me against the world

Please visit the new blog. I’ll be posting there from now on. It’s still under construction, but the text will be there :)

Note to Richard: I’ll e-mail you in a while once I finally sort things out and let you know what my plans are. Thank you :)

Hello out there.

I’m writing from the library on campus. Ever since I returned to school after the winter break, I have had a hard time getting into the flow of doing work and so I’m forcing myself to work here on campus.

I would make a joke about how well that’s going considering the fact that I’m blogging, but in my defense I am actually taking a break.

Anyway, part of my problem is that over the break I became addicted to HGTV (that’s Home and Garden Television) and all of the house hunting shows. I don’t know what it is, but I really enjoy looking at different houses and seeing what people decide on taking.

My favourite show right now is called ‘Location, Location, Location’. In it, a pair of British real estate agents help clients across the UK look for homes. I both love and hate the show because it shows me some beautiful properties and makes me want to move back to the UK, but all the properties have insanely high price tags.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

So I haven’t been blogging.

Sorry…

I just spent 15 minutes deleting spam comments. No matter what I try, some keep getting through the filter. As well, by accident I deleted a comment from Sen (noticed right after I hit ‘delete’).

On that note, thank you to the 125 Columbia guys for expressing interest in hearing what I have to say ;-)

Things have been hectic, as it has probably been for all university students, but I don’t really think that’s a good enough excuse for not blogging. I have just been letting life take more of my attention, I guess.

To clarify what I was talking about in previous posts:

My previous internship experience was a communications one and I am looking to get some technical experience to demonstrate my major (and capability) in computer science. I found out that since science isn’t my home faculty (media and communications is), I don’t qualify. That really upset me because I was left in the middle with no one to really help me, per say. And just because it isn’t my home faculty, that doesn’t mean that I am not taking all of the same courses. I realize it’s a bureaucratic issue (funding issues probably), but it’s still a bit frustrating.

Anyway, I have decided to just look for a technical summer job that isn’t an internship or co-op placement. It’s a bit difficult though. I’ve attended a few networking events and out of say ten companies, only two will offer non-internship/co-op placements. I understand why though, since all companies that have internship or co-op programs get subsidized by the government for the students’ pay.

It’s all a bit frustrating…

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes.

At the same time, I keep going back and forth on what I want to do in the future. I know I’m not the only one doing this, but thinking about it consumes a lot of my time. I loved what I did during my internship (corporate and employee communications) so I could do that. I’ve also learned a lot about the field of publishing (book, magazine or online) and have become really interested in doing that. At the same time, I am doing really well in my computer science courses and I’m really enjoying them. So I keep wondering if I should come back for an extra year after graduating with a BA, to get a BSc (I found out that I can do this), but I’ve decided that it will only be worth it if I really want to do technical work. I won’t know that until I try it, and so that’s why I’m so interested in finding a technical job to get some real-world experience.

Technically (ha), I could find a job that is in communications for a technical company, or vice versa, and that would satisfy me. But at the same time, sometimes I think that’ll be really hard to find.

Anyway! The whole point is that I’ve been thinking too much about things that I can’t really determine right now. I just have to take things one step at a time. Right now that involves finishing my courses for this semester (I can’t believe there are only a few classes left), hoping that this volunteer IT position I found goes through, and getting going with next semester. In January I will have to apply for summer jobs, so we’ll see how it goes.

On a side note, to all who are currently looking for post-grad jobs: good luck!! I hope it’s all going well…

“An expert chocolate-maker has resigned after he was caught squashing truffles at a rival manufacturer’s shop.”

Read the story here.

I panicked the other night.

I was worried that all my efforts mean nothing and that I won’t be able to achieve what I want to achieve.

But then I slept it off. I took two nights and a few meaningful conversations and I’m back where I like to be. I feel confident and determined to work hard and get what I want. That’s the way I like it: the ball in my court and the knowledge that the more I practice and prepare, the more likely I will score and ultimately win.

I will give details in another post.

At this very moment, I’m hating the academic system.

I just hit a roadblock in terms of my plans and I am going to attempt to go around it.

However I think I’m going to hit a wall in the corporate system.

Joy.

I feel like a nobody. Thank you wonderful system.