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William Matheson's Journal
Aug. 2nd, 2009
11:51 pm - plans (some would say dreams)
People often ask me what my long-term plans are - what I'll do after I get my B.Sc.
Well, if I don't write the Great Canadian Novel (I spend so little time writing that this isn't something I'm really betting on), there's always grad school. I can hear you groaning from here. You've got good reason - see: MLIS, Dalhousie, or worse: MBA, Saint Mary's). As if all that wasn't bad enough, it's just as competitive: you've got students falling over each other for the chance to go deeper into debt. And at the end, there's no guarantee of anything (well, there are no guarantees in life) - you finish the MLIS and get a job as a shelving clerk and you sink or swim just as if you'd gone into the library system straight out of high school. You succeed based on merit, not your degree (alone).
And that sounds like things as they should be, except for the tens of thousands spent getting that degree. I'm the one to talk: I have an English degree that was necessary for but of little relevance to the year I spent teaching in Japan. The degree is just a symbol. In and of itself, it's meaningless.
Anyway, science grad school is a whole different ball game. You're really kind of employed by the host university and you're compensated accordingly. What's the catch? Oh, hush, there's no catch... Yikes! How many do they admit? Four to eight!? I'm going to write the numbers in words and embolden them just so they take up more real estate and seem like more!
Okay, talking about this before I even begin my science undergraduate career is more than putting the cart before the horse - it's more like putting the horse out before the road is built.
Still, it's fun to imagine what might be if I keep my nose to the grindstone (in other words, if I remain interested).
(Embarrassingly, I'm still getting mail about that chemistry registration business. I must have caused quite a stir, and it's being spread out because not everybody is in the office on any given day during the summer. I regret starting off by pleading and then complaining - I should have taken the constructive action first, then the whole mess would have been avoided.)
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contentJul. 3rd, 2009
04:56 pm - cell phone FYI
Now that my prepaid balance (built up when I was in Japan and topped off month to month since then) has finally been exhausted, I've gone back to postpaid (mercifully without a contract). This means I now have:
- Unlimited texting. (I believe it was 15¢ per text while on prepaid. I built up a Twitter habit anyway. Now I'll be Twittering like crazy.)
- Unlimited nights and weekends starting at 9pm. (A tad late, but back in the day I found I didn't use the early n/w as much as I thought I would. More to the point, I rarely exceed my regular allotment of minutes anyway.)
- 200 daytime minutes per month. (On prepaid I paid 25¢ per minute at any time.)
- 10-message voicemail. (On prepaid I could only carry 3 messages at a time - although that was pretty much always enough.)
- And, for this month only, unlimited local calls. So for the rest of July all y'all can call me in the broad daylight of weekdays and not worry about my minutes. You're welcome, you're welcome, no, thank you. Please. You're very welcome. Ha-ha, stop it!
And, as always, the number is 877-WILL. ;-)
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bouncyJul. 26th, 2008
07:36 pm - 91. Beach Barbeque
We had a beach barbeque today, which was also kind of a last hurrah with D. We invited the Japanese teachers; they all sent their regrets, but a few also sent beer. =)
The water was blissfully warm. I’m pretty sure it’s the warmest salt water I’ve ever swum in.
We had a little gazebo all to ourselves; I tried to stay under its shade most of the time, but I still got some sunburns. I really should have worn sunscreen, but I thought I could get away without it.
At some point I said, “You know, when I’m drunk and not working, I love this country!”
D. just gave me a bunch of maps and a flag of Nova Scotia. I’m going to need to get some more thumb tacks so that I can hang it all up.
I’m really looking forward to getting on the ferry and sailing away. I go a week from today. I’ll be calling TOPIA tomorrow to confirm my understanding of the departure time and cost. Masae (the woman who visited us in PEI 20 years ago) is expecting me in Tokyo; I don’t know if this will be just for coffee or tea or if she’ll actually invite me to her place to visit, but either is fine by me, and I’ll bring some Tokushima indigo-dyed omiyage in any case. There’s always the cybercafé! =)
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burnedJul. 1st, 2008
07:58 pm - 76. Things To Look Forward To
Teaching is rough. I knew it was going to have its ups and downs, but I didn’t think it would be like being a manic-depressive on speed.
Still, there are occasionally moments of awe and inspiration. For example, one of my students has suddenly started doing much better on his spelling tests. He had been one of the biggest problems in my class, but now, not so much. He’s eager and he applies himself. Tears welled up in my eyes as I marked one of his latest tests and stamped it with a red-ink Snoopy likeness that says “Good Job!” There are still a few holdouts that haven’t “clicked,” but I have hope for them. I’m often overjoyed when anything finally gets through to anyone.
And today in my class I noticed that one of my students was kneeling in front of her desk, and her chair was in the aisle. I attempted to intervene, but the kids told me that their Japanese teacher wanted them to push their chairs back into their desks when they got up. It was going on a “three strikes” basis, and they were even policing themselves – one or two more kids lost the use of their chairs during the course of the class! They even taught me a lesson; in the staff room later, I started being more careful to push my own chair in. (The aisles are narrow and the desks are tiny; every speck of space counts.)
Now that open lesson is over, the stress levels have gone down, but the apathy levels have gone way up. To combat this and to keep my sprits up during the 1,001 daily moments of reflecting on the relative pointlessness of my job, I’ve made this list of things to look forward to. Just for starters, every month from here on out has a holiday – the lack of any holiday made June especially trying. But most months have something else, too:
July – YMCA overnight camp; probable day care and pool duty the final week
August – Holidays! I’ve got two weeks off and I will be buying a Seishun Juhachi Kippu and also taking the ferry to Tokyo – we’ll see how things go!
September – There’ll be a sports festival; this should be at least a little interesting.
October – It looks like there’s some kind of field trip planned. That’ll be fun.
November – There’ll be a performance festival. These take a lot of preparation, but some classes are cancelled in the bargain.
December – Holidays!
- - -
I’m only guaranteed to be here that long, but just in case:
January – Last Sankanbi (a special lesson that the parents attend; this is followed by a meeting with the parents). It’s also my birthday.
February – Has a few extra holidays, plus another performance festival.
March – Lots of parties and ceremonies and farewells, and some low-pressure day care time at the end.
I think I’ll survive. ;-) Off to see Indy!
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hopefulMay. 3rd, 2007
03:02 am - party in Lawrencetown + program in Church Point
Last weekend, Adam had this rockin’ party out in Lawrencetown, to celebrate his going away to Texas with Kurtis and Peter to, in Kurtis’ words, “sell pesticides to those stupid Americans.” (Kurtis assures me he is kidding. It had become a running joke that I didn’t understand he was kidding.)
Adam’s party was off the hook. SMUDS-wise, it was pretty quiet – although Shawn phoned in from Miramichi, for a while it was just Sam, Rayleen, Brittany, and me – we met at the Dairy Queen in the rain, grabbed a 14, and only an hour later we were at the Colby Village Superstore waiting for Adam’s brother Aaron and Adam’s girlfriend Megan to pick us up. (Adam’s house is a good 45-minute walk off the nearest bus route. Getting picked up made things 1000x easier.)
We had a fine time (Facebook photos: Sam’s (very good!), mine (fewer, and mostly from later on in the night)), and even after Alex left with the SMUDS girls I was able to maintain the momentum and make a few new and very cool friends.
There was an incident with Megan’s ice cream cake that ultimately required the cleaning of the garage, and I must take some responsibility for that because it was around 1:30am or so during a card / drinking game that I made mention to her about the cake, because I was hungry and curious for a piece. Depending on your point of view, it was either extremely amusing or extremely horrible. Tip: Drunk people and soft-serve ice cream cake don’t mix. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the end poor Megan didn’t even get to have a piece after all the shenanigans and subsequent consumption.
Some of the guys slept on the bed of their pick-up (equipped with a tent), and Adam got me well set up indoors. Adam’s parents even fed us in the morning, and they drove me to Highfield Terminal in time to catch the 87 to Sackville. Great times, great friends, great hospitality. Thanks again!
But I told you that story to tell you this one:
During the party, Britt and Abbey were chatting about Explore, a federally-funded second-language program for youth that they had both participated in. This hit me like a ton of bricks, as I had foolishly passed on a chance to apply – although, to be fair to myself, I was in a situation where I had to pick either the summer camp videographer job or Explore, and like we often do when we’re confronted with two paths, I chose neither.
So it took me a few minutes to regain my composure and not commit the serious error of falling into a funk during a party (I’ll tell you from experience that it’s nowheresville). And once I did, it was clear sailing.
Fast-forward to yesterday. Since I had nothing to lose, I picked up the idea of calling the provincial Explore coordinator and asking if there were any openings, even though the deadline for applying was February 28th.
I guess it never hurts to ask, because early this afternoon I got a phone call – Kathleen tells me that yes, there are a few places left at Université Saint-Anne! But time is of the essence. The program begins May 13th, and could I have the application papers in by today? Sure. I get rolling, step quickly down to the bus stop, and go into town and get my paperwork done – in my tear through the library I saw Victoria but didn’t really have a chance to chat with her (sorry, Victoria! =( and then I tore across town, made it to the office 15 minutes before it closed, and everything’s in order, and she fires everything off to Sainte-Anne, and that’s that.
It does seem like a small thing, but it was something that I would have regretted for years if I’d missed out on it, and it was a huge satisfaction to nip it in the bud. (Of course, the actual work of learning to converse in French is still to come, and I’ve got to make the very most of this opportunity.) I asked Mom this afternoon if putting me in French immersion had ever been an option, and she said it was – but I didn’t want it! She imitated me whining before Grade 7 (when late-start immersion would have been an option), “But I don’t waaaannt to learn French!” with alarming tonal accuracy. I guess my memory concerning this and other educational decisions of my childhood is somewhat selective. =) I was only interested in playing and not interested at all in any actual work or effort. I didn’t know back then that I’d be paying dearly for it now.
Walking with a skip in my step, I found and took the 80 back to Bedford and on the way I saw Josh, and we had a great chat! I should have went to the library first (I need to pick up some French learning materials so that I won’t be a total n00b when I go up to Church Point), and I should have taken the 33 or 86 home (it would have been faster), but the 80 allowed me to treat myself to a bag of Nibs before walking home.
OH! The Wings score with 33 seconds left! ROCK!! I’m not sure who to root for in this series (San Jose is pretty awesome, too), but everyone loves overtime. Tip: If you’re in the opposing zone in an empty-net situation, take the puck deep and kill time, don’t go for the “easy” goal unless you’re clear of opponents.
At any rate, this opportunity gives me a lot of things to think about. How will it go? Je ne sais pas*. Will I learn any French? J'espère. (Thanks, Josh!) Will I make any friends? Probablement. Non, certainement! It’s vital that I throw myself into this experience completely, as I will never again have the opportunity to learn French so cheaply yet effectively. (I wanted to do this program last year, but a condition of the funding is that you are enrolled full-time in a high school, university, or public college during the preceding academic year.) In order to get the most out of it, there are some logistical issues that will need to be addressed, and I’ll be detailing those in a later post.
* - I have a feeling that this will be a “go-to” phrase… something like that handy “Я не розумию.”
And… for icing on the cake, there’s even a – Oh boy, Detroit just won… good, Anaheim will have lots of time to rest after they finish whomping Vancouver**… =) – there’s a special branch of Young Canada Works for offering job placements to graduating Explore participants. Of course, I might not be deemed eligible for a lot of things since I’ll be leaving here in September (even if I don’t get accepted to UBC for Education), but you never know!
** - I hope it will be otherwise, but man, did they ever blow it last night, or what?
It really feels good to have one – wait, two! fewer things to worry about. Yes, there are six other things one the list that are mostly unaddressed, excepting some brief experiences in my childhood. But one has to start somewhere.
The List:
- Improve in French and stick to it
- Learn Gaelic and stick to it
- Take up an instrument and stick to it
- Learn to sing properly and stick to it
- Study mathematics at the university level and stick to it
- Learn an object-oriented programming language and stick to it
- Write (not just blog) and stick to it
- Get my Honours degree
Compared to these objectives, everything else seems like a means to an end. Oh, sure, there are other objectives like “house, car, girlfriend, family, see Easter Island” but they go without saying! =) If I’m going to be a “man of many hats,” as my cousin’s husband once put it, I’ve got my work cut out for me. Wish me luck.
Your Pal,
~ Will
PS: Kathleen wants me to tell friends that there are still one or two spots left at Sainte-Anne. Leave her a message if you're interested: go to this page, hit the coordinator link, and call the number for Nova Scotia. Don’t just act now, act yesterday. But if you’re in between things, went to school this year, and are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and you’re interested in French, it could be just the thing for you!
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