I was going to write about some potentially cool stuff going on at school for me but considering my last two posts, this video suddenly seemed way more relevant. Take heart, my friends. Let's be awesome.
Thanks to Gil Elegado (@SuiteFourEleven) for alerting me to this video. It was just what I needed.
Video by SoulPancake
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Crowdsourcing: How Can I Channel My Sass for Good?
As I covered last week, I'm going through a stage of major crankiness. I'm pretty sure that the last time I felt this angry and dissatisfied with the world was my last year of high school. The thought of my regressing to my 17 year old state is both alarmingly terrifying and strangely freeing. Terrifying because I know fully appreciate how annoying 17 year-olds are, and freeing because I feel like I was at the height of my creative potential at that point.
When I was 17, being a rebellious, angry teen made me motivated. It made me want to change the world. It made me want to rise above the masses and become the most brilliant bad-ass the world had ever seen. This version of my cranky angst feels significantly less positive.
It's a lot harder to embrace my "bad" attitude this time around. Part of me knows that it is a vital component of my personality, a key part of my creative process for personal growth. Another part of me knows that it is an undesirable quality in a "mature", employable adult. Rebellious cynicism isn't something a lot of employers are looking for these days. I've got the fire in my belly, and all I can seem to do with it is complain. A lot. As an adult, I recognize this as a Very Bad Thing.
Complaining is not enough, my friends. I am a grown up who is not satisfied with my own whinging. I need solutions, because my strategic communications textbook has me pretty seriously depressed that my individuality will render me unemployable. Then again, it's a business text and is therefore of questionable credibility. And so I put it to you, the public, how can I channel my sass for good instead of annoyance? I'm trying to work my creative outlets but as a student there just isn't enough time to get it all out. Do you have any helpful strategies? Know of any employers who actually appreciate people with opinions and personalities? Should I be considering anti-depressants? Or can I one day hope to channel my sass into something awesome? Or productive? The grown-up in me will settle for productive. The 17 year old still wants to be Kathleen Hanna.
When I was 17, being a rebellious, angry teen made me motivated. It made me want to change the world. It made me want to rise above the masses and become the most brilliant bad-ass the world had ever seen. This version of my cranky angst feels significantly less positive.
It's a lot harder to embrace my "bad" attitude this time around. Part of me knows that it is a vital component of my personality, a key part of my creative process for personal growth. Another part of me knows that it is an undesirable quality in a "mature", employable adult. Rebellious cynicism isn't something a lot of employers are looking for these days. I've got the fire in my belly, and all I can seem to do with it is complain. A lot. As an adult, I recognize this as a Very Bad Thing.
Complaining is not enough, my friends. I am a grown up who is not satisfied with my own whinging. I need solutions, because my strategic communications textbook has me pretty seriously depressed that my individuality will render me unemployable. Then again, it's a business text and is therefore of questionable credibility. And so I put it to you, the public, how can I channel my sass for good instead of annoyance? I'm trying to work my creative outlets but as a student there just isn't enough time to get it all out. Do you have any helpful strategies? Know of any employers who actually appreciate people with opinions and personalities? Should I be considering anti-depressants? Or can I one day hope to channel my sass into something awesome? Or productive? The grown-up in me will settle for productive. The 17 year old still wants to be Kathleen Hanna.
Friday, 18 January 2013
The Cranky Mature Student
People who have known me for a long time know that I can be prone to becoming a bit of a jaded and cynical crank sometimes. I do my best to keep my inner grumpy old man in check but lately it's been a serious challenge. While last term was scholarly sunshine and roses, this term is proving to be a dose of everything I hated about my previous degree experience. And it's making me cranky.
When I started this degree in September, I worried that this would happen. I had hoped that my enthusiasm for learning would overpower my disdain for bureaucracy and waste and that my young at heart spirit would be enough to keep me from wanting to tear the heads off of my younger classmates. My optimism, it seems, was misplaced.
It started with the textbook outrage and has spiraled from there. I'm officially the cranky mature student in almost all of my classes. I just can't seem to keep my mouth shut anymore when I hear some of the ridiculous things that emerge from the mouths of my youthful classmates. I always have a contrary opinion. I don't just play the devil's advocate; no, in some of these classes, I AM the devil's advocate. I find the lectures patronizing and shallow. In other words, I've turned into a heinous harpy of a student. Part of me is horrified at myself for turning into the type of student I hated when I was young. The other part of me has left all of her 'give-a-shit' at home.
Being the grumpy mature student has its strange advantages. At the very least it's a reminder to myself that I am still engaged, even if it is in a kind of negative way. Cranky irritation is, in my mind at least, preferable to complete indifference. And as a mature student, I have the confidence to be the devil's advocate and not care what my classmates think of it. I can tell the little shits to can their chit chat when I'm trying to listen to a terribly shallow lecture without caring that they probably think I'm a witch with a capital B. It's pretty liberating. For me, at least. Everyone else probably wants to club me.
So I'm trying to do the mature thing and temper my extreme crankiness with a bit of self-awareness. I am assured by at least one of my professors that my mature student perspective (and sass) is welcome and necessary so maybe the situation isn't as bad as I think it is. But maybe for the welfare of my fellow students I should try a meditation class or something.
When I started this degree in September, I worried that this would happen. I had hoped that my enthusiasm for learning would overpower my disdain for bureaucracy and waste and that my young at heart spirit would be enough to keep me from wanting to tear the heads off of my younger classmates. My optimism, it seems, was misplaced.
It started with the textbook outrage and has spiraled from there. I'm officially the cranky mature student in almost all of my classes. I just can't seem to keep my mouth shut anymore when I hear some of the ridiculous things that emerge from the mouths of my youthful classmates. I always have a contrary opinion. I don't just play the devil's advocate; no, in some of these classes, I AM the devil's advocate. I find the lectures patronizing and shallow. In other words, I've turned into a heinous harpy of a student. Part of me is horrified at myself for turning into the type of student I hated when I was young. The other part of me has left all of her 'give-a-shit' at home.
Being the grumpy mature student has its strange advantages. At the very least it's a reminder to myself that I am still engaged, even if it is in a kind of negative way. Cranky irritation is, in my mind at least, preferable to complete indifference. And as a mature student, I have the confidence to be the devil's advocate and not care what my classmates think of it. I can tell the little shits to can their chit chat when I'm trying to listen to a terribly shallow lecture without caring that they probably think I'm a witch with a capital B. It's pretty liberating. For me, at least. Everyone else probably wants to club me.
So I'm trying to do the mature thing and temper my extreme crankiness with a bit of self-awareness. I am assured by at least one of my professors that my mature student perspective (and sass) is welcome and necessary so maybe the situation isn't as bad as I think it is. But maybe for the welfare of my fellow students I should try a meditation class or something.
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Gettin' Hit By The Books
It's the first full week of the new term and already we're hitting the books hard. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't feel like my books were trying to hit me back. How is it that in this era of modern technology and crowd-sourcing textbooks are still so terrible and ridiculously expensive?
Last term I didn't take the time to fully calculate the damage but I did come home after an incomplete round at the bookstore to announce to my partner that this was what $500 looked like:
I didn't mind buying textbooks during my first degree. I was young and naive and having heavy books to cart around was like proof that I was learning something big and important. I was a delusional fool who bought all new texts and didn't want to sell them at the end of term because they were the physical evidence that I was earning my big bad education.
This time around I've got a much better dose of bitter indignation about the whole affair. Not only are books more expensive than 5 years ago, the internet makes them seem completely useless and unnecessary. The $187 grammar book? I opened it twice all term. The professor admitted that it was a terrible book half-way through the term and gave us the website of another university to study from instead!
This term, I've tried to wise up and buy as many books from my fellow students as possible but it's been impossible to ignore what seems like extortion occurring at the campus bookstore. The total cost of all of my books for this term if I'd bought them new from the bookstore would have been over $700. Even if I'd managed to get used copies at the bookstore for every text the total would have been over $500. In the end I managed to get a couple of books from other students but I'm still sitting pretty close to $500 because of a couple of books that seem completely outrageous.
The best part is that there seems to be an inverse relationship between the usefulness of a text and its cost. I can already see that my most expensive text is a real dud even though the professor for the class is doing us the favour of teaching directly from it (good thing he's got that PhD!). I'm particularly looking forward to reading about how to make an effective powerpoint presentation (WTF!).
As a student, it's pretty hard to get around this stuff. A classmate of mine buys all her books on Amazon but that doesn't leave much room for last minute schedule changes or that one prof who decides to change the text at the last minute. Most of us just bend over and take it and the publishers obviously know it. Part of me wants to start a rebellion and scan all of my books to the internet. Another part of me wants to slap all of my professors and ask them how they have so easily become willing co-conspirators in all of this.
But I guess there is a lesson to be learned in all of it. As much as I am enjoying my return to academia and all of the warm fuzzies that come with the immersion in a learning environment, it's painfully obvious that university education is now big business. I'm a cow at a degree farm. Hear me moo.
Last term I didn't take the time to fully calculate the damage but I did come home after an incomplete round at the bookstore to announce to my partner that this was what $500 looked like:
 |
| That English Grammar book by Anita Barry on the left was $187 alone - seriously. |
I didn't mind buying textbooks during my first degree. I was young and naive and having heavy books to cart around was like proof that I was learning something big and important. I was a delusional fool who bought all new texts and didn't want to sell them at the end of term because they were the physical evidence that I was earning my big bad education.
This time around I've got a much better dose of bitter indignation about the whole affair. Not only are books more expensive than 5 years ago, the internet makes them seem completely useless and unnecessary. The $187 grammar book? I opened it twice all term. The professor admitted that it was a terrible book half-way through the term and gave us the website of another university to study from instead!
This term, I've tried to wise up and buy as many books from my fellow students as possible but it's been impossible to ignore what seems like extortion occurring at the campus bookstore. The total cost of all of my books for this term if I'd bought them new from the bookstore would have been over $700. Even if I'd managed to get used copies at the bookstore for every text the total would have been over $500. In the end I managed to get a couple of books from other students but I'm still sitting pretty close to $500 because of a couple of books that seem completely outrageous.
The best part is that there seems to be an inverse relationship between the usefulness of a text and its cost. I can already see that my most expensive text is a real dud even though the professor for the class is doing us the favour of teaching directly from it (good thing he's got that PhD!). I'm particularly looking forward to reading about how to make an effective powerpoint presentation (WTF!).
As a student, it's pretty hard to get around this stuff. A classmate of mine buys all her books on Amazon but that doesn't leave much room for last minute schedule changes or that one prof who decides to change the text at the last minute. Most of us just bend over and take it and the publishers obviously know it. Part of me wants to start a rebellion and scan all of my books to the internet. Another part of me wants to slap all of my professors and ask them how they have so easily become willing co-conspirators in all of this.
But I guess there is a lesson to be learned in all of it. As much as I am enjoying my return to academia and all of the warm fuzzies that come with the immersion in a learning environment, it's painfully obvious that university education is now big business. I'm a cow at a degree farm. Hear me moo.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Resolutions and Such - Happy 2013
Well, 2013 is finally here and the fine folks at Grant MacEwan University decided it would be super awesome to have classes start January 2. Holiday schmoliday! Let's crack those books, people!
I have yet to calculate the full damage that those books will inflict on my wallet but I'm hoping that through some student networking I'll be able to beat the bookstore and escape with some savings. Alas, ranting about textbooks is a post for another day...
It's new year's resolution time! While I'd love to be able to say that I plan on droping a couple of Christmas-related pounds, those who know me know this just ain't gonna happen. So I'm going in a new direction this year. I've been working on this for a while now but I've decided that in 2013 I'm going to make an extra effort to get outside of my comfort zone more often. Over the last couple of months, I've become really conscious of how people seem to operate inside of their own little bubbles - hanging out with the same people with the same opinions, listening to the same music, parroting back the same ideas. It feels like there is just way too much group think going on.
Part of what's exciting about being back at school is the opportunity to expand and refresh my own bubble with new people and ideas. This does have some serious limitations though. University itself is a giant bubble. The exciting things that get talked about in class sometimes don't work in real life and sometimes I find myself wondering if the context of some of my class discussions would be different if there was more diversity in the room. Things sometimes seem to have a sheen of bourgeois about them, if you know what I mean (cough, rich kid problems, cough).
So this year, I'm going to make a more concentrated effort to get outside of my bubble on a more regular basis. As a creature of habit, this is harder than it sounds. I'm hoping that some of my volunteer and extra-curricular activities help me in this but I know it's going to take some effort to get outside of my comfort zone and confront my own biases when they rear their ugly heads.
If I happen to get some exercise out of it, I'll consider it a bonus.
I have yet to calculate the full damage that those books will inflict on my wallet but I'm hoping that through some student networking I'll be able to beat the bookstore and escape with some savings. Alas, ranting about textbooks is a post for another day...
It's new year's resolution time! While I'd love to be able to say that I plan on droping a couple of Christmas-related pounds, those who know me know this just ain't gonna happen. So I'm going in a new direction this year. I've been working on this for a while now but I've decided that in 2013 I'm going to make an extra effort to get outside of my comfort zone more often. Over the last couple of months, I've become really conscious of how people seem to operate inside of their own little bubbles - hanging out with the same people with the same opinions, listening to the same music, parroting back the same ideas. It feels like there is just way too much group think going on.
Part of what's exciting about being back at school is the opportunity to expand and refresh my own bubble with new people and ideas. This does have some serious limitations though. University itself is a giant bubble. The exciting things that get talked about in class sometimes don't work in real life and sometimes I find myself wondering if the context of some of my class discussions would be different if there was more diversity in the room. Things sometimes seem to have a sheen of bourgeois about them, if you know what I mean (cough, rich kid problems, cough).
So this year, I'm going to make a more concentrated effort to get outside of my bubble on a more regular basis. As a creature of habit, this is harder than it sounds. I'm hoping that some of my volunteer and extra-curricular activities help me in this but I know it's going to take some effort to get outside of my comfort zone and confront my own biases when they rear their ugly heads.
If I happen to get some exercise out of it, I'll consider it a bonus.
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