How appropriate. Who, indeed, knows where it all goes? I certainly don't, although I have a good idea of how it's spent -- mostly on term papers and the like. Speaking of which, I had my first mid-term exam Wednesday. Wahoo! One down, three to go, plus seven papers (for this term, anyway)... Hard to believe we're nearly into November already, halfway through the term.
When it comes to writing papers, momentum is everything. I find the hardest thing is just to get started. But once I get the momentum going it's hard to stop; turning off the tap feels like bad mojo, a curse. Actually I've been doing fairly well this week. At the moment, however, I have no momentum and I am not about to start creating any. Today I have decided to take a day off and enjoy the glorous sunshine. Once again (still?) it is unseasonably warm and sunny here, with nary a cloud in the sky. And anyway I need to do a shopping expedition for some blank CD-Rs to back up all of my work (Rx is coming tomorrow -- more on that in a moment), pick power cables with proper British plugs instead of these useless, flimsy adaptors, and of course... buy some music. (Yes, I know CD shopping is old school. But I'm an old school kind of guy.) Call today's hooky a celebration of sorts: an occasion to mark the sunshine and warmth, the completion of a mid-term exam, gratitude for momentum on other assignments, and life in general.
Speaking of celebration, please join me in recognizing the achievements of one Stan Green. Y'know, I was pretty proud of myself for having finally made good on my promise to continue my education at such a late stage in my life. But that sense of accomplishment pales in comparison to the enormous awe and admiration I have for this man, a fellow SFU alumnus:
Graduating with an honours degree, first class, is a proud accomplishment for any student. For Stan Green, however, it is all the sweeter because he’s not your average student—he’s 74 years young. Green can still recall his English headmaster’s words: "You are not university material." All these decades later, Green has trumped the headmaster, earning a grade point average of 3.97 out of a possible 4.33.
I take great pleasure in your success, Mr. Green, and wish you continued joy. You are indeed an inspiration. Slainte!
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News flash: According to Music Week, Microsoft is launching a video serivce soon to compete with GooTube. And next month they're going to roll out Zune, their inanely-named (and probably ill-fated) digital music device and online store, to compete with the iPod and iTunes. Rumour has it that in order to commemorate these achievements they are next working on the release of a special Microsoft calendar... for the year 2004.
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Batten down the hatches. Mercury retrograde time is here again. And given the current state of things, I expect this one to be quite a doozy. In fact just when I was at a convenient break point last night and had a moment to post to my blog, Blogger was "unavailable" due to some "scheduled outage" or other... sigh. (Oh, and while I'm at it have I mentioned how monumentally crap Digital Village is? Quite possibly the worst, or at least the most inconsistent, ISP around. I have a hunch Digital Village Idiot took a certain Alaskan senator's description of the Internet way too literally and decided to reconstruct their network out of empty bog rolls.) That's why I'm going to do a hard-copy backup in addition to my regular outboard USB drive backup. Anyway, between the Mercury retrograde and a whole load of papers to write, I don't expect to be posting much for the next little while.
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Here, then, is a little something to keep you amused while I do the hermit routine and retreat in my cave to attend to unfinished academic business:
"The world is a dream that is dreaming you." Discuss.
I mean, do yo suppose we really do create our reality? For example, if I didn't believe that we humans are impacting the planet by destroying untolled species and causing global warming with our wasteful consumption activities, do you think it might not actually be that way? In other words, does my subjective "reality" impose itself on the world? Does the world accommodate my ego/imagination by reflecting my thoughts? Does it just so happen that everyone else in this current plane of existence shares that same viewpoint -- we are all labouring under the same collective delusion (whether or not some appear to deny global warming science)? Are there parallel universes in which "reality" looks completely different, if only by virtue its inhabitants' thoughts and beliefs?
On that note... I'll see you in a few days. Or maybe in December.
1 comment:
Ouch, now my head hurts.
Personally, I live in my own reality, which suits me just fine.
Mercury is most definitely in action, or inaction. Communication issure are laughable. My computer is having a great time of it at my expense.
oh, btw, meant to ask... did you ever try that brown sauce?
And here's a typical Danika move: I created a blog just for the hell of it (actually, it MADE me sign up for one in order to post comments on this blog,sneaky peanut). I decided that I might actually write in said blog. But now I can't find it. I can't remember what I finally called it and didn't write it down. har-har.
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