I'm a big girl today!
I've officially started working part-time as a research assistant for my future supervisor, and I now have my own office! Isn't that nifty? Of course, I don't have the entire room to myself; I'm sharing it with his three other grad students. I have a nice big desk, but I'm going to see if I can find a spare lamp somewhere, since my desk doesn't have one.
I'm assuming my application to do a Master's degree will get accepted, since I have a project lined up, and my boss/supervisor sent a 'Student Information Form' naming me as his Master's student to the bigwigs funding the project, and he keeps making references to my future thesis. But I'm wondering how long it's going to take McGill to finish going over my application; it's making me a little restless. The delay is probably due to the large number of applicants wanting to do grad work at McGill, but still, I wish I knew when I'll be getting an answer. Heck, York University accepted me within two weeks, and I have to accept or decline the offer by March 8. I'd rather wait until I get an answer from McGill before sending my final decision to York (j-u-s-t in case McGill rejects my application. eep). I'd go and ask the Graduate Studies secretary, but I'm really shy, and I don't want to look like an impatient brat.
I'll just keep checking my mailbox (and inbox) in the meantime.
Muggins' song recommendations
Looking for good songs to listen to? Here are some of my song recommendations:
-
The Ghost of You by My Chemical Romance
-
Missing by Evanescence
-
The World I Know by Collective Soul
-
Save A Prayer by Oliver Haze
-
Gravity of Love by Enigma
-
Naked by Avril Lavigne
-
Fallen by Sarah McLachlan
-
Rubberneckin' by Elvis Presley
-
Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy
-
Into the West by Annie Lennox
-
Misery by The Moffatts
200TH POST!!!
HUZZAH! My blog is now 200 posts old! Hmm, only 200 posts in 3 and a half years? I've really gotta post more often.
More useless facts about me
- I'm 5'1 (I probably would've grown taller if I ate a little more as a child. I'd always be skipping breakfast 'cause I hated breakfast food. Still do, in fact)
- I once adopted a half-beagle, half-cocker spaniel named Maya (her beagle heritage was very prominent in her features), but I had to give her up because my sister turned out to be allergic to dogs
- I haven't bought a new CD in a loooooooooong time. There's just nothing out that I want to buy.
- My favorite children's book is Matilda by Roald Dahl
- My most hated children's book is Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss (On the first page, there's an image of a sign that says something like, "Warning: This book is DANGEROUS!" When I first saw that at the age of 4, I took the warning a little too seriously; it totally scared the shit out of me.)
- About five years ago, I studied 14 consecutive hours for a physics final (taking time out only to go pee, and to eat. And even then, I'd be reading my notes as I was eating).
- I love playing video games
- My cellphone is a Nokia 2275
- I have 4 piercings (2 on each ear)
----------------------
As you may have guessed, the blogger in me has become a little sluggish lately, hence the infrequent posting. I guess you could call it a blog writer's block.
Things I've learned today (actually, yesterday. Feb 10, that is):
- I still suck at team sports. Once a lousy athlete, always a lousy athlete.
- I suck at football
- I suck at snow football played on an icy field in -20 degree weather
- I have low alcohol tolerance
- You know how they say you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach? They're not kidding!
I have a mean headache, so I'm off to bed.
It's that time of year again!
Valentine's day is so annoying. Buy this! Buy that! Your love is measured according to how much you spend! Pfft.
The fact that I'm excited by this is proof I'm a nerd
Google has a special search engine called
Google Scholar, where you can search for serious scholarly articles on the web, such as journal articles, theses, papers, etc. As part of their agreement with Google, the publishers of the articles provide at least the abstract for free; many require a subscription to read the full text (so it's better to use a computer on campus), but some can be read for free.
I'm taking a graduate-level course right now, in which we have to write a term paper; my topic is going to be on channel bypass systems at dams that allow for fish migration. I was having a bit of a hard time finding enough papers on the topic, but I'm telling you, Google Scholar is a treasure trove! I even managed to find some of those impossible-to-find review papers on the topic!
LOLOLOL, oh man I'm such a nerd. ~_^
Protests over a controversial cartoon
There's been a huge uproar over the publication of a cartoon depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse on top. Many stores in Muslim countries have pulled Danish and French goods from their shelves, and there's been many protests directed at Denmark and France.
Despite the media's representation of the outrage, I'm pretty sure that not all the offended Muslims actually went and burned flags and effigies of the French president and the Danish prime minister, and attacked embassies. However, even the more peaceful means of protest (e.g. boycotting French/Danish products) seems rather ridiculous to me. For one thing, it was only one (or a small handful) of newspapers that published the cartoons. It wasn't the countries as a whole that were deliberately trying to insult Islam. The boycotters are punishing Danish/French producers/farmers/workers, who most likely had nothing to do with the cartoons. I mean, if
one American newspaper insulted something dear to me, would it make any sense for me to denounce the U.S. as a whole? Geez, no.
