RRU Day 10 and 11 - Ahh the smell of corn chips in the morning

I'm normally not a very sentimental person but I find myself curiously missing home. I'm headed back for a quick weekend trip to take care of a few personal stuff and squish the cat. I have to say I'm pretty stoked about being home. I hope she'll forgive me and let me have my slice of the bed back.

Here's to the faint smell of furry corn chips, hairballs, and home cooked meals.

New West here I come.

RRU Day 8 and 9 - Feminist theory and mayonnaise

Today in class we worked on a crisis communication plan and did a analysis of a Burger King ad for the super seven incher. It's a pretty blond girl made up like a blow up doll about to felicitate a large meat and mayonnaise filled 7 inch sandwich. It is oohhh so wrong. Apparently, the ad campaign was targeted at teenaged boys. I'm not sure if the "boys" were supposed to put themselves in the place of the  blow up girl (embrace the homosexual lifestyle) or the sandwich (participation in objectification of women)? I'm conflicted as to the message.

We had an hour long conversation about the ad campaign and its various semiotic and textual messages. Yet in all that time, I was the only one to call a penis a penis. Come on people, it's a 7 inch submarine sandwich if that's not phallic what is.

It got worse, when I expanded to the symbolism of the mayonnaise. The class became agitated and shouted "Oh Yvonne". People are so odd. How can we even have a  critical discussion about feminist theory and gender identity if we can't call a spade a spade?

So penis. Penis. PENIS. With an extra side of mayo!

RRU Day 6 and 7 - Laundering money

There is a special place in hell for whomever makes coin operated laundry machines. The washer always works. It lulls you into a false sense of security and then the dryers hang you out to dry (pun intended). Over an hour and three dollars of coinage later, my clothes are still really really damp.

I now have underwear and other unmentionables strewn over every available surface of my dorm room in a vain attempt to dry them out. It looks like a cut rate cotton brothel complete with orthopaedic socks.  My fingers are crossed that the general lack of humidity will take care of what the dryer couldn't, otherwise, I'm going to either very damp or scantily dressed tomorrow.

As an aside, why is everything else at RRU operated by "card" but not laundry. You'd figure someone somewhere has figured how to attached a credit card reader to the washer/dryer. Gah. I hate digging or in my case begging for change. Coinage sucks!

PS - first research paper handed in. Onward to reading avoidance and general goofing around.

RRU Day 5 - So far so good

So it's the end of my first week in residence. Here are my thoughts so far:

1. Corner dorm rooms rock. Light from two sides. A great view of the water and castle. AND only one neighbour to annoy with my guitaring.
2. Being ahead of schedule is awesome and smug-ness inducing. I should add that I am ahead only because of a complete fluke. However awesome, it is doubtful that I will ever reach this state again voluntarily. Procrastination is my normal modus operandi. Homework slugs unite!
3. Smug Yvonnes are not very attractive. Nobody likes people who have their homework done early. 
4. Eggs can come pre-scrambled in a milk container. I'm kind of at a loss as to why? I guess it takes less space in the fridge? That's about it.
5. Faux-pho, especially European "takes" on it, are awful. Really how hard is it to put rice noodles in a cup of beef bullion. Cafe should stick to chicken noodle:-(
6. My proudest accomplishment this week was figuring out how to make hard-boiled eggs in my uber-kettle. What does that say about me? Then again what does it say about residence living that my classmates were in awe of my hard-boild eggs and have subsequently bought similar kettles?

Onwards to lunch and afternoon classes.

RRU Day 4 - Dongle

For some reason when I packed I forgot my dongle and I finally broke down and bought another one. While this has allowed me to finally connect my monitor to my laptop and minimize the squinting/headaches, I am now the proud owner of two dongles. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand it is redundant and wasteful. On the other hand it makes it so much easier to study. Either way, I now have a pair. Hmmmmm....

RRU Day 3 - Topics and tears

Today was a day for histrionics. So many people were in tears as they tried desperately to land on a research topic. I felt for the prof. She had quite the day trying to guide 50+ people on paradigms, methodologies that didn't require human subjects and ethics reviews, and asking the right questions. Hopefully things will settle down once people come to the conclusion that while the prof can guide them... it's up to them to figure out why they want to do the research and what they want to study.

I am so glad that I chose the thesis route. Because I am allowed to do human research and I have had over 6 months to wrestle my questions into submission and firmly plant my research flag on a hill I can defend.

Onward to rewriting my proposal.

PS - I am such a rebel. I snuck contraband equipment into my dorm room. A small, but highly illegal, electric teapot (it also doubles as a reheater of soups and cup noodles). I no longer have to go to the common room to make tea or boil my lunch. Probably for the best, since I'm kind of scared of the super stressed angry people currently laying siege to the room. Hope they all find research topics soon.

RRU Day 2 - The lazy narcissist

No classes today. Just some miserable weather and a nagging feeling that I should be doing something. I however struggled my against productiveness and prevailed spectacularly by doing nothing. And by nothing I mean NOTHING. No TV, no homework, no research, no work. Just a little self-indugent listen to some old tracks of mine.

What a totally narcissistic way to spend the day.

Having said that... I just found out that a songs I've written are available for sale on Amazon.uk, Grooveshark, and I have an imdb listing. How strange is that?

Thanks for the "me" day MAPC. Tomorrow... back to regularly scheduled programming. :-)

RRU Day 1 - The squirrel paradigms

First day of class. Yeah! I like Dr. D. She teaches research and is awesome. Today was all about figuring out what research paradigm your line of inquiry is based. There was a lot of academic talk around this. As far as I can figure out it all boils down to this:

1. Critical paradigm - squirrels eat nuts because they have been conditioned to do so by those in power. We need to bring to light the negative power dynamics that is resulting in squirrels not being able to determine their own food choices.
2. Interpretive-constructionist paradigm - Let's study the small group of squirrels that live in the tree across the street from my house to see how they hunt, gather, and interact with the nuts. 
3. Discovery - squirrels have nut preferences. To prove this, let's take a random sample of squirrels, give them access to piles of different nuts, and measure which cache of nuts gets the most squirrel action.

Fingers-crossed, based on the above squirrels, I am a post-positivist. 'Cause I'm all over the random sampling of squirrel nut love.

 

RRU 2 - Day Minus 1 - Printing the truth

After a great soul-searching struggle to come to terms with my instant-gratification needs (which was at war with my penny-pinching "don't buy it unless you need it" soul, I bought a "disposable" printer. $29 worth of inkjet convenience. A cinch to hook up. Silent. And very very tiny.

On the downside, the cartridges cost the earth. However... since I'm going to be tossing it at the end of residence...I guess it's really not an issue.

Convenience 1. Sustainability -10000.

I am a bad bad lazy girl

PS - what is wrong with the world that my printer (including ink and paper) cost significantly less than my friend's monitor glass cleaner solution. It's just glorified Windex people! 

RRU 2 - Day Minus 2 - The great arrival

I can't believe I'm here and settled in to my home away from home. This year's transition into dorm-life has been less traumatic. In some ways it feels like I never left. Fingers crossed that this residence is just as awesome as the last.

Here's my list of things I am grateful and excited about (in no particular order):

• I scored a really big corner suite with windows on two sides. It is twice as big as last year's with the added benefit of:
• a double bed. I am grateful for the extra width 'cause I had a single last year and this body is too big to fit on such a tiny platform
• a mini-fridge. I love to share food but I draw the line at sharing fridge space. Somehow, my naked uncooked food touching some strangers is just icky.
• a reasonable room temperature. Yeah... my radiator has a shut off valve.  Let me just say, people remember me because I was always walking around half-naked in my room with my doors open. Good impression...not so much.
• instant rice. No more Uncle Ben's. Enough said.
• meeting up with old classmates/new friends. Unbelievably cool.

Now if I could only find the thingamajig that connects my monitor to my laptop it would be perfect. I know I had it when I left home? Crap. I hope I don't have to buy another one. 

Two more sleeps until the start of class. Can't wait.