Monday, January 29, 2007

News Tiddly-bits

Good Morning! Okay, admittedly, I'm supposed to be working on a synopsis of a discussion paper, reading 6000 pages of stuff, or writing a feminist paper, but instead, I'm trolling the interweb, finding news bits that inevitably get my hackles up.

Let's start the day with a wag of the finger to Novartis, a pharmaceutical company who apparently hates poor people. They are suing the Indian government over the production of generic drugs used to treat its population. Once again, the evil pharmacoms are hiding under the auspices of the WTO and it's Trade Related Intellectual Property rights while going after poor governments who cannot afford to buy in sufficient quantities, the sheer volume of patented drugs to treat the people who need them. Want to sign a petition? http://www.msf.org/petition_india/international.html

Along the same vein, Thailand's government has had to declare a national emergency to override the patents on two drugs, one to treat HIV/AIDS and the other to treat Heart patients. They are allowed to break the TRIPs agreement by declaring it as a National Public Emergency. Good for Thailand! Seriously, it takes cajones to stand up to the Pharmacoms, who thanks to these patents, have a stranglehold on the prices of these drugs. Responsible patents, sure. A legit version of a drug cartel, evil.

Moving on...The Tory attack ads. Oh, I seriously felt like I needed to crawl back into bed yesterday when I heard the "leaked" news that the Tories were planning to unveil a series of attack ads against Stephane Dion. How retarded! Seriously, if we're not heading into an election, the point of these attack ads would be...? To annoy Canadians who don't give a shit while they are trying to watch the Super Bowl? To show us why we shouldn't vote Liberal? But I thought we weren't going to the polls :s No, must be to waste all that money the Conservative Party is swimming in! Yeah, that's got to be it! Well, as goofy as this news was, this morning on Global BC Morning show, we were treated to one of the ads, and now it makes sense why the Tories had Jason Kenney do the honours...They had to spice up what are possibly the world's DULLEST attack ads in the history of mankind. My disgust turned to disbelief! Did the Harpertron 2000 write and direct these ads? BOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRING!!! So I guess I have nothing to worry about in that front.

Next...13% of Americans have not heard of Global Warming. Cue Shock and Awe...is this a joke? Even George Shrubya Bush has heard of Global Warming, and he is generally acknowledged to be the stupidest contemporary person in the United States. Has there been a companion study linking the percentage of people who have not heard of global warming to the percentage of American cloistered cave hermits or people repatriated from having grown up in wolf colonies? Does that 13% include people who have been locked away in a Bio-dome somewhere? Bushmen of the Kalihari desert have heard of global warming. Siberian church mice have heard of global warming! Oy!

Finally, Rod has no idea how lucky he is that he didn't go to Australia this month for work. This morning, the state of Queensland, the area where Rod was supposed to be in January, announced that they are is such a severe state of drought, that they are now having to purify sewage water for consumption. Dude, I'm not touching that one. Just be glad Rod's not there.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Prizes? Neato!

http://www.whydoyoublog.com/node

Darren Barefoot is doing a survey on blogging. He's offering random prizes or whatever, but I think it was more curiousity about what he wanted to know that got me to take the survey, which I found on Gail's blog.

Well, then it got me digging back through my old posts, and guess what? I was surprised at some of the things I've written! But not in a "I can't believe I wrote that" kind of way, like how you go back through your old high school yearbooks and cringe, "I can't believe I wore that neon green shirt with those black and neon pink suspenders!" way. More like, "Damn! I forgot how good I can be! Was I always that funny/smart/witty/cool/awesome/hot, etc?"

Yeah, I so need to find my muse again. And keep up with my school reading so that I can make time to blog :(

Friday, January 12, 2007

Day 5: Lonely PBD Student

If there are other Post-Bac students in my classes, they are so not giving themselves up. Naturally I'm finding myself with somewhat different goals then most of the other students, who are taking classes to meet requirements for graduation, whereas I'm the mad one there taking the classes because I want to. I tell people I'm doing Social Policy Issues, and they give me a sympathetic look and wonder why I'm doing something so exciting.

Policy can be very interesting! Aside from being something I can disagree with others on, it can open up a whole new career field for me. I've always been very awesome at criticizing and telling people what to do, and here is the chance to do so tactfully, while working with other people to find the most equitable solutions! I could end up working anywhere.

Anyways...I'm taking four classes this semester, which means no one will see me again until this summer, and even then I'll be taking summer classes, but at least there, it appears I'll only be in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There's just a whole lot of studying, and this semester seems to be a case of every prof believing their class takes priority, and therefore there is a ton of reading. In one class, it gets better...there's a ton of reading, and I don't know when to do them because there are no dates assigned. Like, wtf? I have three other classes that require my attention too, and I have to set up a specific schedule to make sure I'm keeping up, could you help me out a little and tell me X articles by Valentine's Day? Plus, how am I supposed to be keeping track of what applies to what class discussions? Boo.

I also learned something about getting to school. Currently, the shortest option is to take a 10 minute walk to a bus stop, hop that bus, get off at Lougheed Station and grab another bus up the Mountain. But if I miss that first bus, I'm hooped. It's such a random, infrequent run, that I can't just wait another 10-15 minutes and know there's another one on the way. It may be 20 minutes, it may be 30...so dumb. No, I have to make the 10 minute walk to Metrotown instead and grab a bus to SFU that takes longer and literally drives through every nook and cranny of Deer Lake Park, and past, I might add, two high schools, which makes the rides home super fun because of all the teenagers. Let's set the record straight here...when I was a teen, I wasn't like these kids today. I wasn't on my cell phone complaining to my friends that my dad was going to buy me a Lexus instead of the BMW 3 series car that all my friends have and that I want too. This is why I get irritated with teens today.

But I digress. School looks to be an interesting challenge so far. Unfortunately, it looks like the idea of a part time job to pick up the financial slack is going right out the window, but I am committed to getting the highest marks I can possibly achieve, and that means work. I need the grades to get into grad school, and to apply for scholarships, and most importantly, to prove that I'm committed to Grad School.

So far I like my professors, I'm excited about the content of most of the classes, and if I keep up with the reading, it looks like it will be a successful semester. But folks, don't forget to remind me to have a life every once in a while.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Love to ya in '007!

How did you ring in the New Year?

I love, love, love New Year's Eve/Day. I love the feeling of putting the old year and it's disasters and accomplishments to rest, and beginning the new one with the promise of new adventures.

Now, after the xmas boo-boos, I think Rod was looking to come off of that in a big way, so on Thursday when he text messaged me at work to ask me about a Masked Ball, I was immediately intrigued. For real? Like a real live dinner and masked ball in a Heritage Mansion that used to host these types of events in the 20's and 30's, being hosted by the University Women's Club of Vancouver. Rod truly lucked out, because when he called, he spoke to a lady who wasn't actually supposed to be at work, as they were closed, but she was there taking care of some details. $270 later, it was a done deal.

Our attention turned to the necessity of masks. Rod was very easy to take care of. Since 1992 or 1993, I've had this plastic 'Phantom of the Opera' mask meant to be a decoration. Done deal. We went down to The Party Bizarre on Saturday to find something for me, and we're good. We continued on to Moore's to pick up Rod's new sport coat (a delicious chocolate brown micro-fibre piece) and then on to the Mall for Rod to get a haircut. I determined that I would get a manicure and pedicure, and decided to go to the ProfessioNail salon because it was walk in. Dudes, worst manicure and pedicure ever. But I'll tell you why I didn't bother caring too much. I usually do my own home manicures and pedicures, and I'm good at them, but they are so time-consuming. I knew the place wouldn't be great, but I didn't care, I just didn't want to sit down and go through the whole process myself. At least they cleaned up my cuticles. The polish and shaping I handled myself when I got home because it was some seriously bad work. Now I know why I pay a small fortune to get it done at those snooty, upscale salons, and I won't apologize for it.

Sunday was a flurry of beautifying activity. Nails to be painted, legs to be mowed, eyebrows, skin, on and on and on. Make-up, hair, dressing myself AND Rod...so much responsibility! It didn't help that I had to take a one-hour break to stand around Shopper's drug mart waiting for copycat birth control pills. But come 6:15, it was time to unveil the work of art...



We arrived at the mansion, which is quite impressive, and I nervously noted that Rod and I were noticably younger than most of the other revellers. We staked out a standing table in one room, and were shortly joined by a group of three couples in need of a place to eat. The only problems I found with this beautiful house were the generic art and prints on the main floor (I hear the real art collection is upstairs), it was very chilly in the ballroom, and there were not enough sit down tables to accommodate the guests. As a result, the standing table Rod and I had taken while waiting for supper to begin turned out to be our supper table.

We spent some time talking to our tablemates, who were involved in Real Estate, and in the Lower Mainland, that spells money. The ladies chatted about trips to Italy and shopping at Gucci, and the men talked about their cuban-made cohibas and annual trips to the Grand Prix race in Montreal. Nice people, but wow, did I suddenly feel very poor! Ah well.

After a nice buffet dinner served in martini glasses, we were invited downstairs to the Ballroom to begin the party. In addition to the live band, a non-cash gaming casino and a scotch-tasting station were set up. After all that standing for supper, Rod and I grabbed the first love seat we could find and stayed there contemplating a dance or two. After a little while, Rod got up and wandered over to the Texas Hold'em table, while I stayed behind and chatted with a young brother and sister duo. They were leaving early, so we got up and wandered in to the gaming room to watch Rod play. He was the only guy at the tale besides the dealer who knew anything about Texas Hold'em, and he was not doing well. After a while, the lady beside him, who had a moderate stack of chips got tired of playing and invited me to sit down and play in her place, so I did.


And I stayed there, cleaning out one player after another all night. We stopped briefly to celebrate the stroke of midnight, but I just could do no wrong! My third hand into the game, I caught a massive break: I drew an ace, and decided to stay with it. Good thing too, cause there were two aces in the flop. And the turn turned up another ace. Count 'em...1+2+1...It was beautiful, and it was the start of my killer run. Rod on the other hand, lasted only one more hand before he was knocked out. Had it been for money, I would've walked out of there with $76,000, there was no doubt that once I got in there, I was the chip leader all night. It was insane :)

One can only hope that this auspicious start to the New Year is a sign of the good luck to come. With that, Best of Luck to everyone in '007!