Holiday season update!

[kodalai]

Gosh, it's been a while since I updated!

I still haven't gotten around to taking photos of the apartment and surrounding area, my bad. You will just have to take my word for it that it is lovely, especially when coming back across the Vincent-Thomas bridge over the harbor at night and seeing the San Pedro hill rise up in front of you with all the little lights shining in the darkness like stars. I say "like stars" because I haven't actually seen actual stars since I moved here. Too much light pollution caused by the harbor facilities. Oh well.

Interestingly enough, San Pedro (or more generally, the "South Bay Area,") is still considered part of the Los Angeles city area despite being 25 miles away. If
you look at the map of Los Angeles county, with the city limits highlighted in red, you see how a sort of tentacle extrudes from the south edge of the city? Yeah, that basically encompasses ONLY the 110 Harbor Freeway, San Pedro, and the LA/LB Port. Not an expert on the history of the area, but I'm guessing that the economic benefits of
having the largest port on the west coast to be part of your city's municipal area was worth the embarrassment of having that shape on your map. The ultimate result being that if you type "San Pedro, CA" into google maps, it will frostily inform you that surely you meant San Pedro, Los Angeles?

Anyway, I've pretty much settled in and am quite happy here! One of the roommate's cats (with mine, there are four total) has made friends with Chrestomanci, fortunately. They play games of charge-and-chase, hiding inside boxes and leaping out at each other, and playing tag under the door... while the door is open. I'm glad he has a playmate, and probably Dusty is glad to have someone else around to play with who isn't ancient, cranky, or both.

I did find a job eventually, as you probably heard through other venues! Really, for all the sulking and histrionics I was doing over the fruitless and frustrating job search, I was unemployed for less than three months total -- picked up my new job on October 25th, almost exactly the same day as when I started working for Boeing on October 28th 2008. (the comparison being valid since I left Japan on the first day of august, too.)

I'm working tech support for KDDI America, hired through TekSystems again (same ones as placed me at Boeing.) Same rate, too, except that this job is only part time. At first I wondered how they could manage to hire someone who wasn't going to be there to provide full-time coverage. After a week or so on the job I started to wonder
why they needed to hire an extra person at all. The job is so quiet and sedately paced, I can't imagine a greater contrast with the hectic, every-minute-on-the-phone cacophony that my last job turned into by the end. I should have either gotten paid more for the last one, or less for this one (the first.)

This is only a temporary job, set to run through the end of the year. In the meantime I'm working to study up for the CompTIA A+ Essentials exam. I'm hoping that if I can take that exam and pass, then with that and a local, RECENT reference on my resume the door will open to even better jobs next year. We can hope!

Also, November is National Novel Writing Month! I planned to try to do it this year not to write a novel, but to write out my first screenplay. It's been a slow starter so far. By which I mean I haven't written down a damn word of it. Well, November isn't over yet, sigh.

With November halfway done, that also means we are well into what Americans fondly like to call THE HOLIDAY SEASON. We don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving all that heavily, and my usual strategy was to latch on to a friend who had a house and just go there for Thanksgiving dinner. Lacking such friends this year, I bought a few
turkey legs and am going to try my hand at making some gravy and put together a mini Thanksgiving dinner of my own. (Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans are the only important parts, anyway.)

And all set to go to Austin to see family for Christmas!

Comments

[nekojita.livejournal.com]

Sounds like things are settling nicely in the new place!

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo!

[aging-parents.livejournal.com]

There's plenty of precedent for this kind of annexation, going back at least to Periclean Athens, when the Long Walls were built to the port of Piraeus (which kept Athens safe, fed and able to engage in naval attacks all through the Peloponnesian War).

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, San Pedro (or more generally, the "South Bay Area,") is still considered part of the Los Angeles city area despite being 25 miles away. If
you look at the map of Los Angeles county, with the city limits highlighted in red, you see how a sort of tentacle extrudes from the south edge of the city? Yeah, that basically encompasses ONLY the 110 Harbor Freeway, San Pedro, and the LA/LB Port. Not an expert on the history of the area, but I'm guessing that the economic benefits of
having the largest port on the west coast to be part of your city's municipal area was worth the embarrassment of having that shape on your map. The ultimate result being that if you type "San Pedro, CA" into google maps, it will frostily inform you that surely you meant San Pedro, Los Angeles?

I lol'ed.

[foxglove6.livejournal.com]

maybe it would be easier to write the screenplay if you come up with the basic story outline first and then just write it as a screenplay.
huggles. glad to hear you are enjoying the new place.
incidentally, how do you find roommates? through friends or other resources? my sister is having a heck of a time finding roommates in philly

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Oh, I already have. I also have a scene order plotted and setting and dialogue spelled out for the first scene and a half. I just haven't written any of it down yet.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

And, craigslist. I really got lucky tho; there were several strike-out skeevy offers before I lucked on these ladies.