lesson the first: reading directions carefully

When teaching exam preparation last year at Guelph, one of the things that I emphasized to my students was the importance of reading directions over carefully and determining exactly what the question was asking. I even had a really good example to go along with it:

During her literacy testing, my youngest sister (sorry, Ais) wrote a short essay that answered the question "Why Should Canada Join the US?" When she had finished writing, she went back to the start and realized that the question actually read "Should Canada Join the US?" and that she had just written an essay decrying Canada as a nation and would probably fail and be marked by the RCMP for being a bad patriot.**

In the end, she did pass, but it could have been much worse.

So to relate the anecdote back to myself...I came to school on the 7:30 bus, thiking that I would have a nice morning of relaxation before starting school at 8:30...school apparently starts at 9. I could have slept in! Off to class.

**the RCMP doesn't do this anymore. I don't think.

school days

I am currently making some changes to the way that the blogging happens over here at Academia Nuts, but it is slow going as I get used to my brand new laptop, henceforth known as the Major, after the Ghost In The Shell. Hoopefully stuff will get done soon, and I will adjust to the Major's keyboard overtime.

It was a long day at school today. I bought all but three of my books, and it cost me under 150$, which is quite impressive. I've flipped through the ones for my english elective courses, and they focus a lot on using Reader Response (or, as Mark Lipton would say, Reader Oriented) theories to teach texts to high school students. It is intriguing, to say the least.

I will post more later--right now, I need a nap.

a note

Why, yes, it is 6:20 in the morning. I love my life.

I'm actually jetting off to Prince Edward Island today for a brief adventure before school starts up for me on the 30th. Prince Edward Island is a lovely place: it is the birthplace of Canada's confederation, despite not actually joining the union itself for another few years (1870, if I remember correctly).

It is also the home of Anne of Green Gables, and most of Lucy Maud Montgomery's other charming, plucky heroines. The whole island is Anne-crazy (ie, you can buy Anne of Green Gables chips) and it is amazing to see how the stories become not only commodified but also sustainable industry.

Anyhow, if you want a postcard (specify Anne or non-Anne), just send a note on my way with your address.

serendipity

Today I found a very old, faded, and, well, laundered $5 bil in my pants pocket. Things have to be looking up.

anarchy for sale

So, as the Writer points out, I lied and didn't update yesterday. To be fair, I was busy moving my junk out of my apartment in Guelph (it has now taken over my poor parents' house here), and going to see The Skeleton Key.

So. As mentioned, the thesis is done. I feel better than I have felt in months--it's no longer festering somewhere in the back of my mind, quietly disapproving when I didn't work on it, and loudly proclaiming my inadequacy when I did. This means that I get today to myself, as well: I get to clean my room, do laundry, pay bills, apply for new student loans, unpack some of my stuff from a trailer, do some role playing, possibly knit and make some jewelry. It should be marvelous.

Seven more days of work left. Once work is done, I am jetting off to Prince Edward Island for five days, before making my triumphant return to North Bay to learn how edumacate other people, and pick up a spiffy new laptop. This is pretty exciting. I also have been hired by the university to be the Lead Technology Assistant for my class...helping people with their computer problems=good times.

I will write more later, but right now I should go be a productive member of my family.

missing book

If you were a copy of Bertolt Brecht's The Art of Living Together: Poems on Theatre that had a very delicate (some would say pamphlet-like) nature, and I had put you somewhere to keep you safe...where would you be?

a real, live, honest-to-goodness update

I just finished the third and final draft of my summer paper, and emailed it away. I am not sure whether to celebrate or throw up. I can't believe that I am done--oh god, I hope it's good enough.

I would write more but I have to go track down all my errant library books.

I will write more tomorrow. I swear.
rhi

broken glass

I can't seem to win these days when it comes to updating my blog. Every time in the last few days that I've had the opportunity to, I've either crashed the browser/computer, or the power has gone out (as it did for almost two hours tonight). Prior to that, my parents' computer's hard drive went to the great Future Shop in the sky, taking the first draft of my thesis along with it. (Thank heaven and Neil Finn for back ups.)

So I rescued Cortana from Guelph this past weekend; all the better to begin a second thesis draft, right? Right? What do you mean, I have no desire to work on it? Temperatures here have been incredibly hot these past few weeks. While the heat has not bothered me as much this year (perhaps because I am not under the weight of ten pounds of wool clothing), I fully accept that at my heart, I am a winter person.

I have had many discussions on the nature of patriotism lately; this excites me to no end. I think my thesis has the potential to be something I'm quite proud of, but likely will not end up quite there. For someone as concerned with discourses of nationalism as I am (particularly in terms of cultural and postcolonialism discourses), I am very much an unabashed and unashamed patriot; I find myself buying into the propaganda of Heritage Canada, often in ways that I can recognize as ridiculous. For example, a new brewery (Robert Simpson Brewing Company) has opened in Barrie, and one of its initial offerings is a Confederation Ale. This makes me happy to no end, for no real reason, other than that it celebrates the initial union of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into the Dominion of Canada. Granted, it would be an even better product if it were Confederation Scotch, but that's really neither here nor there.

Finally, on a Canadian note, here are two celebrity blogs to look at: Rick Mercer (one of the best written and spoken Canadians I know of), and the BareNaked Ladies' blog.

shopping lists

The first draft of my thesis is due tomorrow. I am eminently not prepared for such an event, and will, accordingly, spend the entire day tap-tap-tapping away here at the computer in hopes of pulling together that at least makes it appear that I have tried. My supervisor has told me that a first draft is expected to be quite rough in content and form, but I am still nervous. Why, why, why did I think that doing live research would be a good idea?

The wee-est of the three sisters embarks upon the path of the sisters today: Ais is on her way to Saint-Boniface, which is the French quarter of Winnipeg, for the next five weeks in an effort to learn to speak French. Godspeed to her, the little doodle. There is no doubt in my mind that she will have fun; it has been seven years now since my own summer there, and I'd really like to get back if I can. Winnipeg is an awesome city.

Watching the Live 8 business yesterday was quite interesting. The Canadian concert took place in Barrie, which is a scant 26 km. away from here, but what with the working and the tickets being sold out, we were unable to go. We did, however, watch a good chunk of it on TV; I particularly enjoyed how everyone at other Live 8 concerts (as well as many of the international performers in Canada) kept refering to Barrie as Toronto...I mean, there's only 100+ kilometeres difference between the two places.

All snark aside, I did enjoy seeing the Pet Shop Boys in Moscow, Gary Dourdan (Warrick from CSI) rapping with DMC in Barrie, and Neil Young's performance of Ian and Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds". There's nothing like obscure Canadian folk music from the 70s when the whole world is watching you...Actually, Four Strong Winds is a great song. (And apparently it's been covered by everyone form John Denver to Teenage Fanclub to Marianne Faithfull, so maybe it's not as obscure as I make it out to be.)

Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don’t change come what may
Now our good times are all gone
And I’m bound for movin’ on
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way

where has all the blogging gone?

Well, cherished readers, if you are still around, I owe you an apology and an explanation.** This last month has been a difficult one for me, as I have been sorting out some personal and health issues, and researching and writing my not-thesis. My first draft is due next Monday, and I'm about half done right now. I've also started working again...and yes, I am at THSWSNBN, but no longer as an interpreter. I'm now the admission clerk.

To be honest, all that exposition aside, I just haven't felt like writing recently. A lot of that has to do with the personal and health issues mentioned above: there are simply somethings that don't bear writing about. There are other things for which I simply do not have the words. That said...I think I have unblocked myself, and hopefully I won't be afraid of words anymore.

If my summer research project should prove to be of interest to any of you, readers, I'll briefly describe it (though I am afraid it's got nothing on Ross's). I am looking at costumed interpretation on historic sites as a performance of nationalism; more specifically, as a performance that reflects social policy and the dominant ideology through its conception of the nation. I'm using THSWSNBN as my case study, and interviewing some of the staff, which has proved to be an interesting experience.

**Consider this a semi-official answer to the important question of "Who do you write for, when blogging?" I am writing for you.

midnight waters

It has been rather a while, hasn't it. Apologies for that; suffice to say, that there are some things in life that simply don't bear blogging about. I am also rapidly approaching my burn out point with my education at the moment, and highly suspect that no one wants to read about the disillusionment of an English student. It just wouldn't be pretty.

Things feel like they are on the upswing today, and I am going to try to keep them that way. Ain' nothing going to break my style; can't nobody hold me down. Or something.

Recap of the last little while: school, school, school, eyes checked (still worse!), Episode III (about what I thought it would be), home for a rest (yay, home), bits of working at various former jobs (yay, money!), 3 pitch softball with a team called Mantackle, and new books by Giles Blunt. Hurray for the wicked fictitious Algonquin Bay!

I've decided that one of my new projects will be to collect at least one published work from each of my professors who have published works.

confessions of a snarkaholic

I have received provisionary approval from UGoo's Research Ethics Board for my summer project, pending a few minor changes to the wording of my forms. Huzzah for that! Now if only I can find out if THSWSNBN will let me in.

I've been doing ghastly amounts of reading (even for me) these last few weeks, including, at long last, a Shopaholic book. See, by rights, I should (and generally do) have a healthy hate-on for chick lit, but enough of my friends and acquaintances read it that I occasionally feel that I should read one just in case I am missing something. (Plus, a friend of mine from school is writing a paper on the Shopaholic series and commodity fetishism, and it's fascinating, so I want to be prepared for that.)

In the end, though, I always remember (after reading something from the chick lit genre) how much I am not the novel's target audience, which greatly diminishes my relationship with the book.

Fortunately, I have lots of other reading that has been more worthwile, including Barbara Kirschblatt-Gimlett's Destination Culture: Tourism, Identity, and Commodity. It's awesome.

I still hate reality TV, too.

A Good Cause

A few days ago, I received an email from a very good friend, my darling Kristabelle. Normally, I wouldn't pass on a request for money, but this is something that is very real (I'll let Krista tell you about that part) and totally legit. Please, please donate if you can--even if it's only $5--and if you let me know through the comments or email, I'll knit you something as a thank you. Oh, and pass this along if you can, or if you know of someone else who might want to help.

Hey everyone,

This year my family (my WHOLE family) is going to participate in the Canadian
Cancer Society Relay for Life. That's right!! Dad, Meredith, Mark, Kayla,
Chad, Steve, Mitch, Aurora and I will be working as a team to participate in the
Relay. Why you ask? One simple answer: in rememberance of my mother Cheryl
Elizabeth Caldwell-Ellam.

For those of you who don't know her let me tell you a little about her so you
can understand why this is important to us.

My mother was an amazing person. She MADE me and my brothers and sister the
people we are today. She inspired us to be the people we are today. When she
looked at us she only saw our potential to greatness in this everchanging world.
My mother worked hard to ensure that we never went without. She brought us up
to care about each other and other people. My mother did not only focus on us.
When the neighbourhood skating building was condemned and torn down, my mother
got together with the other community members and raised the money to build us a
bigger and better community centre. Just for the neighbourhood kids, that was
us. My mother also came to every single softball game Kayla and I ever played
until she got sick. She never wanted to miss a game. She would cheer us on
again and again whether we won or lost. My mother also worked hard to fullfil
our life dreams. I wanted to fly a plane. My mother said yes and handed over
the money. I wanted to go to Nebraska for a drama festival. She said yes
again. I wanted to go to England. She said "Krista, I don't have the money for
that, but if you can raise it yourself I will help with everything else." And I
did so she did. She made me call her right before we left to catch our flight
and she was awake when I got home at 5 am to greet me. My mother was an amazing
person.

We found out that my mother was sick in September 1999. I will never forget
that day. I could see the pain in her eyes as she tried to tell us that it
would be alright. They could fix her. It wasn't going to be that bad. Everyone
cried. Everyone just stopped and cried together. I just didn't know what to
do. No one did. We just sat and cried.

My mother died in August 2000. That was the saddest day in my whole life. I
never got to say goodbye. I woke up one morning to get ready for work to find
my aunt and uncle had come over, teary eyed, to tell us the horrible news. She
was dead. She was never coming back. I would never see her again. The worst
part is that I hadn't talked to her all that past week. She had been in and out
of the hospital for a variety of reasons and I was mad at her. I am sure that
it was something stupid at the time. Regardless, I am sure that my mother had
forgiven me. Mothers forgive their silly daughters unconditionally. Anyway,
that was the longest day of my life. My family gathered at my aunts house and
it seemed like I was living in a dream. We sat around and did nothing. My dad
came over. I was never so thankful to see him. He was the only support I felt
like I had at the time. My rock so to say. I just wanted to go home and go
back to bed and wake up to a beautiful day where my world kept turning like any
other 19 year old's. That was not to be. My life was changed forever. My whole
family had regrets. We all felt like we were responsible for her death. But we
didn't do anything, we didn't kill her. Cancer did, plain and simple.

So (let me just wipe the tears away from my eys), this year my family is
participating in the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life. We need your help
and support. I am sending you this painfully personal to ask you to donate
whatever you can so that we can raise money for cancer research. This is
important to me and to my family. So please give whatever you can.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Love, Krista

Click here to donate money to Krista's run.

I never got to meet Krista's mom, as Krista and I first crossed paths about a month after her death, but I have met her legacy in her four kids. My dad survived skin cancer, but not everyone is that lucky--cancer research of all kinds is incredibly important.

sacred cows

Am at home for the next week or so, so expect updates to be sporadic--we are still a one-computer household here. Sort of. This may change when the Squidge gets home, I think.

I've been trying to relax, which has gone reasonably well so far. I've seen both Hitchhiker and the remake of the Amityville Horror, read some very bad books, as well as some really good fantasy. There has also been a lot of listening to showtunes, mostly because I went to Toronto with my mom in her new car, which is the first one that she's had with a CD player in it. Pretty exciting, all in all.

Teen Nerd Squad should also reconvene sometime this week, at a new tea house called Serendipi Tea.

Star Wars soon!

news bits from around the world

First, George Lucas does this. I mean, really, a TV series? Will it follow the timeline of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire? Will it be interesting if there are no (or, next to none, if George will follow his own bloody universe) Jedi? Inquiring minds need to know. Let us simply hope that George will not be interested in writing or directing this himself...

Second, Germany sees some real life weird stuff happening, as their toads start to explode for no real reason. Weeeeeird.

Third, Canada's political turmoil continues, as Stephen Harper renews his vow to bring a vote of no cofidence to the House of Commons after the Liberals scrammer together a deal with the NDP. The Globe and Mail seem pissy about it, the Star calls the deal between Prime Minister Paul Martin and New Democrat leader Jack Layton "a life line", the Sun has a bunch of whining from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty about not being consulted about the deal or the new budget, and the Post has something about Layton defending the deal. (Note: A lot of this stuff is actually Canadian Press stuff, so attributing it to each paper is not etnirely gair; however, it is interesting to note which papers are printing which articles, no?)

Off (hopefully) to see Bride and Prejudice tonight. Skylark out.

I hope I never

So I wrote this post last night, and then my internet connection timed out on me, thus preventing me from updating the poor blog.

It seems to me sometimes, that no matter where I am, what I'm doing, or how I am feeling, Neil Finn has written a song that somehow manages to encapsulate perfectly everything that I am at that moment, in words far more prefect than any I could ever choose. That's not entirely true, I suppose, but still sometimes it is easier to let the Finn do the talking. And right now, when the Finn is talking, he is talking along the lines of I Got You:

I got you - that's all I want
I won't forget - that's a whole lot
I don't go out - not now that you're in
Sometimes we shout - but that's no problem

I don't know why sometimes I get frightened
You can see my eyes, you can tell that I'm not lyin'

patchwork girl

Apologies for my sporadic blogging behaviour as of late; I remember all too well when blogging was a tool that allowed me to procrastinate on doing work. Never did I dream that one day I would, in fact, be too busy to blog. Things have settled down quite substantially, now. No more papers, no more exams to mark, no more summer research proposal...for the time being it is all good, from San Diego to the 'hood, as someone I used to know (roommate's boyfriend from first year) would say.

I have finally linked to Ross over at randomdanglingmystery. Sometimes these things are much more difficult than they really ought to be.

Went out last night to see what Guelph Reads was all about, after drinking beer to celebrate the end of ENGL2080. It was really good; all of the panelists were quite well-spoken--especially Dionne Brand, who I could listen to all day long. T. Sher Singh impressed me the most (he championed Ishmael), along with Marva Wisdom (the National Policy Chair for the federal Liberals), who impressed me not so much for her defense of Tom King's The Truth About Stories but for her determination to help Canada realize how much attention the "native question" ought to be getting, and how important that relationship really is.

I could post another 1000+ word rant on how Canada has dealt with its aboriginal people, but I will save that for another day, and get back to spring cleaning.

Day the Mine

This is the first day I have to myself in a while, so I am to head to toronto, where I will meet the Momatron (or, as she prefers, Mommy-O) at the CBC building, and we shall adventure from there, before having supper and then seeing a musical that is not about ABBA. Should be lots of fun.

It's exam marking time around these parts. The marks aren't due til Friday, though, so it's all good. Current plans for the rest of the week: marking, summer research proposal, conference paper proposal, major spring cleaning of apartment, driving lesson.

And if I'm really good, some Baldur's Gate II.

Damn, it feels good to be a geek.

room to breathe

I woke up at 7 this morning. It took me, as it does most mornings, about ten minutes to talk myself out of the warm, flannely bed, but once I was up, the world seemed a little more focused. (relatively speaking, I am still blind, of course).

Then I wrote a 3812 word paper. In 8 hours. It was awesome.*

I then hopped a bus to the school, slid the paper 1/2 an hour before the deadline, and ran away.

Thus endeth the last courses I may ever take in English literature. This is a pretty scary thought. I do not want to be grown up. And yet, I mailed in my tuition deposit to the Northern School just yesterday.

geeks, rejoice!

*By awesome, I mean awesomely stupid. But it's done.

guelph reads

Guelph Reads seeks to uncover books that can result in social and political change. There will be a debate next Friday about this.