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...