Six: Standards and Practises

Hear that? Shhh... listen as it washes over you. Freedom. The kind of freedom you get when you're done a semester's worth of work.

Of course, I have to be careful over the next three weeks not to flat-out forget what I learned over the last three months, as most of it's going to come back later on; most of my classes span the entire school year, which apparently is not the norm at other schools. Go figure.

Yesterday morning I got my bleary-eyed arse out of bed. I had hardly slept the night before, attempting to replenish my knowledge of astronomy in preparation for the day's final exam. Rather than break my brains going through my giant-ass Astronomy textbook, I took myself a shortcut. I went onto the website and found all the multiple-choice quizzes we've been doing throughout the semester and went over all the correct answers, figuring the bulk of the test would be derived from those quizzes.

My hunch proved a good one. After I found the exam, situated amidst Trinity College in the smack-dab-middle of the campus, I settled in and listened to the (somewhat bitchy) TA barking orders about electronic equipment and when we could and could not leave. I got my HB pencil and my pen out and set to work at 9:00 sharp, with the bulk of the first half of the exam being lifted directly from those earlier quizzes, verbatim.

The second part of the exam consisted of a few longer-answer question, most of which I could come up with by scouring the depths of my memory and/or imagination. I remembered this time the step that cost me many, many marks last time, to skip two of the eight questions. Lcukily, there were two questions I was utterly unprepared for. And only two.

The exam was set for three hours, beginning at 9. By 10:07, I was down at EJ Pratt Library checking my e-mail. A little later I got some lunch at nearby Wymilwood (I just love typing that for some reason) and called it a day. At Union station I had a weird experience, but I suppose that all things considered, you could have much weirder experiences at Union station.

I was very, very early for my train. The usual remedy for this is to head down to the arcade and do a round or two on the Austin Powers pinball machine, but most of the time when I go there some chump is hogging it up (it's one of the only 50-cent machines there, so that explains that.) Today was no differed. I silently boiled with rage as I considered my options. None of the other (two) machines lived up to the potential. So I walked off, all sulky. Then I returned a while later to find the machine unoccupied... and off. I wondered aloud, is someone fuckin' with me?? I saw, with my own eyes, only 5 minutes earlier, a guy having the protracted time of his life on that game, and when I come around for my turn, it's suddenly dead. No fair!

With still 20 minutes until my ride comes, and without any book or anything to read, I needed amusement. I think my generation's entire purpose is to seek amusement. So I considered my options and decided to try the Dr. Who machine. You're probably not going to be good at a machine the very first time you play it, but I was doing pretty well until the game unexpectedly cut out during a multiball round on my third ball.

Someone musta been fuckin' with me.

Whatever, though. The point was, as soon as I rolled into Oakville I'd wouldn't have to sit on a GO trian or see a TTC station for the rest of the year. It's not even as though I was eager to end my commuting; it had actually grown on me after all this time. But the point was I could go home and relax. No more alarms, nor miserable dogs, classes and studying. Peace and a comparative amount of quiet.

Nothing of much interest happened after that, I bummed around the house a bit then went to dinner at dad's. Today was much the same, as the cold really prevents things from happening I'd say.

At grocery shopping, mom was noting a few foibles in the new boarder. He just moved in, in something of a hurry, on Monday. He's got some engineering job that's temporarily in Oakville although he and his family are based in London. So he's intending on staying here for a long while, but going home on the weekends to see his family.

It's always a peculiar brand of outcasts who find their way into our spare room. He's a Chinese immigrant and while he seems generally nice and well-mannered, mom's already wondering what she's done by letting him have the room for a year. I don't know. We'll see, but it follows the suit that mom is always very excited about a boarder when she first snags him, but by the end, things find some fresh way to go awry. That's just how it always goes.

We'll see.

I'm wearing the thickest version of a beard I've ever had, although that's not much by most standards. I never bothered to shave this past week and may not for a while yet depending on what I do this weekend. Call it an exam beard if you will.

Life is that boring at the moment.

Keep on rockin'
-Scott