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Shut Up And Listen 183

Not Quite At The "Please Kill Me" Stage

Today, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are choosing a new leader, but I could care less because I've got a cold. Yes, it's that time of year where I'm plagued by the most annoying of all annoyances. I don't know why it happens every September, but it does. I can vividly remember buying a box of Kleenex from the Pit Stop at school because I had to blow my nose a lot one day. I fucking hate colds. You're sick, but not sick enough to warrant any pity or time off from the real world. It's like winning ten bucks in the lottery. It's a mere tease of something bigger and better. Yeah, having something like the flu sucks, but at least you feel bad for a good cause. Damn cold. Luckily, it's hitting me on the weekend though and not on a day when I have lots of classes. Nothing is more annoying than having to blow your nose in a room full of dozens of people. To try and eliminate it before Monday, I am following a rigorous plan of lots of juice (full of vitamin C), lots of tea, bed rest, season 4 of The Simpsons on DVD, and many boxes of Kleenex. Knowing my luck, it'll plague me for the next week, though. Fucking cold.

Back On Campus And I Wish It Were Summer Already

This week was my first full week back at school and it's been alright. There have been changes though. Like The Spoke, a restaurant (kind of)/bar that was on campus has been completely changed. It used to be this dark, dirty, homey kind of place where I'd go to get onion rings, watered-down coke, and a nice place to sit and do nothing. I loved that place. Whenever I had a break between classes, I'd sit in there with a glass of the buck-fifty watered-down coke and read The Gazette or watch muted pool on a TV while some rock music was on the stereo. It was a damn fine place. Over the summer they renovated the place and now it looks all coffee shop-like. There's brighter lighting, new tables and chairs, couches and armchairs, plus the bar area is a separate room. I mean, I'm sure it's all very nice and good for some, but not for those of us who knew and loved The Spoke as it was. I can't tell you the number of conversations I overhead on Monday when I was sitting there during my break, reading a book that began with "What happened to this place?" The place was renovated to get more customers (more customers? Then how come I could never find any place to sit at noon during the winter?) and make it more friendly for the younger students: recent changes in the high school system eliminated a grade 13 as a requirement for university--as university and college are two different things here--and that means first-year students are younger than they used to be. When I entered uni, I was 19, having turned it the previous January. The legal drinking age is 19 in Ontario, so most first-year students were legal by the Christmas break (there's always those few kids who fast-tracked or skipped grades). Now, though, there's hardly a first-year student who's legal when they enter university, so they've had to take extra precautions to avoid accidentally serving alcohol to a minor (because of crowds or someone buying the alcohol for the minor). It's just different and I don't like it.

The other change is a minor one, but there're no used CDs people this year (or at least there haven't been so far). Usually, at various times throughout the year (starting with the first week), a used CD booth is set-up in the University Community Centre where you can buy CDs for $12 or 2 for $20. They also have DVDs for $20. I like this because it's a good way to get a couple of cheap CDs or a way to unload some crap you don't want anymore. I have some CDs I want to get rid of and now I can't. Damn you, used CD people!

Otherwise, things are per usual mostly. Have mostly late afternoon classes this year rather than morning classes. Tuesday is once again my long day. My favourite class is a half-course (most courses are full-year ones) on James Joyce's Ulysses and is taught by this big-time Ulysses scholar. We're starting the course off with Dubliners and A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man before diving into Ulysses. So far it's been a really fun and informative class. And when it's done, I'll be able to lord over people the fact that I've read one of--if not the--hardest books in the English language. After all, isn't that what university is all about? Reading shit just so you can act like you're better than everyone? Damn right it is.