brinshannara | Entries tagged with school

Had my first class of the new semester today.

Sociology of Emotions.

You'd think it'd be a fun class, an interesting class, especially at the 400-level (the highest offered at the undergraduate level) but you know what?

You'd be wrong.

I'm sure that some of the material is interesting and thought-provoking, but my prof is pretty much the dullest lady you'll meet. Maybe not on the level of Ben Stein, but what she lacks in utter boringness, she makes up for in her psychotherapy. She's a therapist and any time anyone said anything a little odd in terms of their thoughts about emotions and feelings, and what's the difference, she immediately started questioning them and pushing them to look deeper and stuff.

... okay, so I don't have any issues with therapy or delving inside of myself, but not in a classroom, not with 25 other people listening to any admissions or breakthroughs or what-have-you, and I felt VERY uncomfortable listening as she prodded this poor woman in the class to explain all her financial details with regards to tuition and her family. It was VERY odd.

Oh. And in the first three minutes of class, she outlawed laptops and cell phones. She had watched me set up my laptop, get up, plug it in, and waited for me to sit down and boot up before she specifically outlawed laptops.

Yeah, TOTALLY OUT OF THERE.

Goodbye, Sociology of Emotions. Hello, Material Culture.

Current Mood: annoyed

So, remember that Sociology of the Media paper I talked about way back in mid-November?

Working on that right now, actually. Due tomorrow. Well, really, it was due back in November, but I got an incomplete what with all the family stuff going on back then and have basically ignored it until today.

Tonight, really, if I'm going to be honest.

I think it's a bad sign when you open up your paper and go "huh. I think I was smarter two months ago than I am now."

So this to finish and AND AND... a midterm in Socialization tomorrow. Thankfully, it's all multiple choice and true/false and most of it seems to be stuff I've studied before in more depth in other classes.

hahaha, I hate school. :P

This weekend... possibly going up north to ski. Unsure if my workload will allow me to do so yet, even if this coming week is spring break. (Er, reading week. I call it Spring Break, dammit! I don't care if it's not spring!)

Randomly... I did not have a valentine, but I shaved my legs anyways. So there.

And finally... no spoilers in this entry (comments might be another story)... but Lost continues to blow my mind. I think I spent the majority of tonight's episode going "wait, wait, WHAT?!?!"

Current Music: Brown Derbies - Brian Wilson

Papers. So much work. Hating this time of year. Wish it could be the 19th already and all my work was handed in and all my exams were written.

Haven't watched any TV in a couple weeks. I don't even know if there HAS been TV to watch. I'd like that writer's strike to be settled, even if I don't have time to watch anything right now.

Classes are over for the term. One more semester to go and I'll be a university graduate. Shocking.

Anyways. Back to my never-ending paper. Have I mentioned I hate this?

Happy Hanukkah too, BTW.

Current Mood: cranky

How many HTML elements can you name in 5 minutes?

I can't even tell you how few I got. There's 91.

For someone who used to do this stuff for a living, I suck. I mean, really. I suck.

Still writing a paper. Approaching the point where I'd gladly throw myself off a bridge to not do this. Sigh.

Current Mood: embarrassed

Painful week upcoming, with a major Italian test on Thursday and a paper for Sociology of the Media due, oh yes, ON THURSDAY.

Advice to university students interested in writing during NaNoWriMo -- don't also be in your last year and don't have any other online distractions or communities. Seriously.

I plan to get my paper done by Wednesday and spend all Wednesday night studying for Italian.

Of course, this means knowing what my paper will be about, apart from the somewhat vague impression of doing topic #1 (something to do with blogging? I think?). Off to do that. Whee.

Current Mood: busy

OMG. MAILING LISTS ARE PART OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE.

<head explodes>

More later. Maybe!

First of all, a big ol' HAPPY BIRTHDAY, complete with old-school pink dancing elephants to

shiningmoon. I can hardly believe this is something like the 12th birthday of yours I've been around to witness. And to think I thought you were Old(tm) at 25! ;) <ducks> Have an amazing day, sweetie. :)

Second of all, OH MY GOD, my Italian translation is terrible. Horrible. Obscene. Horrifying. English to Italian is like going from 20/20 vision to... 1/1000. It's like, all my skill and precision just melts away and I'm suddenly clumsy as hell.

Third of all.... SO TIRED. Will I NEVER be rested for a Tuesday class? Ever??

Current Mood: tired

It's 5 degrees out, with a high of 9 today.

That's 42 with a high of 48, for you silly Fahrenheiters out there. ;)

It's also COLD, dammit. Gah.

Anyways, update on life:

- Nana beat c. difficile, but then got pneumonia and is now back in isolation for c. difficile. She has no symptoms, apparently, but might be carrying it (?) so she's in isolation with another woman who DOES actually have it. Her oxygen saturation levels are okay, hovering around 90-95 on room air (as opposed to being on oxygen) so hopefully that's going okay. She's awfully weak, though, and isn't eating all that much -- but then lots of people don't feel like eating with pneumonia. She's got an IV right now, too, so at least she's getting some kind of nourishment. More thoughts, prayers, vibes, etc, are welcome. I didn't even get her to laugh last time I saw her; just got a smile. :/

- School's going okay. Got a B on my Law and Society midterm, a B- on my Italian test (typical fare for me in Italian) and an 86% on an essay outline for Journalism, the essay being due tomorrow. Whee.

- National Novel Writing Month starts Thursday. I plan to take part, although I don't know if I'll be able to beat last year's miserable word count of 6000. I also will not be posting any of it on LJ, but I'll put it up on my own website and let a filter know when/if there are updates.

- I woke up at 8am after going to bed at 10 last night. I think I was actually asleep by 10:30.

- Yay Sox.

- Go Habs.

- Heading to the parents' after class tomorrow to help hand out Halloween candy.

That's pretty much my life right now. Thrilling, I know.

Anyways, I'm dressed and almost ready to leave a good hour before I have to, so I'm actually going to do my Italian homework and translate a passage from The Godfather from English into Italian. This is the absolute weakest part of my Italian. I can translate from Italian to English fairly well (as evidenced on my test -- I really only lost points translating from English to Italian) but the reverse makes me want to cry.

I need a new Liz Lemon icon, imho.

Current Mood: cold

When last we left our intrepid adventurer, she was going to try to upgrade her IRC server without destroying the universe.

Success! Upgraded to a new version of the IRC server, the IRC services and installed an open proxy scanner. I felt like the queen geek. And then on Saturday, I screwed it up for a bit and lost services entirely for like, half an hour. It was weird. But it all seems to be working, now.
In other news, I have an Italian test in about an hour and a bit.

And I saw my Nana last night. Dad's in Banff, Alberta, becoming some president of some doctor association thing, so I went to feed her dinner and we chatted. She's doing a LOT better, should be out of the isolation room soon (she kicked c.diff's ASS!) and is spending some time in her chair every day as opposed to just lying in bed. The physiotherapist is coming most days, I think, and her swelling in her hands and feet are going down because she's actually eating more.

Good stuff, keep thinking happy thoughts. :D

Anyways, I should review my stuff a little bit more before I go. I've been up since 5am, for some unfathomable reason, so I'm looking forward to going downtown, writing my test, coming home and napping before my 6pm class.

Current Mood: sleepy

I went to bed at 7:45pm on Wednesday and slept until 1:30am. And I'm still awake and I still have some assignment I should do.

Instead, I have been replacing almost all my icons (yeah, all 6. Stupid LJ. If they think they can get me to upgrade to a plus or paid account by limiting me to 6 icons, they are sorely mistaken.) and updating some of my interests.

Well, that didn't take 4 hours. I did some other stuff, too.

My icons are reflecting my current taste in television shows, more or less.

- Barney quote from How I Met Your Mother

- Ted quote from How I Met Your Mother

- Tina Fey as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock

- Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin on Weeds

- Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender

- The only old icon left - Bianca and Maggie from All My Children

I'd like to fit in some Office icons there, but, uh... I think I'd have to fill all six spots to properly express my love for the show. I cannot bear to remove any of the icons I just added for an Office one, if I could even decide on a SINGLE Office icon, which I pretty much can't. I'd like 17 icons of Jim doing a goofy face, just to start.

( Random TV talk, spoilers for HIMYM, Weeds, The Office. )

Can't wait for a new Office and the season premiere of 30 Rock tonight!

Also, the Montreal Canadiens won tonight. I am wondering how that is remotely possible.

OH. And, NaNoWriMo posts are starting to crawl out of the woodwork. I've got to think of a plot. Let's see, 5 classes including my thesis class, plus some World of WarCraft, plus a semblance of a ghost of a social life, plus 50,000 words in 30 days?

... yeah, I don't even know. I got 6200 last year, 25k the year before, 30k or so the year before that, hit 50k in 2003 and had like, 14k in 2002. It occurred to me the other day that I'm finishing my bachelor's degree and that I've been doing NaNoWriMo LONGER than I've been in school.

I'm still freaked out by that.

I should shower and work on my assignment. And think of a plot.

Current Mood: tired

Well, I overslept. I meant to sleep 'till 8:30 or so but hit snooze (on both my alarm across the room AND the one next to my bed) several times and finally got my ass out of bed at 9:45. Surprisingly, I finished my Italian translation and it doesn't quite suck, so yay.

On the downside, my bus is in three minutes and I'm not dressed, so HOORAY, yet another $14 on cab fare. I have GOT to stop getting bad nights of sleep on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Anyways, my translation is printed and stapled (! I was afraid I'd lost my stapler because I haven't used it in approximately 5 months, but no! It was right there! On my desk! Where I needed it! Conveniently! Who AM I?!) and yeah, there goes my bus, so I ought to get dressed, brush my insane hair and call a cab.

"Stay awake!" vibes are greatly appreciated.

Also, I so need new icons. Hm.

Current Mood: tired

And I also have zero ability to translate Italian.

My first translation project is due in, oh, under 8 hours and I haven't slept. And no, it will not take 8 hours, but listen to part of my first draft!

"Five years after the Bulgarian Edict, Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro went back under the shield of Rai, while the comedian Daniele Luttazzi will begin under La7 in October with one show himself, after six years of professional nothingness."

Like, wow. Such a poor translation that I don't even know where to begin in fixing up the English. And if half of that is right.

So much work to do this week. I can't wait for Thursday at 5:30pm, when Thanksgiving weekend starts for me. (Yes, yes, shorter growing season in Canada, earlier harvest, earlier Thanksgiving.)

Nana Update: She's feeling really weak and wiped out after the worst of the C.difficile seems to have passed. (My father made sure she drank a ton of water to try to clean out her system.) Still more happy thoughts, pretty please. :)

Brother Update: Yesterday, he was at "I'm completely devastated" and today, well, here's an excerpt from a short google chat we had:

2:19 PM me: Hey. How are you?
2:22 PM Brother: Hi
2:23 PM I'm fine. SHe's a ho
2:23 PM I don't need her.

While I can certainly appreciate the sentiment, it's a little soon after a 6 year relationship, so I would have to take a stab at it and say he's being brave. It hurts me to see him go through this, and all I really want to do is hug him, as corny as that may be. He's a little standoffish, though, and would probably smack me in the head if I tried.

I'm gonna get a Coke and get through this Italian thing.

Current Mood: determined

As I slept VERY oddly and irregularly last night, I now find myself still groggy at 1:40pm. Class is in just over an hour, so... quick update.

Nana had her hip surgery on Monday. They replaced the top of her femur (thigh bone) and fixed the issue with the actual hip, as I understand it. So I saw her yesterday (Tuesday). She was still in a significant amount of pain, because she'd done some physiotherapy. Her muscles are all really weak at this point, from not having moved for two weeks.

Still, my Nana's a tough cookie and came through surgery (general anaesthetic, no less!) just fine. Keep the good thoughts coming, though, 'cause she's got a lot of work ahead of her.

As to life... Journalism class today, must leave in 21 minutes. Italian and Soci of the Media tomorrow, followed by an Italian get-together thingy from 5:45-6:45, to practice speaking Italian. Loose plans with JB on Friday evening, possibly coffee with SY in the afternoon.

Somewhere in there, I have to watch the season premiere of The Office. I've already watched the premiere of How I Met Your Mother, but never did get around to watching the last few episodes of Heroes, so I haven't watched that premiere yet.

Also, WarCraft is so broken right now with a whole bunch of addons giving a billion different errors. So much so that I had to cancel our raid last night. I was cranky and I still haven't figured out half of my own issues.

Ugh, I need to get this show on the road.

Current Mood: rushed

(Don't ask me why, but I can't seem to stop posting to LJ, despite my initial desires to post elsewhere.)

Anyways, some random stuff that doesn't make me want to kill people:

- The Canadian dollar hit parity with the American dollar today. Know when that last happened? BEFORE I WAS BORN. 1976. It was under 62 Canadian cents to the US dollar as recently as 2002. I remember getting a paycheque in American dollars for ~$5800 and getting $9900 and change in Canadian funds for that at the bank. Of course, while this is clearly a source of national pride, and is good for Canadians in that we can go to the US and not be like "oh, $5 American is $7.50 Canadian!"... but apparently it's bad for Canadian industry. I think it's close to 75% or 80% of our exports go to the United States -- who are now getting less product for their money, so they're buying less. Americans buying less means less is being sold, period. And our tourism will likely take a dive, as Americans have been all "haha, 1 US dollar is equal to 73 Canadian ones!" for the last couple of decades.

- Italian is fascinating, but I'm currently all mixed up after class, because I keep wanting to speak Italian, but am only thinking in French and then trying to convert it to English. Did you know we almost never use the subjunctive in English? I never really learned English grammar. I learned a LOT of French grammar, though, and have been toying with the subjunctive in French since... grade 7? Grade 8? But we almost never use it in English, and when we do, we often don't realize it, because the only difference between the present indicative and present subjunctive is the 3rd person singular. Indicative says "she goes", subjunctive says "that she go".

Also, despite my intense dislike of the subjunctive, I must train myself to use it more frequently, because, apparently, I make a LOT of mistakes in both French and Italian with it.

Example in French: Je pense qu'elle est une bonne personne. (indicative, DESPITE the "I think that")
Example in Italian: Penso che lei sia una buona persone. (subjunctive, because it's not a certainty.)
Example in English: I think that she is a good person. (indicative, DESPITE the "I think that")

But another example:

Example in French: Je pense qu'elle vienne a la fˆte. (subjunctive, because it's not a certainty.)
Example in Italian: Penso che lei venga alla festa. (subjunctive, because it's not a certainty.)
Example in English: I think that she may come to the party. (subjunctive!)

But who SAYS that? No one. "I think that she WILL COME to the party" or "I think that she IS COMING to the party".

We often use "to think" and then the gerund or future or infinitive form of a verb to indicate that it isn't a certainty, rather than use the subjunctive.

God, I'm so glad I already KNOW English. I can't imagine learning that.

And now, off to Sociology of the Media.

Current Mood: contemplative

So I missed my bus at 5:30, debated skipping Law and Society, but took a cab instead, and sat through class with half an ear on the lecture and constantly reloading the page to see if I could catch someone dropping Sociology of the Media.

Nothin'.

Missed my bus home, too, so I went to Subway, got a sandwich, chatted on my cell while I waited for my bus, got home at 9... checked obsessively for the next half hour while I ate and while my WarCraft raid got underway.

While explaining boss strategies to people, I was still checking obsessively.

We downed the first boss of the night and, rather than look at the loot he dropped, I checked for my course.

AND IT WASN'T FULL.

I clicked frantically, dropped Social Stratification, clicked even more frantically, typed in soci 341 one last time... clicked add course, then confirm.. and I was in! :D

Sweet.

And then, even sweeter, I won my Tier 4 shoulders from the boss we'd killed, and the rest of my raid went beautifully as well.

Dare I say it? Things are looking up.

<looks around and knocks lightly on wood>

Current Mood: optimistic

I skipped my Italian class this morning. Already! I fail at mornings.

I couldn't get to sleep last night, there's this whole thing about switching to a new class, possibly, to replace the OMGSOBORINGANDDULL Social Stratification class that I'm in on Monday nights with Sociology of the Media on Thursday afternoons and today's the add/drop deadline, so I'm hoping desperately for someone to drop out of the class. See, last night, while in said dull class, I went looking and saw that Sociology of the Media wasn't full.

It was full when I originally registered, which is ENTIRELY why I picked Social Stratification instead.

But last night, it wasn't full.

I drummed my fingers on the table and debated dropping Social Stratification RIGHT THEN AND THERE for Sociology of the Media. But there were three questions I needed answering first.

a) What's the coursework like? Is it worse or better than Social Stratification?
b) Would I already be significantly behind in the course?
c) Would JB mind if I switched to the course, since she's in it?

So I sent her an email last night and got a reply and by the time I'd figured out that yes, I wanted to switch into the course, the class was full again. I would have just picked it up and then dropped it later if I could have, but as I'm already taking 5 courses this semester, I couldn't just pick it up to hold on to it. I wasn't going to risk losing my place in Social Stratification, boring and dull as it may be, for a chance at a class I MIGHT be satisified with, because I'm probably going to ace Social Stratification if last night was any indication. But I won't leeeeeearn anything and it'll be a challenge to stay awake.

Anyways, I stayed up stupidly late trying to get into the course and so when I woke up for Italian, I had a massive headache and really felt like ass, so I went back to bed and felt a chunk better when I woke up again. And now I'm getting ready to go to Law and Society, which starts at 6. I have to leave in a half hour to get there on time, so that means 15 more minutes of getting ready, 5 minutes of reloading the registration page in futile hope, 5 minutes to pack up the laptop and 5 minutes to run to the bus stop.

Yeah, there goes the 5pm bus right now, so I have exactly 30 minutes before the next bus comes.

I am emphatically not looking forward to class this evening and plan to spend any time not taking notes on the registration site. :P

Current Mood: determined

I slept for something like 10 hours last night and it passed in the blink of an eye. I guess I really needed it.

And it's FREEZING COLD up here. Honestly, it's like, 13 degrees. I am actually shivering and my windows are closed.

So my laptop's HD got replaced, right? I thought I'd backed up pretty much everything, but I realized, a while back, that I hadn't backed up my fonts. Didn't think it was such a big deal, because I didn't have this immense collection or anything... but for some reason, I now can't find Myriad Bd, and it's driving me crazy, because I did something on a website in that font and now I can't edit my PSDs without changing the font. Which annoys me. Anyone able to help me out?

On the agenda for today:

- Get dressed
- Don't miss the bus
- Italian class
- Lunch
- Visit Nana
- Write?

I've been feeling moderately inspired, of late, along with feeling stressed out of my mind. Tension headache all day long yesterday, and I'm sure it's because of the whole JB situation that is not resolved. I should probably write back to her at some point and hope that my idiot heart doesn't get all, well, hopeful about stuff, as it tends to do.

Hm. Note to self: reminder to post the story from the JB-free thesis class on Monday, and talk a bit about my thesis idea.

Okay, I'm off. Have a lovely Thursday, everyone.

Current Mood: cold

So far, Italian class is awesome, Law & Society will be interesting and my Contemporary News Media class is terrifying. The prof for that one has, oh, 15 years broadcast journalism experience. Like, I've seen her on the national news broadcasts.

Getting my ass out of bed this morning was hard. I had a plan! I was going to be asleep by 2am, which basically means that by 1:30 or so, I'd be in bed, then do the ritual tossing and turning for a half hour. Of course, while I was finishing up something in WarCraft, some friends of mine in the game begged me for a half hour of my time to allow them to do something really quickly, they said. "20 minutes," they said, "max 30!"

Well, I finally got done with them at 2:26am, a full 30 minutes afterthe "max 30!" deadline and then tossed and turned until 3, which caused me to smack snooze twice this morning. Blah. I am draggin' this morning. I have 23 minutes before the bus comes and I am still in my PJs and also congested as hell.

On the bright side, I did my Italian homework last night, which was to learn the difference between "avere torto" (to be wrong), "avere ragione" (to be right), "essere giusto" (to be right), and all kinds of ways to say "I made a mistake" and to read about adjectives and adverbs. The subtleties of this language are so overwhelming, sometimes! Just putting an adjective in a slightly different spot changes the entire meaning of the sentence. True, we can do that in English, too, but the punctuation can help us out.

Example:

Strangely, he spoke about the topic.

vs.

He spoke about the topic strangely.

The comma after strangely in the first sentence tells us that it was odd that he was speaking about that topic, whereas the placement and lack of comma in the second phrase tells us that it was his discussion of the topic itself that was strange, not that he chose to speak about it.

In Italian, you don't always have that clue. It's JUST the placement.

And now I have 18 minutes to get ready.

Catch you all later.

Current Mood: sleepy

So it's 6:12am and I've been awake for an hour. I was asleep by 2:30 or so, and apparently, my body felt that my nap was adequate.

My body lies like a cheap rug, so I'm going to try to get back to sleep in a few. For, oh, 3.5 hours.

School starts up again today. It's gonna be a hectic year.

This semester:

Mondays:
1:15-4pm: Honors Seminar (Sociology thesis class)
6pm-8:15pm: Social Stratification (Sociology)

Tuesdays:
11:45am-1pm: Italian Translation 1 (Italian)
6pm-8:15pm: Law and Society (Sociology) (hopefully. I'm not in this class yet. :P)

Wednesdays:
2:45-5pm: Contemporary News Media (Journalism)

Thursdays:
11:45am-1pm: Italian Translation 1 (Italian)

Italian may be a little tough, but the prerequisites for it are just Italian 201/202 (the first year intro classes) and I've done an additional year, so hopefully that helps. Law and Society and Social Stratification are just two random sociology classes that are 300 level that I picked and I will hopefully GET IN to L&S, because that means I will be done with all my sociology honours degree prerequisites except for...

The Honours Seminar. I dropped it late last semester because there was no way I was going to be able to do a decent job of it. So I'm taking it this year. With JB, which WOULD have been a plus last year, but this year is going to be awkward, because we're still not really speaking to each other. (This is actually probably half the reason I can't sleep. School starting means chances to run into her, and I am so woefully unprepared for that possibility.)

... uh. How weird. I just tried, for the hell of it, to register for Law and Society and I got in. Someone in the last 8 hours since I tried to register actually dropped it. Hot damn! Now let's just hope that the class doesn't utterly suck ass.

So it should be an okay semester - still have Fridays off, no way early classes, back to Italian (which I really do enjoy), finishing off some Sociology classes that aren't as intense as the ones I took last year... And doing my thesis.

Good vibes are welcome. ;)

Current Mood: contemplative

WHY do I have to care what this phrase means?

Why???

If what constitutes the evidence is not dependent on the consciousness of the participants, how are we to establish the causal link between cause and phenomenal manifestation?

It's in English. I understand each individual word. And yet the meaning of the phrase is difficult for me to grasp.

I AM NOT CUT OUT FOR THIS.

I am also severely sleep-deprived. :P

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Sarah Harmer - Coffee Stain

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brinshannara

March 2012

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.- quantum uncertainty -.

and if i hide myself wherever i go am i ever really there?

Entries tagged with school

And back to the grind I go.

Sigh.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Oh, man.

Oh, this is gonna suck.

!

Stuff, stuff.

Brr.

Update-o-rama.

Good morning.

<yawn>

Well, I'm dumb.

Brief update.

Randomness.

Victory!

I am a bad person.

Ugh, mornings.

So far...

So tired, I couldn't even sleep...

Ugh.