We had this chump from the Career Centre come and waste a good chunk of a lecture the other night. He said something about us acquiring 400-600 "skills" during our university career. I'm a little dubious. But it got me thinking, what have I learned?

Well, I can tell you, I've learned a whole bunch of latin snippets and phrases. Here's a few [in no particular order], with my own particular spin on the translation. If you want to know what they really mean, go to university, or check out that "internet" thing:

deus ex machina - this conflict would have NEVER been resolved if it wasn't for that sudden and unexpected and all too timely plot device
a priori - shit you know before you know that you know shit
ignotum per ignotius - ok, I was confused before you tried to explain this to me, now I'm even worse
a posteriori - shit you learn after you learn you can learn
carpe diem - kiss her now, or you'll regret it later
ad nauseum - drink until you puke!
quid pro quo - if you hit me, I'll hit you back
radix malorum est cupiditas - Chaucer's references are the root of all evil
habeas corpus - I SWEAR I didn't do it!!
cogito ergo sum - Ok, so I knew this before university, but now I really know what that Decartes was on about
ad infinitum - it's like, this prof is going to talk, like, forEVER
ad hoc - willy-nilly
non sequitur - what the heck are you talking about!?
aqau vitae - vodka
caveat emptor - no refunds, substitutions, or exchanges
mea culpa - I dun fuck'd up!
quod erat demonstrandum - quite easily done
tabula rasa - apparently what I was before I went to school
tempus fugit - it's WHAT time?!?!?!
in medias res - clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am: stuck in the middle with you
nosce te ipsum - search your feelings, young skywalker

Shouldn't I be closer to 200 by now? Whatever...

Well, I'm not quite half way there. But I think it's getting easier, and I seem to be getting more accomplished with each consecutive term. That said, I'm done Linear Algebra I (phew!), and only one new course starts in the spring. Lucky me, it's Linear Algebra II!!

Ok, so not very exciting news. Probably be better when I get marks for the term to see where I stand, and hopefully well since I've been working my ass off (as anyone that's been unable to make plans with me can attest). I'm just happy about the end of that class, mostly due to the deplorable marks I got (along with most of the class) on the mid-term. Lessons learned!

So I finally made the leap and bought a nano. I know... "finally"... it's not like they've been out for years. However, there's a story behind it! Read through to be bored shitless by an MSN rendition as enacted between myself and my older brother ...   more »

The term's over in just under two weeks. I'm mildly stressed. I have an essay (for Shakespeare) due in less than a week, that I haven't really started yet. There's no explanation as to why I'm so unmotivated. I'm sure it'll hit me late Wednesday night. I'm hoping much sooner than that.

After that essay, I've got 3 (in-class) term finals in 2 days. While I'm slightly concerned at the density of these tests, I'm comforted by the fact that 2 of them aren't worth a whole lot, so if I really screw up, it won't hurt that much. It'll hurt, but not in the Phineas Gage sense of the word.

Then I have a week to study my ass off for Linear Algebra. While I'm no longer "failing" this course, the brutal mid-term has really damaged any significant chance of pulling off anything higher than a B. And a B might very well be a miracle. I'm enjoying the course, I understand (most of) the material, and I think I can do well. But (as it stands) the mathematical possibilities for a high mark are low. Here's hoping the mid-term dragged the class average so low that they adjust to get their typical "C" quota.

I really have nothing important to say. Pursuant to my lack of motivation to work on my essay, I'm finding any way I can to procrastinate. I'm even going to far as to do reading for the class that the essay is due in that's not related to the essay (started Richard III). I suppose I should be happy that it's Friday night and not Wednesday, when I'd be really stressed.

Due to the inordinate amount of comment spam I've been getting, I've had to disable anonymous comments. But since it's free to sign up for a "reader account", they don't sell or spam the address you use to sign up, and it's a quick and brief process, IF you want to leave a comment, it's easy...

Can two months pass by you as though they never happened? Another school year swept onto me like a hoard of locusts. Well, except without the whole "consuming of all resources" that usually goes with it... Here are some brief highlights, since there so many stories I don't really know where to start:

I finished off Calculus this summer, and managed to get an A. It was a LOT of effort, but I'm glad I went through it - it's nice to know that I can actually do the subject I will eventually be teaching!! Or at least, I can do Calculus...

This year I decided to take a lesser course load (4 out of 5) so that I'd have time to do some volunteer work. So I'm enrolled in Shakespeare (which I love), Major British Authors (the professor is incredible!), Linear Algebra I (everyone's failing, including me *eeeep*), and Sociology (just a breadth requirement, it's pretty easy). I've managed to finagle my schedule so that I'm only in school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

So Mondays and Fridays I work, most of the time. Every other Friday, for the past month or so, I've been volunteering at Oakwood Collegiate, working with a math teacher and "shadowing" her - she teaches Grade 9 and 11 math. It's been very educational and informative so far, but it's difficult to really get a flow going when I'm not there very often. And then I have to work Saturday to make up for it all!

Also, starting this past week, I'm tutoring two kids at Weston Collegiate, every Tuesday for about an hour. This is through a program at school called Universal Minds - it's meant to be a mentoring/tutoring program to help kids in marginal highschools who normally wouldn't be able to afford a tutor.

All said, I've been quite busy. I'm managing to keep up on my homework, and haven't fallen behind - in some ways, I'm actually ahead of the game. And while I'm barely passing Linear Algebra (I've got a 56% with 40% of the marks accounted for), that's largely due to the fact that the mid-term (worth 30%) was BRUTAL. 70% of the class failed, including me - but I did manage to score "above average". I'm doubling/tripling my efforts, it's all a stinky mess.

There's really not much else to say - I think I've been "out" maybe 3 or 4 times since school started, and only on the weekends. The rest of the time I read, study, do homework, write essays, and so on and so forth. But I'm happy!

And I think I should vent here more often since lately, in some ways, I''m bereft of social contact (not entirely true) so I should try to keep in touch in some way!

Ever have a feeling like you're not in the right lane, not in the left lane, and not sure where you're driving? Or if you're even in a car?!

Last night I was out with a bunch of friends, ex-coworkers, and co-workers of friends and ex-coworkers. Some people I knew, some people not so much. It was a fun time, fantastic conversation all around, no complaints whatsoever...

Some of the chit-chat was about condo buying and what so-and-so's real estate agent did for so-and-so; there was smatterings of conversation about wine tours and wine tasting; general *blah blah blah* about work and career paths (stunted or otherwise); and your general "hey have you read/seen this movie/book/tvshow".

Generally, your typical "how to fill the air with noise while we imbibe" kind of conversation. Because really, it's all just filler, isn't it? I found that for so many conversations, I just could not contribute. For a variety of reasons, I'm at a different spot than most of my peers. I've gone back to school long after the hangover of post-secondary education has left this crew. Yes, that's a broad generalization and I do realize that some of those in attendance didn't drink up "higher education", but there it is...

So I got to thinking about conversations I've had with classmates. Sure, we're studying the same things, reading the same books, attending the same lectures, struggling with understanding the same concepts and ideas. But we inevitably filter all this information through an utterly different (and largely incompatible) screen - there is just such a marked difference of viewpoints, experience, generation gap (whatever you want to call it), that in discussing things afterwards, I almost feel like we're all talking about entirely different things.

Anyway, this morning I wake up with this undeniable feeling of ... well, what is this? I'm not lost, I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going. Nor am I stuck, because there's definitely "going somewhere"-ness surrounding me these days. Empty? No... Depressed? Hardly! Missing something? Don't think so. It was summed up perfectly by a good friend - disconnected.

Normally, this is fine - I have enough in common with my peers (both of my own age, etc, and classmates) to maintain. Sometimes though... *ick* I could have easily stayed in bed and ignored the world at large today.

We all have one, whether large or small, extensive or unobtrusive, or just plain desperate for attention, flailing out wildly at anyone or everything to get some kind of reaction.

Mine, these past months, has been through a roller coaster. Maybe a meat grinder or a bread-maker. Perhaps a juicer balanced on a running washing machine strapped to the bottom of the Shuttle while being hurtled into space. Whatever's happened, it's been an insanely disturbing, revealing, and exhilarating ride all the same.

Briefly – school’s busy, work’s not (but there and humming), ended a relatively lengthy relationship, signed up for another year of school, got financial assistance for said such thing, truckin’ along. These are mere events, but there’s been some much deeper ramifications of this, and the manifestations are… well… manifest.

The details aren’t all that important. The key is that, somehow, these seemingly disparate events all have had an impact. The “I”, the inner-me, that thing that Freudian’s like to name and focus all their self-important attention onto… It has been squeezed, pulled, inflated, bruised, smacked, laughed at (and with), damaged, repaired, tickled, flattered, humbled, and even used as Silly Putty(™).

Interestingly enough, it’s all so very non-temporal. Things that happened in the past are jumping up to stroke, slice, dice and sort. Current events are reflected in the past, which bounces back and shows me a thrilling future. These thrills are both in the “Yay, I’m on a swing” and “Holy crap, a zombie!” sense of the word. Now is pushed aside for then which takes a back-seat to soon, but they all tend to put their heads together for a resounding ‘whenever’.

It’s all very peculiar…

We all have our peculiarities and idiosyncracies, but recently I've taken to really examining all of my habits, both good and bad, to see what I can make of them.   more »

I can't even begin to imagine how to devise a reason for why it's been so long since I posted. I guess I got busy? Maybe I just didn't care enough. Probably a healthy serving of both.   more »

Or is that "an hypocrite" ?? Who cares...   more »

The clock ticks, the inexorable flow of time draws the year's end ever closer.   more »

I'm half way through this term, and I think things are going fairly well. I think...   more »

Well, that was pretty rude - I build up all this suspense on my Italian class, and I don't even tell you my resolution.   more »

As my brother enters a new chapter in his life, I too seem to be entering one of my own.   more »

What an incredibly busy summer. I managed to somehow finish 3 different philosophy courses, and pass them all.   more »

Firstly, let me start this by stating that I don't get blogs. I don't understand their purpose, I don't see why people have a desire to read personal details about others' lives...   more »

Just so that Ross doesn't kill me, I'm posting a picture of my cat (who has been graciously re-owned by Darryl)

Ya know, this is my first post in months. MONTHS!!!

Well...

I was just given a blog to try out - so I am. Expect me to play around with this for a good 3 or 4 hours, then ignore it largely until the weather gets colder. *heh*