Some time later…

It’s been quite some time since I last posted in here. I forgot I even had this blog!

A lot has happened in the last year since I last posted. Well, maybe not a lot. I had a boyfriend and then broke up with him, so I guess that’s major-ish. We were together for  8 months and lived together pretty much for 6 of those months so it’s been a tough go, but I’m working through it!

I’ve also renewed my resolve to lose weight. I’m down about 25 pounds so far on the year which is nothing small! I could be doing better, but I want to be realistic about things, and take baby steps. I am not going to be able to stick to a life change if I head in cold turkey. I’ve tried it before, multiple times, and it’s never stuck. So I’ve started out by eating breakfast regularly, by bringing lunch to work more often and making more healthy choices than I have in the past. It seems to be working so far.

I had been working out with Paige, my cousin, and we were doing well for 2 weeks, but then I had some commitments and she had some commitments and we fell off the wagon. I am hoping to get back into it, but we were working out 5 days a week which is good, but at the level she had me at, again – not something I could commit to long-term. I recently discovered GroupOn and bought an unlimited monthly pass to Bikram Yoga for $24 so I am planning to do that starting tomorrow. I have heard good things and it’s not high impact which is a struggle for me.

I recently got home from Whistler for a bachelorette party which was great fun, but my knee still hurts from all the dancing at the pub crawl on Saturday night! So that’s where working out traditionally (at the gym) can be a struggle for me because I don’t want to do any lunges, any cardio, any squats or anything that has me using my knee because it hurts like a bitch and is swollen.

In any case, I’ll come back to this later. I’ve been reminded of it so I’m sure I’ll be here more often.

It has begun!

As of yesterday, roads in Richmond are closed. They’ve been closed in downtown Vancouver for about a week now I think. All in preparation for the Olympics!

Apparently, I cannot speak for the majority of metro Vancouver, but I for one am majorly excited! Yes, getting to work is going to be hellerific (I work directly across from the airport and down the road from the Olympic Oval and the south Terminal of the airport which is where all the dignitaries and politicians will be flying into) and everything will be busy all the time, but it’s the Olympics you guys! This is going to put our city on the map for real.

There’s been a lot of articles posted lately about how the games are costing 10x as much as was originally forecasted. And that kind of sucks and I’m not happy about it. But in their defense, nobody saw the economic crisis coming and that definitely was a major factor in that happening. And on the plus side, the Olympics are pretty much a pre-packaged stimulus package! I know a bazillion people who are working the Olympics, not just for the weeks during, but have been gainfully employed by Vanoc for quite some time now. Think of all the jobs that would be missing if we didn’t have the Olympics. I think things would be much worse. Plus, it’s all an investment. Yes the building and renovation of venues cost money, but these will last us for a very long time. Now that we have an Olympics speed skating oval, we can host world championships. Same with everything up in Whistler. It will be bringing people and business to the city for a long time.

In any case, I have my mittens, I have my hockey tickets, I’m good to go! Yay!

Oops I did it again…

Started a blog, resolved to update it regularly, and then forgot all about it. In my defense, my computer died a week after my last post and I had to get the harddrive replaced so while I had the good sense to back up my important documents, I didn’t do the same for all my favourites. I’m realizing now that there are a lot of things I used to do on the internet all the time that I’ve forgotten to do since I lost my favourites. These include: checking/updating my fantasy hockey league; checking 20+ blogs every day for new posts;  and, checking my livejournal friends page! And right before my computer died, I had favourited all these awesome crafty ideas. I’ll have to find some time to spend updating all that back again.

I thought I’d have so much more time this semester because I’m only taking 1 class, but I should have known better. What happens when I scale back on one thing, is I scale up on something else. So while I only have 1 class this semester versus 3, I’ve decided to take on a bunch of new important projects on a higher level with my volunteer club, so I’m probably even more busy  now because I don’t feel near as guilty about skipping out on school as I do on procrastinating on work for that. Bah.

I could type more, but I’m tired and if I don’t go to sleep now, I won’t go for another 1.5 hours.

Reminiscence

Tomorrow morning I’m going to get my H1N1 shot, which means on my week of vacation, I have to be at work tomorrow at 9am, which is how early I’d have to be there if I was working. Epic fail for that. However, being at work means I’m halfway to UBC, and I know it’s finals and I shouldn’t steal study space from current UBC students, but I’m an alumni and I have rights too! So depending on just how miserable the weather is, and whether I wake up early enough in the morning to get all my shit together, I may hop up to UBC and spend the day in Ike studying. I always did my best work there, no lies. Last minute papers, intense cramming sessions and all-nighters, no matter what the situation, Ike was always there for me. And I love him for it.

I’ve spent several hours studying in the “Coast Capital Savings Library” at Kwantlen Surrey, but it really doesn’t have the same ring to it. Plus, my go-to study wear is sweatpants and my UBC sweater and I can’t very well wear that to Kwantlen. I have been toying with the idea of just going for it and buying a Kwantlen sweater. I don’t really want to, but I need a comfy hoody to study in and I don’t have one that’s not a UBC one!

Whatever the case, I miss you UBC. This is a common trend of my blog posts, but whatever. It’s my blog; I can whine about what I want! I just can’t put into words the sadness I feel that I am not right now hanging out in Apt 217 in Gage apartments, or that I’m not a 9 minute walk away in Ike. That I can’t call Ines or Sonia, and just make a plan to hang out the next day in the break between our classes. I hate that I am studying a class that I loathe. I hate that I am in danger of failing a class. I’m at freaking Kwantlen, for god’s sake.

I wish I would have realized I wanted to do HR earlier. Then at least I could have done a commerce minor. I’m only taking one class at Kwantlen next semester and there’s 9 classes in the program, so if I continue to take just 1 class, it’ll take me 3 full years to finish the program. I don’t want to be in school that long! If I don’t get extended at the Foundation, then I think I might talk to my parents about taking a semester off of working so that I can take 5 classes. I’ll spend this next semester saving like a crazy woman so I can afford to do it. Bah.

Technology <3

I’m posting this from my iPhone!! Wheee!

Damn you, restrospect

I had this great post all planned out and had written notes and was ready to type it, and then I got 3 sentences in and realized I was dead fucking wrong. I hate that.

Ends and means

Do the ends justify the means?

If you’re Machiavelli, then yes. If not, then pretty much, no.

I feel like during this whole AMS debacle, a big  issue that has been brought up is the newfound student engagement. I find both positives and negatives in that.

Firstly, I really don’t think that an uprising of student involvement in the context of calling for the President and VPX’s resignations is the kind of student engagement a university campus needs. From students who are not involved in the AMS, I tend to either hear that they just don’t care about the AMS (and that is not to say that they think the AMS is useless, but rather they just don’t feel the need to be involved) or that they think the AMS is useless and a waste of time. And I find both of those issues to be a tragedy. The AMS has the capability to be an extremely powerful organization, both internally for the student body as a cooperative force, and externally, as a group which can lobby government and other large organizations for the resources that the students need. However, when the vast majority of campus is completely disengaged, it can really affect the ability of the AMS to fulfill its mandate.

Now, with this UN fail scandal, there has been a resurgence on campus with some moderate student involvement. And while it is hopeful, I think it’s deceptive. Firstly, these people aren’t getting involved in AMS because they recognize its potential. They’re getting involved because they’re pissed off and I’m not sure that’ll necessarily translate into anything constructive. Secondly, yes it’s really awesome to have 150 people attend an AMS meeting but I guarantee that attendance will not continue into the new year, and 150 students on a campus of 40,000, while an improvement from the past, is still not really as good as we can do.

When it comes to making suggestions on how to further engage students however, I’m blank. I’ve just always been interested and kept up-to-date on things, and often am at a loss as to why others don’t feel the same as me. I understand they find it boring and mundane, but for me, it’s not always as such, and being “in the know” with scandals and other important events is something I really enjoy.

When I think about my friends who aren’t involved, I guess the number one issue is that they find student politics and the AMS “silly”. I think perhaps they don’t realize exactly what it is the AMS does; for most students, it’s the equivalent of student council at their high school and that’s really not a fair comparison at all. I guess my suggestion to rectify that situation would be some kind of massive PR campaign on behalf of the AMS. How to do that? I don’t know.

I just wish more people were involved, if for nothing other than the amusement scandals can provide. As genuinely infuriated and disappointed as I have been with Blake and Tim’s actions, they still are hilarious to a point. Blake is so bitter now that he has taken to posting facetious twitter and FB updates in some kind of childish protest of the sanctions which he brought upon himself.

Lol.

On the AMS recall…

So I can’t be there on Monday, because I have work and then have a mandatory after-work meeting. I will, however, be following on the live blogs. Unfortunately I have to sit at reception from 4-5 and then will be in the car on my way downtown, so I cannot listen to the Ubyssey livefeed.

Anyway, there are several favours I want to ask of those of you whom are attending, as long as these are in order. I am not entirely fluent in Robert’s Rules of Order, myself!

1. Could somebody please quote Tim Chu from the Ubyssey article where he acknowledges that the complaint was not brought to Council, because there were some members of Council who would not approve it? And then reaffirm from both Blake and Tim that it was their intention to not bring it to council. I think it is very important to establish that Blake and Tim intentionally and purposefully kept this from the AMS.
2. Could maybe somebody ask Blake how he could think doing this without AMS’ approval was appropriate, given that he only narrowly avoided censure very recently because of the bus loop press release which he released with the same (lack of) consultation?
3. I would like to know if Blake didn’t think it was his job as President to facilitate Council cooperation, rather than encourage divisive behaviour by hiding his actions?
4. Why has Blake thus far refused to talk to the Ubyssey or (as far as I’m aware) any blogs to answer for this? He claimed he wanted to address these issues during council, but unfortunately for him the meeting was adjourned before he was able to. I think thus the most appropriate course of action would then be to discuss this with the UBC media outlets.

This is less of a question and more of a comment, but I also find it disingenuine that they waited until the motion for resignation to apologize. I think they were attempting to call AMS Council’s bluff and it backfired.

Also, I have heard from my sources around campus that Tim is already resigned to being impeached and has discussed it on a serious level with people. However, it was his interpretation that he would be removed from Council altogether and not merely relegated to director-at-large status, so I think that also shows this consistent lack of engagement with what the issues that are happening right now are. I think it’s probably the case that both Blake and Tim genuinely think this is about tuition, and not about their actions, and that’s what all their supporters think too. The important thing to do at this upcoming meeting is to establish that outside of the bounds of the issue of tuition, what they did was deceitful and wrong. I think the best way to do that is have them both declare by their own admission that it was on purpose that they did not bring this to council, and not out of some ignorance of how AMS council should work. And even that latter reason in itself is not enough, because they are the President the VP External; they SHOULD know how the AMS works.

Okay I think that’s all I have to say for now.

Zzzzzz

So over the last 2 nights, I’ve gotten cumulatively around 4.5 hours of sleep, if that. So you’d think that now at 10pm, I’d be totally ready to hit the sack. Unfortunately not. I just can never get to sleep before midnight at the earliest! I am just looking forward to next week when I get to start working 9-5 instead of 8:15-4:15. It’s only 45 minutes, but that’s 45 minutes extra of sleep a day!

I am really, really looking forward to this semester being over. I’m still nervous about failing my two electives, which is fine because they mean nothing and I only took them to satisfy the Canada Summer Jobs Grant requirements, but still. I did excellent on both the midterms and the project, but I’ve not really done any participation. I just don’t have time, and something’s gotta give. And I think it’s really silly for participation marks to be worth so much. Kwantlen is so much like high school in the way the classes are organized (homework, quizzes, etc.) but then my teachers also have the most ridiculous expectations about how much work a person can finish in a week. At UBC, sometimes I’d get assigned a ridorkulous amount of reading, but that’s something you can skim over and you can do while you’re on the bus or sitting on the toilet or something. But in my two electives, I’m expected to write 500 word answers to 2-3 questions, twice a week. They’re not really hard questions, but it takes time to sit down and look up the info. And sometimes we have to watch several documentaries in order to answer the questions and just, bah. At the first midterm, my teacher expressed dismay that so few people had been completing the chapter review questions and I’m like, well, maybe it’s because I HAVEN’T GOT TIIIIIIME FOR THIS MICKEY MOUSE BULLSHIT.

I honestly don’t get it.

There’s three big issues I feel like people are missing when it comes to this UN debacle.

1. We have always known the UN is not going to do anything about this;
2. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the governments of Canada and BC know that the UN is not going to do anything about this; and,
3. EVERYBODY knows the UN is not going to do anything about this.

So, following from those 3 points, how could this ever be considered to NOT be a huge waste of time, money and resources? The only purpose this whole thing has served is to polarize campus further, and cause a crisis within AMS.

Seriously, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I don’t understand how this is “standing up” for student rights and such, when everybody’s known from Day 1 that nothing was going to happen about it. I guess Blake and Tim argue that it would somehow put pressure on the government, but I don’t see how? Everybody and their dog knows that the UN won’t (and shouldn’t) put time and resources into this, so where is the actual lobbying here? Besides making us all look like idiots. I don’t see it. If somebody could explain it to me, that’d be super awesome.