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April 30, 2006

There is a secret.


Originally Uploaded here
It isn't very well kept, but it's like an ocean, where only the surface can be seen and the mirrored surface is a thin veneer separating sky from fathomless depth. I reach out for love so rarely now, and in the public eye perhaps I appear far too simplistic for my presentation to bear any likeness to truth. I leave the sign empty as I walk in the establishment of my psyche - and while those who come in with me know the truth - most assume it reads No Vacancy or Love Motel where all there is is simply a blank sign. Inside, I'm all truth, shards of glass and all, but outside I send messages in digital bottles that people sit around and try to piece together like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. Maybe they understand that they aren't pieces of truth but merely artistic renditions of pieces of truth.

Maybe they don't.

Because it is a lie that I don't love easily. Perhaps there even I can't see clearly yet, perhaps I never will. It is entirely possible that my blindness is definitional. The places where the personally tied concepts of you, intoxication, and attraction meet with romantic constructs. Do I know where one begins and one ends? Are they even on the same spectrum? Does one half even exist?


Originally Uploaded
here by Awful Sara
Everything exists only because it has context. Meaning is no different, nor are definitions or boundaries. I made, therefore it exists. I seem to be able to break the fever, but it still lies dormant, like a gene passing through generations, improbable that it will ever be truly bred out. I see the clear lakes of your eyes, passing slowly and softly through the seasons, bright spring days with specs of sunlight, a promise of sexuality in the nightly shimmer of summer stars, the panic of fall leaves upon them, or the frustration and anger that the freeze of winter brings. I see all these things, yet my pragmatism has gained iron gauntlets to weight down my hands, to make them suitable for the building of castles. I don't regret, I don't begrudge my own decisions. I told someone that I don't believe I'm a hypocrite, and that I acknowledge the rarity of it. Is it hubris if you're right?


Originally Uploaded
here by :R.e.a.s.o.n:
I'm happy with where things are. I choose respect and enjoyment over madness.


At least publicly.


I suppose the truth, the man behind the curtain blowing smoke and illusions, is that the wizard really is a conjurer. There, he keeps his lost souls closest to his heart and bed. Because that's who he is, no matter how much he wants the world to turn without him. Not unguided, but certainly without.



Written On: Mother's Computer

April 29, 2006

Eye of the Beholder


Originally Uploaded here
Not eating causes emotional instability.


Emotional instability makes it hard to eat.


Thankfully these fits only last twenty four hours at most.


Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself (album d/l)

April 27, 2006

Another Five Years


Originally Uploaded here

My thesis defense was everything I wanted it to be. None of my panel pulled their punches at all, they grilled me as hard as they could and I withstood, I rose, I ascended. It was a blast. You're one of the few people who would describe a thesis defense as "fun". It was everything I wanted it to be. Now, to submit it to an academic paper and see what they think. I am exicited.

I am also done. Five years, it seems to be the marker of those things that really matter. It's done and I am no longer a student. After my defense, I chatted with my panel about the paper and suddenly I was a legitimate academic. I was with peers. I can't describe how awesome that felt. I'm not sure if I'm going to become a career academic, but I certainly understand the appeal now, more than ever before.

I understand that there's alot of work required to make this summer work. The business, the production, the webcomic, and maybe even publication. I understand that I'm not totally free. But this is still more of a vacation than I've had in a while. For once, I feel like I've actually earned a break. I'm sleeping in, at least more than I have in a long time, with some amount of regularity. No matter how clause-filled those sentences are, they don't lose any of their importance.

My life is so incredible I can hardly contain it within my fragile mortal coil and consciousness.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: The Birthday Massacre - Violet (album d/l)

April 25, 2006

Random Bits


Originally Uploaded
here by SeenyaRita
Go read this. That's my cousin Andrew. He is super-awesome, watching him think is stupid bucket loads of fun for me.

Also, any ideas I may have had about facial hair being unattractive have been cast aside by the magnamity of the attractiveness of two bearded boys I saw today. Not one but two stopped me wanting to chat and claiming to know me. My reaction was somewhat akin to of course I know you attractive person, even though I cannot say from from where, and I might be merely thinking that because I'm shallow, but your appearance isn't helping me think through either of those problems either or duhhh... boy pretty... don't act stupid, which are probably equal parts truth.

I defend my thesis tomorrow. You're welcome to come, it's in Buchanan Tower, room 910 at 3:30pm.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Gioachino Rossini - The Thieving Magpie (download)
Alternative Title: Pointless Juxtaposition In Music Choice

PS Max is cute.

EDIT: I'm going to Piotr's dinner after my defense on Wednesday. I plan to eat, drink, and be merry. You should too.

t-plus 3 days


Originally Uploaded here
Wow, I'm going to write a webcomic. Like, a legitimate, "I have a crew including an artist, a graphic designer, and a co-author" kinda legitimate. My life fucking rules.


I am a very angry person. I am very glad I am not a hateful one, because I think my life would be substantially more difficult if I hated as easily as I rose to anger. Although, I think in the past I mistook one for the other, and I'm glad I don't anymore.


I defend my thesis on Wednesday. That's awesome.


Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: drip drip drip went the tap...

April 22, 2006

Short Bursts of Thought


Originally Uploaded here
It's done, and I'm still exhausted. I finished most of the test in half an hour and probably needed no more than one. I whipped past everything I knew for certain, pausing and returning to things I was not sure the first time through. I had actually studied enough so that questions I couldn't remember how to do exactly I could figure out given what I was given. I could have gotten 100% if I had studied maybe three times as much, but I was still well within my comfort zone. It might surprise me, because there was some guessing with certain steps, but I'm certainly not worried.

Today I spent most of it on a beach, underneath a blanket with crazy women. My face burnt, and I smelled distinctly of sand and salt.

Tonight I went to see Waiting for Godot with my parents.

There is almost two kilograms of cheese in my fridge.

My train of thought... not so great...

I almost can't fully believe it's done. I defend my thesis on Wednesday, but that's almost a formality.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: K-Os - Heaven Only Knows (song d/l)

April 20, 2006

One Day Remains


Originally Uploaded here by minato

I'm feeling so emotional today. Just ambiently upset, hormonal balance is off, can't think straight, sorta day. Been sleeping badly, and didn't eat enough so far, and various things have been setting me off.

Tomorrow is the last test of my undergraduate life.

Written On: Mother's Computer
Currently Listening: Imogen Heap

Late At Night

I am shaking with fury and so don't have time for it.

Written On: Home Computer

April 19, 2006

Of Bananas and Superbowls


Originally Uploaded
here by tamishir
Yesterday I slept between the hours of 2pm and 4pm; which has been a suprisingly normal behaviour as of late. My sleep hasn't been so good as of late, so I've been making up for what I lack in quality with quantity. However, sleeping in the middle of the day seems to have its interesting side effects.

More specifically, sleeping in the middle of the day seems to produce weird dreams. Like ones about Eminem, Usher, the Great Sports Betting Scandal of the Eighties (did not happen), and films made about that event (also didn't happen). Did I mention I was at a Superbowl too? Oh, and male-only cheerleaders, about 100 of them, dressed in these blue outfits, doing physically improbable routines?

Yeah, like that.

So I ran into the Honours supervisor on the way to drop off my thesis. I sheepish asked You liked it?, trying to get a more objective answer than a one-liner e-mail that included mostly the word "great" and some excited punctuation. We got to talking about it, both excited about the results, and then she hits me with the comment that I was not expecting. I was thinking you maybe should try and get it published. For those of you in academia, you understand just how significant that comment is. I was having enough trouble handling that it was good, good enough to publish in an academic sense, is like comparing a banana to an airplane, both can fly if necessary, but one can do intercontinental flights, whereas the former is barely capable of getting across your living room.

It's Wednesday, my Econometrics final is on Friday morning.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Death Cab For Cutie - Plans (album d/l)
Alternative Title: t-minus 2 days, currently speaking

April 17, 2006

A Completed Thesis

A More Objective
Measure Of Institutions:
A Reinvestigation Into The Colonial
Origins Of Comparative Development

Christopher Langmuir
Honours Undergraduate Student
University of British Columbia
April 17, 2006

Abstract

Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson (2001) estimate the effect of institutions on differences in per capita income in post-colonial states using settler mortality data as a source of exogenous variation in institutions. Average Protection Against Expropriation Risk, the variable used as the proxy for institutions, is burdened with a problematic subjective methodology and may not be an accurate or reasonable measure. Using newly available and more objective measures of economic efficiencies and inefficiencies across countries, I re-estimate the effect of institutions to find it even more robust than originally, casting further doubt on whether different continents have any effect at all on economic performance once the effect of institutions is accounted for.

Download

Negative Time, Previously Speaking


Originally Uploaded here by JoeCollver

So here we are, between steps. Negative time, previously speaking, but t-minus 4 days by the new odometer. I sent off my rough draft yesterday and got comments back the same day. Words like "excellent" amongst other praises of good writing and construction caused me to completely let go. I couldn't help it, sitting alone in front of text writ upon a dimly glowing plastic box, I just started sobbing. My body shook as all of the emotional strain of this piece, this work, this thing I named thesis, was validated. It isn't good enough, it's actually good.

I'm going to have to get used to the feeling of accomplishment, I'm doing it more often than usual.

I've been wearing a purple scarf I got from the Arts Dean's office. I call it my five years scarf, Erin calls it my I went to university for 5 years and all I got was this lousy scarf scarf. Nevertheless, it has UBC Graduating Arts Class 2006 embroidered on it. Other than being free, it was also made in Canada, which is nice.

I've been wearing it as some form of standard, some sign of the victory that I seek. The battle was won, some simple cleanup is neccessary now, but the war is not over yet. The Econometric Army dwells some 4 days hence, and it will be a slippery and cunning foe.

Someone said to me recently You know Christopher, I've known you for quite some time, and I must say I'm glad I've never been the focus of your affections, that you've never loved me. Because, I must admit, it'd be pretty scary. You love so completely, so absolutely. It would probably be scary. And I laughed, because that's funny. But that's my sense of humour, and there's no accounting for taste.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Death Cab For Cutie - Plans (album d/l)
Currently Eating: Erin's Shepard's Pie

April 16, 2006

t-minus 1 hour


Originally Uploaded here by DavidHerd

I just sent it off. It's rough, really rough, and I'll probably spend all of Monday rewriting it. However, it is at least a complete product. Download it here if you really want, although I make no guarantees to the quality of the prose. Some of it is downright horrific at points.

Now, to set my sights on Econometrics. That is on Friday. Tonight I will do a family dinner for Easter, because of the getting the draft in. I'll probably do laundy and read Econometrics stuff between now and then. Then, tomorrow, back to the grinder.

Dig heels in, push.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Pendulum - BBC Radio One Essential Mix (mix d/l)

April 15, 2006

t-minus 12 hours


Originally Uploaded here
Well, I just got past a particularly difficult bit of explanation in my paper, and done substantial cutting from my tables/appendices. Here's where things stand now:
  • 18 pages of tables
  • 1 of references
  • 17 pages of writing

Which is awesome, because that's down from 30 pages of appendices before (sniff, so much work into stuff no one will see) and it means that I'll have more writing than tables (which was actually a concern for a while) as I still have to chat about my main results. Amusingly, shouldn't take that much more writing (don't ask me how much, because the answer is enough).

I have lost almost all respect for papers which have a word or page count. I have no desire to ever write anything so trite as that ever again. Do not speak to me of amounts, of quantity, do not speak to me of all-nighters or difficulty. Until you have seen, until you have experienced thesis you just don't get it.

And just think, this is some pansy Undergraduate thesis. I can only imagine and perhaps glimpse the special hell that is for graduate students.

I am also now acutely aware of the limits of my computer. They are pretty fantastic all said and done, and cause my mind to positively whirr with delight at the idea of inherenting the old server. You mean I could be compressing a file, with multiple programs from the Office suite, Firefox, Adobe, and foobar open, as well as downloading pictures from my camera, uploading a file to YSI and be running regressions in STATA?

*swoon*

Although, it also makes me wonder why people need hardware capable of that shit. Especially if you're not a gamer. What, several hundred times the speed of the computers that sent us to the moon wasn't good enough? Now you need thousands more to browse the internet?!?!?

Erin is asleep on the couch. It is incredibly soothing in an undemanding way that I am not sure I am capable of.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: LTJ Bukem - Progression Sessions 4 (anyone want me to upload this mix?)
Alternative Title: I like bold and photography!

t-minus 24 hours


Originally Uploaded here by breakforlove

This song is really pretty. You should listen to it.

I'm done my estimations. It's entirely likely that I'll run some more after I get my comments back from advisor/supervisor/others on Sunday, I'll run some more. But for now, for the draft, it's done. And my gods are they sexy.

Now, to put this shit in words.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: William Orbit - Spiral (song d/l)

April 14, 2006

t-minus 37 hours

Ye gods that correlation matrix took a long time to produce. Insightful, but... man, that was alot of numbers. 4 pages of tables with numbers at 10 point size to be exact. That's stupid.

Plus, now I think I have to rerun a bunch of my regressions based on stuff I figured out. Blarg.

Also, I have yet to build that last index, which I need to have before I can do my last set of regressions. However, in retrospect, I'm really glad I haven't because I'd have to rerun those regressions too based on the stuff from the correlation matrix.

Blark.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Influenza - July Influenza - July 2005 Mix (mix d/l) (repost)

PS Max is in my lap. He's super-cute.

t-minus 40 hours


Originally Uploaded here
Ok, we've stepped up the schedule a bit. Today, I talked to my advisor and he asked when I might be able to hand him a complete draft. Sheepishly I replied Sunday? and he mentioned that he had a dinner and a work-thing that day, so if I could send it in by Noon, he'd be able to read it and send comments back so I could spend Sunday and Monday polishing it off.

Urk. I am now extra daunted. I still have to build my final index and run my final regressions. Then, in the next 40 hours, write my thesis. It's not like I'm starting from scratch, but man, that's alot of writing...

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Iron and Wine - Such Great Heights (song d/l)
Alternative Title: Mild Pointless Juxtaposition In Content

April 13, 2006

t-minus 5 days


Originally Uploaded here
I ate until I almost burst yesterday. That's twice in one week, I'm impressed. There was so much food, I actually ached on the way home. I had reached that Arg, I'm full, I'm so not used to this, I need to sleep stage again. Because it's so hard to do I almost never say no to food, as normally the amounts necessary aren't present or would be grossly impolite to consume. What you feed me, I could probably have eaten twice as much, at three times I would be surprised... but then there's roughly four times, where I feel too full. Also, carbohydrates and no breaks. My edible kryptonite.

Betty tortured a mouse to death last night. Mice, it seems, are toys to cats, kept alive to be moving and more interesting. Now she's carrying the corpse around, not entirely aware of its now-deceased-state, still dropping it and then batting at it as if it were trying to run away. Sadly, her newest enjoyment will eventually start to rot and I will have to take it away.

My wall doesn't seem to be weeping anymore. This is good. My landlord and I are going to meet about it anyways tonight. This is also good.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Jem - Finally Woken (album d/l) (trip hop you don't listen to yet)

April 12, 2006

I suppose it's only fitting, that my wall would begin to weep


Originally Uploaded here by SophieMuc

My wall is leaking.

I am unimpressed.

The water damage marks are far from new, and I'm hoping this is a freak occurance (given that the water damage marks are from before I moved in, which means the last time this happened was probably 2 years ago or something crazy like that). I don't actually know, as I am not at home. Today is a non-thesis day as I'm meeting up with people to study Econometrics (must balance both monoliths...), then going to hang out with Y^2, then going to Piotr's dinner. Hopefully, as I pass through tonight, there won't be a soaked towel and full jug underneath that portion of wall.

I've been reading the Residential Tenancy Act to see what I'm legally allowed to do. If it hasn't stopped, muthafucking leak fixing dudes are coming in tomorrow, whether or not my landlord (if I have a landlord...) gets back to me.

This is so the last thing I need right now.

Oh, did I mention I got called in for jury duty on the week I defend my thesis? Can you say Fuck that shit, children?

Written On: Mother's Computer
Currently Eating: Tortilla Chips
Current Mood: Cussy

April 11, 2006

A Bad Time For Low Productivity


Originally Uploaded here by monkeyc.net

Frustration. Today I accomplished almost nothing. Which basically means I did almost nothing, because it's not like I was doing anything else. Stupid inability to concentrate stemming from stress level.

I totally prefer this feeling when it comes at night because then I can just go to sleep. My sleep schedule has been totally erratic because if I feel like I'm upto working on stuff, I stay up, but if I don't, I don't. Which means I tend to go to bed at 8pm one day, 1am the next, 8pm the following... you get the idea.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Sweatshop Union - Radio Edit (song d/l) (website)
Currently Eating: Frittata w/ Ricotta and Red Chard with Spring Greens, Sunflower Seeds, and Raspberry Vinegar Dressing

Addendum: Arg, my thesis advisor can't meet with me tomorrow anymore. That's annoying, now I'm going onto campus twice this week instead of once (because I planned other campus stuff for Wednesday too). More frustration...

t-minus 7 days


Originally Uploaded
here by 3amfromtokyo
A week.

I'm starting to feel distinctly lonely. I'm still managing to see people once or twice a day. And by see, I mean just that. I went grocery shopping yesterday, and then I visited Erin, Graham, and Tillie for an hour or so before bed. That's two.

So far my thesis is 20 pages long, two of them written. Isn't that rediculous? I now have 18 pages of appendices, and there's more to come. I've been talking with my advisor, and I've been rewritting alot of my tables for clarity. I actually get to see him in person tomorrow, which is not something I expected (I though he'd have left the country by now).

There is alot of work to be done in the next seven days, and I somehow have to fit learning how to do Econometrics really well into there too. Which is harder, and possibly more important, but no thesis = no degee. But, bad econometrics mark = no degree.

Arg.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: dj://spaz, marilyn manson, metric, and the dandy warhols - grow up and blow the great big white nietzche (song mp3) (website)

April 10, 2006

I Didn't Do A Post Yesterday, Does That Mean I Have To Do Two Today?





I have recently discovered that Drive Organics carries an organic AND fair trade caramel ice cream. ZOMG.


I have also recently discovered how awesome Eternal Abundance is. Wow, produce, organic, cheap.


I have been listening to Influenza alot. Them's some catchy beats.


Finally, no KMM tonight! Leave me alone! KMM will gloriously return May 1st.


Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Influenza - July 2005 Mix (download)

t-minus 8 days


Originally Uploaded here by Todd Klassy

I think I may have actually over-ate yesterday. This is almost always a ridiculously daunting task, and involved me eating two large dinners and then almost an entire honey dew melon, but I felt kinda funny. In fact, I became super-tired and went to sleep, like, right away and slept for 12 hours. I kinda needed that anyways, but it seems funny.

Urrnnn, ate too much, sooo tired... gzzzzzz...

Well, I see the humour.

I've got my first batch of actual for-real my-own-research regressions done, and they're really sexy. At this point, I totally didn't care the way anything turned out, but now that I've fought with my data until it's all tight and flawless, it seems my results are really really solid. Which is super-exciting. By this point I've probably run almost 400 regressions and recorded all the results, but it was all the name of science... or something.

Now, to finally build some of those indexes (gods, I've been saying that for ever) and run a few more regressions. I'm pretty darn happy with where my results are though, I must say. Lateness and all.

Written On: Home Computer

PS If anyone wants to see my sexy inital results, you can have a gander. Yes, that's right, that's 7 pages of tables, and I did use the word initial to describe them. And before you start getting any funny ideas about me copying huge tables of info that doesn't have meaning, realise that, at the beginning every column is a regression, whereas by the end almost every cell is a regression into itself. But oh my, are they sexy.

April 8, 2006

t-minus 10 days


Originally Uploaded here
Almost having broke the single digit mark, I still haven't really begun writing. Well, at least, writing in English. I've written down lots of numbers. So far I've managed to completely redo all their basic OLS and IV regressions accurately, which I'm pretty happy with, and even run them again using GDP per capita from 2004 instead of 1995. The results still hold, which is nice because I have more to say then (and, all said and done, that'd be a pretty lame robustness test to fail for a seminal work like this one). Oh, if anyone wants to read the paper I'm doing my thesis on, you can read it here. Having just linked to that, I noticed that the version on his website is roughly a year more up to date than my copy which explains a few things that were really bugging me.

Yesterday evening with Piotr was nice, and Mike (of DJ Spaz fame) dropped by and we talked for a bit. Within the evening I had organic beef burgers and organic fair trade chocolate on organic strawberries (I realise that menitoning that almost everything I eat is certified fair trade and organic might be redundant, but I think to mention it every once in a while because heaven forbid anyone come to conclusion that I actually condone eating conventionally farmed and traded goods) as well as much relaxing and niceness. The two boys meant I stayed up too late and slept in a fair amount. Not a big problem, really, as I'm planning to see Y^2 after swing which goes pretty late.

I just ate, but I'm still hungry.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Simon Static - New Static (album d/l)
Currently Eating: Wrap in a whole what tortilla with salsa, refried kidney beans, white basmati rice, garlic sprouts, aged cheddar, and cherry tomatoes.

April 7, 2006

t-minus 11 days


Originally Uploaded here
Well, I still haven't finished with my regressions. I've figured out that one of the reasons my results didn't match up with theirs was not only the PPP thing, but also their funky definition of the continent dummies they used. It wasn't me, it was them. How do you use "America" as a control group anyways? Are we talking the Americas (North and South)? Or are we just comparing everything to the USA? While the last one is appealing for comparative results, isn't it odd to lump Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentian, and New Zealand all in the "Other" Continent dummy? If it did come out significant, what would that even mean? But no matter how I define "Other" I don't get their results. This annoys me rather heavily. I think I won't write about that, unless to be particularly bitchy (uh, yeah, I have no idea what these guys are doing, but I can't recreate it, and when I do things that make sense to me, their results don't come through). Side note, I'm going to try and move onto IV estimation and see if I still get the same results.

Wow, that's nothing but thesis-babble.

Piotr is coming over for dinner, to drop off cat stuff and be our weekly business meeting instead of Saturday morning. This is good, hopefully I will continue to get lots done between now and then.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Shakespeare in Hell - Tempest Epilogue (long Hecate version) (song d/l) (website)

April 6, 2006

t-minus 12 days


Originally Uploaded here
I do so love spring. Not quite as much as Autumn, but I love it too. Everything is bright and alive, and the sky exists in a perpetual threat of rain. No matter how nice or warm, or how far away those clouds look, there is the distinct possibility of getting wet. It's a season for umbrellas with no jackets, and scarves in reserve. I do so love this place.

It's funny, it seems that many people start blogs as personal endeavours. But then, as their readership grows, they begin to write more and more for the audience and less and less for themselves. Strangely, this blog started out as a means for me to stay in touch with other people, to have some sort of communication with people that I don't get to see that often. However, while it still does that to a certain point, more and more it is just an excercise into itself. An act of creative non-fiction, often with no real thought gone into whether it is understood.

On that note, I've unplugged my phone so the best method of contact with me is probably e-mail, although contact with me in general will be slim. It's fair to say that, holding constant things I've decided to go to between now and then, I probably won't see you until later April or May when all this is finished.

So, I'm on the bus again, heading to Deirdre's Korean Drumming performance. This one isn't as out of my way as yesterday's because my last Econometrics class is at fourteen hundred hours, but I'm still only going because of the magnamity of the event. One year's worth of work is not to be taken lightly.


Originally Uploaded here
On that note, I think I've finally solved one of my big econometric hurtles. I don't actually know, because my estimations that I wanted to have done by last night aren't, but using income per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity makes such a huge difference it isn't suprising if my inital results were badly skewed. I'm hopeful, but still feel rediculously behind. My goal is a rough draft by Monday, but I'm not so sure I'll hit that either. I'll certainly try.

Although really, I'm not nearly as worried about my thesis as I am about Econometrics. My thesis is a series of concrete goals. Goals that can be measured and reached. Then, once done, the logic is nearly boolean: if I finish my thesis I will get a good grade. Pass the threshold point, and we're gold.

Econometrics, on the other hand, isn't like that at all. While it seems to require less actual work, the success of the work is much more strongly in question. If I get to the point where I can write the test, I won't necessarily do well. There's chance, in both the learning and the examination, and I don't really feel like the odds are in my favour. At least there's no new material after today, now I can start actually learning all the stuff we're already supposed to know.

I must admit, I'm pretty giddy about being this close to done, even with the twin monoliths staring down at me.

Written On: Laptop (Bus: 99)

April 5, 2006

t-minus 13 days


Originally Uploaded here
That's how much is left until my thesis is due, with another two days until my Econometrics final after that. Yesterday, I handed in my last Econometrics assignment and the day before that my data-set (should be) finally requiring no more editing (I am so very thankful that there aren't more post-colonial countries than there are, reordering alot of those tables took long enough thankyouverymuch). I meant to work on my thesis yesterday after hanging out with Y^2, but my nap became a 12 hour sleep so that didn't happen.

I haven't slept well in a while, and if I have in the recent past it was certainly the exception not the rule. I sleep fitfully, badly, plagued by dreams that seem symptomatic of the stress I'm under. I dream that I'm arguing with people important to me, often in positions of uncertainty (like travelling). It's not the dream I had, but one that fits the feeling is this one dream where I had somehow lost my bag and was trying to carry all my laundry across Roma and ran into an ex of mine along the way and we started to argue, bagless laundry and all. Strangely realistic at the time, I wake every few hours and look blearily around the room until the realisation of oh, this is reality kicks in and I fall back asleep.

There have been more restful periods in my life.


Originally Uploaded
here by citybumpkin
I also meant to work on the thesis this morning, but the ant situation was bugging me too much so I decided to do something about it. I managed to plug all the mouse holes and get cats, so that problem is very much a thing of the past, but now the disarray in my kitchen seems to have gathered a new problem. The amount of reorganising and cleaning and ant-killing and sealing I did was a little ridiculous, but I refuse to live with pests. Hopefully, this will solve the problem, but it might not...

I'm now heading to Deirdre's Balinese Gamelan performance, something I wasn't sure I'd have time for. However, I have been waiting all year for both this and the Korean Drumming performance she's going to do tomorrow, so I figure this and that being the only real outings in the next few weeks might be ok. I was originally planning to go straight home, but I think I'll see if Beth wants to do food afterwards. I've been eating really badly and the state of my kitchen now is hardly conducive to making food at home. Should be better by tomorrow, but I need food sooner than that.

Written On: Laptop (Bus: 99)

April 1, 2006

Last Few Days


Originally Uploaded here by 353

Wake Up, Storming the Wall, The Soldier Dreams, Fall Asleep,

Wake Up, Econometrics, Sprouts Beer Garden, Drunken Linguine, Pass Out on Campus.

Wake Up, Ikaruga, The Search For Gravy, The Continued Search For Gravy, Making Poutine (yeah, look how Canadian I am), Titus Reading, Deirdre's Party, Betty Is Mad At Me, Pass Out at Home.

Wake Up, Business Meeting, The Glory of Eggs Benedict, Rodrigo Guitar Concerto (OMG I'm totally falling in love with the sound of the English Horn), Ambush Y^2, Eat at East is East, Desert at Chai Gallery, Wash Upholstery Covers, Fall Asleep.

Well, ok, the last one I haven't actually done yet. Yeah, that's alot of not-thesis and yes-drinking. It felt good, I must admit.

Written On: Home Computer
Currently Listening: Madonna - Don't Tell Me (song d/l)