Rache's Super Duper Love Love Happy Birthday Party Weekend Extravaganza!!!

Rachel turned ... uh ... 18 this weekend, so Billy and Kathy both organized two different chinatown meal-like events for the weekend. Billy booked the Saturday evening at Mon Nan (DUCKY!!! :D:D:D ) and Kathy set up dim sum at Furama (shrimp... ahhhh...) for Sunday noon.

Sarah wanted to come to Montreal for the weekend to have fun at the parties, but Rachel didn't have her space available for that weekend. So I took her in with permission from both my roomies, and she slept on the couch.

The problem with my gift was that I needed more time than it would take on Sunday morning to bake, and it was already offered by Mr. Billy to Rachel on the Saturday night. So Sarah helped me bake it on Saturday afternoon, and it was sitting there smelling up the place like tasty... ^_^ Ooh so tempting... I vowed to make myself another the next week. ^_^

Our supper-evening started out with the five of us - Sarah, Jorgh and myself, and ms. Roomie and Stevie - trekking from the lonesome heights of our domicile (yeah right) to the depths of downtown! We were treated with a tasty gazillion course meal full of ducky and more gooey and tasty dishes, with our friends and the birthday girl.

Ms Roomie and Stevie bought a card that had a cut-out button inside that says "It's my birthday... WANNA SPANK ME?" Thus began the spanking episodes. Best viewed on Billy's website.

Afterwards, we headed off to KARAOKE BAR!!! on de la Montagne to sing ourselves hoarse. Billy forgot the cake at his home, so in between this trip he went to get it. *chooooocoooolaaaate* *droooool*

After partaking the cake, and singing until the cows went moo... we stumbled home and went to blissful but eardrum-ringing sleep.

The next day I couldn't speak properly from misuse of my vocal cords, thus began the slight sore throat episode.

Sarah and I went to dim sum... but as we left the house I realized I had no idea where it was. (Bad me.) It started raining a bit, then snowing a bit, then hailing a bit, then raining again...

We called Rachel, who would obviously know where the event was being held, and she told us it was in Furama, but she would arrive slightly late. (Figures. They went out for coffee after the karaoke the previous night...)

At Furama, we spoiled ourselves upon the dim sum feast and made presentations of our presents. Kathy had been to California and back, so she got presents for everyone (she's so nice :D ), including a bottle of californian red wine for me. (It was great!)

I presented the lovely lemon pound cake that took decades of perfecting the recipe and weeks in preparation and slaving away in the kitchen with the freshest and most tanti- ah whatever. It took a few hours with Sarah to make the cake the previous afternoon, and I had just recently found the recipe on the net, having bastardized it for my own convenience.

After dim sum, we went to consume the always delightful bubble tea a few blocks down from Furama. I had a blueberry cream bubble tea, which at first tasted very faintly of blueberries, but then later degraded in taste to "sugar, cream, tea, and some blobs of stuff." We were unfortunately assaulted by a dvd of a concert by the likes of a chinese singer who supposedly bought his way into fame ... I forget his name, but he was terrible at dancing and singing, and he was a total poser...

We spent some hours at this place, until we found ourselves totally bushed. It was a stumble home and then a supper of I forget what... (this is what happens when you write two weeks after the fact.)

Sarah stayed another evening so that she could get a ride from her professor who was picking her up at the Roddick Gates. I brought her to school and to the bookstore where she could hang out and see Johanne and Brenda a bit where they worked.

After my class, we took the tour of the campus, although I regret having showed her not much of anything interesting. I was more grateful for my postering job, since I could now point out various places and say what was housed in those buildings... (EXCEPT I had no idea where the freaking English department was, since I never went by the place.) The tour led from the science and engineering buildings, to Jorgh's office in Burnside (the phallus of campus), to the creaky and warped steps of the Arts building, Leacock's ugly breadbox structure, and finally to the expansive and decidedly non-walking friendly Redpath/McLennan libraries. We were then pooped out in the Shatner building to relax before she was to be picked up.

She admitted that she hadn't really felt like doing much anyway, so I was more or less relieved. I was also pooped from partying and felt totally useless, but I wanted the last few hours in Montreal to be at least fruitful. At least there wasn't a huge rally going on in town...

Overall, it was a great weekend since I got to hang out with my friends at last, and to forget being a total loser without a regular job or a normal schedule.

The Super-Embarrassing Poll Clerk

I forgot to blog last week about the last two days of poll clerk...ing... so I'll just compress the stupid stories below.

• Our McConnell Engineering poll station was invaded by the folks of CAFS, the group responsible for the boycotting action against our current sucky giant conglomerate food provider Chartwells. Basically, they wanted to give out free food from Tuesday to Thursday, and right next to our poll station.
  
  
  The only problem is that we have a referendum question about SSMU actions against the university administration's choice of opening bidding only for all school cafeterias at the same time. (Thus, Chartwells, being the only candidate who can afford the milllions to bid for all the cafs, would most likely make the only bid.)
  
  
  So we had to tell command center that CAFS was right next to our table, and an elections coordinator came by to shoo them off around the corner. For some reason, barely any of those who went to get free food came by to vote afterwards. They must have voted elsewhere or wasn't going to vote anyway. So command center told us to try to get those masses to vote.
  
  
  By then, I had made a few signs to let people see that it was, indeed, the day to vote. ie. "VOTE TODAY" taped to my hat, and to my back. So I walked around like a crazy person to let people know it was indeed, the day to vote, indeed. I garnered a lot of attention and smiles, and some embarrassed stares. Arabind didn't say much.
  



• Thursday, command center needed to change some of the clerks and stations around to make sure we stayed fresh. So for the very last shift, they sent me to the Law building. CC told me to call them to confirm this, but I had some problems calling the front desk to have them transfer me to "COMMAND CENTER," and not the "Debating Club," the "Switchboard," or the "Dial Tone."
  
  
  I'm sure if there were people in the law building on Wednesdays, they would have voted just out of pity for my signs taped on my head, front and back, saying "VOTE TODAY," "LAST DAY." Then Jin came by, of all days and of all places and of all times, and caught me in the getup. Fortunate for me she didn't bring a camera. :p
  
  
  In addition, the Elections McGill servers decided to screw themselves up for the one-time-only-where-everything-explodes-at-the-most-critical moment, at the very last few hours of voting, and ceased functioning properly or at all for a good while. Then we had a crappy time setting up the station again for voters, so the ones who did want to vote ran off. We had a good turnout of, oh, about 5 in those three hours.
  

I await the big cheque for those 22.25 long hours. And I screwed up my modern physics assignment that week for this job.

The LESS-THAN-PLEASANT Poll Clerk

And day 2 of the task, the students that did vote were more than patient but most people didn't bother. It was so slow that Arabind even tried to take a power nap but an election coordinator came by (DRO?) and snapped him awake. I spent the time knitting partly, and then taking it apart, and then knitting again, and then taking it apart again and finally knitting to the point where I couldn't go any further without stitch holders.

Oh yeah. I'm knitting a pair of "trigger finger mittens" that I'm supposed to give to my sister for her birthday that just passed... but I haven't finished yet. I only managed to finish the first mitten on Sunday night, and it looks so bad that I just don't know what to do with it. (Picture to ensue later when I recharge the batteries...)

Anyway, knitting got somewhat complicated without stitch holders after three hours, so I quit that and stood around staring at people for another two hours. I think command center was somewhat disappointed in us. Maybe tomorrow I'll go about chanting or something to get attention and voters... :p

I think today was some sort of "Visit McGill" day for Ontarians or something, because at least two tour groups came by and the same female guide gave the same schpiel about how great residences were. Funny thing was that she didn't take the groups outside to point out where these residences were, she simply stated facts about them and fanciful stories about residences and athletics. (She told the group it was too far to take them and it was too cold to do so. Heh, these funny southeners.)

I *love* the fact that there are seemingly only a few options for students to move in from out of town. They are offered the catered residences, the "independent" residences, or the townhouses owned by McGill. Fantastically enough, there are no such things as off-campus housings or cohabitating somewhere. I can only imagine the faces of these "international" students when they realize that housing is 75% cheaper a few hundred meters away from campus than their "cozy" sex-crazy houses of debauchery.

Another family of two teens and a father was wandering aimlessly about the McConnell lobby. He inevitably came up to us and asked us a question.

"Is there any place around here like a student society who can show us around the labs?"

(Blank stare from the non-engineer. Arabind answered his question.)

"Because my kids here, they're visiting and they think it's a boring school. I myself was here 20 years ago in this school..."

...

I know what you're probably thinking.

The UBER Poll Clerk

A while back, I signed up for practically everything I could online. Then I started getting spam and I stopped. Now they have me. Those bastards!

Actually, I applied for any job anywhere last month, through CAPS, McGill Classifieds, and whatever else that was posted online. Well, just the jobs that weren't telemarketing and selling things. Which was very little.

Anyway, I received a reply from the Elections McGill people, and they told me I was hired for the period starting from the Friday past (12th) to the Wednesday coming (16th). So I rejoiced and started work yesterday.

It turns out I have to sit at a table with a laptop by the main entrance of McConnell Engineering. Right outside the ice cream place... *gurgle* I think they placed us poll clerks by the type of studies we are enrolled in. Since I am predominantly in math/physics (according to me), I suppose they put me there for that reason. My partner Arabind is an electrical engineer, and he is also graduating this semester. Unlike myself, though, he didn't take five years for his degree, and he still knows people around here.

I guess I should have complained less about not knowing people. Or maybe I should just stop complaining. He seemed rather tired of my whining about myself, and went on the laptop onto the internet, to read about cricket games. Then a lot of people passed by who knew him and chatted briefly with him. He even got on MSN and added a few friends to chat with.

During the time we man the polling station, we were to communicate with the Command Center (in Shatner) to ask questions or to check in with them. Additionally, we are also supposed to keep an eye out for possible campaigning infractions and disturbances. For instance, one possible infraction would be to poster or campaign in front of the polling station. An example of a disturbance... well, you could ask Big Pu about that.

The Scandal

A few minutes into the shift, the command center messaged everyone about the possibility of winning a daily prize for being the most ... um... something?... of all the poll clerks. I think they meant to say that they were going to give the "best" polling station a prize per day. My partner and I were immediately entertained to the idea of performing the "best" we could and possibly attaining the coveted daily prize.

A few minutes later, someone from one of the candidates' committee came by and he informed us that one of the candidates is selling food for her club. We were immediately suspicious, but by the time I got up to investigate, he came back towards us and said she was long gone.

Sketchy people, these candidates...

Anyway, we informed command center about it and they sent down the deputy returning officer and an election coordinator to investigate. The first person came by and she immediately set about checking out a stall with a campaign, and chatting to the command center. The second person came by as well, and they questioned the situation. Except... I wasn't sure what the hell was going on.

In the end, it was Arabind who helped sort things out. Apparently, the campaigner around the corner of the polling station was using a television/VCR possibly from the Engineering student society. The problem was that this candidate was in a position of power already at EUS, and she may have been abusing this power to borrow resources to which the other candidates have no access. Thus, the elections officers were suspicious to the campaign. In the end, I believe they did take the television from EUS because I noticed they wheeled it back towards the EUS office at the end of the day. Anyway, the situation got too picky for me so I stopped caring about it. I'll let you know if there's any more scandal there.

More Boring News About Poll Clerks

The rest of the five hours was spent staring at people and sitting about doing nothing. While Arabind talked to his friends in engineering who came by, enticing people to excercise their right to vote, I lamented the fact once again that nearly everyone I once knew and cherished at McGill are now graduate students or just simply *gone* elsewhere. And almost all the people I know now who are elegible to vote are the ... *shudder*... nerds. And they did come by.

"Drool-boy," affectionately nicknamed by Ian due to an unfortunate incident involving chess and getting very, very sick, came by with all sorts of incomprehensible mutterings while I tried to get him to vote. Then he uttered something about being thirtsty and ran away. Another nerd, the one who tossed garbage on me, seemed unlikely to do any voting anyway, also walked away.

What did cheer me up during the day was seeing people I did know and weren't annoying. Norm came by to visit since I wrote to him about it ... apparently... I forgot... He introduced me to "Butternuts(???)" or "J-train" who seemed way weird. Utra also passed by at the end of the shift and we chatted since I hadn't seen her for the last two months. She is planning to go to Brazil in the summer for a few months and then heading off to London for a graduate degree in engineering. Jorgh came by as well, but then he wasn't around when the ice cream place was OPEN so I never got my ice cream. :(

At the end of the shift, Arabind and I packed up the laptop and cables. Then I realized since we were going straight to Shatner afterwards, but I forgot my coat in Burnside. So we went straight there and I froze myself stupid. Since I had no coat to return with, I ran all the way back to Burnside.

---

If you want to chat with me while I'm poll-clerking, I'll be there on Monday to Wednesday, 12-5, except Tuesday when I'll be there all freaking day from 9:45 to 5. Please bring lunch that day for me. ^_^

Also, since there is MSNing capabilities, but only officially through the Elections McGill name, our polling station is mcgillpoll6. I think.

I can still check my mail. :)

Poster Job #2

Once again, I have another set of posters that PGSS wants me to put up. This time there are two notable differences:

1) The list of McGill buildings to poster is considerably smaller. It happened that Ms. Wambui from the PGSS office gave me the wrong, extensively and painfully long list the first time around, because she couldn't find the shorter list that had the actual updated (?) locations. Thus, the reason why I visited a hundred little dinky obscure houses around McGill downtown campus the last time...

2) There are two posters like last time, but one of them is barely different from the old one. Okay, that's not a "difference" but it makes a difference how the secretaries and administrative offices treated me this time around. I walked around for an hour today to fewer places, but the secretaries gave me quizzical looks saying, "Didn't PGSS just poster that last time?" I had to reply, "Well, it's somewhat outdated, so I suppose these are updated versions." Then they sort of drop the "nice" facade and tell me to poster it up with the whatever look.

Anyway, I got tired of walking after an hour (probably because I felt too lazy today) and came home to vegetate for the rest of the day. And night. And I don't know what I'm actually doing right now. (What was I doing? Jorgh? Help???)

Not once, not twice, but THRICE!

If you have ever lived in this neighbourhood on this street, or visited us at some point in our appartment, we would eventually tell you stories about our constant power outages. It just so happens that our building is right next to the Hydro Quebec grill under the sidewalk where they would usually do their maintenance and repairs. So every time a Hydro truck comes by, we know we're at risk for yet another indeterminate power outage.

They were unapologetic for such outages. I mean, Little V called them and asked why there were so many damn outages, and they gave a curt and attitude-laden crap-assed reply. It was along the lines of "deal with it." I just loooove monopolistic corporations.

So just today, I decided to try to start my online portfolio. Again. In the middle of coming up with an insightful and stirring welcome paragraph, the power goes out for one second... which gave enough time for my computer to restart. Did I save my work? No. Did Frontpage save a backup? No....

Just to show I'll never get that portfolio done. Ever. :(

Anyway, I gave up on that plan, and decided to play Diablo II to drown my woes. I was in the middle of the Flayer Jungle in Act II with some cool-assed stuff sitting on the floor when once again...

[Wait, let me save this entry just in case...]

... Exactly the same thing happened. My computer restarted after a one second power outage. Returning to my game once again, I played for a little while longer when I dropped a whole bunch of items on the floor to sell some stuff when...

... I gave up on playing Diablo II and started writing my blog when...

Moral of the story: Um... I'm very happy I'm going to be moving out of here.