Why does it feel like...

... I am cheating on books when using an e-book reader?

Yesterday I received an e-book reader as a gift. The moment I realized what the box in my hand contained, I was hit with a multitude of different thoughts. First up was:

1) Oh dear lord, it's a freakin' e-book reader? I can't accept this! I want to. But I can't! It's a frikkin' e-book reader for pete's sake!

And while this thought was stuck in repeat in my head a second thought managed to creep in which went something like:

2) An e-book reader! Must have cost a bit...but...am I going to use it?

I love reading. And I love books. And when I say that I mean that I love EVERYTHING about them. The words which are my gateway to a different world, but also the feel of the paper, the texture of the cover, the slowly yellowing pages, the smell, the paper-cuts gained when a book protests from being opened for the first time.

I am a bit fearful of e-book readers which are threatening to  take all of this away from me. Now that I actually have one I must say that it quite a useful contraption. You can basically carry a small library in your bag, a library which weighs the same, or even less than an average book. It is not even a strain on the eyes like I had imagined it to be.

I will probably try to find a way to use the reader at university (beats carrying a mountain of books any day). Bottom line is- E-book readers are a useful invention, but I'd rather curl up in bed with a book made out of paper and glue any day.

Now...

...it has definitely been more than a week. *Sigh* I didn't know having a job took this much time and energy out of you. Oh well, I'll be done from my first even job once I finish inputting the surveys I took online. I still have about twenty-one to do and it takes a couple of minutes more or less to input each one in, so if I focus I could finish in about an hour.

If I focus...which is pretty much what I am NOT doing now. Meh....

I finished another book, earlier this week. It's not the Sword in the Stone though. I kinda abandoned it for a while to read something else, the first book by John Green; Looking for Alaska. It was different than what I had imagined it to be, and because of that it was probably a greater read than I would have imagined it. Once again, this is a book I would lend to my friends...the only thing is that it's not mine to begin with so I can't. Thanks again to my sister for lending it to me. I'll be stopping by for more books to borrow very soon, you can count on that.

Unfortunately, no results came out this week. How hard is it to correct a bunch of multiple choice questions, geez. At least those results should have come out be now. *Pouts*

I still have not found the time to play or write so far this summer. It's a bit sad but since I know I actually am doing something with my time, I'm sorta OK with this. After all, the summer is till long (in case anyone cares or wants a dose of envy, summers over here are three months long. That's right, three whole months of absolutely no school.)

Well....what else is there to say? I will start my second job next Monday, on the 18th, up until the 22nd of August if I remember correctly. I don't think I'll get a job for the remaining month of holidays, I'll probably focus on enjoying myself and getting my driving license that month. I'm not sure how it works in other places but over here we have a written exam and a practical one (i.e. driving on the street) we have to pass to get our license. Yesterday I had the written exam and passed. Now I just need to call the driving school and start my practical lessons. *Takes out a fancy glass filled with an opaque yellowish liquid* Here's to me hoping that I don't end up crashed into a wall on my first lesson. *Drains the glass*. Mmmm, I love pineapple juice.

Till next time, take care.

This has been R.

It's been....

...almost a week. My plan is to update this blog at least once a week and since it has not been a week yet I have not broken any (self-imposed) promises, but I still feel a tad guilty for letting this much time slip by. Anyways, I honestly doubt any of you want to hear this kind of useless ramble, so lets switch to a different kind of rambling.

I got another result, this time a B. The subject was 'Media, Society and Culture' and the exam was a nightmare. When my friends and I walked out of the exam, we looked at each other, our faces wearing the same expressions;

Did we ever even go to these lectures? What the hell was that about?


Oh well, thankfully that went well too. Fingers crossed for the other seven results to come.

I also started working this week! I had a meeting with my employer and other students like myself last Tuesday, and now I get to go around interviewing random women about women at work and sexual discrimination. So much fun... I have thirty-three surveys to complete until the 13th of June and so far I've got 13 done. Slow moving work...

On Wednesday I had a barbecue on the beach with friends from the same course. Not everyone showed up, some people were sick and others were too busy with work, but it was fun nonetheless. I probably won't see them in person until I start my third year (if I get there) since we live quite apart, but that's what Facebook is for.

I started reading 'The sword in the stone' for some reason. I had forgotten I even bought the book (it was years ago) and I saw it sitting on the shelf, a blue spine with the owl Archimedes, the name of the author T.H. White written in white on the bottom part. Somehow this made me chuckle so I picked it up and started reading its now yellowing pages. Unfortunately I've been a bit busy so I have only read a couple of chapters, but hopefully I'll find the time to finish it soon.

Anyways, that's all that happened to me lately. No word about the other job I'm supposed to have. I wonder If anything is going to turn up...

*Warning, a title to this post cannot be issued due to the fact that the blogger's mind seems to be malfunctioning. Please stand by*

First thing I did when I woke up was to finish reading 'Life of Pi'. Finally! It's an awesome book and I highly recommend it to anyone. The moment I was done with it I went to had it over to my sleepy sister, who humbly accepted it before placing it on her bedside table and resuming her sleep. Unfortunately she did not get to sleep long, you'll know why in a minute.

I turned on my laptop, intent on writing a new blog post since it has been a couple of days since my last one. Before getting down to business I completed the usual routine of checking daily sites for news, email and of course Facebook to see what my friends have been up to. And there I saw that a friend had posted that the first of our results had come out. So it was with shaking hands that I logged on to my student profile on the university website and clicked the link which boldly stated: 'View current Results'.

After which I proceeded to run to my mother to inform her that I had achieved a B+ in Content Analysis and Semiotics, all the while jumping up and down on the spot. After that it was my father's turn to be informed, who nodded at me pleased from the back garden, contently puffing smoke from his pipe. It was at this point that my sister emerged from her room, a confused look across her face. She smiled to the news before wandering off to the bathroom to wash the remaining fragments of sleep from her eyes.

So the long path of waking up each morning, wondering whether the day will bring news of success or failure has finally started. At least we started off on a good note, even though I can't help but feel a tinge of disappointment at the fact that was only two points away from getting an A. Oh well, no use dwelling over things that cannot be changed, that is one of my mottoes (I am way too much of a carefree character to have only one motto, although that is the most frequent one).

Good luck to all of us, wherever it is needed.

Until the next post, this has been R, coming to you from an island somewhere.

This blog comes to you...

...from my new laptop. Unfortunately my previous (and first ever) 3-year-old laptop started giving me trouble a while back. Basically every time things started getting even a bit crowded, as in, running three programs at the same time (for example, internet, music playing and an application) it would just turn off suddenly. And when I started back up it would pretend nothing ever happened. No "Unexpected shut down occurred" or "Sorry for making you lose the work you had been working on". Nothing.

I took it to a lab to get fixed but after two days they told me it never gave them any trouble and did not shut down on their watch. So I took it back home and after fifteen minutes, history repeated itself.

So anyways, I had to loose my purse strings a bit and fish something out for a new laptop. But it's an awesome laptop so I don't really mind. 

Despite me loving technology, it seems to get a kick out of causing me trouble whenever it gets the chance. Which reminds me, my mobile has been going even more bonkers than usual this past week. Though luck, that's going to have to stay put for a lot longer...

Putting that aside. Not much has happened since the last blog post. Although I may have managed to get two jobs out of the applications I sent in. One of them is going to be only a couple of weeks long, and I still have no real information on the other job except it's location. It's probably going to be office work, although I am not really sure...Oh well, we'll see how that goes. 

I still have not written a line since exams ended apart from these blogs, although I finally started reading 'Life of Pi'. Been dying to read the book and I finally have the time, phew. 

Well, that's it for today, hope the post managed to keep you entertained for a minute or two.

Take care!

R

FREEDOM!!!

… is what I am celebrating right now.  Today I finally finished my exams for my second semester of my second year in university.  Until the end of next September I need not give university a second thought, that is until sometime next month when results will start coming out. I’ll either be crying from joy at passing or out of despair from having to sit through the re-sits. And since I had 9 subjects to go through, which totalled to seven written exams, three assignments and one presentation, only time will really tell how I managed through them.

So until September I will be shuffling my time between trying to get a decent summer job and actually working at one, playing video games, watching anime and most importantly writing. I also need to read the small pile of books that has slowly been accumulating and unfortunately ignored due to studying, and I need to get my driving licence. Wow. Maybe I should dedicate this blog to keep check of how many of these projects I’ll actually complete.

Hmm, so this is the list so far:

1. Get a job
2. Get driving licence
3. Finish the first draft of story
4. Play all the video games I have been buying and accumulating
5. Read all the books I have been buying and accumulating
6.  Read the books my sister has been buying (I noticed a couple of good ones around, including the books by John Green)
7.  Watch all the anime I’ve been meaning to watch (the list is never ending)
8. Keep writing this blog

I’m pretty sure that there are a couple of things I’m missing out. Oh well, I’ll add them on a later date I guess.

Well, I have three months to accomplish all this. I wonder if I’ll manage…

R

Edit:

P.S. I remembered another point for my to do list. My father asked me earlier on this year to help him translate a book from Italian to English together with my sister. I wonder if he still wanted me to do that...

Hi and welcome!

So, here we go.

I guess the thing to do when you start writing a blog is to introduce yourself, right? Let’s try it out then.

I am a twenty-year-old second-year student at university and I’m studying Communications with Psychology as my secondary area. I have two main goals in life; to become a writer and find someone I love who is crazy enough to want to share what’s left of their life with me.

Two of my hobbies are writing (duh) and procrastination, which is how I’ve come up with the idea of blogging. I do not have a lot of confidence when it comes to writing so I figured I could use this method as a way of practicing writing and in order to increase (or rather, create) the confidence I need. It’s also a way to kill time without actually feeling like I’m wasting it.

Other hobbies of mine are playing video games, listening to music, reading (manga and novels) and watching anime.

I’m still not sure what this blog is going to be about. It will most likely contain random thoughts and happenings in my life with a random review about random things thrown in I guess. Whatever this endeavor will turn out to be, I hope you will stick around to find out and help me create whatever the hell this is going to be. But most of all, I hope that I will be able to entertain you while I also enjoy myself.

I guess this is enough for an introduction. Hope you’ll make your way back here for the next post. Till then, take care.  

R.