At 1:03 pm in my quantitative analysis class I received the following text:

“Hey u wanna join longboat with _____, _____ n ______?”

Stoaked! What? A chance to participate in a recreational school activity?  I haven’t done that since… high school!

Sadly I checked my schedule and realized I was going to another school activity on the same day from this club I joined (Speaking of clubs, clubs days are coming up… I have something to say about clubs but I’ll save it for another post.)

Anyway, longboat sure looks fun and I really hope I get to participate in it once before I graduate.

Here is their promo vid.

Is anyone participating?  Deadline is on Wednesday.  Go forth and fulfill my dream for me! =P

http://www.rec.ubc.ca/events/longboat/

Remember the Olympics back in February? (How could one forget?)

Back then I went to one of the free concerts, Our Lady Peace at the Richmond Ozone to be exact, and there was this really kick ass band that opened for them. I didn’t know that band but their song was so catchy I had to sing along out loud with my friend even though we were just singing whatever we were thought we were hearing. (Which was right… for the most part.) I ended up playlisting them on Youtube for almost 3 weeks.

So they’re at UBC tomorrow.

For once it wasn’t the FREE that caught my attention but “Arkells.” =) check em out if you got time.  Sadly… and very sadly… sad to the point that it was putting a rather large hole in my day today… I have work.  So rock out for me.

Speaking of “free”, there seems to be less free stuff this year on campus.  I have, however, finally landed myself a pair of those green Telus sunglasses.  You know the ones.

Hello folks, welcome to another episode of Learn from Paulina’s Mistakes!

*cue quirky music and audience pan with title overlay in some cheesy font*

Today’s adventure is one that many students, if have not embarked on, have at least considered doing so. Buying used textbooks. (Seriously, Phoebe’s post… even 2 years later, is still the shit.)

I’ve been hovering over sites for the past 3 days for 2 out of the 6 books I need. Why am I not hovering for the other 4?  I either plan to keep them (my Japanese books) or there is a new edition and I’m going to wait and see.  Hopefully it won’t end up like my calculator incident.

Anyway, here is how my process of buying used books, let me know if you have something else.

1) Find out what the book looks like and how much it costs at the book store (I really hope my friend didn’t lie to me about the prices because I didn’t go to the store)

2) Find out who is selling it for the cheapest (duh) and contact them, contact all of the people selling it for that price.

3) Wait for them to contact you back.

4) If they contact you, great, just set it up (well here is room to bargain if you wish.) If not, go back to step 2.

Easy right? Simple right? I had this all worked out, I was on my 3rd lap back at step 3 for my Managerial Accounting book after chasing the $70s. I had looked for $65 and $70 books before and gave it a day for their response.  However, this time, instead of emails, these people selling for $80 range offered phone numbers.  So I called, and unlike when I was buying my “Managing the Employment Relationship” book, my phone calls moved swiftly down the list.  Everyone had sold theirs.  I was starting to get worried.  Halfway down the page I found someone selling the book for $75 that I’d missed before and texted her (because that was what she wanted… looking at it now, maybe I should have called.)  But honestly, I had little hopes that this was still available because everyone above her on the list had sold, even the ones that were $80.  I kept going down the list.  Finally! Someone who still had the book.  Sealed the deal with my verbal word.  “Are you buying it for sure?” “Yes.”  About a minute later the $75 person texted me back and said she was still selling.

Fail.

Just needed a little patience.  About 10 minutes worth of it.  I had a days worth of it before, but when the list started moving fast I had to settle.

Here are my pickings in the end:

Unfortunately, for accounting I still have to buy the Lyryx access code,  I hope it isn’t that much.

The real lesson though isn’t really patience.   Because it is still a pretty good deal, usually.

The real lesson is:  Buy used = no HST = win!

I was on the 99 b-line today for the first time in a long time.  Eastbound.  When I got on the bus, there were these girls talk about phone plans and what kind of plans to get it.  Noticing their accents, subtle mention of AMS, I decided in my head that they were students that just moved into res or something.

Yes I’m judging like that.  But I can’t help it, it’s human tendency to categorize.

[side note] It seems everyone has a Blackberry these days!

There was one point where they seemed kind of lost, and I knew exactly how to get to where they wanted because that was where I was going.  I decided not to say anything.  I always find that adventures are way more fun if you get lost (in non threatening ways) and I didn’t want to “take that away” from them.

I’ve always enjoyed the idea of going to school somewhere else.  It’s like a way to experience a different world without worrying about getting working in a foreign place (because honestly, it seems just getting a job at home can be hard) or wanting to do something more productive than shopping and visiting monuments (not that it can’t be fun.)  Wanting to be in a new world is probably why I am aiming for international business, the only thing I am confident about pursuing at the moment.  But even then it seems to teeter a bit.

So new arrivals, if you’re reading, enjoy, explore.  I’ve lived here all my life and I still don’t think I’ve seen in all… which begs the question why do I still think that Vancouver can be boring to live in despite loving it?  Maybe it is because I am young and sheltered.  Year 2, here I come.  Time to grow up a little.

“The idea is to die young as late as possible.” – Ashley Montagu

Tonight!

Tomorrow night!

The night after that!

North east sky.

Nightfall till sunrise.

Enjoy =)

That’s right.  Free.

Free what?

…Does it matter?

Thought I’d share a listing of the free outdoor movie events that seem to be a sudden craze this summer.  (Why didn’t they have this before!)

Tonight!:
The Wizard of Oz at Holland Park (Surrey)

Aug 8:
Back to the Future at David Lam Park (Yaletown)

Aug 14:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Holland Park

Aug 19:
KJ: Music and Life at Civic Square (Burnaby Public Library at Metrotown)

Aug 21:
The Last Song at Holland Park

Aug 26:
Up at Civic Square

Aug 28:
How to Train Your Dragon at Holland Park

Another “free” activity I throughly enjoy (as often as yesterday): browsing Chapters.  That place is joy.  I know there’s also that other place called “the library” but the library doesn’t have a Starbucks, so Chapters 1 : Library 0.

Has anyone ever noticed the marine biology section of the library is a block of blue spines?  Now you know.

A friend once told me “school = life (for the next 4 years)”

That wasn’t the whole comment but that was part of it.  It was at a time when I was feeling down about no reason for school.  I’m just out to get a degree.  That’s it.   I am told that is what I will need to get by in this world, and I believe them.

School really ended up as  my life because in the summer, without school, i find my life extremely empty. And I hate it.

If you are thinking “hey Paulina, you can’t expect to waltz back in here MIA for a month without some filling in,”  I wish I could say I’ve been having some crazy party of a summer like Jordan, or saving the world like Mel and Erica, with plenty of stories but I haven’t and that’s exactly the problem.  Summer school, work, hang out, mope around.  That is what I have been up to.  With summer school long over, that just means more mope time.

I mope because I can’t find some greater purpose for my life.  What do I want to do?  Who do I want to be?  I don’t know, I was hoping something would just fall from a tree and I’d be like “THAT’S IT!”  But it doesn’t seem like it will happen.  I mope because I see people chasing their dreams and  grand adventures and I don’t have that.  I see school as a rung on a ladder for most people toward some grand goal.  So I’m just standing on some ladder to the sky.

Yesterday though I was thinking maybe I’ve been looking at it wrong.  Maybe life doesn’t have to be about having a great plan.  Maybe it’s fine to just casually make music, casually play sports, casually draw, casually watch tv, read, eat, just do little things in spurs of impulse or passion or laziness.  And that’s it.

Suddenly I’m reminded of this movie:

I worry that this is a self defense thing to make myself feel better about not having a great plan.  But hey, I’m alive and life is passing.  So at the least I’ll just do something.  Anything.

I hope I’m not the only one doing nothing productive ’cause that would make me feel bad! =P  Productive or not,  I hope everyone is having a happy summer.

My favorite time eating, hold-on-I’ll-do-my-homework-after-one-more-page (but that really means 20 more pages…at least) website these days is http://www.9gag.com/.

I suppose for some people their favorite may be this one.

What’s your distracting website of choice?

It was a normal summer morning today.  Woke up to the sound of a vibrating phone set at 10 am in hopes of fixing my summer hibernating ways.  Lay there for a bit.  Thought about my plans for another sunny day.  Lay there a little longer.  Got up, automatically turned on the computer like second nature.  Brush teeth and all that washroom jazz.  Checked out a video a friend told me to look at on Youtube.  Log onto MSN.

All was well.  Until I realized TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER SCHOOL.

From there it was stress all over.  Texting of people to double check if there was school.  Evaluating whether it would be worth it to go to the other section.  Decided that it would be.  Run downstairs.  Opened the wrong pot for my breakfast which was the pressure cooker pot.  Proceeded to burn myself with soup exploding out of pot.  Run upstairs.  Change.  Downstairs.  Eat.  Out the door.  Back in the door.  Ask for a ride to the skytrain.  The first day of school is never a pretty sight in many ways.

I don’t think I’ve completely recovered from the effects of studying for finals yet.  I’ve never studied that intensely in my life before.  My last exam was about a week and a half ago.  My past week has been saturated with so many non school related things that it feels like that short break was 3 weeks.  And it feels good.

I shall see you soon again summer ’10.  Like Thursday!  Since summer session  is awesome and I only have class two days a week.  (I hope it will be awesome…)