UGRC

This weekend was exceptionally academic for me. It was the Undergraduate Research Conference and I must say that I am blown away at the amount of research our little school has produced! So much of it wasn't even just a long analysis of the stuff that already exists, but brand spanking new research. Those geography and biology kids are nuts at it! Using never-before-seen maps and new growth experiments, they're really making headway in research. History students were I think the largest contingent present and were really good at doing new research with government documents, newspaper articles and other neat sources.

For the most part, everyone was a really good sport about the whole thing. There was no level of competition evident, at least, everyone was fair about it. Except for this one knob who "thought I really had the best paper, but I guess not". Way to be a part of the experience and be happy for others.

I would suggest in future years that others attending the sessions vote for who they thought did the best presentation. There was one I attended that I won't call foul on who won because of the moderator...but I'm going to call foul on who won because of the moderator. Inter-disciplinary sessions are great, but perhaps the value of others' research doesn't come across with certain moderators. I think if there was a vote, this would aid in awards. This is not to say that ONLY the votes would count, but at Model NATO the way it works is that the group nominates their favourite and the committee chair has their favourites and they work it out in some sort of democratic way. I think this would work too. In all fairness, this is probably not the way real conferences work, but I still think this would be a good idea.

All in all, it was a great experience and I'm so much more confident with my class presentation now that I've done it in front of a bunch of professors and other smart students. Now all I have to do is write another 15 pages on it. Huzzah.

It may only 9 degrees outside, but I still want to go outside and play. My brain hurts.

Sleepless in North Bay

I think we all know that writing at 3 am is rarely a good idea. But on a particularly homesick and academically depressed night, as I was going to sleep after feeling totally unproductive, I thought of 'Goodnight Moon'; remember that kids book about going to sleep? My mom used to read it to me when I was really little. I said goodnight to my pets, and it just went from there. Cheesy? Perhaps. But I like it.

Goodnight hamster, goodnight fish,
Goodnight empty supper dish.
Goodnight laptop, goodnight mouse,
Goodnight thin-walled, drafty house.
Goodnight books, goodnight notes,
Goodnight list of Diefenbaker quotes.
Goodnight flute, goodnight stand,
Goodnight stash of food that's canned.
Goodnight purse, goodnight paper piles,
Goodnight stuff I haven't seen in a while.
Goodnight papers, goodnight folders,
Goodnight tin of oranges that's just getting older.
Goodnight family, goodnight moon,
Tell them all I'll be home soon.

musings

I feel as though I've dropped off the face of the earth! I've never known myself to be this busy. Frankly I'm not surprised, I expected this, but it's such a bizarre feeling. To start off, after that NATO conference, my immune system decided to take a vacation and I got a nasty little cold that wouldn't go away. Trying to be productive with a head cold is like trying to shovel snow with a garden spade. It happens, but really slowly and with a lot of unnecessary effort.

Valuable thing I learned: There are many hard things when you are sick, but trying to write to your French teacher in French, when your language skills are weak at best was by far one of the hardest things I had to do with that cursed cold.

This was the first weekend I stayed fully in town in the last 5 weeks. Five weeks! I had my grandmother's funeral, the beginning of reading week, the end of reading week, the NATO conference, and then another family issue last weekend. I just wanted to stay put and not need to deal with anything, and I finally got my wish. It turned out really productively - I'm on page 23 of my 30 page thesis! Well, one of them. I haven't started the other one yet, but that's beside the point and thinking about doing that one too just makes me sad, so I'm just thinking about the first one.

Has anyone else noticed that late night television sucks? Cuz I sure have. Staying up late, I get lonely and at some point even the dog loses interest in me, so I keep the TV on for company.

That's not lame, right? Right?

History...

It is at night when I become my most philosophical. After a weekend of diplomacy and neighbourliness at the Model NATO conference in Ottawa surrounded by poli sci and international relations students, I have reflected on my own status as a historian.

History in itself and not as it is studied, is a special beast. History does not dwell. It continues on day after day knowing full well what has happened and moving forward nonetheless. History is life itself. History does not judge, it simply continues at a steady pace, never looking behind it. We could all take a lesson from history. But it was not history who lost battles, empires or soldiers. It was us for not knowing enough to understand what we were seeing and to write it down somewhere. On a piece of clay, granite, papyrus, anywhere. It left us the clues and all we had to do was hold onto it.

History as it is studied is not elitist. It is not meant to be placed upon a shelf and used only by those with the privilege. It does not do well there. Eventually, lack of use makes it slowly wilt in memory and eventually dies a sad and invisible death. History is not a sport of kings. It is not polo, played by dukes and princes while their wives drink tea on the sidelines. It throws itself at the feet of the world and begs them to use it. It yearns to be read, found, touched. It does not have the time to stop. It continues on, leaving a trail behind it, daring everyone to chase it.

And do you?