I just have to get through the next few days. I have a big final exam. Right before it I have to hand in a big final assignment. In lieu of all this I need an outlet to dispense of weird thoughts in my head to help me focus.
I wonder if Kristin and Stephen will ever get back together. At first I felt sorry for Lauren, but after watching the second season I totally don’t. I mean Kristin and Stephen were together and Lauren was just interfering. Stephen is so Archie from those comics. I wonder what’s all going on in the third season right now. Cami is fun drama.
What is Britney doing to her career? Why is she flashing her nether regions everywhere? How did the affectionate name for a feline companion come to denote nether regions of a woman? Where are her children? Didn’t she just give birth? Doesn’t that child need breast milk? Or is he drinking formula? Who is feeding this boy formula then? The boy’s supposed to wake up every few hours at night no?
What the heck is this business about old KGB spies being radiated to death? Someone is sending a message. Mess with us and we will put radioactive pellets in your food, drink or wound. Cuz spies are so not supposed to get this kind of attention.
Why in the world do some people have faith? In certain cases they have absolutely no reason to. In certain cases it seems quite stupid that they would. So does that mean they have uber faith? Or does that mean they follow like blind sheep? Do they realize that it’s not supposed to be this way and they trust that higher powers are not pleased with the way things are and therefore are able to separate human corruption with following a faith? Or do they believe that the injustices that they face are encouraged or atleast tolerated by their faith?
Ok, I’m done venting for now.
huh!? So watz up Nusraat? Hope you get through your exams and all. Im kinda lost in some of your post but thatz okay cause I guess I am not following what is going on in the world anyways…always outta it lol, k see ya laterz
Salaam
Today something really good came in the mail. Mohammad and I were very happy. We go to Jummah at WCM. Lots of weird traffic. Get there late. Guys tease Mohammad as to when he’s expecting. I thought only women feel pressure for that kind of thing. Meh. On the way home, after paying rent, a part of the brakes of our car falls off. No brakes. Still decide to go to Subway very very slowly because we still need to eat. At Subway we see a friend of ours who happens to be a mechanic. What joy! He takes our car with no brakes and we take his. What randomness. Still a really good day.
Yeah, I’m all wondering about Britney. She’s hanging with Paris (and Lindsay Lohan, aka Blohan) now and they’re teaching her the art of flashing the….well…you know. I mean, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times Lindsay’s shown us her…well…you know. For all of them, it has gone past accidental (since wouldn’t a girl be mortified and wear underwear and longer skirts/dresses and be much more careful getting out of a car after ONE incident?) and gone to total intention. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. :/
And I thought you might be interested in reading this link. It’s not a happy one, but rather very scary. http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=inDepthNews&storyID=2006-12-01T142541Z_01_N30158201_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-MUSLIMS-FEAR.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-inDepthNews-2&rpc=92
thanks for the link. haven’t heard from you in a while. busy with school i suppose. yeah muslims have it rough right now. i’m concerned about whether things will get worse.
Yes, busy with school, work…all sorts of things. Hopefully, soon, it will die down a bit. Yeah right. But I’m back on campus after my teaching block and am looking for a lunch mate….
I’m also not going to bed after work right now when I really should be.
I should tell you that I taught a unit on Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (I’m sure you remember that one), and spoke with my class extensively on scapegoating and examples, including what is happening with muslims. I got them to make collages on one of the themes of the story (including scapegoating), and they produced some lovely work with some wonderful insights. They really seemed to understand in a profound way what is happening with Muslims today. You should have seen the collages.
lunch mate found
I hate neural networks. I hate taking courses. I am so done with this crap. No more. Just want to finish.
I hate essays. I hate taking courses where research essays are required. I am also so done with this crap.
When do you want to meet for lunch? I’m down with Thursday between 10:20 and 1 pm.
sure, but you mean after christmas break right?
saved by google.
ps i just read “The Lottery” a few hours ago. i had forgotten about it. remember the story about the woman who killed her husband w/ a leg of lamb and then cooked it for the officers? what was that called? i miss english. i was good at it. it came naturally. what i do now has to be forced out of my brain with great force.
I thought you coaxed it out with a promise of chocolate.
food incentives are generally involved yes.
Sure, after Christmas break.
And the story you’re looking for is “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. I had forgotten about that one.
English came naturally, but essays are still a b!tch. I miss our brainstorming phone calls. I really missed them when I was doing my English degree.
Yaaaay!!! you’ve got mail.
yup Alhamdulillah.
Neural networks are so last century…
Wow, another person that’s up at 3:40am on Friday night….well, actually Saturday morning. I think my neural network is broken…you know me, I must keep up with the current trends.
Correction, it was 4:40 am here…
Well, now you’re just crazy. That’s what happens when you move “over there”.
Ok, well, I had an excuse. I had a conference paper deadline at 3 am…
That doesn’t explain why it’s 5:30 am right now. But at least tonight, I was out with friends
Friends? What’s that like? I was up that late because I had just come home from work. >:(
But a conference paper due at 3 am Saturday morning? I was right about TO being crazy.
Hahaha, I’m on vacation now that my conference paper is done
Well, the conference paper deadline was at midnight, west coast time zone. It was submitted over the internet by people all over the world, so they just needed some arbitrary time deadline for everyone.
It’s better than others, where they make it due at midnight on some tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean so that the deadline is the latest possible for that day on any place on Earth
A procrastinator like me would be a disaster with those types of deadlines all the time. Well, I’m not really a procrastinator, I think about my assignment for weeks and “feel” what I want to say, do reading/research, but the ideas don’t actually turn into proper words, sentences and paragraphs until the last minute. I try to write it earlier, but it just doesn’t work. And that’s with English papers–I can’t imagine what engineering-like papers would be like to write. So very technical, I’m sure.
I wanna be on vacation.
The problem with research is that you’re never “done”. You can always get better and more results, and my collaborators push for that right to the deadline. What ends up happening to me is that I just concentrate on the real (fun) part of the work, procrastinating the writing. I can’t even claim to be subconsciously formulating the writing. I just avoid the writing altogether :). It’s procrastination, but at least it’s structured procrastination :).
My prof swears by the “feeling” it out for weeks and then writing, as I have stories of him waking up at 6 am to write the intro for our paper due at 7 am!
I’m not technically on “vacation”, but I no longer have any hard deadlines, so I’m resuming my regularly relaxed grad school schedule, meaning that I only work in that small portion of the day not preoccupied by free time and I’m on the volleyball court more than in my cubicle. I don’t think Nusraat understands this concept, but that’s b/c she wants to graduate.
I’ve spent many a night writing a paper that was due the next day. All nighters suck, but procrastination wins every time. I just can’t write anything until the bitter end. Plus, I always meant to read about the Titanic on wikipedia…
I wish I didn’t have any more hard deadlines, though I’d rather be on the soccer pitch than on the volleyball court. Should I go to my soccer game tonight when I have an exam tomorrow? It would mean about 6 hours of sleep…why are my games so late???
I love Wikipedia! There are always such interesting articles to read on it when you have something else to do. I love how the most random topic has an entry, and a lot of times, it’s actually enlightening / entertaining. Edutainment at its best!
I was gonna ask you about your terminology of “soccer pitch” (I thought it was just a field), but then I found this wikipedia article :). Physical activity is good for the body and mind. It releases stress and lets you focus better. I remember back in Winnipeg, when I was frustrated over a problem, I would just go for a quick bike ride, rollerblade, or shoot some hoops.
Define “late”. I typically have volleyball games that end at 11 pm.
6 hours of sleep is plenty enough anyways! I often get by with 6 a night, but I think that’s from my undergrad training. Just in general, my sleep schedule’s messed (sleep at 3, wake at 10ish). Fortunately, I don’t have any problems sleeping, and my schedule’s flexible, so I can sleep in
I love Wikipedia! There are always such interesting articles to read on it when you have something else to do. I love how the most random topic has an entry, and a lot of times, it’s actually enlightening / entertaining. Edutainment at its best!
I was gonna ask you about your terminology of “soccer pitch” (I thought it was just a field), but then I found this wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch) :). Physical activity is good for the body and mind. It releases stress and lets you focus better. I remember back in Winnipeg, when I was frustrated over a problem, I would just go for a quick bike ride, rollerblade, or shoot some hoops.
Define “late”. I typically have volleyball games that end at 11 pm.
6 hours of sleep is plenty enough anyways! I often get by with 6 a night, but I think that’s from my undergrad training. Just in general, my sleep schedule’s messed (sleep at 3, wake at 10ish). Fortunately, I don’t have any problems sleeping, and my schedule’s flexible, so I can sleep in
I love Wikipedia! There are always such interesting articles to read on it when you have something else to do. I love how the most random topic has an entry, and a lot of times, it’s actually enlightening / entertaining. Edutainment at its best!
I was gonna ask you about your terminology of “soccer pitch” (I thought it was just a field), but then I looked it up on wikipedia :). Physical activity is good for the body and mind. It releases stress and lets you focus better. I remember back in Winnipeg, when I was frustrated over a problem, I would just go for a quick bike ride, rollerblade, or shoot some hoops.
Define “late”. I typically have volleyball games that end at 11 pm.
6 hours of sleep is plenty enough anyways! I often get by with 6 a night, but I think that’s from my undergrad training. Just in general, my sleep schedule’s messed (sleep at 3, wake at 10ish). Fortunately, I don’t have any problems sleeping, and my schedule’s flexible, so I can sleep in
Late according to the Winnipeg Women’s Soccer League: 11:15 pm game that ends at 12:15 am…many times on a weekday.
I did go to my game, and we won 4-1 with one of the goals by yours truly.
But 6 hours of sleep is not enough for me. 
I like sleeping in and getting up on my own terms.
Wikipedia is the best. I love the neverending linking from place to place and suddenly, you’re looking up bog people when you were originally reading about the Titanic.
Wow, that is late. By any standard. Sports after midnight is pretty bizarre. They say you’re not supposed to do physical exercise within a few hours of going to bed to help you fall asleep, but I guess that’s not a problem if you go to bed late :). I don’t know if I buy into that though b/c if my body’s tired, I think it’s easier to fall asleep, but maybe that’s just me b/c I conk out within seconds of my head hitting the pillow anyways. I may also be constantly sleep deprived, and not really know it, as my body has just acclimated to the condition. Yesterday, I only had 4 hours of sleep (I had to wake up early, but didn’t go to bed early), played 3 hours of volleyball that night, and I was fine
Pretty dumb that your games are that late though. Where do you play? Congrats on your goal and win by the way! What position do you usually play? How was your exam? When are you done?
I’ve had 11:30pm games that started late, too. But that was with another league. Winnipeg lost the Soccer Spectrum to evil Enterprise Car Rentals (and also lost the Winter Club, lost and regained–this year–the Coverall) so we’re sorely lacking in indoor field space. This year Canlan (formerly Highlander) converted one if its rinks into an indoor pitch, so we have new, sweet digs. We primarily play out of there, but there’s nothing like a late night game out in 7 Oaks or Gateway. There’s currently a collaboration going on that will see a new facility with 4 indoor and 2 outdoor pitches at the UofM for fall 2007.
I play left forward. I sometimes fill in as goalie, since that’s what I used to play, but I’ve discovered it’s too harsh on my body for indoor. I tore my ACL in my knee and had to have surgery.
It’s all good now, though.
As for the no-exercise before sleep, generally it’s fine for me, but last night, I was wired before the game, felt more relaxed afterwards, but promptly woke up after only a couple hours of sleep. Probably all the stress and such.
My exam went well, although I had a hand cramp at the end. Luckily we were given the questions beforehand, so I just had to remember what I prepared. I have another one tomorrow, one on Monday and then I’m done. But I still have assignments to work on. It’s never done.
Now I really should go back to studying….
Wow.. you two should really exchange msn addresses :p
Yeah late games suck. I had an 11:30 ultimate frisbee game last nite and had to be up for 6 today. Boourns! And it’s not like in school when you can nap through class. I actually had to work! Boourns again!
MSN? Bah, I gave that up 4 years ago.
Rob, who said you could join this private conversation? We rented out this space from Nursaat for our own use
I keep hearing about people tearing their ACL and having surgery. I don’t even know what the ACL is, but the whole thing doesn’t sound very pleasant…
The good thing about having sports late, is that you can go out for late night food / drinks afterwards :). I went to go play indoor beach volleyball tonight and my body’s already telling me that I’m going to be sore tomorrow. I’m not going to set my alarm clock tonight and see when I wake up. It’s gonna be great
I never really understood the idea of getting the exam questions before the exam and then rewriting your answers during the exam. It’s basically just asking you to memorize your answer. I think it’s dumb and I don’t think that it is a good way to test people. But, it’s school, and you just have to play the game…
Your assignments are due after your exams? That’s rather odd… I’d rather have them due before so that once you’re done exams, you’re done.
You gave up MSN??? Instant messenger (MSN / Gtalk) is like my bread and butter form of communication nowadays. Well, ok, blogging is probably the biggest now, as I just have to write it once and then everyone knows, or at least anyone important knows :p. And the reverse, I can read friends’ blogs and comment on their posts and have discussions with people besides the owner of the blog (Hi Nusraat!). Another interesting form of communication and expression is these social networking sites (namely Facebook) that all these young whippersnappers are on. It’s rather ubiquitous now, as it’s gotten to the point that if you meet someone that’s in undergrad (here at U of T or in the States), you’re like 99% sure that they’re on Facebook, and then you can spy on or stalk them :p. The internet is way more fun (and distracting) now that everyone is online.
“The internet is way more fun (and distracting) now that everyone is online.”…which is exactly why I gave up MSN, lol. I’m scared what would happen to me if I downloaded the latest version.
I think I’m too old for the Myspace/Facebook thing going on. I’d be like an 18 year old at Scandals/The Beach/The O.C./or whatever it is now.
With regards to assignments, we have one professor who was like “hand them in whenever…even next term”….and of course, that’s exactly what is going to end up happening. :/
You should use handy wikipedia and look up the ACL…I’m surprised, what’s stopping you? Oh, right. You don’t have any “hard” deadlines, so you’re all “I don’t need no distraction”. Pffft. Whatever.
I end up hanging out mostly with undergrads here and I blend in rather well. I am commonly mistaken for someone much younger than me.
“Umm…. no, I’m not in first year…. not even close.” “2nd?” “Nope.” “3rd?” “Nope.” “4th????” “Nope.” “Grad school???” “Yup.” “Master’s?” “Nope.” *Confused look* “Phd?!!?!?” “Ya…” “First year?” “Nope, I’ve been in it a while :p” “You don’t look it!” “No, I don’t :)” I have this conversation every time I meet someone new. Sometimes there’s a bit of a twist, and it goes like this: “What year are you in?” “8th.” “What??!?!!??” “Ya, I’m old.” I’m waiting for this conversation: “What grade are you in?” “Grade 20.”
Everyone is pretty young on Facebook. They’re all like ‘85 or later. I was browsing around the other day and clicked on some cute girl’s picture that was a friend of a friend or something and she was born in 1989!!! I was like “OMG, THAT IS JUST ONE YEAR OLDER THAN MY CAT!!!!” Next year, people will be going to uni that are younger than my cat!!! That’s just disturbing…
Soft deadlines are the worst b/c you just end up procrastinating it. There’s just no pressure to do it! That’s grad school in a nutshell. Nothing’s ever due, so you just end up procrastinating :p. I would’ve looked up ACL in Wikipedia, but I was too lazy. I think I’ve read about it before, but just forgot.
Lol, I’m still getting mistaken for being high-school-aged. On my first day of my teaching block, I was asked by a teacher if I was a student…despite the fact that I tried to dress teacherly in a skirt and everything. And no, it wasn’t a bar star skirt.
Isn’t it time that your cat should be starting university, what with people younger than her entering and all.
The ACL is the main stabilizing ligament in the knee. Basically, without it, your knee is kept attached with skin (there are other functional ligaments in there, but you can actually pull apart your knee and stuff without the ACL…my surgeon always did that when checking my knee, and it’s very disturbing to see your knee pop out…I could do it myself while standing, and it would freak people out). It helps with pivoting and turning and such movements. I couldn’t do any of those after the injury, and if you called my name from behind me, and couldn’t pivot on the spot but actually had to side step and shuffle around). It’s pretty embarrassing, because your knee can give out on you at any time…one second you’re standing and the next you’re a heap on the floor. It happened to me several times in acting classes which provided for some comedic moments in improv. Surgery is a must and I won’t go into details and stuff, but it involves taking some of your hamstring tendons for a new ACL, bone drilling and screws. I actually was silly and got a crazy-a$$ hinged brace (that was very expensive) to support my knee and played soccer while I was waiting for surgery. People aren’t supposed to do that.
Recovery time from surgery is a long, slow, and time-consuming process. I got released for sports 7 months after surgery, which is very early for non-pro athletes. Those guys get personal physio therapists all day everyday. I got one hour once a week and was on my own for the rest of the time. Physio took up my entire life. :/ Don’t blow out your ACL in volleyball.
Don’t even try to compete with me with the whole age thing. Last time I was here in Winnipeg (August), I was asked if I was under 14.
So I appreciate the cold weather and snow here, as it makes it more festive, but I’m rather disappointed with the snow level here. I expected more snow. I have already seen snow drifts though. Haven’t seen those in a while!
My cat’s really smart, but she doesn’t want to skip grades as she wants to graduate with all her friends. She’s the class of 2008, so she still has a little while before she has to decide what she wants to study and where. Though, she already has an engineering degree, two bachelor of sciences, and a pharmacy degree. Plus, she’s currently working remotely on a phd at the U of T and a second pharmacy degree at the U of S.
7 months?!??!!? That is a long time to go without sports! I think I’d start getting really frigidity and then consider wheelchair basketball or something :). It looks so cool, but I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to play.
Wheelchair basketball? Nah, I went for murderball during the sports drought.
Actually, I was bad and started practicing a little (very easy drills) with my team at 4.5 months. My physiotherapist knew about it, though. I would have been released for sports at 6 months, it’s just that my surgeon couldn’t see me until I was at 7 months. That sucked. Also, I haven’t been allowed to snowboard for 2 winters. >:( I’m planning on finally heading out next week for a much, much needed fix. Although you’re right, our snow levels do suck this year.
I’m surprised that your cat was allowed to get all those university degrees before she finished high school. What sort of underhanded things did you have to pull for that? I’m a little concerned that she is having to repeat her pharmacy degree, and the fact that it’s being done “remotely” from some place in the US, well…smells like a degree mill to me…
Our boys are still little toddlers at 1.5 and 2.5 years old, but they are already exhibiting signs of genius. One just got a perfect score on his SATs!
On a serious note, think good thoughts for our little genius, who had to go in for a root canal today! Poor thing was too vigorous chewing his mouse toy and broke a tooth.
After checking the wikipedia entry for murderball, I was impressed with its Winnipeg roots! The picture on the page is pretty amusing, with the wheelchairs all banged up and the archetypal Canada vs USA battle. I can’t imagine the sport being so friendly on a healing knee.
I’m interested in where you think the U of S (sic) is…
I hope your little “genius” is alright after his surgery. You should probably just stick to plush toys :p
My cats are above toys. They just sleep. In fact, they’ve taken it up as a sport and they have trained both mentally and physically to the point of essentially infinite sleep capacity. My older cat has however, taken up driving since getting her driver’s license this year.
Oops, I read “US”, lol. Blame it on the brain injury I suffered during murderball.
Our boys are quite adept at sleep, but only after a good bout of wrestling. Our girls were champions at sleeping when they were in their teens. My own little girl was quite excited to get her driver’s license, but, unfortunately was never able to use it to drink legally.
Little genius is doing well…tried to eat the tree when he came home. I guess he didn’t learn, did he. Hmmm, maybe I have to rethink that genius bit.
I fully expect my extremely gifted teenager to surpass the age of majority and reach the legal drinking age in the US (not U of S).
My younger one is also “special”, but it’s b/c he thinks he’s a dog.
Where can you go snowboarding around here? I figured that the snow dump was the biggest “hill” in these parts :p. I contemplated bringing my board with me, but decided against it at the last minute to lighten my luggage (so I can bring more stuff back :)) and b/c I didn’t know anyone else that boards or skis.
Well, there’s Holiday Mountain which is a little less than 2 hours away from the ‘Peg. That’s where I’m planning on going. There’s also Asessippi near Russell, but that’s 4 hours away, and while it is a sweet place to ride, it’s best to do it over 2 days unless you bus it out there. There’s also Frostfire just over the US border (so about 1.5 hours), which is also a pretty good place. But, they tend to take your car apart at the border if you’re young looking and on top of that a snowboarder. These are all much better than the snow dump that is Springhill.