the P.Pole v.2.1

I’ve been going to badminton since the beginning of this term and so far, it’s been pretty decent. Here are some qualms I have, though:

5 things I think could be worked on at the badminton club:

• executives making matches should care about making good matches
• regular members should not be treated like second-class citizens to executives
• promotions and demotions of skill levels should be rarer than willy-nilly
• it should take more than one bad day to warrant probation
• executives should have to wait their turns like everyone else

As you can see, I’m a little fed up with the general atmosphere of jackassery that some people exhibit at the club.

Tonight, I had been playing horribly (I’d have to say uncharacteristically horribly). I can’t be sure what went wrong, exactly. I mean, I probably didn’t get enough sleep last night and I probably should have eaten a smaller dinner, but in any case, the following is still very bullshit. I played doubles lazily (yeah it was probably the dinner) against someone in the Intermediate level who was paired with Old Guy. Old Guy is notorious not for being much older than everyone else at the club (he must be like, 50+) but for somehow being the in the Advanced level (he signed up as that) and no one is cruel enough to break the news to him that he probably doesn’t belong in that level. Epic collision ensues!

› Continue reading

Note: Hit the jump to skip to the latter part of this post–it’s a passionate criticism of our society worth your time, I promise! Yeah, click ahead if you’re interested in hearing me rant about a stupid child. It might be worth your while (especially if you happen to be that freaking girl).

5 new things I’ve adopted as part of my routine on campus:

• typing up my hand-written (in class) notes into Evernote (in my room)
• washing my dishes immediately after using them
• entering everything (and I mean everything) into iCal + Anxiety
• getting royally annoyed with foolish childrens here
• walking more or less everywhere

It’s funny how easy humans can adapt to pretty much anything. Quite a marvel of design, in my opinion. I decided this year I’d start doing things in school a little differently (y’know, with working and stuff) and so far it’s paid off. Typing in my notes at night a day or two after the lectures really helps to keep my head refreshed on what I’m supposed to be learning here. The same goes for keeping on top of things and being organized with my time on iCal and Anxiety (which works with iCal). The habit of washing dishes right after is something I picked up from Keith while in Hong Kong and I’ve stuck with it here (I hate it when my room mates leave their stuff in the sink so I don’t do that myself). Walking everywhere is probably (I say probably because I can’t tell at the moment) good for my overall health and fitness. Getting angry at silly childrens and their idiocies probably isn’t great for stress levels, but getting to play badminton in the UW club on Wednesday and Friday nights, as well as Saturday mornings probably fixes that.

› Continue reading

5 things I am disappointed with here on campus:

• there are still a lot of childrens (mostly small towners) that either are here for the expressed purpose of fooling around or think that their bite-sized “experience” is all there is to the world
• ResNet LAN is a hassle (with its security “features” that lock users down in more ways than one)
• UW Wireless is not much better (with its excellent connection strength but unreliable-at-best connection validation/availability)
• classes repeating material I’ve done in my IB courses are now supposed to be bird courses, but that also means they are deathly boring to sit through (Economics, I’m looking at you)
• the general lack of options or flexibility when making plans with friends and family in Toronto from here

I am not one to recklessly throw myself at every single event or gathering announced, since the ones I skip out on by volition are usually (as per my expectations) weak. But then there are things I can’t actually be around for that, if I had my way, I would love to be there for. It just sort of sucks to not be around when everyone else is, and then to be excluded. I suppose on the flipside, I could just get thoroughly involved here on campus with people here instead (not my usual, but nice) but then I don’t think I’ll be ready to forfeit what I’ve got back home any time soon to any takers. This has been my rant of starting school pains.

This was for an English assignment, but have a look anyway and see what you think. The original poem by cummings is linked at the bottom.

nothing happens in this stuffy drowned town
(with stacks so smoking healthy smog brown)
spring lever auto splinter
they buy their uses and sell their souls

buildings and builts(both ugly and tall)
filled with the living, not at all
slaving away the day and the night
sounds touch taste sights

people pressed(much more than a few
as more they commute, as more they stew
auto splinter spring lever)
as drivers stopped for more and more

this is how one kills belief
in lasting life and death that’s brief:
hear the show and see the song
overthink any and all your days

somedays buried by everydays
lost in borings that score a loss
(see hear pause but then)in
stead of living we opt for death

taste sights sounds touch
(not only the old but even now children
are people who ought to regret their existence
with stacks so smoking healthy smog brown)

one day i know i’ll leave i guess
(will no one care to hate this place?)
anyone hurry to fill my shoes
rattle the cages and wage the battles.

malls and malls for seek and keep
and store by store to steal your reap
not one will anyone please come april
and yet you wish as if by will…

buildings and builts(in which we cling
lever auto splinter spring)
will sub living and fix despite
sounds touch taste sights
- Carl Wong, nothing happens (parody, see: anyone lived by e. e. cummings)

Edit: Fix’d!

It’s no small secret that I really hate it when people choose to take some “liberties” with how they choose to present themselves over the Internet/in text. Catch phrases like “lol”, “rolf”, and “lmao” never really caught on for me, but I generally don’t mind when friends use these over IM. It’s when people (usually on forums or once in a blue moon, someone on my IM lists) start “talking” with extra letters, unnecessary capitalizations, spelling with numbers, etc… that I really get my hate on.

A group of girls that I know have actually unwittingly patented a certain style of typing over IM or even in blog posts. It seems they have an infectious effect on each other (yeah that phrasing probably isn’t the best but whatever, for lack of a more suitable term I guess). Although there’s no solid way to define this flamboyant disregard for the conventional rules of spelling and punctuation, there are generally a couple–or, if you’re lucky, a tonne–of extra letters at the ends of words (like “thiss” or “thissss” or “thissssssssss…”) and the use of exactly two–but not three–periods at the end of sentences to denote what I can only assume to be a passage of time or pause lengthier than that signified by a single period, but not quite as lengthy as an all out ellipses (because pure chaos would break out if we were to use things like conventional forms of punctuation to denote things).

Then this begs the question, why oh why then do I like lolcats so much? › Continue reading

*takes a break from the usual happy/mushy tunes

Enjoy the thumping bass and angsty but groovy of Chevelle.

So you say you’re ignored,
As it is.
Well, give us your sad, sad trip.

You’re right, I get it. It all makes sense,
You’re the perfect person: so right, so wrong.
Let’s all live in your imaginary life.

Assumed, it’s whether
We’re right or wrong.
We’re doomed, and there’s plenty for all.

How dare you catch me counting?
How dare you call at all?
How dare you call it suffering?
How dare you call at all?

You’re right, I get it. It all makes sense,
You’re the perfect person: so right, so wrong.
Let’s all live in your imaginary life.

Press on these tenants,
They’ll double in time.
The touch of life, once failed to mention so far.

Of course the law is fountains,
Or face to face remorse.
A fast and restless blackmail,
Like pent-up fetish force.

You’re right, I get it. It all makes sense,
You’re the perfect person: so right, so wrong.
Let’s all live in your imaginary life.

Do you want it enough?
Do you want it all?
Should you need it at all?
Takes a minute to see,
Do you want it enough?
Do you want it all?
Should you need it at all?
Do you want it or not?

You’re right, I get it. It all makes sense,
You’re the perfect person: so right, so wrong.
Let’s all live in your imaginary life.
- Chevelle, I Get It

5 things that I find unsettling:

• Quiet Types
  Don’t get me wrong, they can be very nice people, but I just don’t know what they’re thinking. Bothers me. Especially if they are also the murderous-looking types.
• Lavish Gifts
  I am, for one reason or another, suspicious of people who give very expensive or unnecessarily nice gifts to me. It must be instinct or something, since mostly it’s nice people that give things, but there is some cause for alarm when there’s a sudden generosity. Hidden motives, my friends!
• Shifty Eyes
  This isn’t so much unsettling as it is downright annoying. When I speak to people, I’d rather they look me in the eye or looked somewhere else, but never a mix of both. It has little to do with respect or whatever. It’s just annoying when someone can’t seem to keep their eyes from darting.
• Dark Corners
  For some reason, I’ve always had a healthy fear of the dark or dim. I mean, I’m not completely terrified, but I do find myself listening and straining my eyes for any signs of movement when the lights go off. This makes sleeping alone in a foreign room surprisingly hard.
• Ambiguous Comments
  I sometimes don’t know when to read comments as offhanded or serious in tone. This can be bothersome when something particularly important hinges on the words. And knowing me, I’d rather think the worst over the best just to be sure. Foolish!