Freebies Galore

Went by campus today, and noticed a big crowd in the quad.  Turned out it's the Campus Free Store doing a freebie event.

The Campus Free Store is run by the student union, and people can donate what they no longer want -- clothing, shoes, small appliances, books, and so on.  And any U Ottawa student can get what they need for free from the Free Store.  They have a retail site on campus, but today they are doing this open event under a great big tent, so ANYONE can just come and pick out stuff.

It's so good to see re-use and re-cycle put to good use.  

Wonder if they have any free money available????

I do like U Ottawa a lot especially for sustainability efforts.  I should check out their Food Bank as well.  Maybe they have free NY Strip Steaks!!!!!

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

Yet another semester is pressing to make its debut.  Ten more days to go.  How will it turn out?

Once more unto the breach, dear friends.  So welcoming, so peaceful now.  Just wait ten days, and all hell's gonna break loose.

This morning I passed by a privately-run off campus student housing complex.  U Ottawa has gotten so big (over 50,000 now) that there aren't enough housing on campus.  So a lot of private enterprise have set up shop to house the students.  Some are converting old office buildings into 24-hour concierge setups.  Like this one below:

 

Well, this building is still broadcasting Fall move-in.  OK, school starts in 10 days.  What do you think?  Does it look like it will be ready by then?  Don't hold your breath.  If I were a student booked into this thing, I'd be really worried now.  See all the scaffolding and shit?

And idiots out there still insist that private industry is ALWAYS more efficient.  What can I say...

Where have all the oysters gone?

They were here a minute ago!

Dinner at Supply & Demand, Wellington West, Ottawa

Is Summer Almost Over? Really?

It's that time of year again, when another school year lurks around the corner.  In my previous life, I'd be prepping the cases for my "beloved" 416 (certainly much LOVED by my students), and finding strange videos to show my consumer behaviour students.  Well, those days are long gone.  Now I'm looking at another year of fun classes and term papers, of lectures and exams, of inane class discussion by my classmates, and TOTAL FREEDOM!!!!!

Time now to take stock of what I did this past summer.  Apart from cutting the fucking grass, that is.

I read, of course.  As most of you know, I enjoy reading.  But I realize that I've scaled back my ambitious summer reading list, now that I have to read tons of stuff for school.  Still, reading gives me immense pleasure.  Let's see if I can recount my summer reading so far:

Strategies of Containment by Gaddis
The Cold War, a New History, by Gaddis
The Power of Babel, by McWhorter
Ancient Rome, by Baker
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, by James
Words on the Move, by McWhorter

and now struggling through Kissinger's A World Restored  (I say struggling, because it's pretty dense and quite a hard read.  But very interesting). 

Up next, Tyrant, by Greenblatt.

I also did a Harvardx online course on Hamlet's Ghost.  So very illuminating!  And now I'm working on one about Star Trek and its impact on science and technology.  If you're wondering, these things are free and are available via Harvard https://www.edx.org/course Check it out!

OK, all work and no play is not good.  So I also baked loaves of rye bread.  Gotta be my favourite baking project.  No machines either.  People who use bread machines to make bread are not REAL bakers, haha.

Oh, almost forgot, I also finished a short story, submitted it, got rejected, and resubmitted elsewhere.  Let's hope I have good news to share later on.

If you have been following the news, you'd know about the protests in Hong Kong.  Whatever your political persuasion, you gotta give the protestors credit for having the courage to protest a dictatorship, especially while living in the shadow of a PLA (Communist Chinese Army) garrison stationed in your very city.  As you know, I was born there, so while I have no allegiance to Hong Kong anymore, it was my place of birth.  What I read dismays me, and I fear for the people there.  We all know what dictatorships do when pressed against the wall.  Read Tianenman Square from 30 years ago.  It's a major surprise to myself that I am following the events there so closely.  I have never done this before.  

I'm not going to let political stuff get into my blog much, but I thought I'd share with you something that's dampening my summer mood.  Alas, we are all prisoners of our geography.

One month (or so) to go before school starts.  I can't wait!

Do you remember the Malaysian Airport guy?

You may recall this piece of news a few months ago, about this Syrian guy who was stranded in an airport in Malaysia for 8 months?  See this link if you don't https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/29/americas/syrian-refugee-malaysia-canada-intl/index.html

I was at an event for Refugee 613 tonight.  It's an event about welcoming refugees in Canada.  (613 being the area code for Ottawa).

This is the Malaysian Airport guy.  A group of Canadians sponsored him and he's resettled in Canada.  His name is Hassan Al Kontar.  He was there to talk about his ordeal and a message of hope.  And what a story!

There were other speakers too, including the former Governor General of Canada, David Johnston. (The Governor General is basically the Queen's representative in Canada.  The Queen being the head of state for Canada)

I was so surprised that the former Governor General did not have a security detail.  I mean, nada. How cool is that?

It was a great event, and the speakers were all engaging.  The message of hope, of kindness, was so powerful.

So glad I went.

LAMENT OF LEADERSHIP FAILS

Once upon a time, there was a college that prospered in its own niche.  Then along came a big bad wolf in sheep's clothing.  Self-destruct sequence initiated, only the wolf had an escape pod while everyone else perished in its wake.

The wolf had told a docile audience:  listen to me and we'll prosper for another 100 years.  Like hell.

First the wolf said, "Let's become a nationally LIBERAL ARTS college.  Never mind that we are now #4 in our region.  We need to be NATIONAL, and focus on our roots in the Liberal Arts."

So the college became a nationally-ranked liberal arts college.  Ranked in the mid 130s.  Yes, that was a major improvement over being ranked #4.  Right.

And Liberal Arts?  Let's get more students who want a liberal arts degree.  Give them more scholarships.  Move resources away from job-related degrees like, oh, say, business!  Maybe even merge our business degree program with fucking continuing education (well, at least that didn't happen.  Yet).

Next, let's build a new gym.  That will be the saviour.  People will want to come because we have a new gym.  Never mind that the indoor track won't meet track standards.  Minor details, no?  Who cares.  The wolf can claim on his resume that he has built new buildings.  What better than to have monuments constructed during his tenure?

Oh, did I mention that the new gym costs tens of million that the college didn't have?  And, no surprise there, comes in way over-budget?  If you build it, they will come.  Right.  Right?

And to make sure the college can manage all this astronomical growth, a newer, bigger, more peopled administrative infrastructure is needed.  More administrators.  More departments.  More directors and VPs.  If you have enough generals, all will be well.

Fast forward a few years.  The college's enrolment kept falling.  Focusing away from business worked very well.  Far fewer people wanted to come to the college for a business degree.  Trouble was, not many wanted to come for liberal arts either.

So, LIBERAL ARTS majors and minors were canned.  Really?  A brethren college getting rid of peace and conflict studies?  And no more philosophy.  Or theatre.  Or film studies.  So how does this jibe with being a nationally ranked liberal arts college?  My ASS!

Take your gym and shove it up your ass!

The new gym, oh pardon me, FIELD HOUSE, is but a FIELD of dreams.  No, nightmares.  Seriously, if you choose a college primarily because of a gym, there's something REALLY wrong with you.  Hell, go to a big D1 school instead.  They would have five gyms or something.

Who's left holding the bag?  People got laid off.  Departments got closed.  Degree programs got cancelled.  Administrators?  Let's create some more!  What a racket.

At Mobil, we used to do marketing audits.  You propose a strategy, state the objectives, and we check afterwards to see if you achieve your objectives.  If not, heads roll.  At the college, heads do roll.  Just not the big bad wolf's head.  Let the little guys pay for your mistakes.  And then blame the environment.

Why do people stop buying your product?  Oh wait, did I tell you I am a bit of a marketing specialist?  Anyway, they don't buy your brand because your brand is a Me Too brand, and does not offer anything important and useful.  Marketing 101.  Harvard marketing prof Younge Moon said too many companies do things to make them the SAME as everyone else.  What they should do is to be different.  DIFFERENTIATION is the holy grail of marketing.  Something the big bad wolf was oblivious to.  There was only one person on campus with a PhD in marketing.  Would the college even want to get this person's opinions on things marketing?  Hell, no.  Better be a fucking ostrich and just do motherfucking advertising instead.

In feudal Japan, generals who failed would kill themselves to preserve their honour and to atone for their sins.  That's leadership.  Where's the leadership at the college?

Go FUCK yourself!

Sorry, just ranting.

The absurdity of Group Work

I was going to take a class in International Relations.  Even registered for it.  Then I found out that there's a group project.  Screw that shit!  Dropped it pronto and took something else.

Did that previously.  I intend to postpone doing ANY group work for as long as I can.

Why group work anyway?

Your prof likes you to think that it's good for you.  Trains you to work in teams.  All that nonsense.  So just exactly how does your prof train you to work in a team, other than to require you to be in one?  Are you supposed to learn on your own?  What guidance is the prof providing, other thanou  to say something inane like "work together."

In reality, group work is no more than a way for your prof to get away with doing less work.  Instead of grading 30 papers, they grade five.  And get paid the same.  It's kind of like those "cook your own steak" places, where you do all the fucking work and pay the establishment the same amount.  What a rip off!

Next thing you know, they will want you to teach yourself and still pay tuition.  Wait, isn't that what profs do when they tell students to give a lecture on a chapter in the book?  I mean, who the fuck needs you then?  And yeah, that's what a lot of this fucking online courses are about too.  Fuckers just want to get paid for doing minimal work.

OK, I can see this group work shit in a class of 200.  Or even 60.  I mean, if you actually care about grading, that would take forever to do.  So, okay, it'd be hard not to have groups.  But then of course, in schools where such big classes are the norm, the profs also have a number of TAs who do the actual work (and get paid a pittance for it).  So even then, this group work thing really makes little sense.

Did I ever assign group work?  Yeah.  I admit it.  I was a lazy bastard sometimes.  But I didn't really do that as a matter of course, and not in courses that really mattered (like BA416, for those of you who remember). 

Did I tell you I hate group work?

Let's see for how long I can avoid it.