firefly

Jeff and I finished watching the firefly series tonight. I actually forgot how good of a show it is.

John and I were talking the other night what exactly it is about the show that makes it so great - we agreed on the characters and the development of the characters. It isn't necessarily the setting, or even the events or circumstances the crew finds themselves in, it is much more how the characters behave and interact that has really attracted me to the series.

I am now ready to see Serenity. I have heard good things about it, so my expectations might be a little high. I am sure I won't be disappointed.

We are looking forward to fitting it into our weekend plans.

a day of activities

After a fairly lazy week, it is about time I got myself outta the house.

To start of the day, I met with her for lunch at Louis'. After a month of cancelled lunch dates, and busy schedules we finally got to sit down and have a nice visit. It was a good update on each others lives.

I was then off to a meeting with the profs who run the International Business specialization, and the other students who are also in the specialization. We discussed our own project interests relating to regional areas, industries, and specific companies. I have been looking very seriously at HP, and IBM, 2 of the Top 100 companies to work for in Canada. I have also considered the possibility of government and government agencies - Export Development of Canada being at the top of my list.

As part of our meeting the professors also provided us with certain opportunities that they currently have on their desks. They range from a Sendai opportunity, to opportunites within the Ukraine, and finally a couple of opportunities with SRC in India.

I am feeling a little disgruntled regarding my project at this point, as there seems to be no assistance from the profs in helping you set up contact with companies you may have an interest in. I guess I assumed that by being an advisor of an International Business Specialization you would have some contacts that would better facilitate a connection between student and company. However, it is not that way. I have initiated contact with a number of companies (HP, IBM, Dell, BioWare, SRC, Saskatoon Regional Economic Development), and I guess we will see if I get a response. If I don't get some sort of response or interest by the end of November, it looks like I will be selecting one of the research projects that my advisor has available. I guess I better get to work on finding something, and soon!

For the remainder of my afternoon, I hope to get in some wall climbing and visiting with Brennan. And then it is off to Suzi's for a little Earthdawn. It has been 3 weeks since we last played. I can't believe it. I am really looking forward to some quality friend time this evening.

I have found it awfully strange that the week I don't have class, I have pretty much holed myself up in my house and hardly saw the light of day, let alone my friends. I miss them. I guess I should get off my lazy butt and call them.

Anywho, I am just rambling now.....

Are you a movie buff?

Haven't had much to write about on my lazy week off, so let's have some fun.

See if you can name the movie, and the character/actor who says it.

1. It's past ten. My daughter is in pain. I don't understand why she has to have this pain. All she has to do is hold out until ten, and IT'S PAST TEN! My daughter is in pain, can't you understand that! GIVE MY DAUGHTER THE SHOT!.

2. What kind of sick bitch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?

3. Sometimes, when you lose, you win.

4. You are drunk, and when you are drunk you forget that I am in charge!

5. And we'll always be friends forever. Won't we?

6. Yeah. You know, it occurs to me that the best way to hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.

7. You make me wish I had three hands.

Have fun. I'll post the answers in the comments section in a few days.

Nostalgia

So...

I have a box in my closet of childhood stuff my mother made me take sometime ago (last winter, in fact). I am not sure I had gone through it since I brought it home.

I recalled the box o' stuff when I was home at Thanksgiving, and I wanted to get out my pointe shoes to show my neice. She is taking ballet, and has yet to show me anything she has learnt. I was hoping that by showing her my ballet shoes, she would open up. Nevertheless, I couldn't find my pointe shoes in my closet, and said to my mom, 'they must be home in Saskatoon.' Sure enough, there they were, in the box, as I had thought.

I got them out tonight, and tried them on. I did that?! Ouch! I am almost certain my feet have not grown, as I have been wearing the same size since I was 12, which is around the time I started pointe. But boy, did it hurt, with my toes all scrunched up - I guess it must have always been like that. Ah well, it was fun to get them out, try them on, and do up my ribbons. It brought back fond memories of dance.

I only wish I could have taken pointe for longer than the 2 months I did. It was the fall of '89 (I think) when we were to start pointe in ballet class (and curling at school for that matter). We hadn't had more than 4 or 5 classes and I went and twisted my ankle. It sucked. That was it for pointe for me. I had been looking forward to the day I would get to do pointe in ballet class and this happened. Not only did I twist my ankle once, but twice and thrice. I slipped on the ice during my first curling game, and that was it for curling as well.

I never returned to either of those activities again.

The box 'o stuff also had my childhood sticker book. As the inside cover states:

This sticker collection is the Property of
My name MarciaDianne Minto
My address box 15*9
Biggar, Sask
My phone number 948-5**6

I started this collection on Dec. 25th 1983
I have 70 300 stickers
My favorite sticker is a prettie
My prettiest sticke is a Butterfly rainbow

I had a good time looking through all the stickers I had collected. I was always (and still am) especially fond of all the smelly stickers I have. I got a kick outta the gooli-eyed ones. I am not sure Jeff was overly enthused by my excitment of my lost and forgotten sticker book; I had fun remembering.

Finally, a break

Well, kind of.

The last couple of weeks at school have been a whirlwind of assigments, exams, and group work. I am so glad that it is done. Mostly, because I really need to catch up on sleep, begin eating right and exercising.

I guess us MBA students are special grad students, as we have a Reading Week this next week, which means no class, but lots 'o reading. I have The Human Equation to read (about 350 pages) and a load of handouts (about 300 pages). I am not too worried about them, as they are prep for our next module which mostly looks at the Human Resources function. I should be able to breeze through most of the readings.

Besides reading, I plan on sleeping in, playing CoH, and being lazy. Looking forward to it.

home at last

Now that was a long day.

I spent the day working on a group case analysis. Wasn't really my idea to spend 16 hours at the university doing schoolwork today, but I did.

The great thing is, I still love it.

Hockey is Back!

A little late in the fall, but never the less HOCKEY has started.

Today was the first game, and there was an excellent turnout. Perhaps that means the proposed $40 charge for October to December is negotiable. Now that I am a starving student I can't really afford that much for only 2 months. I really hope the price goes down cuz I had such a blast tonight. However, I definitely could tell that I haven't played in a few months..in fact the amount of exercise I have been getting lately is pretty pathetic.

No goals tonight. I played mostly defense, and thought that it went pretty good. It took me awhile to warm up, but once I got into the game I thought I did ok. Of course I don't compare to the actual hockey players that play, but for someone who has played very little, I do ok.

I really hope I can make this a permanent Monday night event. I guess we will see.

what a day.....

After 10 long and painful hours, I think I need to pack it in.

I have been working very diligently at my finance/accounting take home exam and I am ready to either jump off one of our many bridges or seek revenge on 2 of my wonderful profs (my finance and accounting profs are awesome...SO SMART).

I guess what has frustrated me the most about today is that I know the amount of input is not going to even come close to the output (%mark) I get for this assignment. We have 2 exam questions that are combined with our in-class written portion for a mere 10%.

Another frustration is the difficulty level of the question. OK....I understand the reasoning behind giving the class harder questions than in class - they want us to apply what we have learned to different situations....FINE, that makes sense. But when most of the class is struggling (ie. most of us are barely grasping what is going on in class), and the take-home exams are nothing like the examples in class, what do they expect? Personally, I am grasping things much better than a lot of other people (though likely around 1/2) and I obviously I am having quite a hard time with the questions.

Sorry, I trailed off a bit there...

So my second frustration is simply this - I stopped learning anything from either exam question about 4 hours in. I seem to be more concerned with getting it right, or make sure the numbers match, or making sure my spreadsheet is linked properly, that I have stopped caring completely about trying to understand what the numbers mean. Analysis - screw that! I am just trying to understand if I am using the right formulas in the right places.

So....

I guess what I am really saying, is that it would make more sense to give more simplified exam questions that relate (slighty, anyways) to the examples that are presented in class. This way I would likely care more about understanding what I was doing. I am sure I have spent half my day stewing, and being frustrated over the complexity of the question. Plus I think I am a little burnt out. You may have determined that from the litte rant I just had.

Anywho, I think it is time to take the advice of my dad and uncle and go cool off, and take a break. Probably a good idea to give me brain a break..it does have a headache.

Lots 'o popcorn and a movie sound like exactly what I need. Oh, and the beer I am drinking seems to be helping.

13 hours and 30 minutes

What a long day...

Arrived at school, 7:45 am.

Class, 8:30am to 1:00pm.

Lunch, 1:00pm to 1:45pm.

Indigenous Awareness Session, 1:45pm to 4:00 pm.

Cultural debate with classmates, 4:00pm to 5:45pm.

PAC Centre, 5:55pm to 6:30pm.

Coffee with Brennan at Alexanders, 6:30pm to 7:45pm.

Typed up study notes, 8:00pm to 9:15pm.

Home, 9:30pm.

exhausted

so much turkey

my tummy hurts....

Two turkey dinners was more than enough for me this weekend. I even made sure that I didn't take too much, and avoided seconds. Yet, I feel so full..so full it is gross. I hate feeling like this.

I had turkey dinner with my family last night out in Biggar, and then again with Jeff's family in the city tonight. It was nice to visit with the family, but both visits were relatively short, due to my heavy work load from school.

My favourite part about any turkey dinner, be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, is the leftovers. I never get sick of turkey. I can eat it for days and still enjoy it. I managed to scam a whole bunch of turkey from my mom this year, and my mouth is literally drooling thinking of the turkey buns I will be making for lunch tomorrow (yes, even though I feel full and gross, I am still anticipating those delicious turkey buns tomorrow). I even made a quick batch of buns this afternoon so that I would be prepared.

Well, I should get back to the homework or go to bed....so exhausted, and a very busy week ahead of me.

Musical Montage

It has been a long time since I have been able to say 'I have a favourite band', or 'they're my favourite band.'

When I was younger I liked a lot of popular 80's music. As I got into my teens I headed off into the genre of rap & r&b, and continued with that for a number of years. However, once I hit university my interest in particular genres died out and I become somewhat of a electic listener. I liked dance, rap, rock, classical, jazz, easy listening...you name it. The number of cd's I purchased dropped off drastically because most of the music I listened to was a song here or there on the radio or in the bar.

The other day I thought about the cds I have recently bought. I could only come up with 5 cd's that I have purchased in the last 4 years, and 3 of them are the LOTR soundtracks.

So...back to my original comment - Fave Band, that would be Nickelback. I have enjoyed their music for the last number of years. I really like them a lot. I listened to the last album, The Long Road, excessively on many a work road trip. Their new album, All the Right Reasons, is excellent (I am listening to it right now). Savin' Me is my favourite song off the new album. So good.

Seasonal Blahs

In reading a friends post the other day, I got thinking about how I have been feeling lately.

In my lifetime (more so in the last few years) there have been certain unsettling, even tramatic events that have happened to me. And for some reason they all tend to occur at the same time of year.

Even after getting past these events (and sometimes not), there still lingers an unhappy feeling each time that particular season rolls around.

Fall really isn't the best time of year for me....

Why does it always have to be about the way we look?

Over the course of the last month I have visit the PAC Centre on a number of occasions, and I am quite disturbed at the number of girls who feel the need to check themselves out and fix their hair in the mirror before going to work out.

What's up with that? When did the gym become a place where you had to be concerned about how you look? Aren't you just going to get all sweaty?

Has it always been this way? I guess if it has I have just never noticed, or paid any attention. However, at the university it is all around me. Everywhere I turn in the change room there is someone fixing their hair, or making sure they look 'just right' in whatever workout clothes they are wearing.

That is just sad. I am glad I don't feel (and never have for that matter) the need to look my best or impress others when I go to work out. I am there to be heathly and feel good about myself, not make sure I look good enough so that others will stare at me. If people don't like how I look at the gym that is there problem, not mine. Geez...

I realize that women (and men) want to look good in order to attract the opposite sex, but come on, keep it outta the gym. Because you know what, I am not going to look good, I am going to look red, sweaty, and gross.

Log

What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs,
Rolls over your neighbour's dog?
What's great for a snack and fits on your back?
It's log log log!
It's lo-og, lo-og, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood
It's lo-og, lo-og, it's better than bad, it's good!
Everyone wants a log,
You're gonna love it log,
Come on and get your log,
Everyone needs a log!

Reading

This weekend has been jam-packed full of reading for next weeks classes.

12 CHAPTERS......

I got 2 chapters done yesterday (woulda had done more, but I was just too damn tired), and so far, I got 2 chapters done today. My goal for today was to read 4 altogether, so only 2 more to go.

I think I have done more reading in the last month then I did during my entire undergrad degree. Now that is sad.

Well, back to the reading....

127

Our second MBASS event took place yesterday afternoon at Eastview Bowl. Myself and 10 of my classmates went 10-pin bowling...what a blast.

I think I have only done 10-pin one other time before, however I have 5-pin bowled many a time. I guess the advantage to 10 pin is there are more pins to knock down. I started off pretty sucky with a total score of 86 in the first game, however I made a turn around by the third game and was the winner from our lane with 127. I got a double..2 strikes in a row. Wahoo!

I think I need to go bowling more, it is a lot of fun. If anyone is ever up for a bowl night, let me know. It would be a nice change from the computer gaming and movie watching I spend most of my time doing.