December's eve... Lead me to the holy water; introduce me to the place you are from.
Wherever you go I will follow, so take me there and I will come.

Today is decompression and regrouping day. I haven't had enough sleep in several days, due to working on that Testing project and spending time with CP. And it's kinda caught up with me - I'm not feeling so great today. Time to relax, unwind and take care of myself a little better. This will involve watching some television shows I've had taped for over a week now (Desperate Housewives...!), painting my nails, and maybe doing some yoga or pilates. Tonight I'll hit the books.

Do you realize that I have THREE EXAMS next week...? And TWO the following week? And one more paper to write... I had my last politics class this morning (dunno why Bill's not having class on Thursday...). Three more days of other classes, then crunch time. Eep.  | ¶ 3:49 p.m.

  travisty Okay, so you're probably wondering what all the fuss about Travis is (those of you who don't know him). It's sort of a funny story, really. Basically, this boy is well-known to the guys I've gotten to know over the past couple months, and when they found out that I would be working with him on my Testing project, there was quite the onslaught of warnings and pity for me. It was surprisingly harsh, but since I'm a girl who likes to form her own opinions about people and things, I opted not to rush to judgement on the matter. Could this supposedly tremendously annoying and stupid person really be that bad...?

So I withheld judgement. I arranged to meet Travis to coordinate our project work. By this time, another young lady named Maggie had asked to work with us, since she is like me - new - and didn't have a lot of options for partners in our class.

I thought I was being open-minded and reasonable to give Travis the opportunity to make his own impression on me. He sure made an impression...

Hello professor McKelvie,
I am writing on behalf of Stacey and myself just to let you know that we have decided it is impossible to continue working with Travis on the project. She has already informed him and I am supporting her decision, we agree it is for the best.

We understand that it may seem rash to make this kind of decision on the day the project is due, but all attempts to work and progress during the weekend failed. I feel that both Stacey and I were in a disadvantage not knowing the people in the group and there was no way we could have predicted this problem, such consequences are often found in team projects.

Slainte,
Maggie and Stacey

Despite the outward appearance of normality, Travis, quite simply, is one of the most persistently annoying, unproductive and irresponsible creatures I have had the misfortune to spend time with. I don't think he's been held to account for very much in his short life, 'cause he sure acted like he expected to be let off the hook for many of his shortcomings.

In our few unpleasant hours together, Travis was completely unable to focus, to stay on point, or to complete any task without somebody basically playing a babysitting role for him. Every time I would ask him how much progress he had made on our work, he was ready with excuses like, "I cut my thumb, so not too much." "My work might not be great, but I have GOOD ideas..." (are we in the idea business...?). "I have other projects that I need to do" (don't we all...?).

This was not a personality issue - even if someone was very irritating, if the quality of their work made up for it, they would be tolerated. We just didn't see any evidence that Travis had it in him to buckle down and get anything done. I haven't been 22 for a long time, so maybe I forget if it's harder to concentrate at that age or something. What I know at this point in my life is that you just can't let your own inability to produce affect the lives of other people who depend on you. Why do you deserve a free ride? This project is worth THIRTY PERCENT of our final grade in this class, and it is important to Maggie and I that we do well. It was a very long and difficult report to complete (over 30 pages), and we didn't have the luxury of wasting time.

Thank goodness for miss Maggie. We just spent SIX HOURS working together to complete the project, we actually had fun working together, and even managed to produce a solid report. That girl can write..! We were lamenting our misfortune at having not met sooner and maybe avoiding all the nonsense with this other guy. Ah well. I'm pleased with how things turned out, even if I do feel a bit bad for poor Travis.  | ¶ 11:40 p.m.

  Tee hee CP says:
Some people just need to take Getting To The Bloody Point 101.
cupcake says:
seriously!
CP says:
(It's worth four credits, since it has a lab, consisting of saying something with substance.)
  | ¶ 8:56 p.m.

  Monday afternoon update I just kicked Travis out of our project group, ON THE DAY THE PROJECT IS DUE. I had the support of our teacher and our other team member (who, along with me, has actually done some good quality work on this report). I feel kinda mean, but he asked for it, man. W/e. I do not like confrontation. He was swearing at me and yelling shit, like the idiot he is. Eep.

I am eating a chocolate chip cookie.   | ¶ 1:23 p.m.

  Dear Scott, [Scott and I were joking this morning that people should update their blogs hourly so that we know what they're up to...Silly.]

In the past several hours since we spoke, I slept for a few hours, like I said I would. I got up and showered, then talked to my sister for seventy-two minutes (let me know if you would also like to know how she's doing, btw). While speaking to frou, I got dressed (partly), I made myself a plate of poached eggs, toast and white cheddar cheese slices, and I proceeded to eat the entire meal. After hanging up, I spent some time blow-drying my hair, I finished getting dressed, and I am preparing to pack up my project work to walk to campus to meet the delightful Travis for a delightful afternoon of delightful project-work.

Sincerely,
Cupcake  | ¶ 12:47 p.m.

  student report, part x++ So NOT interesting:

In examining the relationship between For and Against ratings (on the QCP) and a sentence proposed for a hypothetical crime, we see an acceptable level of association with an obtained result of .195 in the For group and .177 in the Against group, both of which are significant at the .01 level (2-tailed). We also see a correlation deemed to be strong between QCP scores and decision to select death as a form of punishment, both in the For and Against categories, with significant results of .706 in the For category and .690 in the Against category.

...yeah, I’m working on my second Testing project. At 4:30 in the morning. I feel surprisingly okay about being awake at this insane hour. After sleeping four or five hours, I heard the kids get home from the bar a while ago, and I figured why not get up…? I keep dreaming about this stupid project anyway – better to be plodding through. Especially since I’m meeting with my team later today to assemble our various components – the project is due Monday.

I’ve kinda figured out that I got stuck with the more labour-intensive section. With our focus in class on studying Norms, Reliability and Validity in the testing process, these concepts are supposed to be our focus, and mine specifically is Validity. The validity section of the assignment has about double the amount of items as the other two. I’m the sucker...Oh well. Guess it helps me learn.

Friday night, instead of being a lame-o and staying home to work on this, I went over to CP's place to watch The Lord of the Rings. I haven't seen that movie since it was in the theatres, so that was fun. And don't worry, despite the SAQ employees still being on strike (that's the Quebec liquor store association), I managed to score a bottle of red wine at the Provigo. I told you we'd be okay. CP doesn't drink, anyway, so I didn't even have to share. Heh.

The students in L'ville order lots of food for delivery (when we lived here in 95-ish, even Club McDo delivered). I hadn't allowed myself this little indulgence since being back this year, but I was feeling rather lazy last night, so it seemed like a good time to order Combo Number 5 from Village Grec - that's the mini poutine and gyros souvlaki if you don't know. Dee-lish (I'm getting hungry again). I haven't been eating all that well lately (lacking ambition to cook; recently suffered the misfortune of a bunch of my freezer meat being spoiled; worrying about money so trying to avoid buying groceries), but I likely gained a couple pounds ingesting that little grease fix. Nothing wrong with a little gravy and cheese curds over your fries once in a while, eh?

Yeah, I gotta get back to work now. I know you're dying to know how it all turns out, this project on Attitudes toward Capital Punishment. Or, more specifically, and yet equally rivetting, "the Psychometric Properties of Questionnaire..." regarding same. Eep.  | ¶ 4:36 a.m.

  faim, fatigué, froid After our big rainstorm over the past few days, the temperature has plummeted and we've now got snow on the ground and a nasty icy breeze chilling my face. Brr.

Some kind soul sent me mail today that says, "here's a letter to make you smile and feel good...".

That's nice.

Yay, it's the weekend; time to do homework...

Next week is my LAST WEEK of classes. Crazy.  | ¶ 12:18 p.m.

  <dork> I'm reading Plato for my History class. And Socrates just said something that reminded me of a Java concept I learned in my computer class: recursion. I don't understand it very well, but it's something like code that circles back on itself without you having to really define a clear action. Socrates and Meno are debating about the meaning of virtue, and can't quite come to a clear definition yet. Excerpt from the Meno:

It follows then from what you agree to, that to act in whatever you do with a part of virtue is virtue, for you say that justice is a part of virtue, as are all such qualities... You say that every action is virtue if it is performed with a part of virtue, as if you had said what virtue is as a whole, so I would already know that, even if you fragment it into parts.  | ¶ 5:11 p.m.

  one more thing... There is a certain amount of pride around these parts about our local town pub being voted Canada's Best Campus Pub on Rick Mercer's Monday Report. We're this tiny little school, and we somehow managed to receive the most submissions. Nifty.

And, contrary to previous reports, I did manage to get myself out to the Lion for beers and wings last night (I know you're all relieved). My project group very efficiently divied (sp?) up the parts of our report and we went our separate ways to work on them (or, to drink beer, as the case may be).  | ¶ 4:18 p.m.

  things frou knows frouster says:
he thought five of transalta's generation sites (which are hydro) were all connected to the same substation
frouster says:
that doesn't even make sense
cupcake says:
i know!

(I don't really know this, of course. Gotta take frou's word for it.)
  | ¶ 3:55 p.m.

  i like the Swedes In an earlier post I mentioned that my friend mis is from Sweden (as of now I'm changing his name to CP, though). Last night CP was teaching me a little about the Swedish language. Did you know they have three more vowels than we do in English? He taught me to count to seven - more, I think, as a test of whether I could actually pronounce the odd-sounding words than anything. I had some trouble with seven. I swore it had an "L" on the end, but apparently it did not. "Houle". But no L. Or something...

They also roll the Rs in Sweden. I'm all over that, due to my years of French training.

He also told me that the letters in IKEA actually stand for something. Maybe people know that, but I had no idea. It's not "Swedish for cheap", contrary to what you may have heard...! The letters are the initials of the founder, along with the initial letters of his hometown or something...

You learn something new every day...  | ¶ 2:06 p.m.

  she'll take away your pain It rained a lot yesterday. And I believe it rained all night. So it's drenched out there. But the sun is out this morning. And you can smell that moist, earth-y smell of soaked-through terrain.

So I savoured the humid, fragrant air as I walked to Club McDo for my grease-soaked breakfast. Heh.  | ¶ 9:38 a.m.

  everywhere she goes, it's sunny Some of the boys I've met recently have tried to start a trend called "Formal Wednesday" at school. You see, since we're students and can basically wear jeans (or our pyjamas apparently) ALL THE TIME, it's nice to mix it up a little and wear nicer stuff. Kinda like "casual Friday" in the work world, but the total opposite - the boys wear ties; it's nice. I'm kinda on board since I'm not used to wearing jeans every single day and my work clothes have been left in the closet to collect dust.

So today I broke out my gray dress pants (known @ HB as my "hot pants") and a nice black sweater. But when I got to school, everybody else seems to have forgotten about Formal Wednesday, 'cause nobody had their ties on (ahem, ED and TOM) (there aren't a lot of participants in Formal Wednesday). In the work world, nobody forgets that you can wear jeans on Friday...  | ¶ 1:11 p.m.

  thumbs down Apparently I'm not going for wings tonight. The one night I actually MAKE PLANS to socialize, to spend money on food and drinks which are completely unneccessary, I am reminded yet again that any time I actually want something, it does not happen. Waa...

Nah. I'll get over it. I'm meeting my group (it's no longer just a partner, since we have a three-person group) to work on my Testing project. And, well, that's obviously more important than beating more boys at pool, while enjoying a beer. And wings.  | ¶ 11:35 a.m.

  Little Chris needs your prayers My step-brother Chris Jensen we call "little" only because when we met him, he was two years old, and the name Kris was already taken by my oldest brother. Little Chris is actually a monster of a young man now, approaching 6'5" (that's a rough guess - I can't see the top of his head...) at the age of 18.

Chris was seriously injured in a football game two days ago and is now in the hospital in BC with a ruptured spleen, which they may or may not have removed as of this moment. My mother tells me that his vital signs had deteriorated yesterday; he has been sedated and pumped up with morphine. My step-father has flown out there to be with him, and I can only imagine the stress he is enduring (along with Chris' mother of course). For those who believe in the power of prayer, please keep this family in mind. For those who don't, well, some good vibes are my usual request. Thanks.  | ¶ 3:30 p.m.

  more positive feedback If I could stay... then the night would give you up
(I've re-discovered U2's "Stay" this week.)

Woot! I got 82% on my Testing Project! It's worth 15% of my final, so 12.6. This is most reassuring to me, since this is my hard class, and I'm not all that confident about the quality of my statistical analysis. That's actually where I lost the majority of my marks - on the results section, which was quite blatantly lacking in significant content. I got marks for the extra work I put into the Discussion section.

When I went to see McKelvie prior to handing this in, we discussed a dude with a theory of field-dependence vs. independence. It's basically a theory that certain people possess traits that vary depending on situational cues. I believe that. Since this test was a measure of intraversion-extraversion, and I find myself in an environment these days where I'm not especially extraverted (not that extreme extraversion is my typical personality style anyway, but the fact that I'm surrounded by people significantly outside my peer range contributes to this becoming highlighted), so my score on that measure was pretty low. So I made this argument about being field dependent, etc. He liked it. Thumbs up for me.

After meeting with my "partner" for the next project (which is worth a bigger chunk of my final mark - 30%), I'm not feeling great about his ability to contribute (the blind leading the blind...?), so I'm planning to work somewhat independently of him and hopefully get a decent mark. This one is much harder, though, involving a software program to analyze the stats that I am not familiar with (I've got seven years of knowledge attrition here). McKelvie gave us an extension, so I've got a week to come up with that. Man.

I am seriously falling behind on my reading these days too. But my friend Andy gave me this piece of advice yesterday:
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

I like it.  | ¶ 12:09 p.m.

  wild Saturday night So tonight my best friends are having their housewarming party in Calgary. I talked to them a while ago when frou called from their front door wondering what their number was, since the doorbell didn’t seem to be working and she needed to be let in…! Luckily the discovered her outside and let her in, so I got to say hello to the hosts. Man oh man I wish I could be there. Homesick is a state of mind I’m beginning to understand all too well these days.

Scott is having a little post-festival fest at his place tonight (they hosted an “installfest” on campus for Linux today; unless you’re serious about computers, that might not mean much to you…), so I could be out socializing. But, since he lives in North Hatley and that’s a 15-minute drive away, and I’m without a vehicle or a sober friend to drive me home, I would be stuck there overnight, and, well, I don’t like being stuck anywhere overnight. Exit strategies are my friends.

So I’m hanging out at home. I painted my nails (I’m all about changing my nail colour these days – it’s v-e-r-y exciting, don’t you know), and now I’m chatting with my friend miserable online. He’s from Sweden, you know, and he’s in his last year Bishop’s, too. And well, he’s had quite a shitty time lately. His father died quite unexpectedly recently, and because of various complicating factors, mis couldn’t even go home to be with his family for the funeral and stuff. I was telling him that he seems to cope pretty well, ‘cause on the surface he’s pretty stable and calm. But I still have this strange urge to wrap him up in a big hug a lot of the time. Only, well, we just met recently and that would be weird, of course.

I keep meaning to do some homework this weekend. I’ve been kinda unintentionally slacking off the past several days due to the mini-burnout I seem to be suffering from. But I think I’m turning the corner and am just about ready to ramp up for my big finish.

ONE TESTING PROJECT. ONE READINGS DIARY. ONE HISTORY PAPER. THREE COMPUTER ASSIGNMENTS. FIVE FINAL EXAMS.  | ¶ 9:26 p.m.

  Oh no...! Someone, please help us...

Quebecers forced to rely on corner stores for booze

Nah, don't worry. I see the beer trucks just about every morning stocking up the "corner stores" for the kids. For those who haven't had the opportunity to witness the beer-selling-corner-store phenomenon in Quebec, you should be aware that these corner stores include the local Esso and the Provigo grocery store, and that each of these has a walk-in cooler stocked full of beer. They know where the money is in this town.  | ¶ 10:09 a.m.

  vous êtes bilingue? In Quebec, when you go to wash your hands, you might notice that the faucet labelled "C" is not cold water. It's chaud, dude. The "F" is froid.

There IS no "H"...

Hmm...
  | ¶ 11:58 p.m.

  I need a vacation Burnout: the condition suffered by the 30-year-old university student after she makes it through her midterms, relinquishes much-needed sleep in the pursuit of completing term papers, and contemplates the looming exam schedule ahead of her.

I have, like, no energy this week.  | ¶ 7:19 p.m.

  feedback from the man I got 78 on my first History paper. It's worth twenty percent, so 15.6. I'm pleased with that.  | ¶ 7:02 p.m.

  Yay, more *stuff* ! The CIBC taketh away, my family giveth...

(I got another care package)

This one had cookies in it! And my requested supply of drugs (starving students can't afford medicine...) Kraft Dinner. Tomato soup. Gloves. And boots. Woot!  | ¶ 1:22 p.m.

  status report I handed in my crappy politics paper today. And haven't slept a lot the past two nights. So I spent the afternoon taking a long nap that seems to have consisted of several disturbing dreams. After dealing with the CIBC earlier, I wasn't in the best frame of mind, and that seems to have affected the content of my sleep. At least I slept for a few hours. And don't have to write another paper yet.

Seriously, my politics paper wasn't horrible, but it was definitely clunky. I talked to a guy in my class who told me I HAD to pick a side of the argument and make my case. But with this whole sovereignty versus the EU thing, it was more complicated than that, and I wasn't going to just make a yes or no case. I presented the case that it is more complicated than that (at least, I think that's what I did). The quality of the paper in attempting to do this wasn't fabulous though. I didn't have much of a rhythm, so my paragraphs didn't necessarily flow into one another in the best way. Oh well. It's done. (yippee)

Now what?

Well, I have to register for second semester classes on Thursday (eep), so I have to review the ones I tentatively selected a couple weeks ago and determine whether I'm ready to commit to that schedule. The plan is to take SIX courses next semester, so I can, you know, graduate. So it only gets worse from here, people. Or not - at least I've this semester to dust off my academic skills and get comfortable with the school business all over again.

I have *another* Testing project due next week. Involving analyzing statistics and stuff again. Ouch ouch ouch.

For my History of Psychology class I have a lot of writing to do. We're supposed to be keeping a "readings diary" on various course material, and I haven't exactly kept that up to date. In addition, we're supposed to have another paper to write, but last time I was in class (a week ago - eep) he still hadn't given us the assigned topic.

I'm going to stop skipping classes now. I haven't been to computer class in a while, either, and I'm probably going to pay for that. As in, struggle through more delightful Java-programming exercises.

Only two-and-a-half more weeks of classes. Tick tick tick.  | ¶ 5:48 p.m.

  Dear CIBC, Please, please stop taking money from me. Last month when I talked to you about not taking money from me and you said you would stop, I thought that you were done taking my money. But then last week we spoke again and you said you just needed a little bit more and then you would stop. So I gave you a little bit more and thought that we were through. So today when I saw that you had taken MORE MONEY FROM THIS POOR STUDENT, well, I was disappointed. So I'm sorry that I had to call and yell at you a little bit, and well, you had better give me that money back (although I'm not holding my breath).

And oh yeah, you will have to work pretty damn hard to convince me to do business with you in the future. Your employees are incompetent; I should know - I've been dealing with them for over ten years.

You should thank my generous anonymous benefactor who so kindly deposited that extra $300 in my account just before you decided you would take more money from me. Otherwise, I wouldn't just be yelling at you. I would be demanding that you pay my grocery bill...

(Stacey's a little angry today)  | ¶ 2:35 p.m.

  WHAT the... When writing a paper, does paraphrasing and re-wording the reports of others count as "composition"?

Before:

...the fear is that in promoting an internal market that gives commercial providers more transborder opportunities, the…directive will dilute governments’ power to regulate businesses operating on their territories, protect the public sector, and guarantee service access and quality.

After:

There is apprehension regarding this assertion by the EC, since, if the directive becomes law, it will significantly impinge on states’ ability to regulate firms operating in this sector within their own borders.

(I have a thesaurus.)  | ¶ 1:53 p.m.

  I like it Turn your back on Bush  | ¶ 1:45 p.m.

  technical difficulties GRR. I am not so happy with the internet service I get from Videotron. It goes down and my whole system basically freezes up. It's happened several times, and often it's just a matter of "re-setting" the modem, which involves unplugging the cords in a certain order, waiting for a minute and then re-attaching them in the same order.

So yesterday morning as I was sitting here working away and my connection went down, I spent the next 2 hours re-setting and re-re-setting my modem, all to no avail. I also only slept four hours the night before as I was working on my Testing project, so the combination of factors made for a very cranky Stacey.

I saved my work to a disc and decided to go to school to finish my report. Only, when I got to school, none of the computers there would read my disc, so I had no way to get my report printed / completed. The saving element was that McKelvie decided to grant us an extension on the project, so it's not due 'til Monday now. Good news, since I'm kinda stuck on what else to include. Bad news, since I now have TWO major projects due early next week. So I'm kinda holed up in my shack (i.e. one-room-apartment) grinding away at research and writing.

The cable guy was just here, and although at this particular moment I have an internet connection, he said the signal at the outside box-thing was very low, so my service will likely be intermittent for up to THREE DAYS since he couldn't be sure when another technician-guy would be along to fix the "box" (he actually called it by some French name, but I can't remember what it was).

I'm seriously contemplating switching to DSL or something. I rely too much on the internet for my connection to the outside world, and having it be so unpredictable is extremely frustrating. Man!

In domestic news, I re-arranged my house (i.e. one-room-apartment) yesterday. Due to the not-so-efficient insulating properties of this place (I have two outside walls, and windows and doors that seem to let in a lot of the cold), I needed to get stuff off the wall with the radiator so the heat would be dispersed maximally, and get my bed (i.e. mattress) out of the cold section of the room. I like my new arrangement, despite the fact that it means I now sleep with my head next to the stove. How many people can say that, really?  | ¶ 12:54 p.m.

  making progress...   | ¶ 11:54 p.m.

  writer's block Here are all my headings. Now I just gotta fill in all the content.

  | ¶ 7:50 p.m.

  lightweight After seeing McKelvie today (Testing prof), I was persuaded (by individual(s) who shall remain nameless) that beers and wings at the Lion was a better plan than attending my History class (yes, definitely). And I've determined that after my 2 months of "clean livin'", I'm a bit of a cheap drunk.

It was fun to play some pool, though. I taught these boys a few lessons...

I'm glad I have the day off tomorrow. I decided that, due to the hard work I've done lately, I deserved a day without classes. So tomorrow I'm skipping my computer class and my politics class (no Bill...). I will likely devote my day to working on my Testing project and continuing the research for my politics paper. Yee-haw.  | ¶ 12:12 a.m.

  I don't get it Psychometrics is not my best class. I'm working away at this project that's due Friday, and I have no idea how to proceed (which is why I'm going to see my prof shortly).

We each had to complete the Eysenck Personality Inventory. We were given the test's test-retest reliability information, as well as norms (the mean for "college students"). And now we have to calculate and analyze our own test-retest confidence intervals. He gave us pretty detailed instructions and formulas, so I've done a lot of the preliminary calculations, but I'm stuck trying to interpret my confidence intervals (I probably can't just say I'm 99% confident that, if re-tested, my score would fall into range x to y).

I have no idea what he wants us to do. GRR. I hate stats.  | ¶ 2:43 p.m.

  midterm report, final edition Good news, everyone. After much hard work and dedication by myself and Scott, I scored an 84 percent on the practical part of my computer midterm. Java-genius, I tell ya!

I've spent another long day reading theories and debates on European Union stuff. The paper I just finished reading closed with the writer making the point that, were another Holocaust-like situation to occur, he would rather have the protection of a constitutional democracy than a free-form union of regions. I'm not sure if his point has a place in my discussion, but he made some other interesting points which I made note of. I'm up to ten pages of research notes. And I've got more papers downloaded than I'll probably have time to read (over 25). But I think I'm starting to formulate a rough outline for my paper (in my head, at least).  | ¶ 8:41 p.m.

  immersed in European politics I know I'm all about school stuff and maybe it's boring to some people. But school is my life right now. A very one-dimensional existence, annoying as it is.

So here we go. I'm reading through a ton of scholarly journals with my question in mind: does the European Union undermine state sovereignty? and, as mentioned, this becomes a multi-layered issue pretty quickly.

You start by defining "sovereignty". Blah blah the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region or group of people... (think George Bush over Iraq).

But then you get to a more challenging question: just WHAT is the European Union anyway, and what are its goals? I'm having a tougher time with this one - I mean, there are the obvious reasons like a common market, common currency, then some of the protectionist-type stuff like the Common Agricultural Policy, etc. And I believe they're moving toward a common defense policy, common foreign policy and common immigration policies. Common common common...!

So, does having all these common policies in place undermine the role of the state...?

That's when you get into how the policies are developed and agreed to by the Member States. They're S-O consensus-oriented, these guys. Deliberative democracy, "Europe of the Regions", cohesion policy...

So I've read entire papers that debate just what type of state-system the European Union falls under. Are they some type of supra-state? Are they a "federation" of nations with a fancy new version of multilevel governance? Who is accountable, at the end of the day, since members of the European Commission aren't actually elected by the citizens of the Member States?

Also, the European Union depends on its members to enforce EU policies. The EU itself does not have a police force or an army. AND, the word is, with this new constitution they're ratifying, any state has the choice to OPT OUT of the union. Sounds like you've still got sovereignty there.

Is sovereignty a fluid concept? Can you give it away (i.e. to the EU) and then just re-assert it down the road should you so choose...? In that case, is there another word for it?

Did you know that the EU has its own flag? and national anthem? If it isn't a state in itself, why these symbolic identifiers...?

See how this is deteriorating into some type of theoretical examination...? I think Bill might just be looking for lower-level stuff like "France's sovereignty is undermined by the EU's healthcare initiatives".

W/e. Let's dive in.  | ¶ 11:49 p.m.

  midterm report, part x++ (if you think you're sick of hearing about midterms, imagine how annoyed I am with writing them...! No more..!)

My strategy worked! I studied my butt off for Testing and was rewarded with the impressive passing grade of 58% (compare to my previous efforts at 42%...). I barely studied for Perception and also improved my mark to 81%. Woot!

On my plate today: more research for my politics paper. You may remember that I selected the question: does the European Union undermine state sovereignty? as my term paper topic. I spent yesterday doing a bit more research, then reviewing a bunch of the papers I have downloaded, and trying to form some type of coherent framework for the presentation of my arguments. I'm not quite there yet. The plan is to continue to immerse myself in the subject and gradually crystallize some type of logical position on the issue. At this point, the more I read, the more I realize that this is a pretty broad subject area, so all I can do is keep reading and hope that the main points I need to make become clear to me.

In weather news, it's c-o-l-d today. I need some long-johns!  | ¶ 11:56 a.m.

  what's your z score? I've been lamenting and whining to frou (and Scott) about my lack of stats ability. For Testing, we kinda build on the foundations of topics covered in stats class, but since I was never good at stats in the first place, then took a seven-year sabbatical, you could say my mastery in this area is pretty low. I'm working my way through this "Personal Test Interpretation" that is due next Friday. It hurts my head.

cupcake says: From my report: "Discussion. I chose a confidence interval of 99% because I figured, why the hell not?"
Frou says: very scientific
cupcake says: we're supposed to say why we chose that level of confidence
cupcake says: that's all i've got at this point
Frou says: there must be more to it though...?
cupcake says: i wanted to be more confident?
Frou says: a worthy goal!

Man!  | ¶ 7:30 p.m.

  stressed-out student report Ugh. I only slept about four hours last night. I studied my butt off for Testing, since I failed the previous midterm and kinda struggle with mastering the concepts we're covering these days. It's like a re-hashing of statistics, with more analysis. I didn't even cover reliability very much at all and there were two questions on it. Since I focussed on the other stuff, though, I think I answered the other questions pretty well.

Since I learned from the previous round of midterms that Benoit (Perception prof) marks fairly generously on essay questions, I barely touched the stuff until this morning. I stayed up 'til 1-ish doing testing, got up just after 5 and dove back into it. Spent a very brief period reviewing colour, depth and movement perception. And then spent the next two hours doing my best to sound knowledgeable about stuff.

Yay - no more midterms! (this semester anyway) Now I've got a ton of writing to do. Testing project due next week. Politics paper the week after. History paper. And second Testing project. Oh, and my "readings diary" for History. Write. Write. Research. Write. Write.

I'm s-o tired.  | ¶ 7:03 p.m.

  don't you worry we'll all float on In case you're wondering, my midterms went fairly well yesterday. Perception was multiple choice, so I wasn't positive on all my responses, but I think I did okay. The Java midterm was a little harder, but I think I did pretty well anyway. I was frustrated because I couldn't get a couple things to work (the nice thing about programming is being able to test your code immediately and know whether you got it right). But how can I modify this variable when it's a private variable of another class...? I know what you're thinking: Stacey! Mutator methods! I just blanked out on that one apparently...Thank goodness for the D-factor - he gave me a hint.

Scott was nice enough to take me for dinner and drinks in N. Hatley after the midterm (we both skipped our 4:30 classes - shh!).

Now I move directly into the next phase of crisis management. Tomorrow is part two of the Perception exam - essay questions. And another Testing midterm tomorrow - a subject I struggle with (does anyone care about the standard error of the variance...?). I'll be focussing more on Testing this time, since I failed the midterm last time. Two classes this morning and then I hit the books.  | ¶ 8:45 a.m.

  nice cap Check me out:

2005 grad, baby!  | ¶ 8:07 p.m.

  sleep is for wimps   | ¶ 10:16 a.m.

  midterm report, part x++ I didn't fail my Java midterm. Woot!

Since I walked out of that exam having litle confidence about my performance, my standards were pretty low... Luckily in this class the teacher has what he calls the "D-factor" - the Dimitri factor: he adjusts your final grade depending on what he sees as your level of effort and understanding, not just how well you perform on exams, etc. He knows I'm working my butt off, so hopefully that pays off. Tomorrow is the practical part (take two).

Also tomorrow is my second Perception midterm, multiple choice part. The rest of this day is devoted to studying.

(And election watching, just a little!) Go Bush! (as in, GO AWAY, GO HOME, GO BACK TO THE RANCH.)  | ¶ 1:30 p.m.