iron

for the past month or so, i haven’t been feeling completely healthy. i’ve been feeling really fatigured (like sleeping 12 hrs a nite sometimes) and getting headaches. forgetful. sneezy. etc.

it could be stress. or it could be allergies (seems one of the seasonal allergy symptoms i get here is headaches…. great). i finally got an appt at the school doctor (who tried to say it was stress) and today i got test results back.

seems i have low iron. i guess as a veggie this had to happen at some point. but here’s a scary article i just found while looking for info on the web.

mild iron deficiency effects thinking. wonderful.

and it saps ur endurance

qantas

book before april 30th and u can fly from jfk to au for U$1048. that’s a really good price!

that’s for travel for April 19 – May 31 or August 1-31. for $100 more, travel June 1-10 or July 15-31. for $150 more, travel June 11-July 14 or September 1-30, 2004.

so come on… u have less than a year to come visit me….

mba news

there’s an article on CNN today about the ‘new breed’ of MBA students who are not just all about making money and how mba programs are emphasizing “social and environmental stewardship”.

honestly, i don’t see much of this around school here. but then i don’t see much of the ‘money money’ side either. the students all seem so tied up in what they’re working on at school. there isn’t much of a social side here… you run into people in the computer lab or between class but that’s about it. and you all know you’re so busy. but when you evesdrop on conversations in the computer lab (which is why its so hard to do work here… there’s lots of talk), i don’t think you really hear about these things. of the stuff i’ve heard my fellow classmates go on and do… i think it’s leaning towards the ‘money money’ thing.

as for the program, we did talk about CSR last semester in one of my classes and had to write a pro/con stance paper on it. of course it was probably the worse class i’ve had so far b/c the prof was horrible. absoulte disappointment… just read off ppt slides that i doubt he wrote and told us stories about his previous students and his son. none of which were very interesting and while some could have been relevant, he didn’t dig deep enough to make them so. when towards the end of semester he emailed us all to say he wouldnt be marking the final papers b/c of a death in his family, we were all happy (i wasn’t the only one who thought his class was a waste of time).

anyway… a long rambling rant to say CSR doesn’t seem to be promoted here at all.

thesis proposal

i’ve decided the school is absolutely insane. let me review for you the process surrounding the thesis, or project as they like to call it, and you can make the call yourself.

you enroll in a class that runs 5 weeks. during those 5 weeks you are supposed to decide on a topic, research it, complete the literature review, find a company to work with, write the entire proposal (which is due in week 4) and give the class a presentation (in week 5).

yes, a 18k word document that i’m going to spend 2 semesters researching and writing and that hopefully will help me do something with my life to be decided that quickly.

i thought it was pretty insane when they first told me that (during class #1). at that first class is when they inform you. they never tell you this previously even though i signed up for the class 4 months ago and talked to the advisor person almost a year ago to see what i should be doing to prep for this.

i should have turned in my written proposal last wed but we were given a 2 wk extension since pretty much everyone in class is lost. the class itself is also pretty lame. when i did my masters @ the new school i took a research class that was eons better than this. this is reallly slack and crap and i think my time could be put to better use.

but anyway… i had been procrastinating actually writing something because i’m assuming the company i work with will help craft this research. at least that’s what i hope since i want it to be useful to someone. well, ive decided i really need to write the thing since it’s due in a week so i’ve spent pretty much all day reading more, doing lots of mind maps, writing out research questions and really getting a grasp on this.

i feel really good about it. but i still feel like i have a hell of a lot of work to do before next wed.

i also don’t think i’ll have a company before then either (which means i’ll have to submit a rewrite when that happens). i was talking to one of the guys in my class who’s in the same situation and we’ve kind of come to the same conclusion. that this is an insane timeline.

he had a great thought though… he wants to use his proposal to help be his entry point with a company. right now we’re just approaching folks we don’t know, saying ‘hey! i’d like to do this!’ and we don’t even have the school backing us saying ‘we’ll also support this. we approve of this’.

a bit back asswards perhaps.

but i feel good after a very long productive day of working on this. still i havent written a word but i’m much more planful now.

and my horoscope for the day said… ‘Hold on to the hope in your heart and the vision in your mind. Despite all the obstacles you face, it IS attainable. Make the most of your every opportunity’.

disney

you knew this had to happen at some point…

some guy working at disney in a character suit is charged with fondling.

i wonder how well they can see out of those things. like how easily they could touch you w/o really knowing what they’re touching.

although when i was there a few years back and winnie was grabbing my ass while my boyfriend was taking a picture, i’m pretty sure s/he knew what was going on.

the l word

this tv show, the L word, has been getting some serious hype lately. it premiered last nite. i didn’t realise but it’s a showtime show. so i watched it and of course it’s pretty bad. but it might be great comedy. here’s my fav bit of the show last nite…

this couple (remember… they’re both GIRLS! oh my GOD!) pick up a boy to take home – b/c the one chick wants to get preggers. so they’re going at it and the guy pulls out a condom. the girls say no they dont want him to use one. and then he realises whats going on and sez

why is it the only time dykes want to sleep with men is when they want to steal their sperm?

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

conversations at work

i’m not happy about it but i waitress. its one of the few jobs who don’t care that i can only work 20 hours a week (visa condition). one of the good things (probably the only good thing) about it, is i get to meet a lot of people – including staff. the staff are almost all students (though pretty much all 15 years younger than i am).

tonite was filled with interesting conversation.

during our break, i was talking with this guy who was saying he has a date this week. he went on about how sweet the guy is and how cute and how he’s just his type. then he said how he doesn’t go on that many dates. that we shouldn’t get the wrong impression, it’s just been lately he’s gone on a few dates. he sez ‘dates are special’.

huh? there’s nothing special about dates. dates are about elimination.

thats when melody pointed out i must have gone out a lot.

hmmm. do i sound bitter?

the boy then went on about how the longest relationship he’s ever been in was a month and how he wants to be in one really badly. wants to have the one-ness, the comfortableness, security. it seemed very romantic and hopeful and made me feel bitter.

after work i was having drinks with 2 other coworkers. the one asks me if things are very ‘open’ in the states. she never specified but it sounded like she was asking from a sexual point of view. ie are we loose and liberated? turns out she has friends from home (orig from china) who have lived for a few months in the states and have changed into completely new people. she then asked if i owned a gun. the guy sitting in btwn us almost spit up his drink.

that’s not the first time i’ve been asked that quesiton.

ok. i need to get some sleep. 4am and i have to be in class at 11am.