Fighting Spirit

evilwildlex — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:26:50 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians on my friendslist. :)

I am going to visit family today and hopefully have a huge turkey dinner.

evilwildlex — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:15:25 GMT

Happy Canada Day!

I am...not doing anything in particular today. ^_^;; But I did apply to ten jobs. Hopefully at least a couple of them will call me back next week.

evilwildlex — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:17:47 GMT

help_japan is a fandom auction where people can donate various creations and others can bid on them, provide proof of donation to one of the approved charities, and receive art/fanfic/etc.

This is my bid post. In case anyone wanted to commission me for a good cause. ^^

I've still been applying to jobs with no luck, so I thought I would do something worthwhile with my free time.

evilwildlex — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:01:07 GMT

Life is going pretty good so far. I like that the gym I'm signed up in is walking distance from the house and my membership is prepaid for the year. I've been making an effort to go regularly. In the past week, I've been there three times and on other days I've still tried to go out walking or do some physical activity at home.

I have been slacking a bit on studying, although it's kind of a hard test to study for because of the scope of what can appear on there. I've studied the 50 most common GRE words, and quite a few besides that (I have flashcards and such). I'm going to write a few timed practice essays and work on some of the reading comprehension samples. I don't have much hope for my mathematical ability, but the math section is multiple choice, thankfully.

Midnight is getting more used to the house. Sadly, Isis and Bastet are not getting anymore used to Midnight, and they're even trying to bully her a little. O_o Which is kind of funny considering that Midnight could very easily beat them up if she wanted to, and has actually been very, very good with them since she knows she's the new cat in their territory.

evilwildlex — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:34:20 GMT

Phew! Although there will still be plenty of unpacking to do, I am glad to say that I won't have to be doing any cleaning and moving tomorrow. This is good. My arms, legs, neck and back currently hate me.

I'm at my parents' place in Brampton, staying for about the next year.

Midnight is here now. She's kind of freaking out and has been hiding under my bed (I think she likes my room best so far because at least the scents are mostly familiar to her here). I've given her food under the bed for today, and I might have to bring her litterbox into my room for today. Blech. At least it's just been changed.

Isis and Bastet promptly greeted Midnight with a hiss when I first brought her in, but they're at least not handling it any worse than we really expected. Mom's keeping the girls in her room with her while she reads for the evening so that if Midnight does explore, it won't be in a hostile environment just yet.

With the GRE looming on the horizon (September 15th), I'm not going to put too much effort into job hunting just yet. I'll put my name into some job agencies, and I'll check around local offices. I'm going to also call the Ontario Disability Support office to investigate what I have to do to get myself identified as a person with a medical disability that is able to work...but that needs certain accommodations. The key ones are a) a job that will allow me to sit nearly the whole time, and b) I have to be allowed to eat small amounts of food regularly.

evilwildlex — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:11:27 GMT

I'm on a roll lately for solving minor but annoying technical problems.

I fixed my mom's wireless connection even though it's a Mac and I know next to nothing about using Macs, and I got rid of the annoying Rogers spyware crap that was redirecting Firefox to their website and not letting me go to my homepage (which is my email login). My computer is now moved into my parents' house and the desk and everything else is set up. (Holy crap, that desk. X_X I'm lucky both my dad and my brother were around to help me move it - it's heavy).

SO TIRED TODAY. I spent the majority of the day moving and cleaning and fixing computer crap. The good news is that the bulk of the moving I had to do is done, so now it's just the leftover stuff and then moving Midnight in here with me.

On the other hand, the fact that I could handle doing as much as I did today at ALL is a step in the right direction. I'm sore but not unmanageably so.

My degree is mounted on my bedroom wall here. It's a nice reminder that if nothing else, I have accomplished one major thing in my life and I pulled it off while working a part time job and feeling like absolute crap a lot of the time. *gives self a tiny pat on the back for that*

Wednesday is the first lab meeting for the music and cognition study. That should be interesting. I'll have to figure out my availability.

evilwildlex — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:58:47 GMT

I'm glad that I never got around to donating a few pairs of pants that I had previously outgrown. They fit better than most of my jeans now. Oops.

Note to self: You do not need new jeans. You do, however, need a belt or two to avoid having to do the "tug the jeans up" dance on a regular basis.

evilwildlex — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:26:10 GMT

I've discovered something interesting courtesy of browsing medical websites. Apparently, there is a co-relation between a couple of my medical conditions. Blood sugar issues (hypoglycemia and certain kinds of diabetes) can be a cause of low blood pressure.

I looked this up after checking my blood pressure today on the pharmacy machine. My systolic was okay, but my diastolic was almost half what's actually healthy. @_@ 109/42. (Healthy is 120/80, and if the systolic is below 90 or the diastolic is below 60, it's considered unhealthy)

The low diastolic means that blood isn't being pumped effectively into my arteries and that it isn't carrying oxygen effectively to the rest of my body, hence the fainting.

My mom, by contrast, has pretty high blood pressure. We go to the same doctor, so we've been instructed to get a blood pressure cuff to share. Fortunately, mom is covered under dad's insurance so instead of paying $140 plus tax for it, it'll be more like $15-$20.

Since I have a blood sugar monitor already (although I stopped using it regularly as soon as my doctor said I didn't have to because pricking your finger multiple times per day = ouch), I have a plan. For two weeks, I'm going to put myself on a semi-strict diet. Not strict in terms of volume of what I eat, but strict in the sense of eating healthy stuff and no sugary junk.

I have already made dietary improvements, but I want to be semi-scientific about this. I want to see if I feel better after following every single bit of medical advice for my medical conditions to a T, and I'm going to make note of my blood sugar and blood pressure a couple of times per day.

evilwildlex — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:00:08 GMT

I was glad to be able to go to lunch on Saturday as part of Dexcon. I had fun and I have to say that the salad at The Pilot was one of the best salads I've ever eaten at a restaurant. We were...probably the only people in the entire place under 50 years old, but hey. We kept to our own corner and talked, and everyone else sat and watched the jazz quartet.

X__X My stomach has been hating on me for the past few days. I've decided to be extremely careful with what I eat from now until I get better, and if it keeps up for more than a week from now, I'll call my doctor.

I signed myself up for a gym membership at the gym that's walking distance from my parents' place. I got a pretty good deal on the membership - it works out to about $28 a month for the first year, and it's written into my contract that if I continue on afterwards, my rate will be locked in at $10 a month for at least another year after. Yay anniversary promotion! I had a membership at that gym when it first opened, and it's got way more cardio equipment than the gym at York university. Notably, you also do not have to pay anything extra for classes.

I already warned them about my medical issues, and apparently since I have a medic alert bracelet and have already talked to my doctor about being able to work out (in fact, I'm supposed to), all is good there. I'm supposed to bring it up at my fitness assessment but that's about it.

evilwildlex — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:47:44 GMT

Murrghh. If I don't get into graduate school this time around, I think I'm going to work for roughly 2-5 years and save up before giving it another shot. I'm pretty good at saving up and holding off on things in order to pursue a greater goal. This is also one small side benefit of being legally unable to drive - until my fainting has cleared up in full for a minimum of two years, getting my license and a car (and therefore car payments, gas, and insurance) are not happening.

Preparing for the GRE is frustrating because there's just so much vocabulary and math to study for, and so many essay topics you can possibly have to write about (there's 250 of each type of topic). At least I feel like I'm preparing better this time around than last time. I started earlier, I've been making flash cards...main thing I need to do is get some math tutoring. I even set up a test date that was early enough to be able to schedule another 2 months later and still have it completed well in advance of my application deadlines.

All I can do is try my best, I suppose.

evilwildlex — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:55:50 GMT

Getting caught in a downpour and my clothing soaked through + over an hour on a frigidly air conditioned bus = Lex coming down with a summer cold.

I've had chills all evening even with long pants on, and my housecoat on over my t-shirt and pants. D'oh!

evilwildlex — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:22:42 GMT

I'm seeing the Legally Blonde musical tonight. :)

Uh. Not really much to add except I really need to do something about my sleep schedule.

evilwildlex — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:47:09 GMT

I had my academic advising appointment today.

It was somewhat helpful. Some of it just confirmed things I had guessed on my own, but some of the suggestions the advisor had to offer were helpful.

For example, she suggested getting a math tutor and taking some of the statistic seminars available to show on my graduate applications that yes, I know this is a weakness of mine, but I am trying to overcome it.

She also suggested not only looking up professors at York to volunteer with, but also professors at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University - and if they have something published, find it and talk to them about it.

She gave me a link to a site that would have been incredibly helpful a couple of years ago. X__X It was about preparing to graduate, and talked all about the GRE and how to prepare for it and such.

evilwildlex — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:38:05 GMT

I'm ridiculously exhausted right now. Or maybe not so ridiculous when you consider how poorly I slept last night.

I should probably drag myself to bed even if some part of me resists the idea of going to bed before midnight when I don't have to work or get up early the next day.

It looks like LJ actually listened to their users this time, because I don't see ONTD on the main page anymore. I'm glad to see this. As deathpixie and others have said, anyone who wanted to see ONTD would just join the community. I guess LJ realized how many of their paid users they were pissing off with this latest stunt and acted accordingly.

evilwildlex — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:39:53 GMT

There was a power outage in my area last night. It hit about 2:30am and power wasn't restored until around 7:30am. I barely slept until then because it was so hot and yucky.

I count myself very fortunate that the majority of my food was still fine in the freezer and fridge. The meat was a bit sketchy so I've thrown that out and will have to buy some more. Otherwise, though, it seems okay.

I had anticipated a worst-case scenario of having to replace everything there, so I'm grateful that I don't have to buy that much extra food. I am also grateful that while I got hit with a nasty headache from the humidity last night, it did not turn into a full blown migraine. (I was ready for that possibility, though - had my migraine medication right there on the top of my dresser so I wouldn't have go to looking for it)

evilwildlex — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:42:01 GMT

On a much happier and non-complaining note, I may have a research opportunity for one or two studies. Not as a participant, but as an actual researcher. :D I don't know if it will be paid or not - if I'm interviewed, pay will determine how many hours per week I'm willing to make available to them.

If it's paid, even if it's minimum wage, I'm willing to offer them full time availability for the sake of it being something in my actual field that will also help bolster my second attempt at graduate applications. Not only would it help my application status since I'd be working with a professor, but it would also give me the chance to gain work experience in the field.

If it's not paid, then I can't offer full time availability because I do need to be making some money. Just because my parents are going to let me live in their house for a year rent free doesn't mean I can afford to not make any money. I still have personal expenses, and graduate school to save up for. But I've already talked to them and they agree - relevant volunteer experience and a part time job somewhere > full time work in a completely irrelevant job.

I'm going to also look into volunteering for CAMH.

evilwildlex — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:24:35 GMT

Ugh. The ONTD feed on livejournal's main page and when you log in is annoying me. I'm sending in a letter to LJ support in the hopes that maybe they'll make it optional for people once they have logged in.

I'm asking them how to get rid of it so I don't have to look at it, pointing out that part of the reason I have a paid account is so that I don't have to see ads, so why should I have to look at constant promotion of a community I have no interest in. I'm also pointing out that the livejournal spotlight is much more useful to prospective users because it shows you what kind of communities are out there.

If you're also unhappy about this latest change, please take a couple of minutes to contact LJ and let them know how you feel. Especially if you're a paid user - money talks and if they think they're going to lose revenue because of this, they'll probably find some sort of solution faster.

evilwildlex — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:10:26 GMT

Ugh. After reading numerous bad reviews for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, I've decided that I would rather see the latest Twilight movie than watch this film. And I don't even like Twilight. (Sorry to people who do like it - I find Twilight problematic and do not understand why it's as popular as it is) At least with that movie franchise, they don't seem bent on pissing off as much of their fanbase as possible by changing around key aspects of the plot.

I probably won't watch either movie anyhow, but. Uh. Wow. Racefail, sexismfail and characterization fail all in one movie. I'm not even downloading this crap.

evilwildlex — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:52:56 GMT

http://evilwildlex.deviantart.com/art/Nice-guys-don-t-finish-last-169519379

Rock Lee and Sakura fanart that took a ridiculous amount of time between start to finish. XD

evilwildlex — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:23:44 GMT

O.o My sense of time is distorted. For some reason, I thought tomorrow was Canada day instead of Thursday.

Oh well. Weather forcast for tomorrow looks decent, so maybe I'll head down to the Science Centre tomorrow. I think I might call ahead of time to ask what time of the day it's busiest and filled with children so that I can avoid going then, and go when it's a bit quieter instead. I don't hate kids, but I do hate being around a lot of kids in any given place.

evilwildlex — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:17:22 GMT

I worked out today. My original goal was 45 minutes of cardio plus my stretching and the walking to and from the gym. I was close but just a little shy of that. I made it to 38 minutes and then I got really dizzy. While random points of feeling dizzy are common enough for me, I'm usually fine on cardio machines. Suffice to say, in the spirit of not passing out on the elliptical trainer, I cut my workout a little short. I still had about 10 minutes of stretching time and about 40 minutes of walking, so all in all, yay. Exercise.

My parents are going out west for about 16 days - there's family in Alberta and British Columbia, and there's a couple of family friends to see in BC as well. I've instructed them to take photos of people since I haven't seen most of these relatives for years.

Not much else of note going on with me lately, except for the delicious dinner I had over at deathpixie and dexfarkin's place. Thanks for having me over, guys. Dex, you do, indeed, have mad cooking skillz.

I need to make up a to-do list. I don't always get everything done (in fact, there's frequently at least one thing that doesn't), but I'm more productive when I write them.

I am a graduate!

evilwildlex — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:12:16 GMT

I got my honours degree. I wish I could say I felt a greater sense of accomplishment than I did, but I was disappointed in myself for not making the honour roll for graduating. I was close - I was annoyingly close. Had I just gotten one less C and received a B+ or an A in its place, my overall average would have been good enough. I didn't even have many Cs, but three or four over several years is still enough to sink one's average.

Still, it is an accomplishment and I need to treat it as such. I am now more employable than I was a few months ago.

Some parts of the convocation ceremony were well organized. Some were not impressive. For one, the convocation staff I had spoken to a week ahead of time told me to bring $62 in cash to pay for my graduation gown rental. A bit overpriced, but hey. I brought it with me only to be told that they didn't accept cash, couldn't I pay with a debit or credit card instead? I was politely insistent and since I did have exact change they eventually let me pay by cash.

Then the staff suddenly announced that oh no, I wouldn't be allowed to bring my purse in. Apparently, by virtue of this information being somewhere on the graduation website, every single graduate was supposed to know. Meanwhile, at least 10% of the female graduates had to make last minute arrangements, and a few people had to smuggle their purses under their grad gowns because they couldn't find their family members.

It didn't inconvenience me personally, but another stupid thing was the university not allowing families of the graduates to bring flowers in because they were selling flowers in the convocation pavillion. I thought it was cheap of the university as well as rude of them to not inform people in advance about this.

Other parts of the ceremony were handled well and overall the ceremony was good. Most of the problems could have been solved, in my opinion, by providing graduates with clear instructions via email/letter mail. I think I might see about who I should contact to file a short, polite complaint about their lack of effort in informing students about things they needed to know about their graduation.

evilwildlex — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:04:12 GMT

I'm graduating tomorrow. I'm making sure to wear something I won't sweat miserably in and then bringing a sweater in case there's air conditioning cranked up to account for all the people there in one place.

Most likely choice is ye old strappy black dress and a set of flat dress shoes. I look awkward in heels unless I'm just standing in one place or unless they're really thick chunky heels with proper tread on them. It's kind of like...a step up from a baby colt learning how to walk, but still pretty awkward. I never claimed that my grace and balance were anything admirable. ^__~

evilwildlex — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:59:06 GMT

Iron Man 2 was pretty good. I liked the first one better, but it was still entertaining enough to see in the theatre instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD.

On another subject entirely, I would love to start a band sometime. Unfortunately, the fainting thing is still happening pretty regularly, so that's probably a no-go for now.

evilwildlex — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:36:33 GMT

Worked out yesterday. Also, booked the GRE general test. Hopefully I will do better this time around now that I know what to expect. I have a better idea of how to study for it, anyhow.

I should probably check the requirements for other universities I'm thinking of applying to, to see if they require the subject test. I really hope not. The subject test is more of a pain in the ass than the general test.

Overcast weather makes me amazingly lethargic.

I'm going to see Iron Man 2 tonight, finally. I never got to see How to Tame Your Dragon in theatres, so I didn't want to miss seeing this one in theatres, too.