elle.macks.bee - the ramblings of a biology geek.

Tip of the Post:

If you live in residence, keep your door open! Here are the top 7 reasons why:

1) You’ll make more friends. When people walk by my room (which is semi-rare, I live near the end of my hallway) and see that my door is open, 9 times out of 10 they will make eye contact, nod, and say “hey”. And sometimes they stop by for a quick chat. Or a long chat.

2) It will affirm your exsistence. The vast majority of students who are living in residence (and I’m estimating this majority to be along the lines of 99.99%) are used to living in a family unit. You don’t need to feel isolated in the residence community! When I have my door open, I feel comforted by the fact that I’m surrounded by so many people. Your floor is your new family – treat it as such, or at least make an effort to.

3) It makes your room look bigger. The whole 8 x 10 thing not working for you? OPEN THAT DOOR! Living in KU, the doors are indented about two feet from the hallway. With an open door, you get the illusion that your room is two feet longer (which, incidentally, is a 20% increase. That’s quite a lot).

4) It makes your room brighter. I have three light sources in my room: my desk lamp, my window, and my overhead light. With the dark winter months descending upon Vancouver, my window is a useful source until about 3:00 in the afternoon. And my overhead? What a joke. I think one of the bulbs is out. Either that, or all the dead moths in the bowl are blocking the light *shudder*. That leaves my desk lamp, which isn’t enough alone. Thankfully (and ironically) enough, I have an incredibly bright, double-bulbed fluorescent light outside my door. It makes a huge difference.

5) It gives you a reason to keep your room tidy. I am by no means a tidy person. If I can do it, so can you. You just need incentive.

6) You get to add personality to your floor. Got a wickedly decorated room? Show it off! Residence can be pretty bland – any decoration visible from the hallways adds a homey feel to the entire floor.

7) Maybe, just maybe, other people will follow your lead. Can you imagine how fun residence would be if everyone had their doors open? Of course, it’s not necessary all the time (like if you’re nakie – save us that aspect). But the sense of community and comradery would definitely improve. Think about it.

Most of us will only live in residence for one year. What sort of community do you want to remember?

Love,

Lindsay

Tip of the Post:

Get out and enjoy those fall colours before they’re gone. Specifically, if you haven’t been to Nitobe Garden yet (it’s near Vanier, at the bottom of Memorial): GO!

Me having fun with leaves (note the huge clump on the left – it was wet and it kind of hurt when it hit me on the way back down, haha).

I had the Week From Hell (WFH) last week, with a chem midterm; a 40-mark Mastering Physics (an online homework program with excruciating questions due every week) assignment; a math quiz and homework assignment; a chem lab… The list goes on. I locked myself in my room for all my spare time, and was averaging 14 hour days, only counting studying and lecture time. Laaaaaame.

SO: aside from playing outside today, I’ve done a lot of relaxing things this weekend. On Friday night, I discovered the wonders of the internet and watched two movies (Harry Potter and Superbad) online, as well as an episode of Survivor that I missed this week with my friend Kayla. I ended up getting to bed around 2am, although I’m not sure exactly how that happened. Last night I went to the Parade of the Lost Souls with another friend (Jonathan), my sister, and a bunch of my sister’s friends. It’s a yearly costume celebration that takes over around 8 blocks of Commercial Drive and fills it with live percussion bands, fire dancers, and thousands of people wearing some of the best costumes I’ve ever seen, such as:

• Lego person (complete with yellow facepaint and a paper mache hat that looked exactly like the unrealistic, helmet-like hair)
• Mushroom
• Jellyfish (someone holding one of those clear umbrellas with streamers and LED lights coming off of it. Pretty and functional!)
• A Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are

There were a lot more. It may be easier to mention that the only bad costume I saw was this old guy with a  smear of fake blood just sitting in the centre of his forehead. That was all. Or maybe it wasn’t fake… he did look kind of dazed.

After I got back from my walk this afternoon, I decided to do some vacuuming. I should mention now that Kayla also vacuumed today and, like me, loses a substantial amount of hair on any given day.The vacuuming itself went great – I now have a carpet absent of paper bits, pizza crumblies, and pine needles. But returning the vacuum! What a freaking nightmare.

*Note* – The following screenplay is based entirely on true events, but may be exaggerated in a meager way to enhance tone:

Scene: two girls – one redheaded and lugging a maroon SuctionMaster 260, the other a lovely brunette – approach the front desk of Vanier Commonsblock looking very hungry and eager to hit the caf. A stout blond man in his mid-forties looks up with disdain at their approach. He disappears from the desk to emerge several seconds later from a door at stage right.

Red (smiling): Hello! We’re here to return the vacuum!

Man takes the vacuum, rewrapping the power cord to maximize spacial organization as he does so. He checks the vacuum for cleanliness, first examining the filter. With a curt nod, he continues his inspection down to the rollers. He looks up with a sour expression.

Man (brandishing the vacuum, rollers up): I’m going to have to ask you to clean this.

Red (obviously not noticing that the stripy pattern around the rollers is actually hair): Oh… is it that dirty?

Man: …

The Man twitches the vacuum in the direction of the girls, and the Brunette takes it from him. Red keeps staring at him.

Red: We actually have to clean the rollers out?

Brunette (quickly): Okay so we’ll just go clean this…

Man (talking over Brunette): Yeah, well you were informed upon checkout that you were required to clean the filter and the rollers before returning the appliance.

Red: But they’re… oooooooooh! Okay. Alright well we’ll just go and –

Red stops speaking as she realizes that the man has already disappeared behind the door. The girls walk back across the commons. Balancing the vacuum on a garbage can, they begin ripping small chunks of hair from the rollers, discussing the pretty shade the combination of their hair creates and wondering aloud why the Man is such an insufferable bore. Ten minutes later, the Man returns, clutching a tiny pair of orange safety scissors in his meaty fist.

Man: How’s it coming?

Red: We’ve been at it for ages… we’re thinking we’re done.

Brunette: Yeah. This good enough?

Red shows the nearly immaculate rollers to the man, who does not appear impressed.

Man: I’m really thinking that you can get more out of the corners. Here.

Man places the scissors on the bin and returns to his hole in the wall. Red and Brunette exchange significant glances and attack the vacuum with the ridiculously blunt – and therefore useless – scissors. After another 5 minutes, they manage to remove 15 more strands of hair and appear quite pissed off. They return to the door and look at the Man at the desk. The group stares at eachother for an awkward pause. The Man finally moves and opens the door.

Red: We’re done. Here.

The Man inspects the entire vacuum once again and looks as if to say something, but decides not to. A wise decision has been made. He returns to his post with the appliance. The girls exit stage right. The sound of running water, scrubbing, and grumbling can be heard as the lights dim…

End scene.

From now on, I’m using the floor vacuum. Or avoiding that man. Either/or.

But! All in all, this weekend has been just the rest I need. I’m ready to tackle this week, and am dying for Halloween to arrive!

When I get the pictures from the parade, I’ll post them. Have a spooky week, everyone!

Lindsay