another listed update? heck yes!

i've been altogether too busy/apprehensive about my thesis to post. i'd figured that avoiding blogging would give me one fewer excuse to procrastinate, but the olympics offered a quick replacement. anyway,

1) i saw no fewer than four people wearing 'rage against the machine' t-shirts on monday. what gives? makes me wish i hadn't washed my 'raj against the machine' shirt with the wrong load of laundry, dyeing it all sort of unsightly colours. nobody outside of alberta would get it, though, and it would be especially bizarre for me to wear it on campus, because at the newspaper here, there is an, um, older, much less educated and much less well-spoken raj who frequents the office, submits unstructured drivel to the culture editor and generally makes people uneasy. it's not that he's particularly creepy or anything, though he has been seen urinating into the bushes outside of the building. it's that nobody understands why an elderly man would spend so much time wandering drunk about campus and trying to submit entertainment stories to a student newspaper. it's at once sad and perplexing.

2) my sweetie's gone houseboating. i should be on that houseboat. but i'm not because i'm 'working on my thesis,' or i should be, in any case. i have a week and a half left, and i'm totally shitting my pants. my experiments have produced no useable results thus far and i'm way behind on my writing. i just have no real motivation because i see this degree as utterly inconsequential to me. i'd sent part of a draft to my supervisor, and he's given me zero feedback...yet i'm expected to press on. this next week and a half will probably be the most miserable i've had in a long time. the end is coming both much too slowly and entirely too quickly.

3) paid my $100 deposit so that i could register in my courses for my mpub. i would be more excited about it -- and i am excited -- if it weren't for this fucking thesis hanging over my head. i got my full registration package in the mail about a week ago and the courses look so promising. the program looks like exactly what i want. what i need, jesus. i've had it with hating my work and the institution i work for. it's a completely fresh start in an utterly new direction, and i cannot wait to begin:

-editorial theory and practice: covers acquisitions, fiction editing, stylistic edting, magazine editing, copy editing and editing biographies, memoirs and even children's books. there's also discussion of editorial responsibility and ethics.

-design and production control in publishing: design theory, typography, production techniques...

-text and context: operation and developing trends in the Canadian publishing industry including government policy and international trade. discussion of scholarly journals as well (right up my alley).

4) canada is sucking up the old suck-box at the summer olympics, as we always seem to do. this olympiad seems particularly trying, though. so many near-misses. it's a good thing toronto didn't get 2008, 'cause that would make our current performance mighty embarassing. do i have the right to judge the athletics program in this country considering that i spend the vast majority on my time on my ass in front of either a computer or a television screen? not really, especially since i do think there are perhaps more pressing causes that the government should consider funding. there's the argument that a good athletic performance could inspire one's countrymen to get off their couches and get active, but that's pretty much horseshit as we can clearly see that the fattest country in the world is also leading in the medals. evidently, the fat people just expect the fit people to exercise for them.

5) it's been pretty cool sharing a living space with dmac for the past week. reassures me that my experiences with cheryl and her overfed cat were largely soured by her and not because i'm somehow inherently incompatible with roommates. we made sweet potato gnocchi on saturday and both wrote something for the upcoming MOMpop zine. we'd been itching to go pick blackberries, but the weather has thus far been uncooperative.

6) oh yeah: homemade watermelon-raspberry sorbet kicks some serious ass.

i have more to say, but i should also get to work. stay tuned for updates featuring characters MT, flaglar, PK and ND.