« December 2004 | Main | February 2005 »

January 29, 2005

Dred Maintenance

Sweet, I phoned Hedy and we're going to do maintenence on next Saturday. It's weird, she totally has a completely different perspective on dred-stuff than my other "stylist" and I'm really curious as to her techniques. She's against crochet work, among other interesting perspectives. I'm very excited. :D

More Quotes

Fave rap quote, evar:

"Sure as God made man, the first man was Black
The Black man made pyramids and gangsta rap
"
-- Xzibit, "Gambler"

And recently my micro prof (whose name is Gorkem Celik) recently had this conversation in class:

Student "How do you pronounce your name?"
Prof "I don't remember, it's been so long since I've heard it pronounced correctly."

Ha, pure gold.

January 28, 2005

Waves of Fog

I'm between classes right now, sitting down at the second floor of Koerner and I'm watching this awesome event. Waves of Fog, rolling by. You can't really see it form the ground, but there's fog blowing in from the north. At first I thought it was fog rolling in, but it gets lighter, then heavier, then lighter again. But the wind isn't changing direction. Instead, it's like clouds of fog blowing past the library, one moment I can see the clock tower, the next I can't.

It's very cool.

January 27, 2005

Durr

So I rushed out the door today to ensure that I made it onto class on time. Well, arriving at 1pm, I realised that I left an hour too early. Durr. It's nice though, ran into Ben (buddy from Classical Lit last year) and chatted it up with him. Now my little lappy is charging happily, and I'm thankful for the moment's reprise.

January 26, 2005

Nervousness Sets Back In

Now I have to go to my Food Coop board meeting tonight and pitch it to them. Much like the networking thing, I am filled with nervousness. Except with the sustainability thing, I was heading into the unknown. Which is scary, but not that bad (you don't actually have any idea what it will look like). However, the Food Coop meeting is scarier because I know those people, and I don't have the advantage of ignorance. In the Coop board, I feel like the omega or pariah. Unlike the networking thing, where I was the outsider (which I find a source of strength), the feeling of being "in" but not necessarily accepted (foreigner might also be a good term) is very much there. I'm critical, they're supportive. They're women (and like, all of them are, which is weird) and I'm not. Now, superficially, there isn't much difference between the networking thing, but the baggage is present at the Coop. Yarg, hope it goes well.

January 25, 2005

Sustainability Networking Session

Whoa, I'm buzzing. There was 50 people at the networking session and 5 tables, and I got one of the tables all to myself to talk about my (Yan and Garrett's too, but they couldn't make it) "Responsible Consumption Week" plan. Ten people at a tables for 10-20min, then we switch it up. Managed to talk to everyone there, got a whole bunch a good ideas, and a whole bunch a e-mails. I was definately nervous, didn't have the cr3w to back me up but it went really well. Economists should deal with ethical issues more often, it was received really well (especially from the realists/skeptics).

I'm buzzing. So much work, so much potential. I'm glad I have less classes, extra-curicular, here I come.

January 24, 2005

Lost Lagoon is Flooded

January 21, 2005

LJ-Style Whining

Gods I feel terrible. Nothing's going particularly badly, but I just feel bad. Hopefully the mad activity of this weekend will reinvigour me.

Friday I've got a pack session with Erin about Lost teaching Aimee Garou Lore. Ironically only me and her can actually attend. Har har.

Saturday I've got a meeting with Yan and Garrett to finally hash out the business plan for the "Vote With Your Dollar Fair". That should be good. Ideally I'd also get Hedy to do maintenence on my dreds. That would, of course, involve actually calling her.

Sunday is the first full live action session for werewolf. Should be pretty darn intense. Still have lots of character-creation shit to deal with, which is annoying (because it should be done by now). Ah well.

I'm just crabby, I hope I can shake it. After class, I'll get some necessary dairy from the Food Coop and then go home. Maybe some food will cheer me up. Often does.

January 19, 2005

A Black Cloud

It follows me wherever I go. It doesn't come from the sky but instead hovers about me, rolls about in my mind. The beautiful rain, the quiet snow, the blue, grey, or black overhead have no effect on its presence. Woven from a single phrase - devoid of care - it is wrought about my being. Sometimes it constricts, like thorny vines, cutting me if I move. Othertimes it is a haze, like a malignant fog blurring my sight. Now it is a swamp, dreary, sapping my desire to move, to perform, to live, to... enjoy. All this fashioned from a single phrase, not even enough to call a sentence. Its power, surprising and unjust.

January 17, 2005

The Rain...

...is beautiful, isn't it?

Mental Note

Do not write important and sensitive messages at five in the morning after a concert. Probability of results being disasterous increase.

January 15, 2005

Late Night/Early Morning

Whichever you prefer. Just got back from Bukem. Czech and Ill Esha both opened and they were wonderful, Bukem and Conrad were fantastic. On the whole, a much better experience than the first Bukem (which is saying something, the first Bukem was pretty cool). We're not talking Ministry levels of divinity, but certainly something pretty special.

Anyways, hope this message finds you all in good spirits. To eat, then bed.

January 12, 2005

Stuff

Werewolf is going pretty intense, I'm darn happy with it. I have ALOT of work to do on it, but hey, that's how I like it.

School is still indecisive, although I'm leaning more towards this summer-school madness. I'll look into it more, might take some second year math class(es) as well, in case I feel like doing Masters work at any point. Still uncertain though.

Money wise I've been having problems with all my burseries, student loans, grants, balh blah blah. Not a big deal, just figuring out all the bits and pieces of all this cash. Kinda nice really, I think I'm going to try and grab some scholarships for once, because to date I haven't tried to get any.

I'm planning to do a "Vote With Your Dollar Fair" at UBC with a couple of Honours buds of mine. Feels really exciting. Will involve a whole lotta work, but I'm really excited about it.

Dentist on friday morning, LTJ Bukem on friday night.

Things go, things go.

January 10, 2005

Still Chewing

The grains of sand in my hourglass are running low, but I still haven't come to a decision to either try and take 326 this term and then take 325 alongside 490 (I got the numbers wrong, honours students do 495 which is the seminar and 499 which is the thesis), or whether to take 325-326 in the summer. I realise that if I continue to debate, then eventually the decision will be made for me: I will have to have the summer semester because we would be too far into this one for me to both argue my way in and do 326.

The big thing is that I don't really want to buck the system. I don't entirely feel that I should be this grand exception, instead I'd rather make it on my worth instead of my ability to convince others of my worth. Also, the second thing is one of the few things that really stresses me out. Sick, people dying, work load is hell, all these things don't stress me too much, they just suck. But there are some things that trying to convince others of my worth, or my peers thinking poorly of my worth (very interconnected issues) that make my back turn into a bunch of knots that feel like a pile of quarters and dimes.

I have my nervousness issues, for example when I was about to run the pack session that would mean the death of half of the character-base and the destruction of the Caern I almost threw up I was so nervous when I stepped out the door. I mean, technically speaking, I think I *did* throw up (although only a really small amount, like acid reflux plus, which I don't normally count), so the point is pretty solid. But afterwards, I may feel exhausted, happy, sad, or whatever, but stress - that emotion I typically associate with lasting nervousness and uncertainty and strain - I can't say it included.

Even the madness of last term didn't get me stressed. I mean, it broke me physically, but that was more due to not sleeping and what-not. Same thing would have happened if I had run a few moots in a row. But afterwards, I was still limber as a cat.

But this whole 325-exception thing has my muscles all knotted up and tense, sometimes so badly that my back starts to spasm (oh gods that hurts). I thought I'd got past this particular problem for a while, because of being accepted into Honours and all.

Anyways, I'm not sure where I'm going with this, the point is that I'm still figuring stuff out. Hopefully I'll get a better picture in my mind as of tonight. Probably not though.

January 7, 2005

Cool Meme

This meme is wicked, special thanks to greenstorm for this particular gem coming my way, even though she hates memes as a general rule :P

You are Winter. You're more introspective, thinking deeply, feeling deeply. You love nothing better than to enjoy one on one time with those who are important to you. You are cautious, and sometimes second guess yourself. Dreams, though you have them, are a luxury, because life is not a plaything.

What Season Are You?

Pretty art, and it's more evidence of my danky dark nature. If you're going to post this to your LJ though, for gods sake use lj-cut.

January 6, 2005

Snow!

That about sums it up.

January 5, 2005

On The Bus Back From School

Back into old routines, laptop and 99S.

So I'm caught between a rock and a hard place, and I'm trying to figure out what to do. If I take 325/326 during the summer, it'll completely devour my summer and I honestly can't figure out another class I could be taking. That means from May until August I'd be only taking one class. This is an incredibly expensive endeavour, because all of the work that I can do well is Mon-Fri 9-5 type stuff. I refuse to do shift work again because it pays so poorly and treats you so badly (and the idea of jeopordising my success in those classes for work that may not even pay the bills is so freaking rediculous). Most good jobs I could get are severely limited by this one-class during the day probably 3-5 days a week. This makes going to summer semester extremely expensive (both in lost wages, paying for living expenses, etc) and incredibly frustrating.

On the other hand, I've been told that 325-326-490-495 are core requisites and therefore must be all completed in that order and not concurrently, no exceptions. My only recourse at this point is to talk to the head of the Econ department, and then maybe chats with the dean and other bullshit. I'd be trying to convince them to let me take 326 this term and then retake 325 in the Fall concurrently with 490 (which is the "lecture" portion of the thesis). I've already taken 325, I just failed it. This would be a huge bending of the rules (taking them "out of order" as well as some concurrently, technically).

While I prefer the outcome of a successful "battle for unconventionality", I'm not sure I want to deal with the convincing itself. Not only do I not like exceptions to the rule, but UBC has a tendancy to be more forthcoming in rules bending for students that are doing well not students that just had a bad semester. The real question is which is greater? The dislike of the difficulty of convincing the right people that I should be allowed to significantly bend the rules (note, this may be impossible) or the extreme expense and frustration that two summer semesters of one course each would represent.

There are some interesting options coming to mind if I do do the summer semester (like maybe trying to get a volunteer position for the season at Verite or something) but it would be an expensive decision. Still weighing.

One of the large frustrations of this is that this is the only course that would have had this significant reprocussions and is the only one I didn't manage to pass. Sigh.

Alex put it best: "I was dealing with it then, I don't want to be still dealing with it now that it's over."

January 4, 2005

I Passed Progress!

I just checked my grades, looks like Progress of Economic Development went up to a 55. Ok, so that's a C minus, which sucks rotting carcass, but that's better than the 53 made in eror, or the 43 correction I was expecting. That news is so good. Damn, I could have really used some scholastic good news and I got it.

Thank you fate. Usually capricious and often unkind, this time smiled upon me.

w00t

First Day of School

Hey, this is my 101st entry. It's also the first day of second semester. I ended up getting a solid A in Comparative Economic Systems: an 86, which is the highest grade I've yet gotten at UBC. Which is kick-ass. I got a 70 for Honours Macro I, which means I did rocking on the final due to the fact that I was walking in with a failing grade.

Stats I failed, no suprise, now I have to talk to people at ECON to figure out if they'll let me take 326 (which is the next course) and retake 325 next year. Hopefully they will, because otherwise it is the misery of money-wasting summer semester. Boourns.

Progress of Economic Development is still up in the air, although from the discussion it seems that I failed. Which sucks and makes me sad, but I did walk in with a failing grade, I suppose walking out of it isn't that a big deal either. I really don't like Eshwaran's grading/testing scheme, it feels grossly unfair. But whatever, these things happen, there are good profs and marginal profs. At least the material (what little of it I got to take) was interesting.

As of what's going on now: Well, I wish they wrote somewhere that labs don't occur first week. Otherwise I'd be home right now. I made the mistake of assuming the first day of school was a monday, even though it is Tuesday. Which means I ran out half-way through breakfast and didn't have a shower or any of those life-sustaining rituals one does in the morning. I'm all groggy and crabby.

Anyways, I've got lots to plan, both for werewolf and school, and therefore no rest for the wicked. Hopefully life is treating everyone else well, I might babble about the holidays later, maybe not.

PS Legacy of Kain: Defiance is a wicked game.