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This is not an abandoned blog. This is a blog which has been relocated. Should you feel the need, please feel free to visit An Idealist's Downward Spiral Into...Cynicism at its new home.

This is not an abandoned blog. This is a blog which has been relocated. Should you feel the need, please feel free to visit An Idealist's Downward Spiral Into...Cynicism at its new home.

please let me know if you prefer this blog hosting service or this one. The latter includes tags, trackback comments and better bloglines/livefeed compatibility, but does not permit the prettier template.

I have been meaning to write this particular post for a while.
When IPODs first came out, or, more correctly, when you first started to see them being used by a large portion of the public transport using population, i couldn't understand what the big deal was. they seemed to be like everything else in this weird, other-culture fearing province - A FAD. A fad like car tempos and those rather pretty, but inexplicably popular icicle-style christmas lights. since then, i have decided that i want an IPOD Nano. Well, i want a real IPOD, but i am poor. However, i don't really know why i want one, which is the main reason i don't have one already. if i can't come up with one good reason why i think it will at least make my life more pleasurable, i don't think i should put out that kind of cash. i don't listen to music that much because i find it difficult to concentrate on what i'm reading when it's playing, even instrumental jazz which is what i listen to the most. i do listen to music when doing latin homework (which i won't be having next year, sadly) and i am pretty certain i would use an IPOD on public transport because i rarely go to the trouble of taking the book i "should" be reading out of my bag.
However, and this is what caused me to finally put up this post, after reading an entry on Guillaume's blog, i discovered pandora by the music genome project. it's a personal DJ. i can taylor a radio system to my specific tastes. the most awesome piece of internet technology i have seen all year. of course, i can't load pandora onto an IPOD, but it sure does give me good suggestions for making purchases at the MusicStore.
Okay, so why am i writing this? Because i need help. I cannot make this life-changing (LOL) decision on my own. Consider this a survey on what you think of the IPOD fad...
Factors to consider with the specific advice you give me that have not been previously mentioned:
(a) currently an IPOD represents over two weeks salary and i am trying to save up so as not to work next semester.
(b) yes, i have a MAC so ITUNES is my software of choice.
(c) i have been to all of two live concerts in my life. i prefer the theatre.
(d) i am horribly intimidated by the musically-knowledgeable.
So, whatcha think? why do you have one or not have one and what light can you shed on my particular conundrum?

good morning.
firstly, some administrative nonsense: john completely denies the description of his flirting i posted earlier this week. apparently he is NOT touchy. i also got pretty raked over the coals for having a blog in general, but i like a good ribbing, so i can cope. it has come to my attention that if you are accessing this site via livefeed or bloglines, you do not see the post a comment link. well, i encourage anyone capable of telling me why this is to do so. i will happily fix it. if no solutions are forthcoming in the next week, i will change the template to include a note about that problem.
on to the interesting stuff. (HA).
My BOSS rec'd a ticket for not stopping at a stop-sign Wednesday night. She decided to write a LETTER to attach to the ticket because she wants to contest it. This is the letter (i rewrote it for her, don't worry), capitalization, spelling and punctuation pristine. She had proof-read it and just wanted me to "double-check" because i'm good at these things. Please note: thouh her first language is not English, she's Greek, she went through at least 7 years (if not her entire schooling career) in the english school system. i had previously thought illiteracy was dead in Canada. She has been working in an office environment for the past twenty-three years. Lord help me, she is my supervisor.
To Whom It May Concern:

I am contesting this ticket 011160573, Reason being I made my stop.

I pass by this particular stop everyday for 4 1/2 yeas.
This was not the first time that I seeing police officer pulling drivers over on the side.
But it was the first time I was pulled over.
They had stropped about 3 to 5 cars before i got there.
I saw a police officer 1/2 ways downs the street.
And pulled me over on the side. I asked what happed.
I was advised that I did not come to a full stop.
This is not the first time I see police at this stop
I have never being stopped before, I always do my stop
(I do not deserve to get this ticket)

Thank you,

Do you think she has more of a chance that a snowball in hell?

Well, i have spent the last three evenings researching an "optional" reflection on Machiavelli(not writing it meant the final paper would be worth an extra 15% of our grade). Last night, i rewrote the same paragraph over and over again for an hour and a half. it was infuriating because i really did have some good material to discuss. eventually i gave up in disgust over my incompetence and inefficiency at having dedicated so much time to a project i would not even complete.
i woke up at 4:30 this morning and lay there thinking. i decided to get up and write the paper taking a different angle (complacency and maintenance of the state rather than corruption and maintenance of the state) that had just occurred to me. at 6:15, when i normally get up to get ready for work, i was finishing the last bibliography entry. i feel like i have already accomplished a lot today, but i am not thoroughly convinced the paper is any good because i only JUST wrote it and am reading it over. oh well. at least i feel better. i am sure that feeling will fade by 5pm when i will be exhausted.
other than that, i am doing ok. i think i am going to ask my parents to help fund my getting a train pass for next year instead of getting driven in all the time because it is just so much more efficient. i don't know though. i found a course offered at mcgill on tuesdays and thursdays (Renaissance to Reformation) that i am very interested in, but i don't have classes on tuesdays and thursdays otherwise. i am trying to find out how you register for classes at another university and then get them converted into credits at Concordia.
And, lastly, some thoughts on the CJAD news report this morning:
(a) not that i am saying that the Christian "peace" missionaries deserved to be kidnapped - far from it - but am i the only one that doesn't find it surprising that a theocratical regime will react violently to a group openly engaging in proselytizing?
(b) if the montreal municipal government wants citizens to do something about the litter on the streets, shouldn't they consider having garbage cans at at least every bus stop? The street i work on doesn't have a single garbage can on it and people eat their lunches in front of the buildings all summer. It's not like Meilleur isn't a busy street...

again i am waiting for my mother to get ready to leave for work/school.
i think i have mentioned in a previous post that i think that a certain John character is one of the most atrocious, yet accomplished, flirts i have ever met. i would like to analyze the behaviour he partakes in to make me feel this way and ask any male readers whether or not the same sort of action would be interpreted as flirting or mothering if a woman acted this way towards them.
when John starts to talk to you, he at first is very flippant. you are being kind of frivolous and are, hence, amusing. slowly he appears to be paying more and more attention to what you are saying, this is mostly conveyed by making small, sacrastic remarks that are not really mean, but borderline. then this too stops. he looks you in the eyes, and, eventually, manages to get the very tips of his fingers in the small of your back, or on your shoulder. when walking by, if you are in the way, he always makes sure to do the same. a guiding push per say. now, it's not really as methodolical as i have written it out - this makes him sound like a master plan kind of guy, which i'm not saying he is, but i am creating a trend we can analyze. ok. so, if a woman got more and more rapt into your conversation and proceeded to lay a hand on you ever so gently ... is this flirting or mothering? if she lays a hand on your shoulder when she walks by you ... is it flirting or mothering? John usually ends one of these encounters with some insanely inappropriate comment that he gets away with because a bubble of solitude has been built up that creates a context of "okayness." you both know it's just playing, no one else will hear about it, so it's "okay." yeah. i like john. you can tell. i always feel really pretty, feminine, but smart after ten minutes. i guess this is proof of the attraction principle that says you like people who make you feel good about yourselves.
i like you too Lorne. i think you will see a bit of a description of our luncheon dates/emails in this description too.
on a daily update note: i can't stop sleeping. i fall asleep at 9pm, wake up to do more work, fall asleep again, set an alarm to get up early, get up before the alarm and turn it off, and still get up insanely late. i am not going to get any work done at this rate.

i am not inclined to do this very often, cite myself, but i spent a couple of minutes articulating this argument on someone else's blog and would like to share it.
you can click on this Link to read the original post by impudent strumpet and my reply.
it's odd because this discussion of entitlement came up in a course last week with a guy who teaches at LCC.
other than that, i am good. it is a little early in the morning for a full-fledged update (i haven't done anything interesting). i have tons of studying to do before classes start at 2:45 and my mother, as usual, is taking forever to get ready. we are supposed to have left the house by now. oh well.

stop wasting time!
i am supposed to be typing out notes on a book i borrowed from prof. mcsheffrey last tuesday so i can give it back to her and then studying for my quiz in roman history tomorrow. why am i not? because i am lazy. i know, officially, have nothing else that is fun to do that is not school-work related. except maybe folding laundry and putting it in drawers. if that seriously becomes a temptation, i'll let you know.