University: high school of the 21st century

I originally thought at some point in university application procedures administration managed to weed out some of the future lower echelons of academia.

Then I realized that the only people in university were those who either a) had the money to be there, b) actually had some thirst for knowledge, or c) were either inheriting something big or stalling because they're foolish.

Today, in a 4th year class on international humanitarian law, we had one presenter who dressed up in a suit (?) and did a presentation on something that was not in any way about international humanitarian law.

For those who don't know, IHL is about the laws and rules which start to apply within an armed conflict. This suited man's presentation was on humanitarian intervention and about state sovereignty and human rights; which, is all prior to actually engaging in armed conflict.

Not to be outdone, the next presenter flubbed and accidentally said "prostitute" instead of "prosecute". His eloquence proceeded to stomp mercilessly on his time limit and the professor had no time to wrap up the class.

Also, people were pronouncing jus cogens - Juice Co-jens.

This post is so arrogant.

Sushi Party

Tonight my friend Alana hosted a sushi party, at which - to my surprise - we created and rolled our own sushi.

Well, duh; I suppose.

It was my impression that I would show up and gorge myself. Instead, I was expected to craft for myself these intricate little fake-crab concoctions covered in ocean weed.

All in all, it was excellent: excellent company, good music coming from the room behind my chair (read: stool, that's right Alana - I said it), and good food. I have no idea if Japanese food was going to sit well, but I had that impression about Korean food, and now I'm in love with all good foods of the Far East. It is my conclusion that Western food and meals are imbalanced, bland and tacky.

In other news, my sleeping pattern has taken a brutal smacking. Late nights and early shifts are obviously silly combinations to experiment with, though I'm sure I'll continue it.

Currently, I'm buffing up on international law, getting over a sore throat, and pondering what I'm doing this summer.

That's all.

Farewell Brother; Liberals

Canada is now big C for two reasons: 1) the country's name is Canada, and 2) the Conservative Party just won the federal election.

I am not elated, nor am I terribly surprised or disappointed. The big-(L) Liberals needed the boot and all the pundits are saying it's good for the country because eventually we'll sway back to the big-(L)'s after they've thought long and hard about what they did, and all will be remedied. I, for one, somewhat agree. I think the Conservatives face a lot of constraints to policy, but I'm still fearful they could throw their (light)weight around the Commons.

I feel good in a way, though, because my riding's NDP candidate - for whom I voted - won against two candidates I thought didn't deserve to win. Among other things, I also thought them pompous during the all-candidates debate when they mudslung each other as if the other parties didn't exist.

Arrogance beset arrogance; they brought themselves down.

In other news, my brother will fly to Korea on January 28, 2006, and will not gaze down upon Canadian soil for - what is most likely to be - at least a year. I will miss him. He's more than a brother; he's a BRO-ther. Also, his friends are excellent and when we got festive in Guelph this past weekend in his honour, they treated me like, well, his brother - one of the family.

I haven't posted here in a while, mainly because I thought I would reserve this to totally serious posts.

I've relented on that.