First years: Your judgement is coming and right soon

So there we are, Adam and I, chilling in the quiet lounge on the second floor of the student centre. There's a bit of ambiant talking going around, but that's cool: we're young, we're social, we're going to want to talk. It's human nature; I can let it go. However, lo and behold it's not long before the room quickly fills with hoards of first years. How can I tell they're first years? Their incessant chatter about nothing, their ad nauseum swearing, and their complete disregard for existing social conventions - first years. Yammering on in the loudest voices possible, the rest of the students second year and up just try to ignore them and concentrate on our individual studies - we're used to it by now and can get by. However, they decided to up the ante and actually pushed the envelope. Two of them pull out guitars and start string away. Holy crap. I mean, putting aside, "I wasn't in their group and I'm not their friend and if I was I might understand, etc." I'm sure that any logical, rational person can see the boneheadedness of playing guitars in a quiet study lounge. Perhaps because there's no soundproof doors into and out of the area they feel that it's still the regular student centre. I don't know. Adam had the genius idea of pulling a Juicy Fruit and smashing their guitars; a notion I strongly pondered. Overhearing his comment was this beheamoth of a guy sitting near us who quickly agreed and even went so far as to offer to take our backs. Scary thing was that he was completely serious. Now, although the prospect of cracking a few first year heads was certainly appealing, my overiding sense of order over anarchy kicked in and I had to dissapoint our kindred bigfoot.

Men stupid and women crazy

Back in the day (high school), a friend of mine and I were just talking, shooting the shit. Holly was her name. Somehow we got onto the track of her thinking that men do the stupidest things. She concluded more or less that all men must be invariably dumb (I think she was fighting with her boyfriend). I retorted by stating that this was natural and asked her to explain why women don't do dumb thing per se, but a lot of stuff that often doesn't make a lick of sense. I came to the conclusion that all women were insane. After going back and forth, we came up with a postulate that all men were, in some form or another, invariably stupid and that all women were, in some form or another, invariably crazy.

Holding everything else constant, we couldn't explain society's behaviour in any other way @ that time. So we just took it as a given, like gravity. As time went on, I used this template to explain much of what was going on around me, but occasionally there were rare exceptions. That's why I call it a postulate and not a law. I could never explain the abnormalities and so for the longest time never revised our conclusion.

Then one day @ work @ DHL, it hit me. I was just sitting @ my computer watching the day unfold, when an epiphany hit me like a bolt of lightening and the theory changed. Under the previous assumption we argued that men had perspective but lack of intelligence, and women has intelligence, but a fleeting view of reality. I realized that this was a convenient way of looking @ things, but just wasn't totally true.

So the new theory that I have from that day is as follows: Men and women have roughly the same level of intelligence. It's simply that women process information many times faster than men do. It was this that caused women to "seem" crazy because since they thought about things much more often, they sometimes overanalyzed and that caused them to see things that weren't there, second guess themselves, etc. After being surrounded by women forever, I've heard more than a few times when a girl's explaining something and my thought process would have ended a lot sooner than her. Also, men "seem" dumber because, relatively, they're thinking slower than women. That's why we can't think of convincing excuses on the spot, or why common sense things that women get mad @ us for oversighting don't hit us immediately- we don't give it as much thought.

This is all just another theory as well, not a fact or doctrine. And of course there are going to be exceptions to it as well. But it made more sense to me than the other theory. Any thoughts on this?

No farting on the bus or talking in the library PLEASE!

Off the bat, I've got to give shoutouts and links to my boys Simon http://eternallychillaxed.blogspot.com/ and Vella http://thejourny.blogspot.com/. They've both introduced me to this thing and they've got some mad pages of their own. Simon's got the words that are like a slap to the face 'cause he just tells it like it is and doesn't give a f***. And Vella's keeping to down to earth and showing us what goes on from the Maltese view of things.

Come to the realization today that I just can't study @ the library. Too damned noisy. Everything was okay for a half hour or so until people started talking. When did it become cool to talk in the library, I ask you?! They even have designated talking study rooms and non-talking study rooms. Why can't the talkers learn their role, or go into the hall or something OR WHISPER! And everyone seemed to be right around me (Murphy's Law). So I could have gone to another floor or another study room, but I was just too frustrated. Man, I wish I had a baseball bat and there was no law enforcement in Canada. They should have all been hit in the head. Serious, we should all get to carry small blunt objects with which we can strike others when they fudge up in social occasions. Like talking in a no-talking area of a library, or sitting behind someone on an empty bus and letting gas go every five minutes (yep, that happened to me too today), or stuff like that. Not only would people stop doing dumb random things @ the risk of being clubbed, but we'd all slowly work out our repressed anger.

On the plus side of life, I love digital cameras. Lately, they've been providing me with much happiness! :)

So it appears that we're having another Nashville reunion night next Thursday after exams. I'll bet that I can already predict about 75% of the people going. I think I'll go just 'cause I haven't seen some faces in a while. Also chances are I'm going to be called be a number of people for rides, so eventually I'll be worn down and just go. I really hope that my sister doesn't go. It's very bad when your little sister can now follow you to bars. Granted, she can drive and I can drink, but there's the feeling that someone's watching. I know that she's cool and even if she saw me piss drunk sucking face she probably wouldn't care, but that dumb feeling's still there. Plus, if I see some dude hitting on her or something, like the overprotective brother that I am, I'll be keeping my eye going that way all night. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll have to work the next day.

Another plus is that I'm talking to a few people that I haven't spoken with in a while, one in particular. I've kind of avoided her for reasons of the romantic sort (we dated and it ended queerly), but we talked about it and now we're back to friends. Whether things move from there is anyone's guess, but I'm just going to be a friend now 'cause that's what good guys do.

I'm currently debating whether or not to go drinking Saturday night after my exam. My friend Gin (CONTEXT: Virginia is a girl I met in rez first year. She's my best friend here @ Mac. I think of her almost like my little sister) is done @ the same time and wants to get hammered 'cause she's going home the next day and would otherwise be spending the night doing nothing. She wants to go out out, probably bring her boyfriend from home, and wants me to come too. It'd be great and all, but I'll probably be dead tired come Saturday @ 11 and right after an exam too. She's already convinced me to go out next Tuesday when everyone's done and EVERYONE's going to this one bar. I think that'll be enough. The big trick will be convincing my one remaining housemate to come too. But I figure a few sips of the hard stuff and she'll be ready to go.

So that's the news for today. Tune in next time.

Prelude

As all good stories, essays, editorials, etc. start with some sort of introduction, so to shall this. 'Cause I'm hoping to make this a regular thing, and when I look back on it, I'm hoping that it'll flow just like most everything in life: beginning, development, end. And as an ancient once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." So to that end, let's begin...

I'm only 20 years and six months, but like most my age, I've seen, heard, done, felt things far beyond my years. Looking back on the 17 some-odd years that I can remember, it's been all and all a very good life. I'm in control and doing what I want to do. But, like most, there are still those things that I yearn for: Would like to have more money (seriously. Not to say that I'm destitute, but I'd would enjoy a little more financial security) so that I could do the little things in life that I'm always putting off. It is a shame that our dreams and aspirations must be bounded by the almighty dollar. But alas, I digress... I would like time to travel and see this planet. There's thousands and thousands of kilometers to explore but very few of us actually go from one corner to the other in a lifetime. I think that seeing how people live half a world away is something we should all do. If not only to open us to something new, but to see that there are those better or worse off. Firsthand knowledge is powerful. I could expand my wants and such but fatigue in combination with a need to study is stopping me...

Way back in the day, I went to school near my house with a bunch of strange little kids. And my first teacher would wind up being the mother of one of my friends. From there I only took a handful of friends, so that's marginally important. 5th grade is where things started cooking. That's where I met the core of the friends that I would keep to this day. These kids I'd have class everyday with the the next 8 years. And we sure had some good times. It wasn't my choice to go to French school. But I'm glad that I did. I think of how my life would have been radically different if I never went and met all these wonderful people.

With these putzes, I moved on to High School, which in retrospect, was probably the pinnacle of life to date considering that I didn't have to pay to be there, I learned something new on occasion, and it was just a blanketed excuse to chill with my friends for eight hours everyday. By the end of it, I would have killed to get out. But nowadays, what I wouldn't give to have one day with the old gang. @ the risk of sounding pompous, the sphere of friends extended. Each new face seemed to have a different outlook on life and a different way to live it. Aside from being a long and drawn-out five years, I started to really learn the lessons on life, death, love, drugs, friends, and of course, drama, drama, drama. I could say with certainty that I wouldn't be who I am today if not for that time.

And as this brief review of life draws to a close I wind up here in my second year of Economics and Japanese Studies @ McMaster University, alone and adrift (@ least physically) from all these people. But as chapters end, new ones begin. New people met, new, many new experiences had and lessons learned. And from it all I'm becoming wiser and stronger with each day.

I've got a mother, and a father. Nothing big here. They love and support me in everything I do. I'd do anything for them. When I win the lottery, 10% goes to each of them. Plus houses in Florida and Jamaica jackpot depending. There's a newly 19 year-old sister as well who I always fight with but perhaps deep down inside I actually love. I'll have to give this some further thought. I've got a beautiful, kind best friend who I love to pieces. And she always gets a bit embarrassed when I tell her so. Aside from a few exceptions, the closest friends I have are girls. And NO, they're not all blond. These girls are my sisters and I treat them as such. Any boy crosses them and I go a-hunting into the night. In addition, I currently live with three girls- The reality of which is very different from anything you could picture. But after being with them these many months in addition to first year, they're all like three little sisters as well. Except that they're party animals, unlike my sister. Speaking of which, don't let me find out that you're going to Nashville again unless under my supervision.

This is all just a real quick review so that as I rant and bitch about things in the future, you can have some kind of context from it all. And so, let's begin..........
After I finish studying.