Christmas Vacation So Far

Okay, it's been a while.

First of all, the cold snap I mentioned in the last post really escalated. It turned into an ice "storm" that knocked down telephone lines and ripped out tree branches. There were streets barricaded with rubble and danger tape. The power kept coming on and off. Funny, because I didn't notice it while I was inside. I just walked out one day and saw destruction everywhere. Guelph didn't get it as bad as Toronto, though. Some people there had to have a Christmas without electricity.

A friend of mine has come down with Wegener's Disease, a super-rare disease that strikes seemingly at random. She had to be put in a medically induced coma. It was expected to last up to a couple weeks, but she has regained the ability to speak and has been admitted to a less critical room on this day, her tenth since being admitted. The disease is severe, may have long-term consequences, there's a high risk of relapse, and until recent development, the mortality rate was not good.

However, our new medical approaches are far more successful and she has been doing almost as good as anyone could have hoped for, although she's had a few minor relapses.

My closest friend from last year is pregnant and ready to give birth at any time. In fact, she is one week overdue today. I'm told that I will be an honourary uncle.

Christmas was good. It was kind of a quiet thing. I stayed at home in Guelph, exchanged presents with my immediate family and had a big Christmas dinner. Then I went and stayed with my grandfather in Toronto for three days and had the opportunity to visit my aunt and her side of the family. I got to watch a couple of movies, including a new one, Gravity, which is a survival story in outer space, and an older one, Before the Rain, which is a kind of trippy Macedonian film about concepts surrounding war and violence.

I got my criminal record check into the processing stage. Now I just need to get my driver's license and health card renewed. I also have to do  my info desk training on January 3rd.

I also caught up with my old Big Brother Couple. We went to an Indian restaurant called Diana's Downtown, which was pretty cool.

Cold Snap and New Store Owners

Hey, check this comic out. I didn't make it.

You can check out the rest of his comics at calmblueoceans.com, but when I went there and gave it a once-over, it seemed like this one was just a stand-out. His other works weren't all that special, in my opinion.

There's been a real cold snap in our area. It feels like a real Canadian winter for once. But the weather forecast says that might change before Christmas. Oh well.

The store owners of the convenience store down the road changed hands a third time. This time it's a Hasty Market, which I'm pretty sure is a chain, since I've seen several in Kitchener. These owners haven't shocked me in any way, which is a first.

Some Grades Back and New Timetable

I tried to eat all my perishable food items before leaving for Guelph. I ate nearly a whole head of lettuce and all my fruit except one orange. Finished my milk and pepperoni. I made coleslaw for a potluck get-together, so I had two half-heads of cabbage and some carrots.Spent a day eating almost exclusively salads and coleslaw.

Got two of my grades back. Finished with an 83 for Developmental Psych and a 78 or something like that for Systems. It's not on the portal but the teacher I did my culminating interview let me know how I did in his class.

I like how my test results for Psych reflect my improvement throughout the year.

Test 1: 64%
Test 2: 86%
Test 3: 100%

And even though my first test and assignment were beneath the class average, I wound up beating it by the end of the year (average was 78%). Adapt and survive, yeah! I'm the comeback kid.

The review went fine. I was told I was a joy to have in class, and I had it confirmed that I didn't fail any classes so I don't have to take a supplemental.

My schedule for next year is horrid. I guess it's to make up for the dream of a schedule I had last semester. Three 8 AM classes and no days off.

I wound up deciding to not take an additional course.

I'm hoping to renew my health card, renew my driver's license and get a criminal record check done while I'm in Guelph. I also need to do some training for my position at the info desk at school.

Parking

I finished my last exam! I should have this in the bag at this point. Not only was the exam low-risk and felt like it went fairly smoothly, but I forgot that we get a 10% attendance grade, which I'll have earned with a perfect.

Reading my college newspaper, it says that Mango King and Pino's Pizza have had difficulty with students parking in their parking lots because it's cheaper than at the school. How they responded? They are now renting parking permits to students at cheaper rates than the school does.

The school paper even went so far as to take note that our Security and Parking Services could not be reached for comment.

Why would a school newspaper be writing such things about it's own services?!

Red Friday

I always wear red on Fridays. I noticed back when I was doing the AV tapings. On the second Friday, I was watching myself from the previous Friday. I noticed I was wearing the same shirt as I was the week previous. On the third Friday, I noticed that, even though I was wearing a different shirt, it was still red. I have three red shirts.

I thought maybe it's because my laundry day is Thursday and I subconsciously like red more than I thought, so it's my first choice when I get a batch of clean clothes. But I've noticed that, even if I do my laundry on a different day, I will consistently choose red for Fridays.

Sometimes I notice that I'm wearing red right before I leave, or even just after I get dressed, but I don't bother to change what I'm wearing. If it's what my subconscious wants to do, let it. Why not.

I know studies have shown that people wearing red take the initiative more and people believe them to be more assertive. Conversely, the colour blue gives you a more calming presence. I also know that red in advertisements for food give the impression of being good-tasting, whereas blue gives the impression of being healthy.

So I guess that's something to think about.

I have only one more exam, which is tomorrow, and then I only have a culminating review. My review was on Thursday, but I recently got a notification that peoples' schedules needed to be changed. I thought they would be changed to Tuesday or Wednesday, because the sign-up paper was put on a door next to a different student adviser's sign-up paper. I thought they'd realized they can't do multiple interviews in the same room at once and had to change so they were interviewing at different times.

But no. They are the same day, but different times. And there are still overlapping times between the two of them. This time around I didn't get lucky and get in early, so I have to do it on Friday.

Now I've got my interview on Friday the 13th, and I have to wait a full schoolweek before going home, despite finishing my last final at the beginning of the week. That bad luck is already getting to me...

Electives

I get to choose an elective for next semester. I've already taken one of the courses that I'm being offered, and so if I take it, I can be exempted from it and have one less class than everyone else. But there some of these classes look... tempting.... For example

Evil and Humanity:

This course provides an introduction to the theme of evil and humanity. Course participants will evaluate and compare perspectives on, and responses to, the existence and symbols of evil in our society. Students will have the opportunity to engage in debate and compare ideas in a range of international religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions. In this course, we explore the question of evil through texts, film, and Internet sources ranging from biblical to modern times. Exploring the dark side of life, crime, transgression, and nightmarish systems through the lens of a number of theoretical perspectives, we engage with questions essential to humanity, including the nature of human beings, the basis for moral conventions, individual and collective responsibility, and goodness versus happiness. Students will reflect on how contemporary human-made atrocities challenge us to craft adequate moral, political, and juridical responses. 

Quest for Wisdom
 
This course gives students the opportunity to study philosophical anthropology by examining what it means to be human and what it means to be wise. Through discussion, reading, writing and the viewing of films we will focus on the answers given to us by science, philosophy, spirituality and technology. We will attempt to understand the meaning of our existence as we quest and weave through the roads established by death, emotion, pleasure, disease, hostility, hospitality, spirituality and love, rationality, art and tragedy, community and conflict.

These two come across as quite theatrical. I could also study Spanish or Meteorology.

But I'll probably just take the exemption.

Groups Final and Info Desk

Today, I got my most relevant exam back. It was for the course-within-a-course, which could flunk me even if I had a decent average. Lot of anxiety surrounding this. I passed by a pretty safe margin! At this point, I can't fail any of my courses, even if I don't show up for finals.

...Of course I'm going to show up!

If I maintain the level I'm currently at, my averages throughout my courses should range between the seventies and eighties! Not as bad as I thought things might turn out!

Only way I could fail is if my group doesn't produce a paper for our final Groups assignment, or if I don't go to see my student adviser for a culminating review.

Annnnnd, I got that job at the Info Desk! I felt the interview had gone well, but I was worried that my lack of experience in the customer services might stand in the way.

Pretty accomplished day.

Dream Journal

I've been recording my dreams again. I haven't been dreaming too much, so I figured I'd just sleep with a notebook next to me and jot down whatever I remembered as soon as I opened my eyes.

First attempt was... Well, it was a start.

"Dream
Videogame
Want to keep playing while charging
Battery low, hard to fit in socket
Got mad at Duncan for quoting me saying a stupid catchphrase"

Next night I had a dream about eating at a cafe, not getting charged, going up to the counter to try and convince the lady to let me pay, but she doesn't and keeps trying to give me free food. There was a bit more to that one, but... I'll leave it at this.

I had another one that I can't quite remember and I don't have my journal on me, so I can't speak on it.

But I finally landed this beaut. Longest so far, and a touch less lighthearted.

"I'm getting an elephant tattoo. I also consider getting the word "Aliphant" but the tattoo artist discourages me. He says its easy to misread tattoos of words, but he likes the elephant concept, which I'm basing on a little wooden carving.

Everyone is getting lobotomies so that they don't get some disease. I'm uncomfortable w/ this. Not getting one is considered "anti-feminist".

Me and a sizeable group of others are teleported to an alternate dimension. It becomes known that there will be some kind of rule system that will determine our survival. One person casts suspicion on a particular member of the group. He says he has "the green eyes of the devil".

When he talks to me, I slap a tortilla on his face. The areas around his eyes crumble, revealing green eyes. I accuse him of sending us here/being the devil. He says I'm just prejudice against his "office skin"."

It got a little silly at the end, with the tortilla. And what the crap does "office skin" mean?

Resource Fair

I participated in a resource fair today. School project, only had a week to prep. Me and my group did Big Brothers Big Sisters. We organized a meeting with the representative there and everything. Today we put up a triboard and some other display stuff and answered questions. Since nobody knew what to do with our triboards after we finished and nobody wanted to lug it around all day, I got to keep my group's display. I've got it set up in my room right now. My room was looking pretty plain, so I've been trying to decorate it a little. Although this new decoration looks out of place displayed next to my chick magnet...

I'm taking better care of my room this year. I don't know why. I got everything clean and sorted. Last year, I gave up on the effort a couple months in.

Remember, I mentioned that I signed up for a job at the info desk? It's been awhile and I thought it was a no-go, but I just got offered an interview, either for this Friday or Monday.

I think I'm the only white person in my class. In Social Service Systems, we watched a video sample on oppression. It was an experiment done on school children, where people with a certain colour eyes were deemed superior one day, then inferior the next. It looked at the speed of transformation in attitude, it looked at test results between the oppressed vs. the privileged groups, etc.

After class, me and a group of people discussed what we had seen. I was speaking from the white perspective, then took a moment to reflect on some of the cultural references people in the group had made, and asked "Am I the only person here who associates as white?" Answer was yes. Everyone else was Latin American.

Told this story to another group of people from my class, then told them I was going to the Aboriginal Services Office for lunch. They asked if they could join me, and maybe introduce them to some of the people there. Turns out everyone in that group was Metis.

I was also surprised to see three other classmates show up in the Aboriginal Services Office, all of them being native. And another classmate was Metis.

Why can't I tell what race people are?! Turns out another guy was black. I guess I didn't think he was white, but I would have never been able to guess his race otherwise. Saying you're "colourblind" or denoting everyone as being the same is a contested perspective. Looking at how societal perceptions based on race influence people's development, and accepting our own prejudices and looking toward them critically is supposed to be the way we do things now. "Colourblind" is a frowned upon term in my field. It's looked at as a form of denial.

But I literally have difficulty seeing it. I might have all kinds of prejudice that I need to confront, but when it comes down to the visual aspect, I'm just... not too perceptive. Other people are way better at it than I am.

Flu Shot

I got my flu shot the other day. When it comes to the flu shot, I'm always torn between my hypochondriac side and my cheap side. On the one hand, I'm getting chemicals plugged into my veins which freaks me out, but on the other hand, it's free. I always wind up wanting to stay an extra 40 minutes passed the required 15 to see if I have a negative reaction. I have seen people pass out in the waiting section after getting their shot, actually. But I've never reacted badly.

I noticed on the form it was asking a lot of weird questions about eggs. It asked if I was allergic to eggs, if I was allergic, how allergic was I, how I like my eggs cooked, and when the last time I'd eaten eggs was.

...Okay, not those last two. Still seemed odd to me. My best medical analysis based on this information is that the syrum is made of eggs. Next year, I'm going to put some egg paste in a syringe and put it into my bloodstream. That way I can use free-range eggs, which I'm sure is better for fighting off the flu, anyway.

...I'm kidding. I don't know why talking about eggs is getting me into such a mood.

I took that shot like a champ. I didn't even bleed. I'm so good at taking shots, since I got all that bloodwork done, and since I had all those vaccinations. I know people who got the shot and their arm bruised all up. They were like "Something in the serum makes you bruise this year." Greenhorns can't handle their eggs.

Internet Is Up

Internet is up!

Did I ever tell you guys that I saw three deers? Happened a couple weeks ago. I was sitting on a bench next to a pond, and these three deers just totally walked out of the bushes. They were just chilling and eating grass. I watched them for the longest time.

Did you know you can buy a computer keyboard and a mouse at the dollar store?  My computer's getting older and it needs some assistance, so I bought it these things. But I didn't know I could get them at the dollar store and wound up paying $10 for a mouse instead of $2, and I paid $20 for a keyboard instead of three (okay, I actually got the keyboard for a Christmas party and just identified it later).

It's shocking that we can get these relatively important electronic devices for such a small amount. I knew about head phones and ear buds. Never going elsewhere for those things.

That third Facebook girl I was telling you guys about. I didn't accept her request, but sent her a message asking her who she was and why she wanted to be friends. She said "ur fada". I said "I don't get it. My father?" She replied "u dey craze". Then Facebook deleted all her messages with the explanation "This comment has been deleted as spam or for being abusive". Huh.

Last Two Midterm Results

Got my last midterm results back. For the one that I thought I'd done real bad on, I actually passed by quite a margin, and for the Psych one, I did as well as I expected and managed to beat the class average. So my new studying efforts are actually paying off.

We have to pass each course to move forward in this program. If you fail one course, then you get kicked out of the program. If we fail with a grade between 50-60%, we have the option of paying $40 to be able to do a makeup assignment to raise the grade to the minimum 60%. We only have the option of doing that twice over the course of the two years.

So far I've managed to pass everything. Group Dynamics is the only one that I'm a little worried about at this point. In it, you need to have an average of over 60% for individual assignments. My group assignments would have pushed me into the safe zone, but that course is kind of like a two-in-one and you need to pass both. Final exam next Thursday. Probably the most intense time of the semester for me, but it should be okay since I've got more of a handle on things this time around, and if I've not failed yet, there's no reason to start now.

This is like high school. Not to go too into detail, but I had an education disadvantage on entering and had to struggle pretty hard to get onto track. Had to work harder than most people, was delayed in my progress, started at the bottom, slowly fought my way up and became higher than most of the upper crust in my school.

Right now, my disadvantage level is about... when I was in grade ten. Compared to my relative competence next to my peers, that is. So I get to skip the hardest stage and I have my previous successes to reinforce my faith in my capacity for improvement, which I hadn't had before.

I'm told that I'm a competitive person, and right now I'm competing with myself. I keep telling myself that I can't let Teenaged Gryphon beat Adult Gryphon, since Adult Gryphon has it easier than his teenaged version did.

My Internet is still down. It's been down for a week. My landlord just got sick of it and we're replacing it with another company on Friday.

Internet Down

I got to go home last weekend. Because I don't have any classes on Friday, and because of the way that my Thursday class is being distributed, I got four days off of school. That means I was able to go home for four days.

Same day I left, I found out that the Internet at my place was down. I was laughing, because I'd just dodged running into this issue. Yeah, well, four days later and it's still down. Working over at the school right now.

I was told about the issue by email. I was just reminded through email, told that I would be kept in touch with regarding the situation through email, and I was linked to a site where I could track how the issue was coming along.

If you hadn't noticed, all those resources are via Internet. The resource that isn't working.

Our service provider has no estimate for when the issue will be resolved.

My school needs to get one of those coffee machines. Right now, if I want caffeine, I have to drink pop from a vending machine, and I'm not into that.

For some reason, I keep getting these females I don't know trying to friend me on Facebook, sending me flirty messages. I'm not naive, I'm pretty sure they're robots with predicted responses leading to a request to go on a website that will give me a virus or something like that.

First one I tried to talk to. She responded at length but didn't give any response that directly referenced anything I'd said, so I thought she was using predicted messages. I called her a robot and she unfriended me. Second one, I noticed she was friends with two of my friends so I messaged them. She'd sent them both the same message that she sent me, so we all three deleted her. I just got another request from a third girl. Just weird they're all stacked in a row like this.

84%

I got 84% on a midterm! Woohoo! Best I've done on a test this year!

I'm going to apply for a job at the info desk at my school. Only up to 10 hours per week, so a good part time job, and I know two people doing it already. Don't know if I can get into the customer services with my experience, but we'll see.

Getting graded on facilitating a group tomorrow. I chose to do a pre-employment program for youth between 15-25, entering the job market with little experience and probably at risk of homelessness.

The breakfast wrap saves you less than $1 compared to the sandwich, and the savoury sauce isn't even any good. So the deal's not comparable to the chicken salad wrap vs. sandwich.

They stopped offering ham in the breakfast options. I guess it's because it wasn't popular enough to continue, but since they have ham available because of their ham and Swiss sandwiches, I don't see why they can't use it.

They stopped cutting the sandwiches in half, too. That bugs me. I mean, I don't even know if I prefer my sandwiches cut, but since it was a task that took half a second to do, making an entire policy change seems weird. I feel like some business person was unsatisfied with worker productivity, so he took away sandwich cutting obligations, then fired a bunch of people as he felt productivity should be raised through this move. And of course that doesn't make things more productive.

Halloween and RAK

On Halloween I didn't dress up, so somebody put this... giant magnet-looking garment with... baby chickens on it... over my shoulders.

When somebody puts a chick magnet on you, you can't just take it off, because if you do, it shows you lack confidence in your magnetism.

And I couldn't get somewhere private to slip humbly away, because it... worked too well. Couldn't go anywhere without girls clinging onto me and wanting their pictures taken with me.

There were people around that I knew, but I couldn't break form... Must've come across as quite out of character.

Still feel kind of slimy...

Next day was Random Act of Kindness day at the school... And just like the last Respect meet, there was a disappointing turnout of volunteers. I got put on duty to walk around with this big sign saying "SMILE" on it. After a bit, I sort of started getting a perverse pleasure out of pressuring people into smiling.

"A" Wing is the least smiley wing.

I remember doing a discrimination awareness workshop in Katimavik. We had an activity where, if you'd at some point experienced an event that was described, you stood up, and if you hadn't, you remained seated. Most of the events were what I expected, but one of them surprised me. It was "You have been asked by a stranger to smile". I thought "Why would a stranger ask someone to smile? What and odd thing to say", but then every female in the group stood, and every male remained seated.

Anyway, I guess I just did that to all the girls in my school.

Respect

Finished my last midterm today. I think I aced it! First time I've felt like that this year!

We had our monthly Respect meeting today (did I comment on how much they decreased those?). There was barely anyone!  There were nine people who showed up, not including the Respect Leaders, and four more or so showed up partway through. We have Random Act of of Kindness day this Friday, I hope more people show up. Of the people who showed up today, I was the only person who had done it a previous year (not including the Respect Leaders).

I helped one of my teachers from last year in doing a project of his own. Got to see the end product of it today, pretty cool!

I realized the other day that a chicken salad wrap is less than half the price of a chicken salad sandwich at Tim Hortons, so I decided to order one and see how they built it. A sandwich has two scoops of chicken salad, but since a wrap is less than half, I figured it would still be a deal even if they only gave me one. Well, boy was I surprised to see that they put two scoops on! Such an exploit! You can get two wraps equaling four scoops for less than two scoops in a sandwich. Only downside is you don't get tomato in the wraps. They also have a similar situation with the breakfast wrap vs. the breakfast sandwich, but with the breakfast wrap you get a bonus of savoury sauce. The first time, I was so shocked by the bargain that I couldn't think straight when they asked me about the savoury sauce, and I rejected it by reflex. They seemed surprised, so I suspect that sauce must be good. Ha! Far cheaper, plus an additional ingredient? There you go.

Also, you don't have to do this when you're ordering a wrap:

"On white or whole wheat?"
"Whole wheat"
"Toasted?"
"No thank you"

Wraps make for a simpler way of living.

Oh, and those people that came into the house that one time, getting through a locked door and which my roommates knew nothing about? I suspect they were just friends of my roommates. One day, I saw one of them eating breakfast with my roommates. I was just like "What's up, buddy". Didn't really investigate further. He's either a friend, or he tried it again, my roommates ran into him, reacted the same way as me, and he just swung with it again.

Humbled by Midterms

We had another session where we watched the roleplay tapes. This time around, we had a teacher watching with us. She was there to give feedback to the second year students, and she went quite in-depth with them. But she also gave a nod toward the first-year students and her observations of how we behave and the implications of it. I was told I was a "natural actor" and that my ability to put myself in the position of another really shows my level of empathy, and that I should concentrate on putting this skill to use in the future. I was really quite happy.

Remember how I said that watching myself on tape had been a real pain? I was worried that I was too good at playing roles with "An assumption of defeat" and that I might carry that image with me. I also thought my voice was whiny and high pitched. Well, strangest thing. When I was watching the videos the second time around, I did not feel nearly so negatively about either of my characters. Instead, I felt that both of them had a good deal of charisma, and that each of them spoke in a way that gave a strong impact, despite the "assumption of defeat".

I had a midterm today. I won't say whether or not I have confidence in it, because so far, the one I had the most confidence in is the one I've done worst in. This class is the one I'm doing the best in (but thought by most to be the most difficult, go figure), so even if I do fail, I would have to fail by a pretty heavy margin to put me in the red. So far, I've kept my head above water, so I hope that's the pattern I keep up.

When I started this program, I was disappointed at how easy it was. This is because the course load is so much lighter than in HSF, which was only a beginner program. But these past midterms have given me a wake-up call. Even if my course load is lighter, my average is way lower. That's because the teachers in this program grade hard. This is a program that values quality over quantity. I got cocky, and so this midterm was the first that I took seriously.

Everyone else from HSF feels the same. They underestimated the program due to courseload, got humbled, and are now only getting serious at this midterm rush.

I've got another midterm tomorrow for Intro to Professional Practice. Short answer. The type of test I would normally feel confident in, but which I've done worst in this year, so my confidence isn't too great.

Then I've got a multiple choice test in Psych the next day, which, just because of the nature of the program, would normally be easy, except for the fact that I've got such little time to study between my more demanding midterms.

But I have a Social Location paper coming up in two weeks, and I love papers! Just the type of thing I'm into, too. And so far, I've only done poorly on tests. As far as papers and practical application are concerned, I'm still at the top.

Wallet and ESL

One of the presents I got on my birthday was a new wallet, to replace the one I'd been using since I was fourteen (it made a full decade!). It's a weird sensation to change something that you use frequently on a daily basis. It feels strange pulling it out and seeing that it's not the wallet I grew up with. I'm not sure if this one's manly, either. It's too... functional to be manly. It has a slot in the front where I can put a card (I put my student ID) so that it is visible from the outside. On the inside, it has a change pouch, which my old one didn't have, and it's got a zipper on the outside so I can close everything up.

The debate of the manliness of a change pouch has been kicking around for as long as I can remember. But in Canada, where we have one and two dollar coins, I think it's understandable. I often don't bother using the zipper on my wallet, because it's caught a few times on a bill and I fear ripping one at some point. Also, I never felt the need for a zipper before, and why would I bother myself with zipping and unzipping every time if I don't have to? Having a a slot to "decorate" your wallet may be the most intimidating feature. But it's cool, because if I want the student discount at Zehrs or at the Greyhound, I can just hold out my wallet, instead of digging past my debit card, driver's license etc.

All-in-all, it's a much more competent wallet, if I'm being completely honest.

I tried out the beard trimmer. Got a nice, even trim, but somehow gave myself a bit of a beard scar on my right cheek. Nobody noticed the trim, and nobody noticed the scar. Oh well.

Being a speaker at the ESL Leader conference was pretty cool. Not only was I the only speaker, I got a whole section laid out for myself, and it was put on the schedule as "Student Experience--Gryphon". I felt important. Our group photo got put on the front of the Student Life Facebook page, too.

I know who my ESL partner is now. She's someone I know from last year, and the one who convinced me to do ESL again this year. She was the partner of a good friend of mine, but since my friend isn't going to school this year, she can't be partners with her again. So the person in charge of ESL put us together since we already know each other and get along well.

I shouldn't call it ESL. That stands for English as a Second Language. We say English as an Additional Language now. Which makes sense because if someone knows multiple languages before they learn English, than it really isn't their second. And I'm called an English Conversation Partner Leader, while they chop off the "Leader" in the title for my partner. But for some reason, even though nobody says "English as a Second Language" anymore, everyone still uses ESL as the acronym. People just got too used to it, I guess.

I found out that the Connect Workshop I went to last year got put on my transcript. I also found out that there are five more, and if I attend all of them, they will all go on my transcript and I will receive a certificate. It's more respected than I thought it was.

Respect is less frequent this year. Before, we had a meeting every week, and there were two mirrored meetings every week so that you could go to one if you couldn't go to the other. Now there are only two per month, and you only have one chance to go. We still do all the events, though.

Milk

I noticed recently that nobody talks about milk brands. If I go to Zehrs, they sell Neilson, if I go to Food Basics, they sell Beatrice, and if I go to Fresh, they sell Seal Test. But nobody talks about it, nobody has a preference and if you mention the name of a brand of milk, no one will recognize it (except me). Also, each store only has one brand. If you want to get soy milk, then there's "So Good" and "Silk" at least. More people drink regular milk, so why do people pay less attention to it?

I mean, sure, if you want to buy organic milk or something, then in that case you can buy something different. But at the basic level, nobody seems to notice or care.

Last week I got to watch the videos of the roleplays I was in. It was weird!  My voice is too high-pitch, I hate it. It doesn't sound on camera like it sounds to me when it's coming through my mouth. Also, I did a disturbingly good job at acting like kids having difficulty with their mothers. I really sold it. Now I'm worried that I walk around with that kind of presence.

Two More Exams

Okay, so I've done two exams now. First one was for Developmental Psych, and I'm annoyed, because I have no confidence in how I did, but everyone else thought it was easy. My student mentor told me he got a grade in the high nineties and that this class should raise me up. Hmph. Psych was my second-worst grade last year. I guess I'm just not good at it.

Second exam was for Social Service Systems, and I have a bit more confidence in that one, but nobody else felt the same. I'm not elated about this one either, though. I felt better about both my paper, and my presentations. I would far rather like to write papers than do tests.

Hey, remember how I said that my school serves beer on Tuesday mornings? Well, they changed it to Thursday afternoons. A bit more traditional time to be drinking. But one of my teachers instructs a yoga class on Thursdays, so I have to choose between beer and yoga :(

I got something in the mail, giving me an option to get my G1 license extended. This is a real lifesaver, as I thought I wouldn't be able to renew it and would have to wait another year to be eligible for my G2.

I went home last weekend and got some birthday gifts, since my family hadn't been in a financial position to get me gifts on my actual birthday. Got a new keyboard for my laptop, since the one I have is missing a space bar and the A key is weird. I got a hand vacuum.  Same brand as the one that never worked last year, but this one works fine. I got a beard trimmer. I'm looking forward to perfectly uniform beard trims in the future, but so far, I've been scared to try it out.

And, hey!!! My sunflower's head is gone! And so is all of my neghbour's heads!!! I thought my neighbour had harvested them, and thought he'd do mine as well, but I talked to him, and apparently, one morning, they were just all gone. He blames the squirrels. But all in one night???? I sense foul play. And all those zucchini flowers falling off prematurely.... Who's cutting up our flower heads?!

I'm signed up with the Respect Campaign and ESL again. I've been asked to speak on behalf of ESL Leaders this coming Wednesday at our first meeting. It's a bit of an honour, actually.

I've got another exam this Thursday for Group Process and Dynamics.  And then I have a roleplay to do with some Second Year students. That isn't something I will be graded on, but they will be. But I've been assigned to them and if I don't show, I cause trouble. So I might as well consider it mandatory.

In this roleplay, I will be a middle-school boy who is disclosing my homosexuality to my fundamentalist Christian mother. Really going to have to put my acting skills to good use for this one.

Court, Toilet, Visitors

Oh wow,  I haven't updated for like, two weeks.

Okaaay, well. I finished my first two graded assignments today. One was the court paper I mentioned briefly  in a previous update. At that point in time, I hadn't gone to one yet. When I did, the first trial we went into was filing through defendants really quickly. When it was called to recess, we spoke to a police officer and asked him if it was a real trial. Wasn't clear on what it actually was, but the answer was "no". So we went to another one, but this one was really one-sided. Somebody was trying to put somebody in jail for two years for possession. But the defendant had already been to prison for two years for a worse drug addition and had since been successful in rehabilitation and had become an active public speaker against drug abuse. Also, what he was currently being charged for was possession of something unrelated to what he'd been in jail for previously, I don't even think the substance was illegal, he just had too much of it. Like a painkiller or something.

So everything leaned heavily in favour of the defendant. The real kicker was that the defendant wasn't even present. We were supposed to reflect on the emotions of the defendant.  Hard to do when he's not there.

So we went back and the second time around, it was a guy who denied taking a breath test after being stopped for speeding. The catch was that he offered to give a sample a few minutes later and the officer denied him. This was a closer case, and the defendant was present.

So I wrote a paper on that. The second assignment was a group presentation on a school philosophy book. I think I did alright on both of them.

My roommates left for the weekend. I went to the bathroom and saw that someone hadn't flushed the toilet. I flushed it, it overflowed, and it kept going. I looked for a plunger, found only a tiny one way more shallow than the bowl. With no other options I thrust my arm elbow-deep into the bowl and plunged with everything I had. No result. Figured it was the silly novelty plunger's fault and ran downstairs to find a real one. Found one, ran up, started plunging. No result. Top floor flooding. I call around, ask how to stop a toilet. There's a little nozzle at the base that shuts it off when you turn it. Didn't know that.

Now the top floor is ankle-deep in toilet water but at least the toilet stopped. I go downstairs and see that it is raining in the bottom floor. Couldn't be the water upstairs seeping, there's too much and it got trhough too fast. Call the landlord, landlord calls a plumber. I mop stuff up, the ceiling eventually stops raining. The plumber shows up, inspects the toilet, flushes it a few times, it works fine. Leaves without doing anything to it.

Later on, some people show up in the house. I expect they're friends of my roommates. I think they must have a copy of the key because they got in even though the door was locked. I chat with them, tell them the toilet story, share some laughs. Eventually they leave.

Next day, roommates come back. I tell them about the visitors and they flip. They hadn't invited anyone, no it's not normal for people to just walk in, and no, they didn't give anyone a copy of the key. Did I run into burglars and inadvertently talk them down?

Fire Warning

We had a fire alarm go off the other day. Want to know how you can tell the difference between a drill and the real thing? When it's  the real deal, someone says "ATTENTION, ATTENTION, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING" repeatedly.

I was worried for the person making the announcement. Was she staying behind in the burning building to make sure nobody was left uninformed? Or was it just a recording put on loop? But then she swapped it up with "PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THE  BUILDING", and eventually with "YOU MAY NOW ENTER THE BUILDING".

Very noble, if someone stayed behind to provide additional warning.

Nobody  knows what it was about, but this morning, I was woken up (in my room across the street) by another alarm in the school with the same accompanying announcement. Two times in two days? Little fishy.

Today, there was a school-wide announcement for security. Maybe this isn't too ominous, but since it's following within a day of the last "real" fire warning, you could feel the tension in the class rise as people made connections in their heads.

School shootings are so commonly in the media, a school arsonist doesn't take too much a stretch of the imagination for many.

Two Weeks In

Wow, it sure doesn't feel like it's been two weeks since school started. Well, it does and it doesn't. My time-perception is messed. It feels like a long time because so many new things have happened, so reflecting on those events takes longer and gives a feeling of slowness. But I feel like the initial stage of adapting to college life has been prolonged. So I feel like I'm still only beginning, and that makes it feel like it's only been a short time.

I registered a locker this year. Last year, I didn't see the need, but I have so many textbooks this year... Want to know how many? Thirteen. That's more than two per class!

Well, three of them are workbooks, so that kind of puts it down to ten. Then one of them was only recommended, one of them was listed by accident, and one of them I don't need. So that puts it down to seven mandatory textbooks. Those workbooks made my three inch binder overflow, though, and now I need a second one.

I got exempted from Intro  to College Writing, since I took that English course last year. I said before that I wouldn't be able to be exempted because there was no overlap between courses, but it turns out that it doesn't have be a direct overlap. If you took a course that contains the same or advanced content as the one you want  to be exempt from, then you can do so. I couldn't be exempted from Development Psychology, but supposedly next semester there's a Psych course that I can be exempt from.

That's why I didn't need one of my textbooks. Today, I returned both my Intro to Writing book and also the one they accidentally listed. You can get any textbook back at full price if you do it in the first two weeks.

A bookstore worker helped me and another woman find our textbooks. She thought they were all necessary, but one was only recommended, and so we got that one, too. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd known that, but it was only $24 and it's called Writing in the Social Sciences. It's actually quite useful and accessible. So I didn't bother to return it. I'm sure I've made worse use of my money.

The stated price online was $800, but when I got to the bookstore, it was $960. Bringing those two books back brought back $175. So that puts me under $800, which is what I budgeted for. This makes me feel better.

I looked at my current courses and compared them to last year's. Last year, every course was worth 3 credits, and if it wasn't, then for every 2 credit course, there was a 4 credit one.  This year, I have two 3 credit courses and four 2 credit courses, until I dropped one, leaving me with three 2 credit courses. This means that, each semester of HSF, I earned 18 credits, but this semester, had I not dropped anything, I would have earned 14 credits. But I'm earning 12 after dropping one.

Do you know what that's based on? How many hours spent in class. I almost feel like getting a part-time job, but this program keeps getting built up to be so monstrously hard, that I don't feel like underestimating it just because it's starting out at a pretty relaxed pace.

Next week, I'm going to watch a trial in a court and then write on it. I have to dress professionally. I didn't bring any dress clothes when I came here. I had to travel light and I planned on bringing other stuff back with me when I visited home. Didn't expect to need to dress up in the first month. That's another unexpected expense.

Can't believe 9/11 and Friday the 13th happened on the same week this year.

Stuff Continues

Everyone I knew in Rez (almost) has moved out this year, and is living in houses in my neighbourhood, with this format. So basically, I followed the collective mindset and took the same step as everyone else. That means that this community is basically the same as the Rez's. Just cheaper and with a bit more freedom.

We've had an "extended orientation"  this week.  That means, the only class I've had is Developmental Psychology.  All the rest have been supplemented with more program preparation meetings. Next week should be on schedule.

We each get a "student mentor" who is in their second year, and I got specifically chosen by someone. I'd met a few people from SSW last year,  but I didn't expect to have made a significant enough  impression to be specifically selected by someone.

Moved Out

I'm in my new place! I'll probably post photos later, but right now, I'm too tired. My room has a window, curtains, a closet, a bed, a set of drawers, and a weird basket thing. The rest of it is stuff I brought.  I brought two suitcases and a backpack of stuff. Really, it's enough to live on, but I'll probably build from this side. Last year, I entered with this much and left with more than twice as much. Had to throw out a lot, too. Amazing how things accumulate.

I forgot to say that our old desktop computer got fixed awhile ago.  And then we got a wireless router up. So the first time in our lives, all three members of our household were able to go online at once.

We harvested our zucchini before I left. I might post a  pic tomorrow.

Got one class tomorrow.Group Process and Dynamics Theory at 1 pm. Easy way to start off the semester.

Back to School Shopping

I bought some clothing for the new schoolyear. After spending so much time watching my money increase, it's sad to see them decrease. I'll probably spend the bulk of what I've managed to save over the summer on back to school stuff. I still need to get a hairtcut, buy some school supplies, and I should really get a new backpack.

Someone told me that laptops have a lifespan of about 3-4 years. My laptop's over three now, but my brother says that when people talk about the lifespan of a computer, they're usually talking about how long it will take for it to become obsolete because of new technology, or they're talking about battery life. My brother says that my laptop doesn't have a "lifespan" the way that I'm thinking of it. At any rate, I'm hoping to squeak by another year with the laptop that I have.

I've had my current wallet since I was 14. It was my first wallet, and I got it on my birthday. I'm resistant to get a new one, but I really should. It's pretty out of shape at this point.

I got some suspenders. I used to wear them, but the clamps would always dull. Won't be a problem with these ones. These have a tab that tucks under a belt. I'd sometimes get criticized for being "over protected" when I'd wear a belt and suspenders, but whatever. Can't be too protected.

The grocery store near where I live had a "grand opening". It was already open, but had been under renovation. Most of the new features were available before this new grand opening, and I'm pretty sure they're still working on it. I guess they just felt like having a grand opening.

We used to have a grocery store and a clothing/general store. The more general store closed down, and basically, our grocery store has expanded to replace it. You might remember me saying that a grocery store under renovation got flooded earlier in the summer. Same place.

VICTORY!!!!

 

My sunflower blossomed! It's pointing the wrong way, though.

 Here's a look at some Zucchini plants.

Looks moire significant when you look at it from when we started under four months ago.

And here's our lone zucchini, which we're letting grow out a bit more.

I got my timetable, and it turns out that I have no 8 am classes and no classes at all on Fridays! So if I didn't get any exemptions for HSF, at least I've got a really convenient timetable!

Taking a Look at Courses

Here is the list of courses I will be taking in the coming semester.

Introduction to College Writing

Developmental Psychology

Introduction to Professional Practice

Social Service Systems 1

Social Work and the Law

Group Process and Dynamics

That "Developmental Psychology" course is giving me an ominous feeling. Last year, I was told that I would not have to take three courses, due to my having done them already. They were the two Psych courses and the Sociology one. However, the Psych courses I took were Psychology: Basic Processes of Behaviour, and Psychology: Dynamics of Human Behaviour. Both are a little bit different. Plus, the course codes were PSYC1010 and PSYC1020 respectively. This Developmental Psychology course is PSYC1040.

So maybe both of the Psych courses and the Sociology course are second semester, and I'll just have a super-light second semester, but I doubt it...

I think I heard SSW has a course that's very similar to, but not the same as our Group Dynamics and Conflict Management course from last year. I suspect that's the Group Process and Dynamics course...

I don't know how I feel about doing the two Intro courses... I feel like I went through that stuff last year. My feelings are that the Psych and Group Dynamics courses will be very much like courses I took last year, and the two Intro classes may be similar to the prep stuff we did last year, too. Might not be a very stimulating first semester. Hopefully we get into something meaty second semester.

Actually, just a second, I'll look it up...

Yeah, okay, I just checked, and there's not one overlapping program in the entire two years. They must have changed the curriculum. I took HSF the one year that they cancelled the co-op and added Math, and this is the first year that none of the courses overlap. I know they did last year, because I spoke to two people who'd been through HSF the year prior and were doing their first year of SSW when I was doing HSF.

Oh, well. At least second semester and all of the following year look incredibly interesting!

Upcoming School Textbooks

Well, they put up my textbook list for the coming semester, and their prices. $800.20!!! That's a month's rent for a two-bedroom apartment. Most expensive semester yet. Last year, the first semester was like, $600, and my second was under $500. I guess the more advanced a program is, the more expensive the textbooks will be...

A friend of the family gave us these flowers to grow in the garden earlier this year. They're called Impatients and they're little white flowers. When we transplanted them, all their petals fell off, but they quickly bloomed again and stayed like that. Real healthy looking for a long while. Then, all of a sudden, all the petals and all the leaves fell off for no known reason. We told our friend, and she said that her and everyone she knows who have been growing Impatients this year lost them all at around the same time. That's so weird!!!! Is there some kind of airborn disease that effects only this brand of flower?

We finally have a good-sized zucchini, although it's still got some more growing to do. Despite looking healthy, and despite many flowers, most of the flowers have just fallen off, leaving nothing beneath. I'd seen that some recipes called for zucchini flowers, so I thought maybe harvesting the petals might be worthwhile, but by the time I'd communicated this, all of the flowers that had fallen had already been eaten by something else. So I guess they might have been edible, although I'm not sure if you're supposed to pick them up after they've fallen off, or if you're supposed to pull them off the zucchini. On the zucchini that's grown in, it looks like the flower stayed attached but just withered up.

I figured that whatever ate the fallen zucchini petals grew an appetite for flowers and moved to the Impatients.

Cherry tomatoes pulled through surprisingly well late in the season. We will actually have a decent crop of those. Some of them are already almost ready

And my sunflower's finally opening! Really, the only plant that belongs to me is the sunflower, so it's the only one that's well-being I should be concerned with. My neighbour finally produced a flower that's almost as large as mine. But get this, it's growing three heads!!! I didn't know that was possible.

All the neighbours with really successful gardens don't seem to understand why our half-failed little garden divided between three households is something that we're all so proud of. They don't understand that this is pretty much all of our first attempt at anything like this, and that this year was mostly data collection anyway. A half-success this year may be a full success next!

Oh, by the way, after I told you guys to order from well.ca, I got called in. So I don't know if that was you guys or not, but if it was, thanks.

Busking

So this busker who plays the banjo stopped me recently when he was getting off work. He let me know that he had worked enough that day, and that he was ready to go grocery shopping and return to his family.

I hadn't done anything for this man, so I wasn't expecting such a show of camaraderie. I wasn't expecting his family life to coincide with the Canadian Dream so precisely either. But I couldn't at this point let up, so I continued to ask him about his occupation.

He said that he makes about $100 per day. To put that into perspective, I make just about $80 per day. And that's only if I get called in.

All I would have had to do was learn an instrument, and I could have made my own hours, without any boss, and I would have been able to earn $20 an hour more, with no authority over me. And I could choose overtime if I wanted.

I should have learned the clarinet back in middle school, or the guitar from my grandfather, or even from my diatonic or chromatic harmonica when that was trending.

Name Drop

Well, I'm out of work this Monday, but I'll tell you what you, my beautiful readers, can do about that. I usually avoid stating the names of the places I work, because, I don't know, if an employer ever bothered to Google me and found this blog, they might not feel all that comfortable knowing that I was publishing inside information on them, even if I wasn't saying anything all that bad. But I'm gonna break that rule this time around, since I don't plan on making any complaints.

I get called into my order picking position based on demand, and demand is based on how many orders they get. So why don't you mosy over to www.well.ca and buy a lot of stuff? Preferably, buy value packs of diapers. Those are really large and people have to get carts and bins to move them, slowing things down and making more work. Or order makeup. It always takes a bit to find the exact product and brand combination, since all those items are so small. Or get chips, since people might look at how many grams they are, pick a small box, find that despite relatively few grams of food, they take a relatively large amount of space due to the air packaging, and this will force the worker to backtrack and pick a more appropriately sized box.

Or buy a Jolly Jumper. Those are so big that they don't even fit in a bin and they have to be specially wrapped by someone in the back. Those take up time too.

In all honesty, I would need at least several hundred people to make orders, or one person to make several hundred separate orders, to make a significant difference in number of required employees.

Oh well, long weekend I guess.

We sometimes package products from some brand called Dr. Bronner's. It's all-natural fair trade stuff. What draws the eye is the fact that it is so covered in tiny text. At a glance, you assume that it will be about the ingredients of the product, or their effects, or even the policies of the company. But every time I've snatched a glance, I've more often than not read a portion of some kind of unusual proverb. Last one I read was something about becoming like a bird to perfect yourself, but I can't exactly stop to read for any length, so I haven't even been able to learn the context of anything I've read. I want to buy one of those products, just so that I can sit down and read it all. If I order it through the site, I might even package my own product, and get a little note with my initials on it.

In my work, I have to read the set of numbers on a list, memorize them, and then read the list of numbers beneath a bar code on a product to make sure they match. Every time I see a bar code now, even when I'm not working, I find myself memorizing the list of numbers. It's a reflex.

I also take note every time I see a product outside of work that I sometimes package when I'm in work. It's like when my thinking process changed when I was working as a machine operator. Looking back at some of my posts from that time have a really different tone than from most of the rest of the time that I've been publishing to this blog.

Civic Holiday Weekend

I just got back from my grandparents' house in Toronto. My Greataunt and Greatuncle (remember, that's one generation beneath Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother) were visiting, and also my cousin. Today was Civic Holiday, so I was able to leave on Sunday and come back Monday without missing a day of work.

We ate at a Korean restaurant. It was the first time I'd eaten Korean, and I got a BBQ dish, which from what I've heard, and from how it was presented on the menu, seems pretty classic. Not really a Western BBQ, as you'd probably guess, it was quite a bit different and brought out in lots of separate sections. It was quite good, I'd definitely eat that style of food again.

I got to meet up with my Aunt from my father's side of the family and the rest of the family there as well, which was nice.

To go to and return from Toronto by Greyhound bus costs $55 now! Feels like the last time I used it for that trip, it was under half that price. Going to and from Kitchener still costs under $20.

You might remember me saying that the Toronto terminal was unique in that it had a separate terminal for arrivals and departures, but that they had shut down the departures station and had been using Arrivals for an all-purpose station since then. Well, they've got the departures terminal back.

I finished both Things Fall Apart and the Gaiman-Pratchett collaboration since I last talked about books. I might review them and give a nod to my old Reviews blog.

College Confirmation Scare

Here, let me tell you a story that I have only recently found a mouth to speak of.

I am paying my tuition through a Trust Fund, and awhile back, I sent information on how payment should be made. However, last Monday, I received a letter in the mail that said that I had not paid my tuition fees in time, and so they had eliminated me from my program. They said that I had seven days to contact them if I wanted to reclaim my position.

The letter was dated eight days previous to when it arrived.

The envelope showed that it had been mailed two days after it was dated.

I had been on my Student Portal the previous day, and nothing indicated that anything was wrong. However, in this following day, there was no evidence that I was ever enrolled in the Social Service Worker program.

I reflected on the 900 applicants, 600 of which would make it to the info session, and the 60 of which had been accepted. I reflected on my 20-page application folder that I had prepared, and all of my friends that had failed to get into it.

The warning letter said that the position was on a first-come first-serve basis if I did not respond within 7 days. I reflected on the 500 qualified applicants that wanted my position.

Now, I must say, who does this? Send a warning only post-elimination, send the warning only through snail-mail, and then neglect to send it for two days after it was issued? They had my phone and email addresses...

I spent one sleepless night, then called them. I was worried, because they said to contact the person in charge of my application, and since my warning time had already expired, I worried that there was no one in charge of my application anymore.

But there was. I phoned, told Front Desk of my dilemma. They asked me what my student number was and birthday. I told them. They put me through to a girl who, upon introduction, re-admitted me and gave me two more weeks to make a payment. I checked the Student Portal, and indeed, everything was how it used to be. Just like that.

They had their paycheque the same day, and since, it has been processed and confirmed. I'm confirmed to be in the program now. Only an exciting statement after the scare.

Haidara Aichatta Cisse

Worked a week in the box factory. They put me on a machine and kept me on it. A little more high-intensity than my previous tasks at this place. The person that normally runs the machine was on vacation, so I guess I was his replacement. I hope this didn't knock me out of the inner circle at my cushy position as an order picker.

I'm at the library computers right now. They changed where the Internet section is, so it's near the printer and photo copier, which I guess is an improvement. They swapped out the cushioned chairs for these lawn-chair type ones, though. They also reformatted the system so that I have to go through an additional agreement and a number of things have been renamed.

Mali's got a female candidate for the Presidency. Her name is Haidara Aichatta Cisse, she's 54, native to the North of Mali, and she's angling for the women's vote. Since the women are pretty unified out there, and because there are 27 candidates, with 26 males, even if she doesn't get a single male vote, the male vote will be so divided that I say she's got a real chance. I worry about ballot stuffing, assassination etc., though. It would be such a significant change, it's hard to believe it will occur. She's got my tentative support, although I don't know her policies well enough to make a definite decision. Not like my standpoint really makes a difference, anyway.

My sunflower has a flower bud now. I guess it's maybe four feet tall. Probably would have grown taller if I hadn't broken it's stem and torn it's root system, and maybe the hail and wind storms weren't that healthy for it, either. Still the tallest sunflower in the yard. I'll definitely try the sunflower bit again next year, hopefully with seeds from this one this year.

Work, Storms, Garden, Books

Well, I've had two four day work weeks followed by my first five day this summer, and I'm finally pulling a profit financially instead of just breaking even.  After the Toronto flooding and the decrease in orders, I got put back into the box factory for two days. While I was there, I met someone who managed to get hired on at my order picking place. After my two days were done, I went back to being an order picker for a full week and I got to drop the name of the guy I'd met to my supervisor, saying that he'd said hi. Next Monday I'm back at the box factory for one day due to a drop in orders, and then I'll either keep going to the box factory or return to order picking depending on demand.

Technically I can't take credit for a full five day work week. We got let out an hour early one day because of a powerout, and we got let out an hour and a half early another day because we completed our orders.

I chose a place to live next year. It's right across the street from the campus, even closer than the Residence. It's somewhere between $500 and $550 a month, although I can't remember the exact price, which is a good cry better than the Residence. High speed Internet included, hydro and electricity included, washing and drying machine, stove and microwave included. I got to talk to the guy who's moving out because he graduated, and he gave me a picture of the community living there. Should be an okay place to live.

My sunflower gave me a serious scare. It was looking real stable, so I cut the string I'd tied around it to keep it balanced after I'd broken it's stem. It was standing fine, so I pulled out the stake that the string was tied to. This caused it to shift balance so I returned the stake to the ground and retied it. Next day, the sunflower's totally wilted. I can only guess that even if it was strong enough to stand, I might have torn it's root system when I pulled out the stake. It looked dead, but the next day it was standing right back up again. Then we got hit by that hail storm and I think that delayed my flower from getting back to it's original self, but it was back to full health in three days or so.

During the hailstorm I was inside a bank. I'd read an article about this storm that had all these tornadoes, and some people ran for shelter in a bank. But the bank people locked them out, even though there was a tornado closing in, because of legal reasons.  Yeah, well, it turns out that they do do that. I was in the area with the bank machines and the power got knocked out. As soon as that happened, someone ran over and locked us out of the main section. There was a customer on the inside of the main section, and they didn't kick him out, though.

We had another huge storm, and I got caught in it when I was walking home from the bus stop, about fifteen minutes either way to shelter.  Mom and my brother make fun of me for avoiding going outside in the rain, so they thought it was funny that I got caught in the storm. However, I don't think it was that funny since tree branches were being ripped from their stalk and while I was plowing through, falling branches were literally barricading streets. If I was in a car, I would not have made it. I was soaked to the bone by the time I got home. My cell phone was fine, though. I guess those are built to be pretty water resistant.

My mother's garden has some incredible zucchinis. Other than my sunflower, they're the only plant to really flourish. My neighbour's sunflowers are all coming up to, and the new neighbours planted some tomato plants, but I'm worried that they planted late enough in the season that we might not see a harvest. Our poor-looking cherry tomato plants, three of our Jalepenos, and even an eggplant have flowered and are now developing vegetables. They will all likely be small harvests, but at least it's something. Our only good harvest will be the zucchinis.

At the order picking place, we have a "Take a book, give a book" system. I checke dout what they had, and there were a couple that I thought were interesting. One was Things Fall Apart, a story of the people of a Nigerian village and the transition from Tribalism to a Cristian system, and another one was a collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet. I took those two and gave four books in return, two of mine and Mom donated two as well. Mom gave a Steven King book which was taken and replaced with a book by the guy who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Oh, that reminds me. Neil Gaiman did a public interview and the question was posed to him what his favourite and least favourite works were of the stuff that he'd written. He said that Neverwhere was his favourite and his least favourite was American Gods. I haven't read all his stuff, but this was my opinion as well. I did a comparison review on those two books specifically, although it's on my old blog I think. I used to debate with people who had the reverse opinion. Anyway, it's gratifying to hear the author agrees with me.

This summer I read a Dean Koontz book, I've read Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and now I'm about two thirds through Things Fall Apart. About a book per month.

Toronto Flooding

The weather has been crazy! Toronto flooded and a large chunk of the city lost it's power. People were being rescued by boat. Mom got to see the grocery store's parking lot flooded knee-high and some of the inside of the store as well. She said everyone was panicking and the workers were trying to get rid of all the water. We have a severe thunderstorm watch today with risk of hail.

The grocery store is being upgraded, with lots of exposed construction. I'm hoping that's why they were vulnerable to flooding, and that they will have some preventative measure against flooding for the finished project. But I guess where we live, we're just not equipped for weather like this.

We live in a basement apartment, but we haven't had any trouble. We live on a hill, so I guess water's not going to collect around here.

I worked for four days last week. I was hoping to work for five this week, but I got called off because they need fewer workers than they thought. The agency person said she thought it was because of the flooding in Toronto.

Stove and Fridge

Well, I've been working at the order picker place for the past three days now, and I'm going in again tomorrow. Going on a four-day run for the first time this summer. They changed the order of one of the lines and they added a new one.

We got a new fridge and stove courtesy of the new renovations being made on the house. We're also getting our roof examined and we got all our overhead light fixtures done up proper. Seems like this is going to be a pretty thorough, all-inclusive makeover for the house.

Canada passed a little while ago. Canada Day was my first day of Canada World Youth, my two year anniversary since it's beginning, and a year and a half since it's completion. Because of that experience, every Canada Day, I think of Mali. Today is the Fourth of July, and since I didn't spend Canada Day thinking about Canada, I'm using today to do that. What else would I use today for?

Since my sunflower got so big, my neighbour is telling me to mound up the dirt around the stem over the place it got split, so it's got a foundation to stand on it's own, and I can stop staking it. He says that the place it was split will grow roots. But I'm afraid of suffocating the plant, since when I was a horticulturalist, it was always important not to bury the stem. My brother says this is because plants breathe through their stems. Anyone know if there's any truth to this "rooting out" theory or this "suffocation" theory? I want to either know if there's any benefit to mounding up to the snapping point, or if there's any risk in trying. The gash in it's side happened very early on in it's development, but as the plant grew, the gash grew a bit as well, so now it's a little higher on the plant, although still somewhat near the base.

Cookie Factory

Yeah, so the cookie factory position didn't pan out. I worked for three days, and then I got a call from the agency congratulating me on completing my assignment. Kinda mystified, since it had an estimated length of one month, and I was told that I should keep working past that estimate unless told otherwise. I didn't have a fallout with anyone, and I didn't receive any criticism.

A brief description of my life in the cookie factory. I was worried because my job title was Oven Room Worker and since we just hit seriously hot weather here in Guelph, I was concerned about temperature. Still, I was on night shift, which is the best shift for it, and since I've done manual labour in sub-Saharan Africa while taking medication that made me sensitive to sunlight, I figured that if anyone could tough it out, it would be me.

First day, I was working in the oven, and I was assigned to watch large sheets of wafer cookies come down through a machine. I was asked to remove and dispose of any defective sheets. They provided unlimited free water as well as something similar to Gatorade. They suggested that I alternate between the two for maximum hydration.

 Second day, they put me in Packaging. Other than the supervisor, I was the only male in that line. Kind of like when I was being trained to be a Machine Operator, and I was put on the Ladies Line. It was doing their only heavy lifting position though. I took boxes of wafer cookies off a conveyor belt, stacked them on skids, labeled them, wrapped them in saran wrap, and wheeled them out to a place where they were picked up by a forklift. It was less hot on that line, but I didn't get any free Gatorade. Third day, I was asked to go on Packaging again, and since it seemed like my job was pretty necessary and consistent, I was wondering if they were going to shift me there permanently, but then I got a call from the agency telling me not to return.

Oh well, I got three full days in, which is tied with the Order Picker position and the box factory position for my longest stints of work this summer, and that's combined with the $13.40 an hour, the highest wage I've ever worked for, so next paycheque should feel pretty good regardless.

And I'm working again next week as an Order Picker at the same place. I've only been asked back for a day, but that's what they do there. A number of temps have been working there full-time, at first being called back on a day-by-day basis, and later on a weekly basis. I ran into someone who had his first day on the same day as myself, and he's been working consistently like that. So hopefully I can fall into a similar routine.

I'm going to Kitchener to look at a house tomorrow that I might be living in next year.

Brother Graduated High School

My brother graduated from high school, and he had his ceremony and got his diploma last Friday. He didn't get a graduation cap, and he didn't get a liripipe either, but he did get his diploma handed to him on-stage, instead of trading it for his robes after-the-fact like I did. Also, since his high school is small, each of the graduating class got to have a small piece said about them. They said of my brother that he was clear-thinking and a deep person, or something like that.

There were sandwiches, pizza, cookies, cake,  and punch, among other things, available after-the-fact. The graduating class got to share in the cutting of the cake. It was a more personal but less formal ceremony than mine.

His diploma has his name spelled correctly on it. Somehow, my certificate has me put down as "Gryphon S. Sibbald". My middle names are "Walter" and "Barent" there is no S in either.

...And now this will be the post that shows up when you Google my name, since I just said my first and last names in succession. Well, I guess I haven't said anything too weird for awhile, so I guess that's alright.

We made an extension to the garden a little while ago, for zucchini, onions, and some more flowers. We got some kind of bug problem, though. The only plant that's really looking healthy at this point is my sunflower, which is looking better every day.

I didn't get called back to the order picking place, but I scored a full-time, ongoing position at a cookie factory. Pays over $13 an hour, it's night shift, and it starts next Tuesday night. Apparently it will require heavy lifting. I had to go through an additional training session at the agency, and they requested references.

More Grad and Work Stuff

Expanding on my graduation post from yesterday, here are some stats I observed.

HSF started with 100 members, was left with 77 after first semester, and wound up with 49 grads. Of those 49, 28 showed up for the ceremony. I noticed that SSW, the program I'm going into, had 33 grads of the about 60 that they started with. So my previous program and the program I'm going into wound up with about 50% of their class graduating, although with SSW, it's stretched out over a longer time period.

I remember there was a class called "Rec and Leisure for Older Adults" that was called after the regular Rec and Leisure class was through. Just like the other classes, they were brought in with "It is my pleasure to present the graduates from the Rec and Leisure for Older Adults program". But the class only had three graduates and only one of them showed up. So they probably shouldn't have said "graduates" in the plural.

Today, the place that I'm working at filled its millionth package, so they gave everyone free cake. When they gave me my slice, they said "Thank you for all your doing". Felt kind of bad being involved in the celebrations when it was only my second day. Today they played music during work, which was nice. I'm going in tomorrow, too.

They have unorthodox shifts. They go 10 AM-6 PM, 9 AM-5 PM, and 12 AM-8 PM. 9-5 is a standard office day, but 10-6 and 12-6 are unique. In the factory world, there are usually three shifts, 7 AM-3 PM (Mornings) 3 PM-11 PM (Afternoons) and 11 PM-7 AM (Nights). I kind of like these new shift ideas, though.

The place that I'm working at is in a really new location. This is only it's third week in the building I'm at right now, although it was pretty well established at it's old location.

I used to apply at this company, and for this position, all the time. I almost laughed when the agency sent me here.

HSF Graduation

Sorry for the blog lull guys. Here's a recap of the past almost two weeks.

I had my graduation ceremony for HSF last Wednesday. We got to wear robes and liripipes, but not caps. I think there's some kind of health concern about sharing hats. We didn't get our certificates/diplomas/degrees respectively when we walked onstage. We got them by exchanging our robes and liripipes afterward. Seems like there's been past issues with people running away with their graduation garb.

If you don't know what a liripipe is, it's kind of a sash that you wear over one of your shoulders at graduation. I never heard of the word before, and I have no idea if I'm remembering/spelling it right. Either my spellcheck doesn't know the word or I'm off-base.

The actual ceremony consisted of us taking turns going up, shaking hands with various people, and getting a liripipe put on us. Lots of people dropped their liripipes, so I was very proud when I didn't.

The ceremony was shown online. I would have tipped you guys off and maybe you could have watched it, but I had no idea that that was happening until it was announced at the ceremony.

It was a really formal ceremony, but when we were making our exit, we were played out with an orchestral take on Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. It was really slow and without lyrics, so I thought that maybe Gaga had taken a tune from a classical piece, similar to how people are always using Pachelbell's Canon.

Here's a comedian complaining about that.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

But then they got to the "Rara romara" bit and they put on this raunchy brass. Nothing but Bad Romance.

I didn't take any photos, but somebody tagged me in one. Here you go.

I had some work the following Friday. An agency was willing to bus me out to Aberfoyle to help put up a plastic dome for some festival. I thought it was going to be low paying, since they were bussing out people without cars en mass. People without cars are generally poorer and will settle for lower pay, and jobs requiring tons of people won't inspire a good wage, and since they were already paying for the bus, I didn't think they'd be in the mood to give out more than they already were. But it turned out to be $12 an hour, my best wage this year. Turns out, they were willing to bus out minimally-skilled workers en mass for a good wage because they were only taking the most physically powerful workers available.

Flattered that they thought of me, but it's a humbling experience being among your peers. I managed to keep up, but I wasn't the team strong man for once. Very gratifying work being able to physically exert yourself, and it's good to be outside in the fresh air, although I wound up getting a bit of a sunburn.

This week I got more work, this time as an order picker. I take lists of customer orders and go around filling boxes with the items listed. It's not really a factory, more of a warehouse. No machines, no need for any PPE such as hearing, hand, or eye protection. Only steel-toed boots. Got more work tomorrow and Wednesday, and it looks like this could go further.

Lost Some Electricity

I got called back to work at the place that I was doing Quality Control for earlier this summer. Same job, and they'll probably have me in tomorrow, since they have more bolts needed to inspect, but probably nothing after that.

Some electrician was in our house because of the construction being done for the new neighbors.  He knocked out the lights in both bedrooms and we've been like this for a number of days. He's coming in tomorrow to fix it. Today, we had a powerout and assumed that it must be connected to our other problem with power, but nope. Coincidental legit powerout that only lasted two hours at max.

We got our garden going. We dug out a plot of land and our plants that we were growing indoors have been growing outside for a number of days. IT turned out to be a decent-sized garden.

Oh, and I just wanted to mention that according to this blog's stats, there was a huge viewership spike for "Didn't get Called Back for Work". Too bad it had to be for my only recent submission surrounding a disappointment. Oh well, I kind of did get called back at this point, so it's all good.

More Box Factory

Today I got to be present for the beginning of the shift at the box factory. One thing I noticed when I went in, is that the factory was shut down. All the lights were off, and no machines running. Turns out, they don't have a night shift, so the factory gets to rest during the night.

During my first long-term job, it always fascinated me that the factory never sleeps. I don't know, it's just a concept that I got caught up with. Now, it surprises me when a factory DOES sleep.

Next interesting thing is when the first five minutes of my day comprised a stretching routine. I guess it's a good idea. Manual labour gets you cramped up and I always see people stretching during the day, after they've already been cramped. It's probably better to get yourself limbered up beforehand.

They call the lunchroom the "cafeteria" and it even has a sign that says it, but it doesn't provide food. Even the vending machines are outside of it. Their food option comes from a lunch truck. In my book, a lunchroom is a room where you go to eat lunch, and a cafeteria is a place that offers food. Since this place does offer a food option, I guess I'm just quibbling over terminology.

Today I spent my day folding and gluing giant boxes, instead of punching out perforated lines.

I got called back for tomorrow. Three days of work in a row. Not bad. But I'm still on a day-by-day call-in system, so I still feel pretty temporary.

Box Factory

I got six hours of work today, and eight more hours of work tomorrow, but that's probably it. Going through a new agency this time. That means that I have found work through all three of the agencies I'm signed up with.

You know that episode of The Simpsons where Bart's class goes to a box factory? Yeah, that's where I was working today. We were taking large, flat cardboard pieces with perforated lines and punching out sections that we didn't need. Not a Linamar branch, which is notable. Sometimes I worry about how I will find employment if I wind up moving to Kitchener where there is no Linamar.

$10.40 an hour. Not quite minimum wage ($10.25/hour), but getting there. I'm not overly fond of how my direction has gone from $12 to $11 to $10.40.

There's a lot of construction going on in the house. The landlord's grandson and his wife are moving into the main section, so they're getting everything all good and fixed up. However, when I'm working, I've got to sleep through the noise of construction because my schedule is no longer my own, which can be a little bothersome.

If nothing else, my sunflower is a trendsetter. My in-house neighbour likes where I planted my sunflower, favouring it over the spot he chose for his last year, and is planning on making a sunflower garden to accompany mine. Also, my family enjoyed the process of growing and planting the sunflower enough to start a little garden. We got some already partly-grown sweet peppers, hot-peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and two types of flowers. Mom also bought some onion seed and zuchini seed.

Sunflower

I finally planted my sunflower outside. One sunflower in a garden in and of itself that I hand-dug just for it. I'm fully aware that it might get bitten in half by a squirrel tomorrow, but now at least I know that I gave the thing a fighting chance. Before planting it outside, I transplanted it into a larger pot, just because these frosts keep swinging by so late into the Spring. Eventually, I figured that you just can't grow a sunflower indoors, especially not in a basement apartment, and I did the outdoors transplant.

This happened two days ago. I tied it to a little stick near the base to keep it sturdy, since it didn't seem to be taking well to being an outdoor plant, and was drooping a bit. There was a frost on the first night, but despite that, the next day, it was standing up triumphantly. Next day, I had to walk in on the sight of the poor flower having been knocked over by wind, it's stem bent where it was tied to the stick. That's going to haunt me, since I wanted to give it a fighting chance and, in the end, it was my innovative idea to help it that wound up dealing it a potentially fatal blow. If I had left it untied, then it would have probably bent all the way, instead of snapping it at it's midsection. If I had tied it nearer it's top half, it would have probably stayed upright along with the stick. My idea to give it "just a little help" in standing up was what sealed it's fate.

Poor thing. I put a larger stick next to it and tied it's top portion to that, so that it is upright with it's leaves facing the sun. Since it is all still connected, I figured I'd give it a shot. Coming back to check on it, it has fanned out it's leaves and is absorbing sunlight, so it is at least showing some attempt to live. It is probably doomed at this point though, honestly.

I found two pairs of shoes in our storage room the other day. Around my size and a good deal better quality than I usually buy. So random. I asked Mom where they came from and she said that she thought I must have brought them back from one of my trips. I really don't remember anything of that nature, but whatever. Free shoes!

My Facebook Scrabble application updated itself and needed to terminate all games currently in place to implement the new formatting, Since my opponent was the one to play last in all three matches, it declared me the loser for each of them!  What kind of logic is that?!

Didn't Get Called Back for Work

Well, we didn't get called back again after my second day of work. We ran out of parts to inspect, so I guess that's the reason. Was still good to get a couple days of work in and to know that I've still got it. We were going by a system where the agency was calling every day to individually ask for us back, and we had to sign in to front office every day. Felt really temporary, and I guess it was. They had a nice system for payment, though. Instead of getting our pay sheets signed and then handing them into the agency, we just recorded our information, and the supervisor took it and reported it to the agency. Combine that with Direct Deposit, and you've got a system where all you do is work and get paid. Pretty smooth.

You know how they got rid of the Canadian penny because it cost more to make them than they were worth? Yeah well, word on the street is that there's plans to get rid of our Toonie ($2 coin) and replace it with plastic $2 bills because the two metals found inside the coins make them too expensive to produce. Not sure why we wouldn't just revert to using only one metal...

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario almost went on strike, apparently. Don't really know what it was about, but it sounds like this isn't the first time it's happened, and the establishment always complies with demands right before a strike.

Got Some Work

So I was actually working today. $11.00 an hour for another Linamar branch, this time doing Quality Control on bolts. I was asked to come in yesterday, but it was short notice, I only had enough time to get there, and I wasn't carrying the necessary Personal Protective Equipment, so I couldn't do it. Was surprised when they called me in today, and they've asked me to go in tomorrow. The original offer was for only one day, and it has expanded to three, so you never know. If nothing else, maybe this means I'm on the inside of Linamar's inner ring of reliable employees again. Or maybe this is a potential entry point to getting there.

It's near my old neighborhood from back when I was a child. Not much has changed, except the Neighborhood Tea House is gone, replaced by an Arabic grocery. There's a new Mexican restaurant that claims to be "Mexilicious" and Mario's Pizza has been replaced by Tony's Pizza. All the kids at my old elementary school now have lockers with combination locks, instead of the coat hooks we used to have.

The Shea Butter Man

I signed up with another agency last Tuesday, on Wednesday they scheduled an appointment with me, and today, I got my skills tested and did the interview. I think it went well.

There's a new store in Old Quebec Street downtown. It's called The Shea Butter Man. If you will recall, shea butter is the pride of Mali, a miracle cream that you can use to make your skin smooth as silk and strong as steel, to flavour your food, waterproof houses, heal injuries and more. It's a product that's been trending, but only for use as a skin cream, and usually only as a watered-down product with a bunch of other ingredients.

The Shea Butter Man emphasizes shea butter, but it is a store full of Sahel region African art that is all for sale. I looked up the store online, and saw that the three nations emphasized were Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana.

My understanding was that Mali is the nation most famous for its shea butter, and almost where it is produced exclusively, but it didn't surprise me that there was some spillover into Burkina Faso, which is a neighbouring nation. Ghana's still West Africa, but a little bit further away from Mali than Burkina Faso.

So I went in and it turns out that it's owned by a couple from Ghana. All of the art is from Ghana. The owner says he's been near the border of Mali many times, but he's never crossed it, although he has friends who live there. Whatever. Still cool to have a West African store nearby.

Stuff's expensive, though. For a statue that I bought in Mali for the equivalent of $2.50, here one costs like, $50. Cheapest decorative items were masks. A small mask is $27 and they have elephant masks, but they're medium- and large-size, with the cheaper being over $50.

I was worried that the business would struggle here, since Old Quebec Street has kind of a bad turnover rate for stores, but apparently sales have been good. Maybe it's because it's the only real store of it's kind, and because shea butter is trending.

Weird Walk

Well, I've applied to nine places and I'm signed up with two temp agencies. Got two more agencies to sign up with, and then I've got to improvise.

Saw some weird stuff while out on a walk the other day. There were these four bicycle riders, three in the road, one on the sidewalk. They were all side-by-side, so branching further into the road than they should have. The one furthest in suddenly fell off his bike. He got up, dusted himself off, and then began inspecting his bike for damages. He didn't get off the road, though, and his friends all stopped to watch him. Cars were swerving to avoid him. And then he bent over to more thoroughly inspect his bike and in doing so, he stuck his bottom way out into even the other lane. Frustrating.

Then, on the same walk, I heard a scream. I looked over and saw a man lying flat on his back in a driveway, with a car backing up onto him. The car managed to stop before it hurt him. When he got up he was screaming about how he almost got run over and some lady was trying to calm him down.

Then when I got close to home, there was some big police raid going on in a house just a little down the street from us. Never seen anything like that before in this neighborhood.

I got a sunflower on Earth Day, back in my school. I didn't want the responsibility of caring for it, but I knew the people who were handing them out, and they managed to get me to take one. After I had it, I felt guilty about killing it, so I wound up following the instructions to raise it. First week, nothing happened. But when I went back to the Rez and got it with my last suitcase, strangely, in the dark of night and in my hands riding the bus, the thing sprouted. Since then, it's been growing like crazy. Another half a week, and it should be safe to transplant into the garden. It'll probably still get eaten by a squirrel or something.