Academic bitch slap

So this week a friend of mine got academically cornered, bitch slapped you might say. She was in what was supposed to be a lab meeting. While in the lab meeting, he supervisor and co-supervisor asked her if she minded if it could be counted as a committee meeting and impromptu, the meeting was turned immediately into one of her bi-yearly committee meetings, even though her other committee members were not there and she had no time to prepare for said meeting.

In addition to what I view as this being altogether inappropriate, somehow, at the end of this meeting my friends supervisor managed to tell her lab-mates/co-workers that she had not been working hard enough, and deserved a "spanking". Can you imagine?!?!

I believe that my friend has a serious case for harassment. I know her boss well. He used to come to my office - usually around 8 in the evening when I was working late and everyone had already left the school, and tell me how lovely my hair looked and ask me if I had "done something different". The funniest and most pathetic thing about this man is that the whole time he would be staring right at my breasts. He is a creep. My whole institution is full of them. It is something about academia - especially the second and third-rate schools in the country. It is like they are so desperate to attract people with talent that they will overlook their social flaws. Even if those flaws are what any respectable school/organization finds despicable.

I have had it up to here with this second rate institution allowing the predators to roam with students. My school is notorious for installing a Non-academic misconduct policy (NAMP), which it has given a face lift - it is now called the "Charter of Student Rights" but it still lays the framework for what is considered acceptable and normal adult behaviour if you are to attend our school as a student and be a functional part of our community. The biggest joke is that sooner than later one of these spoiled rich kids will be bullied and sexually harassed so badly by one of our sick-ass professors that they will sue the pants off this place and the school will realize that they should have made a NAMP for their professors! Oh well, by then I will be long gone and able to help the students... and I promise my experiences here will never be forgotten but only strengthen my resolve to fight for student rights across Canada against backwards policies that protect old men and their perversions.

When the Toronto Blue Jays won the world series'

When I was young I always lived in a city with a great team. I was a young girl and I grew up in Edmonton with the Oilers and Gretzky. Hockey is a way of life in Canada.

Then when I was 7 I moved to Toronto, and while the Maple Leafs are surely an institution, nothing was better than when the Toronto Blue Jays won back-to-back world series' in 1992-1993.



The first year we filled the streets. For whatever reason the city didn't see it coming. The public service operators paniked. The subway and buses closed. Cab drivers shut-off their engines. Bars and restaurants closed shop early. It was havoc. Fun havoc, but havoc nonetheless.



It took me over four hours to get home, with a walk from college and young, up the hill of Castle Loma all the way to Spadina and Eglinton at which time I called my mom from my friend's house at 4:00 am (I woke her up, of course) and asked if she would come pick me up. I was only 15 at the time, boy was she pissed-off! She still came, and I didn't get in trouble.

Those moments are a special part of my memories - they will stay with me forever. I remember them because they are a part of what it meant to be a teenager in Toronto in the 1990s, because my this is how I love to remember my friends and how I like to remember my mom - kind and forgiving. I will tell my grandchildren about that night - what the people were like, how the team played and how much fun my friends and I had. I am still friends with all those same people, and it will be a great way for me to share with my family.

Do you have a great sports story like this? Perhaps you have a great memory of one of your friends or family having their own great moment (i.e.; hitting their first ball). Do you have some awesome sports videos to go along with it? If you do, upload the video to Sports Vids and share it with everyone - preserve it forever. Then, like me, you can share your story and your online sports video with your family and friends and know that it is safely archived.

Pin-up of the week - 39

This week I am featuring Something Special. Next week I also have a special feature, so come back in 7 days and get ready for some new juicy pin-up views!

Without further ado...

Featuring: A 6-image Gil Elvgren spread!
Including:
Full photo recreations!
Photography by: Mehosh Dziadzio
Model(s): Dayna Delux, Heidi Van Horne

Halloween is only one month away!

Halloween is just one month away - have you found a costume yet?



Look Your Hottest this Halloween with Playboy's Sexy Costumes -Now 20% Off! They have awesome costumes like sexy devils and the classic french maid - and ladies, trust me, these will not be single-use purchases! any red-blooded male (or female, depending on your preference) will love the playful costumes and selection at Playboy! Even better, Enjoy 10% Off Your Entire Order of $50 or More (Valid for Select Items) AND All Sexy Playboy Costumes are Now 20% Off!

Last year for Halloween I dressed up as a classic pin-up model - what else?!? It was a lot of fun, even though I sort of looked like a 1990's west-side "gangstar" (My bandana looked more like a dew-rag). If you want to try this totally fun costume idea, there are a few different ways to get totally a perfect costume:

1. try a wig with a great retro or pin-up themed dress dress:
2. try a cute polka-dot outfit and do your own curls:














3. OR for the younger or more modest, try something sweeter and more rockabilly (with my favorite, Hello Kitty!):












This year I am having a hard time making my mind up. I think I want to be princess Amidala, but there are soooo many awesome, affordable, sexy adult Halloween costumes

available at buycostumes.com I can't make up my mind! I was also thinking about my all-time favorite, Strawberry shortcake:

Maybe you guys can let me know what you think?

Holy !!!

So I am watching TV and then as many of you must have seen, George Bush commandeered the entertainment land of North America. Why? He has a plan:

$700,000,000,000 to help banks

Paid by the taxpayers.

No Rescue plan = severe economic depression and if taxpayers don't do this now, they will suffer greater later.

At least America will try to bail itself out ...

"Democratic Capitalism is the best system ever devised ... may God bless you"

George Bush

Hmmm....

What if instead Ol' George took the money from the Military budget and just ended his War, which began under false pretense?

Apparently the Iraq War has already cost close to 600,000,000,000 and it is estimated that it will pass a trillion dollars. Why didn't the American tax-payers have that money available to them for this crisis? oh right, Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Can you kill bambi with a pink raygun?

In the blog, Who Killed Bambi, the gang of truly criminal Italian bloggers (who appear to hail from Toronto, ON) are "riding the net". WHY?

They act in the dark, exploring the most sinister places, in search for the bloody heart of talent and creativity. Their favourite victims are banality, conformism, lack of humor and good will at any cost. Killing Bambi is a good metaphor for their mission. They are unarmed, actually, but they can still hurt.
So be careful...

This blog is well designed, interesting to look through and full of great images. The premise is well-thought out (making me want to start all over to solidify my theme, but more likely I'll just start my own hard-core blog gang) and either based upon a Sex Pistols movie that was never made or the Disney movie. The film was meant to be the Sex-Pistols version of A Hard Day's Night. After only a day and a half''s filming, the production company pulled funding from the project when they read the script and then all sets and efforts put into the film were destroyed. The Great Rock and Roll Swindle was eventually made by a different director and the Pistols' manager - this film included some of the footage from Who Killed Bambi, including the initial scene with a deer being shot. This explains the blog's name and masthead. However, it might be more effective (although maybe infringe on a copyright or two) if Bambi were being shot with a gun and not randomly killed by a reaper.


Speaking of pistols, that brings me to the next:

Pink Raygun is a very eclectic blog. You never know what you'll get when you visit this site - which is what I really like about it. While the focus is centered fully on fun and popular science fiction, you can always count on Pink raygun to give you solid opinion posts on politics, and even "science".

"Ask an Amateur Scientist" is my favorite category where the posts are about science, and any other topic Mr Thompson fancies, but at least he knows he's an amateur. I respect his amateur opinion even more than an expert one. The posts are on good scientific topics, like palm reading, cults and religion. I love it. Use the ray guns to navigate around. I found their tag-cloud the best way to sift through the many and varied posts on this fun science fiction blog.

p.s. - this blog is LIBERAL!!! do not go if you are ultra-conservative because you won't like it - or will you...

Photoshop Challenge

Have you ever visited a blog or someone's awesome flicker page and then some loser ruins the whole experience by trying to start some argument in the comments about how obvious it is that the image is a photoshop? Have you ever really noticed a photoshop? Have you ever really cared? I know, me too - I think those people can be the biggest poopers, too.

That's why when I visited Lady Banana today and saw this quiz posted, I thought I might take it to see how I did:


Created By Their Toys

It was so much fun! I did a lot of guessing so I think my score is a bit of a fluke. Aside form the totally hilarious images, I really never knew for sure which pictures were photoshop-ed, except for the ones that had obvious effects. Go and find out how well you can spot a photoshop and then remember that those people who think they are the experts that love to bring everybody down are probably just people like you and me. I mean, seriously, what does "look at the pixels" mean to you? If I read that one more time from some ignorant "photoshop expert" I am going to ask that expert to explain themselves because I know it is meaningless. When we look at a screen we are all looking at the pixels - duh?!?

Rant finished.

Pin-up of the week - 38

Edward Runci

My best teachers are students

The most well written article I've read in years. Heart warming. Instructions: - to be read once in morning with coffee daily to make day go well.This article was written by my boyfriend's sister and I want to share it all with you. Like me, she has spent lots of time educating - but she is sooooo much better at the written word, and upon reading this article I was nearly brought to tears because it accurately describes that relationship you get when you teach young people. Thanks for writing this, Nadia, and keep writing. The world needs your talents.xo BD

read more | digg story

Wacky wednesday

So, on Monday I started teaching again. It was really nice to interact with students, I always forget how great it is to see young people grasp new concepts and for me to be challenged by new questions.

Then the week got long, fast - and it isn't even over yet!

So, Tuesday seemed to be going along perfectly fine when my laptop...

...shut off, it wasn't a massive surprise.

There was a hole in the wire of the power cord (under the electrical tape) and it has shut down without warning sometimes, but I have lived with it by saving my work often (and and alot of finger crossing that my electrical tape keeps doing it's job).

This Tuesday was different.

After I re-started my laptop, it shut-off again almost immediately. I decided to try the "third time's a charm" thought and pressed one more time on the power button and then my laptop actually shut off before the black start-up screen turned to the windows screen. I mean it was less than a second! This time I knew that I, my electrical tape and my laptop were screwed for sure.

Anyhow, a day later, I now have the most amazing new lap-top! It took a total of 26 dedicated hours to install, re-install, up-load, transfer, etc... everything that I need to make it work the way that I want, but now I have my dream machine. I have convertible laptop/tablet and so far I love everything about it. Good lord, I may even disappear for a few days just so that I can have some alone time with my new 4.6 lb personal computer - touch it, get to know its every crease, curve and feature.

I love it so much that I made a laptop cozy (also known as a sleeve) for it:
I know, I know. You didn't know I had a crafty, domestic side - did you? Well, I honestly can't be sewing crap on a regular basis because I think my crafts are kind of ugly. They never had the kind of finesse that I would want to see in the kind of handmade goods I want to pay for!

So, what else is making this week crazy? I have two days on the mass-spec (Thursday and Friday) so I'll be in the lab for a 16-20 hours. I have done a lot of research to begin a new review for a manuscript, and I am trying develop a model to explain some of the phenomenon I have observed in the lab.

Yep - one week, and is only Wednesday. But a wacky Wednesday ;-)

I'll be back on the weekend! Phew...

xoxo BD