UBC Fail

I am so tired of sub-standard teaching assistants. I am also very very tired of UBC Professors not reciprocating the effort that students put into their homework. It is unfair for me to spend >10 hours per assignment to have you spend 1 minute telling me that because my FINAL answer of my FINAL question is wrong, I only deserve 50% on the assignment. What the fuck is this shit?! When you have this kind of a marking scheme, don't try to give me that bullshit about TA's hours being distributed evenly. WHY the FUCK would it take them 2 hours to mark the assignments of 80 students when all they're doing is putting a tick next to the final NUMERICAL answer? Why should I bother writing a 150 word summary of my methodology if you're not even going to look at it? Isn't the point of the methodology so that you don't have to look at my code? Isn't that already enough as far as a simplification of the marking process?! You bloody lazy fuckers!

And YOU, PROFESSOR. I come to you with my dilemma. Every student in 2nd year that gets a copy of the one student's homework, the one student who finished the only problem you're going to mark, they all get 100%. Don't fucking give me the excuse that you can't curb cheating. You know what you CAN do? MARK FAIRLY. Seriously, why are your TAs putting such shit effort in, and wtf are you doing in the meantime? Also, if I come to you about this, I EXPECT YOU TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Don't tell me that you can't curb cheating and there's nothing you can do about my grade. FIX THE PROBLEM, DAMN YOU! Every other prof would, what's wrong with you?!

I've never been in a class where I pump 10+ hours into the assignment and get a 50%. This is probably the SHITTIEST and laziest marking scheme I have ever come across in my whole academic career. And the fact that you arbitrarily take 50% off my final grade for the assignment because you were too lazy to read through my answer really pisses me off.

Piece of shit. Don't make me argue with you over my grade again. Next time, I'll go for the beard and pull it right off your smug little face. You don't deserve to be a TA if you can't be bothered to work.

When does my real life start?

Why do I always feel like I'm in trouble?? I don't have bad spending habits, but I always have to feel bad about money I'm spending. This is why I cannot wait to start my real life.

Ooof, I had a terrible dream last night. We were all situated on some kind of military base, for God knows what reason, but really, it was more like university campus. Ivan and I were living in our own apartment (I WANT AN APARTMENT SO BAD) and Aileen, Lilian and Ivan were all there too. I can't remember too clearly now what was going on, but I know enough to say there was some kind of group work to be done which we were going to be tested on at the end of the free periods or whatever (so reminiscent of Crescent because we all just slacked off and at the end went "huh?! There's a test?!"), but it was really stupid because it was a test on sign language or something and apparently you had to learn all the sign language on your own. So, obviously a dream. Then I started asking Lilian what we were supposed to have learnt and I don't know what happened but we suddenly just started yelling our heads off at each other and got into a huge fight. The we're-never-gonna-be-friends-again kind of fight. Which reminded me of what Eejin said sooo many years ago about something she'd heard on the radio. The Djs had said that (and I remember distinctly she said it was chinese radio) if you dream about a bad relationship, it means you have a good relationship in real life. Which I think is bullcrap because I don't think Azlin and I have a good relationship and she's pretty witchy in my dreams. Anyway, so I stormed off back to my apartment where we continued to shout at each other.. I think Lilian followed me back or something.. ahha. And then Ivan came home and told me that once he graduated he was going to leave. So when Ivan came to wake me up for school, half in sleep, the conversation went something like this.

Bean: I'm angry!!
Ivan: Why? What happened?
Bean: You said you were going to leave after you graduate!! Why would you do that?! What about me??
Ivan: ....? HUH?!

Niddles

Vincent: 鐵杵磨成繡花針

Me: Yeah I know this phrase..

Vincent: it means big iron stick can be wear down to niddle

Fashion Literacy

Oh my goodness. Ivan and I are undergoing a massive clean up of the house, and it's really quite hilarious. He set his new shelf up about a week ago and then left it there to collect dust, and being the bean that I am, I took it upon myself to dig all his stuff out of his closet (which had been messily shoved in) and started to display, dust and shelve everything I could find. 20 minutes ago, I decided to revamp the closet, and then appeared all the bad clothes.

I had to sit there for 10 minutes explaining to Ivan why he should throw away one of his shirts. It's the dirtiest, raggiest polo I've ever seen in my life. it's a shit-brown-purple colour with a collar a mile high, straight as a piece of cardboard, with those intentional rips that make it look like his shirt had caught on fire one day when lightning struck him, and the patches here and there from overwashing which made it look like a hobo shirt. I HAD TO EXPLAIN THIS TO HIM. I almost blew my brains out trying to be nice about it, but I told him that even if he were to make it a home shirt, I would have to punch his face everytime I walk past him wearing that shirt. So he ruefully threw the shit-brown-purple one away and kept the exact same one, just in the apple green colour. I couldn't bring myself to make him throw both away because the look on his face was just about a mile long, but I almost shit my pants laughing about the whole matter because I couldn't believe I had to explain this hobo, 90s boyband shirt into the donation bin.

I just read him what I wrote and he said very indignantly "It's abercrombie and fitch OKAY". Hahahah, yeah, okay. It's still shit-ugly. Heeheehehehehe.

He's having the most stressful night of his life because I made him re-organize his closet. Say whhuuuutttt!! He should thank me. Although I did make him refold all his tshirts a thousand times because they weren't all perfect and straight and the same size.

First nosebleed of my life.

It's not even spontaneous. I was cleaning my nose (I felt like it was dirty) and accidentally scratched it really hard so now it's bleeding. It feels really awful. I feel like I need to scratch the other nostril in the same place now, but what's really driving me nuts is just how shocked I was to see clean, openly flowing blood coming from my nose. It feels raw. I feel like I have a tic and an itch and I NEED to scratch the other side but I really don't want to bleed from the other nostril. This is such a dilemma.

In other news, my midterm is tomorrow, for which my professor decided he would like to test us on 3/4 of the course material. Crazy nut. Plus it's a math intensive course with lots of formulas and we don't get a cheat sheet. That's terrible. I have been studying, but I feel like my brain might bust if I continue to look at the material. I have to do it though, I still have lots to go so I will pull myself together in a little bit. In the meantime, I gotta do something about my nose. IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS. There's the same sensation in my body as if someone were tickling me which I know will only go away when I stop FEELING WHERE MY NOSE WAS BLEEDING. And now I keep worrying that it's going to bleed some more. WHAT DO I DO

Ack... I hate money problems. Even buying a $30 bike poses a problem for me, much less the tuition fees, general life.... food. Pah. I hate money. If I could do one good thing for this world, I'd eliminate money. We should all just go back to trading salt but then I'd probably die because seriously, who knows how to farm salt these days anyway. Which kinda sucks because there's all these high fashion dresses on sale for $250, the need for a bike, furniture... food.

Saje Crystal Fresh Deodorant

I got really tired of my old fashioned roll-on deodorant stick because frankly, my armpits always feel goopy when I use it and it has a really strong smell, which mixes with sweat to become some other weird, very powdery aroma. It's not ineffective, it just feels very strange, so I decided to replace it with the Crystal Fresh Deodorant Stick from Saje. It costs 10 bucks, and since it's a mineral stick, I'm betting it's going to outlast my pits. In any case, it's scent-free, which I like, it's novel (the whole wetting the stick before vigorously rubbing it on my pits because I'm suspicious about whether or not I actually managed to get anything on) and so far, it's working. Of course, I haven't actually tried to go running in it or actually even go outside in it, but my house is usually the same temperature as a sauna and I've definitely perspired a little. No smell as yet! I'm excited to see how this works, mostly because I'm tired of staining the pits of my shirts and it's been really difficult to find an organic deodorant stick that actually works, but the reviews for this seem to be quite good. The other thing that the lady mentioned is that it might take awhile before I actually see results - a couple of weeks. But I had that ethicaldeal voucher for Saje, so I picked up some bath salts as well just to make sure I actually got something at the store that would definitely be useful (I've come across too many bogus products that I've had to throw out soon after buying). I might pick up the spray one for days when I don't feel like chafing my underarms.

I don't necessarily believe in the whole aromatherapy thing, but I'm quite happy to use products free of chemicals and metals. The only thing I've yet to compromise on is shampoo, but I did pick some organic, local shampoo and conditioner for Ivan from Scraps on Main street, and it seems to be doing okay, so I might switch when I empty my bottle of bumble&bumble. Good lord, am I turning into a hippie?

Wow slicing my fingers up really hurts.

So, I've got a pretty serious slash in my right index finger. And the finger condom thing didn't work to keep it dry while I was showering, which frankly, was really hard to do as well. The bummer thing is that it's such a small injury (meaning it's not quite on the same scale as breaking your hand) but it prevents me from writing, from showering properly, from sleeping (woke me up several times) and from cooking. Gaaaaahhhhhhh hate being injured.