Happy, Sad, Proud, Honoured: Just One Big Damn Ball of Emotions Right Now.

June 12th, 2010 Thomasso

I guess a little rewind because this actually took place during one my classes last Thursday night. They were celebrating the convocation of last term’s grads on campus then, and got a bird’s eye view of part of the ceremonies that took place outside from the classroom I was in. After class I went outside to see if I knew anyone there, and sure enough I found two friends from some of my previous classes there.

It was kind of freaky seeing my friends dressed up in the whole cap and gown garb. This years, the colours are red. They used to be blue, or a dark navy blue, and the caps almost looked black. I guess they change up the colours every once in a while?

My friend Lisa Anthsworth (spelling??) made her d’ebut all most seven years ago when she first set foot on university soil and started her journey of academic enlightenment. Here major is Physiology, and a minor in Criminology. Her road had many bumps and turns in it because she was so dependant on student loans and scholarships. She once told me that when the people of Canada voted for a Conservative Government, they turned the clocks of humanity back by two decades. She was referring to the cost that this would have on social polices for everyday Canadians. She told me at the ceremonies that with her new job, working as a clinician, she will have her debt paid in full by 2014. She fears for the children of Canada who will try to seek a higher level of education, as the liberal opportunities will be all but made impossible for them to succeed, only the wealthy once again will advance forward.

I’ll miss the conversations that me and Lisa had. She had a critical comment on just about everything.

Kyle, or Critical Kyle, as he is known in sentencing circles while participating in restorative justice was also getting graduation treatment. I’ll miss him because he proved that no matter how hard you party the night before, if you really want to succeed the next day in class, you will, and he is living proof that you can. One morning almost one year ago late winter when we were taking third year criminology theory together, I found him hungover in the cafeteria stairwell. It was about 7:00am and the security guards had just opened all the doors on campus. I grabbed him and helped him along to the classroom, where is was at least warm. I parked him at the back where he was about fifty percent coherent. He stunk of booze and looked liked he fell off of the waggon.

As the class neared the end, after three hours of lecture, I looked back to see how Kyle was doing.  Amazingly he was looking fine, but when the class was over, most of the other students were staying clear of him. I had another class right in the same room, so I stayed right where I was in the same seat. Kyle had to move on, but he couldn’t. As the next class started to filter in, he looked as if he was going to be sick. He had me worried. I thought about going over to him and helping him out, but just as I was about to get up, his girlfriend came storming into the classroom. She was mad/angry/livid! She started pulling on his ear and escorting him out of the classroom. Everyone in the room started laughing as she was almost grabbing him by the collar and dragging down the hall, and outside. I like to bring that up every once in while for him.

So, there. It is sad, yet nice, to see friends go as they move on out into the world. Soon it will be my turn, my turn to leave and move on. Weird that I feel like this. A place that has started to grow on me, now become a place of so much happiness and sadness. It is a shame that so very few people on the world will even have the opportunity to experience life in those lecture halls and classrooms.

I can now dispel the myth that you do not become a cone-head from learning too much stuff—as one of my sisters so eloquently told me once. Your are just putting your brain-cells to good use.

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The Final Term – It is Cast in Stone Now

June 2nd, 2010 Thomasso

It is a weird feeling to know that this will be my last term, as an undergraduate, to go through the routine of signing up and scheduling for regular classes. I have developed a habit of always checking the registration website for classes. I think I will miss that? Actually, I will miss a lot of the routines I have developed over the last five years while going to classes.

I was kind of hoping for a better selection, but with just one elective and my mandatory language requirement, French, left to do, I found I will have my biggest hurdle to jump over yet. The only second level French class offered for next semester is a double split class, meaning two classes per week at two hours a piece, and it is in held Richmond – a one hour commute for me. I wanted to take my final Computer Science class to fulfil my Minor, but the French classes conflict with the timetable, so sadly, I opted for a Political Science class instead to complete my elective requirements.

I guess I do not care any more, other than completing my undergraduate, so whatever is available for courses to complete it with, works for me. I am tired and anxious to get it done and over with. This has being a long journey for me, and a very expensive one too. Including textbooks, roughly $25,000.00 and counting. $17,000.00 in fees and administrative costs, and these are the bare bone numbers, so you can see that see the University gig is very expensive. Now imagine what a student loan would have cost–on top of all this!

There are still more that I want to do with my degree. I would love to complete my honours. This would mean three more courses, a fifth year, and a mini dissertation that would take about twenty five weeks to do. That would be nice. But for now, I am focusing on the main goal, graduating with the BA.

So I have a few more bumps along the road to my goal to drive over yet. I hope I get through the Richmond commute next term. I hate driving to  Richmond!

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Human Rights Maybe Low on the Priority of Some

May 29th, 2010 Thomasso

OK, a little back grounder on for my thoughts on human rights, and why we wave the banner around but no one does anything about it. I am taking this course, as part of my degree in Criminology, and it deals specificity with all subject matter under the umbrella of human rights. We will cover, once the course is completed, everything from domestic and local issues, all the way up to international and global issues that concerns us today, and from the past. The mesh of political views, to cultural dynamics, are the themes that are a constant so far in this course. But this course is more than covering current events, and history texts, it is all about the ideas and solutions that could change the world in the near future.

War is a nasty business, right? When we talk about human rights, it is usually in the shadow of war. Ware is when man kind is at its worse. War teaches that all rules can be thrown out, or ignored, and these times of conflict bring the opportunity of creating exceptions to the rules of human rights, circumventing them in order to wreck complete havoc towards the enemy. However, when the conflict is over, and the wounds begin to heal, the world cries out for accountability, so the Untied National was born, and later on, the World Criminal Court. Venues that try to convict those people who started these terrible things that they did during those conflicts, and hold them to accountability. But the system is weak and, yes, it is very politely motivated.

Sovereignty (hey, I got the “g” in the right spot) is the key issue when thinking globally.  Would we ever consider the UN police marching down the streets of Washington D.C., poised to arrest President George W. Bush for possible war crimes? No way because the U.S. Would not tolerate it, and they have the means of making sure they are in total control of their sovereignty, not the U.N.. It is not the U.N.’s place to do this anyway. But for a class debate, this makes for some very interesting lectures. What right does a nation have for sending in it’s “special” forces to capture and detain a suspect of war crimes inside another country? I can write about this for hours…

In my class, there is a great mix of students from just about every walk of life from around the glob. We have students from just about all of the major organized religions, and about five students who are from the Middle Eastern areas, including Israel. Last week’s class lecture was the best yet. Although the principles of human rights seems obvious, the world that we live in is far to complicated to have every nation adopt in its laws these basic tenants. However, having such a diverse class means that the discussions are as diverse too, so when discussions start tackling issues such as international human rights laws, the brain power really start to crank up among the students.

I am look forward to next class. I think as we dive deeper into the murky world of human rights, my level of enlightenment will also increase.

Sadly, this will be my official last class of Criminology. I only have two courses after this, and they are electives. I will miss these classes after I graduate.

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I am Back to Normal – SNAFU

May 26th, 2010 Thomasso

I’m a little under the weather right now. I must have being dragging along some sort of flu for the last couple of day that just hangs around and drags me down to about ten percent and never lets go. Yuck! I had it since last Thursday, but it got really bad on Saturday. I missed the Fort Langley parade because of it. I still have the lingering effects of it in nose and throat. May flues suck, but so do any summer flu.

I have being told that this is probably why I got so under the weather, because of all the four hour sleeps and long hours of reading for some research papers coming up.  I knew this would happen-as it does every term; they call it sleep deprivation, like a form of self torture one inflicts, and you crawl forward with a goal of seeking higher enlightenment, but sooner or later it will catch up to you, but the goal is so tempting so you run yourself down getting there.

Another sign of bad news came in the form of a malfunctioning lap top.  My HP notebook died on me while I was taking notes in class last night. I left it running while we took our break, and when I came back to class and powered it up, the screen went black after about four seconds into the start up. Now, it just does the same thing: starts up, then freezes. I guess I have something to do next weekend now. Fortunately I did not have any critical information on it from my classes. I will miss typing out my notes from the lectures though. I find typing way more convenient than hand written notes.

So, lack of sleep, a dead lap top, lots of readings: I think things are back to normal now.

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Inflation and the Kick in the Butt it Gives

May 21st, 2010 Thomasso

Yesterday a friend of mind was challenging me on the merits of why the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) will be a great thing. I went to the library where on my course web site, there is a budget calculator, and on that calculator you can factor in how much more you will pay for good with the HST implemented. You can choose your daily needs and services that you use into this, and then change the items and services you would normally use to try and fit the new tax into your budget. Regrettably I cannot link the calculator here because my course outline is password protected and the link comes up with a 404 error.

The Calculator is also not perfect as there is still a lot of information about the HST that is not known and put into it. Added to the missing information, I did notice that the calculator could not do projections or a itemized listings for each change I did.

So what does this tell me about the HST? I will pay more with my current lifestyle. On a monthly bases, my increases will be 3.8 percent! Does not sound like much, but when this is money that will be taken from my everyday cost of living, this is money that I will do with out, and items such as food and clothing will be the first to be adjusted as they are usually the most fluid costs that people can budget with. My rent, fuel, insurance have also gone up, (out side the new tax) so all around the HST has come at a very bad time.

What does this mean? I like to go to restaurants and have dinner with friends. That will stop, or get reduced a lot. Camping will done more, out in the woods, as apposed to public and privately run campsites. When I travel up country to seminars and workshops, I may think twice about renting a hotel room, but RV instead somewhere it is free like a Wal-Mart parking lot.

My tuition have jumped a lot too. Currently I enjoy paying one of the lowest rates in Western Canada for university, about $407.00 per three credit course. Now the new rate will be $497.00 starting this September.

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The Unexpected Result

April 27th, 2010 Thomasso

It is weird, I have to say. One one hand the course that I should have just squeaked by and passed, I earned a very high mark in, an “A,” while the other course, the one that I slaved my ass off, I may not get me an academic pass to get the credit with. I only have the one mark so far, but I am anticipating to have all my marks in by tomorrow. The mark I do have, from my statistics class, I even surprised myself with it. It is to my understanding that getting an A of any level is a very tough achievement to say the least for Stats.What happened?

I’ve talked to a few of my friends in the Stats class, and they all didn’t do as well, but they all did pass, which is the general goal of this course. So, with so many before me who did not pass, or get the grade that they were hoping for, this leaves me thinking to myself that I must either be a “keener” in mathematics, and piss-poor in languages, or this could be one of those anomalies that statisticians call an “outlier.”

If I could tell you the horror stories that I have heard about Stats. I was even thinking at one point about avoiding the whole stats thing, and trying something different. Good thing I didn’t listen to my friends, eh? I’ll know more very soon when my exams are finished being marked.

Well, I’m already preparing for the next term! Summer School!

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Tom the Hermit Crab – Through the Sand I Go, One more Wall to Climb ’till the Ocean I Go.

April 25th, 2010 Thomasso

Hello. I’m still doing the “loner” gig, staying at home, tucked away in my little room with all of my books, notes and thoughts. One more exam to go then I can rest for a few days before the cycle starts all over again.

The up coming exam is the last bit of first year French I have. But this will only mark the halfway point as I still have another language course to take before I can say – graduate!

It was spectacular day outside! the sun was shinning, the clouds started to thin out and the air warmed, but poor me had to avoid going outside as my textbooks were calling, “read me, read me…”. I’m in worry mode now as the deadline is approaching. I’m going through the guilty phase as I pack on the doubt, even dreamt that I missed the exam becuase of sleeping in! My mind is chaos right now. One part wants to get it over with, while the other knows how important this exam is. I hate living on the borderline of a pass or fail.

Yup, this is funny in my mind. Perhaps when I figure it all out, I will blurb about here to you my dear reader? But then again, don’t we all sit back and laugh about it years later when we reflect about it?

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The Official End of Spring 2010 – Finals Start.

April 19th, 2010 Thomasso

What a day. I am very happy that it is over. All that is left are the finals, but I think those are going to be easer to deal with than all of the events that led up to today.

Describing today is so difficult becuase I am still processing it. I think the best way to start would be to describe the sky, the sun and how warm it was. Today was a day that was hard for anyone to want to stay inside if one had a choice. The sun over the campus was a brilliant bronze colour by 4:00pm. There were very high clouds, but they were evenly spread out across the sky making it look like a very fine silk shroud covering the entire horizon. The sun did shine with its brilliance though, but the colour made the walls of courtyard look like they were made of amber and silver. The water in the turtle pond looked a deep blue, as if it were bottomless, and the water fountain made pearls as the foam slowly dissipated away from it.

On the grassy knoll students bathed in the warmth of the sun, holding their book over their faces as they tried to get some last minute studying done. At the foot of the knoll every picnic table was taken up with students chatting away like birds, and across the courtyard more students walked, ran, and mingled in every direction from one building to another. There was a noticeable difference in how students moved in the courtyard today; everyone was moving faster, straighter, and spent little time with their groups as they moved.

Time stood still as people just moved from one point to another. There was no pattern, just people everywhere, walking about.

The giant doors to the library looked like mirrors as the glass doors moved a beam of light that reflected from the sun and it would shift across the courtyard like lightening.  People looked like they would appear, invisible one moment, then appear the next, as they walked through the giant glass doors out into the courtyard. When I walked through those doors, I was transformed into another world, a mechanical world where instantly the cool conditioned air met my nostrils and the light seemed to be dim as compared to the outside. Now I was inside a glass box. The skylights made everything look blue and gold, and human figures dotted every level, stair column and chair.

A beautiful female figure approached me, calling out my name. As she drew nearer, I could see in her hand a small plastic and metal stick. She smiled as she spoke, ” Tom, we have a problem, the paper is not finished yet, there are some problems with it, you need to look at your part again.” She places the USB stick in my hand and leads me over to a working workstation. I sigh. Only sixty-four minutes to go before the deadline is due. My group greets me. I am briefed and caught up to speed. The feeling of panic hits me. Now I wish I could stop time altogether.

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So, Language 101, Oral Exams, Tomorrow – Gulp!

April 18th, 2010 Thomasso

OK, I know what you are thinking, “not another post on French…” Well, I will not promise you that I will never write another post on the topic, but the good news is that I may not talk about French for a while, a long while. Tomorrow I do my oral examination, the part where I pretend that I know the language, and I can carry on a conversation-yeah, right. The sad reality is that I have a horrible ascent, and I still do not have all the components of sentence structure learned well enough to pass in my opinion.

With the exam looming, I took a walk early this morning to attempted to clear my head. There were many wonderful signs of spring, but with all of this new life popping up around from nature, the thought of the exam just kept killing the moment. I took some photos, and then left it at that.

Tonight I have my CRIM-Group2 research project meeting, the big and final meeting to polish up our paper on youth violence. This was another huge undertaking, as the time to do the research and run the statistical analysis was brutal, and this was split up between five of us. Just a few moments ago I finished making the graphs and table look pretty, so at least they look if published in a journal. Oh the joy of beating deadlines-my, my.

Officially tomorrow is that last day of the semester and then with only one exam left, that is it. This was a screwed up semester becuase of the Olympics. I hate the Olympics. What a waste. The three weeks off in the middle made it worse than better for students. The university should have stayed out of it and focused on teaching rather than hosting-in my opinion.

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One More Done – Almost Finished!

April 14th, 2010 Thomasso

Today marks the very last day of my Statistics class, with just the final research paper to hand in, it is practically done. I am very happy indeed!

I have one more full day of class next Monday, French, which it truly the very last day of the spring semester, then all that is left is the final for that class, then I can take a nice long sleep. Then I wait for the marks, and I will have completed 92 percent of everything I need to graduate with for the BA (h) program.

I am very excited! Getting through Stats was a hell of an achievement for me becuase it is the most dreaded course among the entire curriculum. Even the most harden, geeky/neerded students, not including myself, were dreading it too. Although this semester was a double whammy for me, with two very hard classes,  Stats is the most prized class to finish – and if I pull off an A, well, then I’m a frick’n hero. My probability of reaching the coveted “A” is about 73.4 percent, if you needed to know that.

So, this is a great moment in my travels to the end-point of my under-grade status. I can hang up my  calculator and algebraic textbooks for good, and move onto bigger and better things, like more research!

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