The best kind of impulse shopping

I wasn’t planning to buy a box of Honey Nut Cheerios tonight. I really wasn’t. But when I saw that Kroger had a sale ($1.50/box), and then saw that there was a dispenser with coupons for $0.75 off of Honey Nut Cheerios, and then remembered that Kroger doubles all coupons less than a dollar…It’s hard to resist a box of cereal for exactly $0.00.

A “Little” Film Review

I have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers.

I Love: A good trailer will let you know, with a certain degree of accuracy, whether you will enjoy seeing the film or not. And, it’s a good way of advertising a film. Trailers are a great way to find out about films you otherwise wouldn’t automatically see.

I Hate: Too often, trailers are put together by marketers whose only focus is to get people to watch the film. This usually means putting all the ‘best bits’ into a montage with a dramatic narration that summarizes the plot. Unfortunately, a lot of times, the ‘best bits’ were the ‘only bits’, and watching the trailer can be more rewarding than watching the movie itself.

“Little Miss Sunshine” is not a film that I would have necessarily decided to see on its face (i.e. the title, the actors in it, the premise). I had seen the trailer, however, and my Entertainment Weekly magazine described it as a surprise summer hit, and so I decided to see it on opening weekend. I was not disappointed.

The trailer for Little Miss Sunshine got it all right. From watching the trailer you can deduce that A) this is an ‘indie film’; B) this family is dysfunctional; C) the characters are quirky; and D) this is a comedy. And it doesn’t give away all the punchlines.

The premise is simple: when a young girl wins a spot in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest, her barely-functional family are swept up into a road-trip adventure. The characters are full of quirks: dad is a motivational speaker in the midst of a streak of failure; the teenage son has taken a vow of silence; Grandpa has several vices (and quite proud of all of them); Mom is just trying to hold things together.

There was a danger of caricature, but the actors manage to bring emotional depth and ‘realness’ to the characters despite the absurdities. This is a dark comedy which speaks to the human condition, and it concludes with a surprisingly strong indictment of artificiality. Don’t miss this movie. I haven’t laughed out loud so much in a long time.

“Little Miss Sunshine” is rated R for language.

Somebody’s Gotta Do It

Every month, Highlights receives more than 2,000 pieces of mail from kids with notes, poems, drawings, etc. And although only half a dozen or so of those are chosen to be printed in each issue of the magazine, each of those letters receives a personalized response. That’s not my job, although that would be fun, but I do get to create/maintain a large bulletin board display from the remaining pieces of mail in the break room as a reminder to everybody at Highlights of who the customer is.
I have noticed some trends about what kids are drawing, and thought you might be interested in my observations. Top on the list so far are: animals (horses and dogs), people (fairies and angels), and holiday-themes (snowmen and Christmas trees). Surprisingly (to me), only a small percentage of the drawings are of cartoon or other commercialized characters (i.e. Power Puff Girls), although SpongeBob SquarePants does seem to be pretty popular.

I created my first bulletin board this week (my boss said it was the best one ever, but she could just be saying that), and I plan to change it out every two weeks as there are so many to choose from. It’s a tough job, I know.

New Job: Day One

I spent much of the first day getting set up on my computer and reclaiming my cubicle from what appears to have been a string of people who never threw anything out from the previous occupant. Among the items I sent to the recycling bin were a number of catalogs and brochures dated 1994. I did not, however, throw away the unopened packet of gourmet Ghiridelli Hot Chocolate. Yum!

Going…Nowhere?

As I was riding the elevator up to one of my last temp jobs for awhile, I noticed this small sign attached to the elevator panel: “Blinking indicates help is on the way.”

I assume this must be universal sign language, just in case you get stuck on the elevator with someone who happens to be both deaf and illiterate, and you want to be reassuring…

Al Gore’s Important Movie

Yesterday I watched An Inconvenient Truth the global-warming documentary starring Al Gore. It paints a bleak picture of the future health of planet earth. It just may change your opinion on whether global warming is a relevant issue. Al Gore clearly has a passion for this subject, as demonstrated by the fact that the movie is a glossed-up version of a slide-show style presentation he has delivered around the country and the globe since long before he was running for president.

Here are a few links to explore:

ClimateCrisis.org (the movie will tell you to visit this site)

StopGlobalWarming.org (petition your mayor)

Energy Federation Incorporated (buy energy efficient light bulbs, etc.)

Efficiency Maine (useful energy-saving household tips)

Union of Concerned Scientists

Hybrid Center (everything you need to know about buying a hybrid car)

Okay, I’ll stop now. Go see the movie.

_____

Addendum:

Washington Post article (in which scientists vouch for the accuracy of the science in the movie)

Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (tax breaks, for example)

Update: Employed

One week from Tuesday, I will start my new job as an intern at Highlights for Children, in their communications department. This is great because it means a consistent paycheck for a minimum of the next 3 months and should be a good stepping stone to full-status employment with Highlights down the road. The job is full-time, pays decent, but unfortunately does not come with benefits.

I’m quite relieved to have gotten this internship, particularly because the interview process was so time- and energy-intensive that it would have been discouraging not to have gotten it. The interview process was in three main phases. The first phase, the standard ‘interview’ phase was actually also in two parts. One hour interviewing with an HR person, and one hour interviewing with my prospective boss (the head of the small communications department, and I will basically be her assistant). Phase two was a writing assignment. One of my future job duties will be to come up with and write a ‘health news’ column for the company’s internal news letter. My writing assignment was to write a sample article 400-600 words on a topic of my choice (that I felt was in line with some sample articles I was given). This required research and writing, on my own time, several hours work over the course of a week. Phase three was a design assignment. One afternoon I came in at 1:00 p.m. and was given a deadline of 5:00 p.m. to redesign a pamphlet that they use at job fairs to hopefully get people interested in working for Highlights. I did take most of the 4 hours, but I was pretty happy with my results. All three phases, unpaid, and with no guarantee that at the end I would get a temporary internship without benefits! At this point, of course, it seems worth it, but I probably wouldn’t be so happy if it had all been for naught.