Journal

Oh my goodness. Please tell things to stop breaking on me. My bag's zipper has completely died (its been fading for the last 2 months), and would cost $80 to replace (Kipling Lancelot Bag). The laptop/laptop battery, as previously mentioned ($250 for the battery, $700+ for a decent laptop for development). I'm wanting/likely needing to pick up some things for hiking, and camping, especially leading up to this coming weekend. And I have 2 pairs of socks without holes. *ugh* Don't even get me started on pants (my 'best' pair is in for repairs, I need to mend the hem on another, and I no haven't had functioning jeans in months).

Survived the ultimate game today, though I really need to let my blisters from the weekend heal. (The one is leftover from the previous 2 weekends, which hadn't fully healed). Shall have to keep an eye on them. *cringe*

In the same course for the same term, as a TA, I've received feedback that:

• I treated them like children and wasted their time
• I was the best TA they've ever had

In both cases, there was more than one comment stating this claim.

I guess its not possible to be everyone's cup of tea. I'll tweak my approach to the course slightly in future, so as to cover a broader range of helpful topics. However, I won't change the underlying approach, as it seems to be very helpful for those who have the guts to try it.

My run of 20/20 vision has come to an end. I have astigmatism apparently (which I'm going to claim causes ghosting/double image-like phenomena), and otherness (which causes blurriness). The end result is near-sightedness (I can see things close well, and things far get blurry). While not required, its recommended that I wear glasses for driving. *sigh* Apparently its fine if I don't wear them all the time, but due to the astigmatism, I should wear them for a month straight so my eyes can adjust. Not really where I want to be putting money currently. I may look into contacts - maybe they still have the kind that can change eye colour. I'll go for a feline-twist, and yellow with purple polka dots.

Less than 72 hours of being guilt-free about the course, and the resulting project, and I've already accomplished a tonne of things: hair cut, car tune up/tires changed, return of the library book, set up doctor/optometrist appointments, sending off nominal thesis corrections. Oh, and I was actually able to take in the double feature I've been wanting to do for the last month: The Hunger Games and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Stories are fun - Salmon Fishing was a bit unbelievable from the interpersonal relationship stuffs (stupid Hollywood b.s.), and I feel Hunger Games could've been longer (and still quite engaging). Didn't quite seem like enough time for depth of characters.

Now if only I could get all this out of the way, and feel recuperated enough to be able to enjoy, and not stress about the work I'm wanting to do.

Definitely not my proudest submission. At all. And as a grad student (phd even!) this is likely a really bad thing. I've just wanted term to be over for such a long while. :(