On Tuesday morning
I started memorizing “Di doo dah” by Serge Gainsbourg. It shouldn’t be that
hard since there are only 18 lines with some repeated and the rest is “di doo
dah”. I’m about a quarter done already.
I went onto Acorn to switch my
program from English Major to English Specialist but the pop-up said I should
talk to my registrar. The Woodsworth Registrar’s office didn’t open till 10:00
so I called back a little later. I got through right away to Amber who said
that I might not be able to switch because I started the program in 2012 and
the criteria has changed. She suggested that I come down to talk with an
academic counsellor that day. I got ready, deciding to wear my Blundies rather
than sandals for a trip downtown and back.
I went up Brock to Bloor and headed east. At a light I was squeezing
between the back of a idling truck and the side of a parked car when a guy with
long wavy reddish brown hair and a cane came out from in front of the car and
started squeezing between me and the truck. As he was getting by he exclaimed,
“Oh yeah! Blundtones! I had a pair … SEVEN YEARS!!!”
Since seeing an academic counsellor is a drop-in I had to wait ten
minutes. I did a French grammar exercise on the subjonctif while I was waiting.
I got two out of eight right, mostly because of a missing letter “s” at the end
of my answers.
Anne Marie called my name and I went
into her office. She had me log onto Acorn with her computer. I was lucky that
I still remembered my user name and password since Google remembers it for me
these days. She helped me put in the request to change to English Specialist
although I guess I could have done it from home, since the note about talking
to my registrar seems to have been more of a suggestion than a requirement.
We looked at my academic record and
at what courses I still need to do either as an English Major or an English
Specialist. She informed me that I still needed one full Social Science course
as part of my breadth requirement. I had somehow been under the impression that
Digital Text had been a combination English and Social Science course but she
looked it up and we saw that it wasn’t. I guess that when I was required to
pick a program back in 2012 I’d assumed that all of my breadth requirements had
been met. Other than the Social Science requirement I had to complete my
English Major is one half credit fourth year English course.
Four both English Major and English
Specialist there are the same five groups of courses. In the old criteria I’ve
already completed all my requirements from groups 1-3 and from group 5. But in
the new criteria for either Major or Specialist I haven’t completed any of the
required courses in Group 1, which consists of four half credit second year
courses or from Group 2, which consists of one half credit in indigenous,
postcolonial or transnational literatures. Anne Marie told me that I should
talk to the English Department, which was closed that day, to find out if the
old requirements apply to me or if I have to complete all of those new
requirements. I didn’t have to worry about that right away because for Wednesday
morning I could just go ahead and enrol in one Social Science course and one
fourth year half English course since there is no question that I have to take
them for either the Major or the Specialist programs.
I rode home.
I had a sausage and some yogourt
with honey for lunch.
I took a siesta and slept for an
extra hour, I guess because the ride downtown and back tuckered me out.
I did some exercises with ankle
weights and some without. My ankle weights are leaking tiny bits every time I
use them and so I’ll have to find the time to sew them up on some rainy day
soon.
I got caught up on my journal and
then I sat down to go through all of the courses to look for the ones that meet
the Social Science breadth requirement. That included most courses in
Indigenous Studies, which just a few years ago was called Aboriginal Studies;
Anthropology; and Sexual Diversity Studies, which used to be called Women and
Gender Studies. There were also some specialized Social Science half courses
offered by some of the colleges, the most interesting ones being “Blogging the
Just City" at Innis College and "Sex in the City" at University
College but it turned out that those were restricted to students registered to
those colleges. One of the SDS courses: Sexuality at the Intersections looked
intriguing but it’s only a half course while I’d like to just take one course
and get Social Science out of the way, so I’ll probably just go with the full
year of Introduction to Indigenous Studies. I think that’d be educational, plus
I already have a head start because I’ve had a few indigenous girlfriends.
I looked at the fourth year half
courses and some of them were interesting as well. I think I’ll probably try
for Aesthetic and Decadence Movements.
I had a potato, two hot Italian sausages and some gravy for lunch
while watching The Untouchables.
A bank robber and murderer named
Frank Halloway escapes from prison with another convict. There is a waiting car
that Halloway immediately uses to kill his partner, as he’s only halfway out of
their tunnel. He’s been helped in his escape by his lawyer for a cut of
Halloway’s half of a stolen million dollars that is waiting for him in
California. The lawyer has arranged for Halloway to travel along the route
known as the gangster’s underground railroad. Along the way here are various
safe stops where he can eat, drink, sleep and get corrective surgery. Halloway
is presented as being quite ugly in the beginning. To help him evade the law he
is also given a female companion named Mona to pose as his wife. He gets his
teeth filed, his nose fixed and his hairline changed until he finally looks
like Cliff Robertson. Before his transformation is complete he and Mona become
lovers but once he’s good looking he can do better. He wants to kill her
because she’s the only one that knows the before and after of his face but she
reminds him he can’t get the money without her as a connection. Mona is worried
that she is in danger and calls the lawyer to come out west. The lawyer arrives
with his beautiful East Asian girlfriend Tuki, who can’t speak any English.
Halloway kills the lawyer and Mona drives him to where his bank-robbing partner
Ed Johnson is. Ed does not believe the person that has come to get the money is
Halloran because he does not recognize him and so he pulls a gun. Halloran
knocks the gun away, beats him unconscious and takes all the money. As he’s
driving away the feds arrive and begin shooting. He crashes and his car
explodes.
Tuki was played by Korean actor
Linda Wong. She was studying political science in Hawaii in 1956 but then won a
beauty contest and was signed by 20th Century Fox.
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