Today!

Don’t mind the display icon–it doesn’t really have much to do with the post. I just haven’t used it in a while and felt a little sorry for it.

But I digress. (And I haven’t even started the topic yet! This must be some kind of a record).

Today was a pretty cool day. My sister, Lana, dropped in on good ol’ Doha from Montreal yesterday evening and it was awesome! I woke up pretty early today, like at 7:00 a.m. — and she was awake too. We started an intellectual discourse about books and politics before we decided to roll out of bed.

(Actually only a part of that is a bit of a fib. We were talking about books and politics–I just don’t think you can quite call it ‘intellectual discourse’. Who starts their mornings with intellectual discourse anyways?)

It feels good to be a family of five again in one household…I can’t tell you how long it’s been since we’ve had that. First it was my dad who was separated from us (he’d be working in the Gulf while we were in Lebanon and Canada) and now it’s Lana. Still, she’s only got one more year to finish up her Master’s degree in McGill University, and then she can waltz on over here for good. Can’t wait!

Why? What’s the Point?

The TV’s on mute, since I’m not really paying attention to it. (For good reason too.)

BUT!

That celebrity tabloid news show, The Insider, was on. And in between the Internet’s not-fully-loaded pages, I’d stare mindlessly at the screen and skim through the neon yellow headlines blaring silently at me.

Puppy mill secrets!!
Plus-Size Tantrum!!
Live exorcism!!

(I’m paraphrasing here–I don’t think I remember it verbatim).

And, I’m not sure if it was The Insider or some other celebrity news show, but they were apparently advertising this new game show thing called “The Moment of Truth” where they hook you up to a lie-detector and ask you awkward questions in front of your family AND a live studio audience. (As well as everyone in the world with a television, a Nosy Parker attitude and more time than they care to calculate on their hands.)

Now, I’ve thought of this before, but this is the first time I really decide to write about it. Why are these stupid celebrity news shows so damned popular? Look at the headlines! Who the hell cares about any of that? (Except, the puppy mill thing…that can be a pretty heartbreaking issue ’cause some puppy mills really abuse their charges, and it’s disgusting and unfair.)

But they were making this big deal out of this ‘plus-sized’ black woman who was yelling at someone with every fiber of her being. She was so near to beating someone down that she had to be restrained. Like I mentioned, the sound was off, so I don’t know what the whole thing was about. Moreover, I couldn’t read the Arabic subtitles fast enough. (I can read at some level, just not quickly). The thing is, so what?! The lady was angry and she was big. Why does that have to be on national television like it’s some kind of breaking news? What good does it do to anyone? She wasn’t even famous or else they would have mentioned a name, and I didn’t catch anything. All I was able to gather was that she was overweight and angrier than a nest full of hornets. Why does anyone need to see that? What does it add to someone’s life? Nothing! Big fat zilch, basically. Just a fat, furious woman. Big whoop.

The same goes for that weird live exorcism. Like, let’s stare at this dude getting the Bible chanted at him while he fights some sort of demon that may or may not even be there. It’s like putting on a spectacle for people to stare and drool mindlessly at. I mean, if the guy is truly possessed (which I doubt) then would he really want it to be made a spectacle of? And if he does, then that just goes to show where his values lie. (Yes, I’ve had personal contact with Satan! Now’s my chance for my 15 minutes of fame!) And, if he doesn’t, that’s even worse. The things people would do to get on TV…sheesh!

And as for that “Moment of Truth” show…it’s almost worse than Jerry Springer. Why would people even volunteer to be on that show in the first friggin’ place? Why? Why the hell would you want to come onstage, in front of God and everyone, and air out your dirty laundry? It’s stupid and it’s a weird whining for attention that makes me want to take a gun to someone’s face. Why does the public feel a need to probe into people’s secrets? And why do people even volunteer?! Seriously, I don’t know what’s worse, the people on the show or the idiots who watch it. What made me angry was how they marketed the program–talking about the ‘EXPOSING’ of SECRETS as if it’s something that only the CIA has been privy to before. And what were some of the questions? “When you were an underwear model, did you ever stuff your underwear?”, or how about this lovely gem, “Did you ever wish you were born into someone else’s family?”

The first question gives no value to anyone–it’s just meant to embarrass. And the second one is asked only to stir up hard feelings. And these ’secrets’ do nothing except give nosy people something to talk about at the water cooler.

Blargh…TV sucks.

And I hate that even I, as much as it disgusts me, get sucked into it too. But sometimes, I need something brainless to watch. Celebrity TV shows fill that need quite nicely.

Grades and Gatherings

I went to college with my friends yesterday to pick up our grade transcripts. I definitely could’ve done better on a couple of courses but I’m happy. My GPA is 3.83!

Accounting: 85
HR Management II: 90
Marketing: 95
Mathematics of Finance: 75

I’m a little upset about the math grade, but it’s not surprising considering that there were a few long-answer questions that I completely blanked out on. Good thing I got perfect scores on almost all my tests and high grades on my assignments–I’m sure that helped balance out the final–which I have a feeling turned out to be nothing short of abysmal.

I e-mailed my teacher to ask about the Business Communication course, since I didn’t get a grade back for it, but I haven’t received a reply yet. Anyways, it’s the weekend, I’m going to have to wait a couple of days. It was an independent study–I didn’t attend any classes for it. I simply went to my teacher and she’d give me notes to read and assignments to complete. I have to admit that I’m really thankful that I was able to do that, since the Dean of Academics told me that even if I was able to drop Essay Writing, it would be very difficult for me to attend a class since it was quite late in the term. But he managed to fix it so that I could simply do the course on my own with an Instructional Coordinator and it would count as credits. So…it’s the end of the first semester and it’s officially VACATION TIME!!!

I’m Done!

Yay! No more exams!!! (At least, not for another good while yet!)

Want to know what’s funny? I was supposed to have my Marketing exam on Thursday the 6th. But it turned out that someone had managed to get their hands on a copy of the final and spread it around to God-knows-how-many students. And that person turned out to be–how shall I put it?–”un-careful” enough to get caught. So they had to cancel the exam. They were thinking of postponing it until after the winter break…which I found to be completely unfair. When I’m on vacation, I don’t want to look forward to an exam when I get back. (Really now, who does?) The good news is that they decided to simply cancel the exam entirely and base our marks on the tests and assignments we had completed throughout the semester. This works absolutely wonderfully in my favor since I did really well in the course. But I do feel sorry for those who were depending on the final exam to boost their grades…anyways, they could always lynch the guy who got caught with the damned test. I mean, c’mon, if you’re gonna cheat, the least you could do is not get caught.

In any case…I’ve been enjoying my freedom. I’d enjoy it a little more if it wasn’t for this stupid cold that I’ve got. But hey, one can’t have everything in life, eh? The good news is that I’ve got a gathering tomorrow with my friends from college at my place to take my mind off my stuffy head. It was supposed to be at Emad’s house (it was his idea) but he switched to mine because I live on a compound with a clubhouse and swimming pool. I don’t mind, I think it’s pretty cool idea. I just hope I don’t infect more people than I think I already have. (Emad’s now going through a coughing/sneezing thing and I think he may have gotten that from me. We were hanging out together all day yesterday at the City Center mall. And Jay was also coughing yesterday…though I’m not sure if he got it from me or not.) Ah well, we’d all be bonding over bacteria’s love of our bodies. What better way to spend a free Monday afternoon?

Two Down…Two to Go

Well, I finished my Accounting and HR exams today. I wish I had buckled down a little more in studying for Accounting, though. I know most of the chapters quite well, but there were some of the newer stuff that, for some weird reason, I didn’t review enough. Unfortunately, it were those very things that had big marks attached to them on the exam. No matter though, I’m sure I passed with a decent-ish grade. In any case, I aced all my quizzes and midterms, so they’ll balance out a so-so final. I guess you could say that I got sick of anything with the words ‘debit’ and ‘credit’ in them, heh.

HR was super-easy though. Man, my instructor’s any lazy student’s dream come true. Her ‘review sheet’ was practically a photocopy of the final exam! It had all the questions, and I mean ALL the questions…even the multiple-choice! Obviously, the MCQ weren’t word-for-word…it was more like a worksheet where you completed a sentence or wrote in a definition. The multiple-choice questions were based on those answers. As for the short-essay ones, we got every single question. All I had to do was memorize and regurgitate. I’ll admit though, I crammed ridiculously for this test. I studied for about an hour and a half–during the time between my Accounting exam and my HR, after which I ran to the examination room. I had 3 hours to do the test and finished inless than one! It was a nice way to round off my first exam day–especially since I came out less than satisfied with my Accounting test. Of course, it goes without saying that I blame no one but myself.

I spent the remaining time–from about 1:00 until 4:30 out at the Villagio mall with Jayson and Moe. We shopped around (I didn’t buy anything) and then ate at the food court. I didn’t have my wallet with me (forgot it at home ’cause I’m a genius) so Jayson graciously paid for my food. It was fun…Moe checked out every female body in the place and had a comment for every one. What can I say? He readily admits to loving the female species.

We dropped Moe off later on and went back to college. I was planning on studying a little there but, of course, I didn’t. So now I’m home, typing this up before I have to break out the Marketing textbook and slides. Big whoop.

The HELL?!

This is highly uncharacteristic of me. Usually, anyways.

I’m good about studying, really I am. I may be a horrible procrastinator, but I am a good memorizer and can cram fairly easily before an exam.

And the subjects I’m studying for aren’t really all that hard.

I just don’t know why I’m notin the mood to study. I guess I’ve already gotten bored with everything…

The upside is that once tomorrow’s out of the way, I just have Marketing (on Thursday) and Math (on Saturday) to study for, and those are a little easier. Plus, I have a whole free day between my Marketing exam and my Math one, which means I have one night where I don’t have to cram.

I just feel antsy and bored and highly unwilling to pry open my stupid accounting books. It doesn’t help that I have 10 ratios to memorize and a bank reconciliation statement that I have to know how to do. Bank reconciliation statements are the only thing in Accounting that I’m having a smidgen of trouble with. (Fine, fine, it’s more than a smidgen). Plus I know it’s going to be an important part of the final–my instructor only stressed on that about sixty times.

You know what I find weird about final exams? They’re worth about 99% of your final grade (yes I’m exaggerating, bear with me here) but you don’t learn anything from them. You just cram your head off and regurgitate the answers and forget everything you learned as soon as you walk out the door. What’s the point? All it does is make students stressed and give teachers a pile of papers with often-unintelligible handwriting to mark.

And now I know that on Saturday night I’m gonna look back on this post and wonder why I’m throwing such a stupid and highly unnecessary fit.

Le sigh.

Facebook Heroes Mindlessly Wander into Chatrooms

It wasn’t s’posed to make sense.

In any case, I still have my two exams to do tomorrow and I still haven’t studied much. I should be concentrating a little more on HR than on Accounting, since I’m pretty good with most of the chapters. Blech. I’m just not in the mood.

I wish getting awesome grades in college qualifies you for exemptions from final exams. They did that in Lebanon when I was in Grades 7-9. That was amazing. Why can’t they do that here? And why am I so damned lazy? I’m disgusted.

Oooof….

I have my first two finals three days from now.

On the SAME day!

Accounting and Human Resource Management.

Duuuuude. And I’ve studied just about diddly-squat.

I think I’ve got wasting time down to an art here–I have absolutely no motivation to study. I don’t even want to do this one lousy assignment for my business communications course. It’s boring as hell–which, I’m sure, is a big factor in why I don’t want to do it. But I gotta get it out of the way, the damned thing is due tomorrow.

I don’t know why I’m complaining–it’s not like the subjects I’m taking are that difficult. In fact, I know the basics of most of them, I just need to review the stuff my teachers told me to for the final.

I just can’t be bothered. Episode 8 of Heroes is begging me to plug in my headphones and give it the ol’ double-click.

But I don’t want to do that either.

Shit.