Another Crappy Campus Blackout

Here I am unnecessarily taking refuge in my parents' house.

Last night, the power went out all over campus. Again. Although this doesn't happen often in the absolute sense, it's still intolerably frequent as far as campus-wide power outages are concerned - whether or not it is planned by Plant Operations. I think it's because UBC is stubbornly maintaining their own power utilities, rather than using the apparently more reliable municipal power grid. I guess it's the University desperately trying to establish itself as an independent community where knowledge can flourish...all sponsored by Coca-Cola.

Well, so much for that idea; this is the second time this has happened to me, and at the worst time. It's snowing and cold outside, and the last thing we need is our lighting and heating dying on us. Once again, the building right across the parking lot from me, which runs on the city power grid, is bright, warm, and laughing at us.

This morning, I realized the power was still dead because I woke up to sub-zero temperatures. Thank God I took that candlelit shower before bed, as the hot water was surely gone by the morning. Without power to the computer or the internet servers, I had nothing else to do but roam around outside. With the campus shut down, it was a ghost town out there and the perfect opportunity to take some scenic photos of the white landscape without annoying people getting in the way.

When I came back after a highly productive photography run, the power was still dead. With little hope that power will be restored before the campus residents die of hypothermia, I decided to bus all the way back to my parents' house to ride out this infrastructural disaster. The bus was well away into the trip when my neighbor called me.

The power went back on.

Go figure. These two words pretty much sum up my life. Upon hearing the news, I felt like the whole campus held a huge party after I left. These kinds of things happen so often and so consistently that I would not be wrong to think that power was restored because I left campus. Yeah, that's it. I selflessly and stoically left campus so everyone can have their power and heating back.

I took it for the team.


More powdery white stuff than a celebrity house party.

First Snow Of The Season

The campus blanketed in white and silence.

That was the sight which greeted me when I left the library after after working on my IT project. I know it does snow occasionally in Vancouver amongst the rain, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

I didn't know which surprised me more as I breached the door into a world that has changed; the abrupt serenity of the Earth relentlessly forcing its deaf silence upon those who roam its white expanse, or the sudden loudness of my thoughts finding themselves desperately trying to assert their presence lest they become muted.

I walked home quietly struggling.


Those who roam the snowy night in front of Koerner Library.

Never Live In A Quad (Or With Anyone, For That Matter)

I've about had it with these people.

Today has been one of too many times I had to empty out all the clean dishes from the dishwasher, because everyone else is too "busy" do so, leaving all the dirty dishes to pile up beyond the sink over to the counters. But this is only the tip of the dirty iceberg.

Like the rest of my roommates, the engineering guy is really cool personality-wise, but tidiness-wise, not quite so. But what really annoys me is how he uses our quad living room as a Motel 6 for his drunk friends, with whom he throws shit like instant noodle packages and Kraft Dinner cheese packets all over the place. I'd kick their asses, but that would hurt my relationship with the people I have to live with for the rest of the year. Also, they're too drunk to feel any pain, which would detract from the punitive value of an ass-kicking.

I know they all have to go drinking every weekend, but if they can't even make it back to their own respective place of habitation, a change in drinking habits is in order. We are already doing a good job fucking the place up, and we certainly don't need further contributions from outside parties!

The blond girl, she can be just as bad...as all of the drunk friends put together. It's nice that she bakes herself a cake once in a while (Bake, bitch, BAKE!! Mwahahahaha!), but then she leaves all the baking utensils, ingredients, and stains sacrosanct all over the fucking counter. Put her and the above together, and you have absolute bedlam; the living room would look better if an all-out rival ninja clan battle scene broke out in there instead. Hell, if one happened right now, the living room could only end up cleaner.

Finally, the opera singer is the least messiest of them - perhaps only because he isn't home much in the first place to mess it up. However, he still does leave remnants of his morning rituals on the kitchen counter to add to everyone else's mess, which would stay there until he comes home late at night - if he chooses to clean it up when he comes back.

Thus, what makes it difficult to get my roommates to clean up is that they're rarely in at the same time, so I can't get everyone together to clean it all up at once and get it over with. Instead, I have to go after each person like some cleanliness gestapo. The only mitigating factor is that they do manage to clean things up when I ask them to, but I can't come home and face this shit anymore.

I really have to vent here. I want to move out into my own studio apartment, but then I'll have to clean up the WHOLE place first, i.e. THEIR mess. I'm really tempted to just say fuckit and give up my security deposit altogether if it means I won't have to clean up the place only to have it revert to its chaotic state in a matter of hours, an act of futility that can only be metaphorically summarized by Wile E. Coyote putting up a tiny umbrella against a falling anvil.

Even though the first round of roommates was really nice and tidy, they will eventually move out, and new messy roommates will come in so that things will eventually degrade to this state. The Second Law of Thermodynamics holds truest - the entropy of the universe is always increasing, all will deteriorate to a natural state of chaos. If you cannot learn from example, then at least heed this scientific proof that you should never to live in a quad. Unless you enjoy cleaning up other people's messes.

Well, I'll just have to do the next best thing - incite an inter-clan feud between a bunch of ninjas.