Snorlaxing couch potato

It may seem as if I have done exactly nothing in the past three weeks (which is mostly true), but a lot of things have changed since then.
My 'jobhunt tally' became obsolete almost immediately, due to a spontaneous job offer from Cardiff who urgently needed a Dutch speaker. In the space of 6 days I had the interview, the call-back and the contract. Done and dusted, and entirely serendipitous. In the same week I have found a place to live, for which I will be signing the lease and getting the key tomorrow.
In the grand scheme of things this means that I have achieved my primary goal: gaining employment before becoming completely destitute and having to retreat back to my parents' basement across the Channel and leaving the boyfriend all by his onesies. As this crisis has been averted, there is currently much rejoicing and good times are being had by all.

So, while my absence in the first two weeks can not be justified by anything other than shameless impersonations of Snorlax and Mr Couch Potato, the last week has been legitimately too busy to blog.

Basically how I spent October: like a human burrito.           (image credit)

But now I've risen like Cthulhu from the sea, and have started the rest of my life as a responsible, productive member of society (or an approximation thereof). I'll sadly be getting up at the ass-crack of dawn everyday, but on the flipside there is no more homework (ever.), and thereby enough time after work to write, read, play games and faff about completely guilt free. Seems like not such a bad trade off, as for once I'll be paid to do it, instead of paying some prestigious institution for the privilege of attending class. I'll be swimming in cash before you know it!
Well, not really, but a girl can dream, right?

So, as the battery of my laptop will be dying soon (scumbag battery), I'm afraid Worm will have to wait another day. I think I'll actually make it a joint review post with the Hunger Games trilogy, as I did manage to read that this month - the only real feat of note, to be honest. So more on that next time!

On the NaNoWriMo front, I have some sort of idea of a plot and a main character, but I need to flesh it out some more before November 1st. Currently it's not much yet, but I can say that it's not a continuation of my earlier works, so as yet every piece of fiction I've ever written remains unfinished. Kind of like every Zelda game I ever started. And every Dragon Age. And every Mario Bros.

I'm starting to sense a theme here, to be honest. But all that is past now! Now, I have time after work, and money, and will man the f*ck up and finally finish some console games without button-mashing with my eyes closed or cheating by having my little bro do the fights for me. I swear, really!

But I digress. I posted a word counter in the side bar, so you can keep track of my NaNo progress this year, which will hopefully be less abysmal than last year and secure a third Win on my record. So along with my moving house, Gishwhes madness (check it. Like, srsly), job and NaNoWriMo, the next little while will be just as busy. However, this will ensure that I haven't become a boring adult just yet.

But in all honesty, I do think I've turned a page in my life. I've left the post-student-limbo I've been in for the past month, and while this job is by no means the final destination career-wise, it gives me some security and a solid starting point from which to build my CV, hone my skills and get the corporate experience I so desperately lacked before. Not to mention the income that will allow me to stay in Cardiff, and hopefully move to London in the future. While things were by no means dire yet, they do look much brighter now that I have a job, a home and a more solid foothold from which to start my post-uni life. And at the moment, that is all I could ask for.

It seems we're ending on a more serious and/or philosophical note, but I think that's allowed once in a while.

Here are some silly Catvengers to lighten the mood:

Enjoy, and until next time, comrades!

Freedom

It is done. Finito. Over. Complete.
Finally, I finished my dissertation. It took 4 months, 1360 articles, 17.000-odd words, hours of SPSS trial-and-error for 12 measly graphs and assistance from a variety of lovely people to churn out this devil spawn of an assignment. Thankfully, it has now safely been bound in a spiffy blue leather hard cover with silver lettering (after the hell I went through it better look pretty), and I am finally rid of it.
 And have, at the same time, turned my back on higher education. This has officially been my very last assignment for Uni ever, concluding a grand total of 6 years at various institutions. Now, it's time to make a foray into the real world. This is very strange for me, because I've only ever gone to school, and am unsure on how to do anything else. I do believe I deserve a bit of time off before I get seriously started on a career, but money doesn't grow on trees and we all have to eat, right?
Cue the start of the most epic jobhunt ever (likesrslyomg). To motivate myself, I shall keep a regular tally of applications/replies etc. on this blog so that you may all witness the rollercoaster I fear this endeavour will inevitably become. So, without further ado:

8 October
Applications sent: 4
Applications acknowledged: 2
Negative replies: 1
Positive replies: 0
(after 4 applications sent on 6 October)

Not bad for a first start, I should say. Well, we'll see how it goes. As one of our football greats always says: "If you never shoot, you'll always miss".

In other news: I finally finished reading Treasure Island, after a long dissertation-induced hiatus. It was enjoyable, but rather short. Sometimes I found my mind was drifting a bit, especially at the lengthy descriptions of Jim trekking through the jungle. Other than that there were no big moments of boredom, and I couldn't find any horrible plot holes. It was amusing to realise that all the pirates I've seen elsewhere (*cough* POTC *cough*) have been inspired by Stevenson's portrayal of Long John Silver. Who is actually quite an intriguing bastard of a character, I found. As this is a children's book, you can't really expect much deeper character development, and therefore I didn't find it particularly profound. But since that is not at all what it pretends to be, I'm not complaining; it's really entertaining when you just want a bit of light reading.
I realise that most of you will have read it ages ago, but in my country it's far lesser-known as a classic, and isn't considered a staple in every household. We had other icons, like Thea Beckman, Marc De Bel, Annie M.G. Schmidt and Tonke Dragt. None of whom will ring a bell with anyone outside my Dutch/Belgian audience. Still, I think there are translations of Thea Beckman's work out there; worth a read or a look. Not a fantastic movie, but it is an illustration of how big a name she is in Dutch children's literature.
Next time, the long-awaited review of Worm, and why it's great or not so great.

I'm rather tired today, so I'll leave you with this last announcement: NaNoWriMo starts in 23 days!! Time to flex your literary muscles and join in the writing madness this November. For the fifth year in a row I will attempt the challenge of writing 50.000 words of a story in one month; I succeeded in 2008 and 2010, and failed abysmally in 2009 and 2011. In keeping with the trend, it's time for another win this year! If this sounds interesting to you, let me know; we can cheer each other to the finish line.

Edit: Just noticed that the widget for my social media buttons comes with ads now... sorry about that. Anyone have a good alternative?