Sunday 30 December 2012

Happy (almost) New Years!

With the end of 2012 rapidly approaching I was planning on doing a look at the previous year, or go-over or renew resolutions, something simple and easy to do.

I opened up a new post and I couldn't write. It's not writer's block or anything, I'm not feeling well. I think the last few posts I did kind of reflected this too. I'm going through a few personal problems and I'm not sure how they're going to play out. And I'd rather not discuss them until the problems have run their course and I can determine the most appropriate course of action.

I try my very best not to let my emotions get to me. I try to be as logical and objective as possible but that only does so much. I've done my best to get out of the house as much as possible, distract myself so I feel less miserable. I don't want to be alone with my thoughts.

Virtually no one else knows about this, and I plan on keeping it that way. I hope things go in my favor but I'm not holding my breath.

Happy new years to everyone. I apologize for being so depressing but this blog is really the only place I feel comfortable enough to vent through.

Thursday 27 December 2012

Generic Holiday Post

Hope everyone had a good Christmas with lots of presents and good food. I personally love getting things because I'm probably a bit too materialistic for my own good. Just a little bit.

We went to my Grandma's apartment for dinner and on the way I could smell the food from everyone else's homes. I was a bit jealous because I would have loved to have some ham or gravy.

Ham...

My favorite thing that I've gotten so far is a new headset from my siblings. It's a lot better than my own microphone which hurt my ears after about an hour. Unfortunately, my computer appears to have a loose speaker port or something because the sound quality has been dubious and yet the headset works perfectly fine on my brother's computer.

Other gifts included additions to my backlog of games, a horrible gag t-shirt that keeps getting passed between families as a joke, and a companion cube which will never threaten to stab me.

I will!

I'm also giving myself a gift, I'm finally upgrading my desktop computer. My buddy Jean is going to head out with me sometime before the Christmas break ends. It's kind of sad actually, I went and took a look and why all the memory on my computer was being eaten up and...

It's because 80% of it is dedicated to computer games. Yeah. Computer games. I might be an addict but don't let my Mother know she was right.

 Me.

I know a lot of you are back to work already, I'll be back in classes soon enough. But I'll save that droll discussion for another post. Maybe after new years.

I want to forget all of that and enjoy the rest of my break.

Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Whatever you Believe in

So because the world hasn't ended I guess that means we are going to have Christmas and New Years celebrations after all. Which is good, few things make me happier than watching crazy people flail and scream before realizing that they look like idiots.

Now all we have to do is wait until some new apocalyptic theory comes about to stir them up into a frenzy again.

Maybe this is what will happen to all of us.

In the meantime, enjoy the holidays before the next end of of the world craze. I'm just happy to be able to sleep in, buy things at greatly discounted prices, and be unproductive in front of a computer all day long. It's a good feeling.

What's not a good feeling is trying to buy Theresa something and have her turn it down. She's been needing a new computer for a while so I contacted a friend who was selling his old gaming computer. Would have worked prefectly.

If she had room for it.


Except it didn't fit.

She claims she's going to get a new laptop soon around the Boxing day sale and if she doesn't, I'll just run out and get her a new one. Seriously, her current laptop is over 4 years old and its age is really showing. The cooling pad I got her can only do so much.

The rest of my family has their gifts ready. Unfortunately, some are still on their way via mail. It's scary how you can order something at the beginning of December and still not have it by the end of the month. Maybe next year I'll start ordering more things online even earlier.


Or maybe they use pigeons to send stuff I don't know.

Anyways, enjoy your time off with your family and friends this holiday season. I know I am.

Thursday 20 December 2012

End of the World Post

Assuming all the crazy people are correct, tomorrow marks the end of the world, meaning that this will be the last blog post I will ever write. Sobering thought isn't it?

Which means I should probably put some effort into this thing.

Probably.

HAHAHA. NOPE.

Yeah, I'm not taking the whole apocalypse thing very seriously and neither are most rational people. I'm spending the day with Theresa and at a party. You know, so if the world does somehow end I'll probably too boozed up/unconscious to care.

Anyone from Australia? How you guys handling so far? Europe? Anyone not from North America still alive?

They'll be fine.

Anyways, I'm off to waste enjoy my last moments of existence. If you want to join me you can start by watching stupid videos of stupid video games doing stupid things they shouldn't be doing.

It's pretty stupid.

Enjoy.

Monday 17 December 2012

Guest Post!

I've never been asked to do a guest post before. I guess no one wants to have a sleep-deprived Asian rambling on their blog. But Grumpster asked me to do a post for his students who are currently working through their finals.

I don't know what the thinks of it, and I don't know when it'll appear on his blog but the link to his blog is there so why not visit him in the meantime until my guest post goes up?


Thursday 13 December 2012

I hate it when a plan falls apart

Finals may be done but not in the style I would have liked. Continuing from my last post, all I had left to do was my Cognitive Psychology final on Monday and a paper for my Social Influences class due on Wednesday. Easy enough, especially considering how I was almost done the paper already.

The plan was: exam Monday morning. Go home, finish paper, send it to the Professor to review, date with Theresa Tuesday, revise paper after date, submit the paper Tuesday evening for grading, enjoy my winter break on Wednesday.

I know my limitations so I'm able to fairly accurately know how things should occur days if not weeks in advance. I'm generally able to account for hiccups and delays and factor them in as well.

Well, I didn't expect a hiccup of this variety or this magnitude.



Let's go back in time for a moment. Monday afternoon. I've just finished my exam, I'm excited, I'm almost free, all is well. I'm really tired having barely slept in the last few days but the adrenaline from the exam is still keeping me going.

Either that or the 710ml of Coke I drank to keep me awake during the exam.

I stop by Safeway to grab a bowl of soup and a bread bowl for lunch because I love soup and I love bread bowls. Decided to treat myself. Got home, and half way through my bread bowl I feel oddly full and more tired than usual. I decide to take a quick nap and then get started on my essay.

I wake up a few hours later wanting to vomit, my intestines were cramping up and I'm still as exhausted from before I took the nap.


Yep, stomach flu. That's just great. Well, fairly certain it was stomach flu and the soup that did it to me. Last time I checked, Coke doesn't cause stomach problems of this magnitude.

I then spent the next 48 hours huddled up in bed, feeling terrible, not eating anything solid. Liquid in, liquid out to say it nicely.

Note that this doesn't change the deadline of my paper.

So come Tuesday evening when I finally feel coherent enough, I  drag myself to my computer, finish my paper and send it to my prof early Wednesday morning in hopes that she'll still take a look at it.

And then waddled back to the bathroom to have my insides explode.

The good news is that a few hours later I do get an email back from the prof. The bad news is that because I sent it to her on the day its due she won't provide any help with it.

Well, gee thanks.

And it pisses me off even further because I could have had that stupid paper in her inbox for review on Monday if I didn't get sick. Or at least, Tuesday evening if I wasn't so sick.

So I looked over my paper several times in hopes that my own editing would be good enough and submit it for grading. I probably looked something like this:

Tea is soothing for the stomach.

I'm still slightly sick. The thought of eggs and greasy foods still makes me queasy. But who cares? I'm finally done now.

Just, not as elegantly as I would have liked.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Final End of Term Update

One last exam and one last paper. Almost done here. I'm seriously running out of motivation to keep working though. Or maybe I'm running out of energy, especially considering how much sleep people get when they keep pulling all-nighters.

I also think I've completely ruined my sleep cycle now. Yep, I'm running on Hong Kong time or something because I'm sleepy and brain dead from 10AM to 6PM but after that I'm wide-awake and ready to take on the world.

And by world I mean my notes.

Can't wait to be done. I'll see you guys Thursday and I'll revert back to my usual schedule of posting every 3 days and visiting everyone nearly every day.

Also it's snowing and windy over here. Hope you guys have better weather.

Thursday 6 December 2012

An Unexpected Hiccup

On my checklist of things needed to get into Grad school was reference letters, and I needed 3. This wouldn't be a problem. I asked Patt, my Conservation Psychology prof, to write one for me and he was more than happy to. Though this was at the pub and we both had a bit to drink so maybe I'll send an email reminder later.

Next was one of my supervisors for my research project. He too was more than happy to oblige me. That's 2/3. So far so good.

And then I got to the Professor who I'd been doing research under for years. We'll call him Prof Cap.

And he told me no.


Ok, I might be exaggerating a bit here and I haven't given his explanation yet. See, he was than happy to write me one, until I told him I was trying to get into Speech and Language Pathology. Then he looked me in the eye and said, "Damian, I don't think my reference letter is going to help you get in. Your GPA isn't that competitive."

Ouch. Harsh but probably true.

Don't worry, there's more.

He goes on to tell me that he's written more than half a dozen reference letters over the last few years for students trying to get into the program. And only one got in, the one with the ~4.0 GPA. Remember that mine is at ~3.3.

Oh and it gets better. One of the people even did research with a SLP professor for a year and STILL didn't get in. If this isn't enough of an indicator that the SLP department (at least at my University) only cares about marks, I don't know what is. 

I mean, I'm fairly certain that knowing that a student can properly conduct research is a better indicator of a good grad student than, I don't know, an arbitrary number on a piece of paper. Just because you can memorize definitions from a book doesn't mean you can do things in real life.

Fairly certain that the department admins look like this.

That being said, ALL of the students my prof wrote reference letters for were women. Maybe I could stand a chance by being male? You think they'd give me a special exception? Hopefully?
Either way, Prof Cap had two pieces of advice for me. Either start applying to the SLP program at other Universities in hopes that they aren't as competitive, or start looking for a different graduate program to get into. I'm definitely going to start exploring these options, I need to make a back-up plan after finals.

Hmmm....

Oh, side note. Patt is also written at least 2 reference letters for students trying to get into the SLP program. And Prof Cap and I think we know what SLP is so popular/competitive. There's a huge demand for Speech Pathologists and it might have to do with the surge of autism in recent years. And we both think it's the new ADHD.

Autism is a real disorder, but whether or not the huge numbers of people being diagnosed with it are legitimate cases found due to better diagnostic methods, or helicopter parents being helicopter parents has yet to be determined.

Monday 3 December 2012

End of Term Update 3

Looks like I unintentionally changed my posting schedule to every 4 days instead of 3. I've got two exams for tomorrow and hopefully they'll go alright. I've got plenty of time throughout the day to review so I should be fine.

Hopefully.

If you want to read something more interesting, my previous post about the GRE is up. Go read and comment on that post instead, it's better than anything I'm sharing today.


Thursday 29 November 2012

The GRE

It's about time a proper post has been done. It's also a day late so my bad. I'm almost in the clear (for this week) but earlier this week was not so much fun for me. Mainly for one reason, the Graduate Record Examinations or GRE. If you want to get into any English speaking graduate school for your Masters degree, you're probably want to take this exam.

So while we're on topic, let's take a look at what this exam entails. The trials and tribulations of this stupid test that requires you to pay a third party company nearly $200 so you have a chance of advancing your education.

I was forced to to do this if I wanted to have a chance at Speech and Language Pathology.

Can't say I was pleased.

There are multiple variations of this exam. I only wrote the Revised (aka. general) version so I'm only going to be talking about that one. But I know friends who wrote Physics or Biology orientated versions so those exist too.

Basically, 7 parts: 2 writing, 2 reading, 2 math and the fake part. You have half an hour each of those parts and you can't go back once the time is up. They're all pretty self-explanatory with the exception of the "fake" part. In order to test new questions for future exams, they throw in an extra reading or math section that's worth nothing BUT looks identical to the other parts.

You're wasting time, energy, and effort on a worthless section. You're paying to help them screw over future students. That's so nice of them.

Thanks a lot, jerks.

Writing is writing. Nothing special here. Here's a topic, argue for or against it.

The reading sections consist of reading, vocabulary testing and sometimes both. Reading passages and answering questions is fairly standard, it's the vocab that's annoying. So for example, you'll be given a passage like "Abraham Lincoln was known for his _________ personality." and then you have to pick two words from a list that not only make sense with the sentence, but mean the same thing.

So your word bank will be like "GREGARIOUS. EQUIVOCATE. VICARIOUS. PROSAIC. EGREGIOUS. BLINKERED." Also, you have to get both words right to get 1 point. No half marks here.

Math is math. High school material really. You know, Train A is traveling 50km/h and Train B leaves in the opposite direction at twice the speed, Circle D has a circumference of 9x, determine the diameter of the square inside it, a company's value goes up 10%, how much more funding does Department X get compared to Department Y?

Derp derp.

So comes test day. You'd think I was going to prison or something. Photo ID required, picture taken, dumped in a small room with cameras observing me at all times. They really take this test seriously.

The writing portion is easy. If there's anything I can do it's pull a coherent mass of words out of my butt and have it sound amazing. The first hour is uneventful. Actually I'll be honest with you, the whole 3-4 hours was uneventful.

I finished most of the sections with time to spare and check over previous answers. Now, the thing about the GRE is how it grades your exam. The writing is marked separately out of 6. The reading and math are out of 50 marks and are converted into a score out of 170. Only the grade out of 170 matters. So you could get 27/50 on the math part and that could translate into 146/170.

ME NO MATH GOOD.

The best thing about the GRE is that at the end, they give you your score for the reading and math portions. The writing gets sent for marking and that mark comes 3 weeks later.

I got 156 and 159/170. The average varies from 145-150.

The funny thing is that the GRE study guides have schedules for people to study months or weeks in advance. I started studying for this thing half a week beforehand.

Not bad for half a week of studying.

Sunday 25 November 2012

End of Term Update 2

Hey, for once I have something worth talking about. Unfortunately I have about half a dozen things due this week (half on Tuesday, the other half on Thursday) so the time it takes to write up about whats been going on is being spent working.

Yeah, more all nighters. I haven't even had time to publish comments yet (thanks to everyone who's been dropping by!) but I should be safe by Wednesday.

See everyone then.

Thursday 22 November 2012

End of Term Update 1

Again, apologies for not visiting everyone. This week has been hectic but I hope I have everything under control. At least, I've done enough of everything to maintain some semblance of control.

Honestly though, I can't afford to slack off or I'm going to die before the end of the weekend. Everyday is a daily struggle just to be on track.

Or I can just stay up all night to try and catch up. That's always fun.

Man I love Corgis.


Almost every project I have is half/almost done so I have an idea of how much work I need to shove into it to complete it on time. The exception is studying for the GRE. Does anyone remember my crazed friend Yu? I managed to grab a few study guides off of him and I'm trying to cram as much as I can for the GRE exam on Sunday.

Over 4 hours in front of a computer answering poorly worded questions to determine if I qualified to enter graduate school. Fun stuff.

Well, back to work. Never ends does it.

Monday 19 November 2012

Nothing Substantial

Yeah. Nothing interesting going on. Just more work and more studying.

A blog post will go up when something worth while happens that doesn't involve papers or other academic nonsense. My life gets pretty boring when school takes over.

Here's a picture of a corgi driving a car. I'll see you guys when I see you guys. Will try and visit everyone when I have a spare moment.


Friday 16 November 2012

Projects Galore

The great thing about this term is the general lack of final exams I have. Technically, I only have 1 but one of my classes has an unofficial final so I have only 2 finals to write in total.

The catch? I have a ton of papers and projects that have deadlines that are slowing approaching. And I've barely started on any of them. Which is not good, but I'll survive.

I hope.


Aging Psych:

I mentioned in a previous post how I was doing volunteer work instead of a paper. It involved helping out with some online stuff, writing things up. No problem there, I thrive online and I own a blog.

But it took until mid October for me to get in touch with the coordinators running the thing and I didn't start any work until early November. That, is a problem.

So now I'm kind of rushing here to get enough things done so I can get a decent grade. I think I'm going to need roughly 3 more blog posts for them before the end of the month. They're only 300-400 word posts each so I should be safe. That'll take an hour each to write.

Total time = 3 Hours.

Conservation Psych:

Got a paper here, 2500 words. Not too heavy though I really should get started on it. Probably take me a solid 5 hours to get this done. Basically, take an issue in the world related to conservation, suggest a way that would fix it but then outline all the issues that would prevent this solution from being implemented.

The biggest problem I find is not say overpopulation, but rather over-consumption. What if half the population of the world was wiped out but the remaining populous started using/wasting materials at double the rate? We haven't solved anything have we.


I've actually been meaning to have a post dedicated to this class. It's an interesting course.

Total time = 3 +5 = 8 Hours.

Social Influences:

Here's where things messy. We got two projects here that are due. 1 is a group project that has not been started but (hopefully) on Sunday my group can finally meet. I have no idea how long this is going to take. We're filming something that doesn't have a script written yet.

Second project is basically a massive paper. I need to research and create a hypothetical textbook chapter. This includes graphs, pictures, researching the topic and seeing as a textbook chapter for this class is roughly 30 pages long, this will not be a walk in the park.

Total time = 8 + ???? + ???? = ????


BONUS:

I still have the GRE exam to write at the end of the month. I haven't started studying yet. Yes, this is the 4 hour long exam I have to write to apply to for Grad school next year.

No I have not started studying.

If it's any consolation it's supposed to be easy. Interpreting chunks of text, impromptu papers, that sort of thing.

Still, I should probably try and take a look at what's to come. I didn't bother buying the help guides. Not when there are free ones available and what not.

Total time = ???? + ????

Better get started.


So if you rarely hear from me in the next few weeks. These are the reasons why.

I am not looking forward to this.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Movember Shame

I'm certain that everyone is aware of the Movember campaign that's been going on for a number of years now. For anyone not aware, it's where men (and I guess women) don't shave to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer.

I think a lot of guys like it because it's a month where they can justify being lazy and not having to shave for a month. Then they can walk around with massive scraggly beards and not get odd or horrified looks from people in public.

But if you're like me, you can't grow facial hair. It just doesn't work. Asians are funny like that.

Baby smooth skin!

Ok, that's not entirely accurate. I can grow facial hair but never to the point where it would look respectable. All I get is this really gross looking peach fuzz or wisps of crap on my chin. My face hates the facial hair too because immediately I start getting zits around the hairs.

So the better solution is to just raze it as soon as anything pops up. Clear cut the entire area.

I mean, if I could grow an Asian beard I would totally go for it. Old Chinese people beards look hilarious.

I'd stroke that thing nonstop.

But I'd like to take the time to share with you a shaving story from a not so distant past. Back in Junior High, when I first started getting my first actual clumps of facial hair. I hated them. I had seen what teenagers looked like with their scraggly upper lip fur. You looked like a disgusting nerd that's what. And while I may have been a nerd, I was determined not to look disgusting.

I really didn't want to go around using my Dad's electrical razor, that's just weird. But my parents however were unsympathetic to my woes. They laughed when I asked for my first razor, questioning the whereabouts of my so-called "hair".

It could have been that I was just really paranoid about the hair and there wasn't much, but it didn't matter. It bothered me a lot. And so I got crafty, and a few weeks later I asked my parents for...

Wait for it.

A set of tweezers.

Yep. Parents wouldn't get me a razor so I asked for tweezers.


I literally spent years with these tweezers ripping out any and every offending follicle on my face. Of course it hurt, but it the pain was worth it so that I wouldn't look like a disgusting mess incapable of growing a proper beard. Looking back, I'm probably a lot more vain than most guys.

A lot of people questioned my ability to grow facial hair, a lot of guys seem to display theirs with pride. Not me. Eventually they assumed I was just meticulously shaving it all off, almost no one knows my tweezer secret.

Maybe if I could grow a goatee overnight I'd do it but the inbetween process is really gross.

I'd love to be able to walk around with one of these.

Many years of plucking later I finally got around to getting a razor. I can confirm it's a lot more efficient and a lot less painful.

The tweezers now sit somewhere in my bathroom unused and gathering dust. And they'll probably continue to sit like that.

Unless my razor dies or something.

Yeah, I'm going to go charge it up now.

Saturday 10 November 2012

Remembrance Weekend Post

I'm not sure how recognized Remembrance day is in the rest of the world but in Canada we kind of make a big deal out of it. Days off, school assemblies, wearing poppies, etc.. And I think there should be some attention paid to it, we're recognizing the sacrifices of the people who have fought in wars.

So take a minute or two on Sunday if you can. A moment of silence out of respect for these people. If you want to be really on top of things, try and do it at 11AM.

Short post today. I'll see you guys on Tuesday.


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Random Assortments Post

Lots of little unrelated things to discuss in this post today so don't expect any form of coherency. When something bigger or more interesting happens in my life you can expect a post on that. But until then, this kind of a post will have to make due.


First off, congrats to Obama winning the elections last night. I don't usually like to discuss politics on my blog but this is kind of a significant event so it deserves some form of mention. Also hard to not notice it seeing as all my friends on Facebook kind of exploded.

Is this a good or bad thing? Hard to say. Though I guess it's true that once you go black, you can't go back.

Now if Canada could only get rid of Stephen Harper... I hate the man for trying to censor the Internet up here.

Should this man really represent us?

Next thing is snow. It literally went from just leaves on the ground to up to 25cm of snow overnight. There have been over 200 collisions, buses take forever to get anywhere, parts of highways have been closed off, and the last I heard, the light rail transit was shut down too.

Getting to classes tomorrow is going to be so much fun.

I should be used to it I guess. Though my friends from the province of BC are just laughing. I hate them so much right now.


Last thing, I'm booking an appointment with my doctor. My lungs will not leave me alone and they're starting to hurt sporadically. It's not longer just random breathlessness or discomfort, it's pain not unlike when my lung was healing from surgery. I'm not sure what's happening, but the fact that this has been occurring on and off for over 2 weeks now is getting me worried.

Plus I promised Theresa I'd get it checked out if it continued. Also can't let her know because she's busy again with exams and I can't afford to be stressing her out with my health problems.

Also she won't have time to read my blog so no worries about her finding out from this.

And if she does see this post, this otter will distract her.

Alright, back to work. See you guys on Saturday.

Sunday 4 November 2012

Halfway Point

It's about halfway through the term. And I have a general feeling about how well I've done this term:

Aging: ~B
Cognitive: ~B
Conservation: ~A
Social Influence: ~B

This is roughly a B+  or 3.3. That's generally how well I've done in my previous terms. But at the moment there's only one word that rings in my mind.


As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to get into Speech and Langauge Pathology. However, it appears the program has gotten a lot more competitive over the years. If you want to stand a chance, you should have a GPA of 3.7 or an A-.

So as you can see, a 3.3 isn't going to be good enough to get me in. I don't expect myself to get A's in all my courses, but at least an A- so I have a fighting chance.

I have to kick things up a notch.

Bam!

All hope is not lost yet. I still need to write the GRE at the end of the month and I really should start studying for it soon. I also should start looking to work or volunteer with something SLP related. Not only will it give me vital experience, but I could use a second job. Especially next term when my schedule will be even more light.

My only saving grace for my GPA at the moment is apparently they only care about your grades for the last 2 years that you were in school. In other words, with a bit more work my disastrous 3 year grades will suddenly become invalid, like they never existed at all.

Seriously though, if that year even touches the rest of my GPA I'll drop to a B-.

Replace Homer with some bad grades and you get the idea.

My last hope is that a lot of my remaining marks for my courses are in the form of papers and projects. Wish me luck on them, I need all I can get.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Post-Halloween Disappointment

Halloween has come and gone. Normally I'm not a fan of dressing up, I preferred to look at other people's costumes. But this year I decided to try to be different and goes as the Slenderman simply because I had the bodytype and it was fairly easy to do.

The only thing I was missing for a mask or head covering to complete it. So I ordered something online at the beginning of the month with the predicted date of arrival with roughly a week until it would arrived. Prefect timing.

And so I waited.

And waited.

It's after Halloween and it still hasn't arrived.


So I'm certainly disappointed. I mean, I paid extra for it to come in before Halloween. I also booked the day off of work so I could run around on Campus. Instead, I just ended up sleeping in and loafing off. It's not bad, but I'd rather run around as a mythical entity that abducts people on the one day that it's socially acceptable. I can sleep in any other day.

I'm tempted to blame Sandy for the delays in the mail but I have no idea when it'll arrive. I got an email a while ago saying it was shipped out, and would arrive within 8 days at the latest. That means it should have arrived last Friday. And if it arrived late on the weekend or something, I should have got it on Monday.

It's Wednesday now.

And waiting.

I guess I'll just dress up next year then. Assuming I don't think of a better costume. In the meantime, I've done some thinking and realized that simply wearing a suit and a head-covering mask doesn't make you a good Slenderman. You look more like a mannequin than anything.

So in preparation of next Halloween, let's take a look at what makes the Slenderman so unsettling to so many people, and how we can translate that into a better costume.

I think I can sum it up in the various pictures and images that are used with the Slenderman.

Take a look at the picture below:


First, he's disproportionate and tall, he doesn't look normal. People hate things that look almost human but are slightly off. It's the uncanny valley effect, basically, things that clearly don't look human (e.g. a cartoon) look fine and obviously humans look ok. But it's that inbetween stage of the two that really cause us to feel uncomfortable.

Imagine how the Slenderman would move, completely ungainly and hobbling. He looks like he could almost pass as a person but it's these little differences that throw us off and that's the goal here seeing as he is some kind of urban legend monster.

To accomplish this we we're going to need two things stilts and some form of trash grabbers. If you cover the stilts up well, bam, you have an extra few feet of height. Attach the grabbers to your forearms, bam, extra arm length. Some of the best Slenderman costumes I've seen recommend using dry-waller stilts just because they're easier to walk around with. So I can look for those.

Not creepy at all.

Being abnormally tall won't be hard with the stilts. I'm over 6 feet which is a decent height but it's not rare or uncommon to see other people that tall. To make this costume go from mannequin to Slenderman, we need to make ourselves unrealistically tall. We're talking, 7/8/9 feet tall. The bigger some weird looking thing is, the more scary it is. We see this kind of behavior in animals all the time, puffing themselves up to look bigger in hopes of intimidating something else.

I'm hoping that if I'm running around like this next Halloween I won't trip and fall or anything. Remember, I live in Canada, and by Halloween, we usually have snow and ice all over the place. I remember trying to build a costume around jackets and snowpants.

Maybe I'll just be the Slenderman indoors...

Monday 29 October 2012

That One Guy

My favorite class this term is easily Conservation psychology. It's with one of my favorite Professors who I got to know really well. In fact I'm getting him to write a reference letter for me and I call him by his first name. The class is interesting in that we basically sit and discuss. Pat presents a problem, we talk/debate over it, someone makes a crude joke, we laugh, we move on.

Even better is that after class we generally go for beers at a nearby pub. And I've gotten to know a few classmates and Pat better this way. Professor Pat is an interesting man and he's led an interesting life. I have no idea how he went from serving in the British Special Forces to teaching Psychology at a University.

But there's one caveat to this course, and that's one single student who everyone is kind of sick of. His name is Jason. And he won't. Shut. Up.

And everyone has this look on their face when he talks.

Now it's not a problem with him talking all the time. I talk all the time but I have something relevant to say that's on topic. Jason says stuff to simply be contrary. You know what I'm talking about, someone who says something that opposes the thing you just said just because he can. Half the time conversations with prof. Pat and Jason go something like that:

Jason: [Insert inane banter here]
Pat: . . . .
P: So what's your point Jason?
J: Uh, I don't have one. I was just stating that.
P: Well what's the point in that?
J: Um, I don't know.
P:  Ok, let's not get off topic here. Moving on.

And then the same conversation with happen in about 15 minutes later. Meanwhile the rest of us are making glances at one another, nodding heads in agreement, or shoving our heads into our palms.

Simultaneous facepalms all around!

Did I mention that Jason specifically is doing this for attention? Yeah, he admitted after class one day that he was an attention seeker. He would probably argue that rape is ok, or that we should reinstate slavery, or that the Jews did 9/11. He's just being contrary, half the time he's mumbling barely coherent sentences and it's driving us crazy.

Oh wait, I think some of those topics did come up in class and almost everyone turned and just stared at him. I can't remember. I've just learned to tune out his voice and shove my head into my hands whenever he opens his mouth. Though when people start to glare at him it means he said something really bizarre or very offensive.

What is he even talking about?

Curious thing happened the other day though at the pub. Jason decided to accompany us there for once and it came up in conversation that he was a furry.

And suddenly everything made sense to me.

I apologize if any of my readers are furries but I have never had a good experience with one before. They all seem to have varying levels of social and mental imbalances. I have never met a furry online or in real life that was not disturbing to other non-furries. Feel free to explain yourself if you're out there.

And to anyone who does not have the pleasure of knowing what a furry is. Basically, people who enjoy anthropomorphic animals to the point where they will dress up as them (i.e. fursuits) and engage in adult activities in said apparel. I understand that this is a very broad generalization of them but I'm not willing to go deep into the various subcultures and genres.

Long story short: Every furry I've met and heard of has been a deviant both socially and mentally.

Not posting pictures of furries. Not on my blog.

So Jason clearly has some issues that may or may not be related to him being a furry. Either way, he's a pain and lately he's been randomly missing classes much to the delight of the class.

I just hope he stops soon. It's not a big issue but after many classes of the same nonsense it starts to get to you. It's always the little things in life eh?