I generally have very few complaints about this university - yeah, there's construction, yeah, some of the buildings are ugly, yeah, dealing with the administration blows, but this is widely true of universities everywhere, up to and including MIT (well, I can't speak about admin).

The one thing that really, truly drives me up the wall here, though, is UBC Athletics. UBC, unlike most universities in North America, is incapable of providing faculties for student use. Each student here pays about $200 in student fees, and the only facilities we get for free are a couple hours a day of use of the pool and Aquatics Centre gym (which isn't terrible, but it's not great either). Everything else? Pay extra. A full 4-month membership to the Aquatics Centre is $94. One for the good gym is $136. Tennis courts are $12 an hour for a student to book. Comparatively, a 4-month membership to all UVic facilities for a non-UVic uni student (ie, someone like me) is $102 - UVic students pay nothing other than their Athletic fees.

Fucking great, UBC Athletics. If they do end up closing the Aquatics Centre gym, there is no way in hell I'm shelling out for a membership. I'd rather get a membership to the YMCA or JCC or something which disgusts me less. And would probably be cheaper.

Apparently all I need to do to cheer myself up when I'm being grumpy about people is think 'I should break their kneecaps'. Apparently there is something inherently funny about kneecap-breaking to me.

My big accomplishment of the day (other than getting out of bed in time for classes) - installing Moveable Type 3.3 on my server. Not running it directly yet, because I need to relearn the template tags and get one of the spam-blocking plug-ins to work properly, but it's up. Also, I discovered why my printer got jammed - there's a pencil stuck way down by the paper feeds - no idea how it got there, and I'm going to need a screwdriver to get it out, it looks like.

I was totally going to play some video games, but watching old X-Files eps and eating sounds like a much better plan right now.

Okay, so the only two things that have managed to get me anywhere near hammered are several shots of Bacardi 151 (which, yes, I know, is not meant for human consumption), and somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of a glass of Goldschlager (40% alcohol, for those unfamiliar with it). Apparently the first thing to go is my vision (those who wear both glasses and contacts fairly regularly - you know that unfocusing thing that you get when you take your contacts out? I've got that, but worse)

Although, uh, the coherency of this entry probably says something about my alcohol tolerance. Although I will admit to being in the sort of mood where I sing along very loudly to songs, regardless of how good I am (I can't judge my musical talent normally - tipsy? Not happening).

And many thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on Monday - went out for excellent Mexican with a few friends, had a few drinks (but it was Monday, so not very many). This week has been kind of crazy, but thankfully, it's almost over. And I've got aaaall my taxes and other paperwork DONE.

I love how Shadowrun doesn't even try to pretend it's anything other than Gibson for the D&D crowd. I keep snickering reading over gear lists, because I either see something that is either straight out of one of the Sprawl novels, or something clearly D&D (Bows in the cyberpunk 2070? Sure!). I've got a pretty straight up hard cyberpunk character - skinny little hacker chick, with guns ('cause dude, you don't wander around on your own without some weapon, and my two boys both have knives), no magic or technomancy. We've got one mage (ork, trained by elves, with a Logic of 1 - it's going to be special), and a charismatic elf face (a term who's meaning I understand, but none the less makes me snicker inside).

...It's going to take me forever to gear up this girl. Mostly because I'm really horribly indecisive.

(Also, speaking of Gibson - I had a dream last night that crossed DDS, Count Zero and the Coldfire Trilogy. That...was a bit weird)

Just a reminder to all my friends in North America at least that daylight savings time has begun, so it's just after 2 PST. I think my clock may actually have reset itself, but as there are no guarantees - figured it'd be best to mention.

Also, my AIM has died horribly (as in it won't load - doesn't even give me error messages, just...nothing), sooo...if you want to catch me I'll be on MSN - address is my T-T.org one.

I meant to post this like a week and a half ago, but I kept forgetting. Monday is my birthday - I'm going to spend the evening going out to dinner with a few friends here, but I kind of wanted to have a little party or something. I have no idea when/where works out best for people, though - thoughts?

And, augh, I remember now why I had so much trouble writing Asher the first time - I'm too close to him, so it takes a lot of effort for me to not take things that other characters say about him IC personally. He's an asshole sometimes, and there are consequences for that.

For now, off to watch more Project Runway and play some DDS, I think - homework for the day is done, yaaaay.

I've tried to keep the ranting here to a minimum, but I need to froth at the mouth some for like...two minutes.

I've been feeling increasingly down about lab positions and my inability to find one. There are still faculty members I haven't e-mailed, but honestly, the thought of spending a whole afternoon reading papers to write an e-mail that I get no reply to (and which has a decent chance of having wound up being deleted without being looked at) just makes me want to cry.

This is not being helped at all by Yana, who got a great position with tons of help from me (as to why I didn't go for it myself - not my department), and now won't shut up about it. At all. I hate to say it, but the clueless academic with no life outside their research or lab is not cute or endearing, it's boring and irritating and makes them into the kind of people who don't get invited out at all because nobody wants to be around them. And it's doubly irritating when I have spent the last month trying to find something myself with no success.

I snapped at her yesterday - if she does it again, I'm going to be sorely tempted to hit her and/or throw things.