I know you have a reputation, but...

Ok geese. Bear in mind that you are known for tasting good. In fact, a certain faculty of engineering legend is a legend in part because one of you were turned into his Easter dinner. I know that you are known for not having sense, but when I get within a half metre of you, you really shouldn't wait for me to look directly at you and go

"You look like dinner!"

before you start to slowly shuffle off. This also holds true for you not getting up when I walk next to you, carrying a heavy weight. If I need to remind you that you're dinner, I'm going to be right before too long.

I think I need to look into how to clean birds...

Deadline

You know, running back and forth between Lever and E3x is a really good way to test if you're in shape. Of course, for a proper test, make sure you do it late enough at night that the hallways are empty.

And let's say I got a 50% on the test.

Winter Term

Ok, so the winter term is officially the least productive one around. Not only has the senate decided to saddle us with a full week of no class (yes, I am still incredibly bitter that they never gave us a reason for giving a full week rather than getting rid of the half week), but we get snow days. At least this time I don't think anyone's going to ask us to make up the missed lectures.

Roadwork

So my road-bike tires are rejoicing that Ring Road at the university is finally getting paved. Actually I guess it might be my lack of shocks too... I think it's rather unfair though that they started with the last bit that they tore up. I've been without pavement on the parts of campus that I most often frequent for quite some time.

Actually when I came in for my exam the other day I discovered that that was getting fixed. Which is a mixed blessing. I would really rather not have to climb over the markers that really look as if they're there to keep people out. However, given that both the entrance I would normally use, and then the one that I next walked to were out of comission, I didn't really have a choice. I understand that the work is important, but they really need to give warning. Yes, I leave myself extra time when coming in for an exam, but not so much extra time that I'm willing to go 20 minutes out of my way just to get on to campus.

Does anyone understand why the university is forgetting that there are people on campus this term?

Pass The Pass!

Yes, it's unoriginal, but it's something of a solidarity thing. The anti-bus pass group around campus has lots of posters up, and I'm scared that it won't pass. I'm also really disturbed that people could be opposing the bus pass for any reason other than extreme lack of funds. To put it in perspective - if you have enough money to go out to the bar & drink you can afford the bus pass. It's a lot better for your liver too. If you can afford to drive (to class or elsewhere) you can more than afford the pass - it's a heck of a lot less than insurance for the under-25 age group.

The other thing that annoys me about the anti-pass group is that they're pretending that it's a commuter pass. At $50 for the term this pass is not aimed at students who take the bus to campus. (Students who do take the bus to campus will definitely be doing a happy dance if this passes, because it's an incredible deal when looked at in that light). This pass is more of a "I use the bus occasionally, and it would be nice to take the bus home without having to worry that I don't have any tickets" thing.

So please, for the love of COMMON SENSE remember to vote for the pass!

It appears that there has been a bit of a falling out in the FEDS exec. I received two e-mails forwarded to the engineering society mailing lists in rapid succession today. The first announced that the board of directors had overturned the Vice-President Internal's decision to deny the Women's Centre the use of the Student Life Centre to perform The Vagina Monologues. The second e-mail announced the resignation of aforementioned vice president.

I am far from being a supporter of the recently resigned vice president. Quite the opposite in fact. And I will definitely agree that he was out of line - expecting people to have self-respect directly opposing society is rather optimistic, making it unreasonable to say that The Vagina Monologues contains any content that gives cause to restrict the freedom of speech of the people involved. And the stated goals of the V-day campaign (namely the elimination of violence against women, especially crimes which primarily or exclusively affect women such as rape, honour killings, FGM and others) are definitely worth supporting. And although I have no actual information on the organisation, its site suggests that there might be a high enough degree of effectiveness that the creation of a new organisation was worth it.

However I have to almost admire the actions of the vice president. Were he in a position where he was free to act as his conscience dictated I would admire them, despite my doubts as to his motivations. Too many people are afraid of opposing any movement that does good, even if it causes harm as well.

In the interest of explaining to anyone who is willing to listen (i.e. those wiser & better than I) my reasons for opposing this is simple: I find the ideals of the organisation to be suspect. To quote from a defense the organisation has put on its website, the vagina "does indeed represent women both physical and metaphysically as a feminine being" (V-day:Opposition on Catholic college campuses, http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/resistance/catholic, 7 February, 2007.) To suggest that women are that strongly defined by their sexual organs is offensive. To suggest that a physical difference can so much define femininity is denying other differences between men & women.

On top of that, if the physical aspect of sexuality is so much a part of what makes a woman, one would assume the same to be true for men. This reduces society to little more than the proverbial naked apes. And even if it were in me to be contented with the dreams a naked ape might have, societal mores (which would not be needed by naked apes, and to an extent are disdained by the V-Day organisation) are a form of protection for the vulnerable. If you doubt that, ask yourself just why it is that the idea of a 16-year-old mother disturbs you.

If you feel that I've misrepresented or misunderstood anything that I present here I'd love to hear from you. However pettiness will likely be met by more of the same & summarily deleted.

Update: Having read the coverage of the story in the campus newspaper it would appear that I was wrong in maligning the former vice president. The presentation of the show is going to be done in the main area of the campus centre, not off in one of the small rooms. In other words, it is not necessary to decide to attend the event to be subjected to it. It would be nice if society agreed that everyone was allowed to choose (that's the big thing for society, right? Do what you want?) how sexualized they wanted their everyday life. Society's attitude towards sex is often called permissive. I would say that that term is somewhat misleading - permissive suggests that anything is permitted. Modesty, however, would appear to not be.

Pedestrians Seems Wise

So the other day I had an interesting experience whilst unlocking my bike from the bike racks outside Engineering 2. I lifted the front wheel over the top bar, and realised that it wasn't supposed to be doing that. It took me a minute to realise what "that" was.

"That" turned out to be moving in ways which bore no resemblance to the movement of the frame. The which it really wasn't intended to do. What really gets me is that I don't even have a quick release wheel. And I KNOW that that bolt was nice & tight - I just tightened it myself a few weeks before that. So basically someone was walking around with a toolkit and decided to take the front wheel off my bike.

I'm not quite sure whether this was an attempt at theft (which would be really odd as my tires are almost bald, and are about to start cracking on the sides). The other option is someone trying to be an annoying idiot. Well... they succeeded at being an annoying idiot. Although this is less annoying than the people who rotate bike racks 90 degrees (i.e. to a vertical position), leaving bikes hanging off of them.

Me, I'm very glad that I lock my bike through the wheel. Always. Having a cable lock is good for that. However I do wish I could find the person who did that, just to figure out if he was trying to steal, or trying to vandalize. And the suggestion I received of tying him (her?) up somewhere on campus, with a sign describing what was done to my bike is tempting... however I'm trying to avoid murder.

All's well that ends well. We fixed my bike up by putting the wheel back on (which I want to learn how to do by myself, if it's at all possible), finger-tightening the bolt and then wheeling her over to a tool kit to finish securing the wheel. So I have my lazy person's transportation working. I never even really lost it. And besides - I was feeling probably more confident than I ought to have about how old my bike looked making it safe. It's still very clearly a very nice bike. (Once I do some repairs...)

Why Learning Your Schedule is a Waste of Time

There's an interesting migratory phenomenon in the engineering buildings noticed, I'm sure, by staff and faculty at about 20 to 30 minutes past the hour. It's rather amusing to notice from the inside, when it's not frustrating. Here I went to the bother of learning where to go, and it does me no good at all. The only way to get to class is to follow the herd - unless you know the shortcuts through the buildings that other people don't. And since "short"cuts rarely are... just go with the flow. Or be the person who's 30 seconds ahead of everyone else, and fight your way against the crowd on your way back from the drop box.

Either way - that's engineering.