Thoughts during my first class of 2013

I decided to take an undergrad course at UBC this semester.  Don’t ask me why.  I decided on CNPS 427.  It’s been a while since I’ve taken a CNPS course in the Scarfe building.  It brought back memories.  Here are some thoughts that I had during the class:

-If my prof wore glasses, he would sort of look like Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World.

-He has a nice sweater vest.

-I like how his shirt and tie match exactly.  I think the tie might actually be part of the shirt.  Either way, it’s brilliant.

-I’m bored.

-Why am I still in school?

-Is it ironic that I’m taking a class called “Planning and Decision Making” when I clearly suck at both?

-Why am I the only one eating food right now?  Is no one else hungry?  Whatever.

-Is everyone else actually paying full attention right now?

-I don’t want to buy another $100 textbook.  Damnit.

-Of course I would pick a course that required a written assignment, an in class presentation, and a final exam.  FML.

-You would think by now I would have stopped making the awful decision to take 3 hour classes.  Apparently not.

If this is the case, then I should have taken chemistry

Girl asking a guy about his chemistry lab: Did you feel like Harry Potter when you got to mix the chemicals?

I need a good topic for my gender studies paper

I’m taking a women’s studies course at UBC. Well actually, it’s not women’s studies anymore. It’s now gender, race, sexuality, and social justice. Rather a long name for a department. But I guess they figured maybe more guys would take it if it wasn’t called women’s studies?

I need to write a research paper. And I haven’t written a research paper in over a year. I am so not looking forward to it at all. The research, the citations, the struggle to come up with good content. My head hurts just thinking about it.

I think the topics we can write on are pretty broad, as long as they are relevant to the course. So pretty much, I need a topic that relates to some issue surrounding gender. And of course my mind is drawing a blank.

I haven’t written any blog posts about gender at all in the past that I can somehow expand into an academic research paper, have I? No? Didn’t think so.

Apparently I have a midterm next week. Have I done the readings? Of course not. Will I fail? Probably. I’m terribly at exams. But part of it is writing a proposal for my paper. Maybe that part will bring me up to a pass? If I can come up with a good topic.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Free birthday drink from Blenz

Most people know that you can get a free drink on your birthday from Starbucks if you register your card online.  But did you know that you can also get a free drink on your birthday from Blenz?  It’s not as good as the Starbucks deal, but it’s still something.  And there’s no card registration required.  All you need to show for this deal is your ID.

I went to the Blenz in the village at UBC on my lunch break on my birthday.  And I told the barista that I’d read about the deal and asked what exactly I could get.  They only let you choose between a coffee or an Americano, but I managed to get a mango rooibos tea instead.  They don’t do cold drinks for this deal, which is unfortunate if your birthday is in the middle of the summer.  But the tea was still refreshing.  I wonder if other locations allow you to get a cold drink instead or something fancier than just coffee.  I might look into this next year.

You might want to check in advance with your local Blenz as to whether they honour this deal or not, because apparently not every location will.  And it’s only valid on the day of your birthday.  But free is free.  So why not get yourself a drink?

Tales from the microwave station

I was in the student union building at UBC and I needed to use the microwave to heat up my lunch. It was one of those Michelina’s frozen dinner things. Because I’m healthy and classy like that. And because they were only $1 at Superstore. Don’t judge me.

My point is, I couldn’t just eat it cold. It was frozen. I required a microwave. But alas, they were all being used. And so I waited. This one girl had heated up her food and gone to sit down but there was still something being heated up in the microwave. I assumed it was hers. There was this other guy standing by the other microwave, waiting for his food. Just when I thought the timer was about to go off, he would increase it again. This happened a few times, so I had no indication as to when he would actually be done.

When the timer finally stopped on the other microwave, the girl didn’t get up. And then I saw the guy move over from his microwave to open the other one and stir whatever was in it. It wasn’t the girl’s food, it was his. He had been using both microwaves. Seriously, who the fuck uses two different microwaves when there are other people waiting? It wasn’t just me, there was a guy behind me as well and possibly others. What the hell? It was a small container too, like gravy or something? Two microwaves at once was so unnecessary. I hope his food was overheated and burned him when he took a bite. Microwave karma’s a thing, right?

Dear umbrella

I lost an umbrella today.  But I don’t feel like talking about it right now.  So instead, I thought I would post a poem that I wrote two years ago about a different umbrella that is no longer with me.  I’ve had many umbrellas over the years.  Some have had tragic ends, and others, I know not what fate had in store for them.  This poem is a reminder and dedication to all the ones I’ve lost, and all the ones I’ve yet to lose.

dear umbrella,

i’m sorry i had to leave you outside neville scarfe
i did not want to
but i had no choice
for you were broken.
it wasn’t supposed to happen this way
i forsaw a good future
filled with rainy days
and you there to protect me
i wish i could say we had a good run
but there was barley any time
damn those ubc winds.
when you turned inside out i knew there was no going back
i tried
i did the best i could to make you better
but to no avail
you were broken
you opened up
and there you remained
unable to close
i could no longer take you inside
i had to leave you in the rain
you’re not the first i’ve lost
and you won’t be the last
but you were a favourite of mine by far.
i know not whether you still lie there
or whether somoeone came to take you away
either way
i miss you.

Why I hate alphabetical order

My last name is Vaz.  Which starts with a V.  Anyone else who has a last name which starts with a letter near the end of the alphabet will probably share my dislike of alphabetical order.  We’re always last.  And it isn’t fair.  I was last in enough things in school, like 3 blocks runs and being picked for group projects.  Did I really need the additional misfortune of being last for things simply because of my last name?  Apparently.

I’m taking a class right now at UBC, which is what reminded me of this today.  At the end of class, our assignments were handed back.  And our names were called out so we could go get our assignments and then leave.  And of course they were called out in alphabetical order.  What else is new?  And so I sat there.  Wanting to leave.  But unable to.  Because the people with C last names were still being called.  It was going to be a long while…

I’ve had to go through this in all my years of education, ever since I can remember.  When lining up for things, we would do it alphabetically.  Which meant you were always stuck in between the same two people in the line up.  And if you didn’t like those people, well, that was just too bad.  And sometimes that would be how groups or partners were assigned.  So if I didn’t like the kid who’s last name started with T, or the other kid who’s last name started with V, it didn’t matter.  We were stuck together.

When tests and assignments were handed back, I would always have to wait, much like I had to wait today.  And yes, people say that sometimes the teachers would mix it up and go in reverse alphabetical order instead.  But I feel like that rarely happened, if ever.  I cannot recall a time when it did.  Maybe my childhood memories are just biased and blocking out the few good experiences that may have occurred?

So I had to wait a little longer for certain things, so what?  Would I have really done anything important with those extra minutes that I spent patiently waiting?  Probably not.  But that’s not the point.  It’s the principle of the matter.  And sometimes it wasn’t just time that I missed out on.

In elementary school, we would have “hot lunch” every so often, maybe once a month?  This was basically when the school allowed us to order food, since there was no cafeteria or place to buy food and we would always bring it from home.  For hot lunch, we would have to bring in money and check off what we wanted days in advance.  They would order from places like Subway or Pizza Hut, or sometimes it was just hot dogs, catered from I don’t know where.  When the lunches arrived, guess what order they called them out in?

So I had to wait longer before I could eat.  But that’s not all.  You would also have the option of ordering a drink and a donut.  You could specify what drink you wanted, but the donuts were just a first come, first served thing.  And everyone wanted the long johns.  But there weren’t enough long johns to go around.  So when it was finally time for the girl with the V last name to get her food, there were only jelly donuts left.  And I didn’t like jelly donuts.  It wasn’t fair.

I suppose things could have been worse.  There were always kids with last names that started with W and Y.  But were pretty much in the same boat.  But at least since they were there, I was never dead last.  I guess at least that was something.  I think if I were a teacher and I was handing back assignments, I would just mix them all up and read them out in a completely random order.  That way no one is at a disadvantage.  Although then you wouldn’t know when to listen for your name.  At least alphabetically, you knew when it was going to be your turn.  Damn, I guess it is the most efficient way.  But still.  It wasn’t fair.

The things I missed out on.

How not to hit on a girl at a bookstore

I work at a bookstore.  In case you didn’t already know.  After graduating from UBC last year, I longed to get away from university life.  And so naturally I continued working at the UBC Bookstore and am now on campus more often than I ever was as a student.  Because you know, that makes perfect sense.

Last Saturday, I was working a the information desk.  It was fairly quiet, as Saturdays in February tend to be.  I question why people even come in on a Saturday.  If you live on campus, maybe, but even then.  Don’t you have better ways to spend your weekend?  I think anyone who hangs around there on a Saturday has to be at least a little weird.  I work there, so at least I have an excuse.

I was sitting at the desk looking up a book on the computer.  I had the fan on beside me because despite being cold outside, it was very hot inside the store, especially in my area.  It felt like I was in a sauna.  Or hell.  Whichever’s hotter I guess.  I had it on a low setting, so it wouldn’t blow away the papers at the desk, or bother me if I was too close to it.

As I was working, this guy walked up to the desk and started to say something.  At first I wasn’t sure whether or not he was talking to me.  But he came over and said “You know what?”.  There was a slight pause as I looked up at him, and he continued, “The way the wind is blowing against your hair like that, it looks really sexy”.  Or something to that effect.  I’m not sure if I responded or just looked at him stupidly.  And then he asked, “How is that happening?  Is it from the computer?”.  And then he looked around confused as to where this wind was coming from.  I pointed out to him that there was a fan right beside me.  Yeah, if you couldn’t tell from his first comment, he wasn’t exactly the brightest person.

He also asked me what my name was, where I was from, and then shook my hand and said it was nice meeting me.  And shortly after, he wandered away from the desk.  I think he could tell that I wasn’t interested in any further conversation, unless it was to help him find a book.  Maybe if he was young and hot, my reaction would have been different.  But he wasn’t.  They never are.

There are a few people who will tell you that for some reason weird people tend to be drawn to me.  I don’t know why this is.  But at least I end up with stories that other people can laugh at.  And I guess a compliment is a compliment.  At least now I know that my hair is working for me.  I just wish I didn’t have to hear it in the form of a bad line from a creepy guy.

The fan that made my hair look sexy.

I went to the library

My new library card

Yeah, I know, you’re thinking what?  Me?  Go to the library?  Why would I go and do something like that?  Well the other day, I had some errands to run and there happened to be a library in the area.  I decided to go in, since I had time to kill and nothing important left to do.  Also I really needed to use the bathroom.  That was pretty much the only reason I went in.  But I thought while I was there I would look around a bit.  And I decided I may as well take out a few books.

But I didn’t have a library card.  I don’t know what happened to it.  I must have lost it at some point.  It hadn’t been used in years.  What purpose would I have to use it?  If I needed to do research for school, I could use the UBC libraries.  Or better yet, I could use the internet.  What need did I have for books?  If I did happen to want to read something for fun, my mom was always taking out books from the library, so I could always just borrow one of hers to read if I had the time to do so.

But it’s been a while since I’ve read for fun.  In school, there were far too many readings already.  I had a bunch of books for my classes that I wasn’t reading.  There would be no point taking out library books so they could sit there unread as well.  But I thought maybe I should start again and occasionally read something because I want to read it.  I do that with blogs right now, but I suppose reading a couple novels couldn’t hurt either.

I applied for a new library card upon realizing I no longer had one.  I think there may have been fines on the previous one.  Oh well.  I ended up taking out six books and they are all due in a month.  Yeah, I’m not going to read them all.  But that’s what renewing is for.  In a second year English class I took, I constantly renewed a couple books for the whole term, because that way I saved money and didn’t have to buy them.  And in a second year Political Science class, I renewed some books about Hobbes like 20 times when I had to write a paper.  And I either misplaced them or just didn’t want to bother taking them back.  Clicking the renew button a bunch of times until they were recalled was just easier.

Have I read any of the six books I took out?  No.  No I have not.  But I did start one of them.  It was about finding a career after graduation.  It has yet to be helpful.  I knew it wouldn’t be, but I thought I’d go ahead and give it a try anyway.  I started reading it at the bus stop and on the bus on my way home that day.  Because that was day 1 of my 2.5 days without my cell phone.  I figured I would use a book as a substitute while my phone recovered.  But ever since getting my phone back, I haven’t touched any of the books.  Go figure.

I realized that one of the reasons I don’t like to borrow books from the library is I tend to misplace them.  I mean I find them soon enough, but occasionally end up with a very small fine.  One year in high school, I think it was Grade 9, I couldn’t get my yearbook on the last day because of an unpaid library fine.  So while everyone else was signing each others’ yearbooks, I had to go to the library and wait there for them to let me pay my stupid fine, I think it was like $2 or something.  And by the time that was over and I got my yearbook, people were getting ready to leave and less eager to sign it.  Not that I would’ve gotten a lot of great messages or anything.  But still.

So now I have six books which I may or may not read before they are due.  Who am I kidding, I definitely won’t.  But I may read a couple.  That much I can manage.  And renew the others.  Or renew them all probably, because when the hell am I going to go back to the library?

The 6 books I borrowed from the library