Monday, March 21, 2005
Officially, I am bored
Maybe it's having to deal with the University registration system today. I really don't want to have to deal with those people any more than I already have. Lord knows they've frittered away enough of the precious monies I've already given them. The struggle boils down to the same themes: I want to enroll in classes, and they insist on not letting me do so. This year, the big reasons are the same. One, the steadfast "scheduling conflict": in which They hold every class I need in the same bloc of time, effectively forcing me to choose between taking courses I neither want nor need, or re-inventing the laws of physics to say that I can be in several places at once. Two, the newer "prohibitive enrollment criteria": in which They flat out say, "No, you may not take this course you desire. Because the students in the Computer Science facuty are our top priority, we are not allowing Computer Engineering students to enlist until May 1st." Great -- May 1st, the date so ridiculously far down the road that !
(Stop the presses! I have just learned that Canada Post is not entirely useless! In fact, a package I mailed last Wednesday, for reasons to be detailed "Sekret Projekt Code Green", has indeed arrived at its destination. I was worried for while, since before today my package did not exist according to them. I have a lot of... things invested in this package, and it's reassuring to me that it arrived safely in it's destination. So please: use Canada Post for your shipping concerns.)
Ahem. I apologize for that, but it's one of the few good things that's happened to me since I got off work. See, the bussing system was being it's usual self today, allowing me to stand around in the blowing snow (in March! MARCH! Calgary weather for you, eh?) whilst they tell me that no, the No. 20 bus marked for Heritage St. South, doesn't go to the other, similar destination Heritage. Now, where was I before I got lost on these tangents?
Yes, May 1st is too far down the line to be considered for registration ordeals. The Keener crowd will have long gotten their greasy little paws on any courses I would need. My issue becomes more pronounced the more I consider how possible it is that I become hopelessly fucked for my classes. I have 14 courses left to take, 5 of which are scheduled in the fall with 4 more in the winter. I would like to take more in January, to flesh out those 4 into a more respectable 5 or 6 (it wouldn't do for me to appear that I am slacking*) however due to those pesking irritants I mentioned earlier -- well, we won't go there again.
Instead, I propose launching off like a rocket into topics unknown to mankind. An attempt to rekindle that explorer spirit, lost since the invention of satellite imagery, or perhaps even earlier since we discovered just about every damn thing on the face of the earth. I think that was in the late '50s, perhaps, not that it really matters. My love affair with World of Warcraft is somewhat on the rocks lately, ever since I hit the late 20s and 30s. Call it a mid-game crisis, or something. My questing has become more and more limited, and since I'm really not a multiplayer person, my tendency to solo most of the time has no doubt encouraged this. In City of Heroes, it was relatively easy to just pick up a group of people to play with; not so much in WoW. Blizzard has said they're implementing some changes in the upcoming patch to help this, but for now the pick-up grouping is restricted to:
[Looking for Group][Juche]: LFG to do A Grim Task or Thandol Span
((inane General chatter))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: Anyone doing A Grim Task or Thandol Span?
((more inane chatter, this time about snozzberries))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: Anyone doing any sort of quests at all? PST!
((chatter so incredibly stupid, you wish you could join in, as ignorance really is bliss))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: I hate you all.
While I do have guild-mates to quest with, the ones around my level never seem to be on when I do. All my friends from Edmonton are now either some levels too high (from 4 to 11) or half my level on alternate characters. Truly, I am so alone on that game. Then again, for one, WoW is still good enough, even as a single-player game to keep me coming back, and I have a feeling that our passions will be rekindled soon enough. The lull is really only enough to get me to be writing this rather than playing.
And such writing it is! Being bored, this obviously means I had no set topic when I started, and I think it's showed marvelously. Gonzo journalism degree, here I come! Or at least, I would, if it weren't for the little matter of already being within 16 months of finishing the one I've already started. One component of the co-op report I have due next week is to project my life as it pertains to engineering. While my first thought about this is that it's completely pointless, I shan't be putting that in the report, since it's frowned upon by the wonderfully short-sighted, closed minded co-op office. Something more important that a paying engineering job? Never! Thou art damned for thinking so! Sometimes, it's enough to make me WANT to buy into that poppycock -- thinking simple-minded enough thoughts such as having nothing more to life than:
might even be rewarding in some perverse, twisted sense. If that's what you love, do it. Me? I don't know what I love yet, so I'm understandably loathe to put these predictions into writing, even a silly assignment that will be (maybe) looked at by eyes other than my own. It's not the act or the words, but the principle!
Aside from the life predictions, the rest of the assignment is dominated by interviews with fellow engineers. Once again, I really couldn't bring myself to care, since I am quite certain my future will be as different from theirs as my father's was from mine, but I don't really have much of a choice. Write the bloody thing, or not get credit for the work term, resulting in dismissal from the co-op program, resulting in effective career suicide -- I have strong suspicions that the co-op office would blackball me from the industry in their vindictiveness.
Don't get me wrong. I like my job well enough; it's arguably the best I've had, but it's still a job. Anything short of self-employment is to be treated with a certain amount of disdain, and even the self-employment is still open to negotiation, pending my trying it first-hand. Of all the complaints I could have, I suppose the kettle problems would be the worst of them, and there isn't much you can do about a job when your chief grievance amounts to "People can't operate the kettle." What does that say about you then? Me, I ask "What does that say about THEM?" instead, but once you get someone into a viewpoint like that, they're loathe to change their minds. Upsets the stomach or something -- if you listen, sometimes you can even hear the sound of a paradigm shifting without a clutch.
The kettle problem is a pretty simple one, provided you follow the rules I made up just now:
You would be surprised at how many people get these wrong. For lack of a better excuse, I blame the In-Sink-erator. Yes, that's what it's called: the In-Sink-erator. A glorified faucet shooting forth water pre-heated to 190 degrees Farenheit, this thing just throws a giant monkey wrench into the works. As such, I have amended the above two rules to the following:
Really, there's no reason not to -- the water is no different, and it's basically already boiling. Again, I can't see the problem in all of this, but it happens. Some have even resorted to microwaving their tea because the kettle takes too long, which strikes me as a monumentally obtuse move on their part. Not only does microwaved tea pale (and by pale, I mean, come across as glowing white) in comparison to honest-to-goodness boiled tea, but there are only TWO rules here! These are the same folks that can not only CREATE passwords worthy of passing the IT muster (recently amended to force you to use Cyrillic characters in additions to uppercase, lowercase, numeric and symbolic) but REMEMBER said passwords! They are working at one of the best companies in Canada (so sayeth Maclean's) and yet... and yet... words fail me at this point. I can only shake my head in bewilderment and wonder. For all I know, they all have these "secure" passwords blatantly posted on a Post-it attached to their monitor.
I think, on that note, I can wrap things up. I've managed to fully express my disappointment with my co-workers, as well as laid down enough words to keep the more ravenous of you internet folks satiated for at least a good five minutes. Maybe even six. If I weren't struggling with it already, I may just turn back to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, the corollary effects of which have no doubt filtered through my brain and into this post. More likely, I'll futz around on the internet a bit and then go back to World of Warcrack. Because I can't stay mad at you, Azeroth. It's not you. It's me. We can work things out.
-------------------------
* The joke here is that even if I take 8 courses, a feat not possible according to the Office of the Registrar, I would still take every effort with every muscle in my body to Slack. Hail Bob. ¶ 8:30 p.m.
Maybe it's having to deal with the University registration system today. I really don't want to have to deal with those people any more than I already have. Lord knows they've frittered away enough of the precious monies I've already given them. The struggle boils down to the same themes: I want to enroll in classes, and they insist on not letting me do so. This year, the big reasons are the same. One, the steadfast "scheduling conflict": in which They hold every class I need in the same bloc of time, effectively forcing me to choose between taking courses I neither want nor need, or re-inventing the laws of physics to say that I can be in several places at once. Two, the newer "prohibitive enrollment criteria": in which They flat out say, "No, you may not take this course you desire. Because the students in the Computer Science facuty are our top priority, we are not allowing Computer Engineering students to enlist until May 1st." Great -- May 1st, the date so ridiculously far down the road that !
(Stop the presses! I have just learned that Canada Post is not entirely useless! In fact, a package I mailed last Wednesday, for reasons to be detailed "Sekret Projekt Code Green", has indeed arrived at its destination. I was worried for while, since before today my package did not exist according to them. I have a lot of... things invested in this package, and it's reassuring to me that it arrived safely in it's destination. So please: use Canada Post for your shipping concerns.)
Ahem. I apologize for that, but it's one of the few good things that's happened to me since I got off work. See, the bussing system was being it's usual self today, allowing me to stand around in the blowing snow (in March! MARCH! Calgary weather for you, eh?) whilst they tell me that no, the No. 20 bus marked for Heritage St. South, doesn't go to the other, similar destination Heritage. Now, where was I before I got lost on these tangents?
Yes, May 1st is too far down the line to be considered for registration ordeals. The Keener crowd will have long gotten their greasy little paws on any courses I would need. My issue becomes more pronounced the more I consider how possible it is that I become hopelessly fucked for my classes. I have 14 courses left to take, 5 of which are scheduled in the fall with 4 more in the winter. I would like to take more in January, to flesh out those 4 into a more respectable 5 or 6 (it wouldn't do for me to appear that I am slacking*) however due to those pesking irritants I mentioned earlier -- well, we won't go there again.
Instead, I propose launching off like a rocket into topics unknown to mankind. An attempt to rekindle that explorer spirit, lost since the invention of satellite imagery, or perhaps even earlier since we discovered just about every damn thing on the face of the earth. I think that was in the late '50s, perhaps, not that it really matters. My love affair with World of Warcraft is somewhat on the rocks lately, ever since I hit the late 20s and 30s. Call it a mid-game crisis, or something. My questing has become more and more limited, and since I'm really not a multiplayer person, my tendency to solo most of the time has no doubt encouraged this. In City of Heroes, it was relatively easy to just pick up a group of people to play with; not so much in WoW. Blizzard has said they're implementing some changes in the upcoming patch to help this, but for now the pick-up grouping is restricted to:
[Looking for Group][Juche]: LFG to do A Grim Task or Thandol Span
((inane General chatter))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: Anyone doing A Grim Task or Thandol Span?
((more inane chatter, this time about snozzberries))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: Anyone doing any sort of quests at all? PST!
((chatter so incredibly stupid, you wish you could join in, as ignorance really is bliss))
[Looking for Group][Juche]: I hate you all.
While I do have guild-mates to quest with, the ones around my level never seem to be on when I do. All my friends from Edmonton are now either some levels too high (from 4 to 11) or half my level on alternate characters. Truly, I am so alone on that game. Then again, for one, WoW is still good enough, even as a single-player game to keep me coming back, and I have a feeling that our passions will be rekindled soon enough. The lull is really only enough to get me to be writing this rather than playing.
And such writing it is! Being bored, this obviously means I had no set topic when I started, and I think it's showed marvelously. Gonzo journalism degree, here I come! Or at least, I would, if it weren't for the little matter of already being within 16 months of finishing the one I've already started. One component of the co-op report I have due next week is to project my life as it pertains to engineering. While my first thought about this is that it's completely pointless, I shan't be putting that in the report, since it's frowned upon by the wonderfully short-sighted, closed minded co-op office. Something more important that a paying engineering job? Never! Thou art damned for thinking so! Sometimes, it's enough to make me WANT to buy into that poppycock -- thinking simple-minded enough thoughts such as having nothing more to life than:
- graduating,
- getting a job,
- meeting someone (those last three may happen in any order),
- settling down and
- watching your rugrats go through the whole miserable process
might even be rewarding in some perverse, twisted sense. If that's what you love, do it. Me? I don't know what I love yet, so I'm understandably loathe to put these predictions into writing, even a silly assignment that will be (maybe) looked at by eyes other than my own. It's not the act or the words, but the principle!
Aside from the life predictions, the rest of the assignment is dominated by interviews with fellow engineers. Once again, I really couldn't bring myself to care, since I am quite certain my future will be as different from theirs as my father's was from mine, but I don't really have much of a choice. Write the bloody thing, or not get credit for the work term, resulting in dismissal from the co-op program, resulting in effective career suicide -- I have strong suspicions that the co-op office would blackball me from the industry in their vindictiveness.
Don't get me wrong. I like my job well enough; it's arguably the best I've had, but it's still a job. Anything short of self-employment is to be treated with a certain amount of disdain, and even the self-employment is still open to negotiation, pending my trying it first-hand. Of all the complaints I could have, I suppose the kettle problems would be the worst of them, and there isn't much you can do about a job when your chief grievance amounts to "People can't operate the kettle." What does that say about you then? Me, I ask "What does that say about THEM?" instead, but once you get someone into a viewpoint like that, they're loathe to change their minds. Upsets the stomach or something -- if you listen, sometimes you can even hear the sound of a paradigm shifting without a clutch.
The kettle problem is a pretty simple one, provided you follow the rules I made up just now:
- If you empty the kettle, refill it and set it to boil.
- When you fill the kettle, fill it with hot water rather than cold, as it boils faster.
You would be surprised at how many people get these wrong. For lack of a better excuse, I blame the In-Sink-erator. Yes, that's what it's called: the In-Sink-erator. A glorified faucet shooting forth water pre-heated to 190 degrees Farenheit, this thing just throws a giant monkey wrench into the works. As such, I have amended the above two rules to the following:
- If you empty the kettle, refill it and set it to boil.
- When you fill the kettle, fill it with In-Sink-erated water rather than ANYTHING ELSE, as it boils faster.
Really, there's no reason not to -- the water is no different, and it's basically already boiling. Again, I can't see the problem in all of this, but it happens. Some have even resorted to microwaving their tea because the kettle takes too long, which strikes me as a monumentally obtuse move on their part. Not only does microwaved tea pale (and by pale, I mean, come across as glowing white) in comparison to honest-to-goodness boiled tea, but there are only TWO rules here! These are the same folks that can not only CREATE passwords worthy of passing the IT muster (recently amended to force you to use Cyrillic characters in additions to uppercase, lowercase, numeric and symbolic) but REMEMBER said passwords! They are working at one of the best companies in Canada (so sayeth Maclean's) and yet... and yet... words fail me at this point. I can only shake my head in bewilderment and wonder. For all I know, they all have these "secure" passwords blatantly posted on a Post-it attached to their monitor.
I think, on that note, I can wrap things up. I've managed to fully express my disappointment with my co-workers, as well as laid down enough words to keep the more ravenous of you internet folks satiated for at least a good five minutes. Maybe even six. If I weren't struggling with it already, I may just turn back to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, the corollary effects of which have no doubt filtered through my brain and into this post. More likely, I'll futz around on the internet a bit and then go back to World of Warcrack. Because I can't stay mad at you, Azeroth. It's not you. It's me. We can work things out.
-------------------------
* The joke here is that even if I take 8 courses, a feat not possible according to the Office of the Registrar, I would still take every effort with every muscle in my body to Slack. Hail Bob. ¶ 8:30 p.m.
