![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
William Matheson's Journal
Jun. 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
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/bouncy.gif){kind=small}
excitedJun. 10th, 2009
04:16 pm - the missing review sheet, deity
I may have to go back on my promise to score a 70 on that test! I lost my review sheet with all of the questions I was going to complete!! What a waste of an afternoon! I got my homework finished, but the material covered in today's class (and tonight's homework) isn't on the test.
I just have to chill out and remind myself that all I REALLY have to do is score a 70% or higher on the final and I'm safe. But really, who'd want to have to rely on that? I was really hoping that I'd perform this time, and I was going to pull out all the stops. I'll still be able to go through my notes, but it won't be quite the same thing and not nearly so good practice as doing all the review questions would have been. I could just cry, really.
I could fire her off an e-mail and see if she has a digital copy? I doubt it, though - the review looked like it was put together on a copier and it has a lot of handwriting. I'll ask anyway. And I'll do the assignment that would ordinarily be due on Tuesday tonight, since some of the concepts from it will surely be on the test.
* * *
So earlier this afternoon I'm doing my homework in the Chase and someone from the class asks me where he can get a Tim's coffee. He later comes back and chats casually and asks if he can sort of watch me work. Well, alright... People say that I seem smart, but I'm probably just astute and stubborn. I don't have the background in math to be particularly smart about it. My eraser has been my erstwhile friend this whole term.
He watches me work in silence.
"Do you believe in God?"
Oh, no. I knew from the frequent eye contact that something was up.
I suppose it's a fair question, but you always get the impression that someone is at least wishing to convert you to their religious beliefs. Still, a dose of discomfort every once in a while is a good thing for me - I'll tread more and more carefully should there again be call for me to state my eschewal of such beliefs.
The worst is when people cite a "plan" that "works in mysterious ways." As if we can wrap up yesterday's rain, missing the bus, 9/11, the Eastern Front, and the girl who smiled at you last week all into "God's plan." Please. It's far, far easier to believe there is no plan - and if there is a God, he doesn't matter.
Well, off to my voice lesson...
He also asked me if my parents were church-goers. Well, yes. Hell, my uncle and stepmother are ordained ministers - which my father has mentioned my becoming on more than one occasion, because I don't need math. It's a very interesting concept - it leads me to think that math and religion are inverse functions of each other. I'm sure there are a few religious folks who have found math, but I think there are fewer mathematicians who have "found" religion.
Update, 06/17: I scored a big honking 82%! Not only did my guarantee come through, but I also feel like I'm starting to get this stuff. Sure, my factoring and fraction skills are still fair, but I'm scrambling my way up to the top of this stuff! No lifetime of serving hamburgers for me! ;-) (To see what I mean by this, click here and read the bottom section on "Mathematics.")
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/shocked.gif){kind=small}
anxiousMar. 28th, 2009
04:15 am - Sloan Sloan Sloan
So here I am at SMU. Woooo, I’m a SMUdent again for the night. Things have changed. What is this Word 2007? It’s really different. I’m not yet accustomed to Vista (though this is an XP workstation) or its derivative apps with their fancy ribbons and stuff. On my computer I still use Word 2002 and have no plans to upgrade. As Paul Lutus said, no one wants to throw away software that works.
Yeah, good thing I was here in January to refresh my account and stuff, otherwise I’d be locked out.
.docx?? What is this? And $1.50 for a 355ml can of Coke? Heck, outside our apartment buildings in Japan a 500ml can was ¥120, and on campus it was only ¥110. Everything is just so inflationary. There’s this buddy of mine from auld times at SMU that I saw at the Sloan show, and he was extolling the virtues of his Masters program in Library and Information Science. If I were to embark on such a venture, it would just run me back a cool $15,502 (base price, last year's figures).
Fifteen grand?! For *two* years of school?! What the hell is the world coming to?!
As my KM-friend said the other night, “40 is the new 20.” Hear, hear. Speaking of which, tonight I was accused of pushing 30 for the first time. I was sitting at a table in the back corner of the Grawood, kind of hoping I could hold onto the space for S., and possibly M. and his friends as well. But a bunch of froshers from SMU who’d come to see Sloan asked me if they could sit there more than an hour before the formerly mentioned folks arrived. I pretty much had to give it up, though they did maintain for a while the idea that they’d leave when “my friends arrived.” Anyway, they were cool guys. The one who talked to me the most was all of 19. Geez, when I was 19 I couldn’t see past the end of my nose. This guy might be doing OK, but he thought I was ancient. (I guess it’s time to shave my beard.)
I mean, it wouldn’t be bad being old if that came with a job, house, and car, but that just isn’t the case these days. Also working against me is the fact that some part of me still wants to be a polymath. My uncle’s told me, in no uncertain terms, that that won’t work. I think he’s right. In August, when my summer math and science courses are completed, I’ll have to make some tough decisions.
* * *
I don’t know how I got onto that track. Youth angst, I suppose.
I had my voice lesson with C. early, and that was good – it just feels gratifying to have a modicum of talent at something. Of course, talent is only a fraction of the final product, and I only hope to have the self-discipline to stick with this along with the chemistry, physics, and calculus that will populate this spring and summer. I have a song to sing now, and a bunch of things to warm up with too.
One thing that she mentioned sticks in my mind – she was talking about how some people have certain tics that can look ridiculous (at best) or even actually denigrate the performance. You have to be really careful with how you physically prevent yourself, for both aesthetic and technical reasons. I’m glad she’s there to point these things out to me, because I’m sure I would never notice them on my own. It’s kind of like when I was a kid and I would do things like repeating the ends of my sentences under my breath, smacking while I ate, or making weird grunts during the quiet times in math class. I never would have stopped if people hadn’t told / nagged me about them repeatedly over the years. It took me a long time to learn to be properly self-conscious about those sorts of things. Now that I no longer possess the conceit that I am perfect (I blame myself and my skewed view of my former religion for that), I’m much more open than I used to be. I mean, it would still hurt to be told that I’m an inept piece of shit, but at least I would be open to hearing your reasons for such a declaration.
OK, 2:30. Only three and a half hours to go!
So after the lesson I walked across town to Dalhousie. My first stop was the university bookstore, where I bought the textbooks for my April and May classes along with a few other odds and ends. (I wanted to get a binder too, but all they had were huge two-inch+ jobbies when I wanted something smaller.) I saved $25 on my chemistry textbook by picking up a “damaged” copy – it had a slight tear in its cover. Now, really, I don’t know how MR. ROBERT A. NALEPA can justify charging $126 for a book (Changes In Matter) that’s so obviously self-published. It’s like he put a bunch of chemistry notes together and sent them to cafepress.com or something. It isn’t even in color! Give me a break. Am I going to give him the hardest time I possibly can this term? You better believe it. I will not know the meaning of the word “nice.”
I’ve been sitting stunned for ten minutes because I don’t know how to top or further embellish that sentiment. Probably I’ll end up taking the course and deciding that he’s a nice guy after all. But look at this blurb:
He is the author of a number of Chemistry textbooks including the textbook used for the University Prep Chemistry course.
It’s a glorified course pack! Fine then, I’m an “author” of “a number of” essays and short stories, including a story published in Changelings. Frag! Everyone’s a goshdarned “author” these days!
[May 4th Update: I've since changed my opinion on this almost completely - the textbook, while not being extraordinarily fancy, does what it needs to do admirably well. Hardly anything in it is wasted. Moreover, it represents a great deal of personal effort on the part of its author. Considering how much time I've spent with my nose in the darned thing, it's hard to call it overpriced.]
OK, I’ve really got to set this hammer down and move on. Sloan, right?
I went into the Grawood around 8:00. I showed my driver’s license, but the bouncer asked me for my Dal ID as well. Uh…
“Do you go to SMU? Can I see your SMU ID?”
So I pass it to him, and am grateful that he doesn’t turn it over and see the long-expired validation sticker on the back that all but says that I haven’t been enrolled there since 2007. He compares the pictures, I’m allowed a drinking bracelet, and in I go. I had a beard, the SMU ID did, the driver’s license didn’t. That always throws them! </maniacal laughter>
Opening for Sloan (and providing “commercial breaks” when the band took breaks) was their lame “radio station,” MRCH 108.8. Just now I’m realizing that MRCH means “merchandise.” Sorry, Sloan, you lost twenty points. I guess it worked in a sense because I bought a CD. But all they needed to say is, “Sloan CDs, ten bucks!” I was going to get Between the Bridges at some point anyway, and why would I pay record store prices?
This “DJ” also orchestrated a 50-50 draw, which was probably a scam – I wonder if the charity he drummed up even exists. Like, seriously, Sloan, if you want to have an MC, that is fine. But why make him pretend to be something he’s not? My friend S. saw him twirling his microphone clad in his shiny gold shirt and exclaimed that he was a tool. Later he twirled two microphones, which I suppose made him twice as cool, but you know what the rule is about multiplying by zero.
Anyway, for all most of the audience (myself included until now) knew, MRCH was just somebody associated with the Grawood. The only tip-off was when he asked people to text requests to him using a 416 area code. Also, there’s no station in Halifax broadcasting at 108.8 – actually, no station anywhere, as most FM dials only go up to 107.9, and most commercial stations end in odd tenths of a frequency, like .1, .3, .5, .7, or .9. If I hadn’t shared those two pitchers with S. I would have figured it out.
The thing is, though, this guy is being used in lieu of a (second) opening act. Dave Marsh came on at 9:30, but the doors opened at 7:00. Sloan didn’t get on until nearly 11:00. If they’d gone on fifteen minutes earlier, I’d have been able to catch the last bus home, and I wouldn’t be spending the night in this SMU computer lab. Just sayin’. Sloan, find another band, not some guy pretending to be a broadcast DJ.
OK, now let’s talk about Sloan themselves. They opened with “Pen Pals” and “Losing California,” which happened to be S.’ two favourite songs, so she felt they were off to a good start. They played nearly half of Parallel Play, which S. says is normal band behaviour, since it’s their latest album. I’m contrary to this idea – I feel that bands should play some of their best songs, some of their rarities, and only slightly upsample their latest record. They only played two or three songs that I hadn’t heard before, which came as a shock to me, since pre-Never Hear the End of It, all I know are the singles. (By the way, NHTEOI is an awesome album. It’s a rambling 76-minute masterpiece and one of my all-time favourites. That said, it’s not exactly loaded with singles.)
It was a lot of fun to rock out to those old singles. Some of the new ones were cool too, but if S. and the other patrons weren’t feeling them, they weren’t half as much fun. It’s the same with anything, I guess. But seeing how much they seemed to have to push Parallel Play, combined with the general lameness of MRCH, made me feel that they’ve kind of… <cough>sold out</cough>. It was kind of sad.
* * *
Hungry, I set off for Spring Garden Road. As usual, I go into the McDonald’s to use the restroom (and I hear Big Bird singing about the letter V – the fact that it is nearly one in the morning only adds to its charm), but go to the Subway to eat. I inhale a footlong BMT and subsequently set off for SMU.
The nights are getting warmer. The youngsters are milling about outside of their apartment complexes now. But I have no such place to go. But, counting my blessings, I do have someplace warm and internet-connected. I’ll spend the next few hours of my evening with Asian students chatting with their friends back home, late-night crammers, and online poker addicts.
Now it’s just past four and I am alone. Maybe I’ll plug in my headphones and catch up on Lost. Then home, a few precious hours of sleep, and then I’ll be doing this all over again!
5:25am: It didn’t stay quiet for that long. Just a few minutes ago, people started streaming in. Most are wearing pyjamas - they must be coming from the dorms to do some groupwork or something. And now there’s a whole load of people in here!
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/snore.gif){kind=small}
sleepyFeb. 7th, 2009
05:36 pm - little sisters + knowing things
We had the girls over here last night. They were quite a handful! Ila's a little bit unhinged, and Rae gets scared and upset about the slightest things. But they're nine and seven respectively, so I suppose it's to be expected. Probably what really gets me is when I see in them behaviour that I used to exhibit as a child. Seeing what other people probably saw in me mortifies me to no end.
I visited J. and L. down in Dundas today, after dropping off the girls and their boatload of belongings (including two sacks for superfluous stuffed animals - one or two critters I could understand, but two whole bags full?). J. and I were talking about various things, and she suggested that I become registered as a substitute teacher. In PEI, as it is in New Brunswick but not in Nova Scotia, one can substitute with only a university degree, and maybe not even that, as the form for PEI suggests sending proof of 30 credit hours / 1 year of "post-secondary education." My stars.
So my problem isn't so much that I'm not certified. I could be teaching right now if I wanted to. Unfortunately, a larger problem is that I don't know anything. There is exactly one subject that I have a background in: English. The form for the Eastern School District alone has room for six subject preferences and three subject specialities. Somehow, I don't think writing "English" and "English" is going to make me look like a hot prospect. Now, this hasn't stopped a lot of people from teaching anyway. But it may stop me, for now.
In going to Dal this summer for continuing ed courses, I'm basically turning back the clock to Grade 11. I may well end up going to my 10-year high school reunion and saying yeah I've got Mr. MacDonald for chemistry. Well, that's if I can hack it and don't drop out on the first day. =) Ha-ha. No, I'm going in full throttle. I'm sick of being a simpleton.
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/blah.gif){kind=small}
hungrySep. 29th, 2008
08:22 pm - 134. Monday Night Musings
I've just realized that I have almost no reason to go back to Saint Mary's when I return, aside from its merits. And it's a meritorious school.
But now just about everyone I've had connections with has moved on.
I have to stay in the Halifax area - it's the only place that's near enough a full-service university / full-service city where I can live basically for free. Dalhousie is starting to look pretty good, but I don't want to get lost among the proto- lawyers and doctors, and other budding professionals. I just don't know. As uninformed a notion as it seems, it's Big Bad Dal until proven otherwise. I'll get to test drive the place this coming spring and summer, and if I like what I see, I may stay.
I got my voting kit in the mail today. I think I know who I want to vote for, but I don't feel quite well-enough informed just yet to punch the ticket (actually, I'll just be writing in the candidate's name) and mail it to Ottawa. I'll wait until after the leadership debates. They're not completely relevant - only the people who live in the leaders' ridings will have an opportunity to vote directly for any of them, but it will give me a better grip on how things are going party-wise, especially between the Liberals and the New Democrats.
* * *
We went to kaiten Sunday night - A.'s pal Mrk. - oh the heck with it - Mark was in for a stopover on his long travels. He taught in Korea (the ROK, I take it) for two years and then he started travelling. He went back to England, then came back here overland via Eastern Europe and Russia. Holy crap.
Anyway, I mention kaiten because since we weren't drinking, we spent a lot less than we usually do - most of us got out of there for less than ¥1,000. Of course, my clothes still smelled like fast-food-fish. As it always goes after kaiten, into the laundry pile they went.
Some of the other foreign teachers got their Foreign Buyers' Club order in today. Also, E-sensei had houseguests this past weekend, and she brought the surplus omiyage to school and shared it with us. That was our excitement for today. Also, my hotel in New York has been booked. It looks like a dive. =) "All standard guestrooms at Super 8 JFK Jamaica include complimentary wireless Internet access, cable TV, and windows that open." (!!) This is going to be fun, I can tell. I'll be packing overnight stuff in my carry-on and leaving my suitcases at Terminal 4 - no sense hauling them halfway into a sketchy part of Queens.
It's getting cold here now. They're keeping the classroom doors and windows shut to hold in the warmth. I'm still using my fan in my room, but it's probably out of habit. My balcony door doesn't need to be left open anymore to let the air circulate. It's sweater weather now - the children resumed wearing their turquoise pullovers today, and one needs a coat when going outside at night.
OK, back to election trolling!
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/blank.gif){kind=small}
complacent