It’s true.  This past week I have struggled to complete my readings and assignments in my classes.  Tired and sore, I was at least calmed by the knowledge that my first Enviro Chem paper wasn’t due until next weekend. I still had time to finish all my readings and take notes for my paper.

Apparently I don’t know how to read the assignment calendar.  Our prof sent out a nice mass email reminder to the class that our paper is due on the 26th. The 26th, of course, is not the 28th.

This semesters’ round with the beast includes strange formulas and mathematical equations.  WTF?  The whole point of signing up for Enviro Chem was so I didn’t have to struggle through math class while attempting to meet my math/science course requirements for my degree. Life would be so much easier if Statistics had counted towards the math/science requirement.  While Stats may make my head spin I can easily identify WIIFM.

Well, I might as well stop panicking and get back to reading my texts and attempting these multi-part questions that appear to have been written in gibberish by a drunk monkey experimenting with crack.  Eutrophication?  Biomass pyramids?  Nitrogen and Phosphorous cycles? All my prof would need to do to make my head explode at this point is to throw in some DAODs, CFAOs and QR&Os.

All of a sudden my *gulp* upcoming Canadian and Military History courses are looking mighty appealing.

My meds were making me very sleepy.  When they stick a may cause drowsiness label on a medicine bottle, they really mean it.  I’m sure I was sleeping at least 14 hours a day.  I barely managed to read a chapter a day in my textbooks.  I thought I’d get ahead of my class by having the week off but that didn’t happen.  I just couldn’t seem to read more than a page or two before nodding off.

I decided to head to bed last night without taking the muscle relaxants and pain killers.  I spent the night tossing and turning and finally got to sleep sometime around 7am.  Slept until 10am and am semi-awake at the moment. And hurting.  Must not forget to mention the pain.

I spent the day finishing my Psych assignment and am happy to say I managed to get it uploaded on time.  I’ll likely need to work the weekend to catch up in my Enviro Chem class.

Have I mentioned how tired I am of school lately?  I’m dreaming of the day when I can afford to quit work and concentrate on school.  Not that that’s likely to happen.  I’ll be working full-time and going to school part-time for the better part of a decade it seems.

*grrrr*   *arghhh*

At least I can walk on my foot and sit for a few hours without being overly uncomfortable.  Just wish I’d spent my vacation doing something more exciting than recovering from tripping over a crack in the sidewalk.

I’m still suffering from my klutz induced injuries but I caught something in the news today that’s royally pissed me off.  My dad used to say that “we’re all equal in Canada; some of us are more equal than others“.  It’s a sad truism that can be proven by looking no further than our national media and it’s response to ongoing issues in the latest Federal Election campaign.

The TV, radio and online news is buzzing about the Conservative aid’s comment that could be construed as racist.

The exchange was caught on video and broadcast as the lead item Wednesday by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

“If you behave and you’re sober and there’s no problems and if you don’t do a sit down and whatever, I don’t care,” said Mr. Cannon’s assistant Darlene Lannigan to Mr. Matchewan. She then added: “One of them showed up the other day and was drinking.”

“Are you calling me an alcoholic?” replied Mr. Matchewan.

“I’m not calling you an alcoholic. No. It was just to say that you’re in a federal office. If you’re coming in to negotiate, I expect, there’s [decorum] that has to be respected,” said Ms. Lannigan. [Source: Globe and Mail]

Ms. Lannigan has since apologised. For those of you who are unaware of her position, Ms. Lannigan is an assistant to Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon.

So what am I so hot under the collar about?  It’s taken over a week for any real notice to be paid to the racist comments made by two Liberal Party candidates during their campaigns.  Sure, a few newspapers have carried the story.  Most notably the National Post [here and here] and Le Soliel [here].  It’s all over the blogosphere.  What I want to know is why hasn’t it been all over the TV and radio news for the past week?

Meanwhile the Liberals have also had issues this campaign related to aboriginals.

Two Liberal candidates in Quebec resigned last week in relation to controversial remarks.

Simon Bédard is no longer the Liberal candidate in the riding of Quebec for comments the former radio-host made in French to the Le Soleil newspaper about his views during the 1990 Oka standoff.

“Everyone was scandalized because I said: ‘Send in the Army and let’s clean this up once and for all!’ But maybe we should have done that because 17 years later, it’s still the same thing. If anything, it’s worse,” said Mr. Bédard, according to Le Soleil.

The Liberal candidate in Beauharnois-Salaberry, Ricardo Lopez, also resigned after attention was drawn to remarks he made in 1988 when he was a Tory MP.

“I think all the Indians should be sent to Labrador, to go live together and have peace and leave us in peace,” Mr. Lopez was quoted as saying at the time. [Source: Globe and Mail]

The Globe and Mail indicates that Simon Bedard was fired on 9/11 for his comments. Canada.com indicates that Bedard resigned and was not fired. CBC.ca posted a similar message. I watched the big 3 news casts in Canada on Sept 11 and I don’t recall – granted my memory could be very fuzzy from pain pills – any sort of media frenzy or time spent calling out Mr. Bedard or the Liberals for comments that were made.

I realize that in the above comments, what M. Bedard said doesn’t seem overly evil. After all, he’s had the benefit of hindsight to change his opinion, which he reiterated in the above quoted materials.  What he originally said on a CJRP radio program in 1990 was:

You go in there with the army, then you clean up all that. Fifty dead, 100 dead, 125 dead, that would put it out. We bury it and life goes on. [Source: Montreal Gazette]

Adds a bit of a chill when you think about what M. Bedard was advocating – the use of the Canadian Forces to slaughter Aboriginal Canadians.  M. Lopez desire to round aboriginals up and ship them off to the far regions (Labrador) are repulsive in their own right.

But of course, our TV and Radio news media are all about providing Canadians with a serious and non-biased review of the day’s events as they occur.  Excuse me while I prepare a chunk of swampland in Florida for sale.

I’m on vacation this week. Pretty much a forced vacation.  I booked a 4 day weekend with visions of catching up on homework and possibly getting ahead in a few classes.  Then I went grocery shopping.  The fall I took on Saturday turned out to be much worse than I’d thought once Sunday rolled around.  Muscles in my back, neck and shoulders I didn’t even know I had ached.  I’m used to permanent lower back pain from my car accident over a decade ago but this was new.  I couldn’t take a full breath for the pain.

So, instead of returning to work today, I’m returning next Monday.  At least I might manage catching up in classes while I struggle through the week.  Focus is a bit difficult to keep when you’re hopped up no on muscle relaxants.

Still trying to find a bright shiny new position.  Until then I need to keep working in the previous position to pay all those not so shiny bills and my tuition and book costs at university.

Oi! My aching ankle. I’m such a clutz. I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk on the way into Costco this morning. My foot, when it landed, was set down on its’ side and my ankle turned. I then did the wonderful hop-skip motion attempting to catch myself as I was falling. It all seemed to happen in slow motion although I’m sure it was only a few seconds. Drew, lovely individual that he is, tells me I looked silly flailing around trying to catch myself. He claims to have no idea I was about to fall. Thank goodness for me the woman coming around the corner at the time I tripped is far swifter than Drew. She saw the eventual toppling that was about to occur and reached out to break my fall. Overall, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My ankle aches but isn’t broken. Swelling is minor and I can wander around without too much limping.

And just for giggles, I’ve finally managed to injure my left foot. I’m constantly breaking and straining my right foot. I suppose it’s time I did some damage to the left side…

Of course all this pain and silliness is dwarfed by my plans for this evening. After months of waiting tonight is the night. I’ve loved Elton John’s music since I was a little girl. I’ve a few friends who also enjoy his music. Ok, so RM is a bit of a fanatic when it comes to Elton John. The minute we heard he was coming to down we began plotting to get tickets. RM worked from home the day the tickets became available to get our seats. We’ve had out tickets for months and have been eagerly awaiting this day.

I’m not the only one having fun tonight. Drew is off to see the Eskies play the Ti-Cats. We’re huge Ti-Cats fans in this house and they only come to town once a year. One of my favourite co-workers blessed me with a pair of tickets for my birthday so Drew and I could attend the game. Unfortunately, the game is the same day as the Elton John concert and I’m choosing to see Sir Elton over football today.