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So I'm back with Chapters.

It's like I never left. Never have four months felt like nothing. It's a fairly braindead job so no surprise there.

Money is always nice to have, which is why I'm back. In a cashless society I'd probably have found something else to occupy my time. As it is I'll be working 15+ hours on weekends and then back to school to study for/write exams. Yay money.

*money dance*

It doesn't feel like I'm employed. I'm going to show up in a dorky outfit for 8 hour stretches, shelve books and read anime on my breaks and do my best to ignore managers. Customers are a fact of life in retail, but they provide entertainment and a good excuse to look busy when the manager is watching.

I've found (with books, anyway) that handing them the book they've asked for takes .3 seconds, but pretending to be interested and striking up a conversation can take almost 10 minutes and makes both customer and manager happy (because it shows I care and it sells books). w00t. Trained monkeys can do it.

There's nothing new in kids' books. Fantasy is still being published like mad, there's another Lemony Snicket book, and there's no sign of a new Harry Potter book. For the record, I'd be fine with book six never seeing the light of day. For one, I don't really care that much about the characters. Mainly, though, the longer the wait is, the more kids will read to fill up the time (because you can read a book only so many times before it gets stale). The more kids read, the more authors they'll be exposed to. They'll read better authors. Rowling is a popular writer, but by no means is she author of the best kids' books. The gap between HP books is great for the industry. Not to mention the anticipation that builds up will cause massive sales. The three years in between books also soften the $50/book cost of those doorstops.

Oh, and exams are coming up. Yay.

(no subject)

And more fun:

Noam Chomsky spoke at York today, so I toddled along and watched.
The man has interesting ideas, but I knew that. The talk was sponsored by the Palestinian Human Rights whatsit group thing, so guess the topic... The best part was when all the liberal arts wankers were asking questions and he told them they were stupid.

At the end the organizers did some announcements. I'm still giggling about it: "And on the 30th George Bush will be in Ottawa. There's sign-up lists on your way out of the lecture." No explanation of "There's gonna be a protest" or "you know, this might be a mighty fine opportunity to have your voice be heard" or anything. Just "Dubya's coming: sign up outside to protest." The word protest wasn't even said. It was implicit that, given the proximity of GWB, there would be protests and busses to get people to those protests. Fun times.

I've got 2 exams on that day.

If you're in to going, spells_disaster put some links up.