Grad Class of 201x

When we were wee kids, prepubescent and hairy only on our heads (save for David H.), we took for granted that our elementary education will end after 8 years (in a K~7 school). All the friends you met while tussling around on the gravel filled playground will likely be with you until grade 7, except for the exotic few that become transfer students. We were dynamic back then; I say dynamic because two-faced has a horrible connotation a la Batman. We can like some of our classmates one day, and then disregard them the next, only to be best friends before the week is done. All we know was that we were stuck together until grade 8.

Then comes high school. The sparkle of newness, and what some would suggest where work actually starts kicking in. Freshmen usually have their bouts of friends shuffling as people's interests diverge from lego building and tag on the playground, but typically seniors have a set clique they belong to. The transfer students become less unusual, and they too integrate well with the rest of the school's society. As we sit in our gowns in our grad ceremony, we wonder about those that weren't there with us - the kid in math that moved onto a better high school last year, the girl that had to drop out of school for personal reasons, and the guy who didn't pass enough grade 12 courses to graduate this year. Yet, most people at the valedictory has been there for the whole 5 years.

I guess what I'm getting at is that there are typically a set amount of time you spend at each institution, before you are shuttled off to do (usually) bigger and (hopefully) better things. That breaks down once university starts. There are so many factors that goes into determining how many years your education is going to take up. There are people that I started university with that are going to be gone at the end of next year, and those that will be graduating in what is the typical 4 years, as well as those who will be stuck doing their degrees in 5 or more years, for whatever reason.

All I know is that, a bulk of the people that I started UBC with will be gone before I'm out of here, when I'm out of here. Nothing set in stones, but I'm looking at being UBC grad '13.

Smile

So I deemed that I've spent enough time (although not getting enough done) studying to justify doing a real blog entry, especially since now, I have a topic.

I was reading someone's blog ("Chris") and I came across this little gem -

"Now, you probably think I'm a fanatical fan of The Secret. And I want you to know that I'm not. This isn't about wishful thinking becoming a reality. It's more of a, to put it lightly, radical cognitive shift in perception of reality.

If reading that mouthful of a sentence didn't make you smile you can stop reading now. For the rest of you please continue.

What the heck is a radical blah blah thingy? It's what happens when you smile. Life just gets better when you smile. And when life gets better, its easier to see the good in every situation. Hence the radical (large) cognitive (thought) shift (change) in (in) perception (what you see) of (of) reality (life)"

At first I thought it was going to be a cute Malcom Gladwell-esque inspirational story. Then I got to the last paragraph, and I had a full-hearted chuckle. If you've been around me much this term, you'll find that I have been (besides klutzy) sleep deprived muchly and sometimes giggle over the most obscure things, but I don't think it's that (I know that my sleep debt over the term probably isn't recovered by last night's good sleep, but I think I'm relatively well rested).

I think it'd be amazing to hear this person ("Chris") read this passage out loud. Of course this is after going through about a year's worth of blog entries, so this person is starting to be real for me.

Smile. That's an interesting concept. I have been trying to smile at people, strangers and acquaintances alike, with some different results. I think most of the time people thought "who is this retard grinning at me?" Although sometimes I'd get people that'd smile back at me. My days recently have been a little bit better, although I don't know if that's a function of the smiling or the smilin (bio exam joke) or just the reduction in work.

Maybe it's just because I've been able to watch shows like Glee. I find it funny all these things I'm into, BLISS, Glee, maybe I'm just destined to watch others be happy. Oddly enough, there were two songs titled smile in the recent episode

"Smile, though your heart is aching,

smile even though it's breaking.

When there are clouds in the sky,

you'll get by.

If you smile, through your pain and sorrow,

smile and maybe tomorrow,

you'll see the sun come shining through for you"

Charlie Chaplin's Cover

Hopefully the sun will shine through for me tomorrow.

Fruit loops, what's the deal?

So after seeing a jumbo box a few days ago, I had hankering for fruit loops. They're a weird thing - it's sold as a cereal, but I think it's the only cereal that I prefer to have with a cup of milk, as opposed to in a bowl a milk. Is it cereal (in the commercial sense) if I eat it dry then drink milk?

Of course, I am no endorsing Fruit Loops in any way. Tide-to-go, I'm not so sure. I've bought a tide to go and left it in my backpack because of Paul, my lab supervisor, wholeheartedly supports the owning (ownage) of a tide to go. I haven't personally used it, but my friend spilled coffee on herself, and when offered, she spread about half the tube's content on herself in a crowd of people. Suddenly a flurry of questions came "OMG, is that a tide to go?" "OMG, does it actually work?" "Omg, I totally meant to get one of those because I'm the biggest klutz I know, but I didn't know it worked so well"

Yeah. Lets try for a real post before new years eh?

Jeblah

That basically describes how I view life in the past while. Things just been piling on, and every time I shovel through something, I only expose my vision to another couple of mounds. In a sense it's kinda like the mound of leaves at UBC between the SUB and Hebb. The pile's been there since October, and you continuously see a container there being filled up with leaves, but the mound never disappears. I'm assuming that by December 22nd, the courtyard by the knoll will finally be cleared.

I'm talking about getting drunk too much. A- I don't even do that that often, B- if I really wanted to do that, I should've just gotten her done.

But yes, getting frustrated lately (although surprisingly happy when someone picked it up). Although when asked why, I gave to reasons, and the reply was how come I'm putting those two things in the same league. Response? I've been lonely my whole life, but it's only very recently that I've been slapped in the face with being incompetent.

Lets see who's more incompetent come September.

Remember, remember, the 11th of November

Remembrance day is beginning to become a lot less ceremonial as of late. Through out high school and elementary school, there are always assemblies and ceremonies in which we can take that time to remember. With the lack of participating in services, I don't think we so much as remember/respect less, but the reason for why we do it is under more scrutiny.

This hits especially hard because of mine being drafted. Maybe I should go serve, pay tribute to those in Flander's field, as well as those who managed to stay out of Flander's field. Of course me serving won't actually result in any benefit to my nation.

Yet even looking around, the number of poppies decrease significantly. No longer is someone not wearing it the odd one out, but rather the people who do wear it.

Perhaps it's because the living veterans lowers as the years go on. But lest we forget, n'oublions pas.

Gotta give us non-mathematicals credit too.

Obviously my priority at the moment is School > BMC > SUS > TV > blogging.

So what happened lately? I got my BMC job, despite awkward Auckland answer. I am currently getting jobs in order of projected rowdiness. I started with the comp sci beer garden which eventually went into a dance circle. Two weeks later I did the chem beer garden, which had quite a few people wasted out of their mind. Next week I get to do the sorority event, which will be interesting how that goes.

I'm going through the typical freshman phase again- y'know, the phase in which people are learning about who you are, making up quirky nicknames, the whole shebang. I somehow managed to escape that last year, which I thought was a testament of how university is a much more mature place than high school. Turns out I was just hanging out with the wrong crowd. Nothing extreme or as awesome as dishrag, but enough to be interesting.

The.

"All this self-hating violent crap, how's that working for you?"

Horribly. But I don't really deserve anything else.