Sunday, June 28, 2009

Adam's Rib and Block Watch

"Take the Boston Tea Party for example, what did they do? Why they dramatized an injustice. That's all I'm trying to do." Katharine Hepburn in "Adam's Rib"


If you haven't seen the movie "Adam's Rib" with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy then you need to rent it immediately. Briefly, it's the story of two married lawyers who are find themselves trying opposite sides of the same case. The case turns out to be all about women's rights and creates a rift in the marriage.

It's a GREAT movie and possibly my favorite of all time because it's smart and funny and has great acting.

In other news, my local block watch association decided to make me president... which means I am in charge of the email list... and that's about all the power I have. But it certainly leads to many adventures in email (like the time I sent out an email with a type and then sent out another email to correct the first one and that email had two typos...oops?)

Still, I've been hyper vigilant about the goings on in the neighborhood as of late. Sadly, I have yet to report an incident. BUT I WILL. I just have to keep my eyes peeled for crime. I mean, I wish there wasn't any crime... but if that were the case I'd be out of a job. :(

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Monday, June 22, 2009

Getting Paid > Working for Free > Not Working


Due to the economy and my inability to find a real job, I have decided to work for free. I still get to add things to my resume, don't get as bored, and also get to work in a couple cool places.

I'm working for NHS, which I've posted about before. In addition to that I will be working as an adviser at the UN for the Ambassador of the Comoros (in the photo with me). Working in the Comoros mission is extra cool for me since I get to use my Swahili and French language skills everyday and practice them for when I get a real job that will pay me.

Also I think I still qualify for UN health benefits, but I have to find out more about that (srsly, I need health insurance).

In crazy family news, my little sister came home for the weekend and decided to talk about drinking underage the whole time which I swear kinda gave me a heart attack as the newly elected president of the block watch. I almost had her arrested for intent to purchase with a fake I.D. but I thought it was kind of harsh since she's my sister and all.

While she was home we began deciding on who gets what when my parents die. If you've never gone through that process, I highly recommend doing it when the parents are still alive and can say, "Actually I think it would be best if so-in-so had it. I have a memory of wearing that piece of jewelry at her graduation." It's so much easier than fighting after they're dead. And all gazillion pieces of jewelry my mother owns have now been cataloged with a little M/A next to it, as well as the stories and memories my mom had while looking at the piece. Since we had a couple jewelers there, we also got them to give us some estimated values, figure out exactly what stones they were, etc.

All in all, my weekend and the past few weeks have been entirely more hectic than usual. Don't worry, two avid readers, I'll still find time to update.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The New Adventures of Not Earning Money

ANX went up to 15 cents a share today so I sold it! That's a profit of 9$. YAY!

I was worried since it went down to 10 cents yesterday, so I wanted it out of my portfolio.

In other news I started a volunteer job today with the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven. I will be revamping their website, designing their newsletter, and talking care of any odds and ends (like the creation of their facebook group which I did today). I walked all the way there across New Haven, 2.6 miles. I would have walked back but it poured all afternoon.

My new job will have me helping them increase the readability and ease of design of their website, create a newsletter, and do other odds and ends around the office for the summer. Now the rationale behind taking a volunteer job as opposed to a paying job is that I can’t get a paying job, and at least this way I have something awesome on my resume. Maybe I’ll get a fancy title too, like “best employee” or “Awesomest person ever."

You'd hire someone if their last job title was "awesomest person ever" right? I know... totally.

Anyway, America, I'm going (with my 9$) to go eat some Kentucky Fried Chicken for the first time to see what that's like. I hear the biscuits are awesome!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

My Reading List

Today I will talking about my reading list of books mostly because it is piled up on my desk and is in my way. Since I kind of hate reading fiction, and haven't been reading the books piled up next to my bed on my desk, talking about it will push me into actually reading the books.

They are:
Catch-22, which I am 48 pages into. I already know what the Catch-22 IS and therefore don't need to read anymore of this book. But I don't want to skip to another book until I'm done with this one. So it's first on my list.
Out of Africa
The Power Broker
Watership Down
Cinematic Royalty and Dark Hollywood Nights, which was written by a friend of mine from H.S.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Master and Margarita... I've read the first 100 pages of this and I got um... distracted that summer... but it's been three years and I'm going to try it again.

I would also like to add that ANX has decided to SUCK today and is down to $0.11, which I am not happy about. I am going to hold, and maybe this whole thing will turn around. OR I will lose my investment capital as it decreases to zero... you know, whatever. Learning experience. Thing of it is, at $0.11 I'm surprised people aren't buying in like mad. Especially because they're getting their act together on that de-listing thing.

Yeah I know. I'm going to lose all my money. But it's cool. It was only a couple thousand shares. I should keep talking about it, now it's at $0.1187! Go fancy interactive blog go!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Monday, June 1, 2009

Citizen Canoe Guide


Since I have no job, I decided to spend some time volunteering for the Park's Department and the City of New Haven as a "Citizen Volunteer" Canoe Guide. Mostly this is because they offered free lessons. The lessons were a good way for me to get a work out, and be away from my mom. That's called multitasking. What follows is a "Connecticut Adventure."

Saturday was a busy day filled with information about kinds of oar strokes, safety instructions, and the ways in which people can die while enjoying a seemingly pleasant canoe ride.

-People get drunk and fall into the water and drown.
-Or they pee over the side and the canoe flips cause it's to much weight on one side and they drown (Martin, the head of "fun park activities and sports" for New Haven, or whatever, who taught us [I swear he was real] said that this is "something men do because they don't know how dangerous it is" and the only other male in the group added, "because men are stupid." to which I say in my head, "... Oh you've met my ex-boyfriend. Excellent.")
-Or they go fishing and get hooked on something and the canoe flips, and they drown.
-Or it's a nice day and they canoe with their best friend who accidentally hits them in the head with an oar and they get knocked unconscious and they drown.
-Or the weather turns and they go over rapids and they tumble out of the canoe and the water is cold and they get hypothermia and they drown...
-Or they bring their puppy in the canoe, and it starts barking and freaking out with all the water. So the swans nearby freak out and one of them starts chasing the dog in the boat, and the dog goes nuts and jumps out of the boat, and then to save the dog and the owner jumps out, and the boat is floating away, and the owner nearly drowns while trying to help the dog who nearly drowns because the swan just keeps pecking away like in "The Birds"... you know... true story.

So maybe mostly it's the water that kills them, not the canoe, but you can't canoe on land, that's called... digging a hole with an oar from a boat.

... No seriously guys, you can DIE. Wear a flotation device. And no drinking while canoing. And no dogs in boats. Srsly, if you need a seeing eye dog, you have to call ahead to the Park's Dept.

My abs hurt from rowing. This is because I learned how to row properly, which apparently involves my abs and back more than my shoulders. My knees also hurt, but that was because the front of the boat is tiny, and when I sat for three hours with my legs pressing into the gunwales (pronounced gunnels...cause it's British.. I kid you not) I got matching bruises on the side of my knees. It's cool though cause they make me look tough.

As a particularly adventurous person, I was one of two people willing to be the "helpless capsized victims who needed rescuing." So Becky and I paddled into the middle of the Mill River and capsized (fun!) and treaded in 7 feet of water until the other people took turns rescuing us. What is so legendary about this is that in the 18 years I lived across the street from this park, and no more than 500 yards from this river, THAT was the first time I ever swam in it. It's not one of those rivers you swim in. It's brackish (gross/salty), murky, rocky, and might have things like snapping turtles, leeches, rusty things, bite-y fish, sharp stuff, and like... cancer. Basically I took a good shower when I got home. BUT I feel really quite satisfied with having been in the river. My life was missing something and now I have completed that thing on the check list. It's a beautiful river, don't get me wrong. I just don't want to touch the bottom of it.

I also was the only participant to wear a skirt. I wore a skirt because I knew I was going to have to get wet, and by wearing a wrap skirt I could easily disrobe into the bathing suit I wore underneath. It was probably the best thing I could have worn actually and I'll do it again. Yeah, you got it, I'm gonna be THAT canoe guide who wears skirts. The white shirt I wore over the black bathing suit on the other hand may not have been the best plan... Nor was the OTHER white shirt I brought to change into when I got wet and needed dry clothes.

Good news is I learned from this experience.

More good news is I got an orange Coast Guard whistle and as a result feel pretty legit about being a canoe guide.

If you want to see me "in action" you can come to the Friends of East Rock Park event on June 13th and help clean up the park, eat food, and come for a canoe ride with me as your canoe guide... IF YOU DARE! Because as we all now know, Canoing is a deadly sport. No for serious. Canoing kills. So do it properly.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

P.S. The photos were taken this past autumn, but the first is the bridge right next to the canoe launch, and the second is RIGHT WHERE I took my little dip in the river! In the middle of that calm area there.

P.S.S. See the island in the second photo? We practiced turns around that island for about two hours. That's the closest I think I've ever gotten to it except maybe when I was little and went canoing with my family with canoe guides (they were so cool! and now I'M COOL! or... um... not... whichever really. Eye of the beholder!) POINT IS: When I was a little girl... let's go with... ages 4-10 I wanted to build a house on that island when I grew up.

P.S.S.S. I still kinda want to build a house on that island now that I've seen it up close.