Shameless self promotion

Well, I've started my sports blog:

http://becksballs.blogspot.com/

Henceforth all baseball, UofU athletics and other sports related rants should be there.
I've been reading The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. She's one of the few female fantasy novelists I've found who isn't afraid to be funny. I've grinned all through it and even laughed out loud in public.
Look for my Sundance tenative schedule soon. I just don't happen to have it at hand.
Need more coffee...

On the job hunt

There is only one thing I regret about my education: that I do not have more of it.
Being on the job hunt has changed a lot in the last 14 years. Instead of looking through the paper, printing resumes and mailing them or going to look at job boards at the University and businesses (I had a routine for that) I sit in the coffee shop and hunt online. I e-mail the resume when I find something the least bit interesting and hope for the best.
Hello! I'm a 40-year-old, left handed woman with BAs in German and English from the University of Utah. I work well and as long as I'm not bored I work hard. I know stuff, and if I don't know it I'm not afraid to hunt the information down. It's what I do. I have a sharp temper, but after I explode I'm fine - so much better than letting things get bottled up. I have a foul mouth, but can usually keep it down to a dull mutter. Not being on the phone with the public makes me happy. So does good coffee. I prefer working with other single people. I want benefits and a good pay check. I fear no computer (though I loathe Windows I can use it) and learn fast. I'm not as shy as I used to be.
Anyone know of a job that will fit me like a pair of size 7 (women's 9) Converse All-Stars?
Maybe I'm not too old to go back to school for an MLS. Or another BA, maybe linguistics or cultural geography.... Something that lets me work with maps.... That'd be nice.
As for more important things. The Runnin' Utes basketball team look like the flailing Utes this year, so much talent and 6 games lost by 3 or fewer points.
At least pitchers & catchers report for Spring Training on February 17 and Feb. 21 for position players, so baseball is coming! 25 years since the Brewers won the American League, maybe they can take the NL this year. Looking at the snow today, I feel the need for a bit of baseball and the promise of summer.
Look for my sports blog coming soon.

Training for Sundance

Went to see "Candy" on Monday night. That's the Australian junkie movie for those without an art house close by. I read the novel in 1998 and from what I remember about the book the film is a good translation.
Abbie Cornish is absolutely radiant as Candy even at the deepest darkest point of the film, Heath Ledger is Dan her as loving as a junkie can be boyfriend/husband, and Geoffrey Rush is Caspar, Dan's older gay chemistry professor friend who is as close as Dan has to a father (and also a handy source for very pure heroin). How can a film go wrong with a cast like that? Actually I don't remember seeing Abbie Cornish before and her credits on IMDB don't mean much to me, though there are two post-production projects there so we should be seeing more of her in the near future.
The movie has also left me feeling a bit twitchy or restless at the very least. Despite the red burn pollution day (no wood or coal fires, restrict driving), I must've driven around for half an hour after seeing it. I didn't stop at any of my usual bars or coffee shops I just drove trying to decide whose company I needed.
I decided, but then decided against dropping in. Sometimes it's better to keep things less complicated.
Anyway, Sundance is coming and my friend Brian's cousin has a film in the World Documentary competition "A Very British Gangster." If you search for it on the Sundance Film Festival page or IMDB (see links at right) you can read the blurb. The best thing is that Brian gets to come back from Dublin for Sundance to show his cousin around.
I'm having spell check problems again today, so pardon any errors.

December was an odd one

Haven't written much of anything for a while. Not even many e-mails, it's been all about the resume. But I'm convinced there is a perfect job that needs me waiting to show up. I hope it'll be after Sundance though.
My Great Aunt Babe, age 101 3/4 died in December. She had a good long life and was still quite sharp to the end. If you read my baseball posts you'll read a bit more about her.
My, I guess friend is the right word, of about 22 years, Sean Fightmaster also died in December. I didn't make the wake at Piper Down because I was still thinking about Aunt Babe. I did make it to Burt's Tiki Lounge the next night. That was a blast. As Cory says, "it was great sitting at the Tiki listening to punk bands with all of the people I used to go to punk shows with."
I just read through the whole guestbook at legacy.com (http://www.legacy.com/saltlaketribune/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=20201026). Lot's of people I know and used to know there. (Brendan I think you still owe me $5). I think my entry was a bit terse, even though Syd told me it was just right. But that's kind of how I reacted to Sean from the first day I met him at the Stockdale's house - he was Charlie's annoying little preppy friend in madras shorts, Docksiders and iZod shirts.
That said. I'll miss the kid. He was a great person with a heart of gold. He could talk about everything from physics to grilled cheese sandwiches with enthusiasm, if he didn't know the subject he listened and asked good questions until he was bored and bounced to other topics or conversation with someone else or managed to sidetrack onto something he knew and was interested in. More than once, on a bad day, he was the one who saw I needed a friend and and ear and offered me both. From time to time, since he returned to Salt Lake from Portland, I was able to offer the same to him.
He really, really annoyed me a lot of the time, but I still liked him and was usually happy to see him. He'd been doing so well the last few months, he was starting to take responsibility for his actions without losing his enthusiasm or sarcasm. Like everyone else I have a million Sean stories, drank as much coffee as beer with him and will miss him, even though my main image of him is pre-mohawk. Even when I just wanted to slap him he always managed to make me smile.