What was I going to do again?

This weather is beginning to wear on me. I’m finding it difficult to maintain the motivation to finish anything. I have a ton of great ideas, I just lack the ability to follow-through. I would love to blame this solely on the weather but it’s really my crushing sense of self-doubt and conviction that I will make people mad by asking for what I really want. I’m also finding it difficult to follow through with myy thoughts. I’m finding them a bit scatte…

I love cartoons. The first memory of ever looking at a TV screen includes a cartoon. They contain beautiful colors that you always try to see in real landscapes but never quite get close to. So, needless to say, I have loved the resurgence of animated feature-length movies that exploded on the scene with Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney which led to a ton of independent films. One of these is “Mary and Max”. I don’t want to give too much away but I’ll say that their letters are so intriguing because they say so much about themselves but do it indirectly. There are some of the usual “I’m eight and live in Blahblah” but you also learn that Mary has a small family that lies to her and generally has a miserable life yet is filled with hope for the future. She doesn’t say “I have hope for the future”, instead she talks about saving to marry a Scottish Duke named Earl Gray and living in a castle. She’s not willing to give up because of her current condition.

This movie is so good that you could turn off the picture and just listen to the audio and still absolutely love it. There isn’t one superfluous or wasted word in the entire film. I am particularly enamored of the letters. I would love to receive a letter like that. A letter from a stranger that is attempting to tell you all about them yet keeping in mind that it’s a letter so you have to say things kind of quickly. If I were to rip someone’s address out of a phone book and write to them, my letter may go something like this:

Dear Mr./Ms. Randomly-picked-person-from-Telstra-directory,

Good day. This is my attempt at being colloquial and polite at the same time. I picked your name out of a directory because I wanted to write an actual letter on real paper to someone I’ve never met and may never meet in my lifetime considering that it’s extremely expense to travel to Australia and I’m on a tight budget.

The University of Minnesota has had a wage-freeze for two years but I’ve managed to still increase my take-home pay by getting what my supervisors may term as a promotion although I’m really just taking on my responsibilities and getting only slightly more pay so really, I’m underpaid. But at least I’m paid.

In today’s technologically advanced world, do you think it’s better to communicate a gripe better through email or by phone? I often get nervous when I actually have to speak and end up stammering which makes me more self-conscious and makes things worse so I prefer email but my supervisors have said that a phone call would be less confrontational. I disagree because I think it’ll make the SFR Senior Administrator only more confused and irritated and therefore, unwilling to listen to my side of the story.

I would continue but now I’ve lost interest and am convinced that this was a stupid idea.