Author: Dan Dickinson

I have touched down for refueling

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

One more course down. Hopefully. Multiple choice exams make me twitchy…I don’t do very well on them for some reason. I think I analyze wording too much. Anyway, I didn’t feel great when I was writing it. I only need 50.1% to pass the course, but getting an 80 might be a stretch. Oh well. As long as I don’t have to repeat any courses.

.:.

Funny thing happened while I was at the course. One of my classmates was talking about how addicted she is to Facebook. I told her to add me; when I got her friend request it said we had a friend in common.

In my first year of university my roommate began dating a girl. They kept on dating and a few years ago got married. My classmate was her bridesmaid. Our common friend is the guy who lived next door to me in residence, who remained close friends with my former roommate.

The world freaks me out sometimes with its smallness.

.:.

48 hours from now we’ll be lifting off for Paris, if all goes well. Ask me if I’m ready to go. Go ahead, ask me.

I’m going to bed tonight at 10 and getting up at 5 so that I can get a headstart on the jet lag. Getting up at 3:30 on Sunday. It’s gonna suck, but I want to enjoy my time in Paris, not sleep or stumble through it.

[tags]mba, facebook, coincidence, small world, paris, jet lag[/tags]

87.738%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

From spinner.com:

“Terrorist wants to behead pop stars [Britney Spears and Madonna].”

Get in line, chumley.

Actually, while we’re on the topic, I have to say something about the whole “Britney’s fat now” thing. Far be it from me to defend the woman — if you want to pillory her for something, try her utter lack of talent — but all the criticism the next morning about how fat she’s gotten was just ridiculous. C’mon…look at the picture! Fat? Are you kidding me? Her body looks better than 99.8% of women in the world, regardless of whether they’ve had kids. True, she used to be in the top 0.1%, but does that tiny slip suddenly make her fat? She’s not even fat by Hollywood standards.

All you E! watchers and People Magazine readers…it’s time to re-join reality.

.:.

Ah, pizza night. As one friend said, apart from handing in the final exam it’s the best part of the week. Nothing like food with taste to celebrate the end of the class.

Still have a bunch of work to do, but then I can get a-studyin’. May have time for one drink over in the bar, then pack before bed so that I can make a clean getaway tomorrow.

Can you tell I’ve done this once or twice before?

[tags]terrorist, britney spears, madonna[/tags]

77.022%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This morning I realized that my name is spelled wrong on my name badge. I’ve been Dan Dickson, as far as the staff here is concerned, since Sunday.

.:.

My friend Mark reminded me that I haven’t been blogging about the Kanye CDs I bought to help put Fiddy out to pasture. Of course I didn’t buy any, but it sounds as if Kanye is winning the race without my help.

.:.

Last night I took a break from school and got to watch Canada play Costa Rica at BMO Field. It was fun to watch football for a couple of hours and catch up with folks before I left for a couple of weeks. There was a psychotic banshee cheering for Costa Rica just in front of us, which was interesting.

One note that you’d only understand if you were there: Mr. YellowBoots sucks.

[tags]kanye west, 50 cent, bmo field, canada soccer, costa rica[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Tennessee used their electric chair for the first time in 47 years. Granted, they used it on a monstrous psychopath, but is that really a habit they want to revive?

.:.

Reading all the news about the film festival is just killing me. It’s like the biggest party of the year is happening the house next to mine and I have to study. However, at times like this I find solace in the immortal words of GB: “Suck it up, princess.”

.:.

I’m feeling a lot better this morning. I actually got to bed during The Daily Show last night and fell asleep just after the show ended. I woke up at 5:30 — my body just doesn’t know what to do with more than six hours of sleep — but I’m still in better shape than I was earlier in the week. Got some substantial work done last night too. Ooh, and my new shirt from m0851 is the most comfortable thing EVER.

That’s right, friends, things are almost coming up Milhouse…

[tags]tennessee, execution, electric chair, tiff, tiff07, daily show, lack of sleep[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Another long day, and it ain’t done. Class from 8:30 – 2:30, simulation from 2:30 – 7:00, some quick dinner and now catching up on work. A couple more hours of this and I’ll need to get some sleep.

345 days to go.

[tags]mba[/tags]

30.478%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This week can’t be over fast enough. 10.5 hours of classroom time, 2 hours to eat and unwind and then 3 hours of work. I almost fell asleep face down on my keyboard a little while ago. That would’ve been an interesting first.

Richmond Hill update: the restaurants on East Beaver Creek have not improved since my Delano days. Bigger, fancier, more plentiful, but even cheesier.

[tags]mba, richmond hill, delano technology[/tags]

8.216%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Day one of what looks to be a looooooong week is behind me. But first things first.

My cab ride up here this morning was…interesting. The cab arrived very quickly…like, two minutes after I called. I got in and we got to the end of the driveway, and I thought the cabbie was driving a little fast. Then I saw why: another Beck cab pulled up. The guy who picked me up was poaching. So he played innocent and loaded my suitcase into the other cab. I was mildly annoyed ’cause it was raining and this was slowing me down, but whatever.

The second cabbie seemed a little confused about how to get to the DVP but eventually made it. Immediately after getting on the parkway he pulled a little book off the dash and started reading it. I figure he was looking at a map or checking a phone number…but he kept reading it. He was looking at the road for one second, then reading his book for three, then repeating. He was also driving 90 in the fast lane. Cars were passing him on the right. He’d occasionally wobble into another lane…never signaled. I finally asked him what he was looking at and he showed me. It looked like a prayer book, or perhaps some kind of mini Qur’an. I asked him if he’d mind waiting until after he dropped me off before reading it. He just smiled, said “Yes, yes, yes!” and kept reading. OK, language barrier.

A few minutes later we were there, and then there was drama ’cause he didn’t like how I tore the taxi chit. I could not have cared less. I left him in the driveway babbling angrily.
So, that behind me I checked in for a long day of class. Yay, financial risk management. We went from 10:00 to 6:00, and it’s some pretty dry stuff. Tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…it seems like a lifetime, but it always does on the first day.

The food isn’t helping. This is no place for vegetarians, even fake vegetarians like me. I had to eat dessert at both meals, just to have enough in my stomach not to starve later. That trend, combined with the gym being block off yet again, does not bode well for my waistline.

.:.

Speaking of my waistline:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 223.5
  • Weight this week: 223

Only down half a pound this week. I’ve eaten pretty badly the last few days, so the 10 miles I ran this week is probably the only reason I didn’t go up. This week will be a challenge.

[tags]mba, beck taxi, fatblogging[/tags]

The fake empire

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

.:.

Met up with T-Bone today for lunch at Volo before our movie. Our screening was at the Ryerson theatre at 3:00, and we figured if we left around 2:10 we’d get in line with lots of time to spare, so we met at 1:00. Lots of time, right? Not so much. Just like the last time I was there they were short-staffed, and 45 minutes after ordering our food still hadn’t arrived. It showed up a few minutes after 2:00…but they brought me the wrong dish. Fortunately it only had salmon in it (and it wasn’t half bad) but T-Bone’s food wasn’t great. They knocked the price of my meal off the bill and forgot to charge me for my first drink, but I didn’t feel too bad about it. We wouldn’t have had time to correct it anyway. As it was we had to scarf down food and drink, and got to the Ryerson just in time to join the end of the line entering the theatre. Too bad; T-Bone’s first experience at Volo wasn’t a very good one, and it’s gone from being one of my favourite places to being a little sketchy.

The movie we saw, however, pretty much made up for it. I was kind of worried about Battle In Seattle (imdb | rotten tomatoes)…the title seemed corny (it was later explained in the film), it was a director’s debut film, I’m not typically a big fan of either Charlize Theron or Woody Harrelson…I’d kind of set it up in my mind to be rather bad. However, it turned out to be the great film festival movie. Not a great film…a great film festival movie. I’ll explain.

This was, according to Noah Cowan, the world premiere of the film. As such the director Stuart Townsend was there, as were some of the actors: Woody Harrelson, Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Andre Benjamin and Charlize Theron, Townsend’s girlfriend. This is one of those experiences you have at the festival that you don’t get when watching a movie normally, when a director is living or dying with his cast and crew, surrounded by hundreds of movie fans. You get to see a visceral, engaged audience react to a film, and you get to see the director absorb that reaction. For Townsend today, it was quite a reaction indeed.

The film was about the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, and the violent confrontations that resulted…dramatic and emotional subject matter, to be sure, and particularly interesting to me as the issue of WTO patent regulation was the topic of my big paper last year. At the end of the film, as The National sang “Fake Empire”, the crowd stood, turned to Townsend and applauded. They stood and clapped for five minutes as he waved, thanked the crowd and hugged a weeping Theron. That, that moment is what you get at a film festival and nowhere else…seeing a man who has worked for five years to perfect a vision, and is witnessing for the first time the realization of that vision. It was pretty moving; not quite like seeing Hotel Rwanda a few years ago, but emotional nonetheless.

I’ll be interested to see how the film is received outside of that situation. Was it a great film, technically speaking? Not really. But for two hours this afternoon, it was a classic.

[tags]brian mulroney, volo, battle in seattle, stuart townsend[/tags]