quick dumbass statement for those who haven't run into it yet- dropping heavy things on laptop screens leaves one without laptoppy goodness.
onward!
So my classes this semester kinda sorta rather really suck. Like huge big bad. Communications is teaching me to write an essay. You know, like high school? only more expensive? and with "this is a paragraph" tossed in for fun? Biometrics seems to make no sense, but that could just be me- we read about the importance of stats to scientific work, then... um... at some point we're supposed to learn how to manipulate them, but it hasn't happened yet, and I think my first assignment is due next week. Psych is starting to look really tough, well, the way they discribe it, anyway "this class has a very high fail rate, higher than they expect, and we don't quite know why".
gee, thanks, I really needed to hear that. I'm hoping it's because you have to be able to write a coherent essay in order to pass the class, and most of the kids here haven't written anything more challenging than a 5 minute lab report since 9th or 10th grade. Mammals at least looks interesting. Well, except for the project. Did I mention those? so far two classes have a group project- yes, group. I'm about to shoot myself, but hey, I need to save some fun for later, right?
I forsee me doing none of the work, followed by me freaking out, redoing everything they've done, then having them offed by the local wino (if I can find one) so they don't bring down my grade. It'd be really nice. in a bad way that means I won't do it, of course.
Anyone wanna send me about $1000 us? I'll put it to good use, honest, repairing my computer, and... um... buying food... and... um.... paying some grad student to write my papers... er, um, maybe not that one... how about and paying my bills and rent?
stupid freaking student loan-types.
Maybe this week....
j.
July 24, 2006
July 16, 2006
First day blues
Well, first class is going… well, slowly. The psych guy is… not the most interesting lecturer I’ve ever had. Not the worst, either, but…, yeah, not the best.
To make it better, he just spent 20 minutes telling us how we really, really, really need to learn how to write psychology papers- and that bunches of people don’t pass the class because they couldn’t write an APA paper with a guide and a photocopier. We have to get at least 50% on one of the papers- we need to look like we’re trying. How bad can a paper really be to not even be worth 50%?
I are rote paper wut wuz no gude.
Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but honestly- how bad does a lab report have to be to be worth nothing? And ho wmuch should I worry about this, seeing as he went over it about ten times. For 20 minutes. I really really hope the class just has like, magic moron magnet abilities. But with my luck, no, it’ll just suck. And I still want to know what the fuck you do in in a psychology lab.
In other news, I have this song stuck in my head, that won’t go away, and the only place I ever, ever, *ever * hear it is charleston. And I sure as hell am not going back there anytime soon. Sorry anyone reading this from chuck. Bicycling drunk off a cliff is somehow waaaay better than spending 36 hours in airports and on planes just to get drunk.
j.
To make it better, he just spent 20 minutes telling us how we really, really, really need to learn how to write psychology papers- and that bunches of people don’t pass the class because they couldn’t write an APA paper with a guide and a photocopier. We have to get at least 50% on one of the papers- we need to look like we’re trying. How bad can a paper really be to not even be worth 50%?
I are rote paper wut wuz no gude.
Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but honestly- how bad does a lab report have to be to be worth nothing? And ho wmuch should I worry about this, seeing as he went over it about ten times. For 20 minutes. I really really hope the class just has like, magic moron magnet abilities. But with my luck, no, it’ll just suck. And I still want to know what the fuck you do in in a psychology lab.
In other news, I have this song stuck in my head, that won’t go away, and the only place I ever, ever, *ever * hear it is charleston. And I sure as hell am not going back there anytime soon. Sorry anyone reading this from chuck. Bicycling drunk off a cliff is somehow waaaay better than spending 36 hours in airports and on planes just to get drunk.
j.
July 8, 2006
Movies- great cultural ambassador- not
so I passed enough classes that I don't think they'll kick me out. And I've been watching movies...
And I was a bad bad bunny and went out and bought a pair of shoes. Girl can not live in doc's and sneakers and flipflops alone. Nope, she needs black heels too.
Mine are that kinda retro 40's style, you know, with the small rounded toe, plenty of wiggle room, and a nice pointy heel. T-strappy maryjanes. not really buckling or strapping, they have elastic. And a 3+ inch heel. Just what I needed. There's nothing like towering above the seething masses. Now if only I could get jeans with tiny knees and a 38 inch inseam, so my feet weren't on display for everyone in them. I mean, shoes are cute and all, but... I really don't like the way it looks when my ankles are poking out of my pants above my shoes. And I can only tug my jeans down so much before things start sliding out the other end.
But that's not what I want to talk about this time. Nope.
Some of you might have realised by now that, like a silly freshman, I am living in student housing. Being an international student, they let us have self catered housing, I guess they figure if we're able to find our way here, we should be able to feed ourselves too? I don't know.
Anyway, I live in a sort of appartment complex with all these other international students, mostly fully enrolled, but the occasional year abroad type too. Right now I think I'm the only American. There are maybe 2 others in the court who speak english as their first language. We all watch TV in the common room.
NZ not having a huge entertainment industry, most of the programming is imported. Most english language TV comes from the states. Movies too. Being the Official Representative Example of America, I get all the silly questions, usually showing up while watching some movie, like "is american high school really like that" or... "american dating is like that?" or "is america really like the movies" or... yeah, you get the idea.
Being asked if the family on malcom in the middle is like a real american family threw me a bit, tho..
Sitting at home, back where everyone has *some* real idea of what the US is like, it's tough to imagine people taking the actions of movie characters so seriously, I mean, I don't expect to turn a corner and run into some scary dead guy on a screaming dragon monster who's chasing some short furry kid with a ring while I'm here, and I didn't expect to run into crazy men dressed up like knights while I was in the UK, but maybe most of the world doesn't think like that.
I'm sure if I watched, say, Fox news, I would have expected to be shot getting off the plane in Cairo. Or catch the Hiv from the falafel I had for dinner that night ($.20). Or to run into hot manly secret agents in london. Or have the tube station explode around me. I guess maybe if you don't have any other information to work with, you go with what you see. Movies and Sitcoms being the world's fox news on the US is a scary idea.
Which reminds me, I really need to read up on NZ history- I keep running into all these things that I just don't get. And that's not even touching the whole "day off for queens birthday" thing. I mean, I've been in the country for, what, 4 months? 5? and I don't even know why they're a commonwealth, not a colony, or whatever, what it's been. I mean, if you don't know what someplace has been, how can you have any kind of clue what the people there think?
Ok, see... (wandering again, I know) I run into people who've been here, right? For, oh, 3 months, or 6, or whatever, as travellers, working, or doing the semester abroad thing. The things I hear from them are, like, "there's lots of cool stuff to see" or "the people are really nice" or "there's really good pot, you should smoke it *all*".
Very rarely, if at all, do they make any kind of comment on the way NZ seems to be, well, kinda determinedly backwards. And it's not a bad thing. It's just... Here, at this school, anyway, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on science. Across all the campuses, unless I've missed something. I mean, you *can* do a fine art degree in wellington, but... they seem very geared toward science. And not just any science. It's a lot of ag science. Animal breeding, genetics, botany, all leading to very set areas.
Someone told me a friend of theirs had moved here, loved it, said it was just like the states in the 1950's. He thought they meant fashion-wise. It's not that, though. It's more a... I don't know, standard of living, certainly, tho that's changing. It is kind of a time warp, though. I think it's the available goods. At home, for example, there are what? 50 different brands of salad dressing? in like 20 flavors? here there's maybe 5 brands, in 4 or 5 flavors. Don't buy the domestic ranch dressing- it tastes like they made it in miracle whip- then added sugar. People in my classes couldn't understand why I'd want *frozen* brocolli, for bob's sake.
It's like someone built a time machine and grabbed NZ 60 years ago, and is trying now to force them to catch up. And they don't want to.
But yeah... The kids from japan are easy, but what do I tell the rest of them when they ask "is america really like that" when we're watching some crazy movie?
j.
And I was a bad bad bunny and went out and bought a pair of shoes. Girl can not live in doc's and sneakers and flipflops alone. Nope, she needs black heels too.
Mine are that kinda retro 40's style, you know, with the small rounded toe, plenty of wiggle room, and a nice pointy heel. T-strappy maryjanes. not really buckling or strapping, they have elastic. And a 3+ inch heel. Just what I needed. There's nothing like towering above the seething masses. Now if only I could get jeans with tiny knees and a 38 inch inseam, so my feet weren't on display for everyone in them. I mean, shoes are cute and all, but... I really don't like the way it looks when my ankles are poking out of my pants above my shoes. And I can only tug my jeans down so much before things start sliding out the other end.
But that's not what I want to talk about this time. Nope.
Some of you might have realised by now that, like a silly freshman, I am living in student housing. Being an international student, they let us have self catered housing, I guess they figure if we're able to find our way here, we should be able to feed ourselves too? I don't know.
Anyway, I live in a sort of appartment complex with all these other international students, mostly fully enrolled, but the occasional year abroad type too. Right now I think I'm the only American. There are maybe 2 others in the court who speak english as their first language. We all watch TV in the common room.
NZ not having a huge entertainment industry, most of the programming is imported. Most english language TV comes from the states. Movies too. Being the Official Representative Example of America, I get all the silly questions, usually showing up while watching some movie, like "is american high school really like that" or... "american dating is like that?" or "is america really like the movies" or... yeah, you get the idea.
Being asked if the family on malcom in the middle is like a real american family threw me a bit, tho..
Sitting at home, back where everyone has *some* real idea of what the US is like, it's tough to imagine people taking the actions of movie characters so seriously, I mean, I don't expect to turn a corner and run into some scary dead guy on a screaming dragon monster who's chasing some short furry kid with a ring while I'm here, and I didn't expect to run into crazy men dressed up like knights while I was in the UK, but maybe most of the world doesn't think like that.
I'm sure if I watched, say, Fox news, I would have expected to be shot getting off the plane in Cairo. Or catch the Hiv from the falafel I had for dinner that night ($.20). Or to run into hot manly secret agents in london. Or have the tube station explode around me. I guess maybe if you don't have any other information to work with, you go with what you see. Movies and Sitcoms being the world's fox news on the US is a scary idea.
Which reminds me, I really need to read up on NZ history- I keep running into all these things that I just don't get. And that's not even touching the whole "day off for queens birthday" thing. I mean, I've been in the country for, what, 4 months? 5? and I don't even know why they're a commonwealth, not a colony, or whatever, what it's been. I mean, if you don't know what someplace has been, how can you have any kind of clue what the people there think?
Ok, see... (wandering again, I know) I run into people who've been here, right? For, oh, 3 months, or 6, or whatever, as travellers, working, or doing the semester abroad thing. The things I hear from them are, like, "there's lots of cool stuff to see" or "the people are really nice" or "there's really good pot, you should smoke it *all*".
Very rarely, if at all, do they make any kind of comment on the way NZ seems to be, well, kinda determinedly backwards. And it's not a bad thing. It's just... Here, at this school, anyway, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on science. Across all the campuses, unless I've missed something. I mean, you *can* do a fine art degree in wellington, but... they seem very geared toward science. And not just any science. It's a lot of ag science. Animal breeding, genetics, botany, all leading to very set areas.
Someone told me a friend of theirs had moved here, loved it, said it was just like the states in the 1950's. He thought they meant fashion-wise. It's not that, though. It's more a... I don't know, standard of living, certainly, tho that's changing. It is kind of a time warp, though. I think it's the available goods. At home, for example, there are what? 50 different brands of salad dressing? in like 20 flavors? here there's maybe 5 brands, in 4 or 5 flavors. Don't buy the domestic ranch dressing- it tastes like they made it in miracle whip- then added sugar. People in my classes couldn't understand why I'd want *frozen* brocolli, for bob's sake.
It's like someone built a time machine and grabbed NZ 60 years ago, and is trying now to force them to catch up. And they don't want to.
But yeah... The kids from japan are easy, but what do I tell the rest of them when they ask "is america really like that" when we're watching some crazy movie?
j.
July 4, 2006
Predictions of sudden painful death
Ok, so normally when those religious types (you know, the ones that tell you you're a bad person?) talk about that end of the world crap (in a next wednesday at 10 kinda way), I totally ignore them. Well, ok, so I laugh at them first. A lot. Loudly. Where they can hear me.
But then I ignore them.
Unfortunatly, in the course of human events, etc and so on, things change.
The end of the world is coming. No, seriously. I got proof! It's all baseball standings, but that's proof (no, really). The tigers (you know, detroit? you don't know? oh- well... yeah...) waaaaay out in front. The mets (you know, that *other* team in NY- the one that enjoyed killing the '86 hopes of the red socks? yeah, that one.) - dude, winning.
This is bad. It might not be this year, it might be next year- after all, the cubs and pirates are still in good customary low spots. And I bet their fans are properly appreciative, too.
But damnit people! I like cheering for losing teams! Anyone can cheer for winners! I mean, hell, look at how many people cheer for the yankees! and they aren't even hot anymore! (sorry, girly moment- won't happen again, I don't think)
But when you go messing with my accepted way life works, I really don't like it.
Ok, I lie. I don't mind if the Mets win. Hell, I love the Mets, and not even in a girly, "wow, that guy looks really really good" kinda way- more in a wow, i've like, totally loved this team since I was a lame little kid kinda way. I *really* don't care if the Tigers win. Actually, I don't much care about the tigers at all- mostly as a joke. But I swear, if the Mets go to the damned series this year, while I'm trapped on the ass end of the earth, I'm going to be really pissed off. Really really pissed off. Because somehow I don't think "but I have to go to NY to scam tickets for the world series" is a good enough excuse to get them to sign off missing labs and agree to larger loans. They just don't seem like that kinda people. And I'm not even getting into the freaking vet program this year! (note, if I were representing NZ in some sporting event, I could have just about all the time off I wanted/ needed)
So yeah- Mets, no series untill I can go. And no building lame ass pretty new ball park. I don't care what it has, or what it looks like. It's bad enough that the 4th oldest park still in use is shea. I mean, hell, people- After wrigley and fenway, and yankee (probably out of order and no doubt misspelled) comes shea- built in the freaking 1960's people.
Ok, fine, so it's ugly. So it's in the way. So it's oldfashioned, and surrounded by roads that make that loop around london look like a kids game. That doesn't mean you can knock it down before I get to go.
Opps. I mean,... it's an important part of baseball history, damnit!
Wow, I've wandered a bit. I think maybe I should stop now.
But yeah- Mets and Tigers way out in front = bad. Very, very bad.
j.
Oh, and if-- since there are 20 guys in the dorms over break, and 3 chicks (including me)-- we have to watch sports *all day long* every single damned day, could they at least have more hot guys in the sports I gotta watch? Scary guys playing rugby is boring. Fat guys playing golf is just wrong. Ugly guys playing soccer is unfortunate. Ladies tennis is just cruel. Come on, people. I know there are hot guys at Wimbledon. There have to be hot guys in the other sports too! If it's all I get to watch, please, can't it at least be visually interesting in something other than an "OMG, I'm never eating again" kinda way? Please?
But then I ignore them.
Unfortunatly, in the course of human events, etc and so on, things change.
The end of the world is coming. No, seriously. I got proof! It's all baseball standings, but that's proof (no, really). The tigers (you know, detroit? you don't know? oh- well... yeah...) waaaaay out in front. The mets (you know, that *other* team in NY- the one that enjoyed killing the '86 hopes of the red socks? yeah, that one.) - dude, winning.
This is bad. It might not be this year, it might be next year- after all, the cubs and pirates are still in good customary low spots. And I bet their fans are properly appreciative, too.
But damnit people! I like cheering for losing teams! Anyone can cheer for winners! I mean, hell, look at how many people cheer for the yankees! and they aren't even hot anymore! (sorry, girly moment- won't happen again, I don't think)
But when you go messing with my accepted way life works, I really don't like it.
Ok, I lie. I don't mind if the Mets win. Hell, I love the Mets, and not even in a girly, "wow, that guy looks really really good" kinda way- more in a wow, i've like, totally loved this team since I was a lame little kid kinda way. I *really* don't care if the Tigers win. Actually, I don't much care about the tigers at all- mostly as a joke. But I swear, if the Mets go to the damned series this year, while I'm trapped on the ass end of the earth, I'm going to be really pissed off. Really really pissed off. Because somehow I don't think "but I have to go to NY to scam tickets for the world series" is a good enough excuse to get them to sign off missing labs and agree to larger loans. They just don't seem like that kinda people. And I'm not even getting into the freaking vet program this year! (note, if I were representing NZ in some sporting event, I could have just about all the time off I wanted/ needed)
So yeah- Mets, no series untill I can go. And no building lame ass pretty new ball park. I don't care what it has, or what it looks like. It's bad enough that the 4th oldest park still in use is shea. I mean, hell, people- After wrigley and fenway, and yankee (probably out of order and no doubt misspelled) comes shea- built in the freaking 1960's people.
Ok, fine, so it's ugly. So it's in the way. So it's oldfashioned, and surrounded by roads that make that loop around london look like a kids game. That doesn't mean you can knock it down before I get to go.
Opps. I mean,... it's an important part of baseball history, damnit!
Wow, I've wandered a bit. I think maybe I should stop now.
But yeah- Mets and Tigers way out in front = bad. Very, very bad.
j.
Oh, and if-- since there are 20 guys in the dorms over break, and 3 chicks (including me)-- we have to watch sports *all day long* every single damned day, could they at least have more hot guys in the sports I gotta watch? Scary guys playing rugby is boring. Fat guys playing golf is just wrong. Ugly guys playing soccer is unfortunate. Ladies tennis is just cruel. Come on, people. I know there are hot guys at Wimbledon. There have to be hot guys in the other sports too! If it's all I get to watch, please, can't it at least be visually interesting in something other than an "OMG, I'm never eating again" kinda way? Please?
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