¿que? Something kinda hit me today. Holy shit, do I have a lot of work to do...!

I went to the library to see if I could find some books on Mexico and its role in World War II, and wouldn't you know it, there's not much there. I wonder if that has to do with the fact that Mexico did not really have a major role in the war. I found this site, and that's about as comprehensive a source of information as I've found so far. I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the reference section of the library this coming week - there's gotta be something out there about what they contributed. The paper topic I'm supposed to be writing is comparing the involvement of Mexico and Canada. I haven't dug around for the Canadian information much yet, but I figure I won't have as much difficulty with that area.

Professor Manore was kind enough to put a text on reserve at the library for us: The Course of Mexican History. It's a 24-hour loan only, so I'll be sitting here reading it most of the night, and will hopefully gain a better overview of certain issues - I need to develop my position for our online debate, and need to get some information for my term paper outline, due next week. Good times.  | ¶ 6:10 p.m.

  history's cool, man The class I'm enjoying the most so far this semester is my 20th Century World history class. It is taught by Dr. Michael Childs, and although I think history has the potential to be fairly dry, this professor makes it interesting (I can't help but compare him to Professor Manore who teaches my other history class; she isn't quite so effective at keeping my attention...).

In much the same way I "discovered" a new interest in politics last semester, I believe that history is another area that held very little interest for me when I was 20, but now I just find it fascinating. I mean, we're learning about colonisation, industrialisation, liberalism, nationaliam, World War 1, the Russian Revolution - and these are surprisingly interesting to me. All of the historical references I've heard thoughout my life, which I might have had a vague knowledge of but never really knew what their significance was - all of a sudden I understand and it all makes sense. Truly fascinating. I really can't wait to learn more (dork!).  | ¶ 9:29 p.m.

  "We, the people..." For my North America since 1860 class, I have to read selected excerpts from the constitutions of all three North American countries. Let me just say that it it boring as hell. I suppose the Canadian one (the British North America Act of 1867, and the Constitution Act of 1982) was a little more interesting, because at least it has to do with my own country, and hence seems more relevant.

I read most of the Mexican one this afternoon, and I'm not sure if I can tell you which parts were the most fascinating. Was it the part about who gets to own land? or maybe how a citizen loses their citizenship? how about the part about mandatory military service (okay, maybe that was slightly interesting).

Our class is pretty big, so instead of class discussions, Professor Manore has assigned an "online debate", where we are each designated to a group which will debate one side of an argument about the constitutions. I'm in group "A", so I have to argue the affirmative side of the following:

Resolved: Canada's constitution is the most democratic of the three countries we are studying.

I'm procrastinating on reading the U.S. constitution. It looks particularly dry. The first section starts with "all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives." Ugh. The whole first page is about how members of the senate and house get elected/appointed. Not so rivetting.

Guess I better get working on my position supporting the idea that WE have the most democratic constitution. Yee-haw.  | ¶ 6:43 p.m.

  Ella, you're TWO! My niece, Miss Ella Bella turned two years old yesterday. Growing up so fast, these kids...

Happy Birthday  | ¶ 11:07 a.m.

  digits and dates I received my Cognition textbook in the mail yesterday. I waited three weeks into classes to save around eighty dollars, for a book that is slightly marked up ("pre-highlighted", they call it). It was selling for $120 plus PST in the bookstore, and I paid $38 plus a 6.50 shipping charge. I think that's smart.

FOUR weeks from today Pammy and I will be on our way to Prague.

There are nine and a half weeks of classes left.

In the next week and a half I have to mostly complete my research for three term papers, because I either have to hand in an outline (for both history classes), or have my sources physically reviewed (for Cognitive Psychology). Eep.

In February I have three midterms to write (modern government, 20th century world, and cognitive psy).

Yesterday I vacuumed my carpet for the first time in four months. No more filth.  | ¶ 11:01 a.m.

  "Dead men don't ride rollercoasters, Al" I was watching CSI tonight. And you know how they always have the head detective-guy quote really cheesy lines just before they go to commercial? The show was about a rollercoaster that had gone off its tracks and killed all the passengers, but they found the body of a man who had died hours before among the bodies of the rest of the bunch. So Grissom says to the coroner that line about how dead men don't ride rollercoasters, and for whatever reason I just burst out laughing 'cause it actually seemed really funny.  | ¶ 10:55 p.m.

  It's the ONLY room It's funny living with a cat, noticing the evolution of her habits over time, and as an adaptation to a new environment. In our previous life together, in an apartment consisting of two more more rooms, Salsa would always take off if you sat down next to where she was sleeping. If I wanted to watch TV and she was on the couch, she would hastily jump up if I got too close. And she would move to the other end of the couch, or another couch, or go to the bedroom and sleep on or under the bed.

We've got limited options here. There is no "under" my current bed since it's just a mattress on the floor (ah, the student life). There is one rather small couch/chair unit for TV watching. So I've noticed that now when I get close, she doesn't even budge. I can nestle right up to her and she's basically got nowhere to go. We also share the bed sometimes. Due to the lack of "under", she has begun to climb "in", so I sometimes find her buried under the duvet. It's a cozy little place, my shack.  | ¶ 9:12 p.m.

  where's my blizzard! It's damn cold here lately. Minus 31 today with the windchill. That means that when the wind blasts your face it actually stings. It's nasty. I've resorted to wearing two pairs of pants at all times, even when just sitting here at home. Because with temperatures like this and my drafty little shack, even when I crank the heat, there's a chill in the air.

Two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two shirts, scarf, toque, mitts and toasty winter jacket with hood up - that's required attire when making the trek to school, which I do twice a day. I realized that I'm doing a heck of a lot more walking this semester, because that's four 10-minute walks a day. Last semester I didn't go back to school every afternoon, but with my schedule this term I'm booked solid.

To make the whole thing slightly more painful this week is that I seem to have wounded my foot somehow. It hurts when I step, so it hurts when I walk. I've started limping today. Not good, man. Hopefully over the weekend I'll get rested up enough and it will heal. One more class to go this week...  | ¶ 4:14 p.m.

  assessment Today is my first test of the semester. Luckily it's just a little multiple-choice / true-false quiz in Cognitive Psychology. We have four of these quizzes throughout the semester, each worth four percent of our mark. It would be easy to think about it as only four percent, but with my commitment to staying on top of stuff and doing well from the get-go, I'm planning to ace it and come out with four out of four.

We've only covered three fairly introductory chapters and two readings so far. So we have to know a little about the historical developments of the field of cognitive psychology, some basic theories on long-term memory and short-term memory - or, as they prefer to call it these days, "working memory" - and an introduction to perceptual processes. Since I took Perception last semester, that stuff is mostly review. I think I'll do well.  | ¶ 8:38 a.m.

  YO TWITCHY - SIT STILL! I was getting very irritated in my religion class today with the dude sitting next to me. Loud sighs every ten minutes, numerous glances at the clock, twitching, fidgeting, tapping, pen-clicking. Fucking distracting when you're trying to pay attention to the lecture. GRR.

We're learning about the writings of J.L. Mackie (he's apparently a critic of "theism", which is belief in the existence of a god or gods; specifically : belief in the existence of one God viewed as the creative source of man and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world), and about the "free world defense". Something about how if God created beings that were predisposed to always choose good over evil, then technically they didn't have free will. And having a world in which the creatures have free will has better moral value than a world that does not. Or something like that... We've also covered a lot of the relative necessity of evil. As in, if the world only consisted of "good", we wouldn't know it, because we would have nothing to compare it to. Etcetera, etcetera...

Philosophy of Religion is a challenging course - there are a lot of abstract ideas to grasp. Having been raised with a certain narrow viewpoint on what "God" means (i.e. the protestant Christian interpretation), and having, umm, outgrown that limited definition, I don't really subscribe to the underlying beliefs of these mainly Christian philosophies. Mostly we just have to familiarize ourselves with each writer's theories and criticisms of each other. It's pretty interesting.

In his attempt to clarify the notion of "possible worlds" to us, Harvey asked the class if any of us were committing any evil as we sat there. The notion is that if we can observe limited groups of people who, for limited periods of time, are abstaining from all evil, then we can conceive of a world where everybody is engaged in non-evil at all times; a possible world, although not actual. I was pretty annoyed with buddy beside me at that point, and I was actually pretty close to saying that HE was committing evil by making it impossible for me to get maximum benefit from the lecture. Sheesh.  | ¶ 7:20 p.m.

  minus twenty-nine So I went to class this morning all psyched to "present" my research topic to the class. We were supposed to come up with a few possible research questions and a few answers to those questions. I was pretty thorough, because I wasn't sure how narrowed-down we were supposed to get on our policy area.

When Bill started the class, though, he said, "it's your choice: either divide in groups and present your stuff to your group, or come up one by one." Obviously the class voted for group work instead of class presentations.

At least I figured out that I have a good grasp on where we're supposed to be at this point. Bill was making the rounds to each group and came by ours when we were discussing my presentation, and gave some encouraging feedback.

One thing that's funny is that in learning how to do research in the social sciences, we're kinda duplicating a bunch of stuff that I've learned already in psychology. Dependent and independent variables, validity and reliability of research (we covered that at length in my psychometrics class last semester), etc. I'm going to be a champ. Heh.  | ¶ 11:55 a.m.

  "new for students" The Provigo in Lennoxville is offering 10% off purchases over $35 for students on Mondays (like "Senior Days" at other stores, only different). I just saved five dollars. Wahoo.  | ¶ 12:40 p.m.

  getting ready for Prague I'm doing some reading for 20th Century World class today. I browsed ahead in my text to read a little about some of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the late 20th century. Following the "Velvet Revolution" and the subsequent "Velvet Divorce" of the Czech and Slovak Republics around 1992, the Czech Republic made great strides in privatizing its economy. I found the following fact quite amusing:

A country where not a single roulette wheel had spun in 1989 by the mid-1990s had the highest number of gambling casinos per capita in the world.

Hmm, I wonder if Pammy and I will be doing any gambling...? Ano or ne?

  | ¶ 6:26 p.m.

  posts about weather are boring But I just want to say that with all these stories of blizzards and snowfall occurring around here, you'd think that good old L'ville would get its share. But nope, we're stuck with the minus twenty-something temperatures, nasty windchill and NO snow (other than the three inches on the ground). It's probably too cold to snow. I want blizzards!  | ¶ 3:37 p.m.

  I don't get it So far, after having attended two of Bill's "Intro to Political Analysis" classes, I'm still not sure what our objective is. Maybe after writing this it will be more clear to me, or maybe to someone reading who can then explain it to me.

Here is the course description from the outline he provided to us:

The course offers an introduction to the preparation and study of political phenomena, especially as required in public policy analysis. It will introduce students to the different stages of the research process, from developing research puzzles to the production and testing of hypotheses and examining different avenues of qualitative research in political science. It will then look at the study of public policy in that context. Students will be required to develop and present research on a topic of public policy at the different stages of the course and give feedback to their peers. As such, this course will function as a mix lecture/seminar.

And so we have to start our research now. For this week, we need to have prepared a few research questions regarding our policy area (mine is Environmental Policy), and then a couple possible answers / hypotheses. I think we're kinda supposed to just brainstorm and jot down some of the broader areas of our topic, so maybe for me the protection of oceans and marine life, reduction in air pollutants, rules governing industry...? I guess my confusion at this stage is that it seems like we need to do a fair amount of research already to be fairly familiar with the different areas of our policy topic. I got a couple books from the library, and I'm reading the Government of Canada page regarding the CEPA 1999 (Canadian Environmental Protection Act).

Since our mark consists solely of our work on various aspects of this project, I guess the description of the final project itself is confusing me too:

This paper will be the presentation of a final research proposal, outlining the different stages of the research process dealing with an issue of your choice. The paper will be 12-15 pages in length, and will be the culmination of the different presentations you have made during the semester.

What I keep coming back to is: are we doing research on the policy area itself, or are we doing research on the research process? This "presentation of a research proposal" is unclear. We are proposing research? To whom?  | ¶ 12:05 p.m.

  It's Friday; time to... study? I did something today that is rare for me. After trying to convince myself to do some studying or reading of school books (and failing), I just gave in and settled down on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn. When I finished the popcorn, I grabbed a spoon and Pilsbury cookie dough from the fridge and gobbled up some of that. This gorging took place while I watched this week's episode of the West Wing.

Then I felt gross and did some pilates AND power yoga. Back in balance.  | ¶ 7:38 p.m.

  no more limbo Today was the "Add/Drop Deadline" for classes; I made a couple changes.

I added Philosophy of Religion (that was the plan all along after I got permission to take six classes from my dean). I dropped "Constitution/Law/Canadian Government" and replaced it with "Introduction to Political Analysis". And the funny thing is that I was motivated to drop the former because it involved a lot of work and a class presentation. The class I picked up in its place also involves a lot of work, and, rather ironically, requires that I do several small class presentations, culminated at the end of the semester by one major presentation. What the hell have I got myself into?

Well, on the upside, the class does not have a midterm or a final exam. It is also taught by Bill, the cute instructor. I went to see him the other day to get some academic advice and he encouraged me to take his class (he totally likes me, don't you know), so I'm in. Tuesdays and Thursdays will henceforth be known as "stress days", as I nervously anticipate my various public speaking endeavours. Eep. Oh yeah, another good thing - this class fits my schedule where I wanted to pick up something - on Tuesday/Thursday mornings, to force me to get moving. See my updated schedule over there -->.

So, it's time to buckle down and get some work done. For both of my history classes we have to hand in an essay outline prior to doing a term paper, so I'm planning to make significant progress on my Prague research (1968, not 2005!) this weekend. I have a quiz in Cognitive next week, and although the textbook I ordered from Amazon has not yet arrived in the mail, there was a copy in the library that I've checked out in the meantime. For my political analysis class, we have to pick a public policy area to research, come up with some research questions and formulate a few potential hypotheses based on the questions. I'm planning to do something on Environmental Policy, and maybe specifically something about the Kyoto Protocol. There's a midterm in Modern Government in two weeks. And I need to start my research for my other history paper (N. America since 1860 class), the assigned topic being: compare and contrast Mexico's involvement in World War II with Canada's. We've been learning about WWI in my 20th Century World class, so I figure we'll get to WWII soon and there will be some overlap. With six courses to juggle, I'm looking for as much overlap as possible.

And Mom, my care package arrived safe and sound on Tuesday (after sitting on my porch in minus 20 all day). After sufficient thawing, I took the chocolates to school and shared them with the J9 crew. I was subsequently pronounced "hero of the day" for my generosity (heroic acts are easy in L'ville). That honour should be shared with Mom and step-father Dalt, who gave me the treats in the first place. Heroes all around!  | ¶ 3:38 p.m.

  show some respect I was totally sympathizing with my Cognitive prof today. Dr. Standing is a bit of a cranky old man with some odd habits. Before I ever took a class with him I'd heard that if you were ever late for class, or made noise during a class, he would just silently glare at you until you got settled.

Today the young woman in front of me was doing various self-organizing projects during class. I saw her making numerous notes in a little "to-do" book and not really paying close attention to the lecture. But it was a little over the top when she got out her mini tape-gun (student-size, not really gun-ish at all, but the same dispenser-style). Mid-lecture, in a very quiet classroom, this woman starts loudly pulling off a piece of tape. Well, Standing came over and addressed her directly about a point he was making in the lecture, as if to say, can you keep it down? but she didn't GET IT, and continued to gradually yank this very loud roll of tape in order to secure a piece. I then observed her use it put a little label on the aforementioned organizer-book - something about "various things to do". I could tell that Dr. Standing was really quite distracted and irritated with her, and I think he could have rightfully asked her to attend to her personal tasks after the class was over. But he didn't.

This fits into a more general theme that I observe fairly regularly in the kids at school - this general sense that they don't really appreciate the benefit of being in school. I was definitely like that at one point myself, but as a "mature", serious student, I find it bothers me quite a bit these days. Little things like people wandering in and out of class during lectures. The maximum class time (during the day) is just under 90 minutes - surely nothing is that urgent that you can't wait until class is over to attend to it. I tend to think it's a newfound power that the young people feel - the lack of requirement to ask for permission to go to the washroom. Anyway, it's distracting and annoying.

Do I sound old?
  | ¶ 5:19 p.m.

  another example of the scam Despite my strong advocacy for smart snack-planning, today I found myself unprepared to spend the bulk of my day on campus. I was hungry and didn't have adequate snacks. So I went to the "BUS Stop" (Bishop's University Snacks...?) and selected a sandwich. They are kind enough to list the contents of the sandwich on the label: turkey, tomato, lettuce, margarine, cucumbers. Since the absence of mayonnaise was unacceptable to me, I picked up a few packages from a container near the food. They were the same size as your typical pack of ketchup. When I went to the till, the cashier noticed my mayo-packs after ringing in my sandwich and remarked that she hadn't rung them in. "You have to pay for these...?" I asked, rather incredulously. She says, yes, because THEY have to pay for them, too.

If that is the argument, why do we not get charged for cream and sugar in our coffees? Surely the small cost adds up over time, or maybe, just maybe they account for it in the cost of a coffee? Because when I'm paying close to five dollars for a modest sandwich, I'm pretty sure that I'm getting ripped off enough already without being charged extra for a tiny package of mayonnaise.

We are a captive market at Bishop's, too. There isn't any other restaurant / deli / coffee shop on campus competing for our business. GRR. It's frustrating.

Better snack-planning from now on! Down with the scam.
  | ¶ 5:05 p.m.

  take it back! Okay, it's now our turn for the deep-freezing, here in L'ville. Today's forecast: High wind chill minus 37. Yikes. Time to break out the long johns. Oh, wait! I don't have long johns! I better dig through my sock box (heh) and see what kind of tights/leotards I have lying around. Gotta bundle up!  | ¶ 9:09 a.m.

  every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser Tonight was another poker night at Scott's place. There were eight of us, and it was a good time. "Bring finger foods," he said. So I picked up some meatballs and cheese sticks (*yumm*) at Provigo. Other snacks included shrimp, chips, Oreo cookies (they go good with wine, don't you know).

The buy-in was ten dollars again. Some people got cleaned out. Some people got lucky enough to win enough to pay their phone bills (apparently). I figure you don't go without being prepared to lose what you got. We played quite a few rounds of Texas Hold'em. It's fun. It's fun to bluff. And to learn who does or does not ever take chances on a bad hand...

The kids haven't listened very well to Kenny Rogers, though. You know that part about "don't count your money when you're sitting at the table..."? I saw an awful lot of money-countin' going on...!  | ¶ 1:09 a.m.

  Pammy's been published My friend Pam is a top-notch travel agent. She's been focussing on developing her 'destination wedding' business for a while now. Next weekend she and her team have a booth at "The Wedding Show" in Calgary to promote their business, and today she's got a piece in the Calgary Sun on the topic. Read it here.

Nice work, Pammy!   | ¶ 11:22 a.m.

  the scam I know everybody probably realizes this already, but I just want to point out that university bookstores, along with textbook publishers, are trying (and succeeding, sadly) to rip off students to a disgusting degree.

For my Cognitive Psychology class, the textbook, Cognition (6th edition), by Margaret Matlin, is selling for about $120.00 at our on-campus bookstore. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS. Granted, that is about what you'd pay on Amazon for a new copy of the book. But why buy new?

Oh, maybe because your professor tells you, with a thoughtful and serious expression, that you "really ought to buy the new edition...". They're all in on it, you see.

Another reason to buy from your university bookstore? Well, this semester they're distributing a wonderful pamphlet (published by the company in charge of university bookstores) explaining how it's unsafe and unwise to buy online, because you might not be able to return the book if there's a problem with it.

And RETURNS? Our on-campus bookstore has a fabulous return policy. Umm, right! I purchased some course materials today (not an overpriced textbook) and was reminded that "Monday is the last day for returns". Even for material purchased today.

And why...? Because the bookstore needs books back for students who may have picked up classes late, instead of ordering new books and being over-stocked. God forbid that they lose a few dollars in the deal.

It just makes no sense to me to tell students that they simply must spend an exorbitant amount of money on textbooks that they usually use for only ONE semester. You can spend over five hundred dollars that way. It's ludicrous. Last semester I ordered a book online and paid probably a third what I would have paid at the bookstore. I settled for an earlier edition, but didn't notice a problem with the content at all. And my book arrived in the mail very promptly, depite warnings on Amazon.com that "international deliveries can take up to eight weeks". I hope I have similar luck with the used Cognition text that I ordered this semester, for which, again, I paid one-third the price. In the meantime, there is a copy on reserve at the library that I've been reading. Whatever, man.  | ¶ 1:54 p.m.

  Calgary, we've got your chinook... It was a lovely spring day here yesterday. Sunny, with a high of 15 degrees or something. Everything melted. Then it rained all night, now it's getting colder, rain is turning to snow, and it's a brutal slushy mess out there. This morning I stepped in a puddle almost to my ankle. Yikes.

Did I not specifically ask for several feet of snow, Miss Mother Nature..? Bring on the blizzard, please.  | ¶ 12:59 p.m.

  check it out! CP helped me build my countdown over there -->. It automatically changes every day, so I don't have to do it manually. I think it's pretty nifty...!

I learned something in the process, too. My HTML skills are limited, but over the holidays I had posted these colourful greetings (here, and here) which I later discovered showed up as only WHITE font in Firefox (the browser I use on my home computer). It was actually prettty disappointing to see, because I'd spent a lot of time entering separate color codes for EACH letter and I was pretty pleased with myself...! But I'd been using Internet Explorer, and CP tells me that IE is really bad for letting improper HTML through, so lots of people think they're doing things right, but they're NOT.

To use proper HTML colour code, you must use < font color="#00CODE">, and not the < font color=00CODE> that I had used. You need the quotes and number sign! Who knew.  | ¶ 11:46 p.m.

  I'm the only blogger... One thing is sure, and that is that I simply have to pick up a class on Tuesday/Thursday mornings, otherwise I'll never accomplish anything those mornings. The kids kinda looked at me funny when I said that earlier, because, remember when you're that age how you just want to sleep all morning... Having lived a life for many years where I got up very early five days a week, and having outgrown the need for excessive amounts of sleep, I find that I still need a reason to get out of the house in order to get myself moving in the morning. I need a routine that gets me up at the same time every day...

So I think I'm going to drop my Constitution/Law/Canadian Government class that I was talking about. A girl sitting next to me in Philosophy of Religion was talking about the politics prof Johnson who teaches that course, saying that it's really hard to do well in his classes. She apparently had intended to do honours but couldn't even get a 70 in his classes so she's had to change her plans. I'll use that as another reason to drop that one.

My other tentative decision is that I will not drop Philosophy of Religion. Sitting through Professor White's lecture today I was reminded why I love this guy's classes, and why I used to do well in them (other than this one, of course). I think I can do well in this one, too, despite having to write some pretty heavy-duty papers. In addition to politics, I find university religion courses quite fascinating, and this guy is an excellent speaker, so it makes for a good class. Today we were discussing the problem of evil in the world and, if there is a perfectly good God, how he or she could allow evil to exist. With another prof this could potentially be a rather dry subject matter, but Harvey makes it accessible. I'm going to stick with it.

This just leaves the problem of which Tuesday / Thursday morning class I should pick up. I'll consult the timetable and see what's offered. That will make my schedule more balanced, too, with three classes each day.  | ¶ 4:32 p.m.

  decisions I'm re-thinking some of my course selections. Damnit, why couldn't I have more required classes left to take and then I wouldn't have to decide on five electives of my own choosing...

I was planning to take the Philosophy of Religion II because I failed it years ago (lack of effort). But it could potentially be a very difficult course, and with the final mark being based on two very heavily-weighted papers, I'm not sure if it's the best plan anymore. Realistically I should be taking classes that I will not have a hard time doing well in, since all I need at this point is credits, and preferably nice marks in the 80s.

But this is Bishop's, and the course offerings are fairly limited. I've just about taken every possible psychology class available, and the ones left are not ones you take just to pick up credits ("Issues in Psychological Testing"). I'm left with the possibility of another politics class (I do enjoy politics these days...), a sociology class (not so much), a hard science (definitely not), a computer class (dunno if that would be wise, given my difficulties last semester). English? Music? Man!

The other thing I'm debating is whether to continue with my "Constitution & Law & Canadian Government" class. It scares me because we are apparently supposed to make an oral presentation to the class, debating a constitutional decision. I am so not a public speaker, man. I'm still deciding whether I'm going to force myself to face my fears and do it, because otherwise, the class seems quite interesting.  | ¶ 12:46 p.m.

  Tuesday / Thursday outlook Today I had Philosphy of Religion II. The good news: no final exam. The bad news: my final mark will consist of two papers, one worth 40% and the other worth 60%. I'm going to be a paper-writing machine this semester.

Then I had Intro to Modern Government (with Bill, the cute instructor). That class is HUGE - probably over a hundred people (very large for BU). The good news: NO paper to write... Final mark consists of two midterms and a final only. Sweet.

Both profs only spoke for about twenty minutes each. Now that I've had an introductory class for each course (except my other politics class), real classes start tomorrow...

I'm going to do some reading. No time for slacking off.  | ¶ 3:19 p.m.

  more cat tales frou used to leave her cat Nacho with me when she had to be away. Although Nacho was Salsa's cage-mate at the pet store where I got them, they had never been very close, nor were they very similar in their habits. Salsa has always loved to have her belly rubbed. Nacho would come to you purring, wanting his belly rubbed, but if you did it wrong, he would scratch you (hard!) and take off. I never could figure out how to give him the snuggling he wanted.

When frou would get home and greet her cat, she would say, "THIS CAT HAS NOT BEEN PETTED IN A VERY LONG TIME!" And she was right - I never clicked with that guy, but I tried.

Scott took care of Salsa while I was in Calgary for two and a half weeks over the Christmas break. She has obviously been well cared for, because, despite having been displaced from her home, she has seemed neither anxious nor neglected to me. I think those two got along quite well. Thanks, Scott!
  | ¶ 5:15 p.m.

  grr Caffeine addiction is a curious thing. You feel the headache of withdrawal coming on when you haven't met your body's expected quota for the day, so you hurry up and get yourself a coffee, but alas, it's too late. Nothing can ward off that headache. Not two tylenols, not two cups of coffee. I don't think it would work the same way with, say, a heroin addiction - presumably withdrawal symptoms cease once you feed your addiction; why must caffeine be so stubborn?

I've had an annoying headache most of the day, and I didn't get enough sleep last night. The combination is not a friendly one...  | ¶ 4:58 p.m.

  Prague spring 2005 My first class this morning was "20th Century World" (a history class). I think it will be interesting. Along with the outline for the class, the prof handed out a lengthy list of possible topics for our term papers. It's quite comprehensive - over 60 topics (there are 85 people in this class - rather large for a Bishop's class) - but I think I've selected mine already. I figure since I'm going to Prague mid-semester, and I wanted to do some research on what significant historical landmarks we need to visit, writing a paper on the place would make sense. One of the suggested topics is "Prague Spring, 1968". I'm not really sure what happened then, but I plan to be an expert shortly.  | ¶ 12:35 p.m.

  here we go again... It's a good thing that school starts tomorrow. I'm turning into a bit of a couch potato. There's all these good new shows to see...!

Usually on Monday I will have four classes, but I already got a note from one prof that his class will start on Wednesday, so only three tomorrow. Long day nonetheless - four hours of classes. But I'm psyched; now that I've proved that I can do this school thing, I'm determined to be a star student this semester. Yup, I'm aiming for six marks in the 80s, people. It's easy to be ambitious at this point, of course. But why not? Staying focussed for the next twelve weeks shouldn't be too hard.

I could be wrong about that, though.  | ¶ 9:58 p.m.

  xmas collage CP ran into some difficulties getting to L'ville on schedule tonight. While I waited, I created this:

I'm not super-talented with Photoshop, so it takes me a while to do anything, and it could probably look a lot funkier if I knew the fun stuff.  | ¶ 11:57 p.m.

  back on the home computer There's been some website maintenance going on today. I updated my class schedule over there -> so it reflects my new schedule. Since I only had permission to register for five of my six classes until yesterday, I'm assuming I'll pick up the philosophy of religion class that I'm showing on that schedule. I didn't think that one would be full. It's another do-over from seven years ago.

I also changed my picture in the sidebar. frou was taking a picture over the holidays of me, Mom and Caia, and I said, "let's look mad in this one" and that's the face I put on for that. This was the resulting pic of the three of us:

The problem with Mom and Dalt's digital camera is that it flashes so many times that people look away, thinking the picture has been taken already. That's why Mom isn't looking. I also find all these pictures way too bright, so I'm darkening them significantly before posting them here.

I removed my old exam schedule from the sidebar too. A new one will go up in April, when I will write SIX EXAMS IN TWO WEEKS. Eep.

I might try and get one of my computer-genius friends to write me a little display thing to put over there, too, that counts down the days until Pammy and I go to Prague. I could do something myself that would require changing it manually everyday, but mebbe they know something quick that would change automatically. Any volunteers...?  | ¶ 6:42 p.m.

  family christmas (3)
Ella (my niece), Gina, Dalt (my step-father), Mom, Kyle (my nephew).  | ¶ 3:22 p.m.

  family christmas (2)
There's my sister-in-law Gina and frou.  | ¶ 10:40 a.m.

  family christmas (1)
That's my brother Kris, my niece Caia and my brother Keri.  | ¶ 12:39 a.m.

  the verdict, part 5 My politics mark is finally posted, and it's just as I suspected. It is my highest mark of the bunch.

I'm pretty delighted with 77!  | ¶ 11:28 p.m.

  home sweet qwee-bec I made it.

Both of my flights were late, so I was cutting it kind of close to catch the last decently-scheduled bus to Sherbrooke. I made the call to take a taxi into downtown Montreal where the bus station is, which took around fifteen minutes, intead of the shuttle bus, which takes forty-five minutes. I thought I was in the clear, arriving with twenty minutes to spare, but there was a line-up to buy bus tickets that proceeded to move v-e-r-y slowly, and I was worried I was going to miss that 7:30 bus. If I had, I would have had to wait until 10:15 for the next one, and that would have sucked. I got on four minutes before we left.

My house is gradually warming up. I got some pizza delivered (yum). But it seems that I've got no hot water. That's rather inconvenient. Guess I'll give my landlord a call in the morning.

In school news, I heard back from my dean. Since I did "well" in the first semester, he was happy to grant his permission for me to take six classes this term. Woot.  | ¶ 11:17 p.m.

  ...and back again Well, it's my last night in Calgary this time around. It's been a nice trip filled with lots of laziness and visits with family. I've been sleeping longer and longer each night that I'm here, and haven't had a lot of ambition to get a lot done. I managed to watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended version this week, though - who knew I was such a fan? Just so you know, Frodo drops the ring (and Gollum) into the fire at the end and they all live happily ever after. Except the orcs, and their big badass leader-dude.

My skin is definitely ready for a more humid climate. You forget how dry it is in Calgary until you get here and your skin gets all flaky and itchy. Not fun.

In school news, I am still waiting for my final mark in my politics class (the cute instructor isn't so prompt). Sheesh. But I did have a chance to review my class selections for the coming semester and think I'll stick with what I've chosen. Two politics classes, two history classes, one religion class and one psychology class. Eep. Classes start next Monday. Of course, I still have to get permission from my dean to take six classes, but with my reasonable performance in the first semester, I don't see how he wouldn't see fit to grant his approval.

I'm kinda not looking forward to tomorrow's day of travel. I leave Calgary at 10 AM, stop briefly in Toronto, then land in Montreal just before 6 PM. Then I gotta figure out how to get myself and my four suitcases (yeah, I never said I packed light...) on to a bus to the downtown bus station in order to catch a second bus to Sherbrooke. I'm not sure if that bus will take me into Lennoxville or not (some do, some don't...), so I might then be hopping in a cab to 192 Queen Street. Camel, donkey, rowboat...! Long day, man. I suppose I shouldn't complain - CP has a much longer journey back from Sweden, with the same type of chaos, only with a much longer flight... It'll be nice to see that cute Swede again.

My family and friends have taken good care of me and have been very generous over the holidays. I'm heading back to L'ville with some good loot and provisions for the semester, and each one of my family members have offered to help out with my financial needs, so I'm feeling quite appreciative of their support. The stressed-out student doesn't like to worry about money!

I hope the weather is a little more mild in Quebec. Here in Calgary we've been suffering a nasty cold snap for the past several days with temperatures between minus 20 and minus 25. When I get to Lennoxville, I would like to see a few feet of snow and have temperatures around minus 10, if the weather gods might permit.
  | ¶ 4:34 p.m.

  The year I turned thirty...a recap (part 1) When 2004 started, I was well entrenched in my life as the legal assistant to an "important" and busy securities lawyer, but I was pretty unhappy with the state of my life overall. It seemed that this latest move into a law firm had maybe not been a step up after all. It seemed that using my brain or exhibiting any manifestations of free will were frowned on by Floyd. Yet I trudged on, not really knowing what else I could realistically do at this point...

In automobile news, in February my car suffered three incidents: first a major break-in, consisting of a broken window and violent removal of my CD player; second, a minor theft of pocket change; third, a kind of hit and run resulting in some scratched paint and a loosened rear-view mirror. It was not Fred's month!

Then again, on June 11th when I awoke to a phone call from the police alerting me of my car being tipped on its side, Fred wasn't having his best day either...(!) Crazy hooligans!

Frou and I turned 30 on April 2, and we decided to commemorate the occasion with what I dubbed the "30th birthday roadtrip extravaganza". We flew to Vancouver, visited with our brother Kris for a bit, and drove our rental car across the border down to Seattle, to visit some places neither of us had been before. It was a nice break and fun trip away from our routine lives.

When I applied for a student loan, I expected to be rejected, and I expected to have to jump through many hoops to prove my worthiness for funding. School was not even in the cards if I could not obtain financing. But on July 2, I found out that I was eligible for a student loan, and my new course was set in motion. If I haven't mentioned lately that I hated working for Floyd, let me re-iterate my distate for the man. I was positively thrilled on August 5th to be able to walk in and hand him my letter of resignation.

I always said (and believed) I would never go back to Bishop's. Heck, I live in Calgary now, and Quebec is a long, long ways away... When I left the town of Lennoxville in 1997, I believed it was the last time I'd see the place. Additionally, my last semester was rather tarnished with the memory of a short-lived dating relationship in which the dude committed suicide. What if, what if, what if...

But returning to the school where you obtained your credits in the first place is pretty much the easiest and quickest way to finish what you started, and as much as I attempted to find other paths to travel, the route to Lennoxville surprisingly presented the least amount of obstacles. And so I went.  | ¶ 1:49 a.m.

  Happy Yew Near!

(I had champagne tonight. Tee hee.)
  | ¶ 1:01 a.m.