Now, I have no idea if Spelling is a dirty pervert or not, but I am completely... I don't even know the word I am right now. Disgusted? Shocked? Resigned to stupidity, or at best, a very large lack of proper education?
First of all, there is a very large confusion here. Apparently it is unknown among certain people that physical force is not necessary for sexual abuse to have occurred. One of the reasons that is so because sexual abuse can come in many forms. Coercion can also take place in other ways besides physical threats. Do I really need to spell these possible scenarios out?
Now, Aaron Spelling is in a wheelchair right? I have no idea why I think that, probably the 4-yr old pushing him over comment. Anyway, as gratuitious as that image is, it is irrelevant.
Being in a wheelchair, or able to be pushed over by a 4-yr old doesn't mean that a person can't inappropriately touch another person, or make inappropriate and uwanted comments. All of which are definitely within the grounds of sexual abuse/harassment. So is being coerced into actions which the victim is unwilling, which also can be done from a wheelchair.
I will admit that I'm not sure of the actual American codes that apply, since you know, I took Canadian Criminal Justice System, not US CJS, and if there is one thing my eternally long years of post secondary have taught me is that only twits cite without A) proper references and B) factchecking.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Why I Don't Like School
So, there is a very long list of things I don't like about school. I'm pretty sure that this is the same sort of thing that everyone hates about school, but I can be unoriginal if I want to.
1)It never freaking stops.
There is no point at which you can say, "Oh look, I'm done. Fantabulous." You will always have chapters to read, notes to make, assignments to research, background info and philosophy to study. Asses to kiss, and so on and so forth.
The worst I think is the background in philosophy that I don't have. If you are taking an arts degree, TAKE PHILOSOPHY 101!!!! It is the one course that I actually wish I had taken, not because I care, but because it would have been effing useful. It is the beginning of every class. It comes up after the discussion of Freud and his ideas, and how they apply to whatever class you were sucker enough to take. If you did take that class, you could probably safely skip the first two or three classes. Especially in any 200 level course.
2) First years.
You can smell it on them. That glorious freedom, the first time away from dreaded Mom and Dad, and their totally downer rules. It ranges from the scent of impending alcoholism, to the totally unsurprising realisation that... "I think I might be bi." I understand, this is new, msn tells us so. But really. Think about this. First you have a liberal environment (most universities.) Then you add increasingly relaxed sexual mores (definitely for the girls.) Add a legal drinking age of 18 and you get bicuriosity. Plus the little freaks never study.
3)Annoying pre-grad school bitches.
This may be limited to the Psych department, but its mostly because it is ingrained into you that to make your degree useful, you have to go to grad school, whether you are into research or actually talking to people (just joking, I know that the researchers have to talk to people too sometimes, but you know what I mean.) It doesn't help that everywhere you go, you have classrooms of 200+ students for most of your classes. Meaning? There will be craploads of competition for any job you might be even remotely qualified for.
This environment leads to the assholes and bitches that you hate, you hate them for their wonderful GPA's, their extensive volunteering history, their research assistance history (and resulting excellent relationships with faculty and staff,) their personal history with whatever disorder/disabilities/environments and the glowing reference letters that you know that they are going to get.
The kicker is that there is such an obvious hierarchy, so if you don't have some sort of grad school plans, you are obviously deficient in some way. Because, come on, why else would you get a psych degree? Some are assholes about this, and some are surprisingly nice. I think that you going to understand how the split is divided.
4)How expensive everything is.
The cheapest coffee is about $1.70. This is not for anything fancy or super large. It is a smallish cup of regular blend coffee. I think i found $1.50 once, but it was a small cup, and the place only had one kind of coffee (versus the usual minimum of dark, medium, flavoured, decaf assortment.) I'm not actually a coffee snob, (well, I don't think) but I did once work in a coffee shop, and it does make you notice stuff like that.
If God is smiling at me when I need to buy textbooks, I may end up with spending $30-75 dollars per class. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. This semester I spent about $500 dollars (I am in THREE classes this term!) It is so painful to spend that kind of money. Especially since resale is a chancy business.
You will notice I leave out tuition. Yes, we all wish we lived in France where in your french 101-102 class they taught you that the government pays for university like high school got paid for. However, I have resigned to the current government's irrational postsecondary policies (more non-self sustaining scholarships? why? is there nothing better you could have done? Just like fashion, you dont spend all your money on the flashy items, you buy them cheap at discount. Spend the money on basic staples of your wardrobe that will last for years.) I also understand according to the extremely basic economics that I understand, I value this thing I pay for enough to only gag at the pricetag, and not bring up my cookies all over the table in rejection. Plus I would feel kinda hypocritical, seeing as how I get so much support.
Although, I also understand that undergrad tuition also pays for you know, the important students. The graduate ones. The ones that might actually publish something, compared to the definitley statistically insignificant undergrad that might make the paper for some freakish reason.
5) Due to both of our programs, Prince Charming is two timezones away from me. We are not together because of school.
I understand that in 8 months we will be married and shackled together forever, but it is still not balm to my psyche.
So, there you are reasons why I don't like school.
Five months until I graduate. Yes, I am counting. And I understand how bitter and bitchy this post will make me sound. I wont even bother telling the world that I'm actually a nice person, who totally doesn't kick puppies.
1)It never freaking stops.
There is no point at which you can say, "Oh look, I'm done. Fantabulous." You will always have chapters to read, notes to make, assignments to research, background info and philosophy to study. Asses to kiss, and so on and so forth.
The worst I think is the background in philosophy that I don't have. If you are taking an arts degree, TAKE PHILOSOPHY 101!!!! It is the one course that I actually wish I had taken, not because I care, but because it would have been effing useful. It is the beginning of every class. It comes up after the discussion of Freud and his ideas, and how they apply to whatever class you were sucker enough to take. If you did take that class, you could probably safely skip the first two or three classes. Especially in any 200 level course.
2) First years.
You can smell it on them. That glorious freedom, the first time away from dreaded Mom and Dad, and their totally downer rules. It ranges from the scent of impending alcoholism, to the totally unsurprising realisation that... "I think I might be bi." I understand, this is new, msn tells us so. But really. Think about this. First you have a liberal environment (most universities.) Then you add increasingly relaxed sexual mores (definitely for the girls.) Add a legal drinking age of 18 and you get bicuriosity. Plus the little freaks never study.
3)Annoying pre-grad school bitches.
This may be limited to the Psych department, but its mostly because it is ingrained into you that to make your degree useful, you have to go to grad school, whether you are into research or actually talking to people (just joking, I know that the researchers have to talk to people too sometimes, but you know what I mean.) It doesn't help that everywhere you go, you have classrooms of 200+ students for most of your classes. Meaning? There will be craploads of competition for any job you might be even remotely qualified for.
This environment leads to the assholes and bitches that you hate, you hate them for their wonderful GPA's, their extensive volunteering history, their research assistance history (and resulting excellent relationships with faculty and staff,) their personal history with whatever disorder/disabilities/environments and the glowing reference letters that you know that they are going to get.
The kicker is that there is such an obvious hierarchy, so if you don't have some sort of grad school plans, you are obviously deficient in some way. Because, come on, why else would you get a psych degree? Some are assholes about this, and some are surprisingly nice. I think that you going to understand how the split is divided.
4)How expensive everything is.
The cheapest coffee is about $1.70. This is not for anything fancy or super large. It is a smallish cup of regular blend coffee. I think i found $1.50 once, but it was a small cup, and the place only had one kind of coffee (versus the usual minimum of dark, medium, flavoured, decaf assortment.) I'm not actually a coffee snob, (well, I don't think) but I did once work in a coffee shop, and it does make you notice stuff like that.
If God is smiling at me when I need to buy textbooks, I may end up with spending $30-75 dollars per class. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. This semester I spent about $500 dollars (I am in THREE classes this term!) It is so painful to spend that kind of money. Especially since resale is a chancy business.
You will notice I leave out tuition. Yes, we all wish we lived in France where in your french 101-102 class they taught you that the government pays for university like high school got paid for. However, I have resigned to the current government's irrational postsecondary policies (more non-self sustaining scholarships? why? is there nothing better you could have done? Just like fashion, you dont spend all your money on the flashy items, you buy them cheap at discount. Spend the money on basic staples of your wardrobe that will last for years.) I also understand according to the extremely basic economics that I understand, I value this thing I pay for enough to only gag at the pricetag, and not bring up my cookies all over the table in rejection. Plus I would feel kinda hypocritical, seeing as how I get so much support.
Although, I also understand that undergrad tuition also pays for you know, the important students. The graduate ones. The ones that might actually publish something, compared to the definitley statistically insignificant undergrad that might make the paper for some freakish reason.
5) Due to both of our programs, Prince Charming is two timezones away from me. We are not together because of school.
I understand that in 8 months we will be married and shackled together forever, but it is still not balm to my psyche.
So, there you are reasons why I don't like school.
Five months until I graduate. Yes, I am counting. And I understand how bitter and bitchy this post will make me sound. I wont even bother telling the world that I'm actually a nice person, who totally doesn't kick puppies.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Why I Like School
I recently discovered that there is now an academic peer-reviewed journal about graphic novels and comics. It is called ImageTexT, and can be found here:
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/
Super fantastic, hey? I'm excited.
Unfortunately I now have to go and work, which is a reason that I don't like school.
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/
Super fantastic, hey? I'm excited.
Unfortunately I now have to go and work, which is a reason that I don't like school.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Things I Have Done And Not Done
It may be a month since I've last published, but it doesn't feel like it's been so long. I guess that I've just been very busy. To save time and energy, I will give a list of some of what I've done since last post.
Some of What I have Done:
1) Written two papers, one on reading graphic novels, and the other on the self.
2) Written a midterm, on advanced statistics. VERY DIFFICULT.
3) Gone to Toronto, to see Prince Charming become the Reverend Prince Charming.
4) Crocheted several scarves, and figured out why I was always losing stitches, which resulted in a very unattractive scalloped pattern. I wasn't throwing an extra stitch on the end of each row.
5) Discovered Lush's bath melts, specifically, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" which leaves your skin both soft and sparkly. A BIG favourite.
6) Gotten a virus on my computter, rendering my browser currently unoperable. Where am I now? On the library computer. At school, that place I try to spend the least amount of time possible.
7) Started my own personal mantra and method for studying stats. More on that later.
8) Seen some very good movies, and some very mediocre movies, and some very sad movies.
9) Missed Prince Charming horribly
10) Quit my job.
11) Finished my job. Which are two very different things, I assure you.
Things I have not done:
1) Not found a wedding dress.
2) Not gone to the gym.
3) Not finished all my readings.
4) Not done the dishes from this weekend.
5) Not finished cleaning my house.
6) Not planned my birthday party.
So, that is what has been going on for me. I know that all three people that read my blog are very excited to know that, so there you go. Bon Appetit.
Some of What I have Done:
1) Written two papers, one on reading graphic novels, and the other on the self.
2) Written a midterm, on advanced statistics. VERY DIFFICULT.
3) Gone to Toronto, to see Prince Charming become the Reverend Prince Charming.
4) Crocheted several scarves, and figured out why I was always losing stitches, which resulted in a very unattractive scalloped pattern. I wasn't throwing an extra stitch on the end of each row.
5) Discovered Lush's bath melts, specifically, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" which leaves your skin both soft and sparkly. A BIG favourite.
6) Gotten a virus on my computter, rendering my browser currently unoperable. Where am I now? On the library computer. At school, that place I try to spend the least amount of time possible.
7) Started my own personal mantra and method for studying stats. More on that later.
8) Seen some very good movies, and some very mediocre movies, and some very sad movies.
9) Missed Prince Charming horribly
10) Quit my job.
11) Finished my job. Which are two very different things, I assure you.
Things I have not done:
1) Not found a wedding dress.
2) Not gone to the gym.
3) Not finished all my readings.
4) Not done the dishes from this weekend.
5) Not finished cleaning my house.
6) Not planned my birthday party.
So, that is what has been going on for me. I know that all three people that read my blog are very excited to know that, so there you go. Bon Appetit.
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