Category Archives: Recreation

Chugging along

road sign: hope, next right

The last time I asked for good songs by which to burn the midnight oil, a friend responded with the sage advice of using 8tracks.com, a site dedicated to handcrafted internet radio playlists. Popular playlists at the moment include several lists for study music. I can’t believe no one’s ever mentioned this site to me before — many thanks for the suggestion! I’m following it well.

My brain, by the way, is sizzling in a thick layer of bacon fat. I’ve been wrestling with my thesis argument for an embarrassingly long time and I think I just might have pinned it down. It’s looking back at me from my latest five-page outline, anyway. (A completely different outline to the one I last talked about, by the way.) Theoretically, all I need to do is clean it up a bit, streamline my introduction and gather the last of my primary materials before I start writing for real on Thursday.

Honestly, I’m a little terrified that my ‘aha!’ moment of the argument finally coming together — that mystical moment everyone kept telling me about but which I thought was never going to happen — is going to turn around suddenly and shout, ‘HAHA, FOOLED YA, THAT ONE’S A DUD! YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ME YET, NA-NA-NEE-POO-POO!’

We’ll see what happens. I’m pretending to be the Little Engine that Could: I think I can I think I can I think I can…!

The Garden Statuary Issue 1.1

The Garden Statuary

is out and about! There are poems, photos, fiction, essays and even a YouTube clip that I’m sure you weren’t expecting to see, so go ahead — click the above header or go directly to our new website to discover what UBC’s undergraduate students are making and creating.

You can totally pass it off as expanding your intellectual horizons in the run-up to exams.

Coming Up: Coffee House & Literary Launch Party!

Taking a quick break from the cultural project I’m making for my Musqueam language class to share a couple of truly cool events that you should check out this week:

Wednesday, 30th November: Cuntalicious Coffee House (7 pm–midnight, Buchanan D MASS)

The fabulous V-Day team that brings us The Vagina Monologues each year are hosting their annual Coffee House. V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and this Coffee House is one of the ways in which proceeds are raised for relevant organisations, through a night of music, poetry and refreshments. Cover is $2 and refreshments are by donation.

If you’re a musician, performer or poet who would like to perform at the event, or if you’d like to contribute some baked goods, just email ubcvdayposse@gmail.com.

Thursday, 1st December: The Garden Statuary Launch Party (5–8 pm, Buchanan D MASS)

The first issue of the English undergraduate literary journal is going to be published online this Thursday, and we’re celebrating with a launch party in the evening. There will be live music, readings from the authors, fruit and pizza (those last two are the most important)!

As one of the editors, may I just add how much I enjoyed going through the submissions? I love discovering other people’s work and am particularly excited about the poetry and multimedia we’ve got this term.

You’ll be able to read the new issue on The Garden Statuary website on Thursday.

Part of the reason I’m posting these is because I have exams on both those nights and can only live vicariously through other people — so please go and let me know how they went!

In the meantime, I’m also looking for suggestions for good songs and/or playlists by which I can burn the midnight oil. My brother recently introduced me to Sungha Jung, who plays a sweet cover of Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ that goes along great with my late night painting. It might, however, feel repetitive by the time I hit my fifth hour, so anything is appreciated!

Events on campus (also, a quick guide on how to traumatize children)

One of my favourite aspects of university is how there is always so much more going on than there is time to spare.

(And time — there is so much time in university, even though it doesn’t always feel like it. It’s easy to slip between classes to the Chan Centre for a lecture from Bill McKibben, the first of this year’s Terry Global Speaker Series, or attend part of the Robson Reading Series — or at least think about it. Nine-to-five work days just won’t be the same.)

Where do you find the events that interest you? My English department is quite good at emailing us with relevant information and events; I also enjoy subscribing to newsletters that do the work of finding and promoting the kind of events that I like to go to. Three of my favourites are:

And, of course, there’s always UBC Events, the centralized website for discovering campus activities.

Sample events that I wish I had gone to or would like to, if I can make it:

November 15, 4:30-5:30 pm (Global Lounge) – Occupy What? An open discussion about the social movement that has swept the world

November 18, 6:30-9:00 pm (111 W. Hastings) – Ignite the Light: Generational Expressions of Colonization, Social Justice, and the Legacy of Indian Residential Schools

Ongoing until February 12, 2012 (MOA) – ひろしま hiroshima by Ishiuchi Miyako: an exhibition featuring the colour photographs of clothing and accessories left behind by the victims of the 1945 atomic bomb at Hiroshima

There’s a Requiem for Peace at the Chan Centre tonight at 8 pm, presented in conjunction with the above exhibition. Student rush tickets are $10 at the door, but unless I can rush through my current pile of academic responsibilities, I shan’t be going anywhere (sad face).

On a completely different note, Jimmy Kimmel issued a challenge to parents to pretend they ate all their children’s Halloween candy and videotape their reactions. Here are the results, and I have to say, that last child is the boss:

The joy of being invalidated

People who know me well know that I love to make wishes — on stars, eyelashes, at 11:11 — anything will do. It’s not so much the expectation that something will happen so much as the act of wishing itself that makes me happy. As someone once said to me, it feels good to be honest about what you want.

Erica recently blogged about some care mail she recently received from her mother. Reading it put such a smile on my face, but I’ll be truthful and admit that I also felt twinges of envy and missing-people-sickness. My parents aren’t the type to send me mail.

Just before I could indulge in wallowing for long, though, look what I found!

London postcard of yellow car

Postcard from London

A friend who just moved from Toronto to London thought of me about a month ago. Except I didn’t really catch that thought until today because I get mail so infrequently that I only check my letterbox about once a month. And I only checked it tonight because I felt like wallowing and wanted evidence to back me up. Oops. Guess I’ll be doing a happy dance instead.

Not so secretly, I like it much better this way. This made my day. Thank you. ♥