School Daze

It's been a very difficult day.

Because the situation is ongoing and of a delicate and perplexing nature, I can't really get into details, but suffice it to say that I have hit a huge brick wall in regards to an assignment for a class, unlike any problem I've ever had before in all of my years of Liberal Arts education.

I know, it's totally unfair of me to put this out there and not elaborate, but this is after all, my personal space to put things out there where I can see and deal with them. While I won't discuss the exact nature of the problem with anyone except Rod and my Parents now, I will say that once I feel free to discuss the matter (upon the resolution of the matter with the professor), it'll take some explaining to really grasp what is (by then, was) at stake. Just prepare yourselves people, I'm telling you now, it's going to be a wee bit of a rant, and some of you may really not agree with some of what I have to say.

Other than this situation, school is chugging right along to the end of the semester, which is but two short weeks off! It's really the mad dash towards the finish line now, folks! On tap so far is a take-home final, two papers, a presentation and a panel discussion, followed by one final exam in a month. I'm pleased that, this situation aside, I don't seem to be freaking out at all. Thus far, I have done quite well, and seem to have taken to this Policy stuff like a fish to water, so other than deadline stress (which is inevitable), I feel no pressure, because I've already gotten more A- grades on assignments in this semester than I've had in my entire life (cause of course, I didn't have letter grades until I went to Grant MacEwan...tee hee). I've got a lot to be proud of.

Oh, and having Talulah at school with me? Soooooooo much better! Seriously, I don't know how I've gone this far without the joys of laptopness. The wireless internet issue aside (comes in handle Olaf! I was able to discuss a current event issue because I was able to have a news article in front of me online!), I love typing my notes because I type faster than I write. I once was lost, but now am found :)

HAPPY BIRFDAY BEENER!

My fantastic little baby beener has grown into a total 'tween...this is devastating! All my babies are growing up too quickly! But still, I'm very happy to wish nephew Beni a very, very happy 11th birfday!

Now Stop Growing! All of you kids are supposed to remain my widdo babies!!!

It's a Girl!

Meet Talulah Toshiba! 4 lbs, 1 oz, 12.1 in long, parents and baby girl are doing well! Tee hee.

Yes, on Sunday I learned 3 things:

1) Future Shop offers an instore credit card (groan)

2) Staples sucks

3) Stock was dwindling in the lower mainland, as it's a fairly popular new model.

That translated into going out in monsoon rains, all the way up to Park Royal in West Vancouver to buy, because these babies are moving fast!

I was hanging back on buying this new machine because Rod had a Staples credit card, and we were waiting for this model to get into the West Vancouver store because it's on reserve land, where I don't pay any taxes, but that stupid Staples store at Park Royal just wasn't going to cooperate by having the product in store. It got to the point where I was willing to buy it at the Staples here in Burnaby and pay all the damn taxes, but they ran out, and guess what? I couldn't even buy it from Staples online! Boooo. Suckage.

The other thing holding me back was a pretty big issue for me: Little Talulah comes with the Microsoft Vista operating system. I love XP. I think it was just ducky for me. Sure, Vista's got some pretty nifty little features, but overall, so not worth the change over in my opinion...yet. Plus, iTunes won't work with Vista yet, so Herman is going to get acquainted with Rod's desktop computer for a while :( But I guess that's the price to pay for being able to take a teeny-tiny widdo laptop to school with me, where I can type my lecture notes AND use the reliable wireless internet to surf the web during class (tee hee)

And the best part of all, is that Talulah is MINE! The adequate but monsterously-huge laptop I used before actually belonged to Rod, cause he bought it "for me." No more! Of course, I'll try to be nice and share with Rod. As long as he plays by my rules. And gives me money. And dessert. And takes me to Las Vegas for September 13th. That's it. And bakes me cupcakes on demand. Yeah. Cupcakes.

How do I do it?

Apparently, I am a fantastic bullshit artist. I knew I was a bullshit artist, but even I'm impressed with how good I am, and precious little in this world truly impresses me.

I got back an assignment I did for a class, for which I got extra comments about the originality, thoughtfulness, and (the impressive part) the "spark" in my writing style. These are informal assignments, which means I don't have to be wasting time with third-personness and formality, but I do maintain some sense of decorum in my writing, I just add some of the flair which occasionally graces this blog when I can muster it.

Now, the thing is, I'm almost certain I'm handing in complete crap. Really. Like, smears of elephant dung on paper. Because it's an Anthropology class, and I, by training, am not an Anthropology student, so I'm always sure I'm missing the point of assignments. I muddle through as best I can, and hope for the little check mark. Seems I get a lot of assignments back with the check mark, accompanied by the plus sign, which is just swell.

I even managed an A- on a 3-part assignment, and I was certain that 2/3 of the work was not great quality.

I am by no means suggesting that I'm pulling a fast one on a trained professional Anthropologist/Professor, because that's a highly unlikely scenario. But I am just so surprised that stuff I'm slapping together on the fly (and which isn't always what I would consider to be quality work) is getting such an excellent response! It could be that I'm being too hard on the quality of work I'm producing, but seriously, I feel like most of the time I'm shovelling out the bullshit by the gallon.

Have I finally cracked the secret to University?