Thursday, November 28, 2002
I decided to buy some birdy medication for Anakin’s diarrhea problem. But oh man, is it ever hard to get him to take it. It’s one of those liquidy medicine, and I’m supposed to give him 1-3 drops per day, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. You can’t exactly tell a budgie to open up and drink that stuff, so I had to restrain him in one hand and force open his mouth with the other (I’m telling ya, he SQUIRMS like there’s no tomorrow! I kinda had to hold his head in place because he kept moving his head around, biting me and trying to avoid the dropper). I asked my sister to squeeze a drop from the bottle into his mouth. Man, he didn’t like that. It looked like he was having sneezing fits or something. I think we might have also accidentally gotten some of the fluid in his eyes (my sis argued that my hand was blocking the way and she couldn’t see what she was doing). Ugh, and to think we have to do this daily until he gets better. Well, things don’t always go smoothly the first time, do they?
Sunday, November 24, 2002
Hey, what’d’ya know, turns out that ‘mooching’ is a real word! So I didn’t just make that up, lol. It means “To obtain by wheedling or coaxing”. I thought it meant benefiting from another’s hard work, like a damn classmate who acts all nice to you just so they have someone whose notes they can copy if they’ve been skipping or being just plain lazy. Well, I was close.
Speaking of which, I really, really can’t stand people who ‘befriend’ you for the sole purpose of wanting to take advantage of the fact that you attend every single lecture and know when all the assignments are due, and so on so forth.
I remember this stupid bitch in my 3rd semester Humanities. She was this Chinese fancy-girl who, whether it’s because she’s slow or she’s lazy, didn’t take many notes in class (not to mention she missed class quite a few times). Before the mid-term, she asked if she could photocopy my notes because of the classes she missed, and I didn’t really want to (because in that class, you really had to write down more than just what was written on the board; even if I slept less than four hours the night before, I would force myself to stay awake and write down every damn relevant thing the teacher said. That takes effort, you know!). I reluctantly said ok, and as luck would have it, some other moron came up to me and asked if he could also photocopy my notes, because his friend supposedly lost his (yeah right, you asshole). Being unable to say no (even when I really should), I say ok again.
But when we got to the library, and I told the girl that she should just photocopy the sections for the classes she missed, she says, “Well, it’ll be easier if I just photocopy the whole thing.” She kept insisting that until I gave in. So those two idiots photocopied the whole damn thing, and when they got to the last page, I said, “Oh, you don’t need to photocopy that, those are today’s notes,” but the bastard hit the green button anyway. Okay, so now I know that they were aware that I write down everything the teacher said, and decided to be leeches and take advantage of that. Man, you should’ve seen the look on my face.
I was pretty pissed at myself for being too nice for my own good, and I firmly decided that unless it was an acquaintance who had a good reason, I wouldn’t let anyone copy my notes. But let’s get one thing straight: you see, if it had been my Calculus notes or something, I wouldn’t have given a damn, because I ONLY write down what’s on the board. However, writing down everything the teacher says, too, is more hectic and stressful. THAT’S why I didn’t like sharing my Humanities notes.
Oh yeah, and when we were writing our exam (which was ‘open-book’), that girl was using only the photocopies she got off of me, so I was wondering exactly how much she tried herself in terms of note-taking during the lectures.
Anyway, the second part of the semester consisted of a bunch of debates, and we had to take notes of those, too. Since the students at the front obviously didn’t write much on the board, a good 98% of what I wrote down was what they said (trying to keep up with all the info they were spilling out was a pain, but I managed). That stupid girl noticed how much I was scribbling down (and I noticed she wasn’t writing anything), and I could pretty much guess what was going through her head.
So obviously, when the final was approaching, she acted all nice and asked if she could photocopy my notes. I firmly pointed out that she didn’t miss a single lecture during the second half of the course, and that she didn’t have an excuse for missing anything; and besides, I was in a hurry to leave and I certainly wasn’t going to waste my time on HER. She just said stuff like, “Oh, but I didn’t understand the presentations very much,” and “It’ll only take a minute.” I kept saying no, and then she just keeps begging until I walked out of the class.
What really annoyed me was that since I let her photocopy my notes the first time, you’d think that she ought to have said ‘hi’ to me from time to time or something, but she didn’t say a thing to me until the second time she needed the notes. So basically, she only approached me when SHE NEEDED something from me. That’s what really got on my nerves. Taking advantage of MY hard work! HMPF!
Also, since the exam also covered the readings (and believe me, there were A LOT, and we weren’t supposed to bring the actual readings into the exam), I took notes of everything I read, too. It came up to 20 pages single-spaced on the computer. No joke. I was careful not to let anyone see my printed reading notes; if that girl saw it and starting pestering me to lend them to her, I would’ve told her, “The only way you’ll get these reading notes is if you pry them from my cold, dead hands.” Come on, reading all those boring texts AND taking down notes for every relevant detail must’ve taken a total of AT LEAST 15 hours of work (if I still remember well, there were at least 90 pages to read. And since each page was actually two pages photocopied from the original book, it was sort of like reading 180 pages and taking notes). Why the blazes should I give them to some lazy-ass who probably didn’t bother to read the texts carefully?
UGH!!! I sure complained a lot today, but that’s how much that incident frickin’ pissed me off. Woo, venting like this sure takes the stress off! Hehe
Speaking of which, I really, really can’t stand people who ‘befriend’ you for the sole purpose of wanting to take advantage of the fact that you attend every single lecture and know when all the assignments are due, and so on so forth.
I remember this stupid bitch in my 3rd semester Humanities. She was this Chinese fancy-girl who, whether it’s because she’s slow or she’s lazy, didn’t take many notes in class (not to mention she missed class quite a few times). Before the mid-term, she asked if she could photocopy my notes because of the classes she missed, and I didn’t really want to (because in that class, you really had to write down more than just what was written on the board; even if I slept less than four hours the night before, I would force myself to stay awake and write down every damn relevant thing the teacher said. That takes effort, you know!). I reluctantly said ok, and as luck would have it, some other moron came up to me and asked if he could also photocopy my notes, because his friend supposedly lost his (yeah right, you asshole). Being unable to say no (even when I really should), I say ok again.
But when we got to the library, and I told the girl that she should just photocopy the sections for the classes she missed, she says, “Well, it’ll be easier if I just photocopy the whole thing.” She kept insisting that until I gave in. So those two idiots photocopied the whole damn thing, and when they got to the last page, I said, “Oh, you don’t need to photocopy that, those are today’s notes,” but the bastard hit the green button anyway. Okay, so now I know that they were aware that I write down everything the teacher said, and decided to be leeches and take advantage of that. Man, you should’ve seen the look on my face.
I was pretty pissed at myself for being too nice for my own good, and I firmly decided that unless it was an acquaintance who had a good reason, I wouldn’t let anyone copy my notes. But let’s get one thing straight: you see, if it had been my Calculus notes or something, I wouldn’t have given a damn, because I ONLY write down what’s on the board. However, writing down everything the teacher says, too, is more hectic and stressful. THAT’S why I didn’t like sharing my Humanities notes.
Oh yeah, and when we were writing our exam (which was ‘open-book’), that girl was using only the photocopies she got off of me, so I was wondering exactly how much she tried herself in terms of note-taking during the lectures.
Anyway, the second part of the semester consisted of a bunch of debates, and we had to take notes of those, too. Since the students at the front obviously didn’t write much on the board, a good 98% of what I wrote down was what they said (trying to keep up with all the info they were spilling out was a pain, but I managed). That stupid girl noticed how much I was scribbling down (and I noticed she wasn’t writing anything), and I could pretty much guess what was going through her head.
So obviously, when the final was approaching, she acted all nice and asked if she could photocopy my notes. I firmly pointed out that she didn’t miss a single lecture during the second half of the course, and that she didn’t have an excuse for missing anything; and besides, I was in a hurry to leave and I certainly wasn’t going to waste my time on HER. She just said stuff like, “Oh, but I didn’t understand the presentations very much,” and “It’ll only take a minute.” I kept saying no, and then she just keeps begging until I walked out of the class.
What really annoyed me was that since I let her photocopy my notes the first time, you’d think that she ought to have said ‘hi’ to me from time to time or something, but she didn’t say a thing to me until the second time she needed the notes. So basically, she only approached me when SHE NEEDED something from me. That’s what really got on my nerves. Taking advantage of MY hard work! HMPF!
Also, since the exam also covered the readings (and believe me, there were A LOT, and we weren’t supposed to bring the actual readings into the exam), I took notes of everything I read, too. It came up to 20 pages single-spaced on the computer. No joke. I was careful not to let anyone see my printed reading notes; if that girl saw it and starting pestering me to lend them to her, I would’ve told her, “The only way you’ll get these reading notes is if you pry them from my cold, dead hands.” Come on, reading all those boring texts AND taking down notes for every relevant detail must’ve taken a total of AT LEAST 15 hours of work (if I still remember well, there were at least 90 pages to read. And since each page was actually two pages photocopied from the original book, it was sort of like reading 180 pages and taking notes). Why the blazes should I give them to some lazy-ass who probably didn’t bother to read the texts carefully?
UGH!!! I sure complained a lot today, but that’s how much that incident frickin’ pissed me off. Woo, venting like this sure takes the stress off! Hehe
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Anyway, on a different note, I’m starting to wonder if my budgie Anakin is getting overweight. He’s a bit, well, plump. His droppings tend to be sort of liquidy at times (yuck!). I tried getting him to eat some veggies, but he usually won’t touch them. I figured that if I tie up a piece of lettuce on some string, he’ll bite at it as if it’s one of his toys; well, I couldn’t really tell if he actually ate any of it, but by the looks of it, he appeared to just lick it a bit. Okay boy, next step is actually taking a BITE.
Obi’s doing good, though. He’s thinner (but not skinny), and he stands up straighter than Anakin (Anakin sort of ‘sits’ on his feet when he’s on his perch). Poor Obi keeps getting bullied around by Anakin! Anakin will sometimes just start pecking at Obi for no apparent reason. And whenever Obi goes down to eat out of the food dish, Anakin will come and chase him away. Whenever I put a spray millet in the cage, I sometimes have to take Anakin out of the cage to let Obi get a fair share of it (besides, Anakin will only get fatter if he eats it all by himself).
Man, but they’re SO CUTE!!! Whenever I have the stereo on, they started chirping/gurgling with the music (not in tune with it, though, hehe). Regardless of whether it’s the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack or if it’s Bon Jovi or the Backstreet Boys or classical music, they’ll start chirping.
Anakin may be the bully, but Obi is sure the loudmouth. He chirps A LOT. It’s cute, of course, but sometimes I have to study and I’m bombarded with CHEEP-CHOOP-TWEEEET-GLLOOOO-EEP-PEEP. I usually wave a stuffed toy in front of the cage to get him to shut up…for about thirty seconds. Oh well.
Obi’s doing good, though. He’s thinner (but not skinny), and he stands up straighter than Anakin (Anakin sort of ‘sits’ on his feet when he’s on his perch). Poor Obi keeps getting bullied around by Anakin! Anakin will sometimes just start pecking at Obi for no apparent reason. And whenever Obi goes down to eat out of the food dish, Anakin will come and chase him away. Whenever I put a spray millet in the cage, I sometimes have to take Anakin out of the cage to let Obi get a fair share of it (besides, Anakin will only get fatter if he eats it all by himself).
Man, but they’re SO CUTE!!! Whenever I have the stereo on, they started chirping/gurgling with the music (not in tune with it, though, hehe). Regardless of whether it’s the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack or if it’s Bon Jovi or the Backstreet Boys or classical music, they’ll start chirping.
Anakin may be the bully, but Obi is sure the loudmouth. He chirps A LOT. It’s cute, of course, but sometimes I have to study and I’m bombarded with CHEEP-CHOOP-TWEEEET-GLLOOOO-EEP-PEEP. I usually wave a stuffed toy in front of the cage to get him to shut up…for about thirty seconds. Oh well.
Every day, when I leave the McGill metro station, there’s always this same panhandler standing by the exit, holding his little plastic container, waiting for people to spare some change. I see him just about every single day, and I’m really starting to wonder: has he ever tried to go out and change the economic situation he’s in? Does he plan to beg for change in the metro for the rest of his life?
Don’t get me wrong; I understand the problem with homelessness and poverty in Canada, and my heart goes out to those who are poor. However, I can’t imagine that metro guy to be making much money (probably a few bucks a day), so that really isn’t something he should be doing for more than a few months. Besides, even if minimum-wage jobs aren’t much, it’ll bring in more money than the few coins passer-bys drop in his container.
I also can’t help but wonder what happened that forced him into that kind of a living. Was he unable to afford higher education as a young adult, did he get laid off from a job, or does he simply not want to work? (Hopefully it’s not the last one.)
I was also informed that quite a large number of panhandlers use their money to buy alcohol. I was quite shocked and upset when I found out about that (after all, on some occasions I gave panhandlers two dollars). It really pisses me off that some people would take advantage of the generosity of others just to get drunk. And what really sucks is that you can’t tell which panhandlers plan to buy alcohol, and which ones just want to buy some food.
Don’t get me wrong; I understand the problem with homelessness and poverty in Canada, and my heart goes out to those who are poor. However, I can’t imagine that metro guy to be making much money (probably a few bucks a day), so that really isn’t something he should be doing for more than a few months. Besides, even if minimum-wage jobs aren’t much, it’ll bring in more money than the few coins passer-bys drop in his container.
I also can’t help but wonder what happened that forced him into that kind of a living. Was he unable to afford higher education as a young adult, did he get laid off from a job, or does he simply not want to work? (Hopefully it’s not the last one.)
I was also informed that quite a large number of panhandlers use their money to buy alcohol. I was quite shocked and upset when I found out about that (after all, on some occasions I gave panhandlers two dollars). It really pisses me off that some people would take advantage of the generosity of others just to get drunk. And what really sucks is that you can’t tell which panhandlers plan to buy alcohol, and which ones just want to buy some food.
Friday, November 08, 2002
Back in the colonial days, you could buy a pair of boots for two dollars. Since stuff obviously costed less back then, kids would sometimes get a penny in their Christmas stocking. It's a bit amusing to think that they were like, "Oh wow! A shiny penny! I'm gonna be rich!"
Oh, yeah, and ya gotta love the fact that Legolas never seems to run out of arrows. He's got a bottomless pit of them.
One of the great mysteries of Lord Of The Rings: how the blazes does Legolas manage to keep his hair all nice and perfect throughout the entire adventure?! I mean, geez, even after fighting the Uruk-hai, his half-ponytail is still perfectly in place. You know what, maybe he packs shampoo in his bag. Maybe it’s Herbal Essences, ahahahaaa!!! :D I can just picture how that would look:
Fellowship taking a rest near a creek. All of a sudden:
“Oh…yes, YES, YES!!!” [Legolas finishes washing his hair with Herbal Essences, spins around and tosses his hair, shampoo-commercial style.]
Fellowship stare at him in surprise/confusion/disgust.
Aragorn: “All in favor of kicking Legolas out of the Fellowship, say ‘Aye’!”
All: “AYE!!!”
Ehehehehehe. ;p
Fellowship taking a rest near a creek. All of a sudden:
“Oh…yes, YES, YES!!!” [Legolas finishes washing his hair with Herbal Essences, spins around and tosses his hair, shampoo-commercial style.]
Fellowship stare at him in surprise/confusion/disgust.
Aragorn: “All in favor of kicking Legolas out of the Fellowship, say ‘Aye’!”
All: “AYE!!!”
Ehehehehehe. ;p
