saqib says:
…so when you going to buy this for your girlfriend?
saqib says:
http://www.szul.com/diamonds […] id=726013
nomes says:
as soon as i get a credit card
nomes says:
i’ll über-max it out on the very first day
nomes says:
and spend the rest of my life repaying that debt
nomes says:
wait, it’s starting to sound like a university education

Being unproductive and unmotivated in the time leading up to and including the very last assignment/test/exam of the term. You keep telling yourself that this is the last thing, and that just makes you want to do whatever it is even less. You waste your time reading various articles on the web, or participating in message boards you’d rarely otherwise frequent, or blogging. Ultimately you churn out something, perhaps minutes before the deadline, or you give up on studying as the train pulls into your station.

(This manifests itself on a smaller scale within a test or assignment when you’re near the end and start being careless, writing in big splotchy letters that run off the blue lines in the stupid exam booklet. There might be thirty minutes left, but you’re done and want to make it seem like you would’ve done a better job if you had more time. So you write “TIME…” in large letters under your crappy conclusion, hand in your exam booklet, and saunter off and fall asleep on the first flat surface you see to make up for all the sleep you’ve lost.)

I hate not living on campus.

I want to take up archery again.

Right now I feel kind of inept.

Emotionally, intellectually, my spirit: inept.

I met an acquaintance today (well, yesterday), after two years — he was in my Lord of the Rings course — and he told me about how he’d transferred to York. University of Toronto is shit, he told me, compared to York. The professors actually care about you, the courses are designed to help you learn, not to make you burn. The level of difficulty isn’t necessarily easier, he said, it’s the way York treats you — indeed, it treats you as a human being, a person. If the purpose of a university education is learning, then the University of Toronto has broken it, just like it has broken the spirits of several students who have come here. He went on about it for a while.

I really have no reference point when it comes to the University of Toronto and comparing it to other institutions. Well, not until I met this guy. Sure, the evidence is anecdotal, but hot damn — what the fuck.

I looked back at my two years on ASSU and I tried to pull out tangible things that I or we have brought through to make things better for the students. Academically. I found none. Nothing new, nothing improved. ASSU, in the last two years — to my recollection — has accomplished squat. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m missing something. Yes, of course, there was the time I got the Dean to apologize to BIO250 students. Then the other times I’ve gotten into tiffs with instructors/lecturers/professors for all kinds of reasons. But other than that? I really don’t know. Perhaps being able to maintain the status quo is something. I think? I don’t know. We tell ourselves to take solace in our little victories, and that’s nice, but have we really moved ourselves to accomplish something big? I’m sitting here and I’m thinking that ASSU can be so much more, but I feel like I’m devoid of ideas.

If I’m devoid of ideas, I’m devoid of action. Where do the ideas come from? Everyone. But for that, you need communication and I don’t see that. There needs to be a regularized channel of communication. Apparently, that’s what course unions in ASSU are for. To keep the Executive’s ear to the ground, so that we can all pool our resources and effect some change. But that doesn’t happen. I don’t see it happening. I see that it might happen, but we really need something for that.

I don’t think it takes just one leader. Maybe it does. Maybe it takes a confluence of several leaders, in several positions. I don’t know. We ought to think about these things. How do we make our lives better — the lives of students better? We don’t think. It seems to me that we keep putting things off for an ever-later date. We don’t think. We’re devoid of ideas.

(I’m sorry if these musings seem esoteric or are inaccurate, feel free to ask for clarification or reprimand for correction.)

Recently, there has been a rash of thefts in the lockers that ASSU rents out to students in the basement of Sidney Smith. Things such as laptops and textbooks (incidentally, the one I’ve had tiffs over) have been stolen. Although ASSU has repeatedly asked Campus Police to conduct some sort of investigation, they’ve said that they don’t have the time or resources to do so — because the value of the stolen goods is not large enough, apparently. I don’t think you can base shit on the value of the stolen goods, it has to be based on the relative value. For students, a textbook is a big deal, a laptop is a fortune. If a senior administrator at the University had her car stolen, the Campus Police, I suspect, would be on that buggy like a hungry dog on a scrap of meat. What does it take?

The web site for the Undecided Party of Canada has some thoughtful ideas. It may seem to be a joke site, but don’t be fooled, it addresses some very serious issues and posits some absolutely interesting ideas.

On its about page:

If Conservatives could call themselves Progressive,
If the current federal Liberals can call themselves…Liberal,
If an organization that takes contributions from union dues without requiring the consent of those paying the dues can call itself the New Democratic Party,
And if the Reform Party can go without making any significant reforms, change its name to the Alliance Party without creating any significant alliances, and then drop the Alliance name after negotiating the only important alliance in its short history,

…any misconceptions about the meanings behind the UDP’s name can simply be considered part of the fine tradition of misdirection and manufactured disorientation that defines the political process.

This site is making me reconsider my support for the NDP. I’m half thinking of writing “undecided” on my ballot and spoiling it. I encourage people to become politically active, but when I reflect upon the state of things I feel incredibly discouraged. Most people are dimwits, it seems, in politics. It’s like they have an idiot convention where they pick who’s going to become a politician — liars, assholes, braggarts and all-around fuckheads are in high demand.

I’ll probably end up voting NDP. I’ll probably end up campaigning for the NDP as well. It’s important, I guess. If you can’t really effect change by kicking the shitheads out or being wittily ironical by spoling your ballot, you can at least moderate them by electing less fucked-up people to do something more positive.

This has to be one of the most incoherent and rambling posts I’ve written in a long time. I’ve barely covered half of what’s on my mind. Maybe less. I have an essay due on Wednesday. I have to work on that.

For instance, “There’s a medical certificate [about ten days] before the date of the exam, and a medical certificate [about ten days] after the date of the exam, but no medical certificate [close to] the date of the exam.”

This, coming from someone who has been undergraduate chair of a department.

There’s something to be said about remarkably inane adherence to rules.

(And that’s a paraphrase and not a direct quotation, not to be confused with Dr. Stewart.)

This morning in ANA300 (anatomy) lecture, the instructor, Dr. Stewart, was lecturing on motor neurons. These, essentially, are the nerves that allow us to conduct movement (that is, manipulation of muscles). She was discussing how lesions (damage) to lower motor neurons, that causes disuse of muscles can lead to substantial muscular atrophy. An example of this is the polio disease.

Then, she said something to the effect of “Now, polio has been eradicated in civilized countries.” And she continued speaking about other parts of the world.

My friend looked over at me and, offended, said “‘Civilized’?” I too was offended and raised my shoulders and hands in a “what the hell,” kind of way.

Then I raised my hand and Dr. Stewart called on me. I said, “I’m sorry, I have to object to your use of the word ‘civilized.'”

“Okay… Well, what would you have me use instead?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I responded. “Developed.”

“Okay, so polio still exists in underdeveloped countries — is that better?”

“Much better, thank you.”

What I wanted to say was something along the lines of, “Hold up, Africa and Asia had great civilizations while Europeans were still learning to crawl out of their caves — what do you mean by ‘civilized’?”

I’ve only formed one meaningful, potentially lasting relationship throughout my three years of university. I think it was by mistake (she e-mailed me after I addressed a class to raise funds for tsunami relief earlier this year).

It’s interesting (read: sad) how I can know hundreds of people around university, and not really know anyone.

Then you’ve got something like facebook. Apparently, I’ve got 80 “friends”. Only, I barely talk to half of them and bump into most of the rest by mistake. Many are political acquaintances (I’ve got the entire executive of SAC, except the VP UTM, on my friends list) and ASSU-related.

I’m not sure I care, either; but then why would I take the time to write it down?

Today I was on campus downtown (for reasons I won’t specify) and had to be there for quite some time. At about 9:15 am I was walking into the ASSU office when I say my buddy Zain Shafiq (of Association of Political Science Students Vice-Presidential fame) walking to his office (which is in the same hall but is about six times smaller).

I wondered why Zain was on campus on a Saturday (nevermind the fact that he lives about fifteen minutes away by walk anyway) and he wondered the same. I found out that apparently there was a something called a UofT Day where high school students came and got information on many of the various programs offered by the University. Since I had a lot of time to burn I decided I’d join Zain, and help the APSS guy out.

So we got the University College, and I think we actually trekked back to Sidney Smith at least a couple of times to pick stuff up to jazz up the Political Science department’s booth. We also got t-shirts for UofT Day (which look a lot like this picture). I, of course, wasn’t really representing a department (and ASSU always decides not to participate in this) so I just kind of got it for no reason.

After helping Zain set up the Political Science booth I went around introducing myself to pretty much every booth I got a shot at (considering I was competing with high school students, who kept turning around and asking me about whatever program’s booth I happened to be at). But I think I managed well, during the lulls, to meet a lot of new people. (I also managed to advise some students on how to get into medical school, pharmacy and law — that was predictable. Consider that I was really advising a guy’s mother — they were brown — rather than the guy himself about medical school; and when I tried to address the guy directly, his mother kept jumping back in..)

I met departmental administrators, department faculty, and students in departments (graduate and undergraduate). Many of the undergraduate students were actually members of various course unions (just like Zain). Many faces I knew, many others I didn’t.

What I didn’t like was the fact that they divided the “Arts” from the “Sciences” (the former in the West Hall and the latter in the East Hall). It’s bad enough that most university students don’t have the word “inter-disciplinary” in their vocabularies, but that kind of segregation isn’t helping anything. (It was nevertheless funny to find Fine Arts, Architecture and Music in the Science section). I think they should mix up the booths even more so people don’t all simply rush to ask how to get into medical school, but are confronted by — say Philosophy — on their way over to the Human Biology table. Something might catch someone’s eyes by mistake, and it wouldn’t hurt to help along serendipity.

I’ve concluded that whenever the university holds an event like this in the future, I ought to go and crash it, just like I did this one. It’s a great way to meet new students and university personnel; and, of course, to hand out my business cards (on which I have to write my name myself, because ASSU only has generic “Executive Member” cards).

Today I actually finished writing an essay the day before it is due. This, of course, is in contrast to my usual practice of finishing the essay the day it is due, typically a couple of hours before I have to hand it in (to allow for transit) or a couple of minutes (if I’m finishing it at school).

I also walked around and reacquainted myself with some people I met while campaigning for the ASSU Referendum, and I met some new people as well. One girl thought I was running for something, she couldn’t wrap her head around why someone in a position like mine would actually go around talking to people unless it had some kind of “benefit.” I had to explain to her that I was doing this because I like it, and because I think it’s a valuable part of my job as a student representative.

It’s sad when students view their representatives with that kind of suspicion, and I’ve complained in the past about the kind of elitism that results from student government. When candidates are running for a position they’ll go around introducing themselves to everyone and taking the time out to chat with them, but as soon as they’re elected they cram into their offices and remain aloof from the typical student (other than at events or seminars that they’re organizing).

In my case I get to interact with students every day when I do my office hours, and I give them the tests and advice and whatnot that they ask for. But I rarely take the time to meet them outside of the office, sticking to myself or with the friend or acquaintance that I happen to be with.

I’m going to try and change that, and I think every student representative should.

How can you purport to represent students if you don’t have to wait in one of the long lines that forms to buy a Metropass, but rather bypass it because of your position? How can you relate to the students if you use your position for discounts on certain things?

It’s a difficult balance between student representation and getting something back for being a representative. In my case, I don’t get paid a cent. But I do get access to photocopiers and computers and printers. It’s difficult for me, then, to relate to a student who has to type up her essay at Robarts and pay 5 cents or whatever the price may be per page off a crappy printer and then run off to hand it in. I have the opportunity to type it up in the comfort of the office, get it printed and stapled and then run over to hand it in.

I also get free ASSU t-shirts. And sometimes from SAC, too.

From today’s (or, well, yesterday’s) POL320 lecture: Professor Carens.