A rant, if you will

As I have suspected in the past, some people can be singularly sneaky and underhanded in their discrimination against others. I'm not talking about racism or sexism, but superficial discrimination. It's something I've been facing for years in my search for employment, but this latest experience has me pissed, but not only that, it has me defeated.
I applied for a tour manager position with an education tour group of excellent repute a while back, and they were quick to offer me an interview spot. I have the qualifications and the experience, so I figured things were looking good. They asked that I bring a picture of myself to the interview, so I printed off my best picture and then braved the horrendous weather on Valentine's Day, in the middle of reading week, to go to their downtown offices and fill out a number of invasive question sheets and sit through a short interview. After the interview they said I would hear about the position within the next week, and I left feeling pretty good about the whole thing.
When a phone call, email or letter didn't show up the next week, I began to get a niggling suspicion that all was not well with my application. And sure enough, this evening when I got home from school, a letter from the tour company was waiting for me. It was a very thin letter, so I knew without even opening it what was inside.
I realized after reading the letter what had happened; it had happened before, what was different about this situation? They had asked for a picture and that should have been my first clue. It didn't matter how good my qualifications were or how much experience I had; I'm fat, and obviously didn't have the stamina or physical fitness to guide a group of pre-teens around a city for 3 or 4 days.
I just hate that. It takes a lot of physical strength and fitness to move around a body like mine for 20 years, and I haven't suffered for it like some other overweight people I know. My height is an advantage because it means my weight is distributed more evenly, but still, I have excellent endurance. So yes, I feel discriminated against, and they're small, petty people for feeling that way. My friends say it's their loss.
Well, guess what, kids! It's mine too.

-Laur

Obsessions and Upsets

I am obsessed with Bulk Barn knock-off chocolate mini-eggs. Last year they were SO BAD but it's like the crazy kitchen people with the company decided to work on the recipe and now they're amazing!!!! I'm in trouble for sure.
I would really like the major people in my life to just simmer down and stop moving around. My manager, Kathy, at the Penningtons store I work at has been transferred to another location effective Sunday. I'm pretty bummed about it. Kathy is like the raunchiest person I know and I love spending time with her. She's hilarious but she's also really wise, and I've learned a lot from working with her. The ladies at my work and I are taking her to Montana's for dinner tomorrow night so I'm baking a cake to eat for dessert. I'm really sad to see her go, no matter how good the new manager is apparently going to be. Her name is Sonja and she's described as "everyone's mom". I don't need another mom, I have one. I need a crazy, hilarious, somewhat innapropriate older woman to idolize.
Life is so not fair.

-Laur

Who's blogging now???!!

I am now sitting in my Contemp Lit class (where all excitement in my life is born) and we're talking about Blogs. What is a blog? If you're reading this right now, you know very well what a blog is. A blog is a window into someone's mind, or a window into someone's world.

I read a book called The Baghdad Blog for this lecture. It is a collection of blog entries written by a man named Salam Pax, who wrote about the American occupation of Iraq and how it was affecting himself and the people around him. It is at times hilarious (Pax has an excellent sense of humour and an engaging writing style) and at times horrifying, as well as sad and all too real. Pax had to go into hiding after his blog gained notoriety, but now he's resurfaced to come do interviews in North America. He hasn't posted since sometime in 2004, but his blog is a compelling read. You can read his blog at http://dear_raed.blogspot.com .

An active Baghdad blogger is http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com. Riverbend is the pseudonym for a woman posting in Iraq, and her blog is called "Baghdad Burning". It's recently been turned into a book as well, though I'm not sure my prof knows that. He was really concerned about this lecture because Riverbend hadn't posted anything since Saddam's hanging execution at the end of December but she posted yesterday and quite passionately as well.

Blogging is a strange creature; you can use it to be personal, to be passionate, to be objective or to be offensive. I just like to share.

-Laur

The end of an era?

So 2 weeks ago I discovered that a series that defined a lot of my adolescence is finally coming to its long-awaited end. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released on July 21st, 1 week after the film version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is released in theatres.
I remember the first time I read "The Philosopher's Stone". I had had the book in my possession once before but it was the adult-cover version and I didn't bother to read it because it looked boring (I admit it, I was shallow). The second time I got my hands on it I was in the eighth grade; I bought it at a Scholastic Book Fair at school for my sister, who had just had her tonsils and adnoids removed and was home from school recovering. I read it first, of course, and since then I've been hooked. I went to fansites, partied it up at bookstores every time a new book was released, won a brand new set of hardcover copies in a Toronto Star contest, and wrote scores of fanfiction. I was the ultimate teenage Harry Potter fanatic.
Now I'm 20 and that period ended a while ago. The last book is going to be intense, moreso than "The Half-Blood Prince", so July is going to be a very exciting month.
Here's a countdown thinger for both the book and the movie, courtesy of the HP fans at www.mugglenet.com, the world's biggest Harry Potter fansite.
I don't know whether to smile or cry. The evening of July 20th is going to be an emotional one.

-Laur

Day of Action

I am such a bad student. Today was the Day of Action to lower tuition fees in Ontario and I didn't go to protest. What kind of effect am I ever going to have on the post-secondary educational system if I don't stand up for what I believe in?
Shame shame, know your name.

-Laur