William Matheson's Journal
Dec. 11th, 2009
04:03 pm - chemi-emi-emistry!
OK, the worst is over! I hope!
This morning’s chem exam was a doozy and a half. There were more than 40 questions! (Chemistry is so gosh darned comprehensive. You have to know how to do 1x106 different things.) Not only that, two pages were misprinted, and having meticulously torn the erroneous ones out of the primary exam booklet, as time went on I forgot about their presence in a second handout. So even though I felt like I was running a little bit behind as the halfway point passed and I wasn’t quite half-finished, it actually turned out I was way behind and wasn’t nearly half-finished.
To my chemistry professor’s credit, she let me take a breather when we first got started – my drive into town was hellish and I was nerve-wracked from all the spinning and sliding around on the side streets, and as soon as she said we weren’t allowed to leave for the whole three hours – “no going to the washroom” – wouldn’t you know it, I felt like I had to go! Like “Zap!” – that fast. And then I couldn’t concentrate at all. She did let me out, though. I thank her for this because if she didn’t, I would have gotten maybe 1%! Or I would have fulfilled the sudden vision of having to go in a bottle in the corner. Wouldn’t it be great to be “that guy who… in my chemistry exam” for the rest of my life? It was awkward coming back in – I felt like 300 people were staring at me!
That being said, what I did I think I did well, and I could have made a marginal pass, but if not, even a 48 is better than a 0. The exam’s worth 30%, and I don’t think it’s a course where you have to pass the final to pass the course, but that might be my wishful thinking. We shall see! I really don’t want to take this course ever, ever again. It was by far the most painful and trying out of astronomy, chemistry, physics and math.
Physics was easier than chemistry! Its exam had six questions! Six! The labs met only every second week, and the assignments were all online, so that meant a few fewer last-minute rushes into town to beat some deadline or other. That being said, the chem labs were ten times easier than physics. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Hey SMU, 1963 called – they want their physics labs back.”
I can deal. There were two instructors this semester who vexed me to no end – luckily, I have neither next semester. It especially feels good to get the chemistry monkey off my back – or at least so I think, as there’s a good reason this first course is offered again next semester!
There were people coming out of the exam knowing they failed the course – of course, they tended to be the people who were skipping labs and not doing (any of!) their assignments. That’s doubly dangerous, because to some extent (though not enough, in my opinion – there was beaucoup exam material that was neither taught nor quizzed nor assigned (though perhaps handed out and forgotten (my bad))) the assignments teach the exam! One guy was all telling me, “I will become the final!” and would have filled my mind with visions of his Zen-like weeklong chemistry-learning trance. And yea, he did work hard for a week, and slept only briefly, by his reckoning. (Unfortunately, it’s a 14-week course. ;-) What ended up happening is that he made a similar mistake with the pages that I did – and by his estimation, he needed those grades just to pass the exam, and thus to pass the course. He’s screwed – he missed so many labs that I’m sure they won’t let him reuse his probable marginal pass of a lab grade the next time he takes this course. For my part, I think I’d rather kill myself than take this course again.
There is no way I am taking this course again. I came in kind of liking chemistry and now I loathe it passionately. But I’m going to continue and take it next semester anyway since I have the books and the (expensive) online homework access for the year. And hopefully my lab partner next semester will have safety glasses so that my (very slow, ambling) train of thought doesn’t keep getting interrupted with “WHY AREN’T YOU WEARING YOUR SAFETY GLASSES?!” screamed in a Greater Commonwealth accent three inches from my ears. I kid – I enjoyed working with both instructor and partner.
Astronomy’s next, and last – tomorrow (Saturday) night! Sadly, for all my telling people I was going to study astrophysics, I’ve spent by far the least of my time this semester on astronomy. (It won’t surprise you to hear that chemistry was by far the most egregious time-devourer. Not that I don’t think time spent on assignments and studying isn’t time splendidly spent – the assignments for chemistry just happened to be super hard, super frequent, yet worth super little. Most vexing!)
Now I’m just going to chill out. That 900-pound gorilla has finally stopped hammering me into the ground and now I can breathe again. I exaggerate, and part of my problem with school this semester is that I have the work ethic of Paris Hilton cleaning manure from a pig barn. My wiser cousin Bud will probably vouch for chilling out tonight, though.
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drainedJul. 9th, 2009
01:09 pm - Flashback
I was up until 2 last night working on my physics assignment - it's not so much that it was hard, more that I had yet to solidify a lot of the concepts involved in the questions. I'm on my way to becoming a sixth-rate mathematician, but physics is helped along so greatly by an intuitive grasp of math, and this combined with the lightning speed of this particular session makes me feel like I'm only half-awake. Also, the classes are long. Ninety minutes of physics instruction per day is enough for me, thanks. When we're coming around to the 2 hour mark (out of three), I feel like getting up and leaving. Today I wasn't the only one - I think we were all a little spent after the assignment.
Today the teacher was talking about stupid math mistakes, like making sure that you multiply to undo division, as in how:
10 - 8 = (1/2)(v)^2
becomes:
2(10 - 8) = v^2
20 - 16 = v^2
4 = v^2
2 = v
and then he started laughing and asked the class, "Did anyone here go through CPA?"
I alone raise my hand half-heartedly.
"Anyone have Mr. Lyne?"
"Yes," I groaned. "I failed his class - I got a 16!"
He went on to talk about how Mr. Lyne had a coin jar that everybody paid into when they'd make a silly math mistake. The teacher joked that his own son probably singlehandedly funded the term-end pizza party.
You couldn't have said the same thing about me - I wasn't even doing the math, therefore I wasn't making mistakes. ;-) I was terrible - I started out relatively eager and OK, but suddenly things got away from me. It was a combination of my PEI elementary education, two years in a Seventh-Day Adventist school with abysmal math and science, and my own personal hatred of school borne from the daily strife and harassment I faced there - all that thrust upon a teenager is, in retrospect, a pretty good recipe for failure. Toss me in Mr. Lyne's no-nonsense, no-sailing math class, and I instantly crumbled. I ended up failing Math 10 three times with three different teachers: 16, 8, 25... and then the school gave me a "Trucker Math" 10 credit that I graduated with. I came back and got my Grade 11 and 12 Academic and I did pre-calculus this summer, but that year continues to haunt me. About the only pleasant thing I remember is Mr. Lyne's bread.
These days I know how to use my deficiencies to my advantage and make lemons out of lemonade, but in those days I didn't, and I wish someone had tried to show me - can't blame them, though, because I was busy pushing people away.
I was so throughly rejected by everyone that I started preemptively rejecting others - people would say hello to me in the corridors, and I'd coldly ignore them. I really became my own worst enemy, probably in order to avoid the pain of straight-up rejection, but ironically it brought much more pain than just accepting the inevitable rejections we all receive would have been.
I just can't believe how much I've learned this summer. Apparently, for me, the best way to learn about myself and about other people is to take a bunch of math and science courses!
* * *
It was good for me to admit my failure in Mr. Lyne's Grade 10 math to everyone, even though it was thirteen years ago. Earlier in today's class I think I ruffled some feathers when we were talking about how you have to use fundamental units when using Newton's laws to find an orbital radius, while with Kepler's 3rd law, you can use whatever you want, as it's just Radius^3 / Period^2 of your unknown object compared to known values Radius^3 / Period ^2 of another (such as Earth's, if you're talking about the Solar System). (Note that the Kepler shortcut only works in situations where we know the properties of one other orbiting body. Kepler described the situation, but it took Newton to explain it.) So I suggested that for Rearth, just write 1AU.
Since Rjupiter = Rearth (Pjupiter / Pearth)^(2/3)
12 years / 1 year = 12 [years cancel]
12^(2/3) = 5.24 * 1AU = 5.24AU = Rjupiter.
Isn't that fun? Quick and dirty, but over these distances, who really cares?
* * *
A buddy of mine dropped in here and asked me about my plans for the fall. A lot of people are asking me how long it will take me to get my B.Sc. I guess the B.Sc. is really just a signpost - it's just a symbol for an achievement, not the achievement itself. Accordingly, I'm not really fussed about when it comes. I really just want to be on track towards getting somewhere, and I don't really care where the road goes. For so long I was just going nowhere, save for temporal bliss in places like Poland and Sainte-Anne. (My buddy asked me if I'd take courses during the summers to speed things up on the science end. Perhaps, but I'll probably be trying to get more Explore bursaries if I can!) Now, now I'm going somewhere, and it's so mystifying to strangers that I really do have to say things like, "Well, I'm going to do astrophysics, because I always wanted to be a star!"
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gratefulJun. 25th, 2009
03:43 pm - BSc admission / advisement
Dear Ms [],
I was speaking to Messrs [] and [] in Admissions today about applying for entry to the BSc program here at Saint Mary's. I have already a BA and Cert. Hons. (English) from this university.
I have been studying at Dalhousie this summer in order to obtain the prerequisites. I believe I specified for the records to be sent to SMU as they are made available, but I will confirm this after my pre-calculus course is complete (I write the final examination on Monday). I have completed chemistry with a final grade of 93. I'm anticipating a good or very good grade from pre-cal, and I start physics on July 2nd and finish on the 30th.
Messrs [] and [] indicated a willingness to admit me without waiting for the physics mark to come in, but they gave me your card and suggested that I contact you and solicit your input. Specifically, I'm wondering what the requirements for a BSc will be after taking into account my BA + Hons. Cert. and the courses taken therein. My student number is [], my science courses so far include AST 215/216 (can count as a general elective, but not a lab science), CSC 226/227 (counts as a lab science, IIRC)... I also have GPY 206 (Computers & GIS), GPY 203 (Physical Geography), AST 217 (Life in the Universe), and PSYC 1200, but I don't know if they'll impact much, if at all. You'll probably notice as you look at my transcript that I was only nominally interested in some aspects of English, especially literary criticism.
Looking at the lay of the land, I think it would be best for me to take:
- Calculus (needed for everything) (6 c. hours)
- Physics (needed for astrophysics) (9 c. hours)
- Chemistry (suggested for astrophysics) (6 c. hours)
- Astronomy 205/206 (6 c. hours)
for a total of 27 c. hours / 4.5 credits in my first year.
This way I can try out astronomy and see if I can hack it, while still having an opening for chemistry, or perhaps do both or something else entirely. An important consideration is employment - I understand there is a co-op program for chemistry, but understandably not for astrophysics... ;-) I'm setting a goal for myself to be out on my own next summer by hook or by crook and am looking for sensible ways to achieve this. One potential problem I have is that I do not yet speak French - I can communicate at a bare-bones barely-conversational level, but I will need to take courses - I may take French courses along with everything else if I can fit it in.
If there are any gotchas, any things I haven't anticipated / planned for, please let me know. Thank you for the time you've invested in reading this sight unseen. I look forward to meeting with you in the near future (perhaps after my final grade from pre-cal has been sent down from Dalhousie).
Sincerely Yours,
- William Matheson
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excitedMar. 8th, 2009
10:52 pm - Arf Arf Clunk
Written this afternoon in Albion Cross
Sigh. I usually go to bed around 2:30, but because of the time change it was really 3:30 in practical terms. Church was this morning, and I managed to bump my head twice (once on a pew, once on a car doorframe [my head is still sore]) and I also jokingly albeit thoughtlessly stuck my foot out in the aisle to “trip” a poor kid who was walking blindfolded for a demonstration during Children’s Time. Sigh. I told the minister afterwards that inside me there’s a little boy who always wants to act out and that I should do a better job of subduing him.
Coming back here, I got mad and yelled at my Dad’s folks’ stupid, stupid dog. I hate it when she leaps up at what I’m carrying, especially my camera case or my laptop. I could have kicked that dumb mutt into next week, and only fear of retaliation prevented me from doing so. Only she isn’t a mutt – she’s apparently a retriever. I can’t abide her either way. She’s always bumping into me and jumping up at me with her jaw open. I suppose she has her redeeming qualities, and I’ll report back on this when I find some.
It’s snowing heavily. The weather lately has been frustrating. It’s too cold and slushy for walking or biking comfortably and safely, but it’s too mild for skiing. I’m really hoping for a cold snap after this snowfall. I really want to go skiing at least one more time while I’m here. I don’t skate ski, so I pretty much have to wait for a good snowfall and a good groomed track.
No slideshow today. I called Lea-Mac (a Radio Shack Source dealer) in Souris but they don’t have the S-video to RCA adaptor that I need for the TVs here in Albion Cross. I thought that one of the DVD / VCR combos (with RF and RCA outputs) would have S-video input, but both only had output. Bah, humbug! I mean, they have RCA input! Simmer. Gripe.
The adaptor is the simplest little thing – I had one in Japan but I left it with Chantal, along with 10m RCA cables for the same cross-room laptop-to-TV hookup that I’d had in my apartment. (I would have purchased a 10m S-video cable, but my television only took RCA anyway.) Funny thing, I might have wasted the whole thing on her – when I hooked it up for her, we only got a black-and-white picture. I think now that a pin might be bent, though at the time I tried to fiddle with settings on her computer. I’m fairly sure that wasn’t it at all, though. Since S-video (“s” means separate) carries the chroma and luminance information on separate pins, I’d bet on a failure with the chroma pin. I asked her about it a week ago but I haven’t heard from her. I think I should have poured down some asbestos on a communication wire before burning all my bridges from Seiko. =)
I still feel wronged by Seiko in some ways, but I’m also more keenly aware of my own pettiness, rudeness, and other shortcomings. It’s easy to say that I was working under a bunch of narcissistic morons, but I was the fool that went there without asking questions because I wanted things to be true that turned out not to be. I’m like a lot of people adrift in the sea of the skillless – too smart for religion, too dumb for science.
Speaking of which, I wonder how I’ll do this summer. I’ve added up the cost of the courses – luckily, it’ll all only cost about a tenth of what I have saved, so if it goes horribly awry and I can’t get past integrals and derivatives or whatever, I won’t be too much worse off. I also figured out that I’ll be better off getting transit tickets as opposed to a pass. The cost of a student pass is going up $10, from $54 to $64. That’s enough to make it better to get tickets for many – sure, they’re going up to $1.80 apiece (and will be available in books of 10 ($18) and 20 ($36)), but unless you’re going on round trips five days a week every week, you’re better off getting tickets. Getting the adult pass ($70) will be even harder to justify – even if you’re going on a round trip every weekday of the month (say, May ’09), that only gets you to $75.60 in ticket value. (July would be a good deal – it’s weekdays add up to $82.80.) Lessons: 1) Do the math. 2) Don’t spend your $5 savings in one shop. The convenience is worth a few bucks, though, I suppose. So really, tickets aren’t too shabby, especially now that it’s easier to transfer now than it used to be – short layovers are tolerated now, for instance.
For the record, I’m all for the fare increases as long as our current level of service is maintained (or even, dare I dream, enhanced).
Let’s hope!
Apr. 17th, 2007
12:30 am - intro psych exam + seminar farewell night + east winds
Oh. Exhausted. Let’s talk about this day. This will be my third attempt to blog on-topic.
First, I was up all night finishing my Democratic Individualism paper. Oddly enough, the most gruelling tasks were proofreading, formatting, and including citations – it’s one thing to ask a fatigued person to perform a creative task, but quite another to get that person to do a relatively mundane task without falling asleep. Anyway, I finished the paper at around 11am.
What a weird, surreal day it was. Crazy weather, too! As I walked to the bus stop, the vicious east wind kicked up all the loose crap left over from winter, creating a sort of mini-dustbowl for me to walk though. Don’t you hate it when you’re walking and you suddenly get mysterious crunchy bits in your teeth? On the other hand, down at Saint Mary's I thought I could smell a whiff of sea salt on the breeze.
The Intro Psychology exam: Pretty non-eventful. Big crowd; I hadn’t had an exam in the Tower Fieldhouse for seven years, and I didn’t have a chance to study for it except to glance over a few lectures worth of notes on my notebook (augh! Dega vu! But why?); and so I picked out a lucky yellow exam (and I happened to sit at the same table as Orrin, so we joked around a bit about how low we could score and still achieve A+ for the course) and off we went.
The exam itself was about what I should have expected. I know I missed a few questions, but the vast, vast majority of the questions were on things we talked about in class at least twice. Dr. Patry is a very animated lecturer, and chances are he’ll come up with really memorable expressions that have a way of sticking in your mind to help you recall the course material. Anyway, I’m predicting a… let’s say a 92 for the exam, so 98-100-92, plus the bonus points plus a perfect attendance mark (I did miss one class, but we were permitted to miss three) – I think I’ll be set. And thus will end one of the easiest, but also one of the most interesting courses I’ve ever taken – it was just to get those last 3/120 credit hours, and I’m almost glad Saint Mary’s wouldn’t accept my NSCAD courses, because I would have totally missed out on it. Of course, the NSCAD courses that Saint Mary’s wouldn’t accept were about a hundred times more work intensive than Intro Psych, but whatever makes them happy, I guess…
Exam room LOLz: First, Dr. Patry approaches this fellow wearing a hood. He bends down to the level of his desk and peeks at him; noticing the earphones, he asks the student to remove both hood and earphones. So nothing too outlandish there; it was a civil encounter, and he didn’t get mad. But then this other girl starts snapping her fingers for his attention – ai yi yi! The audacity! You should have seen the look on Dr. Patry’s face, and I don’t blame him. You just don’t do that. Kiddies, please get some decorum. Honestly, Intro Psych. has made me become totally unimpressed with the 2006-07 Frosh Crop.
Tonight, our seminar crew got together at Your Father’s Moustache for a little farewell. We’ve spent wayy too much time together; it’s comical, really. I was so tired (I’m tired now, but I’m drinking a Dew Fuel – a little graduation treat pour moi) that I kept thinking I saw SMUDS people moving back and forth in the restaurant: Oh! It’s Kate! No… Oh! It’s Kevin! No… (And so on…)
Anyway, we had a pretty good time shooting the breeze at the ‘Stach, and the others continued on to Mexicali Rosa’s when I decided it might be better to go home and collapse on something soft – I haven’t slept since just after Brittany’s party. So I go home, and Mom is leery about the weather, so I call for a cab. (I'd walk, but it's pouring rain.) Twenty minutes go by. Thirty. Oh, whoops, the cab was sent to the wrong Shopper’s Drug Mart. Oh, boy. Forty-five minutes. There’s the cab! Nice driver. New dispatcher, apparently. And now I’m home. All done. Totally done.
So now what?
We’ll worry about that next post. The reality is that learning never ends (and I imagine I’ll be taking courses off and on until the day I die), but at least the normal undergrad stuff is pretty much in the can now.
drainedApr. 4th, 2007
01:19 am - Democratic Individualism: The Finale
This evening we attempted to hold our final Democratic Individualism class in the pub. The idea exploded in the hangar, because as soon as the professor arrived we knew that we couldn't really hear or see each other very well. Anyone who wonders why the Gorsebrook isn't opened up for coursework now has the answer. =)
As a compromise, we went back to the classroom, allowing Kristie and Patrick to give their (excellent!) presentations, then we tromped back to the pub at 5:30. Wow, did we ever have fun. I felt like I got to know everyone there just that little bit better! To top it all off, the professor from our last seminar also dropped by, and more or less bought us two more pitchers!
Fortunately, they booted us out at 9:00 - meaning that even though I was drunk then and up until a little while ago, at least I'll be able to go to class tomorrow without a quibble. In fact, I should really be going to bed soon - I have two "end-terms" on tap tomorrow.
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cheerfulApr. 2nd, 2007
07:13 pm - paper times + echoes + coffee
Tonight I’m going to whip up an American Literature paper. Like everyone else who was involved, I do feel a bit like I should be preparing for the play. In another sense, though, I feel like I’ve entered a completely different world. So many things happened at once through Saturday and Sunday that, for me, before and after is like the difference between night and daylight-hurting-my-eyes.
I’m so glad classes are winding down, though to be leaving each other is almost as bittersweet as the play is – in a select few, intimate-scale courses (e.g.: Chaucer and my Honours Seminar).
Why am I glad? Well, less commuting (and when I do go in, I won’t need the 50lb. backpack and 15lb. laptop bag), less sitting around, less forced-reading (though that hasn’t been that bad this semester), and… almost more than anything else, less coffee! I shall need no more coffee to sit through Chaucer and the 14th Century! It’s a fascinating course with a learned, and very kind professor, though she has a very soft voice that lulls me to slumber.
The thing is, the caffeine completely backfires on me. It could be a Tim Horton’s thing – designer coffees may be easier on me. Right now this caffeine has driven me right back into post-party wibber jibbers that I’m only now just starting to get over!
About that, I had a great little chat with Michael B. in the Writing Centre and that really helped. He’s one of the few friendly folks I meet on Mondays and Wednesdays. I’m transcribing much of this post from saved draft text messages on my cell phone, and one of the things I wrote was, I can't wait to get home and i cant wait to get phone posting back in canada
C’mon, LiveJournal! They used to have regular plain-old local access numbers for all kinds of places in the USA, so all it was for me was a regular long-distance call to Maine (using a phone card to make it cheaper). Now they’ve replaced that with a 1-800 system… that only works in the United States. I can’t even dial it through my long distance card. Argh. So, guys, c’mon! (Props where they’re due: it was ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
zephyrcrow who wanted to hear what a Nova Scotian sounded like (OK, I am only a sort-of half Nova Scotian, but still), and she gave me paid time, and for that I thank her again because after trying it I was hooked on the feature.)
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anxiousMar. 21st, 2007
05:32 pm - tech milestone; notes from opening night
Today is the first day I’ve brought a modern laptop to a class. (I once dragged my old 386 to Intro Computer Science to run Turbo C++ in MS-DOS to try out little code snippets while the prof. ran Visual C++ on Windows 2000.) I’m really impressed with the battery life, especially for a large-ish 15” notebook – there was almost 20% still remaining, after being on from 11:45 straight to 3:45 – three straight lectures! I guess I could get about four or five hours straight just typing in MS Word in these optimal conditions: not playing music, not running SETI@home (that eats the battery), and disabling the wireless radio (generally, it’s distracting to have web access during lectures anyway). I’m really glad I sprung for the better battery.
My only problem is that, especially in my very small Chaucer class, I’m wondering if my constant typing annoys people. I will break a social rule and ask – on a day that I don’t bring the notebook. =)
In Intro Psychology it’s okay, because dozens of people have notebooks and the venue is a cavernous lecture theatre.
Actually, I have a few problems with Intro Psych. I love the material, but I kind of dislike the class, because everybody hates me. Gah, it’s like Computer Science all over again! Every time I answer a question or basically do anything, I hear snide whispers. What gives?
On Monday the professor was saying something like, “You’re happy! You’re astonished! You’re amazed; as if you got 100 on the exam! Actually, I think one person did that.”
That was me.
I didn’t do as well on the first exam; I only got a 98/100.
I wisely stayed silent.
We opened last night, and it was OK. Our closing song was a rousing, upbeat rendition of “Hey, Ho, the Wind and Rain.” In fact we were so enthusiastic that we came up with four simultaneous and different ways to sing the first line of the last verse, and equally different timing on the final notes. We sounded like this:
A loneat whime ago the world began
with thhey, ho, the wiand the ndrain
But that's all one, our pldone is lay
And we'll strive to pleayou se, evday ryday!
Still, our audience seemed happy. Some of our scenes were really smoking. Overall, it was a successful first show. Tonight should be even better. I’m going to see if I can pick times to be a convincingly, deeply frustrated Malvolio. I want to harness things like missing my bus two days in a row because the rat b*****d came early, walking all the way back home from my bus stop last night because my mother didn’t feel well, but then being asked to move the van that would have saved me the exhaustion on top of exhaustion (when you’re at school for 10-14 hours at a go, an after-midnight 25-minute walk home is not as pleasurable as it ought to be). I’m hoping against hope that Simon, the lighting guy who lives in Sackville, drove down here tonight – getting a drive from Mom lately has been like pulling teeth. I miss the car. I really miss the car. Last semester was an entirely different lifestyle. If I went back in time to January, I think I would have taken the (obscene amount of) money I spent on this notebook and put it on a car. The problem with the car, though, is that it’s a continuing money pit. The notebook requires comparatively little upkeep and maintenance, and it can generate its own creative wealth.
That paragraph got lost and forgot its destination. I’ll leave you with two unrelated (yes, actually unrelated) things:
( pay attention to your friends... )
2. Our little blonde-haired friend has recently filed a civil suit against one of our actors. In fact, she specifically timed the suit to coincide with our opening night (and, sadly, her “You guys hate me!” is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy), and our actor showed up at court in his costume! They set a date for the meat of the proceedings. We know that she set this time deliberately, as the time of day in question is normally reserved for traffic court, unless someone specifically asks for it. And there was the usual drama of her not wanting to be in the courtroom with him and all kinds of other nonsense. OK, end of story. Or so we think.
For the play, I needed to fill up some prop wine bottles with water. So I’m at the water fountain by the security desk filling these bottles. Suddenly I hear someone at the security desk speaking on the phone, “… May [trial date]th, [charge], he’s in the play…”
… and I turn and discover this same girl, with her back towards me. I made haste to fill up the bottles and escape without being noticed. I may have succeeded.
The problem with all this is that on one hand she says she’s afraid of this guy, and on the other she proactively comes to where he is to attempt to make trouble. On one hand she cries of his supposed unspeakable offences, and on the other she says it would be awful if he moved on. On one hand she’s broke, and on the other she borrows money to buy puppies – and reportedly asking, “I wonder what [the guy] would think of these?”, and to top it off she also borrowed money for something else (but it’s so sensational that I dare not say what outside of absolute proof). So what gives? Nothing she does makes any logical sense. Except to her. She must have her own internal checks and balances. Her task will be to make them fit with those of the outside world. I wish her well in this, and look forward to seeing her well adjusted in her later years.
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coldOct. 2nd, 2006
02:19 pm - the favourite and the lesser favourite
It’s time to cram in a quick blog before I run off to Chaucer & the 14th Century. Incidentally, it’s my favourite course – I quite enjoyed writing the quarter-term, which we’ll be getting back today – because it emphasizes history and linguistics. I’m envious of those who are studying linguistics as their major; it’s so thrilling to see all the little connections and borrowings between languages. And you’d think memories of Grade IX French and a short stay in Poland wouldn’t contribute much to my understanding of Middle English – in a way, though, they do. I feel like I’m standing on the front edge of the doorstep of the porch of the entry wing to the welcome centre of Possible Eventual Understanding.
My least favourite course is probably Posthumanism – my first-semester honours seminar. It’s an important field, but it requires that one subscribe to Postmodernism, which, to the untrained eye, is an impenetrable fog of circular reasoning and Latinate / French rhetoric. However, after careful training, you will be able to penetrate said fog and re-disperse it as a protective shield around your own incomplete conceptions. It would be amusing to see such luminaries as Foucault and Baudrillard write with experts in the fields they casually gloss standing over their shoulders. That being said, we all do the same thing in everyday life (that is, coveting and utilizing a collection of popular (mis)conceptions), and perhaps folk like myself simply get pleasure from identifying possible instances of this in the great. Moreover, it’s highly unlikely that anyone will notice anyway, and not just because these fog banks make up a significant part of the economies of postgraduate Arts studies. It’s best to move on, smiling and nodding, waiting for the fad / fog to dissipate.
(A sample of what I’m talking about: “Dr. XYZ, what’s ABCD?” “Oh, well, it’s hard to put it as succinctly as I think you would like, but it’s, to be blunt, DCBA. Does that help you?”)
I’ll finish this snapshot of my life this evening, after I scout a new truck for my father and respond to Carla’s request for Stones experiences.
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rushed