Laptop is Back

Guess where I'm posting this from? My laptop. I'm even using the Gryphon account. A friend of mine offered to fix it and she did. She just reset the accounts to times when they were previously operational. I've done that in the past when my account messed up and it came up as an option automatically, but since it never did that these past times, I didn't realize it was still a possibility. She went in and reset it manually.

Should probably still get a new one. The same issue will probably repeatedly return since it did it three times before, but I'm so blissed out because now the broken laptop no longer symbolizes death, because it didn't follow my friend and the dead hawk. She even unlocked the mouse and taught me the trick. You just press a button near the top.

Did an eight page paper the other day, but it's gotta be some of my worst work, since I'm so lacking motivation right now.

Dead Computer and Bird

Well, my computer is broken. I tried to go into the Admin account and it had the "Logon Service service failed to logon" message. So that's my final account I guess. I switched my Gryphon account to a new section, the problem ceased but later cropped up, swapped to the Admin, and now the Admin has the same issue. So I guess it's done. Hitting me a bit harder than it should, what with all the current destruction.

On my way from the school, I ran into a hawk, laying on its back dead. Big majestic bird just laying there. I seem to start a lot of sentences with "I'm not superstitious but...". I guess what I mean to say is "I feel like I'm above superstition but I can't help but take note of patterns between seemingly unrelated issues."

Dead friend. Dead bird. Dead computer. Bah.

Although a friend of mine says she can probably get my computer to work again. Might as well give it a shot. I backed up all my important information so it's all good but preserving the computer might be a boost in morale, if nothing else. One of my friends said a laptop lives an average of three years and another friend said five. So at five and a half I guess my laptop was pretty okay.

Human Existence

This has been such a weird month. My friend gave birth, another friend died, and my great grandmother is turning 100. It urges the mind to compare the severity of contrasting fortune in human life, with one person living for a century, and another leaving us at the age of eighteen. And with the birth we see the creation of life contrasted with the presence of death. Two people living and standing at opposite ends of human existence, with another prematurely cut short. I'm feeling all kinds of existential right now.

Oy... And the birth at the beginning,  the death in the middle, and the symbol of longevity happening at the end of the month? The events stacked in the order of the human lifespan. Why so poetic?

And it gets weirder. Someone in the second year of our program is now battling cancer and had to drop out. And my friend who gave birth had a friend die this morning due to heart failure. Two deaths by heart failure in under 48 hours...

Having my heart randomly stop is my go-too anxiety. I don't like this. I want someone to tell me something reassuring...

Having a lot of trouble concentrating on homework... Didn't we have Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year not long ago? Oy...

Brianna

My friend, Bri, who was ill has passed on. The issue with her heart resurfaced a third time and this time she didn't make it. Eighteen years old ...

Edit: Here's a photo of her and her brother.

Presentations

Today we watched six presentations for future placements. They were good, but two were support centres for women that are only taking female students, and two of them were Aboriginal services. Those services both made it clear that they were more than willing to take non-native students, but my teacher said he'd prioritize Aboriginal students, and since we've got a good number of Aboriginal students interested in these organizations, I doubt I could compete. But that's fair enough. This leaves ROOF (Reaching our Outdoor Friends for homeless and at-risk youth) and the City of Kitchener as viable placements. ROOF is really popular and I think loads of students are going to pounce on that one, so the competition might be a bit thick. No reason to think I'd make a worse applicant than anyone else, though. There are going to be five more presentation days with six presenters apiece, though, so it's not like this is my only selection. There are also more placements that will not be doing presentations.

My ill friend has been doing great. Since I last spoke on her "The next few hours are critical" she made a complete turn at the last moment and started to improve rapidly. Her immune system wasn't doing it's job and she needed to improve naturally because severe surgery would put her into terminal shock since her body was in such a delicate state. Well, she did get better and all her body functions came back. She got well enough to undergo surgery and it was a massive success. She became healthier than she ever had since she'd gone to the hospital.

HOWEVER. Her heart just stopped and she was revived. This just happened TWICE and she survived both times! What a roller-coaster this has been for her!

First Assignment of the Semester

Today I did a twenty-minute roleplay that I will have to write an eight page paper on, due next Tuesday. First assignment of the year. I roleplayed a sixteen year old Asian kid who got alcohol poisoning and had to have his stomach pumped. He felt pressure from his family, being the youngest of three children, to maintain the family standard. He felt he couldn't keep up with his family's expectations and that he also couldn't fit in with his peers socially.

As the worker, my classmate played a homeless Muslim girl who had been living on the streets since she had locked her violent, drunk father out of the house and been subsequently kicked out the next day. She felt she was responsible for protecting her two younger siblings.

I'm writing the paper on myself as the worker, so it will be about my experience with the second scenario. Some people are panicking about only having four days to write it, but I think it should be fine.

If you put Geyphon Sib in a Google search, you get my name as the only recommendation. I know I've already said that, but it's interesting to note that, before my name comes up as a suggestion, you get "Gryphon Singapore" "Gryphon size chart" "Gryphon Sixth Form" and "Gryphon singular" as the suggestions for "Gryphon Si"

Here's the explanation for "Gryphon Singapore":

"The Gryphon Tea Company was founded with a mission to make high-quality, gourmet teas accessible to discerning tea drinkers seeking new taste experiences."

Here's a Gryphon size chart:

Gryphon Sixth Form

"The Gryphon Sixth Form is a large and vibrant community of over 440 students, 40% of whom join us from neighbouring state and independent schools. We offer our students high academic standards within a very caring and supportive school community. Resources and facilities are outstanding and are continually updated to meet student needs."

It's like an alternative school, I think.

And the Gryphon Singular:

"A drop barred, rigid, big wheeled, singlespeed (or geared) bike – it's not for everyone but some may find it just perfect."

So there you go. These are the things I am most similar to: Tea, a measurement system, an alternative school, and a bicycle. I didn't do so bad.

Fixing my Computer

Last week, my computer broke. I have an account that requires a password to enter, and everytime I tried to logon, it would say, "The Logon Service service failed to logon. Cannot logon" or something equally redundant. So I found instructions on how to fix it. I had to pull up a hidden set of options, enter the basic data of the computer, make the admin account accessible, go into the admin account, and transfer my "Gryphon" account's  information to another account (I think that's what I did).

It worked! I felt like a total hacker. Last year my mouse stopped working and a buddy of mine came over and got it working again. I was astounded. Apparently it's pretty simple because he swung by when I was working at the Info Desk and he told the girl working at IT about it and they were laughing at me. Well, TAKE THIS! I can't unlock my mouse, but I can reprogram my computer!

...Except... It only worked like, twice, and then the same problem cropped up on the new account. But I now have access to the Amin account, which has access to all the info on the Gryphon account, so  it doesn't matter as much.

My laptop is over five years old, eh? Apparently that's real old and maybe it's showing it's age. I should backup all my important information.

My friend who is ill has suffered a serious relapse since she had been doing so much better. We were told this past few days were critical in determining her survival, and now I'm hearing that these next few hours are critical.

First Week In

Work's been pretty good. Mostly getting questions about where to find people/places since it's the beginning of a semester and we're getting a lot of new students. I'm actually surprised at how many people start their school year in the second semester. I did at one time fill up all the meeting rooms and book one for later in the day, though, which is an info desk function that will become more popular around the time of midterms. I find that people ask me a lot of questions when I'm not on the job. I guess they see me working at the information desk and when they see me away from it they figure I'm still the guy with the answers. People ask any questions they can think of, and people generally think that I work directly for the school, instead of being a part-time employee and full-time student.

Classes are all good so far. I've only bought one textbook so far, and it's a workbook. There's been so much confusion about what we're supposed to buy that I've just postponed it. One of our teachers thought that we had used a textbook last semester which we hadn't, so it was labeled as "textbook retained from previous semester". Many of the workbooks were not available in the bookstore on the first day, and many of them still aren't. Many of them have only been made available in small numbers so only a few students have them. A student in second year told me I'd be spending almost $1000 on texts this semester but the price I'm seeing right now is far lower than that, so I don't know what to expect. I've also been told that we need to keep some of our textbooks, so I haven't sold any. I went to see what I could get for them, and the lowest offered price was $1. $1!!! I can't buy a coffee with that. No sale. The highest offer was $33 which is a bit more substantial but I paid over $100 for that text so I wasn't interested. And good thing too, because I learned the next day that we need it for one of our classes, though it hadn't been posted on our booklist. Anyway, I'm just waiting until the classes sort themselves out before making any major purchases. I'll buy all the workbooks, but I have to wait until the bookstore prints them.

A homosexual individual hit on me last Friday. He even wrote me a little love note with his contact information in case I changed my mind. It had hearts on it and everything. I don't think I'm going to change my mind, though.

First Day Back

Yesterday, my Greyhound was over an hour late. If it had been the bus scheduled to come after it, it would have still been late (and the other one didn't show up, either). The city buses were both late, too. I guess it's because of the weather. We have this light but consistent fall of snow that keeps building and building, and it's really messing everything up. I guess I shouldn't be a jerk, everyone tells me that this is actually pretty devastating if you don't drive and you live across the street from everything you need, but I find it a little bit humorous that us Canadians are being wrecked so bad by a light snowfall. Isn't this supposed to be our jam? I'm loving it, personally. The last few winters didn't feel like the real deal. I want a winter that lives up to the Canadian hype.

Anyway, so it was a longer than average trip to get here, and when I did, I found out that I don't have class on Mondays! I was fooled because of the way my timetable is set up. Visually, it has me put down as having class on Mondays, but if you looks closer, there's no indicated classroom, and the date the class starts is halfway through the semester. And even if I did have class that day, everyone who did had their classes canceled! So there wasn't much reason for me to come here yesterday at all. Oh well, doesn't look like travel would have been easier today, anyway.

My friend gave birth on the New Year, and my friend who has been sick felt well enough to make a Facebook post. She sounded very positive.

I had my job training since my last post. I had to get a round Greyhound ticket and spend a total ten hours last Friday to travel and train. Really, since the time I had remaining was just a weekend, I might have stayed and saved money on another ticket, since I stay here most weekends anyway. But I refused to cut my holiday short. Had I known I didn't have class today, I could have stayed home an extra day and made the round trip more justified. At least I got to use my day to hand in a criminal record check, get some stuff signed, print stuff, and shop. Okay, so it wasn't very useful. Oh well.

Got my first day of school and work tomorrow.