Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

Have you missed me? Might be nice to have been missed, might not. If you have missed me then maybe this entry will get you all excited, hooray Blue’s back, how’s things? And if that’s the case you’ll probably be disappointed.
Why haven’t I blogged? I didn’t want to? Well, most of the time I didn’t. But often I did but, well, there’s lots to say and nothing to say at the same time really.
I’m kind of disappointing.
When I was working, ah so long ago now, I just plain didn’t want to. Work made me grumpy and tired. First week or so I took a nap as soon as I got home, put Fireflies by Owl City, I think (I’ll double check that later) on loop, curled up in a chair and tried to nap until mum got home. Really, spending all day at work looking at a computer screen and then coming home and spending all night looking at one seemed pretty stupid to me, hence the naps (Using this damned thing practically is my hobby, it’s on most of the time I’m awake).
So, you must’ve been wondering, how did work go for me, what did I learn, were the people nice?
Well, it was okay as jobs go I guess. First week or so was boring but bearable. My colleagues turned out to be pretty boring so by the end I was pretty alienated from them. I would write a long list about their faults but 1) I really can’t be bothered, 2) it was ages ago now, 3) and finally I don’t like to badmouth people behind their backs, not at all really but behind their backs is worse, makes me feel ashamed.
My bosses were nice but they did bug me towards the end and I maybe came across as a bit rude perhaps? Maybe insubordinate or insolent would be a better word, basically I doubt they’d want to employ me again given the choice.
As always happens with me, I started getting in a little late. I hate to say it because it would annoy me if this happened but I think people need to be strict with me from the start about timekeeping. To begin with people can be quite understanding but then I get worse and they regret it, so I think any future employer will have to be very firm with me about that from the start.
The thing that bugged me the most was that the system we were using was so unbelievably slow it could take five of ten minutes to attach a document (that was a big part of our job, scan folders, hundreds in fact, do some stuff on the database and attach the scans to the relevant jobs) it was all so tedious, monotonous, utterly and mind numbingly boring. That was bad enough, but then I started getting the urge to write. Typical right? All the time I spent at home doing nothing and I hardly wrote a thing but when I was stuck there it was all I wanted to do. I figured it shouldn’t be too bad to write a little while the pc took forever to stick one document to another. First I did it in word, I didn’t want to show the bosses and myself up by writing on paper, I could maybe make it look like I was working. Well, it was noticed so I stopped doing it. But really, we’re told that even if we can’t work to look busy. HOW? WHAT IS THERE TO DO? We couldn’t DO anything. One guy kept texting or emailing on his phone (to be fair he claimed it was for work, the office job with us was just his day job, he was, or had just started up as a music producer, had stuff to organise and such) but still. The other guy, well, I don’t know what he did, I know he kept checking the cricket scores online but that’s about it. When it all drove me a bit too mad (I did get a little crazy, that also helped with my alienation) I just thought sod it and tried to do a little writing. Really there was nothing else I could do. The pc’s didn’t even have ms paint or solitaire to distract the mad (yet creative) mind for a moment or two. So, yeah. I got told off a lot for writing instead of working. The whole job went on for a couple of months, no wonder I went mad.
Early on in the job I graduated, came away with a 2.2… hang on, have the certificate framed. Came away with “Bachelor of arts in creative writing and English literature second class honours (lower division)”. The whole shirt and waistcoat thing came out well though the cape thing pulled the waistcoat up so it wasn’t exactly straight and looked all crooked. Wish I’d smoothed the damned thing down before I got my picture taken but I was too busy trying to smooth down my hair (hadn’t put much effort into styling it the night before so it frizzed up a bit and made me look like a spaniel). I had my pocket watch, the one I mentioned wanting to get. It’s pretty cool, it’s an actual functioning pocket watch, keeps very good time. I got to see some of my friends again which was great. Did I tell you before? I doubt I did, I couldn’t have. Those 1000 cranes I was making, well, I had to finish them before graduation because my wish was that I be able to graduate and see my friends again and to basically have a good day I guess, and I did. The cranes are in a box in my room now, I dismantled them again. I figured since I don’t need to rush anymore I can take my time and find a way to hang them up nicely instead of just stringing them up on any old thread.

Well, that’s the main points of all you’ve missed. So, what am I doing now you ask. Nothing. I had a great plan. Since I realised my hatred for office work and offices in general during that job I’ve decided that, if I can help it, I never want to work in one again. I’ve considered something with books, a library or maybe a nicel little bookshop. Yeah well, at the moment councils are fighting to keep their libraries open due to budget cuts so I doubt they’re hiring and bookshops, well, is there mush need what with ebay and the like. I have looked up some local bookshops lately but that’s on hold. Yeah. Here’s the disappointment. Since I always complain about how I do nothing and need to move on I guess you’d have thought that job was finally me taking a step up, finally growing up and accepting some responsibilities. Yeah, well, it was short lived. I’ve been using my novel as an excuse but I haven’t done much of that. Why when you have nothing to do does inspiration just vanish? Maybe it’s just me, I’m not working hard enough at it.
Well, I have another reason now for not having a job. I’m looking after a friend’s dog. There were things going on at home that I feel I have no right to divulge, since it was spread around facebook anyway. I’ll just say something bad happened and it upset the family, so while they straighten things out we’re looking after their dog for them. She’s a 3 year old Siberian husky called Saskia and we’ve been looking after her for just over a month now. We thought she’d have gone home by now but things weren’t as straight as we first thought so we don’t know how long we’ll have her. I’m happy to keep her around but really our house isn’t suited for a dog , the last dog we had was 18 years ago when the house was much tidier (come on you gather things over 18 years that you just don’t want to throw out) and the garden was less over grown (the birds like it that way) We’re getting along fine though. Only thing is, huskies as a breed get lonely anyway and even though it’s been a while now we think she might still be grieving. No one wanted to be in the house so the dog was left alone (she was still fed an taken out don’t you dare think she was neglected) but she got lonely and she couldn’t move into a relatives’ house with the rest of her family because another husky lives there (her sister who’s bigger and pretty territorial) so we agreed to look after her. And since she’s been here (and I’m jobless and not looking at the moment) I’ve never really left her alone. I left her once nearly a month ago for all of half an hour to buy mum a birthday cake (I had a great plan for her birthday but the dog arriving messed it up, maybe I’ll detail it later if you really want to know) and when I came back she was so happy to see me that I made me sad, she must’ve felt so lonely and frightened. For 2/3 weeks I didn’t leave her but for the past couple of weeks I’ve gone shopping with mum on Sunday (I can’t trust her not to buy something stupid and besides, I had experimental cooking I wanted to do (Again I’ll detail that later if you like, you’ll have to remind me though)) We’re not even gone for 2 hours but she;s so happy to see us. I fell a bit better about it now though because she’s starting to understand that we leave her on Sunday but we always come back with treats, so it’s becoming routine now. So, with this in mind I don’t fancy leaving her on her own during the week while I go to work, hence still no job. I planned to have at least looked for another one by now, since repayment of my student loan starts in April, nut I really don’t want to leave the dog on her own.
Yeah, though I say that and it’s true, it’s still an excuse isn’t it.
Well, at least I’m going out and exercising now. We take her out 4 times a day. Once in the morning with mum to do her business. Once in the afternoon with me for exercise and in case she has business to do. Once in the evening for the same as before and once at night with mum to do her business before bed. Why so many walks? Well, huskies as a breed are supposed to be energetic and because our garden’s full of thorns and gaps she could squeeze through we can’t let her run free out there (huskies will explore every hole, escape and then who knows, I’m told the number one cause of death for huskies is road accidents) so she has so many walks as a substitute for running around the garden. Seems to be working, she’s put on weight since she’s been here (her hips are fatter, we thing she might have been off her food when she came because of the grieving). She’s a pretty happy dog although I know she’d be happier with her family and playing with the children but she seems as hapy as she can be at the moment.
Also, something I almost forgot, One of my cousins had a baby over the summer, I’ve seen him twice now and he’s soooooo cute. Well, I say cousin, my cousin’s daughter, my second cousin, making the baby my third cousin confusing no? I’ve asked if I can be called his auntie instead since it’ll be less confusing for him and I’m about the same age as his uncles anyway (my other two second cousins).
Oh, made it to the anime expo in summer, went as a cat maid with purple hair, (thank you Tokyo Toys, your merchandise and service rock) bought some nice stuff, maybe will write more on that later.
There, that’s all the important stuff I can think of for now.
I guess I hope you guys aren’t too disappointed in me and all.
(typed too much to bother with spellchecking now. Please excuse me)

Bluebiird out. (missed saying that, got bored of it but maybe I’ll bring it back, no promises though)