ria_oaks

Yay, I just checked my graduation status on the UBC Student Service Centre and it officially says Graduation Approved. :) I got my mark back a week or so ago so knew that I'd passed and such (not that I thought I'd fail or anything, but...), but hadn't gotten the official word on my graduation status yet. Assumed that it'd be okay, but am paranoid and don't trust UBC. ^^; Anyway, yayz! I'm graduated! ^__^ Ceremony is next Friday at 8:30am, yikes. Get the day off of work, at least, so that's two 4-day weeks in a row.

And gah, I want to go home and finish colouring Tony... it'd coming along really well, imo. Have to finish his tank top and pants, then it's just his arm, and I need to clean that up a bunch and look carefully at the promo shots to get the details on it right. Cuz I realize that it's a mess in the sketch. ^^;

Least the boss it's here today, or indeed this week at all (she's away next Tuesday, too). Sweeeeet. Hence, me sitting here doing fuck all and posting in LJ instead of, you know, doing stuff. Work stuff. Heh.

Might see Narnia on Sunday night; Mom wants to go too. If anyone else wants to come, let me know. I'm still vaguely holding out hope on a possible HBP trailer, but there hasn't been any news confirming it so I'm not too hopeful.

Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me... *groan* My graduation ceremony is at 8:30 in the morning and they require us to be there one and a hour hours early. What. The Fuck. I'll have to get up at 5:30 or something to get there in time... Makes me not want to go to the stupid thing; I won't know anyone, anyway. Fuck.

*cries*

And it's on a Friday, so I have to get the day off. Waste one of my vacation days to trudge out to UBC at 7am to sit around for an hour and a half before the ceremony, then sit around for however long in the ceremony try not to fall asleep.

I mean, I'm excited to graduate and all, but... come on.

Bleh. Anyway... sitting in Blenz at Horseshoe Bay right now waiting for the damned 6:30 ferry. Long bloody day, and I have to study tonight for my midterm. On the plus side, it's the last exam I'll ever write in my undergraduate degree since this class has no final exam (just a research paper). Yay!

So, will force myself to study some tonight... and not play FFXII... *glares at self* I suppose it's a good thing that there's no TV tonight - though yay on the strike being over! They got a decent deal, I suppose, though it could be better. It's a start, anyway, and hopefully it'll lay the groundwork for later deals next time their contracts come up. I'm excited at the prospect of more House - after that last ep, I'm craving more House/Wilson goodness. ^__^ And more SPN will be nice, and hopefullly more PB. No more Heroes until September though, woe... not enough time to produce all of volume 3. It'll be hard to wait until September after that last episode. o.o It's already been 2 monthes... *sigh*

Squeeee! First Torchwood s2 clip with that certain guest star in it! OMG so excited! Here's a hint why: this clip features that certain event from those screencaps I posted earlier. ^___^ Ooh yeah, good stuff.

Link to vid - spoilers (spoilers for that guest star in the url, too, so careful)

First day of class went fine. Had to lug a bunch of shit around campus all day because I'm staying at my grandparents' place tonight, so my back was killing me... went to the SUB for lunch (they're renovated Pie R Squared! And I think they take interac now!), renewed my student card and got my UPass, went to class, went to talk to prof during her office hours about my final paper (shaddup, I know it's ridiculously keener-ish of me), was annoyed when after 20 minutes of waiting until her office hours started she didn't show up so I left, then called her number, and talked to the other guy in her office who said that she didn't come in today because she didn't think anyone would come to her office hours. Wah. Then off to the bookstore for my textbook, then bus to grandparents' place. Now, bored. Using their computer, but I'd prefer to be using my own just out of principal... want my bookmarks and the shit I had up in Firefox earlier. But they don't have wireless here, so oh wells. Might even study tonight for something to do. ^^;

Class sounds interesting, anyway. It's "Gender Relations" for those that don't know, which is an area which interests me. Last class of my degree! How exciting. :) The term paper is also our final exam, which is nice because it's not due until April and there's no additional final exam. On the minus side, it's worth 40%. o.o But I picked up "Investigating Farscape" (new FS academic book) at Koerner Library while I was there, and soon as I get the okay from my prof I'm going to start properly researching my paper. Yaay. ^^

Wee, I got a reply to my post about roommates for the cruise on the forum! I think I'm actually going to go! o.o Big decision, but what the hell, eh? I've got 2 weeks of vacation and I want to enjoy it... It'll cost me between $1500-2000, but I'll have quite a bit of money saved up by then and I have very few real expenses. Might as well enjoy it... anyway, it'll be lots of fun. It's a cruise! With Browncoats! ^__^ Waiting to hear back from her to confirm re: what type of room, etc, then will register... paying in full, so I'd better go once I do so! o.o Then need to book a flight to San Diego and a hotel for the night before. After, Mom and I are meeting up and driving up to LA. Fun. :)

Oh yeah, and on another note - UBC finally called and guess what? They never got my application. Shock of all shocks. -__- I don't even care, I'm just glad I know for sure. Sent it off again with a note about what happened, attn to the person who called. HOPEFULLY this will actually work this time. Courses are filling up real quick...

15 minutes left on break, bleh. But I get to go home an hour early today, yay. Then fun fun, tomorrow's my wisdom teeth. *headdesk* Oh well, least I get 3 days off work... course, I'd have Saturday off anyway cause it's a stat holiday on Monday. -_- On the plus side, the family arrive Sunday - yay! Oh, and bk635 - I checked, and the VAG is open on Monday so we can go to that show. I'll confirm on Sunday once I've talked to my cousins.

Today is the ten-year anniversay of the premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Amazing, eh? I came into it late (start of season 7), but it's still remarkable to think that it's been ten years since it started. And in 2 and half years it'll be 10 years since Angel started... wow.

I vaguely feel like I should do a post about Orlando, but I'm too lazy... it was fun, anyway. 3 days in warmth (well, two days anyway - first two days it was 28 degrees and fantastic, third day it was 12 degrees and icky) and it was fun blitzing through the 4 parks again. Hadn't been to Animal Kingdom before, so enjoyed that. And bought a stuffed giraffe at the Rainforest Cafe there. ;) We were just there a few years ago, though, so for the other parks we just went through quickly and did the new stuff and anything we wanted to do again.

So now that that's over, I'm getting stressed as heck over final papers. Ugh. First one (on queer representations on TV, mainly concentrating on Queer as Folk with some Will & Grace thrown in) is due in a bit over two weeks, then 2 due the following week (one on representation of prisons in the media, based on analysis of 3 media texts from different mediums (needless to say, using Oz for one), and the other is actually a set of questions which we have to answer in relation to a certain fandom/fan activity... might use Lost fandom, but can't decide). Then English one (post-colonial racial and gender identities in two of the works we read) due the week after. Then just exams (2 real ones, 2 take-homes), and I'm DONE. Yay!

And speaking of, I've booked my flight home since exam schedule is up: I'm coming back April 17th. Woo hoo! Really looking forward to seeing everyone again and hanging out, though not looking forward to finding a job. But it'll be nice to be home...

I've got another presentation on slash next week (this time because it was actually one of the topics we had to choose from, so I obviously volunteered for it). It'll be... interesting. We had our first proper week on fandom this week, and I was the main person participating for a lot of the seminar. After awhile, the presenters would just look straight at me whenever they asked a question. XD Cause really, no one else had any idea about fandom never mind upwards of 10 years of experience. They probably think I'm completely insane, but oh well. I was perfectly candid about what fandom is and what it means to us in it, and if they think it's weird then that's their loss. Though really, after a class, several articles, and a seminar on the topic, you'd think people would stop referring to things like dressing up and conventions as "extreme examples of fandom". Dude, where I'm from that is not extreme. I've been to conventions, hell I've dressed up, and the people there are perfectly normal (in their own way, at least XD) and generally awesome. The drama and intolerance online seems to dissipate a bit offline and people are generally pretty great from what I've seen (especially Browncoats... they rock). Anyway, I think that trying to explain fandom, even academically, is a lost cause a lot of the time. ^^ Even when it's equated to more socially acceptable venues of fannishness (painting your face and cheering at hockey games, for example), people still seem to think that, say, Star Trek fans are just inherently weirder (and more 'extreme') than sports or music fans.

Oh yeah, and I watched eps 2.02 and 2.03 of SPN, though rest will prob have to wait until at least essays are done. Generally enjoyed both, loved Dean's mini-breakdown at the end of ep2. Still trying to figure out if ep2 was shot at Playland (and if it was, that's a hell of an editing job), but suspect that it wasn't - I recognized a couple of rides, but the overall configuration based on wide shots is nothing like Playland. Yeah, I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff in Vancouver-shot shows. XD It was nice to see Amber Benson in ep3, and amused that she was in an episode about vampires and actually played one. Haha. Also, that hunter's storyline was lifted straight from Gunn's in AtS... (sister was turned by vamps and he had to kill her, then went on vampire-killing crusade as result). Seriously. -_-

Anyway, all my TV except for Lost and TBD are on hiatus right now, though some of it's coming back next week. All things considered, I don't really have time for it, anyway... Am really enjoying TBD so far, anyway. Looking forward to next ep.

Also, I went out dancing for the first time this year the other night (discounting Don's Ball). Heh. It was fun for awhile, then I got kinda bored and had a headache from the music. XD Danced with some guy who had his hands all freaking over me, and tried to put shoebox_of_lies's dancing advice ("rub your ass against his crotch") into practice. XD Anyway though, I don't think it's really for me... fun occasionally, but I don't enjoy dancing or super-loud music all that much. Plus I don't drink, which makes it less fun. ^^ Still enjoyed myself overall, though.

Aaand I'm DONE! Woo hoo!!

Last exam was pretty easy; it wasn't even really an exam per se, just a test scheduled in the exam period. Think I did well on it, which is good because I got my paper back (on disaster films, and The Poseidon Adventure and Poseidon in particular) and only got 72% on it... he said it was 'too general' and that I shouldn't have used the first person. *eyeroll* The first criticism I'll grant him, but the second? Dude, seriously, the whole 'no using 'I'' thing strikes me as one of those stupid things they told us in high school that I've been trying to break from ever since. Plenty of academic essays I've read use first person, and I pretty much only used it to say "I will argue that..." They used to say that we weren't allowed to do that (in grade 12... -_-), but I was under the impression that that's a perfectly legitimate use in academic papers. Yeesh. I hope my TA for Theories of Pop Culture doesn't feel the same way, because my essay for that class (the fandom one) is very much from the first person and is based a lot on my personal experiences. Which, again, plenty of academic papers I've read do.

Anyway, I've got my stuff pretty much packed up and now have about an hour until the Niagara Airbus is supposed to arrive (and I'm trying not to stress out over that... I'm sure it will show up. And if not I'll call them and flip the fuck out. And demand compensation for missing my flight. Or something.) Just hanging out now getting last minute stuff packed and making sure the house is clean (though I'm pretty sure Lindsy's going to be back for a couple of days, so she'll be the last one here).

See you guys soon!! I'll post when I'm home.

Okay, new school-related ideas are growing in my head... Mom showed me this program, and although I'm not sure that I'd do this particular one (it's full, anyway), the idea of doing a study abroad program for a month or so this summer in Europe is intriguing me. This particular one is April 28th-May 30th, primarily in Florence with a few days in Rome, and concentrating on the Renaissance. Sounds really interesting, and if I decide to go ahead and switch to a History Major then it would give me some credits towards that. I think it'd be a great experience, and it'd let me study abroad for a short time without doing a full year or even a semester. Plus, I'd love to travel this summer and this would be a good way to study and travel at the same time. I've been looking around online and it seems to be surprisingly hard to find other programs like this, though. I might get in touch with the coordinators of this program and ask how long the wait list is... just thinking about it right now. ^^ Besides, if I went at that time maybe I could meet up with bronzejarith in Florence for a few days. That'd be cool. ;p

Still thinking hard about maybe changing my Major, too. It'd just be difficult to get all the credits I need, and I don't even know for sure if I want to major in History. I could pretty easily switch to a English Major-History Minor, but I just really don't want to take that much English... this brings me back again to the problem I initially had with the Major program - I really don't have a particular subject that I want to focus on. Maybe I should switch my IDST program to a Literature-History focus instead of Communications/Film/whatever the hell it is right now. But I would still have the problem of it being more difficult to get into Grad school without taking extra courses, if I do decide to go to Grad school (and I'm pretty sure I'll eventually want to do a Masters in something, 5-10 years down the road). I dunno. ;_; I need to go see an advisor.

ETA: Here's another one that looks interesting. Though it's American, so I'd need to find out about getting transfer credit from the US. It's got more variety in courses, but otoh the one from Malaspina College in Nanaimo (from the earlier link) is a. Canadian and b. has a Rome segment. I don't know, I still need to look at more options. I'm wanting to do something like this more and more, though.