Momentous Occasions are Momentous

I bring tidings of great joy, and I come bearing gifts! No, it's not Christmas all over again (although there's still snow on the ground in Banff), it's the return of my blog!

Well, sort of.

I won't promise on making regular posts again, but so much has happened in the last little while that an appearance became necessary. We're gonna do this in numbered format to make things more interesting and easy to follow, savvy?

1. I've been accepted to McGill University's Urban Planning programme for 2013! I'll be moving to Montreal at the end of August, where I'll be living for about two years. After that I want to head back to British Columbia, but two years ago I would have laughed at you had you told me I'd be living in Banff in the near future, so we'll see what happens.

2. I actually finished something accomplished a predetermined goal on Protagonize! Over the last few days I've posted both a new chapter and the epilogue to the rough draft of my story Red King Chronicles. It is by no means a finished story, though, hence I amended my above statement to say I reached a goal. Close to the beginning of the year I decided that I needed to do a complete rewrite of the story: new intro, new back story for Jason, new sequence of events, new a lot of things. However, I told myself that I wouldn't start the editing process until after I brought the current draft full circle to the prologue. I have now done that and am looking for critique. So, have at 'er!

3. After a year and a half of collection dust, there's finally a new chapter in Elsie! I had to reread the entire story myself before continuing on, but my the fires of my inspiration have been stoked. I drafted a chapter outline for the latest chapter and the following chapter, possibly two following chapters. I've got the conflict sorted out, so now I just need to figure out how to resolve said conflict and eventually bring the story to a close. I'm being optimistic about this one, for once.

4. Caramel Tim Tams were in stock at the grocery store so I'm doing Caramel Tim Tam Slams! Be excited for me.

5. I still feel that lists should contain multiples of five, so...

And that's all!

photo by me

Music Monday: This Circle of Life

On July 23rd, 2011, I did a lot of sitting. I sat in cars, I sat on the ferry between Victoria and Vancouver, I sat in the international departures terminal at Vancouver International Airport, and I sat in a China Eastern flight to Singapore.

It's hard to believe I've now come full circle.

A lot has happened in those 365 days. I've moved to and from Singapore, visited seven different countries, finished my undergraduate degree, moved out of home a little more permanently, and met many, many new people.

There's not really too much I want to say right now, or even have to say, so I'll just skip to the music.

Disney's The Lion King was probably the first film I ever saw in theatres. I loved it then, and love it to this day. The song it made famous came on randomly today, and it pulled on something inside me. I thought it only fitting to choose "The Circle of Life" as my Music Monday track.

Officially Official

That angsty blog post has been sitting at the top of the page for too long, so here's a bit of good news to replace it.

I'm officially graduated now! Just had my convocation ceremony yesterday afternoon, complete with gown and mortarboard, at UBC's Okanagan campus. Walked the stage, got my photos, and accepted a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies, Minor in Geography. In total, there were six of us graduating from the Cultural Studies programme, but I was joined by 436ish Arts and Fine Arts graduates who attended the ceremony. Biggest grad class so far at UBCO, I believe, in all faculties. Guess I'm an alumni, eh?

There's a second piece of good news, but you gotta wait a bit for that tidbit. Sorry!

photo by the University of British Columbia

Angsty Unemployment Cycle

Permission to rant? Thanks.

This whole job search thing is terrible. Apparently someone forgot to tell me back in 2nd year that I should really look hard for unpaid summer internships. 'Cause guess what? You can't have 'em once you graduate!

Seriously. I'm pretty much unemployable because of my degree. If I wasn't finished, ie: still a student, I could have all the jobs. Or at least one of the many jobs I have wanted to apply for, locally and elsewhere. The problem? As a graduate, I don't qualify for the federal youth employment program thing. Not unless I can prove enrolment in full time studies for the fall. Which I can't, 'cause, y'know, I've graduated. I have a degree. In the field I want to apply to work in. But can't. Because I'm not a student. And here we are back at square one.

I hate this.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to be employed, am content working at the Gap, and enjoy the freedoms and challenges that my position affords. I am simply frustrated that I can't improve the quality of my grad school applications through job experience. Maybe I'm just impatient, maybe I'm being too particular in my endeavours.

But something at least remotely relevant to my choice of career path would be nice, y'know? Lesighe.

photo by Lisa

That University I Attended

It's been such an important part of my lift these last four years, so I thought I might as well share it with you all. I talk about UBCO quite a bit, and a lot of the people I know have never even seen the place. So here's a video that UBC made to promote the Okanagan campus. It shows a bit of the city and region I live in, too, which is always interesting. Now, if only they would tell me what to do now that I have that degree. Hmm.

Done Done Done

So I've finished all my courses and papers and exams now. In just under two months the University of British Columbia will hand me my very expensive piece of paper, proclaiming to the world that I have been transformed from Jordan Rockerbie to the new and improved Jordan Rockerbie, B.A.

Uhm, now what?

Well, I've got no real answers to that one. According to CanadianBusiness.com I'm a part of the lucky generation with the least job prospects and highest unemployment rate in Canada since 1976 when someone decided to start making statistics on it. Hurrah?

So I'm staying at the slightly above minimum wage retail job that I've had for five years and looking for other things to fill the gap. And not the income gap, but the experience gap. I'm also a part of the generation that has seen the highest ever Masters programme enrolment (and will therefore likely have the most student debt of any generation). So in order to get ahead, I have the joy of trying to network my way into volunteer or unpaid positions in my actual field of study. Again, hurrah.

So, uh, let's just say that the future holds absolutely no certainty at this point. For me and all the other graduates in the last few years. Canada, I hope you have some sort of plan up your sleeves to deal with us before everyone with an education up and leaves. Aieah.

Procrastination Station

It's that time of year again! Time to do everything that's not related to writing research papers.

That's right, I'm at it again, leaving things to the last minute. This time around I've got a research proposal and a research paper due the same day next week. The proposal is for an evaluation of several parks in Victoria, and the actual paper is an argument for the removal of a rail bed in Kelowna. The funny thing is, I'm actually really enjoying the research process.

I just hate the writing part.

So what am I doing instead, then? Glad you asked!

Yesterday I went to the Kelowna community climate action plan open house, and tomorrow I'm attending the Thompson-Okanagan climate action exchange. Both things are actually useful as networking tools, though, so I can say that these are constructive distractions from my academics.

I also managed to fill up nearly every evening for the next week until the papers are due, leading me to believe that I could be a closet masochist. I picked up a day shift on Saturday, might go out for dinner after that, am going out for dinner with my volleyball team on Sunday, am supporting some friends' volunteer fundraising efforts by having a burger and beer on Monday night, am attending another friend's birthday dinner Tuesday night, and will be visiting another civic open house event on Wednesday, which may or may not be followed by a second burger and beer fundraising dinner out.

And then the papers are due Thursday. Aieah. I have my work cut out for me, apparently.


image from someecards.com

Music Monday: Off the Wall

So this is gonna be another one of the short Music Monday posts. Sorry, but spring means end of term, so I have papers to write and finals to study for. Well, one final, but that's beside the point. Suffice to say I am a very busy boy (or at least try to be), with academics and graduation and job hunting and moving at the end of April. Aieah.

So here's another spring-y song that I fell in love with the moment I saw the video. It's "Off the Wall" by French electronic artist Yuksek. The video is below, as well of the making of video, which is almost just as good and quite intriguing to watch. You'll see what I mean if you take the time to watch both of them. Cheers!

Not just a Coffee Shop

I learned something thing week. This shouldn't really come as a surprise, since I'm currently attending university, but I learned an important thing this week. At least, important to me.

What did I learn? There's a geographic term for places such as public parks, coffee shops, and lounges. They're called "third places." I'll explain. It's really quite simple.

The first place is where you live. The second place is where you work. And the third place is where you gather. They're seen as increasing important places as the world urbanizes, with one product of urbanization being the shrinking of so-called first places, and the fluidity between the first and second places. In plain terms, apartment-dwellers tend to lack suburban luxuries, such as large rooms for entertaining and back yards, and with telecommunications people can work from home. It's why coffee shops are so successful in the city.

The big characteristic of third places is that they are venues for social interaction. They're a place to hang out, to have a chat, to meet and mingle. If you've ever attended a write-in, you likely met in one of these places.

So that's basically my big revelation of the week. Can you tell I'm looking at doing urban and community planning?

Now that we've established what a third place is, have you got one? Mine is Blenz downtown, as I've said in a previous post.

photos by Billie Hara, me

Caffeine Creativity

It's that time of year again, where I hunker down and work tirelessly on term papers and research projects. Except that this year I only have one research project on the go, so the only hunkering down I gotta do is the sort that forces me to be productive.

Luckily, I have found the source of many creative juices: Blenz!

Yes, it's a coffee shop. It's my new locale of productivity, as it is impossible for me to get anything done while at home. Why? Because when I'm at home I procrastinate, most often through the internet and cleaning. At Blenz, the free WiFi requires a new password every hour or so from the barista people, and even though I am friends with a barista person there it is enough of a hassle for me to not both with WiFi. I also cannot clean while I'm there, although I am sure my aforementioned barista friend would love me to. Not happening, sorry.

So I get stuff done. I read through articles and take notes while sipping on a maple latte macchiato. And when I feel I've done enough work, I figure out plans for Protagonize. That's right, Declan's coffee shop habits are totally based on my own. We even sit in the same spot. His coffee preference was identical to mine at the time of writing, but I have since embraced my love of dairy products in coffee. Future personal assistants take note.

Those of you who follow my writing on Protagonize, I should have a chapter in RKC up sometime this evening, and by the end of the week I want to have one other chapter posted in something else. I totally know what it is, and I have a chapter premise, but I don't know what else will happen in it. That's for me to figure out and you to find out later, 'cause mystery chapter is a surprise! I'm not gonna tell you what story it will be for, but it will be posted in one of my existing stories without a doubt. Be intrigued!

photo by mag3737

Tripping Out: Anticipation

One of the main reasons I chose to study abroad in Singapore was the opportunity to travel. These are the trips I have lined up before the semester ends.

Pulau Tioman is in Malaysia, and will provide me with my first real tropical island get-away since arriving in Singapore. Yes, this is an island in the tropics too, but it doesn't have beaches like Malaysia! And that Indonesia trip was a beach-less disaster. Fun, but a disaster. I'm hitting Tioman for a weekend at the end of the month.

I just booked a flight to Macau for the middle of November, during the reading week before exams. I know, I know, I'm supposed to study during reading week. Pfft. Whatever. I'm an exchange student, I'm expected to be a slacker here. So it's off to Macau!

And just what is Macau, you ask? It was (apparently) the first European colony in Asia, settled by the Portuguese. It was also the last colony to be abandoned, which occurred in 1999 in a hand-off similar to Hong Kong. Now it's regarded as the Las Vegas of Asia. Should be fun!

After Macau I'm hopping a ferry to neighbouring Hong Kong, which will make up for the bulk of my reading break trip. I honestly have no idea what to expect in Hong Kong, aside from Disneyland (and yes, I am planning to go) and dim sum.

Counting down the days is difficult, especially knowing how much I have to get through before I leave on this trip. Namely two small group projects due in the next week or so, a paper due on the 7th of November, and two papers due the 8th of November. Ack! Hard to believe it'll all be over in two months.

photos by CW Ye, Toby Simkin, and Ed Coyle

on Academia

Let's review. I'm studying at the National University of Singapore, taking courses in Geography of Development, Southeast Asian Geography, Japanese Mass Media, and the Culture Industries. Well, now that I'm halfway through the semester (gulp!) the essays are starting to make their way into my life. I've already written one and have done a proposal for another. And, as is usually the case with my work, the topics seem somewhat random and irrelevant to my desired end goal: urban planning.

So, just what am I writing papers on this semester?

The socio-economic effects of tourism and the decline of agriculture in Costa Rica. I'm not too sure either, but it merited a B+ despite not making much sense at all. In a nutshell, I argued that the last decade or so of development work in Costa Rica has not benefited the general population but rather deepened and reinforced existing power inequalities. Yeah, I may or may not have taken economics in one hand and cultural studies in the other and then hit the keyboard frantically.

The growth and maintenance of the film and television industries in Vancouver and the effects this has on Hollywood authenticity. This one is the proposal, so I'm not sure at all where my research will take me or what the final paper will actually be about. Right now I'm just throwing buzz words at the prof in hopes that it'll look like what I'm doing has relevance and enough existing academic literature to make a decent paper out of. If all else fails I'll write about X-Men. Fingers crossed!

Maritime territory disputes in the South China Sea. Finally, something that is simple and makes complete sense. It's exactly what it sounds like: political geography. More or less I'll be looking at the relationships among Southeast Asian nations and China and the way that claims to land in the South China Sea are made and handled. Huzzah for simplicity!

A comparison of magazine advertisements between GQ UK/US and GQ Japan. Another rather straight forward topic, but again only in the proposal stage so I'm not even sure if it will happen. Everything rides on me being able to get my hands on a copy of either the British or American issue of GQ to complement the Japanese issue that is more readily available. What exactly the paper will entail I won't know until I have a change to go through the magazines and have a eureka! moment. 




first photo by novelpursuit, second photo by Rose Robinson, third photo by shapour bahrami, fourth photo by the US Navy, fifth image by .HEI

Gaming in Singapore

Yesterday I participated in the interfaculty games at NUS, a "friendly" tournament among the different faculties here. I vice-captaining the volleyball team for the University Scholars Program. We had a good time and managed to pull of some reaaaaally close games and a single win. In addition to my vice-cap duties (which were none, really), I also ran the drills and played the part of setter. Yah, me: the middle block. It was quite the change!

So here's the team photo, try to pick out who I am, hahah.

photo by a friend

Oh, Academia

I wouldn't say that I've been neglecting my blog, but I certainly have been a little quiet the last while. Sure, I'm getting my Music Monday posts up and the occasional update, but nothing really major. Why? 'Cause I'm in school. Week four is just ending. I have papers due on the 16th. I have assignments and projects. I have reading out the whazoo. Do people even say whazoo? I'm not even sure any more, lah.

Academics is odd here, at least for me and some of the other exchange students I've spoken to about it. I keep forgetting I'm not on vacation. I keep having to remind myself that I really am in school now, being graded, and not just attending interesting lectures that I get to forget the next morning. This is real life, though it often doesn't seem that way.

So now the readings and assignments are starting to pile up, and I have less and less time to explore this amazing city or travel around. Dunwan lah, have plan oreddi! And yes, I'm trying to pick up some Singlish while I'm here.

On that note, I better wrap this up and do some homework stuff. Whahoo.

photo by mollyali

Making Connections - Molly Millions & Quorra

Being a university student with some background in Literature and focusing on Culture Studies, I'm accustomed to making connections between and among texts. For instance, the character of Molly Millions in Gibson's novel Neuromancer. In his vision of the cyberpunk future, she is the definition of a femme fatale, a former prostitute turned "Razorgirl," a cyber-samurai if you will.

Of course, the only representation of Molly is on the cover of the novel, where we only see her face. The descriptions in the various books she appears in, though, have allowed fans to conjure a likeness that is more-or-less accepted.  Anyway, Neuromancer is one of those novels that influenced a great many things. Heck, it included the internet before it even existed (Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" himself).

Enter the world of Tron, a community existing within a computer system. The parallels between the Tron franchise and classic cyberpunk are quite apparent. I'd like to look at the character of Quorra, though: she's the Molly Millions of the film. Her appearance is similar, her fighting skills are similar, and she, too, is taught amidst an Asian-inspired aesthetic. Huh.


art by deadinsane, Neuromancer cover art (c) Ace 1984, Tron: Legacy movie still (c) Walt Disney Pictures

Global Climate Change

This is gonna be a short one, I think, though I have the potential to ramble on for quite a while. It's about climate change. But it's not about whether it's real or not. I don't care about that right now. I mean, I'm writing this beside a window that gives me a clear view of the foot of fresh snow outside (which I love, by the way. Not complaining about it yet!).

So what, then, am I wanting to say? This: there are mummified trees in the Arctic Circle. Scratch that, mummified forests. The logical conclusion is that at one time there were forests up there, meaning no ice. We're talking big trees, here, so the climate was right for large-scale plant growth for a substantial period of time.

Really, that's all I wanted to say. Yah, the polar ice is melting, and the slight increases in temperature and global sea level are wreaking some havoc with ecosystems and weather fronts, but who's to say that's unnatural now? A little threatening to us land mammals, sure. But if there were Arctic forests before, why not again?

photo by IngoEs

my Year in Review

First off, this idea (and title?) was stolen from a friend of mine. I like to swipe things like that. Here's what I got up to the last 12 months.

Is there an equivalent to Wednesdays in university degrees? As of January, I was officially at the hump-day of my degree program: 5 terms down, 5 to go. I'm not sure whether I was relieved or even more stressed because of it.

February brought Olympic good times as I spent part of my reading break up in Whistler with some friends. Mittens were worn, events were watched, beers were consumes, and I was hassled over and over about where I managed to pick up my Team Canada hoodie.

Did anything happen in March? Anything at all? The only thing I can think of is that I ate copious amounts of phở, but I do that every month. Well, did that until the phở place became blacklisted. I'm not bitter. Not bitter at all.

This picture isn't exactly accurate, but in April the hard drive in my laptop decided to die (finally?) after four years of service. However, it chose to die in the middle of exams and term papers, and in Kel where my XP boot disks were not. Long story short, I'm now an Ubuntu convert with extreme loyalty to Western Digital.

Even though my school year had only just ended, in May I began looking at the opportunities that I would have this year. And what should catch my eye but an exchange program to NUS. I've been obsessing over it since.

The Canadian group Thunderheist broke up in June, and I had the privilege of attending their last show in Vancouver. Honestly, it was one of the best performances I have seen, and I am so sad that they won't be touring or even making music anymore. Oh, and I turned 21. Minor detail.

Although I go to school in the Okanagan, I had never been there in the summer, when it is at the peak of awesome. In July I flew out to Kel and went camping with a bunch of friends and was finally able to experience an Okanagan summer. Rad.

August brought many of my RA friends back together, after four extremely long months apart (besides the ones I saw in July, heh). More rad people, more rad camping, and rad memories to boot. Mad rad.

I got my first tattoo shortly after I turned 19, and a week later I decided that I hated it. After many years mulling designs, I settled on a Russian firebird to cover the terrible tattoo up. I started the tattoo in September, accomplishing 3.5 hours of work in a single sitting.

October, of course, brought Halloween. I had a posse. Initially, I was a dragon. Then I was a dinosaur. By the end of the weekend, I was the Ogopogo. There were no costume changes. I'm just that awesome. We're just that awesome.

The most terrible month in the history of terrible months was November 2010. I had a very brief post about it, sharing the musicians who helped me through it all. I'm still not quite over what happened that month, but hopefully this new year will bring some healing.

I was finished with exams quite early in the month, so December became the month of movies. In theatres I saw Burlesque, Tron:Legacy, and Black Swan. Many others were screened from the comfort of my living room, or as movie marathons at friends' places. I really needed the down time after this year.




Garfield (c) Jim Davis, Whistler photo by me, phở photo by m0nyet, Thunderheist photo by wagepeace, Okanagan photo by trainboysd40, laser tag photo by a friend, tattoo design by laludia, costume photo by a friend, Chris Corner portrait by lora8, Black Swan poster (c) Fox Searchlight Pictures

the Regular Programming

Alright, I'm ditching the picture challenge series because I got bored of it. That sudden boredom may or may not be because of the next few days of awesome I have in store. It goes a little something like this.

Team project? Check. Two 10-page geography research papers? Check. Final exam in anthropology? Check. There's nothing left for me to do this term. Rad!

Everybody knows what Wednesday means. Heck yes you do. Wednesday means Wing Night, and I plan on hitting it for some buffalo-style lovin'. Mmm mmm!

Thursday morning I'm hitching a ride to Biggie to shred some gnar powpow. In more standard English, I'm going up to Big White to snowboard on all the fresh snow they've got. First time up in two years!

Friday Tronday is Tron day. I'll be watching the original at least once that afternoon before donning my Disney RealD glasses for the multidimensional experience that is Tron Legacy. Nerdgasm.

photos from around. Biggie photo by me.

a Picture Challenge: 10 - the Accomplice/s

The sis. Nothing much needs to be said here. We talk about how we're going to be bachelors together for goodness sake. Whether we're on an adventure to Wing Night Wednesday or stuffing our faces with goulash in the Czech Republic, we're always in cahoots.

The cuz. Post-midnight life chats? Check. Late night excursions to whatever fast food drive-through is still open? Check. (Illegal) Beers on the beach in summer? Check. Jersey Shore poses two years before the Jersey Shore? Check. We've got it all down.

The team. This was my RA team last year, and I miss them dearly! Well, except for the two who I still work with, but you get the feeling. We dealt with so much idiocy together, and had tonnes of good times after the fact.


photos by the sister, myself, and a team-mate.

on Icky-ness

I am sick. This makes me unhappy. I have an essay due and a presentation next week, but the most productive thing I've done for the past few days was put up Christmas lights and a two foot tree. Unless eating 300% of my recommended daily vitamin C counts as productive. Meh.

So yah, that's why things have been slow on ze blog. I'm not dead or anything. Dying, maybe, but not dead.

In the meantime, please enjoy the musical stylings and rad dance moves of Janelle Monae.