How things have been

Wow, I stink at blogging lately. Here's why:

I've been at my new job for 4 weeks now. I'm still learning a lot of new things. I think it will be another month or two before I'm comfortable with the day-to-day things I have to do.

I'm working on the side for my old boss. I help him for $18/hour doing little things he needs from my home in the evenings. We knew my time would be in higher demand for the first couple of months... but it has been hard, even being prepared for it. I get home from work, and whip out my dinosaur laptop from my old job for an hour or two 2-3 times/week. I get my first paycheck from this next week, so we will see how worth it it has been :)

I'm also still doing photography. I am only 2 shoots behind on editing, amazingly. I need to just push myself to work extra hard for two weeks to get caught up, I just haven't seemed to want to yet.

I have only been scheduling 1 shoot/week now though. This is going to be much better for me. More time for relaxing. And more time to enjoy the shoots I'm working on. I want to be able to LEARN as I go, not just be forced to spit pictures out.

I did have my first really unfortunate misunderstanding with a client though. No details will be given, but it was embarrassing, and awkward, and I hope I've met the worst situation I will meet.

Trevor's been nice about me having less time. He's been picking up the laundry slack, and not complaining too much when I don't want to do anything but watch tv in my relaxation time.

After finishing The Wheel of Time series, I started reading some more Jane Austen books. Just finished Emma.

Emma by Jane Austen


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hm... Emma. I dislike her. I grew to like the story. I expect that this is how it was supposed to be, but I immediately was fond of Mr. Knightley. And throughout the entire book was looking out for his welfare. Even though Emma admits she is self-centered, and Austen intends for her to be that way, I still have a hard time sympathizing with her. I'm happy that Mr. Knightley ends up happy, but to be honest, I don't think Emma deserves him. He must see a goodness in her that the book doesn't fully portray.

This book, more than the other two Austen books I've read so far, has a bigger statement on rank. Emma is overly concerned with each of her friends' rank and status in the society they keep. She ruins people's dreams and lives just because they have less money or less "elegance," as she puts it. Emma has a sense of propriety that is far stricter that everyone else's around her, she seems to just come off as a snob a lot of times. I'm glad that Mr. Knightley is there to continue to guide her in the right direction.

The first part of the book was a little dull, but it got more interesting as the chapters progressed. Secret engagements and uncouth men seem to be Austen's fallback. I guess what the end result is going to be simply because I can expect a certain storyline from Austen now. Although, making Mr. Churchill actually AGREEABLE was a change.

I believe I see the statement Austen was trying to make in writing Emma. Emma is a judgemental person. We see her faults and we see her strengths through her thoughts. We can see her misjudgement of others and wish for her to act more on the accepting feelings she also has.

This book was better than Sense and Sensibility to me. I enjoyed reading about respectable men for a change. It seemed the women were more deplorable than the men in Emma. Quite a change, it seems.

View all my reviews >>

Speaking of goodreads... I think you all should join :) And share your books and reviews with me. I like seeing what other people read and what they think of it.

I always feel guilty being on the computer and not editing, so I should probably either go clean the kitchen or edit some pictures.