I only have time to blog once a week I suppose.
Thanksgiving was freakin’ awesome! I loved every minute of it. The laughter, the food, the booze, the family…. all terrific! The only downfall is that I didn’t do near enough homework and am now back-logged. Boo.
I had a grammar midterm today. Hopefully it went well. I took the whole 90 minutes, and was done just in time, which was nice. It didn’t seem too hard, which worries me.
I hate group projects. I don’t hate my group, but I hate the feeling of no control over everything and a lack of direction. I need to focus on it, but it’s so hard because I don’t want to focus on what other members are focussing on. I guess I just have to do a basic outline then go from there.
So… yeah. I am so glad I don’t have a job right now or my head may just explode.
Tentative exam schedule!
December 9, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Foundations of Composition.
December 10, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.: English (midterm)
December 15, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Research Skills
The other two courses I have (Mac Skills and Reporting) are just final projects that have to be completed in class. The schedule looks pretty good to me- I’m not crazy about Research being so far away from the others because I want to go home ASAP, but then again, it’s more study time. Besides, I’ll have Mac Skills and Reporting in between probably.
So, just to recap: Good Thanksgiving, moderate midterm, hating group projects, no job and exams.
I actually kinda miss high school right now. It was so freaking easy.
PS: Vancouver in 8 more days!!!
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Yet another Thursday. I would like to blog more, but half the time I have nothing to say, or I’m too busy.
I’m so pumped for tomorrow. As much as I love Edmonton, I can’t wait to get out to Smith’s and chill with my cousins. The rib cook-off? Just an added incentive.
My interview with Andy Patil from Matt Mays + El Torpedo comes out today. The headline? “Matt Mays + El Torpedo get even the best writers frazzled” Oh Kristen, you make me blush…
Also, I did a sports piece. Now that you have picked yourself off the ground, it wasn’t anything too major- just a piece on the dance team. It’s not like I actually went to a game.
Last night Tara’s family took me out to the Royal Glenora for dinner. It was so awesome…. nice not to have to resort to grilled cheese like most Wednesdays!
Um…. what else…. 14 days until Vancouver, 9 days until MM+ET concert. WOOT.
Van City is going to be so awesome. Encounters crew! Conference! French!
My life rules. I just need money.If you have extra, feel free to send it along hahahahaha.
I am going to Vancouver.
For Free.
For something that will help me in my future career.
I love college!!!!!!!!
I got selected to be one of two people Intercamp is sending to the Canadian University Press conference Octover 24-26 at UBC.
I get to see Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, feature comes out today. 😀
I need to do homework.
I know, another update so quick? It’s because some exciting stuff happened.
I am one of the few recievers of the Saskatchewan General Proficiency Award. That means that I had one of the highest averages in Saskatchewan my Grade 12 year. I don’t know how many they give out, and it’s according to school divisions (I think), but it’s still pretty sweet!
On Thursday I at down with Aimee (Intercamp Features ed.) to go over the edits for my feature about students and money. She had nothing but good things to say- I used colourful quotes, I had awesome organization, and best of all, only 3 mistakes in the whole 1800 words, 8 page story. I also get to work on the layout of the piece with Chris, the graphics dude, on Tuesday. I am so excited to see my baby get published in the October 3rd issue! My first Intercamp piece was published in the most recent issue, and you can read it here.
I did my interview with Andy Patil yesterday and it went AWESOME! He was very cool and laid-back, and really nice. We talked about his musical influence, our love for GarageBand, and the origin of the name El Torpedo. Fun Fact: his favourite song from their self-titled album is Lost Souls, while his favourite Terminal Romance song is Northern Belle. I can wait to do the write-up, and I’m so pumped for the concert (which I’m going to, because it turns out Maureen is going, and I didn’t want to go on my own).
This morning I went on a cleaning spree in my room becuase it was really dusty. I got some wipes for my computer yesterday, so now all the dirty fingerprints are gone and it’s back to being white. YAY!
Ugh I should work on my essays and Intercamp stuff. And eat.
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Ack, it’s been so long without blogging, so here’s a little to bring you up to speed:
1. I have a roommate! They merged all the roommate-less people, so Tara moved in with me. We are both early-to-bed, non-weekday partiers etc. It’s great. I really didn’t want someone who was going to be drunk half the time.
2. I have an interview with Andy Patil, the bass player in El Torpedo on Friday. Have I mentioned that I love Matt Mays + El Torpedo? Here’s to hoping that I don’t shake so much that I don’t make sense.
3. I have an interview with the lead singer from FemBots on the first of October. I was really hoping to do FemBots before El Torpedo, but it just didn’t work out that way, what with touring schedules and all.
4. School work! I have a resource evaluation due on Monday, an essay due the 7th, and a essay due the 8th, plus tiny little assignments in between. Hopefully it will settle down a little bit.
If you haven’t heard from me, or don’t hear from me in a while, I’m still alive, just under a pile of work.
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Not much has happened this week.
On Wednesday, after nearly dying of boredom in my suite, I went to English class. We did nothing but talk AGAIN, and our prof is bringing in a movie about Aboriginals to Monday’s class. Now, I’m all about learning about Aboriginals and other cases of alienation inside Canada, but it doesn’t pertain to the course syllabus! It’s all very frustrating.
On Thursday it was Foundations of Composition. It was slightly dull, only because I knew how to parse sentences and can tell the difference between and adverb and an adjective. That evening I went to an Intercamp (MacEwan’s school paper) meeting and got a few assignments. The editor seemed really excited to have a Journalism student on board. He mentioned that there would be a Canadian University Press (CUP) conference in Vancouver on October 24-26, and I REALLY REALLY want to go. We’re driving, which would mean I would probably miss class, but it’s not going to be too ridicoulously expensive. I’m going to talk to Justin (the editor) about it to see what time we would be leaving/coming back. It’d be nice if I still didn’t have clas on Friday, so I wouldn’t have to worry.
I am doing a feature piece on post-secondary students and the pressures they receive from money, a EIFF film review (A Necessary Death) and a preview (and hopefully and interview) of FemBots, a band out of Calgary.
This Friday for Reporting I Shelly had Clara Ho, a recent grad of MacEwan journalism and a staff writer at the Journal come in to talk to us and tell us what she did to further her career and stuff. After her first year she worked at a small paper in Whitecourt. I think I’m going to try to do that at the Clarion, which would be a good experience for both parties involved.
Saturday was one of the most boring days of my life. I watched Baby Mama and read some stuff for my Research Skills class. Then I made grammar flash cards (which is something everyone wants to do on a Saturday night), watched SNL (Tina Fey as American VP candidate Sarah Palin…. AMAZING! Michael Phelps should stick to swimming though.) then went to bed.
Today I got up at noon (so now I’m officially a real college student), went for a swim (the best idea I’ve had for a long time) and read some chapters for FoC. Now I’m off to work on my Intercamp stuff.
Opinionated people are great… when they are also open-minded and welcome to other people’s ideas. When they are judgmental and close-minded, they are just plain annoying. Especially when they talk during your entire English 101 class. For instance, there is a woman in my English class who talked pretty much the entire time. The class was more like a hour and a half conversation between my professor and her while 25 or so other people watched, occasionally throwing in a comment or two. I found it to be rather rude personally. I felt like I was totally wasting my time being there. About 20% was valuable information (and I’m being generous here) and the other 80% was utter BS.
Another pin in the cushion of close-mindedness- After class as Courtney, Megan and I left class we overheard someone comment that they couldn’t believe how many “seventeen-year-olds” there were in class. One remarked “…but seventeen-year-olds don’t know anything!”. Which is rather prejudicedr, as those who came to MacEwan right after high school had to complete the same portfolio as the rest of them. Yes, maybe we don’t have the science of laundry or cooking for one down yet, but that doesn’t mean we should be refused the right to an education because of age (but that’s to the extreme). I was actually quite surprised to see the amount of older students in Journalism.
After English Megan and Courtney came to my place and I made chicken taco salads, and we chatted. It was really awesome and would be a fun weekly thing. Next time someone else cook and I’ll help with dishes!
Today was my first Mac Skills for Writers class, also referred to as Laurie’s New Favourite Class! We get to play around with Adobe on shiny, brand-new iMacs for 3 hours. Could it get any better? Only if we got to tae them home I suppose, but I’m content with my MacBook. CAC students are the only campus at MacEwan that still get free printing in computer labs (within reason, of course). My professor teaches a bunch of sections, so he makes you print out a name tag, then he takes mug shots of you. How…. techie (techy? Techee?).
My campus est le meiuller is the best!
I finally had some city adventures (or so I called them).
Last night there was a res party but I didn’t know ANYONE. Me and this girl Morgan were standing awkwardly in the doorway, and started chatting. We decided to go to Hudson’s. When we got to Hudson’s, there was no line up, but Morgan forgot her ID, so we had to go all the way back to res to get it. When we got back to Hudson’s, we had to wait in line. We got in, but we were totally the youngest people in there (there was a really funny, drunk older lady in there. She liked to dance. Badly.). After we had one drink at Hudson’s we decided to walk to Oil City (scary!). We finally figured out how to get there after stopping at 7-11 for directions, but the line was like a block long, so we walked back to res (it was a long ass walk). Then we were like, screw it, lets just go to bed.
I had no plans today, so Emily and I went and browsed Whyte Ave. It was really cool. I got a cool houndstooth coat and Audrey-esque $5 sunglasses at a vintage store, and found 3 required readings for ENGL-101 for $20 all together. Cha-ching! And we found this awesome little restaurant that serves bagel sandwiches. Yum, but probably so bad for you.
(I tried to upload pictures but it’s being dumb)
My classes have bee a little easy so far. Yesterday in Foundations of Composition all we did was read the syllabus and talk about our summers. Then today in Reporting I we read the syllabus, interviewed another person and presented them to the class, and watched Shattered Glass, about the American journalist for the New Republic who was found to have fabricated more than 50% of his stories. Very interesting.
I need to find someone to hang out with tonight! I am going to be so bored.
On Sunday Auntie Val and Darren are coming up to see Body Works, and are going to pick me up. I’m so excited that I’m gonna be able to see the Smiths more that I’m living up here in Edmonton.
On another note, Maureen and I (a girl I met in my Reporting I class) established that 90’s Disney movies are the best. Fo Sho,
I love it!! My prof reminds me of Hagel, in the whole “Anti-Americanization of Canada” thing. The books on our reading list are very politically charged, like Atwood’s Surfacing, or Hardy’s Tess Of The d’Ubervilles. I am really excited about this class. It’s going to be a lot of discussion and stuff. Unfortunately there’s going to be a lot of novels, and a few are rare. Hopefully most of them will be assigned out of class time, so I can just read them on the Internet.
I met a lot of people on the bus. They rock. Of course, they’re artsy people.
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English 101
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I love it!! My prof reminds me of Hagel, in the whole “Anti-Americanization of Canada” thing. The books on our reading list are very politically charged, like Atwood’s Surfacing, or Hardy’s Tess Of The d’Ubervilles. I am really excited about this class. It’s going to be a lot of discussion and stuff. Unfortunately there’s going to be a lot of novels, and a few are rare. Hopefully most of them will be assigned out of class time, so I can just read them on the Internet.
I met a lot of people on the bus. They rock. Of course, they’re artsy people.
Tags: anti-americanization of canada, atwood, hardy, school, surfacing, tess of the d'ubervilles