Post-NMUN rap-ups

Well, it's been a few days since I've gotten back and I guess I can afford to be somewhat philosophical about NMUN if I wanted to, but eh, why bother. I'm going to be blunt here...as noted in the last entry, the NMUN conference and the Hilton New York hotel both sucked, but I sure did love New York. Would I live there? Not likely, but would I go back again? In a heartbeat.

We'll start where one should always start...at the beginning. Six people had left for New York on Friday and nine of us were going on the Saturday. Five others had made their own arrangements. So on the Friday night, I got an email that the Friday party had some major problems checking into the hotel and that the hotel wanted to pre-authorize $1000 on each credit card of those people. Well, this didn't go down very well, and I started to get that ominous feeling about the trip. When we arrived at the hotel on the Saturday, Jeevan and Donovan had to argue with the Front Desk guy for more than half an hour to get things somewhat settled and we paid our rooms. Well, the hotel split us up so that 3 groups were on the 27th floor, my group was on the 23rd floor and another group was on the 9th floor. You are thinking to yourself, 'Well, that doesn't sound like a big deal', and normally I'd agree, BUT...

The hotel is 44 storeys tall and has 4 elevator banks that take you to groups of floors. All elevators went from the main floor to 5, but then one bank went 1-15, one bank 15-24, one bank 24-34, and the last bank 34-44. So for us to all meet, it took anywhere from 1 elevator ride to 3. Slight inconvenience? Maybe if it was a regular week at the Hilton, but this was NMUN week, and about 1500 or more students are running wild along with us.

We got into our rooms and found that our queen beds were doubles, our tv was sketchy, the wireless internet was priced at USD$10 per day, and the hotel, in it's infinite wisdom, had put Carol on their list as the primary cardholder in our room, so we couldn't connect to the internet without charging it to her...even after we said we wanted to change it to someone else. Our blankets were thin and useless, there weren't nearly enough pillows, etc. I mean, for a hotel brand that is supposed to come with some prestige, I am shocked that the hotel was so ghetto. The staff was mostly rude to us, with the exceptions of the housekeepers and the Concierge. If I was a Hilton, I'd be embarassed to have that property bear my name.

On to the Conference itself. I can't separate the conference from the hotel at this point and I'll explain why. The schedules for most committees were the same times, meaning about 1500 delegates were scrambling to the elevators to get to or from the meeting rooms. Remember what I said about the 4 elevator banks? 1500 divided by 12 elevators, plus regular guest traffic. Do the math. a 45 minute wait to get upstairs to my room is riduculous. But there's more...I walked into my committee room on Tuesday night and saw rows of chairs. Considering we're supposed to be writing and negotiating and so on, in a committee of 460 people, you'd think there would be *tables*. But no. In fact, most of the big committees were without tables. No tables also meant no organization. It was 'pick a seat, any seat!', and that's bad when you are trying to find people whom you are supposed to negotiate and caucus with.

The fact that there were award-hounds also put me off. It seemed to me that everyone was in more of a hurry to be noticed so that their schools could win awards, and that caused a lot of pushiness and out of character wheeling and dealing. I thought the goal of Model United Nations was completely lost...few were actually interested in learning more about policy, decision-making, and international relations. It actually made me sad, and I wished I had gone to CANIMUN instead.

Conference services charged us for photocopies, there were seriously retarded rules for using the computers, there was a $10 charge for replacing lost placards, and so on.

My attention span is waning right now, so I'm going to cut this short and discuss the non-committee stuff next time.

Teaser

I'm about 20 different varieties of tired and exhausted right now seeing as I've been travelling all day, I'm running on about 5 meals and 25 hours of sleep over the last 8 days, and I never want to see another pair of high heels again, so I'll just have to leave everyone hanging in suspense until maybe tomorrow or Tuesday about how New York was, but I'll leave you with a few clues:

1. The Hilton BLOWS
2. NMUN BLOWS
3. The Hilton BLOWS
4. Times Square is bright
5. It is entirely possible to revert to being 12 years old at 4 am

Useless Pastimes

Now, I never intend any offense to those who practice what I consider to be useless pastimes, and this time is no different, it's just that I need a place to rant against...you guessed it...Philosophy. Specifically SYMBOLIC LOGIC.

I have 2 hours to complete the third assignment, which is an exercise in torture when it's really supposed to be an exercise in translating English into Predicate Logic. I've done 11 of 20 questions so far, and I'm certain I've done at least 5 wrong. The 9 questions that are waiting are going to cause my brain to go into nuclear meltdown mode, and hey, this is the EASY stuff when it comes to Predicate Logic. We started to talk about the Magic Circles last class, and I swear to gawd, I was so close to crying it was scary. So I'm terrified of going to class tonight.

But my big question is...WHY THE FUCK WOULD SOMEONE SIT AROUND DOING THIS STUFF???!?!? And what sick fuck in the university hierarchy thought to themselves, 'Hey, you know, this stuff would be a good course to teach ARTS students!' I mean geezuz people! As a person hoping to go into a career in politics and diplomacy, I question the validity of having to learn some of this content...just when in my career will I be called upon to practice Truth Tables and use the rules of Natural Derivations on a semi-regular basis? Just as, I'm sure, a Computing Science student questions having to study the works of Joseph Conrad, I question why some people got bored, decided to ponder a symbolic language, and then determined that it was required for a university degree.

Fuck. Back to work.

PS: Happy Green day

Broked Down an' busted up

I woke up this morning in positively excruciating pain. I don't know quite what I have done, but my left shoulder blade is revolting against me and it's bound and determined to drive me right out of my mind. I can hardly move my neck, I can't bend over or control a complete range of motion for my arms because anything that tugs at the muscles and nerves and joints and bones around the offending shoulder blade makes me want to drop to me knees and cry out for mummy.

So, I was sadly a pretty captive audience today with Rod tending to me in between his mini-breaks from World of Warcraft. Awwww, what a sweet guy for taking time out of that awful game to tend to me....after I have to cry out for help. But when he takes care of me, he's attentive...mostly. I mean, give the guy some dues; he has to deal with me, and for those of you intimately in the know, you are aware that I am a) a HUGE baby in need of attention; and b) easily irked because I hate being in a position to be dependent on others for my most basic needs. I like things done in a certain way, with a certain expediency that poor Rod often lacks. So I give him a big thank you for trying.

I wonder how much of this is stress-related. I spent most of yesterday in planner/organizer mode and then ran around with my sanity oozing out of my head until we got home. I was feeling alright, though tired, so I don't think whatever I did was last night. It had to be something that happened while I was sleeping. I'll be in New York in a week's time and I still have so much to do for the guest speaker event. I don't have time to be laid up with a pinched nerve or torn rotator cuff or anything else this may be. Shit, that reminds me, I have to call some people tomorrow about the tickets and posters.

I so hope that I am up to moving around tomorrow because there's so much I need to do in order to be ready for New York. There's laundry and ironing, studying the rules, doing my Philosophy assignment (I'm still hanging in there, though I have to decide by Friday whether or not the class is salvagable), cleaning up the house (because I know Rod won't while I'm gone), and a thousand other small annoying details.

For now though, I am resting on the couch with the new laptop with cats crawling all over me, and I can't pick them up and baby them like I like to. Dammit Rod, hurry home from work, I need help finding a comfortable position to sleep in, and a massage, and an ice pack, and more (and stronger) painkillers. It's like I'm trapped in my own home!

Have we had enough?

I'll bet y'all are wondering what's been going on with l'il ole me lately. My blogs are all serious and stuff, and there's none of that renowned "cheek" in recent posts. Well, really, there's no tastefully cheeky way to describe stuff like poverty and history and insensitivity, so I've been rather constrained by the social mores of our society. That, and I really haven't had much time to even go on a rant in real life, so I haven't had much material for here either. NMUN is heating up and I just don't have time to get a life or whatever.

We got a new laptop, and happy me, all is well so far. It's not a Mac, which is the first big bonus about it. It's not second or third hand, and it's got a big warranty, so I'm practically swooning. I have to say, I'm more excited about preparing for NMUN than I am actually going, now is that sad or what! I'm going to be in one of the capital cities of the World, and I'm more excited that I'll have a nifty laptop and cool clothes to go with! I suck or something. It's probably got to do with the fact that I've taken on a lot of tasks related to fundraising that have occupied me so much.

Let's see....NMUN, Laptop, NMUN, NMUN, NMUN, Logic, Laptop, NMUN, Curling, NMUN, Laptop, NMUN, NMUN, job search, NMUN, and so on. No real time for a life or whatever. Does anyone else have this problem? You're life getting in the way of Life?

Oh, some good news that I almost forgot! Lori's close to giving birth, so there will be a baby boy very soon! His due date is actually April 6th, but he's apparently quite eager to make his entrance into the world ASAP, and that suits everyone just fine so long as he's doing it safely :)

Well, no cheek quotient because I seem to have lost my wit, so I am going to call is quits for today and leave you with a short community service message:

Lost: One sharp, witty sense of humour

Last seen more than a month ago, spotted fleeing the building in a desparate attempt to escape and run free

Substantial reward to the finder

Call Fancy toll free at 1-800-WIT-LESS (1-800-948-5377)

(or something)

Dwelling on the past

I don't know about anyone else, but it's impossible to stop the memories of the past from overwhelming me sometimes. One thought or action will suddenly open the floodgates of all kinds of memories, good and bad, and I'll get caught in this nagging cycle that drags me through the gamut of emotions.

This morning, I thought of all the ways people have done me wrong and how I reacted. I was angry and sad and hurt. I think I can safely say that one event in particular sticks out in my mind, and it would not be the one that most of you who know me well would think it would be. In the case I'm so mysteriously talking about, an incident that happened in a split second was enough to cause several people to betray their friendships with me and altered other friendships for the worse. Almost a decade on, I still feel wronged, and even though I've made my peace with a key person involved in the whole ordeal, I feel I never got the justice that I deserved. To some former friends, I am still a marked woman, and while I like to think I've risen above the pettiness, I still get the occasional urge to find some of them and demand apologies.

I guess there are some betrayals too strong to get over. I don't know how people can forgive and forget so easily. Hearing that it happens to easily is enough to make me think sometimes that I am not a good person because I still bear grudges and have not forgiven people, but then, I remind myself that I'm a better person than I think because I'm not the one who did the betraying. Say what you will about me, but you can never say that I have to feel bad for things other people have done to me.

Definition of Irony

Well, I've ranted and raved about this in real life to just about anyone who listens, and now it's time to do it here. In fact, you can all thank Jette for reminding me that I, in fact, have a blog in which to spout my ravings. This is a part of my "Edmonton sucks a little" campaign.

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) Alberta office sits on Jasper Avenue at 12o street, one of the busiest streets in Edmonton. And for the life of me, I cannot figure this out...There is an unmarked crossing to get across Jasper Ave to the CNIB. Now, call me nutty, but I don't think a pedestrian crossing sign and some white lines on the road are the best way to get BLIND and visually impaired people across that busy road. Where are the audible signals and crossing lights at this corner?

What city planner is sitting in their office oblivious to the fact that the visually impaired could have insane problems getting across the road to the CNIB offices? I mean, I don't know that that office has a lot of traffic of this nature, but still, does no one else see (so to speak) the irony of this? Is it just me, or does something seem a little out of whack here?

Fine, call me crazy if you must! But I shall never accept rationalization of this!

Sick and Tired of idiots *Contains expletives*

Okay, in the last few days, I've had it up to my pretty little brown eyeballs with these fucking idiots who find a way to make the government the bad guy in every single scenario.

4 RCMP officers were shot to death trying to bust a grow-op north of Edmonton yesterday. 4 good men with families and a sense of duty. This psychotic asshole came out shooting with a carbine assault-style rifle, and now he's dead, and I'd spit in his eye if I could. I don't have any particular allegiance to Mounties, I just think that the rotten apples of society are just that...plain, fucking rotten.

Anyways, what's got me madder than hell is that over on the yahoo news BBS for the story, some fuckwit with an IQ of like, 5, pipes up and says he blames the Government of Paul Martin for the deaths because he won't legalize pot. For fuck sakes, what sort of clown is this? I have no beef with decriminalization and that sort, but please....given that the gunman was a psycho criminal to begin with, and a grow-op was probably the least of his crimes, something tells me Mr. Grow-op would have come out guns-ablazing even if there wasn't a grow-op involved.

This guy blathers on and on and on about how Paul Martin had a choice that could have stopped this from happening. Bull-total-shit. Those cops went out there to seize stolen property and happened on the grow-op rather by accident. What Mr. Pot-loving-Poster doesn't want to remind us is that Mr. Grow-op had a choice too...he could have been a tarnished citizen who took his licks from society and the law, or he could have come out shooting. He chose option B.

I'll tell you what...I may not be too swift on the uptake when it comes to my symbolic logic class, but even I can see that he's affirming the antecedent, therefore his argument is invalid.

The Mayans

Luis, our tour guide on the bus tour to Chichen Itza, was a funny guy who reminded me alot of my dad. He had a lot of social commentary to make on the state of affairs for Mayan indians in Mexico, and it all boils down to the state not giving them any breaks, and any breaks they got they had to create for themselves basically.

Now, I've studied the Mayan civilization in my History of the World classes, and I was quite knowledgable to begin with, and I also knew from my global development classes that the current state of affairs for the Mayans was at times comparable to third world status. So I was prepared to a degree for what I was going to see. But I didn't quite feel ready for the Little villages and highway-side stalls of souvenirs and coca-cola interspersed the constant flow of litter, shabby-looking little houses and lots of farm animals.

When we stopped at a co-op market, we were given the opportunity to buy some Mayan Cartouches, decorated with Mayan hieroglyphs, buy Rod doesn't care for wearing jewellery that much, and I can't wear silver because of allergies, so my only option was to spend $300 on a gold one, and that's not much of an option. This market was all of the Mayan's own making. They formed a co-op and sold their goods and made their money off of the private tour companies that had deals with specific co-ops. This money went further than just supporting their families. According to Luis, this money also paid for community necessities like healthcare, infrastruture, schools, ect.

I was struck by the fact that many Mayans throughout the Yuchatan Peninsula and throughout Mexico were not so lucky. Only some communities have gotten together and formed these co-ops, and they are doing well by Mayan standards. But what about those who aren't granted that privilege? The government still determines who can have co-ops where because much of the land surrounding Mayan ruins is Federally-kept. So the Mayans we were constantly approached by on the grounds of Chichen Itza were unregulated, and judging by my estimation, not making much money off of their wares. Children as young as 3 or 4 years old were parroting their elders and running up to tourists...these tiny little kids were trying to sell us linens and alabaster chess sets without really grasping what they were doing.

There we were, Rod and I...standing in the shadows of the incredible Mayan ruins of a city that was overrun by the jungle long before Spanish Conquistadors could lay waste to it, surrounded by the descendents of the civilization that built these incredible buildings, and as I stood on top of the pyramid and looked out over the landscape, I realized that History was an unforgiving taskmaster. "Here today, Gone tomorrow" takes on a new significance when you are standing on the ruins of a formerly advanced civilization. Makes you wonder who will be standing on the ruins of our civilization 1,500 years from now.