Hello Gym!

Today was the first time I went back to the gym in a year and a half (or did I go in between lockdowns, who cares).  Luck had it that I was the only one there as well (had to make appointment for one hour slots).  Well, I didn't last the whole hour.  No surprises there!  After all of 45 minutes I was drenched in sweat and about to die.

Made another appointment for tomorrow.  We'll see if I stay lucky and have the gym to myself!

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Walked through campus again today, and all the first year students doing their orientation and welcome activities.  Man, I was young once!  It's really quite a treat to see all the people having a good time and being excited about a new chapter in their lives.  No doubt all that enthusiasm will vanish in a matter of weeks.  Once assignments come due.  It ain't no high school no more.  And UOttawa academics is serious shit.  Felt like wanting to walk over and tell them that.  But why dampen their mood?  Haha.

Had my first class today.  Everyone else in the class (all 7 of us) was on the thesis stream, except for me who is doing the coursework option.  Felt a bit overmatched, since they all seemed to have been sociology majors or something like that.  Oh well, unlike the undergrad degree, this time around my goal is just to do enough to graduate.  No more shooting for A+ and such.  So hopefully things will work out.  

Am I still rather unmotivated?  Yes and no.  The idea of learning new things is exciting.  But after having the summer off, and having gone through all that online learning shit, the idea of yet more online courses (all my classes are online this term, more on that below) is not overly appealing.

Why are my classes all online?  Not that I don't have a choice.  But I had to pick my classes, and many of the 7000 level (MA level) classes have this "gender and" thing in front of them.  Like Gender and Race Relations.  Gender and Aging.  Fuck.  I can't deal with all that gender stuff.  Nothing against it, but my experience has been that anything that is Gender and this and that ends up being summarized thus:  "Men are bad.  All men are bad.  Men are just bad.  And repeat."  I don't think I can sit through that shit.  So, I am left with only so many courses to choose.  And the ones I picked are all online. So...

While on the subject of school, I am really not impressed with how the graduate program in sociology is run.  Let me elaborate.  Last Thursday I received an email saying that there was an Orientation and Information session on FRIDAY!  Fuck.  Seriously.  They do this every single fucking year, no?  You go and tell people on a Thursday to attend a virtual meeting on Friday of Labour Day Long weekend?  WTF?  What planets are they from? I was on the road, but I could have stayed in the hotel for that session.  But you can guess what I did.  I declined the meeting.  OF FUCKING COURSE!  Morons!

And now, two of my classes will meet this Thursday and Friday.  As of this moment, there is nothing on Brightspace (the online portal we use) as to syllabus, zoom links, reading list, nothing.  Nada.  That's crazy.  For those of you who had me as a prof, you will remember that I sent out my fucking syllabus three months before classes began.  No three hours!

So you can see how much I hold these people in disdain.  Not a way to start a new semester, surely.

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We're having a general election in Canada.  The campaign lasts about a month.  I can do advance polling starting this Friday, though official voting date is Sep 20.  Think I will go and vote on Friday or Saturday.  I don't understand why they called an election.  The governing party did not need to call one for another two years.  And polls do not suggest they will win a majority.  So what's the point?  I don't want them to lose, but then I also think they should pay for their hubris.  Oh well, I will do my part, and we'll see how the chips fall.