Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Scarlett's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, September 4th, 2011
8:31 am	OK, I Need a Synonym for Incas... A library assignment is to create a subject heading for a book abough Incan socieety pree- Spanish invasian. I looked about Inca, Ancient, even Spain, to not avail. I've since thought of Aztec, Mayan and Peruvian. Anyone got any other ideas? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
11:44 pm	I Found This Amusing I was talking to one of my co-workers, A, who had applied three times for a job at the cafe. (This isn't unusual - our boss is REALLY slack at looking over resumes and chances are, yours will end up in a pile of twenty that gets tossed after the drawer becomes too full.) The first time, she had handed it to a girl who she said was slim with dark hair. Me: Sounds like B (girl who worked there about nine months ago). A: She was quite young, about 19. Me: Yeah, sounds like B A: And she was really rude Me: Yeah, that's B. At this point, C walks in. C especially didn't like B because B was the second-youngest and would lord it over C, the youngest. (C was 14 or so - she's 15 now, and a total sweetie, but B was bossy and condescending towards her.) C: Who are we talking about? Me: A was just saying she first handed her resume to someone who was young, had dark hair and was really rude C: Sounds like B. I don't know why I found it amusing; maybe you had to be there, because C and I found it funny. Maybe B was also just one of those people that, a year after you last dealt with her, she was still easily recognised by a trait like 'rude'. (Seriously, that girl was NOT suited to hospitality.) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
11:16 pm	Privelige of Abusing Hospitality Workers I was listening on the radio, the commentator was talking about his girlfriend ordering Chinese from a chain place. When he got there, they had no record of the order, and he verbally abused the staff for a few minutes before realising he had the wrong outlet, it was another restauarant within the chain that the order had been placed at. He then got the staff to make him up the order. He was telling this with a laugh, like apparantly it was funny that he abused the staff and, whoops, turned out to be his fault, and, having abused them, expected them to make his order. (Incidentally, what happened to the order at the place it had actually been ordered at? Did he even bother to cancel it? I doubt it.) Seriously, I hope they spat in his food. And all this was funny? I know that some people have very little regard for hospility workers - or any kind of service employees, for that matter - but it boggles my mind that this guy thought it was fine to abuse someone when he was in error and, when realising this, still expected a service provided. And they wonder why said workers spit in food. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
10:14 pm	Dear Customers, I'm hungry; make up your mind what you want. Just freaking pick something so I can go and have my sausage sandwich. Oh, and the customer that also wanted a sausage sandwich while I was a till slave for half an hour and the cook used the one I had put down for myself and I had to put down another: you suck. Bet you wouldn't like it if customers kept you at the til for half an hour when you were starving and then someone came and chose something you'd put down for youself. The bad-coffee chain regular who brought their refill mug in for us to fill? No, we won't charge their price. If it's cheaper there, by all means, go there. PLEASE! I'M HUNGRY AND I WANT THE CUSTOMERS TO GO AWAY SO I CAN EAT!!! Scarlett is tired. (But at least she's no longer hungry thanks to mum's delicious home-cooked meal made in our new oven that actually works.) Going to bed. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
9:02 pm	I Have a Date on Sunday :) He's a friend of my cousin L. We went to L's goodbye party - he's leaving for the navy - and just clicked. We talked for hours about a heap of stuff - you know those conversations that just flow and damned if you can remember much of what you talked about, just that you had a really good time? I haven't connected with someone like that for ages - since Will, really. So that was a week and a half ago and we're going to this Sunday. Really looking forward to it. Tempted to go and buy a neew dress (have plenty of perfectly servicable stuff!) or at least cut my hair the way I've been meaning to for a while. Yay! Excited! XXOO Scarlett (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
9:18 am	Good Lord I'm up at 830 on a Sunday, drinking a protien shake for breakfast while I boil eggs to go with my camspicu (that's bell peppers in Amercan :p) for morning tea for my volunteer work with the elderly. When did I become so respectable? On the plus side, last December I bought a knee-length denim skirt that, with a white top, simple silver jewellry and sandals is very summery. Turns out that paired with boots and heavier jewellry, the same skirt-and-top looks quite wintry, too. SCORE! (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
11:02 pm	All Read Out It's 10:45pm on June 30th. I've read 273 books. I read seven books yesterday and five today. I was aiming for 275 but unbelievably, I'm actually sick of reading. It won't last for long - give me a day or two and I'll want my books back. Besides, I think 273 books in 6 months is a pretty good - if somewhat chronic time-wasting - achievement. Especially given the goal was 300 in a year :p Hee, dad couldn't believe that the 400-page novel I started reading when he took me to the library was finished an hour or so after we returmed to the library. (And we were only there for a half hour or so.) 28 years and he still can't grasp that I have this phenomenal gift for speed-reading. And I do call it a gift - it was just something I could always do, it's not something I ever worked at. When people ask me how I can read that quickly (which was better than English teachers not believing that I'd read ahead the whole book in half the period and had gone back to my personal book - OK, not the best idea in retrospect, but lady, I finished the book) it's just shrug and 'IDK, I just can, I always could'. I can just sort of look at a paragraph of a few hundred words and absorb the information the same as you can look at a picture and absorb the image in a second. Well, not quite that quickly, but that's the best way I can describe it - my brain just absorbs the words the way other brains absorb images. But on the flip side - reading's a fairly cheap addiction. It's free apart from the late fees (which I rarely clock up on account that I read so fast and return the books in a few days for more books) and replacement fees when I don't seal my water bottle properly. And, hey, most of the staff at my local seem to get that I really do read that fast - after all, who the hell would bother returning to the library every day with 3-4 books each time to exchange for new ones? Several times a week for months and months? They've even taken to calling me by my shortened name and not the one that appears on my card :p (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
6:25 pm	Well, Whaddya Know... I'm really into this Emglish Historical writer, Posie Graeme-Evans. I had a feeling she's Australian 'cos she's Tasmania-based - yeah, yeah, you don't have to be Australian, or even Australian BORN to live in an Australian state - but I couldn't place why her name sounded so familiar even before I stumbled across her on the bookshelf in the library. Turns out she was an executive producer for McLeod's Daughters. As in, the driving force behind it. Which explains both why the name was familiar and why McLeod's rocked as a female-centric show. Yes, I know that you can be executive producer/president etc and still be at the head of something that's mass-producing misogynistic crap, but Greme-Evans seems to have actually made it work. Seriously, as much as McLeod's was basically a predictable, feel-good soap opera, it largely reversed the tradition of male-centric shows: the central characters were all highly capable women with nuanced lives and the men were largely orbiting around the women. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
7:46 pm	Potato and Leek Soup PtII So, I added the cream, and... bad idea. It probably didn't help that I added a 600ml carton to about 2L of soup. (I'm used to making pumkin soup for the extended family, like, 10-14L at a time). It tasted like an unholy alliance between soup and a profiterole. I tipped it down the sink and started again. It's simmering atm. I cut the leek and spring onion thicker this time - laziness more than anything else - so the blender didn't entirely pulp it and there's bits of green solid in it, but I think that may actually add to it. At any rate, it's simmering this time, and I am restraining myself from going at it with the cracked pepper... Unrelated news, but i did a long shift today - 9-5:15 - including cleanup. I was a bit worried about the physical aspect of detail cleaning, but I was mostly alright. Discovered I can't dump chips from the fryer into the chip container (I can bend my wrist that far and I can carry the weight I just can't do both at the same time, and I'm too awkward doing it with my left hand) and had to get a fourteen-year-old to do it for me. Bit embarrassing, but when my wrist is screaming not-gonna-bend-that-far-under-that-weight-without-consequences, yeah, think it's time to hand it over to the fourteen-year old. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 24th, 2011
12:55 pm	Potato and Leek Soup Well, er, it turned out to be potato, leek and pepper soup 'cos a) I'm a total slut for cracked pepper and b) our cracked pepper container - it's a brand called g-fresh - is one of those ones that you take the lid off and have a big hole from which to pour (join your thumb and a finger together, that should give you an idea) and, well, my wrist still doesn't have total dexterity yet. Still, it was quite nice, and once it's boiled and I add the cream that should dilute the pepper/give it a creamier taste. I didn't make too much in case it turned out to be a disaster (I once attempted French onion which was basically simmering vegetable stock on top and a clump on onion on the bottom) so I'm sure it's something I can get through before I'm sick of it. It's definitely one of those recipies where you know it could do with some tweaking, but you can definitely taste the potential for something super-0yummy in there. And I love creamy soups during winter, and it's a lot easier to make than pumpkin. (Which I love, but dude, you ever cut up 10kgs of pumpkin? Not. Fun.) It tasted very not-potatoe-y. Might have been the pepper, but it looked rather green; the recipie also called for celery and spring onion. (OK, shallots. I was lazy.) And I put in twice as much potato as the recipie called for. I think next time I'll dial back on the green stuff - half-and-half volume (all three combined) at most.) (Comment on this)
Monday, June 20th, 2011
10:12 pm	Just Worked Out How Many New Books I've Read This Year... So, my goal is 300. I've done 234. Granted, for the last eight weeks I've had not much else to do and I speed read something chronic, but still... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
8:36 pm	High ponytail So, I put my hair in a highponytail, and... totally cute. All the swinginess of a high ponytail without the peskiness of hair on the back of my neck. (Maybe it's just those hot summer nights, but I hate hair on the back of my neck, making it even sweatier. Don't mind it in winter, though it still bugs me when it falls in my face.) And it seems to pull the front bits up into the lackey which a low ponytail wasn't doing. Also, got a compliment from one of the women I did my prac at the library with today. Our hair was basically the same shade. Mind you, don't think her colour is natural either. Seriously, it's almost a Rhianna-colour that hardly looks natural on anyone. But now that it's faded a bit after two washes I rally like, even more than when I first saw it. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
5:13 pm	TOR! TORITORITORI! (OK, you're only likely to get that if you've seen Homeward Bound. But anyway, I totally forgot the coolest redhead of all. Of course, she isn't exactly know for keeping it short, but still... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 6th, 2011
1:26 pm	Short, Red Hair I'm thinking of cutting my hair short - shoulder length or shorter - and dying it red, When people ask, the only celeb I can think of is Clara Bow, who of course is only photographed in back-and-white. But people who get it say 'of course, you could totally do Clara'. If anyone can think of a celeb that rocks short red hair, let me know. OK, I just thought of it. Cynthia Nixon... only cuter. Seriously, are there NO short red-headed celebs other than Nixon and Bow out there? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
9:24 pm	Sickness Benefit So, I've applied for a sickness payment which is a form of welfare for when you're tempoarily out of action and have a job to go back to. Yes, I know, very cool that we have it, but a source of frustration... There's always a bit of paperwork that still needs to be submitted. This lastest one is an up-to-date bank statement; because the woman who filed my claim couldn't just *look* at it and realise that the statement I gave was too early and I need a current one? I had a bank branch in the same building, I could have run over and had it submitted - well, as long as a bank and a government agency between them take, but that day at least. By the time they finally approve it, I may be back at work. And it's fine in the sense that I get back-paid so I'll get eight weeks worth of allowance in one go as opposed to four lots of payment, but it makes me think... what if I didn't have savings? What if I had *real* expenses and not living-at-home-with-mum-and-dad expenses? What's the point of welfare if they're going to jerk you around for two months? Getting two months of payments at once isn't really going to help if you've been evicted for not paying the rent. I don't have an answer for this. I also get that you can't just go to welfare and say 'I'm in need, give me money and don't ask questions' but there has to be a more efficient way of doing things than calling in dribs and drabs for some piece of paperwork or another for months on end? (Comment on this)
Monday, May 9th, 2011
5:57 pm	Cripple 1, Able-bodied 0 ... Actually, make that -2 'cos I outdid two able-bodied siblings. We were having a small - 800g - roast for dinner with one of those ready-to-bake trays of roast veges; both roast and vege tray fit into the one dish. I can carry the cooking dish to the over 'cos I can wedge an edge against my stomach but you kinda need both to get the hot tray out again. But apparantly it was too hot for both youngest sis and bro. I resolved it by picking the roast out with tongs and putting it onto a cold tray. Sis followed my lead and got the veges out that way. Felt pretty superior; other ssiter thought it was funny when I told her. On another note, I can't believe how much laundry/dishes four people can generate in less than a week. Though I suspect one person is actually generating half all on his - whoops, their - own and the rest in being generated by the other three. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
4:11 pm	Patriotism Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it. - George Bernard Shaw (Comment on this)
Friday, April 1st, 2011
8:38 pm	Library Well, the library work was an experience. I would still rather work in a public library, but it was fair less frazzling, being surrounded by k-12 kids all day. I think I made a good impression with the head librarian A, and I hope she asks me back when a day comes up. Something that comes to mind is that at one point, A told me to stand by the door and count heads at lunchtime. It's a very small library for a school of its size - a similarly-populated public school library would be 3-4x the size (my high school had about 2/3 the student population, being only a high school, and a library at least twice the size) and for some reason, it was a popular place to be during lunch. (Then again, it's been a hot Match, even for Perth, and Australian schools are notorious for forcing their students outside during breaks.) So after they reached the capacity of 120, I was told 'one student out, one student in'. I joked that it was like being a bouncer... except it turned out to be not so much a joke. It really WAS like being at a nightclub - minus the drunkenness, but with the unruly jostling guys trying to sneak past and complaining that others got in before them (on account that they were the primary-school kids of high-schools kids who had put their names down in advance for the study rooms). They would try to run past me and dude, my eyesight is poor, but you're no Jesse Jackson. I can spot you before you can sprint around the corner. But there was nothing really aggressive about it - cheeky, yes, especially in light of the fact they were trying to pull one over the new woman. But when I busted them, they would come back. Could have just been that they were scared of A (she struck me as someone who could be very formidable if she needed to be) but it wasn't on the same level of being a RAEL bouncer. At one point, I was struggling to learn the computing system and a fourth-grade helped me with it. An eight- or nine-year-old! Knew the library's computer system. (The staff system, not the OPAC system available to the students.) Girl is so going to be a librarian in fifteen year's time. So while I would still prefer a public library over a school library, it wasn't as stifling as I had thought, and heck, it was my first paid gig as a librarian. Actually, I found out today that, according to the Australian Library Association's web page, I'm due to be paid $36/hour... that's $270 for a 7.5 h day. (or $1350/week, or close to $68K/year.) I somehow doubt that - it's a level-one pay level for a technician, which is what I would be considered, but given I haven't finished my diploma (which makes me a librarian, not a technician, but with 6/8 done, I consider myself a technician) and hadn't done paid work until yesterday, I figured it's a bit rich to expect that. Still... it's lovely thinking about it. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
8:50 pm	Library Well, it was interesting. I reckon I'd prefer a public library still, but it wasn't quite as full of unmanagable brats as I had feared. Having said that - the Head Librarian asked me to stand at the door during lunch and count heads - after we'd reached our capacity of 120, it was one person out, one person in. I joked that it was like being a bouncer... except it turned out to be not so much of a joke. The library is rather small for a school of its size - a comparably-populated public school would have a library 3-4x the size - and for some reason, it's really popular during lunch. (Mind you, it was also a hot day, and most Australian primary and secondary schools force students outside during breaks.) I was constantly having to urge this group of boys back and yelling at them when they tried to sneak past me. I know this sounds ridiculous, and I'm sure you'll react the exact same way I was when I was told to stand gaurd by the door, but it felt like being a bouncer at a nightclub. Obviously without the drunken yobbo mentality, but still that culture of rowdiness and having to count numbers and make sure no-one snuck in. One of the fourth-grade girls instructed me how to put her book through the system; I found it amusing that she knew her library's computer system that well at 8 or 9. Girl's gonna be a librarian in fifteen years time, methinks. There was a point where there was at least one class, and they all appeared to be reading their own thing - unless a particular class's reading list includes magazines and various-sized books - very, very quietly. The most noise I heard was from me, tearing off sticky tape to bind books with. (I mean, to tape the ends of the hard plastic covering together, not use strips of sticky tape to cover them.) It was eeirie, but rather sweet. But good lord, the younger primary school kids are messy. At one point, one of them pulled an entire series out of the shelf and scattered it across the floor. I'm grateful, at least, that it was the one series in the one area so it was just a case of bundling them up and putting them back on the shelf. Young kids are the worst at picking something up, wandering around and dropping it miles from where they picked it up; at least old kids and adults can be reasonably relied on to read the blurb, decide if they want it or not and put it back where they found it, or at least close to it. The Head Librarian apologised that she wasn't able to throw much work my way - most of the staff are part-time so they usually pick up each other's shifts if someone's sick/on hols etc - but it was still cool to get a day's work and a day's pay in a library. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm	Relief Work. Got a day's relief work as a librarian tomorrow. Whoop, whoop! I know it's not much but it's a foot in the door and the Head Librarian seemed really keen to help me out so fingers crossed it goes out there. Whoop, whoop! My first REAL job - yaknow, NOT as a waitress/factory hand :))))) XXOO Scarlett. (Comment on this)