Entry denied

At my internship, we're occupying two different offices. We've got our main Peacebuild office, and we're also using a small office within NAPO's (National Anti-Poverty Organization) offices which are right beside our own.

We started locking out own little office within NAPO's offices and we keep the key in our main office. NAPO's main doors are locked with an electronic keypad, so entry is no problem.

However, this morning I happened to be the first person into work. So I went into NAPO's office to see if our office door was unlocked. No luck, so I go to get the key from our main office, only to realize that our main office doors are locked.

I ended up having to set up shop in the main lobby of NAPO and wait for my supervisor to get there so we could unlock everything and get the ball rolling.

The new KKK

I had a surreal moment on the bus this evening. I came out of my commuter daze to take note of my fellow passengers. At the front of the bus were three people wearing white winter jackets with their hoods drawn up. The fluorescent lighting on the bus made them stand out. For some reason, they reminded me of the KKK.

Early vs. late wakeup calls

Normally I'm bitching about the false fire alarms late at night around 1am. But I must recant my rants. I discovered this morning that it's infinitely worse to be woken up at 7am on a Saturday morning. At least with the night alarms it's easier to fall asleep again.

The amusing thing with this morning's alarm, was that once it was done, we were all trudging upstairs back to our rooms, when the alarm started going off again. We all kind of froze and were like, "Well do we go back to our rooms or back outside?!" Cathy and I popped into the lounge to look out the windows and when we saw that the firetrucks were leaving despite the alarms going off again. We figured it was safe to go back to our rooms, and sure enough, by the time we reached the 5th floor, the alarms stopped.

The worse thing about fire alarms these days is that you just can't roll out of bed and go out the door. It's too cold for that! You have to bundle into pants, get winter jackets on, running shoes, hats, and scarves.

After the alarm, I ended up staying up since I was awake from the cold. 2 hours later I was lying in my bed watching a movie on my laptop, when suddenly the alarm started going off AGAIN. I managed to get up (I finished knitting the line of yarn I was working on first), get into my jeans, and just as I was shrugging into my jeans, the alarm stopped again. Yeesh.

A story for my readers

Well it seems as though I've been in a non-blogging mood of late. Very well, I shall regale you with an amusing anecdote from my Christmas holidays.

My sister bought a new laptop back in the Fall. Its keyboard has all the special characters, and it also has special French keys on it. My sister didn't know how to use the French keys, so she asked me to play around with her laptop to try to figure it out.

I fought with her laptop for half an hour. I changed language settings, keyboard settings, I tried using the function keys on her laptop and nothing worked! I finally gave up, put all her settings back to normal and returned her laptop to her.

Mel started to check her email and then asked, "Umm, Mau? What's going on?" Whenever she tried to type on the right half of her keyboard, instead of letters appearing, numbers would come up instead.

I reconfiscated her laptop and rechecked that I had returned all her language and keyboard settings back to normal. Then I checked again, and again. I could not for the life of me figure out what her keyboard was still spouting out random signs and numbers instead of the letters. I even called my father in to help.

We were checking online help files trying to figure out what was going on. I finally clued into what was wrong when I came across a web page explaining how to use a laptop keyboard. That's when it hit me.

When I had been originally fiddling around with her laptop, I had turned number lock on! I forgot to turn it off! That's why half her keyboard was punching out numbers instead of letters.

I am so smrt!

Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho, happy holidays!

Winter woes

I decided to be my mother's nurse during her recuperation. However, as of this afternoon I too am an invalid. I was outside shoveling snow and about half way through a swing, I felt a crack in my back followed by a not-so-pleasant stabbing pain.

That's right, I threw out my back. Again. I've been laying around with an ice pack on my back and have been taking pain killers. I also tried some cream for arthritis pain and nothing's helping. :( I tried to have a nap in my bed this afternoon, but trying to emerge from my blankets and get back up was ridiculously painful - my back started spasming and I actually cried - and I never cry with pain.

My parents are taking pity on me and fetching me whatever I need and are helping me to get up and out of various chairs.

I can't wait for this to be over.

My newest sibling

Two weeks ago my mom finally relented and allowed my father to get a new cat. They adopted a long haired grey cat from the animal shelter and brought it home... Where it promptly disappeared. Searches later revealed it to be hiding behind the dryer. Later it was under a couch. Then it was under a bed.

My father would have to lie on his stomach to coax the feline out from its hiding places, and this has been the pattern for two weeks. (The creature had been a stray, and then locked up in a cage for 5 months, so some shyness was expected.) He's been working on essentially "taming" the cat for human company.

The funny thing is though, the cat has decided to like everyone BUT my father (for whom the cat was purchased in the first place). A few days ago, when my parents were lying it bed, apparently the cat jumped up and was sucking up to my mother (who hates cats) and totally ignored my father's overtures.

For my first 24 hours at home, I didn't see the cat either. I heard it eating food and using its litterbox, but never laid eyes on it. Then yesterday, in the middle of the night while my parents were out of the house, I woke up to find a black mass at the bottom of my bed.

It was a bit disturbing to realize there's a creature on my bed that I've never lay eyes on. I managed to coax it within hand reach whereupon I started to pet it. The next thing I know, the cat is with me for 2 hours, cuddling, etc. I finally got up and went downstairs just as my parents came home. The cat disappeared again. The stupid feline hisses and growls when she sees him.

We're trying to think of names for the cat now. The people at the shelter called it "Mumsy" because it recently had a litter of kittens.

Our potential names include:

• Invisi-cat
  
• Phantom
  
• Reaper (because my mom used to tell my dad he could get a cat when she was dead.)
  
• AWOL
  
• Houdini
  

Kids say the darndest things

Bwhahahahahaa. My niece made me laugh tonight. I was talking with her on the phone tonight and then I asked if she had heard the news about her grandmother. (My mom has a kidney stone.)

Cara tells me, "Yeah, mom said something about grandma's kidneys being stoned."

I kinda paused, wondering if she was joking, and then I realized she wasn't. LOL. I laughed and laughed at that.

Perils of being a grad student

Last night I helped my friend Meg find our professor's office so she could drop off a paper. We couldn't find the professor's drop box, so she decided to slide the paper under the prof's office door. Her paper was 25 pages long and was in a file folder.

It wouldn't slide under the door.

We started laughing hysterically. "Holy shit! It's too thick! It won't fit under the door!!!" She managed to slide it under finally, but she had to remove the file folder and even then it was a tight squeeze.

It's crazy when your final papers are so big they won't even slide under a door anymore.

Lost on a straight line

Once in awhile I get the urge to go for a long walk. I can walk for a long time, provided I keep a quick pace and don't get distracted or stop for anything. (If I do, I suddenly get tired and lose motivation to walk.)

Today was one of those days. I finished my last exam, the sun was shining, I had a cup of coffee, and felt like walking around the city. You can see on the map below the path I took. all in all, it took me around 2 hours? But they were coooooold hours. It was only -4 today, but the wind was pretty miserable!


I was initially planning on just walking around the Byward Market, but I've been there so often, it seemed boring. Then I considered walking to the National Art Gallery, but I really didn't feel like it (although I did walk right beside it briefly). Then I walked behind the Parliament buildings and was going to walk beside the Ottawa River, but the pathway wasn't cleared and I didn't feel like slipping and sliding everywhere.

Finally, I decided to walk along the Rideau Canal back to my residence. The canal runs from the Ottawa river, through the city, all the way to my university. I can see the canal from my window! The walk was very nice, but as mentioned, cold. And I was also bitter at the lack of public washrooms along the path! About half way through my walk, my coffee came back to haunt me. (I did find one set of public washrooms, but they were locked - what the hell? I guess the city thinks people don't urinate during the winter.) By the time I got to Lansdowne Park though, I really needed to use a bathroom, so I found my way back to a major street and managed to get back to my residence before I burst.

It was a very pleasant walk, but I think I might wait until the spring before I walk it again. (But of course I'll be skating on the canal when it finally opens up...)

Apologies

I owe an apology to the masses. For years, I've been hearing stories of "the web/application ate my homework!" I've always assumed it was sheer incompetence on their part.

I hereby formally apologize, because I finally understand that even the technically savvy (aka: me) can suffer glitches.

I had to submit my final paper over the internet to my professor. We have to use this online software, WebCT, to do so. So I submitted my paper on Wednesday and chilled out for the rest of the night, basking in the glory that is having nothing to do.

The next day one of my classmates mentioned that the prof had already started submitting grades online. I spent all of Thursday morning/afternoon stalking WebCT, hoping for a mark. Finally I thought, "Maybe my mark is appearing on a different page..." I navigated through the site and found myself on the "Assignment Submission" page. That's when I noticed that beside the submission link, it read, "Status: Individual Not Started (Due December 5, 2007 15:00 Late)". Wait! What the hell?!

I immediately emailed my prof to ask whether he received my paper... I pounced on my computer everytime I heard the "Ding, you've got new mail" sound. Finally I got a reply and discovered that no, my prof hadn't received my assignment. Talk about a freakout. Luckily he accepted my assignment as on time anyways.

Therefore, I would like to apologize to everyone I've ever doubted before.

A portrait of Mau

... It's me!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Last week of classes

Today was my last Human Security class. Even though I had a hard time keeping up with the workload and contributing to the class discussions, I'm really happy that I took the course. It was was very enlightening, both about Human Security and the International community in general.

Our prof did his best to instill a sense of responsibility and humility in us, warning us that we need to be careful, because our decisions don't affect us - someone in some developing country pays for our errors. I feel like that was the most important thing I've learned all term. Heck, that's probably the most important thing I've learned since I've started school in general. It's easy to think about what *I* want to do, or how *I'll* decide to do things... But I've never truly considered the potential ramifications of my decisions beyond, "Oh, I might get in shit and get fired."

There was some amusement in our final class though. There were three final student presentations. When our prof was making the presentation topics, he randomly chose issues he knew about, and other ones he didn't know about. Well, today one girl had to do a presentation about a topic the prof wasn't aware of.

Her topic was about gangs recruiting children in India. She presented the different ideas of gangs, recruitment methods in general, etc... And then she had a slide in the middle of her presentation entitled, "Understanding Gaps in Human Security Research (Or: My Very Bad Day at The Library)." While trying to research gang recruitment in the Indian context, she could not find any resources on children in Indian gangs. She ended up talking to the prof and they changed her topic to be about why there's a dearth of information on the topic. She had three hypotheses and the first one listed was, "Hypothesis #1: I am not very good at researching." We all laughed and laughed. Her other hypotheses were interesting too, and the class discussion was also fascinating as we tried to figure out why there could be no information, or how we could look for the information in other ways.

This lack of information on gang recruitment of children in India is one of the things our prof was trying to warn us about. As he told us today, if there truly is no information available on this topic, it means that all other generalizations in the world on gang recruitment of children are made moot - India is the second most populous country in the world, so lacking information on this country means that we don't have all the necessary information to make a well-rounded hypothesis... I don't know if this makes sense to you, but to me, it was a pretty amazing concept.

Cleaning update

I talked to my roommate tonight about what she wanted me to clean. As I mentioned, I thought I was a fairly clean person. It turns out that I am. It's just that she's super clean. I think what it comes down to is the fact that she's never lived in a student apartment before. I'm used to student housing being slightly dirty (or in some cases, ridiculously dirty), so I'm used to ignoring small things like scuffs on the walls, etc.

I told her to make a list of things she wants cleaned, and then we'll take turns doing it. She kept protesting, "But I don't want to make you feel bad - this is your house too!" But let's face it, it's not like she'll lower herself to my decent standards. LOL. She wants stuff like the cupboards (near the handles) scrubbed, etc... Yeesh. I thought I left psycho-cleaner back in Owen Sound.

Spelling fun

I'm writing one of my essays right now and suddenly had a brain fart. I realized I didn't know if I should be spelling things, "per cent" or "percent." (I've seen them both ways in academic papers.)

After a quick google and a visit to the mother of all knowledge, Wikipedia, I came across their writing style guide that explained the differences between different countries and their spelling styles. I found a lovely little table on there that compared, Australia, Canada, UK, USA, and some other countries. I was amused to see how random Canada's column is. Our spelling varies from US to UK with a bit of French influence tossed in for fun.

I suggest you check it out here. It's amusing if nothing else.

P.S. Oh yeah, "per cent" is the British method while "percent" is the American. Since the queen is on our money, I think I'll use the British method... And it takes up more space on the page. ;)

By the power of Grey Skull!

Sometimes when I think over the past 5 years of undergrad, and where I am now, I can't help but feel like this... http://applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2006-06-23

The small things

Argh. It's amazing how one small issue can make you completely infuriated. I woke up feeling good - ready to tackle a new day, be productive, etc., etc.

After I got out of the shower and was just going back into my room, my roommate comes out of hers and asks, "Oh Maureen, do you think the bathroom floor is getting kind of dirty?" After I gave the stunning reply of, "Huh?" She repeated her comment...

It's like, "Just fucking ask me to mop the floors if you want me to!!!"

I can't really complain, it's good that I have a clean housemate. Admittedly she's a lot cleaner than I am - she's forever scrubbing things down while I subscribe to the idea that a little dirt is good for you in life. I'm tidy though - I also wipe down the counters, I do my dishes a lot more often than her (mind you, I create more dishes), etc. She's the one who cleans the bathroom most often and whatnot, but then again, I'm the one who thinks it doesn't need that much cleaning. If I do clean up, it tends to be while she's not home.

Anyways, the main thing that bugs me is that she had to flit around her question instead of asking me flat out. She has no problem confronting me at other times (e.g. this weekend we had to agree to keep my door closed with a scarf blocking the gap underneath it because I was apparently creating a wind tunnel by keeping my window open.)

It wasn't until she left the apartment and I sat down to eat my breakfast that I realized how much of a bitchy mood I had sunk into. If I had been a more confrontational person, I would have loved to have replied, "No, I think it still looks good," as I slammed the door in her face. :) But alas, I'm not, and I probably will end up mopping sooner or later.

Word Definition

I now know what the word "cacophony" means. It's when hundreds of Canadian Geese decide to migrate by your window at 2am in the morning. It was surreal to hear them honking and honking, and the sound never ending...

Suckerpunched by winter

Jesus Christ! I'm used to having weeks to get used to winter, where the snow will come and then melt and repeat this process a few times before finally sticking around. Not so with Ottawa. When I opened my curtains yesterday morning, the first words outta my mouth were, "Holy shit!" Everything was covered in 3 inches of snow. And it's more of the same today.

Judging from the weather forecast, it looks like there's more snow to come, and it's going to be here to stay. Wow. Prior to this, we only had two small small snow falls, where the flakes melted even before they hit the ground. Yikes!

Organic methods

Whenever I tell someone that I'm learning how to knit, they tend to give me the exact same expression. Their faces have written on them, "Are you insane?" even as they tell me, "Oh, that's nice, Maureen."

I like learning how to do/make things the authentic way. Yes, I know I can go out to the store and buy a pre-knitted sweater or blanket, but it's nice to know how to do it myself. I feel like I can better appreciate the hard work that goes into such creations if I know how to do it myself.

The same goes for cooking. While I love all the pre-made sauces and packaged foods out there, I prefer to know how to flavour my foods using real spices and whatnot. Plus, I feel it's healthier - those processed foods contain so much salt and random ingredients that you never really know what you're eating. It's so satisfying to try a new recipe and with the first mouthful think, "Mmm, this is so delicious!" and to know that nothing but your own hard work went into making it wonderful.

In other words, all these little pieces of knowledge just go to make me more self-sustainable.