Turning off the option to receive tweets to my phone tonight as my txt messaging plan is nearly exhausted. Nothing to fear though, I will likely tweet a bit more about our experiences during the last week of our vacation.

July 25

• Standing in giant ballroom 20 hoping to get into Chuck panel. Then it’s time for the Jayne hat flash mob
• Must have t: I am not a nerd, I just enjoy standing in line.
• Comic-Con = diet & exercise program for nerds.8 flights of stairs & unknown miles walked before breakfast
• We’re in! Time for Chuck panel
• Adam’s inner grunt monolog: Joss Whedon
• Finished last shift at california browncoats booth. Rest of the con is schedule free
• Sitting in on the Ray Bradbury panel & 2 tv premiers so we have a spot at the Mythbusters panel
• Sad we missed the V premier
• Drew & I weren’t that impressed with Human Target or Vamp Diaries. On the bright side, we’ve all got seats for Mythbusters!
• Waiting for @donttrythis to hit the stage. @badastronomer running the show 🙂
• Consensus is that tv shows are “meh”. Mythbusters next & we know they’ll rock 🙂
• Oh hai raspberry mojitos. Of course i with you this fine evening
• Mythbusters panel rocked. @donttrythis & @badastronomer were a hoot. Tomorrow we wake at 0 dark 30 to brave the ballroom 20 line for Dr. Who
• hmmm, seems I’m missing some incoming tweets. Didn’t see @britl‘s Cunning Hat search q until today… Boo twitter!

July 26 (last day *sniff*)

• Ack! Slept in. Must get to trolley & into ballroom 20’s hellish line-up
• In line to go inside & get in another line. Here’s hoping we get into Dr Who
• *w00t* we’re early enough that we’re guaranteed seats. Fabulous way to start the last day at #sdcc
• We are in & pretty close to the front. Will see if timelord greatness rubs off & makes us cooler.
• Trading freebie Dr Who comics with peeps in the row behind us. Panel about to start. Wish dad were here to see this.
• Nathan Fillion & PJ Haarsma just crashed the fan club meeting *w00t*
• Feeling sad that comic-con is nearly over. Will be a long time before we can afford to do something like this again
• Lesson learned at comic-con: if you see something you want, buy it. Likely won’t be there later
• Old and new school comics everywhere. Seemed like MILES of them

Last weekend Drew and I headed south for a few week’s vacation. After landing in San Diego shortly before midnight we crashed for the evening and drove down to Disneyland. We spent Drew’s birthday running around the park and topped off the evening with a great set of fireworks. Then, it was off to sleep before driving across LA (traffic sucks!) and visiting Universal Studios. Had a fabulous time resulting from the decision to bite the bullet and spend the extra money on a front of the line pass. Instead of needing two days to do everything in the park we got through it all in a single day. Our last day in LA was spent wandering Hollywood Blvd and through Santa Monica.

On Wednesday we headed back to San Diego and have been neck deep in Comic Con madness. It’s been great so far but the stories of crowds and craziness all appear to be true!

For those who follow me on Twitter, we’ve managed to get a basic pay-as-you-go cell phone with a text messaging option so I’ve been tweeting our vacation. For those who don’t follow me, a breakdown of our trip is as follows*:

July 18:

• neighbours throw party for hubs bday. Sweet but they feed him too much beer. left to his own devices he decided to re-pack luggage
• Guess who’s stuck “fixing” his packing at nearly 2am on day we fly to SoCal?
• SoCal here we come. Brekky bright & early with @eliste tomorrow am then off to Disney. Volunteer schedule all set. Costume in bag. Excited.
• Hanging out at the #MSP Armed Forces Security Centre. Tea and sleep before flight to SD.
• Landed and made it to hotel. Crashing for a few hours sleep before the fun really begins.

July 19

• Got cell phone for local calls & tweeting set up. Trying best NOT to take iPhone off of Airport mode to avoid crazy data & roaming costs.
• Humid. Fun so far. Had great breakfast & fun catching up before spending time with Mickey.
• Just finished watching the ooh ahhs at Disneyland
• Sorry #yeg Capital Ex has nothing as good as this

July 20

• Just saw the mule from Serenity
• So happy we saved 4 long time 4 vacay. Lack of $ worries makes a difference
• Pondering trip to see walk of fame in the am

July 21

• Interesting. After days of joking that I got tired too easily at theme parks, Mr. “I’m not tired” has slept in & refuses to get out of bed.
• Drew is kicking me as he drives route 66
• Apparently we are now headed to santa monica for a few hours
• Bless you SoCal. 100 spf sunblock FTW!
• Too bad I’m already sporting a burn on my face
• Stuck in first LA traffic jam. Send beer and pizza please.
• Our GPS appears to be lost. What luck!

July 22

• The Canucks hbve landed #sdcc
• In line to pick up #sdcc passes. Miss front of the line no wait option
• Help! There must be something in the water. Too many happy waiting ppl #sdcc
• I miss my iPhone. Old school messaging is so time consuming.
• Also, no camera on cheapie pay as you go phone. On other hand, got phone & txt
• CSTS t shirts, she-ra, wonder woman, charlie chaplin spotted
• Adoring the fact that I am not even close to being the biggest geek in the room
• #sdcc day 1 t shirt choice: @hijinksensue LOLFOX for me. @drhorrible “not my nemesis” for Drew
• First day at #sdcc a success. Goodies obtained. Checked into hotel. Early day tomorrow.
• Check-in clerk thinks Drew & our sponsor looked like brothers. I can’t see it.

July 23

• Off to comic con
• Once again waiting in a long line up to get into exhibit hall. Not open yet? #sdcc
• Cunning hat delivery delayed. Should have tonight. #sdcc
• Who’d have expected military spouse mantra of hurry up & wait to apply in real world? #sdcc
• First volunteer shift done & met adam baldwin FTW!
• Breaktime is over. Noms in the belly. Braving the crowds again. SDCC. Must blog w/ pics soon since can’t twitpic with temp phone.
• Doh! Wrong trolley. Time to get off & try again
• In & getting ready to help out at the @drhorrible screening
• @feliciaday is introducing @drhorrible. Let the singing & call backs begin
• Commentary!
• Watching people google ninja ropes during commentary! How cute! #sdcc @drhorrible
• Lots of trollies during the day. Long wait at night #sdcc

July 24

• Day two. Sleepy & I now have bags under my eyes big enuf to bring purchases home in
• Cool. @drhorrible @MoTancharoen @ZDubDub (Maurissa, Jed & Zack) signing during my shift
• First mission accomplished. Got seats for Coraline & @neilhimself. Unfortunately this means missing @theguild 🙁
• Today will be an adventure. Forgot epi-pens in hotel room.
• Got into the dollhouse & joss whedon panel *w00t* #sdcc
• Saw @britl earlier today *yay* no donation to browncoat charity *boo* public shaming r us
• Heading to bed. Yes, I’m old. Much sleep needed tonight so we can get in line at 0 dark 30 for the Chuck panel tomorrow am.
• Unofficial final grade on Stat class was a C+ Barely squeaked through the exam & tanked my GPA, but it’s a pass. I’ll take it.

*As posted. Typos abound.
Note: Pics to follow when I get the time to pull them off the camera. May not be until we get home.

Got my final paper in Experimental Psych back today and somehow managed to pull off an A. It’s a tad bit bitter sweet considering my poor performance on my exams yesterday.

School’s done for the semester. There’s nothing to do but wait until te final marks are in.

Here’s hoping my performance is better next semester when I get to watch my head explode as I try to juggle Ethics, International Relations, & Leadership type classes.

Guess who’s in a crappy mood this evening?

I’m pretty sure I failed my Stats exam which means I’ve failed the course. It really sucks that cummulative grades don’t matter and survival boils down to passing the exam. Running out of time and leaving 30 marks unattempted pretty much sank my chances of passing. Have I mentioned lately how little I understood of the math & formulas? *bah humbug*

Sucks more when you have a really decent grade (A-) going into the exam.

The Experimental Psych exam didn’t leave me as disheartened but I’m annoyed that 30% of the exam revolved around Stats when the topic wasn’t even touched upon in any of the course content. What few marks I manage to pick up there are solely reliant on what little of Stats I did mange to grasp from the other course.

So much for my 3.8 GPA I worked so hard for. Now I have to worry about qualifying for grad school (ouch!)

The exam proctoring was a gong show as well. For RMC courses my exams are proctored at the base. They’re very strict about the number of people who can be in the room and once an exam begins no one can enter or exit. It’s quiet; easy to concentrate.

Too bad these courses were’t my standard RMC fare.

I enrolled in these two courses as a visiting student and they were delivered by a different university. They required that I write the exam at one of two locations in the city. Location A didn’t have a proctor available so I wrote at location B. Very bad choice.

The testing room was in the main office – a very busy & loud main office I might add – and wasn’t sound proofed. The door was constantly opening & closing as people writing 30 minute entrance basic skills tests were entering & leaving. People talked amongst themselves. Some called friends on cell phones. Apparently I was the only one in the room actually attempting to write my exam without cheating and the only one who cared that the room was too loud to concentrate in. Based on my experience there I will NEVER write another exam at this location.

Did I mention I had to pay for the privledge of writing my exam at this location? I wasn’t authorized to write at the base because the delivering University had agreements with these other locations in town. Colour me un-amused.

Based on the Exp. Psych exam questions not matching the course content I’m not likely to enrol in another class through this university anyway. I prefer my assessment match the stated outcomes and objectives of the course thank you very much!

Remind me again why I went back to university at this late stage in life?

Final paper for Experimental Psych submitted. Taking day off work tomorrow to write two exams. Then sweet freedom until September. Here’s hoping I don’t screw up on either exam too badly!