DrillFest

Well hello dear readers.

I apologize for any lack of eloquence, I'm sick and exhausted, but I felt I had to give you guys something to chuckle about.

So, RMC is basically closed down for the year. All that remains, sadly, is drill, drill, some more drill, and a wee bit of paperwork. There's still a bit of random outclearance stuff to be done, mostly handing in pieces of uniforms to the tailors so they can put on new shiny badges and all that, getting our claims (that's when they give you money/plane tickets/whatever so you can get to wherever you're supposed to go for the summer), and generally making sure everything's in order. Other than that, RMC has been transformed into a gigantic parade square.

We have EPT (Elemental Physical Training) in the morning, which consists of anything from a run to playing ultimate frisbee, and then the mornings are usually reserved for whatever outclearance is necessary.. the afternoons are for parade practice for those (un)lucky enough to be on Grad parade, and general practice for those of us in the band. At night there's some practicing for the Sunset Ceremony (that happens the night before the Grad parade) and for us pipers, an extra hour of practice, usually to iron out kinks in the tunes. Add to that a few hours of personal practice spread out over the day... Yeah.

I'd like to say good things about DrillFest, but it's really a drag. It gets repetitive and boring and the schedule is such that your time off isn't really off, you just wait for whatever is next. You rush to parade in the morning, then do EPT, then rush off to shower, rush to breakfast (because they have the habit of randomly closing earlier than they're supposed to), then sit around for a few hours, go to lunch and hope it won't be too full so you can get your food quickly, rush to practice, rush to dinner, rush to the other practice, and then you just want to relax so you don't get anything accomplished. I still haven't packed, and honestly I don't know how I'll manage that. I have the kit list and all, but with no real time off, it's hard to get into it. I don't really have a choice, though, so it'll probably get done at some point.

I just wish they'd give us a day off (at least) during the weekend. As it stands, we'll have had basically three weeks with barely any break, by the time we hit Grad parade. I don't want to criticize, but they need to remember the law of diminishing returns. The more we have to over-practice, the worse we get, because we end up figuring out that whether or not we're good, we have to be practicing every day anyway, so some of us end up not bothering to put any effort. We still look good on the actual parade--we're at RMC, looking good for parades is what we do--but it's a bit hollow.

So, for now, my life is basically spread between PT and piping, with a little bit of kafkaesque bureaucracy thrown in for good measure. As much as I like all that stuff, it's starting to be a bit of a grind, and I can't wait to go on leave.

Oh well, only another week and then I can go and sleep on a real bed, eat real food, and relax... Well, at least I'll sleep on a bed where I'm less than 6 feet off the ground, eat what I want to eat, and have nothing to do for a while. I'm sure I'll find a way to get tired of that too, though.

Sorry if that's more than a little bit boring, but that's what's going on at RMC, and the whole reason I made up this blog is to tell people about RMC, so it's your own fault for reading it! HA!

Gimme a beer!

A haiku -- From Warcraft

Join the Army, they said
See the world, they said
I'd rather be sailing


For the stupid I-can't-think-of-a-good-word among you who only know World of Warcraft--a rather stupid game, really--Warcraft was actually an incredibly awesome real-time strategy game, back in the day when computer games had more to offer than pretty graphics and the ability to piss people off by killing their characters and taking all their items. Or whatever it is that attracts players to World of Warcraft beyond pretty graphics.

Degree Story: You choose

Ok, so you won't literally choose. However, I'm in a bit of a bind when it comes to what courses I'll be taking next year. I need to load up, as I'll be tight to finish enough courses to get my double major--I've abandonned all hopes of a double honours, that was insane--so I'll go for the full 7-course-per-semester load, the biggest load us artsmen can take. The problem is there are 6 full-year courses and 9 one-semester courses I want to take next year, including one mandatory full-year and two one-semester courses that are mandatory. The sucky part is, both one-semester courses are in the fall, so that leaves a hole in my second semester. Pretty much all the courses I'm going to list are courses I'd very much like to take, so any input will be helpful.

French Studies (in no particular order, quick translation of course names for you anglo people)
Full-year courses:

• FRF320/322 The Civilisation of Francophony (basically, literature from outside the Western world)
• FRF330/332 War and the military condition
• FRF344/346 French stylistics (mandatory, but I could take it in fourth year)
• FRF386/388 Eighteenth-century literature (it would make sense to take this one as I took the 16th-17th century course this year)

History:
Full-year courses:

• HIF491/492 International Law (Actually, International Crises and Law and Crimes and war criminals: International Penal Law, would be a good choice as I might want to go into law later... I always loved that JAG show.)

One-semester courses:
Fall:

• HIE387 Russia to 1917 (for some reason, the second part, History of the USSR isn't in the course list...)
• HIF477 Introduction to terrorism (I'd take it in English, because I know the teacher, but he's heading in Afghanistan next year... might wait until he's back)

Winter:

• HIF379 The Cold War
• HIF476 Revolutionary War and Guerilla

Others:

Full-year courses:

• ENE480/482 Commonwealth literature (first semester covers Africa, Carribean and Canada, the second covers Australia, New Zealand and India ... I could take one semester or the other, or both)
  

One-semester courses:
Fall:

• CSE260 Introduction to Computer Concepts (mandatory at some point.. either next fall or the fall after that)
• PSE301A Organizational Behaviour & Leadership (same as above)
• ENE469 War Film
• POF/E488 Laws of Armed Conflict

Winter:

• ENE444 Twentieth Century Dramatic Literature
• ENE464 American literature since 1945 (I'd actually prefer this one, and wouldn't take both 444 and 464)

So far, it looks like I'll take the three full-year French courses, and the International Law history course... I'd like to take two more History credits so I'd only need two French and two History courses in fourth year, but that Laws of Armed Conflict course and the English deparment courses sound pretty nice as well. I might end up taking the LoAC course, the two mandatory "others" courses, and fill up my winter semester with some History stuff. I'm a bit scared about taking two "law" courses in the same year, though, considering I don't know that much about it. As I'll also have a few mandatory courses in fourth year, I can't just put everything off to then. Besides, I don't really want a huge year in fourth year; I'd like to enjoy the end of my College experience.

Help, anyone?

Celebrating May Day Once Again

Fake News Network (FNN) - Kingston, Soviet Canuckistan

Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV), G-wagons and assorted pieces of artillery rolled down Princess Street in Kingston this morning in celebration of the International Workers' Day.

The Canadian General Secretary of the Party, Jean Poutine, remarked, "this is the best parade we've had in recent memory. All that's missing is some good old-fashionned head-bashing. And gulags; we really need gulags."

Thousands of soldiers marched to be reviewed by the Secretary, while smaller celebrations took place in other cities across Soviet Canuckistan. A small group of counter-revolutionaries, led by well-known troublemaker Emmanuel Goldstein, protested but were quickly beaten back by the RCMP, the Revolutionary Canuckistan Military Police.

Further celebrations are planned for the evening, including what has been dubbed "the biggest show of fireworks since the Chinese invented powder." Police and military forces are on high alert for further actions from Goldstein's group, the so-called Counter-Revolutionary Agency for Peace, and other enemies of Soviet Canuckistan.

FNN wishes all its readers a very revolutionary May Day.

-----

The above was a ficticious text and a sad attempt at humour, please treat it as such.

Movie Review: Solaris

All right, so I'm 35 years late to properly review this movie. Big deal.

Here's a short synopsis, in true RMCNM style:

Random psychologist guy is told he'll go to some space station. Friend of shrink's father shows up with a video and shows it to shrink. Shrink leaves for station and finds out his friend killed himself. Weird stuff is going on on the station. Shrink's dead ex-wife shows up. Shrink blasts her off into space. Ex-wife shows up again. Shrink tries to figure out what the hell is going on. Shrink kind of goes insane. Planet starts changing. Movie ends on a weird note. (It's a Soviet movie, after all)

Ok, so that was a bit long; give me a break, I haven't done a RMCNM synopsis in a while.

Anyway, the movie is a bit long and has lots of sequences with little to no dialogue. Still, it's interesting and makes a lot of questions pop up about, for example, what exactly it means to be human, and how to deal with loss. It's not really the kind of movie you can convince someone to see just by talking about it, but it's a good psychological/philosophical trip into humanness.

Rating: four and a half dead ex-wives out of five.

Blows my mind

Just a few things that I learned/heard of/saw this week that blew my mind.

1. Classic Video, in Kingston. It is officially my favoritest, best-ever video rental place EVER. They have tons of foreign films (GERMAN! RUSSIAN! JAPANESE!), lots and lots of anime (nothing special, but they have the good ones), pretty much any TV series you might want, lots of British stuff, and craploads of timeless movies. Add to that a vast selection of documentaries, very low prices (3 DVDs for 8 days for $5), and you have a recipe for me renting a lot of videos.

2. Diesel engines in US nuclear submarines. I have no idea what's going. Check out Bubbleheads' blog. I'm so confused.

3. The Institute of the USA and Canada. (ISKRAN) The Soviet Union founded it sometime in the Cold War and it's still running, offering PhDs for a few people every year. They even have a Department of Canada. RMC doesn't even have a Department of Canada! I think I know where I'll get my PhD if I ever go for one in history!

4. How liberating NOT studying can be.

5. My "to read" list is extremely long. Even if I try to average 3-5 books a week like my French teacher recommends, I'll still fall short and have to take a bit of reading with me to Esquimalt. Or wait until I come back from course.

Relieved and peeved.

First, the relief. I finally finished my last exam this morning, meaning I'm officially on vacation (from school, at least) until September. And I got a pimpin' good mark on my last French paper--86%. Almost all the points I lost were either style (a few sentences were awkward) or spelling. Most of the comments consist of "good," "very good," "excellent," and "bravo." I also got a few smileys (which means the teacher really liked what was written) and some other comments to the effect of my writing being really good.

Now, the peeve. While I was getting ready this morning, I was listening to Radio-Canada on the radio (for those not in the know: they're like the BBC, they do radio AND TV) and apparently this bunch of pot-smoking, communist, bad-smelling, unshaven, revolutionary, democracy-hating, anti-US, anti-everything* activists decided to try and get the Chief of Defense Staff for war crimes. Now, I'm not saying we're infallible, but the only evidence of wrongdoing is some Taliban saying some random bullcrap. Not quite what I'd call prime witnesses. Beyond that, there is not the shadow of a proof that what is alleged actually happened. Besides, where are the protests and the whining and bitching about the war crimes the Taliban commited, and the crimes against humanity they and their friends Al Qaeda commited? Shouldn't we arrest all Taliban and AQ leaders and see them hang in the Hague? Nooooo, they're so awesome, says Mr. Hippie Protester. We're just oppressing them with our democracy, equal rights for women, free elections, and the right to not get shot because you don't grow a Gandalf beard, after all. Kids were so much happier before they could run around and fly kites! Women so much prefered being beaten to death because they stepped foot outside of their kitchen! And the men just loved watching their wives and daughters being brutally raped and killed before being killed themselves if they disagreed with the local Taliban leader. C'mon!

Afghanistan has known decades of war, and now things are getting better, because some Western countries saddled up and are cleaning house and bringing over food, water, medical supplies, and the expertise to make things better. I guess the hippy whiners prefer having something to whine about, rather than the problem getting fixed.

*I don't know if they smell bad, but they fit the "random hippie whiner" profile