FML

Canada World Youth has an unfortunate slogan: Face My Limits. It's unfortunate because the acronym, FML, is shared with a more well-known web site named Fuck My Life. On that site, people post unfortunate instances of their lives, and people can vote on whether or not their anguish is valid. The site is popular enough that FML became a commonly recognized form of slang across the Internet. For instance:

"MyFile said they had my Criminal Record Check, but I just found out they don't, and now I can't get it in on time. FML."
"I went in to apply for my Criminal Record Check, but the address on my driver's license was wrong because my family moved when I was in Katimavik. FML."
"I need two stripes to change belt ranks in Karate, but I just found out you can't get more than one in a week, and because striping happens Thursdays and Fridays, and striping is on Thursday, I don't have another chance before grading. And even though I'm there for almost all of next month, I leave right before June's grading, meaning I'll have to wait 7 months to change rank. FML."

Okay, I got a bit too into that. Anyway, yeah, I had to get my address changed on my driver's license so that I could use it to apply for my Criminal Record Check. The reason was so they could verify my address. But when I went to get my driver's license changed, they just took my word for it. What's the point of using a piece of ID to verify your address if that piece of ID never verified your address? It's not like they took a copy of my driver's license or anything... They just filled out a form based on what was written on the license. Whether or not it was written on the license, the only source of information given to them were my words.

And Karate's driving me crazy. I'm going to try to pull some strings, but if I don't manage to, I've been set back 7 months.

It usually takes someone about 6 months to change rank, but because of how my time's been cut up, I spent about 3 months training before Katimavik, then spent 6 months in Katimavik, came back and trained 7 months, set back becaus eof Afternoon and rotating shifts, and now I might have 7 more. That's 23 months as a yellow belt. 24, actually, because it'll take me at least a month to reach grading once I come back.

Hey, one of my senseis was driving me home, and he started talking about the deeper values of studying Karate, in the terms of the principles of the sweatlodge, which I outlined in an email. Now, he didn't say anything about sweatlodges, but he did move into the topic by talking about the things I learned by doing a program like Katimavik, which fills in the holes that regular school leaves.

A bit much of a coincidence, eh? I think he probably read my email, even if he wasn't on the list.

I found out where I'm going in Mali. It's a place called Karadjé. There's almost no info on it online, except that it's a village, and it's smack-dab in the middle of the desert. Also, my program will be an Agricultural/Environmental splice, instead of just a solid Agricultural one. They just put this info down. When I first got placed, there was almost no info, and slowly, they've filled it out. I wonder if they kind of found out what we were doing on the fly. Placed me before there was a cemented placement.