uncharted waters

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Almost made it...

I'm sitting on a selection committee to hire someone for the SU tonight. It should prove to be interesting to say the least. I know all but one of the candidates personally, and think highly of them all...

On a slightly more interesting note, I almost made it to class today. I actually walked into the building and was about to turn the corner. Then I saw someone I knew and it was all over. Really, it would have been rude of me to run to class, considering that I hadn't seen her in a few months. So close... So close...

Liberated at 4:10 p.m.

Friday, March 26, 2004

A note...

Some of you have told me that I should ramble on about my recent involvement in the SU Elections on my blog. I've tried to keep you all posted, but - as I'm sure you can understand (at least those of you who I've talked to about this) - SU Elections 03/04 is going to remain a strictly blog-less subject. It's best to talk about things like these in person, over a nice stiff drink.

Liberated at 3:04 a.m.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

But I don't wanna!!!

Just finished giving a great workshop at work...probably the best one I've done all year. But before I leave, I need to do all of the paperwork. And I don't wanna!!! So I'm blogging instead. Take that, paperwork slavedrivers!

Around here (as in at work, not Edmonton), Education students have a really bad reputation. Not a "bad" reputation, like that kid from high school who got arrested in class once, but they're just pesky, needy and kind of regrettable clients. The jokes about Ed students are frequent and complaints over who gets stuck with the Education Workshops abound.

But I like Ed students.

Although I haven't found them to be the most intelligent or hardworking group of clients I've worked with this year, I found them to be far from objectionable. I little dense perhaps, but so are the majority of people I deal with these days.

So my workshop today was an Ed Workshop. We had a great audience who interacted with us and my co-facilitator and I worked amazingly well together...especially considering that neither of us had taken enough time to adequately prepare our material.

Overall, though, I had fun...except maybe for the fact that I had to be at work at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning. But I had fun...

Liberated at 12:16 p.m.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Some people tell me I'm bitter.

And they're right. So very, very right.

Ever commit to something, and then ask yourself after the fact "what was I thinking?!?". I've done that. More than I'd like to admit. But that's not why I'm bitter.

I think I need a nap. And a pink lemonade drink from Earls. Better make it Earls sized.

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Liberated at 11:43 a.m.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

I'm civilized, dammit!

The concept of the formal (whether it's a grad, a celebration, or just a ball) has always fascinated me. You spend a lot of time and effort (if you're female, anyway) so you look like you're a civilized, lady-like, classy gal. But you're not. And everyone knows it. It's almost like a costume party.

I went to a formal at the Hotel MacDonald that tried its utmost to be formal this weekend. It was a fraternity formal, and phrases such as "Remember, you're representing your fraternity" and "Remember, we are gentlemen" were bandied about by the influencers of the group fairly often. By the end of the night, however, there seemed to be very few "gentlemen" left in the group. Oddly enough, they'd all seemed to be replaced by drunken university boys dressed in gentlemanly attire.

I enjoyed it immennsely though. I like the though of dressing up and pretending to be a 'real person' for the night. I, although they didn't stay, I enjoyed the gentlemen too. It's nice to be civiled every once in a while.

Liberated at 9:57 p.m.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

I'm a thief!

Yesterday at work, I gave a three hour workshop on Interview Skills. I think it might have been the worst experience of my life. Ever.

Normally, we need at least five people to register before we'll run a workshop. But since this one was the last of its kind of the semester, we went ahead with it anyway. We ended up with 4 international students, none of whom had enough English proficiency to be able to make it through a job interview. Not, make it through a job interview reasonably well, but make it through a job interview period. The Interview Skills workshop has lots of interaction and role-playing built in, but it was like talking to a wall. No matter how many times I tried to repeat something, or speak slower, or explain something differently, it just didn't work. We ended up finishing up almost an hour early (since we couldn't use any of the time set aside for role-playing) and making little, if any, impact.

I felt terrible. I wish I could have given everyone their money back...they just wasted $25 and three hours of their time to listen to me talk about interview skills, but not really understand any of it. I think I finally found a use for those stupid 'Self Reflection Forms' at work.

Liberated at 4:02 p.m.

Friday, March 05, 2004

I can't believe it's not butter!

Or perhaps more pertinent, I can't believe it's a blog!

To date, I've not had good luck in keeping my online presence anonymous. Hopefully, this little experiment will turn out better than the last time I tried this.

When I was young, I never kept a journal because I was afraid that someone would find it. Unlike the girly paper version, this online edition - although arguably much more accessible - can't be traced back to be by name. I enjoy that. A lot.

But that's it for now. I have a lot to say. But not at the moment.

Liberated at 11:27 a.m.

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