A skittery, erratic attempt at a weblog. Rambles will be indulged and depths will be plumbed. Who knows what I'll come up with?
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| Fragments A skittery, erratic attempt at a weblog. Rambles will be indulged and depths will be plumbed. Who knows what I'll come up with? |
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004 Weather: partly cloudy Listening to: Kate Bush, "This Women's Work" Taking a break from: reading old journal/blog entries...so narcissistic.... A Slice of Fitness lol. just...lol.
No, all things considered, I'm not sure I think 'success' and 'brilliance' really belong on that list...I'm not downplaying where I am in my life, but.... And fitness is just laughable...although A Slice Of Fitness sounds like the companion volume to Fitness Is Religion, the dubious tome of exercise advice I received -- to my shock -- as a prize for the highest mark in grade 11 physical education. Better, maybe, to go with my full given name instead of a nickname:
Hm. Energy eh...I'd like to be able to tap into some of that.... Oh well, maybe I'm just not meant to be summed up in cocktail form. Personality cocktail From Go-Quiz.com posted by susan | 1:27 AM Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Weather: rainy Listening to: Frou Frou, "Holding Out For A Hero" Taking a break from: watching talking heads talk I'm kind of confused I don't think I totally get politics. This is why I've stayed out of it to date; however, I figured I can't really go into hiding every time an election is called, so I decided to go out and get used to participating. But I really don't get it. I'm hoping people can help me get a handle on this. When I was trying to figure out who to vote for, I didn't even consider the Liberals. How can I root for a party that wastes and outright LOSES lots and lots of money, then turns around and promises lots of lots of money for health care/child care/environmental policy/whatever? How am I supposed to believe that? The sponsorship and gun registry money would have paid for an MRI machine or two. I don't...GET it. I'm not trying to make a point, I'm just really, REALLY CONFUSED. Why do they deserve to be in charge again? We get to choose who's in control of tax money, which is OUR money, and we choose a party that cheats and steals. No, I had to choose between the conservatives and the NDP. Because the CPC and the NDP actually stand for something. They stand for totally DIFFERENT things, but they have ideals. I feel like the Liberal party stands for getting and maintaining power, and would pretty much say anything to do it. Maybe that's just what Canada's like, I don't know; we like to have pleasant things said at the right times, whether they follow a consistent ideal or not. But, I mean, seriously. *sigh* Don't mind me. I just hate politics. ~SQ P.S. And one other thing: what the hell is the deal with the knee-jerk "OMGWTF-you actually-would-consider-voting-conservative-how-disgusting-of-you" reaction?? posted by susan | 12:11 AM Sunday, June 27, 2004 Weather kind of blowing hot and cold Listening to: Annie Lennox, "Whiter Shade of Pale" Taking a break from: biology practice passages Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Trying to make this place look a bit more like home. Consequently the look might change slightly over the next few weeks. Probably only VERY slightly, since my HTML skills are limited to tweaking and bugging Julie for help, but I'm working on it. That "totally under construction here" thing was starting to annoy me. ~SQ posted by susan | 7:52 PM Saturday, June 26, 2004 Weather: sunny, few scadding clouds Listening to: Tori, "Icicle" Not doing: heh...I am going to fail this bloody exam...hehheh Ten Items of Potterania I Want... ...not counting the list of items required for Hogwarts Students (wand, cauldron, quills, spellbooks, dragonhide gloves, etc. etc.): 10. Rita Skeeter's QuickQuotes Quill. 9. Remembrall. Better than Hermione's enchanted planner. 8. A bell jar full of time. 7. Owl. 6. The Weasley's 3-bedroom-flat tent. 5. The Maurader's Map. 4. Invisibility Cloak. 3. Time Turner. "We mustn't be seen!!" 2. Fawkes. 1. Pensieve. posted by susan | 12:56 PM Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Weather: freaking gorgeous Listening to:birds chirping Not doing:oh my lord, I have so much work to catch up on...oh well!! Cleverness abounding If you're just dying for more trips to the Department of Backstory, the Snowy Glade of Teenage Weeping, and the Rocks of Gigantitude, check out Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban In 15 Minutes, by Cleolinda Jones. But don't check it out till you've seen the movie. :) ~SQ [edit] Just read Troy In 15 Minutes, same author. Also hysterical. Going to check out the rest of her stuff. [/edit] posted by susan | 1:19 PM Monday, June 07, 2004 Weather: theeere's the summer stuff I remember. Listening to: Badly Drawn Boy, "Bewilderbeast" Not doing: basement tidying, diagnostic MCAT postmortem May I just state for the record... ...that it's WRONG that I did worse in verbal than orgo. Oh well. I blame the f*cking marching band. ~SQ posted by susan | 10:37 PM Sunday, June 06, 2004 Weather: It was a really nice temperature today. Now if only the sun had poked its head out. Listening to: Goddess Tori Not doing: much Reflections and revelations Reflections: We Princeton Hyperlearning MCAT geeks had our first mock MCAT on Saturday, designed to give us exposure to the test and get us used to the format, time restrictions, etc. etc. It was also, of course, the first time that our grasp of the material itself was actually tested. But I'm going to let that worry about itself (or save worrying about it for another post); for now, here's a very short list of non-scholastic, non-strategical tips and thoughts that occurred to me while writing. Hopefully it will be helpful to others of you in my place, and make those of you NOT in my place even happier not to be. Ahem. -While writing the MCAT is NOT the optimal time to entertain serious second thoughts about your chosen career path. Although very tempting while puzzling through a fiendish physics passage, thought patterns such as "My God! This is awful! I don't need this! I could be farming oysters in Bali!" are unnecessarily distressing, and not likely to be of much use. If thoughts such as this occur to you, take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Remind yourself that, although bivalve aquaculture may seem appealing at this moment in time, it too is likely fraught with complications and stresses of its own of which you are simply not aware. Be calm. -C is a lovely letter. While A seems headstrong and overconfident, B insecure and filled with self-doubt, and D the lazy arrogant smartass at the back of the room, C seems self-possessed and filled with a rare, understated grace. I have faith in C, probably more faith than I have in God: when faced with an incomprehensible question, or a passage I have deemed a NEVER, I look to the wisdom of answer-choice C to deliver to me the 25% of correct answers that are my birthright by random guess. It HAS occurred to me to worry that I am picking my refuge letter based on entirely arbitrary anthropomorphization of the letters at hand, but I haven't started yet. -The University of Toronto has far, far nicer buildings than McMaster. Bllllahh. -Situation has everything to do with perception. An event which would inspire joy and well-being in conjunction with one particular concert of factors has the ability to inspire frustration, annoyance and outright panic in conjunction with another. Case in point: a musical quartet at an orientation day lends a pleasant background to new student chatter, and fosters a deep sense of well-being -- so long as you're one of the new students. If, however, you are inside the room outside of which the quartet has stationed itself, and are attempting to assimilate passages about logic, rhetoric, cross-cultural psychology and horticulture above what sounds like the Super Mario Bros. theme on trumpet, it has quite a different effect. I believe I heard one male student mutter "Oh, sweet jesus!" under his breath when they swung into their fourth chorus. -There is little, if any, point in fretting about these mock tests which really don't mean anything to anyone. However, fretting is done -- fretting will always be done. This is one of those fundamental things about me, or about people, I'm not sure which. -It could have been worse. Revelations: I spent a lot of the day finally throwing out most of my old notes from high school and the past two years at Mac, but going through everything to pull out tests, assignments, essays etc. I want to keep these things because 1)I put effort into them, 2)they're probably a good way to keep a concise record of what I learned in what course and 3)I like seeing all my old teachers' comments -- it brings back memories of them and their classes. But it made me worry, too. First of all, I used to know a lot of languages, and I used to know them relatively well. I'm genuinely surprised at how much German grammar I knew how to use correctly and how many Mandarin characters I had mastered -- when did I know all that? Second of all, I wrote better term papers in grade 10 and 12 English than I have ever written for an English course at Mac. And finally...I don't know any more right now about the immune system, the digestive system, or biochemistry than I clearly did at the end of OAC biology. So...wtf have I been doing for the past two years? Tonight has confirmed what I've suspected for awhile: I was in fact smarter at the end of high school than I am right now. I was a better student, too -- I'm shocked at how much effort I put into my day-to-day homework, never mind my actual assignments. Why am I getting progressively stupider in my post-secondary education? If I'm not, why does it feel as if I am? And why am I losing information so quickly? There were passages on the mock MCAT taken almost directly from Prof. Belbeck's renal/endocrine lectures and Fox-Robichaud's GI lectures...why weren't they a snap for me? *sigh* Oh well. I'll keep doing the best I can I guess. Maybe I'm gaining intangibles. ~SQ P.S. Answer to Ava's first 2 questions: 1. Would you rather lose the ability to laugh or the ability to see color? Toughie. But, as much as I love that which is verdant or crimsoned or damask or illuminated or coloured in some other manner, laughter is fundamental to the way we relate to each other. I would miss art, and I would miss nature, but if I were to stop laughing I'd miss all of my friends and family, because it would be completely isolating. I'd have to give up the colour. 2. Would you rather be deaf, mute, or blind? Well, I've answered this question with respect to deaf and blind in an earlier post, at which point I explained why I'd rather be blind than deaf. This question throws the option of 'mute' in there...but seriously, knowing me, do you think I'd survive for two weeks without talking?? posted by susan | 11:51 PM Tuesday, June 01, 2004 Weather: it was warmer today, but it's been raining a lot too Listening to: the end of the Simpsons theme on TV Not doing: MCAT biology...waaaaiit.... Encore des réponses et un petit peu du catch-up...and I so don't speak French anymore What are three things [Ananda] doesn't know about [me]? Hm. If I come up with something that you already know about me, just note me. 1. My first favourite sticom was Home Improvement. 2. When I was little I invented a game that I played with my dad -- a version of hide-and-seek, except that you had to leave the other person a riddle poem that would leave a clue to where you were hiding. 3. I had 14 Barbies and 1 Ken. I think this was a semi-normal ratio -- I don't know anyone who had 1 Ken for each Barbie, I don't think. Polygyny from crêche level, although I didn't realize the creepiness of it at the time. Catch-up: Going to MCAT classes. Studying. Cleaning. Helping my parents pick a new computer. Sitting in the sun. Reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McColl Smith. Switching over to a breakfast/dinner/supper meal scheme. Getting jealous of my vacationing friends. Getting bored. Reading TIME magazine. Thinking seriously about federal politics for the first time. Registering for the MCAT itself. Talking to the occasional friend. Biding my time until work starts. Aching for people in pain. Planting flowers. Writing stuff. Listening to the radio. Waiting for summer. Having dessert. Watching late-night TV and waking up late. Wearing skirts. Wonderlanding with Mac people. Throwing out things. Reorganizing things. Checking my e-mail. Adjusting to being trapped with my parents. Adjusting to my parents. Finding out I didn't fail school. Thinking about my future, more than is comfortable. Fighting with my computer -- I think I've kind of won, it works better if I go on late at night. Missing people. Finding things. Wondering if I should be different, as always. Sleeping and eating and stuff. The usual. ~SQ posted by susan | 11:26 PM |
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