Missing In Action

Where do I begin?

Contrary to some reports, I was not sold into the sex-trade industry in Montreal, nor was I asked to spy on the French, nor was I abducted by aliens.

I have been back in Edmonton for a couple weeks, and have been preoccupied with school. Not to say I was busy with school, that's another matter.

You know how you procrastinate sometimes? Well, last month I was supposed to write/edit a newsletter for the Pharmacy students at school. It was supposed to be out at the start of the winter semester. Yes, that would be a few weeks ago.

Well, I hadn't done anything for it. And I felt bad about it. So I did the only thing that made sense. I put it off. Assume that it didn't exist. I just couldn't get myself to do the paper. I didn't want to ask for help doing it. Frankly, I was kinda overwhelmed by having to do this project. I delayed. Watched some TV. Surfed the net. Read the paper. Anything to avoid human contact.

Of course I couldn't put it off forever. I do not live in a bubble. (Though that would be interesting. I'd probably be bored with the lack of contact with the outside world.) My actions do affect other people. Most notably the VP-Publications. She noticed the edition of the Pharmacy Quarterly had not come out yet and wanted to know when it was coming out. I gave her some half-assed excuse that it was coming out pretty soon, being deliberately vague.

I went into hiding to avoid the situation. I missed a few classes. I stayed quiet, under the radar. I let this splinter in my mind fracture the rest of my interactions with the world. My life became more dysfunctional than it normally was. I decided I couldn't in good conscience do stuff like update my blog until I finish the newsletter. Isn't that perfectly logical?

After many frustrating days of badgering, delusions and procrastinating, I finally finished it, about 4 weeks after it was supposed to come out.

I can't imagine what will happen when I encounter some real adversity. I'd probably hide in a shed somewhere in the wilderness, and have a shotgun pointed at the door.

And I found out one job I really don't like: editor. I hate finding stuff to edit. Find flaws in something. Getting formatting right is really annoying. It sucks making sure columns are aligned properly and maybe it's Pagemaker. The GUI is pretty counterintuitive, at least for me. You can only undo something once. You can't just rotate pictures easily. You can't highlight text and edit right away. God, I hate the program. I'd like to give it syphillis.



So, what about Montreal? It was awesome. I'll talk about it in my next post.