schmoozing with the faculty (Fred Cutler will someday supervise my MA)

the obligatory pre-grad dinner shot

me and mom at grad

me and my grandparents at grad

me and 2/3 of my sisters at grad

look, I have a degree!

I spent most of yesterday catching up on sleep and rest, which a migrane stopped by to remind me it was time to do. I spent almost all day yesterday inside because headaches in the sun are unpleasant, and I figured I'd be out lots running errands today anyways. Only now it's cloudy. The weather network claims it will be sunny this afternoon, and despite a lack of evidence, I'm inclined to believe them. This city is so beautiful in the sun, and my grad up at UBC by the rose gardens with their amazing view was almost too good to be true. I'm getting my photos developed this afternoon and I'm getting them on CD too, so they'll soon start to pop up here. My living room is all flowers and cards and I have to admit, I smile when I look over and see my degree winking back at me.

My Grandma and Grandpa want to get me my class ring for a grad present but I don't really love any of the styles they have, so I'm thinking of talking them into a watch instead, specifically, this watch. I could get it engraved with my monogram, year, degree, all that, plus it's pretty and if I save the world, may someday be worth a fortune.

Grad and summer school have conspired to keep me far too busy so far, and in that spirit, things I should have done by now (but haven't):
- seen the Guide
- finished the first tape of transcription
- seen starwars
- it's called troutlake picnic, and it's what this weekend was begging for
- made an agent recon trip to the Island
- laundry
- groceries
- stopped thinking about all the things I haven't done.

Days that are out of the ordinary always throw me off. They require things like extensive planning, stuff you have to do in advance. And really, it's not that I'm not used to doing thing ahead of time, it's just that school deadlines are the only ones that seem natural. Anything that doesn't require days of research should just be able to happen spontaniously, right? Only we all know that's not true. Making abnormal days work and be tolerably pleasant requires planning. I've learned this well enough to have ensured, for example, that several of my friends had more satisfying highschool grads than I did. It wasn't hard, it just took planning. I loved travelling, and all it took was planning. But the problem is, planning only takes you so far, and I might be a bit of a planning junkie. Yesterday Cam pointed out to me that I'd been planning a grocery shopping trip for two days. But I'm busy, I said, so it affects other things too. See, there does come a point when you have to stop planning and simply throw some crap in a bag and get out there and just do whatever needs doing. I can wake up and enjoy any day, it's not something I find tough at all, but these deviant days are more complex, because enjoying them requires good planning, and I'm never sure that mine has been good enough, especially for days that have so much hype built up around them. It just might be true that the things you have to plan for simply can never be as good as the things that just happen spontaniously.

proof is in the puddin'

well, in terms of school work this will be a bit of a crazy week, but I'm already looking forward to grad at the end of the week, which will include a boring ceremony at the Chan featuring me in a really cute dress, then dinner with a ten or so of my very favorite people (who all, by happy accident, happen to make up my family) followed by a really great cd release party.

but before then, I must learn phonetic rules, for example the conditions underwhich the voiceless bilabial stop /p/ is aspirated. Say a word with a /p/ in it with your hand an inch of so in front of your mouth. Feel the puff of air? You just said a word with an asporated /p/. Exciting, no?

My biggest irritation: that pretty much no one seems to have numbers up more recent than midnight last night when they stopped counting. Hello?? I presume they must have resumed at some point... If I can't find a decent riding-by-riding breakdown soon, let's face it, I won't be pleased. CBC.ca has okay coverage, but all their stuff was last updated around midnight, which means no news on the riding where, with all votes counted, one candidate seems to have won by a single vote, and even more importantly, no update on the BCSTV numbers, which are still at 57% (of 60 needed...) with 87% of polls reporting. Last night I dreamed it won by four votes. I'm even an optimist in my sleep. Another number I'd like to see: turnout. Early estimates last night put it at 59% but they said that was assuming that the number of people who voted in the last couple of hours was similar to how many people had voted, per hour, throughout the day, which seems unlikely since usual the bulk of voting takes place roughly between 5 and when polls closed (8).

Accrodign to the CBC numbers, the LIBs came through with about 46% of the popular vote, which translates to 46 seats (that's leading or elected, I'll get into that) or about 59% of the seats in our legislature. The NDP came out with about 41% of the popular vote and 33 seats (a surprisingly proportionate outcome given our system, since that's right around 41-42% of the seats). Getting the shaft as usual, the Greens, whose 9% popular support translated into no seats, but rather more Liberal seats. These results are good enough to have made me very happy, for the record, but I will be very sad if STV doesn't manage to squeak through.

I'm not really going to get into the whole green-vote-splitting thing as I'm sure many angry NDPers are this morning (there are enough ridings where the NDP and Green votes combined could have defeated a Liberal that the NDP, arguably, could have won the election, and this includes GCam's riding itself, where the Green+NDP would have thrown him out of office) because it relies on the assumption that the NDP would be the second party of choice for all Green voters, which surveys are starting to show is often inaccurate (eg. Greens came second in West-Van Garabaldi where those polled who went Green listed the LIBs and some conservative fringe nut jobs as their second choices, thus supporting the claim that the greens aren't really that lefty at all). I said I wouldn't get into this, but I do have to admit I wish we could have had soem consensus in Point Grey so that only one candidate ran against Gordzilla to increase the likelihood of toppling him. You know, strategic cooperation between parties is very common elsewhere, but for soem reason, and often to our detrement I think, it rarely happens here.

Okay, this has gone on long enough, and everyone probably quit reading paragraphs ago, but I just wanted to touch on a couple of other things. First off, god if there is one, muster 14 more votes for Tim Stevenson in the recount, since that would be all he needs to defeat the currently-leading Lorne Mayencourt, who is truly evil. Second, I'm delighted by the narrow victory of Gregor Robertson over LIB Virginia Greene, since he was, in my mind, one of the best candidates anywhere in this election. I am not at all surprised by the trouncings handed down to their LIB opponents by Jenny Kwan and Shane Simpson in my riding and the one across Commercial from me, but I am delighted to see Corky Evans returning from Creston-Nelson. Also, congrats to David Chudnovsky, formerly of the BCTF, who was elected in his riding, and to Adrian Dix who won Vancouver-Kingsway and is truly one of the genuinely nicest people, let alone politicians, I've ever met, not to mention that he's quick, smart, principled, and his fiancee is a total sweetheart.

Okay, that's more than anyone wants to read, and I should go hunt down some brekkie, but congratulations to all who were elected except for the slimy losers I hate like Gordo and Mayencourt, who will hopefully choke on something (maybe an excess of opposition?) in the next few days and require replacing.

And really, voting in favour of BCSTV is a very good idea.

Now, what I actually wanted to post: (From Haviland et. al. "Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Canadian Edition, p. 54, not that I really think you'll look it up)

"Numerous studies by a variety of social scientists have shown clearly that the death penalty does not deter violent crime any more than Aztec sacrifice really provided sustenance for the sun... Just like Aztec human sacrifice, capital punishment is an institutional magical response to perceived disorder."

Discuss.

(Sho: we always knew the US had something in common with the Aztec on some level, didn't we!?)

I suppose the combo of being sick and at school is altogether relatively unfacinating. I'm finally almost healthy again, and over the weekend I've been working on learning the international phonetic alphabet for my english class. It's learning to spell all over again, while making lots of funny noises. My project this afternoon is to transcribe a couple minute long piece of human dialogue, which should be amusing considering how much difference there is between how we think we use this language and how we actually do. At least my prof is progressive enough to get that -- doing this with some old school marm would be the death of me.

right, so spending your summer nights at school is kind of garbage. Plus, right as classes started on Monday, I went and got sick. I'm thinking abotu kicking german and doing anthropology 100 instead, becuase I had this epiphany last night. Wait, my brain said, languages courses are hard and tedious and you don't have to do something hard and tedious. You could do something relatively easy and mildly amusing like an intro to anthropology. I think I'll listen to the brain. Plus, german textbooks are expensive.

Now, to recover my health in time for tonight's phonology lecture...

summer classes start today, so I'm bracing myself for for the inevitable burst of euphoria from studying grammar in two languages at once. this is just sad.

beautiful day, beautiful commercial drive, beautiful people, oh how I love being on vacation. True enough it's only till Monday and I have like 50,000 things I'm supposed to do between now and then, but I'm determined to enjoy it while it lasts.

On another note, I'd like to extend my personal congatulations to Ms. Carr, who thanks to a competent and effective performance in the debate the other night, has actually put the greens on the map as a viable contender for seats in the BC legislature. Since the debate, all news coverage etc. has refered to the "three main parties" and her face is being flashed right alongside Carol and Gordo, which represents a level of credibility and legitimacy for the greens that has neevr been seen in this province before. Not that I'm saying I personally will be voting green, but there is something truly lovely about watching two educated and articulate women pull down an arrogant, patriarchal, white male politician like Gordo, isn't there?

went grad dress hunting with Kat and my mom yesterday, and realizing that Kat will be graduating this year makes me feel pretty old. My own highschool grad was six years ago, which is a bit hard to believe. Chen is getting up there now too - she's old enough that I remember being her age really well.

After dress shopping, Kat had to leave, so Mom and hit a really nice thrift store and then went up to the Punjabi market and had chai and curry. The chai they serve is like the chai I used to get as a kid when we were at the folk fest, and it reminds me of why I was so disappointed when coffee shops started serving chai -- what they serve really is disappointing in comparison. Plus they keep refilling your cup while you eat. Mmm.

It was so sweet to get to spend some time just mom and I yesterday, because although I've gotten so used to it that I don't even think I notice most of the time, it is quite a rarity. My family's funny like that, I love them all together, we have such fun, but seeing everyone one-on-one is a rare treat. Vanessa and I, for example, have had the most amazing times hanging out just the two of us, but it only happens once in a blue moon. Still, to have a family like mine, I know full well is a blessing. I don't know many people who are nearly as fond of their families as I am of mine. They're some of the most brilliant and fun people around.