i cannot develop any competency at the art of mingling in large groups. Not even when i know 90% of the people in the group relatively well. yesterday i went to my fourth coffee hour, and yet again i was confronted with talking to people for inappropriately long amounts of time, realizing i was keeping them from enjoying the company of everyone else in the room (and keeping myself from it too) and then not knowing how to let the conversation naturally blend it another one with different people. i ramble. i should not be permitted to socialize.

during one of these conversation (but before it got awkward) Kat came up with a brilliant idea which i am going to rip off here in the context of an invention. oh yes, it’s unscrupulous, but you will not be surprised because it has already been established by my shameless flirting that i have no morals (who was massaging my neck during coffee hour? at first i thought it was jon bugging me, then i thought it was bryan, then tim, then gabe and now i can’t remember the laugh that was supposed to give it away…).

because flirting with no attachments is so much damn fun - and who can say otherwise. Kat proposed a sort of strip club for women. we decided that jon and tim p. should be allowed in. tim p. wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not to be allowed to work in our strip club, but then he remembered that he likes to flirt, so he went along with it. you would pay exorbant prices for alcohol in order to flirt outrageously with the male “flippers” (my word). they would have to be talented though. making any woman feel worthy of their attention and keeping the game alive. there would have to be NO SEX ALLOWED (my idea again) so you could suspend the usual signs that flirting is supposed to give off. i think girls would much more appreciate this kind of interaction with objectified men than the hysterical displays of men acting like women that male strippers engage in. i can’t think of something less attractive than watching a male stripper. it is such a feminine thing to do. women need to be turned on mentally, not physically. ok, apparently it floats some peoples boats, but i think its more the fun of acting like men in the club itself that is alluring.

so, what do you think? would you go? would you like to be a flipper?

that the Earth’s oil reserves are not limitless remains an indisputable fact. i have seen many forecasts for when the fields will reach a critical mass whereby, effectively, we will have to stop using oil to run our engines and heat our homes and usually this date falls within my expected life-span. however, few people are seriously worried (ok, we all think about, but on a daily basis? i think not.) about the inevitability of this problem because already possible alternatives are in the works and appear to be making headway.

I wonder about another problem that will raise its snarling head when that day, far off in the future, arrives. as far as i understand, and i’m not a chemist or whatever else you would have to be to have an authoritative voice in this matter, almost all of the synthetics humankinds as invented thus far are oil based - plastics, acrylics, nylon, etc. apparently, a very minimal amount of oil is used in this products, so compared to the astronomical consumption of the oil reserves by heating, electricity and transportation, they negligibly contribute to the problem. however, when oil reserves truly reach “the bottom of the well” what will we do? i presume that the governments would wisely begin to stockpile the resources left for the manufacture of medications, weaponry, pesticides and other essentials. Will we be forced to return to manufacturing with natural products? and if we are, where will these resources come from and how much will they cost? forseeably, the price of all goods would skyrocket.

i remember reading for an intro anthropology course about the change-over from ceramic, metal and wood to plastic in Nigerian villages. Suddenly, items that had been prized heirlooms that had to be handled with care were easily replaceable. though there is a part of me that would relish an unequivocal end to consumer culture, i recognize that if this doomsday theory has any grain of truth and i live to see it, unhappy i will be.

So, here’s my question. Why isn’t this ever mentioned in the news-magazine articles that discuss the oil-supply? are we really that fixated on our cars or am i totally wrong and there are other synthetic materials available to replace the plastics that seem ubiquitous in our everyday lives?

Just finished getting help translating my Latin homework from Dan. It took me over an hour to translate 3 sentences of English into Latin in an exercise of gerunds and gerundives. eep.

I also went across the street from the LAC to the mezzanine where there is a book sale going on. Books, lovely books i will never read. I bought a novel by Ursula Hegi, a novel by Saul Bellow, The Great Gatsby (which i hated when i read it in high school, but am determined to try again), and a book of “where do our current expressions come from” for my Dad who is currently enthralled with CJAD’s morning feature “So now you know.”

I am going to put together a summer wish-list, mostly reading but some other interesting stuff too, for posterity. you will all laugh and how nerdy and unaccomplishable it will be.

i only have an hour and a half left before class begins, so i had better get to writing that pesky paper i put off last night to watch House. Then a headache set in, so i went to bed instead of working. I feel much better this morning though (well, afternoon now) though. i promise i will write that “what if” post one of these days. i have just been writing so much that i don’t feel up to sustaining an argument for very long. most likely over the week-end. i promise. wait, no i don’t. i’ll try. it’s my blog, so cope.

yesterday when i was in the languages department, i noticed a flyer saying that for $2100 you could learn Russia in St. Petersburg for a month. Accomodations and airfare were included. I am so envious of anyone actually going on this trip. There are more canals in St. Petersburg than in Venice. Maybe between my undergrad and grad school. wouldn’t that be lovely? anyone feel like volunteering to go with me?

Last night i spent the evening writing another two pages for my paper on banishment. i am worried that i am going to go way over the word limit for the final draft and will have to cut out sections integral to my argument. eep. i am worried.

other than that, i should most definitely be doing readings, writing and researching (notice the lack of arithmetic in that list. Down with Math!) instead of blogging. i have already killed a good twenty minutes trying to explain to the history department that i CAN’T apply to take a class at McGill through the web portal because something went wrong with my sign-up information. i am so tired of this mess. Concordia’s support staff is supposed to be going to the negotiating tables tomorrow for their collective agreement. I hope they get nothing. Well, everyone except Lina. she deserves a lot of thanks. the rest of the staff i have encountered have been so very ineffectual that i cannot conceive of giving them MORE money for nothing.

i woke up this morning pretty pissed off at the world in general. Last night there was a commuting crisis at my house. I love my parents. They rock as parents and people, but i cannot cope with sharing living quarters with anyone right now. i really really wish i was well-enough off financially to move out into that cute little studio with kitchenette that is for rent in the downtown core for $385/month utilities included according to craiglist. oh well. that’s what i did last night - daydream about moving out.

so, this morning i woke up and decided that for the first time this semester, i will leave my laptop at home today. Tagging all the old entries would be too enticing and i have work to do. Yesterday i spent six hours of my day typing up five pages of the paper due on banishment as a punishment for sexual misconduct in late medieval england on thursday. i think i will meet the deadline, but i am going to have to keep trucking. yesterday i also dyed Steve’s hair very very dark blue - today is the day of the double adjective.

well, i woke up to check my emails, etc. much earlier than needed (another reason i was in a horrid mood) to discover that Skrud had very obligingly sent me a link to website’s where i can download NES and SNES emulators and ROMS. Yeah retro gaming. another reason i am leaving the laptop at home today. i liked Mario Bros. way way (hehe) too much.

So, i am feeling better. i have an idea for another “what if” post brewing in the back of my oh-so-blonde head. I hope you don’t mind the new hosting service, because i like it. I am found of burgundy. Not as much as i am found of orange, but what can you do?

I have been meaning to write this particular post for a while.

When IPODs first came out, or, more correctly, when you first started to see them being used by a large portion of the public transport using population, i couldn’t understand what the big deal was. they seemed to be like everything else in this weird, other-culture fearing province - A FAD. A fad like car tempos and those rather pretty, but inexplicably popular icicle-style christmas lights. since then, i have decided that i want an IPOD Nano. Well, i want a real IPOD, but i am poor. However, i don’t really know why i want one, which is the main reason i don’t have one already. if i can’t come up with one good reason why i think it will at least make my life more pleasurable, i don’t think i should put out that kind of cash. i don’t listen to music that much because i find it difficult to concentrate on what i’m reading when it’s playing, even instrumental jazz which is what i listen to the most. i do listen to music when doing latin homework (which i won’t be having next year, sadly) and i am pretty certain i would use an IPOD on public transport because i rarely go to the trouble of taking the book i “should” be reading out of my bag.

However, and this is what caused me to finally put up this post, after reading an entry on Guillaume’s blog, i discovered pandora by the music genome project. it’s a personal DJ. i can taylor a radio system to my specific tastes. the most awesome piece of internet technology i have seen all year. of course, i can’t load pandora onto an IPOD, but it sure does give me good suggestions for making purchases at the MusicStore.

Okay, so why am i writing this? Because i need help. I cannot make this life-changing (LOL) decision on my own. Consider this a survey on what you think of the IPOD fad…

Factors to consider with the specific advice you give me that have not been previously mentioned:

(a) currently an IPOD represents over two weeks salary and i am trying to save up so as not to work next semester.

(b) yes, i have a MAC so ITUNES is my software of choice.

(c) i have been to all of two live concerts in my life. i prefer the theatre.

(d) i am horribly intimidated by the musically-knowledgeable.

So, whatcha think? why do you have one or not have one and what light can you shed on my particular conundrum?

good morning.

firstly, some administrative nonsense: john completely denies the description of his flirting i posted earlier this week. apparently he is NOT touchy. i also got pretty raked over the coals for having a blog in general, but i like a good ribbing, so i can cope. it has come to my attention that if you are accessing this site via livefeed or bloglines, you do not see the post a comment link. well, i encourage anyone capable of telling me why this is to do so. i will happily fix it. if no solutions are forthcoming in the next week, i will change the template to include a note about that problem.

on to the interesting stuff. (HA).

My BOSS rec’d a ticket for not stopping at a stop-sign Wednesday night. She decided to write a LETTER to attach to the ticket because she wants to contest it. This is the letter (i rewrote it for her, don’t worry), capitalization, spelling and punctuation pristine. She had proof-read it and just wanted me to “double-check” because i’m good at these things. Please note: thouh her first language is not English, she’s Greek, she went through at least 7 years (if not her entire schooling career) in the english school system. i had previously thought illiteracy was dead in Canada. She has been working in an office environment for the past twenty-three years. Lord help me, she is my supervisor.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am contesting this ticket 011160573, Reason being I made my stop.

I pass by this particular stop everyday for 4 1/2 yeas.

This was not the first time that I seeing police officer pulling drivers over on the side.

But it was the first time I was pulled over.

They had stropped about 3 to 5 cars before i got there.

I saw a police officer 1/2 ways downs the street.

And pulled me over on the side. I asked what happed.

I was advised that I did not come to a full stop.

This is not the first time I see police at this stop

I have never being stopped before, I always do my stop

(I do not deserve to get this ticket)

Thank you,

Do you think she has more of a chance that a snowball in hell?

Well, i have spent the last three evenings researching an “optional” reflection on Machiavelli(not writing it meant the final paper would be worth an extra 15% of our grade). Last night, i rewrote the same paragraph over and over again for an hour and a half. it was infuriating because i really did have some good material to discuss. eventually i gave up in disgust over my incompetence and inefficiency at having dedicated so much time to a project i would not even complete.

i woke up at 4:30 this morning and lay there thinking. i decided to get up and write the paper taking a different angle (complacency and maintenance of the state rather than corruption and maintenance of the state) that had just occurred to me. at 6:15, when i normally get up to get ready for work, i was finishing the last bibliography entry. i feel like i have already accomplished a lot today, but i am not thoroughly convinced the paper is any good because i only JUST wrote it and am reading it over. oh well. at least i feel better. i am sure that feeling will fade by 5pm when i will be exhausted.

other than that, i am doing ok. i think i am going to ask my parents to help fund my getting a train pass for next year instead of getting driven in all the time because it is just so much more efficient. i don’t know though. i found a course offered at mcgill on tuesdays and thursdays (Renaissance to Reformation) that i am very interested in, but i don’t have classes on tuesdays and thursdays otherwise. i am trying to find out how you register for classes at another university and then get them converted into credits at Concordia.

And, lastly, some thoughts on the CJAD news report this morning:

(a) not that i am saying that the Christian “peace” missionaries deserved to be kidnapped - far from it - but am i the only one that doesn’t find it surprising that a theocratical regime will react violently to a group openly engaging in proselytizing?

(b) if the montreal municipal government wants citizens to do something about the litter on the streets, shouldn’t they consider having garbage cans at at least every bus stop? The street i work on doesn’t have a single garbage can on it and people eat their lunches in front of the buildings all summer. It’s not like Meilleur isn’t a busy street…

again i am waiting for my mother to get ready to leave for work/school.

i think i have mentioned in a previous post that i think that a certain John character is one of the most atrocious, yet accomplished, flirts i have ever met. i would like to analyze the behaviour he partakes in to make me feel this way and ask any male readers whether or not the same sort of action would be interpreted as flirting or mothering if a woman acted this way towards them.

when John starts to talk to you, he at first is very flippant. you are being kind of frivolous and are, hence, amusing. slowly he appears to be paying more and more attention to what you are saying, this is mostly conveyed by making small, sacrastic remarks that are not really mean, but borderline. then this too stops. he looks you in the eyes, and, eventually, manages to get the very tips of his fingers in the small of your back, or on your shoulder. when walking by, if you are in the way, he always makes sure to do the same. a guiding push per say. now, it’s not really as methodolical as i have written it out - this makes him sound like a master plan kind of guy, which i’m not saying he is, but i am creating a trend we can analyze. ok. so, if a woman got more and more rapt into your conversation and proceeded to lay a hand on you ever so gently … is this flirting or mothering? if she lays a hand on your shoulder when she walks by you … is it flirting or mothering? John usually ends one of these encounters with some insanely inappropriate comment that he gets away with because a bubble of solitude has been built up that creates a context of “okayness.” you both know it’s just playing, no one else will hear about it, so it’s “okay.” yeah. i like john. you can tell. i always feel really pretty, feminine, but smart after ten minutes. i guess this is proof of the attraction principle that says you like people who make you feel good about yourselves.

i like you too Lorne. i think you will see a bit of a description of our luncheon dates/emails in this description too.

on a daily update note: i can’t stop sleeping. i fall asleep at 9pm, wake up to do more work, fall asleep again, set an alarm to get up early, get up before the alarm and turn it off, and still get up insanely late. i am not going to get any work done at this rate.

i am not inclined to do this very often, cite myself, but i spent a couple of minutes articulating this argument on someone else’s blog and would like to share it.

you can click on this Link to read the original post by impudent strumpet and my reply.

it’s odd because this discussion of entitlement came up in a course last week with a guy who teaches at LCC.

other than that, i am good. it is a little early in the morning for a full-fledged update (i haven’t done anything interesting). i have tons of studying to do before classes start at 2:45 and my mother, as usual, is taking forever to get ready. we are supposed to have left the house by now. oh well.