Bullshit Bingo!

How to Stay Awake in Boring Classes

Do you keep falling asleep in class? What about those long and boring seminars and labs?

1. Before (or during) the next class prepare yourself by drawing a square. 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns-five across and five down. That will give you 25 one-inch blocks.
2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block: Synergy, environment, strategic fit, core competencies, best practice, bottom line, I won't go into detail, the truth is, 24/7, alternatively, benchmark, climate-change, maximize, value-added, proactive, win-win, think outside the box, fast track, result-driven, based on the data, at the end of the day, touch base, in fact, client focus, paradigm, game plan, leverage.
3. Now check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.
4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally stand up and shout "BULLSHIT!"

Real Testimonials from satisfied players:
"I had been in the class for only five minutes when I won."
"My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically."
"Class will never be the same for me after my first win."
"The atmosphere was tense in the last process meeting as 14 of us waited for the fifth box."
"The professor was stunned as eight of us screamed 'BULLSHIT!' for the third time in an hour. The Bullshit Bingo Championship will be played at the next class."

Batten down the hatches Becky

So I'm sitting in Dr. Bob's Human Geography class (2214.1 Environment and Livilihood), it was one of those discussion classes, and everyone was talking about whether or not all the countries of the world will become as developed as us. As developed as us? What does that mean? Is Canada a developed country? and if so, why? We still have poverty, levels of illiteracy, homelessness, environmental problems... Everyone characterized a developing nation as having technology, infrastructure, megacities with core downtowns and sprawling wealthy suburbs, trade, and trans-national corporations who rely on the 'developing' nations for cheap labour and natural resources. So, the question again is, will all countries become developed? Why do we think we are more developed than another country. Shouldn't a developed country be one that can act sustainable, have good social programs, and not exploit other countries?
Is there a difference between sustainable development and RESPONSIBLE development. As Westerners, we always feel we are superior to less-developed nations, and try to bring them up to our standards. Maybe they are happy just the way they are, and we should leave them alone, or help them in different ways than we are. Who says traditional ways of living, subsistence agriculture, lack of internet and other technology are bad. Last week, the Sudanese government rejected UN Peacekeepers because the didn't want western views in their country. I'm not saying we shouldn;t help those starving in Sudan, we need to do more. Why are we so dependent on commercialism? Get out to the country and breathe some fresh air!

So far so good

The view from the top, finally. Back on 13, and it's a great view. It's not so bad, when you roll out of bed, and your view is of the Atlantic ocean, cruise ships and cargo ships, and sailboats. As much as I like being out in the woods, in touch with nature, nothing beats living in a highrise. If anybody needs to get a hold of me, my # is 491-8668 ext 3369.

RA camp was good. Even though I went right from my summer job to camp the next day, it still seamed like a good end to the summer, and a bit of a vacation from real work. Camp is the best, even though the weather was pretty wet the whole time. You never know what to expect when you do something twice, but the second time around was still good, the food was still good. Best things from camp:
-Darren's food
-good timing for cleanups
-swimming in the lake in Sept. when the air is colder than the water
-meeting all the newbies, reconnecting with the returners
-campfires and marshmellows!
-Cabin 8 skit
-Things in a box, hahaha, and finding out everyone's dirty sense of humour

The first few weeks back have been crazy. Frosh week went really well, my floor came out to alot of the events, which I'm not used to, it was awesome. All the events I went to were really fun, especially Casino night, and Sex with Sue, and the free food at the bbq and President's dinner. I felt bad for Pilate, who was the band and played fri night. Hardly anybody went at all. All my classes are good so far, a few of them are boring, but I will appreciate that later when it gets busier. All of the AIESEC recruitment kept me busy too, but it was really well planned (thanks to the kick ass team) and we're getting more notice on campus from everyone. I have a good feeling about this year. I hope to keep up with all the traditions, like Open Mic, and Split Crow, but study more, and keep in touch with old friends far away, and ones still here in the city.

Really really excited for the Rolling Stones this weekend!! and Joel Plaskett is coming back to Hali for Keith's Fest woooooo!

Prince Edward Islanderese - English dictionary

Hey guys, welcome back, I just 'finished' unpacking all my stuff in my new room, back in Rice on the 13th floor, hope it's lucky this time. Here's a way to understand everyone movin back to the mainland from PEI (esp. Chels!)

across ... across
aunt ... ont
bad ... ba' - ud
calm ... cam
co-op ... kwop (said quickly - one syllable)
cousin ... cousint
creek ... crick
drowned ... drownded
film . fill'-em
fishing ... fishin (dropping final 'g's from -ing is very common on the Island)
goalie ... goldie
H ... haich
lawn ... lawnd
leg ... laig
milk ... melk
pillow ... pellow
pint .. point
potato ... puh-tay'-tuh
right ... roight (substitution of oi instead of i happens in many words on the Island)
sorry .. so' - ry sounds (like Tory, but with a longer o sound)
stole ... stold
tour ... tore (same sort of o sound as in sorry)
wash . warsh
won't ... woon't (see sorry and tour)
yes ... yay'us
yours ... yers
yeah ... yah (said by sucking in air, almost whispered)

Unique Island words:
Froze .. Frozen
Slippy ... Slippery
Stormstayed ... No real equivalent word - means that a storm has come up and made the travelling so bad that you're stuck somewhere for the night.
Yuz ... You (plural)
Yer guyses ...Yours (plural)

Unique Island phrases:
C.F.A...Come From Away - someone who is "not from the Island" or who has moved here recently. For some people "recently" means any time after birth. "She wouldn't know that, she's a CFA"\n
THE water . Either the Northumberland Strait or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. "Our house is on a hill; you can see the water from our living room."
THE boat . The car ferry. "We have to make the 6 o'clock boat", "We'll have lunch on the boat"\n
THE bridge ...The Confederation Bridge. In Charlottetown, it also can mean the Hillsborough Bridge.
Right hot (or roight hut) ... Very hot. Right is often used to mean very, as in "right close" (roight close), "right icy" (roight oicy)\n
Some good ... Very good. Some can sometimes be used instead of right to mean very, but not always.
From acrost ... From New Brunswick or Nova Scotia
Something or other ... This phrase is usually run together, more like "som-n-r-uthr"\n
No I nevered ... I didn't. You also hear "I never" for the same thing
Throw me up my / down my ... Instead of "throw my... down to me"
Sock feet ... Wearing socks, but no footwear. "Get off the grass in your sock feet!"\n
Desperate cold .. Very cold. Can be used, like some and right, with a wide variety of words
Handy the school ... Near the school
Grade Twoers (Thre-ers, Fourers, etc) ... Children in Grade Two (three. four, etc). You also hear "Grade Twos", etc.
Island turn ... A right turn that involves going left into the oncoming traffic lane before taking a sweeping wide right turn, as if one had a thirty foot trailer attached to the car\n

good luck!

Hot town, summer in the city

Even though it was summer, I was still pretty busy, and didn't get a chance to update as much as I wanted to. Here's some pics from some of our adventures this summer.

The crew in PEI for Canada Day and the Tragically Hip. Having some food before Joel Plaskett!











It was a foggy day, but we still had fun at the beach.

This isn't what you think. Don't you hate it when you show up to the bar and you're wearing the same shirt as someone else?

Group shot of everybody at Seymour's cottage. See ya next summer.....

Good to get away

It was good to get away last weekend. A bunch of us from SMU went to Seymour's cottage with some of his friends from the valley. It's a really nice spot on the North shore wedged between Fox Harb'r and Wallace. What I thought was going to be a relaxing weekend turned into excercise boot-camp. We played ultimate frisbee and football allll day. The best was the bonfire though, with some guitar and beers. Every once and awhile you need to get away with friends, really get away, out of the city, away from shopping, the media, news, and noise. Now it's time to go buy school supplies!! ahhhh

Community-Based Monitoring

Why I love my job, (Gaff point, Lunenburg County) haha, a view from my office:


Like I already said, I'm on a co-op workterm this summer at SMU with a not-for-profit, doing environmental research. Sounds boring, but I like it alot. And I'm learning what I want to do in the real world, and applying things I learned in class. My boss is awesome, and I really like my co-workers. We work in the office sometimes but we're out in the field alot. We deal with other community groups around HRM concerned with water quality, effects of large-scale development, pollution, etc.

Check us out: www.envnetwork.smu.ca

ahhhh!! Who can't wait to see this movie?

My favorite deep thoughts

Some "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handy (from Saturday Night Live, but I hope you knew that...)

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.

Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.

When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges.

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

Laurie got offended that I used the word "puke." But to me, that's what her dinner tasted like.

The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw.

for wayy more, check: http://www.cco.net/~jpete/deepthou.htm

quotes applied to life

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

"I saw many problems in the world and wondered why somebody didn't do something about them. Then I realized, I was somebody." - unknown

One unfortunate looking person

Isn't that just sick...maybe next year Leafs...

An Inconvenient Truth

**stop everything you're doing and see this movie**
It was really good, and all the critics are right, its awesome. Even if you can't make it to the movie, check out the website, and watch the trailor!! www.climatecrisis.net

Here's some quotes from the movie:

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing, and baffling expedience of delays is coming to a close. In its place, we are coming to a period of consequences." - Winston Churchill

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Al Gore

"You can't make somebody understand something if their salary depends upon them not understanding it." - Al Gore

Summer so far....

Heyyyyy

This summer is flying by, I can't believe it. So far this summer, I got back from partying in Toronto and an AIESEC conference in Hamilton, it was a blast, and met lots of people. The conference was focused on leadership development, and between partying all night long and not sleeping, I still learned alot. The sessions all day are very inspirational, very intense and educational, in a "it's summer and I'm learning, but still having fun" kind of way.

We've been hanging out alot, just chillin, watching some hockey playoffs (too bad for the oilers...) and getting outside when it's not raining. I made it home to see the CEC musical with Lisa, which was just good to see some old friends. Camilla came here from Brazil to work in the AIESEC office for a couple months. A bunch of us went up to Miramichi for Krista's grad/going away party (hope you have a great time in Thailand!). Last weekend Camilla had a Brazilian night, it was awesome, I love learning about cultures around the world, and now I have one more country I have to visit someday. I also saw "An Inconvenient Truth". It's an amazing, scary, eye-opening movie if you haven't seen it yet.

I'm working at Saint Mary's in the Burke building doing environmental research with a prof and a couple other students for my Coop work term. I really love it. We get to go outside and do fieldwork sometimes, and network with a lot of other groups in Halifax and NS doing similar stuff, really good opportunities.

I'm pumped for this weekend. We got our Pilate and Wintersleep tickets for Fri! woot woot. Tonight we're having Camilla's going away party, which is happy and sad. Hopefully Sat night works out, and I can make it home to go camping!??! Annnnd we gotta get organized for next weekend so we can make it to PEI for Tragically Hip and Canada day! jump on it guys....

OK, back to work for me, talk to you soon.....

Recently at an Ethical Leadership Conference in London, a group came up with 10 rules that they felt would guide an individual as they live their life and engage with different communities in all aspects of life. Here they are:
1.Keep your life directions congruent with your vision
2.Notice everything around you and actively learn from it
3.Walk the talk
4.Don't be afraid of being yourself, listen and respect others
5.Know and always question what you believe in, keep it real.
6.The only shame in losing is if it's from laziness
7.Serve the Human race
8.The world is a human construct, the barriers in it are only human
9.Co-operate
10.Be militant, sometimes.
What do you think, are there any others you would add?

AIESEC Canada: West Atlantic

AIESEC Canada: West Atlantic

no news is good news

So I am going to blog. I guess this is either going to be one of those things I say I'll do, and then never get to, so stay tuned. You guys know how much free time I have, so this should go really well, as long as blogs have Spell Check!
peace