash registrar works yet (In addition, to correctly counting change, I know I'll be asking customers for their email and if they wished to sign up for the company's card) but for now I'm walking around the store folding untidy piles and asking customers if they need anything. The things I don't like about working part-time are the random hours and never being needed when I am on call.  The thing I like about working part-time is it gets me out of the house and I get some work experience to put on my resume. Also I've been driving by myself to work now... like a normal adult. 

Little by little, I've been working all over the clothing store from being a greeter to working in the back at the dressing room. Customers keep asking me where certain merchandise are in the store when even I have no clue and when they ask a certain size for a black pants, I talk into the walkie-talkie to ask if the company has any more in the back room. The first hours of my four or five hour shift seem long but after the half-way point, the shift seems to end quickly. Then, I clock out at the registrar, get my bags checked at t the door to make sure I didn't commit thievery and then eat my bagged lunch outside of Subways. Now, that the hunger is satisfied by a quartered peanut butter and raisin sandwich and the weather is finally cooperating, I take a walk through the outlets (This Sunday, I ventured a look into Zumiez and hopped onto a longboard priced at $219.00). Also, not only are the hours inconsistent from day to day but I only find out about my schedule from week to week. It's crazy. The first week was during the Labor day madness and I worked for five days. Labor day weekend made the hours go by like rolling water but after Monday my throat felt hoarse.
The second time I asked about my schedule, I only received information for three days. I already had months of not working, I really didn't need a four day vacation between workdays. Working retail is interesting because I am not a chatty extroverted person. Being a greeter stationed mostly near the door was easier because there was no need to go searching for the elusive size 8 three quartered jeans or answer whether the company carried a certain pants that someone saw at a catalogue. I only had to welcome people, say the deals and occasionally fold the rifled through sweaters. It's awkward standing around trying to strike conversation with a doting husband while he waits for his wife to get out the dressing room and then I wander through the clearance aisle trying to make sense of the system and rehang blouses from the floor.  The main thing is keeping busy and finding something to do because it makes the hours fly and I want to be useful. As a new to retail part-time employer (especially during the weekdays when only a few customers trickle in a few a time), I want  to feel that that company actually needs me. Hopefully, I'll get more hours the next week when the schedule gets made up.

I was excited about the new season of Doctor Who until I realized that in my mom's successful attempt to lower the cable package, I lost BBC America. My dad's lost NetGeo Wild so now he cannot watch endless hyena and lions fighting each other. Now, I have to resort to other means of watching Who. It's harder to watch episodes for free on the internet since fans cannot post them on YouTube anymore without it getting deleted right away and dubious websites make you subscribe to their channel or take annoying surveys before asking for your credit card number thus I've finally looked into Amazon. At least with Amazon, I won't have to worry about viruses entering into the computer. 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou


The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill for the caged bird
sings of freedom

Booker T. and W.E.B

(Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois) by Dudley Randall

"It seems to me," said Booker T.,

"It shows a mighty lot of cheek

To study chemistry and Greek

When Mister Charlie needs a hand

To hoe the cotton on his land,

And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,

Why stick your nose inside a book?"

"I don't agree," said W.E.B.

"If I should have the drive to seek

Knowledge of chemistry and Greek,

I'll do it. Charles and Miss can look

Another place for hand or cook.

Some men rejoice in skill of hand,

And some in cultivating land

But there are others who maintain

Their right to cultivate the brain."

"It seems to me," said Booker T.,

"That all you folks have missed the boat

Who shout about the right to vote,

And spend vain days and sleepless nights

In uproar over your civil rights.

Just keep your mouths shut and do not grouse,

But work and save, and buy a house."

"I don't agree," said W.E.B.,

"For what can property avail

If dignity and justice fail?

Unless you help to make the laws,

They'll steal your house with trumped-up clause.

A rope's as tight, a fire as hot,

No matter how much cash you've got.

Speak soft, and try your little plan,

But as for me, I'll be a man."

"It seems to me," said Booker T.-

"I don't agree,"

Said W.E.B.

Sitting Here is Always Free

Sitting here in a wicker bar stool, helping a cousin of mine from high school with a paper about the Holocaust making revisions and comments while thinking about what job interviews will I fill out tomorrow (or today since its already midnight). Trying to stay positive and make actions instead of thinking over and over what if...  what if this and what if that...


(A new friend of mine told me "What if" is a phrase that should be deleted from our vocabulary). Ok.


It's been a while since I last wrote on this eclectic blog. My aunt and my father got me to go into the Landmark Forum. It was Friday to Sunday 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM with some 30 minute breaks in between and then 7:00 to 10:00 PM on Tuesday. I completed that, felt optimistic for a brief while (two days), did one class of the seminar: the seminar is ten classes stretched out from July to October from 7 PM to 10 PM (Are you kidding me? but after enduring 12 hour shifts, three hours in a room is nothing). While Landmark seems to be a positive influence in trying to improve someone's life (gaining confidence, integrity, making deeper relationships with estranged family members and friends etc.), I felt uncomfortable constant sales approach to get people to sign up their families and friends (and the general feeling that only through Landmark individuals were able to see new possibilities in their life).  It costs approximately $600 to take the Forum and then you get ten classes in addition to that. Then they recommend you to take the Advanced Forum which is supposed to help you become a leader in life or something like that... which is more money.


That $600 could've been for student loans.


What I mostly got out of it was creating possibilities in life and taking actions and I was able to talk to and listen to a variety of people from diverse backgrounds (teenagers to grandparents, entrepreneurs to recently homeless). Ok cool. I'm not going to the seminar. Going to fill out job applications and take some classes at community college in the fall.
There are poems on my flash drive I have yet to submit to literary magazines and


Maybe I can get paid helping other people with their papers since family is always free.

In Which I Dream of Pianos... and North Korea

The very first post of this eclectic blog was a dream analysis of me on a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. In this dream retelling, I'll return back to the blog's roots and summarize a bizarre dream involving Fur Elise, Hugh Laurie, Kim Jong Il, two Asian ladies and the Olympic swimming pool. How does this all fit in this story?

Well, it all starts in a small white room full of upright and grand pianos. In a corner, I see a stubbled Hugh Laurie playing Fur Elise over a cherry wood, upright piano. He stops playing and looks over his right shoulder to see on the other side of the room a standing Kim Jong Il dressed in black, gazing down at a black upright piano. Puzzled, he goes to see what the North Korean leader is looking at. From Hugh Laurie's  perspective, I peer down at the foreign circular black keys. Similar to a computer keyboard, there are more than one note written on a key.

The scene shifts over to a winding road carved out on the side of a mountain. Two Asian women lounge on a concrete barrier. One leisurely sips on juice box while they watch cars rumble along the road. Behind them is a picturesque scene of green mountain ranges receding into the fog. They laugh and flirt at the men drivers. Suddenly, they're on the run trying to cross the South Korean border from North Korea. A black line painted in an Olympic sized swimming pool is the border between the two countries. The women attempt to swim across it. One is further than the other, encouraging her friend along. The line is a few meters away. She looks back. Her friend floats in the pool, lifeless. The North Korean guards patrol one side of the pool with guns but I don't see any evidence of gunshots on the friend. The scene with the Olympic pool vanishes and the friend is by herself in a new country.

 Thinking of the weird piano, here are a couple of different keyboard layouts:

 

 Fur Elise on Axis 49

Chromatone Keyboard

Janko keyboard

Starlings Fighting Over Suet

During one of the first February 2014 snowstorms, a flock of starlings came over to the kitchen window to fight over the half eaten suet, momentarily scaring away the regular junco visitors.