Delusion-Elle

"It's been a while."

I feel like I've started many a blog post with those 4 words given how many times I go on hiatus. Well, I'm not guaranteeing that I will be back on here for long; I'm procrastinating right now and I'm not really in the mood for studying.

Let's just say that life is good. Sure, I may have failed the last final exam I had, resulting in possible failure of the course, but I know that I can bounce back. I can and will survive whatever school tosses at me. Heck, I am going to survive whatever life throws at me. Except death, I suppose.

It's been a good number of months since my last post. I suppose that I can recap the past term.

School has been... killer. Let it be known: never take 4 CPSC courses concurrently! It is absolute murder. The thing about CPSC courses is that each assignment takes an ungodly amount of time to do. And unlike with a lot of other subjects, ones that involve coding in particular have no foreseeable end sometimes. This is something that I don't think a lot of people outside of the field understand unless they are in close contact with a CS student. You write your code and logically it makes sense to you, your peers, your TA, and your prof. But then you find a bug and upon fixing that one, you find another. And this goes on and on until you reach the point when you can comfortably say "Okay, I've gotten this thing to the point where it's good enough. It's not done, it's not perfect, but it's good enough and I've already stayed up until 4am four nights in a row because of it." Of course, if you aren't a perfectionist, it doesn't really matter. But most CS folks are, it seems. Looking back on my courses, they were much like I had anticipated, although I did not foresee having a crappy group to work with for 310 and I certainly had not anticipated the good network of people I had to help me survive the term. After taking the year off to do co-op, I didn't think that any of my buddies would be left, but it turns out that they all did co-op too, so I had common courses with almost everyone I befriended within my faculty back in second year. I also reconnected with an old childhood friend and it's really just amazing how things worked out so that we're probably about as close now as we were way back when.

And of course I made a new friend. A new best friend, really. He is fantastic. I have no other all-encompassing word to describe him. No, he's not perfect, no one is. I realized somewhere along the way that it was not fair of me to project any weird ideas of perfection onto him. Reasonable expectations are fine, yes, but beyond that, it's just unfair to the person and I would never choose to be unfair to him. I'm thankful to have met him and I'm thankful that I took the chance. I remember being in a bad place mentally and emotionally less than a year ago, but I got through it and I think that all of the confidence and maturity that I gained from that year off doing co-op changed me. Maybe it didn't change the core of me, and to those who knew me so well likely saw little to no difference, but rather this change came out in my public self-presentation. I was able to crawl out of the hole that Accutane and mild depression opened up and accept myself and see value in me. That isn't to say that I don't ever tumble back down. There are still phases, but they pass and never seem to last more than a couple days now. But of course it never hurts to hear someone you love tell you that you're beautiful.

In short, I'm in a good place now and I hope that you all are too.

I've been back at school for a week now. Surprisingly, I'm not hating it as much as I thought I would. My workload (so far) has been very manageable, and today I actually get a decent amount of free time. I don't have all that much to report on school, though maybe I'll just briefly go through my courses again...

CPSC 314: Computer Graphics - "this is a hard course", the prof warned on the first day. "There will be a lot of math." Goodness knows that I'm not fond of Math in the slightest, but I do love seeing a visual representation of my work in (practically) real-time. So far I've been given one assignment for this course and I actually find the work on it rather enjoyable. The actual coding seems to be limited to the assignments, which is fine, really. The concepts that we learn about in lecture are quite interesting, and I love seeing the examples that the prof puts up for us to look at.

CPSC 310: Introduction to Software Engineering - I don't know what to make of this course right now. So far we seem to just be working on software engineering practices used in the industry, which is a bit boring given that I just came off a year-long co-op stint, but aside from that I haven't gotten too much homework from this course. Sure, we have the weekly lab, but the labwork so far has been introductions to using certain software. There's going to be a big group term project for this course and I'm a bit worried about that, but we haven't actually been assigned it quite yet so I'll try not to waste too much time thinking about it right now.

CPSC 322: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence - The prof is unfortunately a very boring lecturer. I've heard that he's quite well-respected in the field and that he's done a lot of ground-breaking research for the university, but then again, there's little to no correlation between how well one lectures and one's research abilities. The subject matter so far is a bit reminiscent of CPSC 221, but the examples are very much geared towards the AI aspect of certain algorithms. The first assignment for this course was pretty fun -- finding two examples of programs that use AI and writing about them. But then again, I enjoy writing (especially technical writing) so who am I to say how much fun most CPSC students would find it?

CPSC 320: Intermediate Algorithm Design and Analysis - This course is hard. I can't spin it any other, euphemistic way. I don't know if I'm quite so lost right now that I can say that I'm irreversibly lost, but the concepts are confusing. The only saving grace is that the prof is fantastic. He makes lecture go by much quicker than my 322 lectures. The first assignment was horribly difficult for me, but then I'm quite possibly the most illogical person (I run on intuition and intuition has no place in the study of algorithms). There is a tutorial, thankfully, and more exposure to questions and concepts is always good. (Tutorial is also a chance for me to pick the brains of smart people I might not normally have the chance to pick the brains of. Which is nice. I enjoy meeting smart, cute people who are willing to help me.)

MUSC 220: History of Music III - Aw yesssssssss, the Romantic era. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I spent a year of my youth studying the Romantic era for the RCM History 3 exam, so in a sense, I was raised on this stuff; I knew about Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, Smetana, and Berlioz before I knew of Niels Bohr. And I enjoyed it, even when I was 10. European history has interested me ever since I came into contact with books about the Tudors. Funnily, this course seems to be an almost exact rehash of my RCM one, although the works we study are different, and it's much better now because I understand what sorts of socio-political strifes were occurring at the same time. I get the context a lot better now. Anywho, the course itself is great -- the prof is hilarious and very energetic, we get passages of text every week to supplement our reading, we write about a different topic every week in tutorial, and there is going to be a term paper. I love term papers like you wouldn't understand. They are the easiest way of getting marks, and if you put in maybe 30 minutes of work every day for a few weeks, it's really a painless process.

Alright, so that's a summary of what I'm taking and my thoughts one week into classes. I don't know if I'll have much time to revisit this blog once the work starts to pick up, so here's until next time!

One undeniably fascinating aspect of being an English tutor is getting a glimpse into how other people see English as a language and school course. My students hate English, not so much as a language, but as a course. They think that it's irrelevant, and I suppose that since their marks aren't the highest in their respective English courses, they have no affection towards the subject. Their feelings toward English as a language range from indifference to slight distaste -- it's necessary to know for survival in Canada, but beyond that, it's quite useless. One of my students, J1, even said that he would like to go to school in China maybe, because at least there, he wouldn't have English class like the ones here in Vancouver. Something to note is that he has never been to China or anywhere else in Asia so he truly has no real understanding of schooling outside of Vancouver. Granted, I don't either, but that's beside the point. The point that J1 wanted to make with his statement was that his Cantonese and Mandarin were good enough, he thought, so that he could enjoy school more in Asia.

There has been kerfuffle of sorts concerning one of my high school teachers. He allegedly had a relationship with one of his students. If this rumour is true, then I am disgusted. However, I am not so sure that this is true. Right now, this is just hearsay. Sure, there seems to be some evidence gleaned by word of mouth, but I firmly remain skeptical of this claim. In fact, I am incensed. I respect and admire this teacher -- it is not easy developing a decent band program out of basically nothing. The fact that everyone seems not to see this angers me and I have finally been able to collect my thoughts and feelings enough to write something more coherent than "YOU SHUT UP ALL OF YOU, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HIM. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE IN BAND AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH BETTER HE MADE IT. *tears*"

For the sake of ease, let's refer to him as A.

One point made is that a few ex-students were contacted by the school board about this teacher. Apparently two female ex-students received letters saying something along the lines (and this is already a fuzzy bit) of "we would like more information on your experiences with A". What's important to note is who these two ex-students are. I myself am a female ex-student and a friend of mine also falls into that category, but neither of us received any such letter. Is there anything that separates these two ex-students from myself and my friend? Looking back on my days in class, I remember that both of these ex-students had altercations and disagreements with A. One of them, who I talked to and walked to class with sometimes, actually was dropped from the class because she refused to go on a big trip for the class. And when I say "big trip", I mean "this trip is pretty much our raison d'être this year, this is what we are working towards". This is something that A impressed on us many times throughout the year, and after becoming upset at this student for saying no to the trip, he essentially kicked her out of the class. A brash action? Yes, but A is a man who is passionate about his job and particularly about this class. We were his bread and butter, a stumbling bumbling creature expected to transform into a well-oiled machine in time for this grand trip. What was the point of keeping this student in his class if her goals obviously did not align with that of the rest of the group? The way I see it is that he saw her (and a few other students who felt the same way) as an unnecessary growth, so he cut her off. Again, this sounds cruel and brash, but think about it. We're talking about an area where perfection is the focus, and although perfection is nigh impossible to achieve, you do everything you can to get as close to it as possible. Because if you aren't perfect, you get booed off the stage. Everyone hears every mistake, everyone sees every little piece out of place, and they will judge you for it. This is a course so unlike any other -- with the exception of the other performing arts courses -- that you have to think about it and its instructor in a different way. If you're telling me that you can approach Social Studies the same way you can approach any of the performing arts, then I'd like to have a very long discussion with you about that.

In short, these two ex-students had "beef" with A (with the other ex-student also leaving the ensemble before year-end). But, you may be wondering, how would anyone know about this "beef"? Why would these two be contacted? The question I pose to you is: is it not plausible (and likely) that these two went to the school board with an earlier complaint about A? Neither of them were fond of the man, and both of them were passionate -- I had seen glimpses of it just in talking and seeing them. Would they not fight for the idea of personal justice they held so closely to their hearts? I'm not saying that this is what happened, but it does explain why they would have been contacted, and honestly, I would not rule out this possibility. But I digress.

At the root of it, I have to say that I am extremely saddened to see this accusations pointing at A. I have been in his company, just the two of us, a few times and I was completely at ease. He is not some sick pervert. What he is is a passionate teacher who is married to his work. His passion is what leads him to make some stupid decisions, I admit; it is not wise to remain with a female student in confined quarters, but not because I think that he would prey on the girl -- no, but for his own safety and prudence. He is a brilliant man, and so very talented in his field, but he does not make the best decisions in terms of prudence. If you'd actually sat in his class and listened to what he'd said, then you would've heard the fatigue, but you would've seen the complete devotion he had to his cause -- i.e. our band. He would do anything for our band if it meant making it, and any of the star players, better. I remember how he would tell us about how he'd stay up late working on trying to figure out how to make us better and how he would fall asleep at the wheel of his car -- mid-drive. This man thinks nothing of his own well-being. This is something that people have to understand. He does not think of what kinds of whispers will be said about him or about the physical hazards he imposes on himself. His focus is on the band. And if working with a key player in the band off school hours one-on-one is what he thinks it'll take, he'll do it, not even thinking about the consequences. Sure, he loved his students, but I never saw any hint of it being in an inappropriate manner. He loves his students like they are his children. So yes, when I hear that he drove this student in question somewhere, I am not surprised. I am only upset at how little a hold "rational judgment" seems to has on him.

Another point that people have brought up is that his alleged teenage lover (and student) has dropped out of school now as a result of this not-so-clandestine relationship. First of all, is this more hearsay? Did the girl actually say that yes, she did indeed drop out of school because she could not stand A's advances any longer? Or did she say yes, she did indeed drop out because everyone was talking about her? Well, to the second question, I'd like to say that my brother is in her grade and he was in band for a time so he knows and is on good terms with a lot of the band kids still. And after talking to him tonight, he has not heard a THING about this incident. Sure, he had noticed that this girl had dropped out, but he had heard nothing beyond that. If you want to call my brother out for being an unobservant ninny, then that's a separate issue that you can take up with me.

But I digress. The fact that the girl has dropped out of school may or may not be related to this "fiasco". There is no solid indication that the two events are related. We do not know what goes on behind the closed doors in her household abode. We can never truly know what happens in the 90% of someone's life that we don't see. We only get to see what they tell us, and even then, humans are not reliable reporters. We all have secrets, and we all have skeletons in our closets. The fact that her father is a local politician may give an indication as to what her home life may be like, but even then it would be unfair to infer much. If anything, the fact that her father is a local politician may relate to this situation with A. As a parent, you want to protect your child. If your child is hurt, you will seek revenge. This much I have gleaned from parents. If A really, truly did hurt this girl, then her father would presumably become involved. Okay, this may be where the school board comes in, but this could also be a prime time to pull the politician card and use that media attention to condemn A. Everyone likes a good story.

The story has gone through so many people that a lot of the details have been lost. They have also been diluted and been expanded. People trust their sources, I understand that completely. However, I do not trust their sources. I do not even trust myself -- I am aware that I have the power to manipulate stories when I retell them, and I do believe that I am guilty of this at times, although I do try actively to catch myself; and oh yes, I have caught myself. The thing is that people love a good story and they love having an audience who will react. Why do you think that whoppers and hyperboles exist? We are also creatures who pride ourselves in being very different from each other. We are all individuals. We all think differently and speak differently from each other. And from this beautiful set of differences, we misunderstand and miscommunicate. I am not condemning these actions, but I merely wish to recognize them.

Oh, and another thing. Notice how he's still teaching? Surprised? I'm not. He's still teaching because there is no evidence. If this was as serious as everyone makes it seem -- though that is perhaps something created by how viral this rumour has gone -- then he would be relieved of his position and he would be undergoing investigation right now. I know a student teacher who was at my high school for her practicum, and she drove home one of her students, a female, home after some sports practice one day. The girl developed a crush on this student teacher. In the end, what happened to this student teacher? Nothing. Because nothing happened. The fact that nothing has happened to A so far seems to indicate that the school board has not found the condemning evidence. Perhaps this is because it does not exist.

For me, it just hurts to see people -- who didn't even know A -- slag him and shake their heads at even the mention of his name in disgust. He is a man who seems to become the object of many students' hatred, and unfortunately it seems that this might have bit him in the ass this time. This is a shame. The man I know A to be is one that is dedicated, passionate, and selfless. I only wish that others, despite how he pressed their buttons, could see him in the same light.

... Besides, my mom believes him to be gay, no doubt about it. And we all know that mom is always right.

There is something very wrong with how people learn English nowadays.

To offer some background information, I am tutoring two high school students in Math and English. My students are a boy in grade 10, and his sister, a girl in grade 8. Their parents were Chinese immigrants who have since become Canadian citizens, and my students themselves were born here in Vancouver. This is my first time formally tutoring anyone, particularly in English and Math, as I have taught piano and flute to children in the past. These kids are also my neighbours, so I'm aware of the state of the neighbourhood and the schools in the area. I began tutoring these kids a few months ago, back in March, and though I've realized for some time now the inadequacy of our school system, I wasn't able to formulate my thoughts about it without completely flying off the handle until recently.

When I started getting to know these kids, I had high hopes. What I had been told about them previously was that the boy, hereafter known as J1, was doing well in school, and that he merely needed someone to be there so that he would feel some pressure to actually do homework as their parents work long hours at the store they own. In other words, J1 needed a babysitter. The girl, who I will refer to as J2, actually needed a tutor. I knew some classmates in high school and other people around my age from other school who "needed" tutors to get their marks up from B's to A's. I figured that tutoring J2 would be much like that as well. If her brother was doing more than okay, what were the chances that she was doing much less than okay?

A few weeks passed and I got to know J1 & J2. I got writing samples from them, as well. What I found astonished and disheartened me. These kids could not write; they could not write worth a darn! And their reading? Almost passable, if you consider skipping over words, rearranging words, and the inability to even sound out words to be reading. In terms of Math, J1 is able to do it mostly without many difficulties (except for geometry), but J2 needs to be walked through every word problem. Around this time, I also heard from the kids that their parents expect them to go to university to become doctors/lawyers/engineers. The way I saw it at this point was that drastic changes were needed. But what?

The thing is that J1 & J2 speak relatively decent English, that has little to no hint of an accent. Sure, they do have quite a few grammar errors, and the manners in which they speak are not very eloquent, but I expect colloquialisms and slang and slip-ups in spoken English; the mouth often moves faster than the brain. This is to be expected, I suppose. The written side of language is radically different from the spoken aspect, and although English is a somewhat phonetic language, often times the rules for pronunciation are frustrating... But does this really make not being able to read okay? No, it does not.

This does make me wonder, though. Are all my students' cohorts and classmates and friends unable to read? Has this always been the case? I try to think back to my high school days (which were not too long ago), and I am not sure. I do not remember anyone aside from recent immigrants having much trouble reading aloud in class, but then I was in the enriched program in high school. Undoubtedly, my high school experience was not "normal" so I honestly cannot say. As a third-year university student, I can say that I am familiar with the requirements for university. The level at which J1 & J2 read and write is not good enough to get into or excel in university.

It is apparent that there is a problem. I'm not saying that everyone should get into university, no, definitely not. However, for kids who have been immersed in English all of their lives, their English is surprisingly ... bad. An excerpt:

Martial Arts is a way to realive stress, have fun and help become more
athletic. I train in two different Martail Arts I do Taekwondo, wing chun.
I like both of them a lot I can give three reasons why I like this sport. The
technique of the certain type of Martial Arts are interesting. The
accessories that indicates the skill levels. Also fun is the main reason I
play this sport.

This was written as the opening paragraph to the essay I assigned to J1 on martial arts, a subject near and dear to him, about which he can talk for hours. This boy is 15. This was written with a word processor on his fancy Macbook (which for some reason does not do spellcheck). However, spelling is not the biggest problem here. It's in the sentence structure itself. The content is fine, but the word choice and grammar just make this paragraph sub-par. At this point, I am not sure if I believe J1's reassurances that he is doing "fine" in school and that his teacher "is an idiot". Granted, I know his teacher and I know for a fact that his teacher is not "an idiot". This teacher actually really knows his stuff in terms of English literature. His downfall, however, is that he cannot teach the subject. Come to think of it, though, there is not much to "teach" concerning English at this point other than how to analyze literary works, and goodness knows that that is not necessarily something that can be taught -- how do you teach understanding and inference? Practice, I suppose. But I digress, the groundwork for language acquisition should have been laid long ago. And herein lies the problem.

My parents were very involved in my elementary school. They went to the PAC meetings, they visited my teachers, and they got as involved as parentally possible in the office. I remember them coming back from one such PAC meeting where a teacher had led a discussion about reading, English, and how the grade 1-3 teachers are pivotal in establishing those basic English skills vital to language acquisition. "How are grade 1-3 teachers supposed to teach these basic English skills to young children?" you may be wondering. Well, the answer lies in one word, just one word that opens up billions of other words: reading. Are elementary school teachers reading to their students? Are they requiring that their students read books? Are they instilling in them a love for stories and books?

While somewhat still on the topic of parents, maybe some blame lies on them as well. Now, I cannot completely put the blame on them, though. They're doing what they can, working to pay for any extra-curriculars and possibly the hope of their kids going to university in the future. I understand that that requires putting  in a lot of hours at the store. But also from my understanding is that language acquisition is difficult to achieve unless the person is absolutely immersed in the language. They have to hear it constantly and their brain has to be working at trying to figure it out, not just because the person wants to -- oh no, when you leave boring things like that to "want" and "desire", they never get done -- but because the person has to in order to survive. Granted, it is likely difficult for immigrant parents to speak English to their children all the time, especially when they themselves do not know the language very well, but then it could become a learning experience for the whole family. In Canada, English is still one of the official languages. It is the one bridging language between ethnic groups in every province and territory but Québec. And likely, it is the bridging language in Québec, as well. Just don't quote me on it. Again, I digress. Yes, parents are a factor, but the issue goes beyond them.

Returning to the topic of schools, I think that there is not enough reading done in school, particularly in the oh-so important lower grades. Somehow kids are not getting enough exposure to good quality English at that stage. They are talked at all day by a teacher, yes, but again, that's spoken English -- radically different from written English. I remember one of my high school PE teachers. She was about my mum's age, and she was quite strict. People didn't really like her, but I thought that she was fair. I recall her telling some girls off for speaking some non-English language in the hallways. And as much as I'd like to think that maybe this was rather cruel and unnecessary of her, I think that she may have had a point. Our culture here has become very embracing of other cultures, and understandably so. However, I fear that by embracing all of these other cultures and by saying "okay, feel free to speak your home language at school!", we are losing ourselves and our identity. I'm not saying that people should not be allowed to retain their mother tongue. No, definitely not. Sometimes I wish that my parents had retained enough of theirs to make me retain it. Of course, people should be free to speak whatever they wish at home -- home is where they are free to relax and converse with family. It's just that if the kids are not being exposed to enough English outside of the home, there is no way for them to master English. In all honesty, I don't see a problem with people speaking whatever language they wish whenever (except for when people resort to their mother tongue in order to be secretive in a public space -- an inevitability, but somewhat disconcerting all the same), but when the parents of these children expect their kids to have kept their mother tongue AND to have mastered English, then I see a problem.

So where does that leave me and my students? Is it possible for me to get their reading and writing up to snuff? I cannot say. It would be a great task to undertake, but I am limited by time -- these kids are still in school and are still being bombarded by homework. I maintain that my #1 priority with them is to help them with their homework, but I cannot help but be bothered by the larger, underlying problem.

My mum says that the only thing that can help their English is to read to and with them. However, I am open to other suggestions. Leave them in the comments, s'il vous plaît!

I just spent the last 10 minutes staring at pictures of my favourite hockey players. Someone help me.

Once again it has been far too long since my last blog entry. I feel that with my short attention span and love of instant gratification I have been spending much more time on Tumblr. It probably doesn't help that I am pretty darn busy these days.

A standard day for me used to be this:

9:30am: wake up
10:00am: procrastinate online
11:00am: play Heart's "Alone" on piano + random movie soundtracks
12:00pm: eat lunch
12:30pm: go to school
5:00pm: arrive back at home + watch hockey
6:00pm: eat dinner
8:00pm: do homework
12:00am: sleep

But now my life has been flipped, turned upside down. I have 3 interviews for co-op coming up, one on the 19th, one on the 20th, and one on the 27th. Two of them are IT support type jobs for the federal government, and the last is actually for the Engineering faculty at school to work on their web courseware. I'm most keen on the school one (strangely enough -- I mean, how much more unglamourous can you get?), but the interview for that isn't until the 27th. I'm just freaking out over what these next few weeks will be like, what with interviews, school, work, driving lessons, applying to more jobs, and trying not to be totally anti-social.

Not going to lie, I felt like throwing up today when I found out that my interview on the 19th would force me to miss school and was less than 24 hours before my interview on the 20th. Good thing I hadn't eaten yet.

If I had one of these right now, it'd be a huge patch of unhappy.

WARNING: long, somewhat personal, soul-baring diatribe ahead.

I went into this telling myself that whatever the first offer I got (should I get one at all), I would accept it. Really, that's how co-op works, anyway. Once you apply for a position, presumably you do want it and so it is expected that should you be offered a position, you would accept it. And really, I did want the jobs when I first applied for them. But having talked to my coordinator today, she asked how many IT support jobs I had applied for with implications abound that I should not have applied for them, that I could land an actual coding gig. She's always emphasized aiming and shooting high -- "I'd rather you say more about yourself and really sell yourself and have to hold you back than you saying too little" -- and I feel as though she's got her bar of expectations set this high while I am really only aiming for something below that. And honestly, my confidence and self-esteem is probably 6 feet below that.

I really had no (emotional) problems before talking to her about those IT jobs. Now I feel regret. Like I shouldn't have applied to them.

But on the other hand, I really don't have any job experience with computers, not in the IT field or the coding field. I mean, yes, ideally I would get a nice little web developer job and look at HTML and CSS all day, but "ideally" tends to pass right by me.

The bad thing about co-op in my faculty is that it's at my own pace and I'm very much at the mercy of the employers. If I get an offer from job A and just barely handed in my application for my dream job, job X, then I'm kind of stuck with job A. My mom just told me to look at it like this is just the beginning of my co-op career. Yeah, these positions are for 8 months, but that's only 2 work terms and I need a minimum of 4.

"Next time," she tells me.  "Next time you can be a little pickier and go for the coding ones."

In terms of applying for things, I think that I've applied to around 11 jobs now. The deadlines for maybe half of them have passed, and of those 6 or so, I've gotten 3 interviews. That's not bad, really. I'm rather surprised. And if it weren't for the current remorse/regret/guilt trip that I'm currently on, I'd be really pleased with those results. There haven't been any really exotic positions that have come up (I think the closest was a general posting for IBM saying "go check their site", though their only positions in Europe are in Italy [WHY COULDN'T IT BE FRANCE? OF ALL THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. HONESTLY. THEY WANT SOMEONE FLUENT IN ITALIAN. MIO DIO.] and Israel), though I'm working on applications for positions in Ontario and Quebec.

How cool would it be to work for RIM in Mississauga or EA in Montreal? My brother is already (and falsely) saying "When you're gone..." to me and lamenting how sad he'll be, which is really kind of adorable and endearing. He says that I have to Skype him every day, and of course he tries to cover up his sappiness by saying "Because you'll need to ask me for recipes and on how to cook because you can't do it by yourself". Haha, what a cute kid.

And really, that's better than my dad who says "If you're going, then we're moving there." Really, dad, really? You of all people?! I guess my mom was right when she told me that my dad and brother always whined about me not being home that often during the school year. And then he got all excited about how if I get a position in Montreal and we move there that we could go to Habs games and have lots of fun and yaddi yaddi yadda.

My family. Honestly. They need to get a grip. It's not even like I do anything at home. I just sit at my computer and argue with people.

So yeah. This is going to be a fun couple of weeks. I feel like rolling up into a ball and just dying. Or playing in traffic. On Knight Street. With all the cargo trucks. Fun fun fun.

So the NHL Playoff season is in full swing now with Game 1 behind everyone. Exciting, exciting! Unfortunately I have to study for finals. :( Ah, the life of a university student.

Tonight should be Chicago's last night in Vancouver (possibly for the season), and apparently the Blackhawks have been roaming around town, eating sushi and whatnot. Although I live in Vancouver, and I've mentioned this before, I'm not going to root specifically for the Canucks to get the Cup. I do think that that'd be nice given the fact that we've never won the Cup, but it almost seems too good to be true that we'd kick ass in the regular season AND also do well in the post-season. I'm just going to enjoy watching whatever hockey games are on when I can catch them and hope that one of the 2 Canadian teams can bring home the Cup this year.

And in the spirit of all that is hockey-loving and silly...


Dear Alexander Edler,
Why do you have to be so adorable when you rock the Robot?
Signed,
me.

I still can't believe that a political debate has been moved because of a Habs game. That is hilarious. But then, that's Canada.

My Stats final was today. It was alright, overall. We had a question about pokémon on the exam. To be more specific, "You are a pokémon trainer from Pallet Town. You speak to the local professor in your town, Professor Oak, and you decide to become a pokémon master. In the long grass, on average you can find 12 pikachu with a standard deviation of 3, and 34 pidgey with a standard deviation of 4. What is the probability of finding over 50 pokémon total in a day assuming that it follows an approximately normal distribution?" I'm fairly confident that I passed. Unfortunately the one or two questions that I weren't too sure about were worth quite a few marks. But oh well. It's over! Hopefully that's the last Stats course I have to take ever! I was actually starting to miss taking Math courses while I was preparing for this bloody exam. And missing Math courses is a something I don't ever want to feel again. It feels weird.

Okay, time to stay away from non-school-related things on the Internet until I'm done all of my final exams.
...
I had a dream about David Tennant.

And LipDub.
My school's kind of mental. And it can't lip-sync very well.

Today was somehow a good day. For a bit of normalcy, maybe I'll talk about my day for once. I think that's what other bloggers do...?

Okay, well in short:
- Rich Shapero must be a filthy rich bastard
- Memebase runs my life
- Have some interesting articles: 1/2
- And a funny site

Alright, so my day kicked off with music theory. Today was mostly a review of the tutorial on Monday and the previous class on form and how phrases form sentences and antecedent-consequent pairs, yeah yeah blah blah. I studied for my history quiz during this time. My prof wasn't overly funny today, though he is always -- ALWAYS -- a little funny. He said something bizarre today, but I can't remember it right now. Moving on... My next class was music history and we had a quiz on our opera/instrumental music unit. I don't think I absolutely failed it, but my prof asks really obscure things for the multiple choice questions. I mean, I've passed all of the quizzes so far, but my marks haven't been great. I'm thankful that I got a pretty decent mark on my term paper. Hell yes, Vivaldi. Anyhow, we got our notes for out next unit which is on Haydn and Mozart (!). I'm getting ready to unleash my inner Mozart fangirl. And I will kick my next quiz's butt. To the moon.

After my music courses, I had a Stats lab. Okay, what I do not understand about people using that lab room is how random people using the computers (which is understandable in itself) go and plunk themselves down at a computer right smack dab in the middle of a row. And each row can only be accessed from one side. If you are going to be using the lab room in LSK, please kindly put yourself in a corner so the people actually using that lab during lab time can have seats where the board is visible. Right, so lab was okay. I did derpy things but my partner caught them and pretty much told me what to do whenever I sat there like a deer caught in headlights. And let me tell you, that happened quite a lot during that lab.

I finished lab a little bit early so I headed to the SUB without having to battle through any crowds. Yay! As I entered the SUB, I was offered a free book. I accepted. The book I picked up is Rich Shapero's Too Far. Rich Shapero. Rich Shapero. That name. Ah, right. He also wrote that other free book I picked up a month ago, called Wild Animus. A lot has been said online about Rich Shapero and his books. I left my copy of Too Far on the table at school today (I saw Shapero's name on the cover and vomited a little in my mouth -- really, who has the money to self-publish and then promote so flagrantly? Oh yeah, he does. Y U NO DONATE TO JAPAN, RICH?). I admit that I'm intrigued by Wild Animus, which I actually took home. I intend to read it sometime. I mean, this guy must have mega bucks if he can afford to have it given out for free all over the world. Anyhow, I'll be sure to post my thoughts on this purported "piece of crap" when I get around to reading it.

After meeting up with some folks in the SUB and actually buying food for lunch ($8.12 for pasta with toppings... My wallet is crying ;____;), I went for a resume review with my co-op coordinator. I think what my mom said about people not liking me initially is true, because my coordinator sounded a bit disgruntled at the start. Yes, I get that she's supposed to point out everything I did wrong, but I got the feeling that she didn't like me. I can't blame her, really. But once I started asking her questions (were they maybe a little self-deprecating?), she started to smile a lot more and warm up to me. Whew.

I went back to the SUB for another hour of socialization and then headed off to meet up with my project partner (yay no project right now, though!) and head to class. 213 was actually really interesting today. Unfortunately I didn't pay much attention to the first half about the Dining Philosophers problem (click for a fun Java applet and kinda cute graphics!)-- which we covered in 211 last term anyhow -- and some of the IP stuff because my friend was texting me. My friend sat 2 rows in front of me in class. Derp. Along with the talk about IP addresses and ports, my prof talked about how computers access websites on the internet. Essentially every webpage has an IP address. When we type say "google.ca" into the address bar, our computer sends a message out asking who "google.ca" is and one response pops up and the DNS gets that one response's IP address. My prof went more in-depth and stuff, but I'll spare you all the details. I'm not sure why I found that interesting, but I did.

And then I goofed off at home until 10PM and then I wrote like 16 measures of my assignment. Yay.

Okay, time for bed!

Apparently I look like a man (says my brother). Also, don't tell my project partner that she used to be Arnold. That might make her freak out. It's kind of sad that it was easier to make Arnold into a teenage girl than it was to make Miss Frizzle into one. Huh.

I contemplated sticking some random prisoners in the back windows but I couldn't think of who to stick in there. God knows they would be prisoners given my driving.

Anyhow, tomorrow will be dedicated to getting my music assignment done as well as getting some studying in for my 2 quizzes on Tuesday. G'night!

Just a quick 'hello' tonight. I know that I have tons to do, but absolutely no motivation to do it so I've decided that my time right now would be better spent sleeping, as opposed to forcing my opinions on the world (aka blogging).

I think that this is the first term where I've passed all of my midterms, not including first term last year. I think I passed all of my midterms then, too. I think. Huzzah! I also somehow managed a 95% on my music assignment (which is my highest university mark on anything ever). Groovy. Feeling so confident about my minor. I'm definitely thinking about upgrading that to a major. Once I'm done my degree, that is.

My day was plenty boring, anyway. Except for a disastrous 213 quiz, the day was rather nondescript, though my 101 class is hilarious. My prof played the German national anthem for us today (which is apparently based on a string quartet piece by Haydn [Emperor]). Silliness ensued. I love how my music profs seem rather stuffy at times, but if you listen closely, you can catch them saying strange and hilarious things: "Everyone had Vivaldi-fever!", "Then you'd jump up a ninth. *sings a squeaky leap of a ninth in soprano range* And the Emperor wouldn't like that so you'd die! *brandishes pencil*"

The rest of my week is as follows:
- Wednesday: volunteering, work on 221 lab, start 213 assignment
- Thursday: work my butt off on my Stats assignment & 221 project
- Friday: work my butt off on Stats assignment, 221 project, and 213 assignment, hand in 221 lab (hopefully)
- Saturday: watch Black Swan with a few friends, work on 213 assignment, work on 101 assignment
- Sunday: Sleeeeeeeeep, study for 121 quiz, study for 213 quiz, catch up on things

Yay, it's 11PM, time for bed.

It's been a while since I've properly blogged. My last post was written on a sort of whim with no real substance or information to it so I'll try to make up for that now, though most of my day has been spent watching Doctor Who.

The past few weeks of my life have been absolutely consumed by schoolwork and school life: midterms, projects, assignments, labs. 'Tis the life. I think that I only subsist on Panago's pizza and Tim Horton's sandwiches now.

Dreary, quotidienne life aside, of course the talk of the news has been the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and its far-reaching effects. My thoughts go out to all of those affected, from Japan to Hawaii to California. And the sentiments that this earthquake was "karmic" for what Japan did to Pearl Harbour (mostly sentiments I've seen online) are pathetic, uneducated remarks, and absolute rubbish. How anyone could say that is beyond me.

With all of the earthquake and tsunami talk, it's nice to find one article not related to the devastation in Japan or the potential in Vancouver. So yes, the lost city of Atlantis may not be quite so lost anymore.

I have lots more to say, but it's already 15 past midnight and what with Daylight Savings in effect, it's time to sleep (only to wake up in about 6 hours time).

How to read my day as a Harry Potter fan:

Today I had two quizzes -- one in music history, the other in 213. My music history one was meh, as usual. I've realized that I really need to read my textbook and stop relying on what I gleaned from History 4 ages and ages ago. My 213 quiz on the other hand was easy peasy, and we went over the answers in class immediately afterward so I know that my answers were right, though I might not have backed them up properly. Oh well. Aside from my quizzes today, my lectures were rather nondescript other than the fact that I got my Vivaldi essay back.

The thing about writing term papers where there are books set aside as course reserves in the library is that you're expected to use ALL of those books on course reserve. ALL of them. And if you're me, you'll go to the library 4 times, and only be able to ever find 3/5 of them. True, 1/5 went missing, but there was another 1/5 that I just never was able to get my hands on. Hell, I don't even know what it's called. Despite being docked marks for leaving that book out, I still managed to get an A- on that essay, which is a mark I'm quite pleased with given that it took minimal effort and little to no editing (I was feeling lazy).

Today was International Women's Day! Hip hip hurray! It's even a day off in certain countries:

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

I admit that it's rather surprising that there aren't more European nations on that list, since a lot of them are so "progressive" and femme-centric. I WISH WE HAD A DAY OFF IN CANADA.

Also, my friend told me that Sweden intends on doing away with postage stamps and instead will be using a text message payment system. Interesting. Not quite sure what to make of that. On the one hand, yay fewer trees are killed to make stamps! And on the other, stamp collectors would be out of a hobby. And I am an ex-stamp collector so I feel their pain. D:

I have a midterm tomorrow night so hopefully everything goes well, though I kind of wish that I hadn't wasted all of my time on Memebase.com, procrastinating and such. I mean, I'm on page 200 of that site now. My conscience is hurting so badly. Almost as badly as this:

Alright, it's time for bed now! And hopefully I'll dream about unicorns galloping in fields of cotton candy and gumdrops. God knows I need a little bit of happy these days. I don't even have a specific reason for being all mopey.
On the plus side, it's nice getting hugs. :) Especially from people who give substantial hugs and not just the limp-armed pat-you-on-the-back-tentatively ones. Just saying~

I already have forgotten the last time that I blogged since it didn't feel like having a real blogging session or anything so perhaps I can make up for it here and now as there are obviously "a lot more details to take into consideration" that I've just upped and forgotten. Well then.

It's only been a couple of days really since my last entry, but it's felt like ages. School has been thoroughly exhausting. Yesterday I was at school until 1AM working on not one, but two CPSC assignments, one for each course. Thankfully I did finish my weekly 213 assignment at around 4PM and it's all handed in and done, however even after spending a good... 9 hours on it yesterday, I was still not done my ruddy written assignment for 221 that even now, I am still not done. Granted, me and the two guys I was working with aren't the best at writing proofs (and neither is my assignment partner), but it was difficult even getting a hold of someone who could help us. I think that each of us made a phone call to try and get someone to help us, but alas, our contacts were: a) not answering, b) working on an assignment for another course, and c) drunk. So we watched YouTube videos, discussed the differences between males and females in regards to romance, found out that I can do video Skype calls on my new iPod (my brother's getting my old one since there's supposedly going to be a Minecraft app/game coming to an iPod near you), marveling over how many gadgets we had between the 3 of us, singing The Lonely Island songs, and BS'ing proofs. It's fun hanging out with guys. Even if you get to hear about their porn stashes and hear comments from one about how the other fails at shaving. Oh men.

Today it was apparently a nice day out. Though it's not like I knew; I was indoors all day either sleeping or working on this written assignment. It should honestly be illegal to assign something that requires 6 different proofs. That being said, I think that we were productive for most of the day, despite me being forced to listen to Disturbed, Mudvayne, and Slipknot, the two former being bands that my super girly giggly assignment partner likes, and the third being a band that puts her to sleep. I kid you not. Also, she drew pictures on our printouts of the assignment. Crazy girl.

Also I want to make a statement about my Facebook account and what the point even is in me having one.
I like to think of this as an experiment. I am redefining the word "friend" in a Facebook context and injecting a bit of fun into the use and abuse of this site. Because Facebook is just that horrible. Also, I'd like to prove that it's not as addictive as everyone seems to make it out to be.

The Facebook Experience Experiment

First and most foremost, I am not using my real name. I have several reasons for this. Of course, there is the obvious reason related to Internet privacy and the likes, and in the incredibly tech-savvy field of Comp Sci it is practically a given that future employers will stick my name into Google. However, this is not my sole reason for using an anagram. Yes, I initially used the anagram to stay off of most people's radar, but I've realized that it not only does that, but it requires an extra step of people who do want to befriend me on this godforsaken social networking site. More often than not, people were required to speak to me and ask me for my Facebook name. And if they didn't, then they most probably had to do a little sleuthing to find me, albeit fairly menial sleuthing, but sleuthing nonetheless. The fact that people would have to take this extra step indicates to me (no matter how superficially at this point) that they put even that little bit of extra effort to do that little something for me. And of course, it's nice to know that I'm relatively safe from creepy TAs and the likes.

What I've found to be a sentiment more common than I thought was one about how having a Facebook account is somewhat of an obligation; they just have one for the sake of saying that they have one. Honestly, where's the fun in that? It seems to me that the befriending craze that runs rampant on this Facebook thing has its repercussions; people are expected to interact with mere acquaintances and/or those they'd just rather not socialize with. People are forced to interact with people they don't necessarily want to enough in real life, why drag that into Facebook? For this reason, I've decided that my Facebook "friends" will actually most certainly be friends, or at the very very most, be people I've known for a long time that I get along fairly well with and/or have a mutual respect for.

In terms of improving the "fun" factor of Facebook, I think that I've already made some progress. I don't think that I need to go into all the gory details, but I have a feeling that whatever my antics are, they're maybe possibly slightly more interesting than people's clubbing pictures and requests for asinine things in Farmville. Oh yeah, and "for fun" is essentially the whole reason I'm doing this. I'm really not using my account as a communication tool to keep in touch with anybody or anything. This is just a crappy, overrated, browser-based MMORPG as far as I'm concerned. :P I'm not saying that my arguments are sound, reasonable, or logical. They're just my reasons and they make sense to me; no point in trying to argue them.

Sorry, no linkspam tonight, kiddos. Though, the Canadian dollar is absolutely rockin'. I think we exchanged some CAD for USD the other day and we got about $18 more. I'm sure that America's economy will pick up again within the next couple of years and we'll be left in their dust once more, but right now, it's a great time to exchange your money and go shopping stateside.

It's been... an awful long time since I last blogged. In fact, I think it's been more than a week as it is now March. Despite the passing of time between my last blog post and this one, my life has remained static.

Well, I've found an article that actually seems to have viable and legitimate sources to back up the claim that Vancouver is the top city for "liveability" (that doesn't look like a word to me). So that's the end of that.

I also just found out today that that 10-year-old girl who sang GaGa's "Born this Way" and is now a YouTube sensation, will be performing with the GaGa herself. The little girl is also Canadian. Weird. And somewhat Bieber-ish.

Today at my co-op workshop, my coordinator went over the three types of jobs available to co-op students: QA, PM, and SD. QA stands for "quality assurance", which is essentially just a fancy way of saying "testing". PM is an abbreviation for "project manager", and SD is short for "software developer". Based on everything I've heard today during the workshop, I think that I really would like to get a PM job/placement. Granted, it of course would be based on what I apply for, but I definitely will be applying like mad for PM jobs. I don't have the patience for QA and I don't think I quite have the technical skills to be an SD. Aaaaaand I dunno, I just plain felt excited when my coordinator started talking about the role of a PM in the workplace. That being said, I think that I'll be concentrating most of my application efforts on PM and QA jobs since QA seems to be the most common one for co-op students.

I've found that the people I've most recently befriended think that I'm "confident", "assertive", a "people person", and a "heart breaker". People never cease to confuse me.

Alright, so my view of the upcoming week:
- Monday: 221 written assignment due, 221 lab due, 213 assignment due
- Tuesday: 121 quiz, 213 quiz
- Wednesday: 221 midterm
- Thursday: 101 assignment due
- Friday: 221 milestone due

Yaaaaaaaay, life  = over.

I feel like writing. And getting all of my daydreaming out of my system. But I can't. There's no time.

So according to The Vancouver Sun, we've been the most livable city for 5 years straight.
The full list of top 10 cities is:

1. Vancouver

2. Melbourne, Australia

3. Vienna, Austria

4. Toronto

5. Calgary

6. Helsinki, Finland

7. Sydney, Australia

8. Perth, Australia

8. Adelaide, Australia

10. Auckland, New Zealand

Some of the comments on this article have incited a sort of pro/anti-Vancouver argument, one in which some people claim that this article is propaganda and lies. I have to say that I have no idea where The Sun got this data from exactly -- "With files from Postmedia and Reuters" sounds kind of vague to me -- but I am not going to look into it. It's a known fact that Vancouver is (pretty much) universally deemed one of the world's most livable cities, so who really cares if we're #1 or #5? For most cities in developed countries, I don't think that it matters too much how the cities ranks in "livability". How "livable" your city is what you make of it; Vancouver is great, but if you're dead set on hating it, you're not going to like living here.

Other local news, reported by The Sun, is the sighting of Tom Cruise at yesterday's Canucks game. Apparently he's also been bringing his daughter to the main library downtown. Gosh, that is a strange thought. Rumour has it that they're also still filming Hellcats at UBC, and I did see tents on Main Mall by Buchanan so maybe there's some truth to that rumour. All I know is that the food trailer accompanying those tents has some pretty fantastic-smelling food. Namely garlic bread-esque aromas, but all in all, better than the sandwiches I get for lunch.

And in national news, Swiss Chalet is going to be launching a 24-hour chicken channel, à la Shaw's Yule Log and that Aquarium channel. As ridiculous as it is that we will soon be able watch a chicken roasting on our lovely HD television, you've gotta love CBC for running this as an actual news story.

Bringing things back around to real life...

• my 213 midterm yesterday was alright. I flubbed up the 2nd question (of an exam comprised of 3 questions total) -- worth 30 marks -- but I'm decently confident about the other 2 questions.
• I got some of my marks back for some of those weekly assignments that have kept me out at school until 9PM on Friday nights, and I've gotten some surprisingly high marks (especially given the fact that I spend most of my lab times gesticulating wildly while I distract my lab buddies). Pleasant surprise of the night!
• I also got my mark for my first 221 project and... with some insane dedication from my project partner, we managed to get 100%! Yay! We probably could've done some of the bonus things (since they were apparently in the textbook... derp), but I'm very happy with the mark we got!
• I did well on my music theory midterm! \o/ My minor is starting to look more and more like my major, based on my marks. @______@ Ah, well.
• my second 221 project is due Friday and I am kind of fa-reaaaaaaking out because me and my partner only really worked on it on Monday. ;________; Someone pray for my soul.
• I have a Stats midterm on Monday and I need to find my graphing calculator and program some functions into it. Blah. My week & weekend is going to be hellish.
• tomorrow is my Employer Panel co-op workshop, which means that I have to come up with questions to ask those employers and also be prepared to answer interview questions. And I mean questions other than "Oh, do you know _______? Yeah, he's my mom's friend's husband." Not gonna lie, but my mom's friend's husband actually does work for MDA (the company that programmed the Canadarm space station thing).
• I just found out that my grandma likes chips and pop. And she enjoys going to pub night at her care home. Where there's some singer singing Roy Orbison songs. And everyone drinks beer and whiskey. Holy Jesus, my grandma's social life is kicking my social life's butt to the moon.

Edited for grammar, because I cannot write when I am dead-tired without some grammatical mistakes.

So I am apparently a crackhead now. No, I'm not doing drugs. No, I was not a crack baby. But yes, I have a Blackberry now. *waves small Canadian flag* It's this ugly old thing here, but apparently I am a dinosaur-lover, says my mom. I admit that I squealed like a... I-don't-know-what when I found out that Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the Toreador song were ringtones, but it's not like I'm totally in love with this phone. It is huge. And very plasticky-feeling. But so far I like the simple interface and the scroll wheel (so old school that there's a scroll wheel on the side). I'm definitely starting to see the appeal of the Blackberry, with the nice QWERTY keyboard and all, but the size/shape is bulky and bothersome right now. Also the 'a' button is practically falling off the front side, but I can work with that. For some reason, I really like just checking on my phone every once in a while. I know that this ancient piece of technology doesn't have access to the App World thinger, but I definitely think that I have to check out the variety of apps available for the Blackberry before I decide on my next (new!) phone. And in case anyone is wondering why I'm using this Blueberry thing, it's because...
[small anecdote]
I was running for the Godforsaken 49 bus and the phone bounced out of my pocket (which sounds much better and blameless than "I dropped it"), it hit the pavement, the back cover flew off, the battery flew out, and everything got allllllll scratched and banged up.
[/small anecdote]
So I went back to my LG Neon phone (piece of junk where I can't hear ringing or who I am calling for the first 20 seconds of a call so I have no idea when anyone picks up), which didn't bother me all that much, really, but my parents were sick of hearing me breathe while saying "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?!" over and over again. And this old Blackberry was a gift from my mom's boss from way back in 2003? 2001? But my mom had her old Telus phone and didn't see the need to switch over and use a Blackberry so it sat forgotten in a cupboard for years until my dad suggested I unlock it for use on Fido and actually use it. And ta-da! A crackhead was born.

Actually, it probably really doesn't help that I have small hands, in terms of feelings of bulkiness. Oh well.

Also, as shown by tonight's episode of The Bachelor (oh shush, my parents watch that reality TV show garbage), Americans cannot pronounce "poutine", no matter how close they are to Québec.

So tomorrow I have a midterm for one of my CPSC courses. Unfortunately, the prof hasn't been interacting with the TAs much (the only human contact we students have with course administration), nor has the prof been posting any of the things he promised (practice exams, review questions, in-class examples). Essentially, tomorrow's exam is just a disaster waiting to happen. Time to get maybe 6 hours of sleep! \o/
Hopefully tonight will be better than last night where I kept waking up. 'Twas annoying.

I've got a music theory exam in 8.5 hours and in 9.5 hours a music history quiz so I should get to bed now that I've gone through all the material once. And I'm going to stay late tomorrow (later than I already stay at school thanks to that 3:30PM course) to work on my Stats assignment which is due Friday. I haven't started. This should be fun.

I'm starting to wonder if it's the year of the goalie fights or something. Though both of them (occurring within 7 days of each other) have been pretty lame, I have to say. Today's was more of a dance than a fight.

~~~
I swear to God, you said all the right things. It's been a while since someone cared that much about my stupid life. Thank you. I love you as much as a straight girl can love another straight girl.

I'm a hopeless case. I've been up since 10AM and I've gotten maybe an hour of studying done. I'm still not done my 221 lab and it's due tomorrow. I haven't felt like studying at all in the past few days, except for last night when it was 2AM. Studying at 2AM is a bad idea, though. Here's hoping that I don't totally fail my midterm tomorrow afternoon!

In other news, I've got more stuff done on my webpage. I've fleshed it out a bit, but most of the accomplishments I've achieved today were behind-the-scenes, coding aspects.

Some articles of interest I've found while getting lost in the blackhole of the internet known as ListVerse (and not studying).

• Top 10 Bizarre Modern Paranormal Phenomena - Not saying that I believe in the paranormal necessarily, but I think it's interesting that people across the world can have the same hallucinations. Unless they're all lying about the strange things they've seen. Regardless, kind of an interesting read if you want to be minorly creeped out.
• Interesting Facts About Canada Video - This one isn't actually an article, but I was curious as to what kinds of things anyone could dig up about Canada that would be considered "interesting".
• Top 7 Urban Love Legends - For the hopeless romantic in you. Essentially this article debunks some of those statistics you hear about marriage and divorce and such.
• Top 10 Bizarre Cryptids - Pair this with the first article I link and you might become kind of disturbed. Or maybe you'll become even more skeptical. I just think that this is great fodder for story writing. Follow it up with this list.
• World's Most Famous Photos - Some of these photos are unsettling to say the least, but I still think that it's a list worth checking out. What a strange world this is.
• 10 Creepy Mysteries You Haven't Heard Of - I'm on a roll with creepy things. Maybe because they mess with my mind and I'm in the mood for epic amounts of all-mind-consuming procrastination.
• 10 Examples of Human Laterality - If you were ever curious about handedness and the likes, then this is worth a read.