cry for me next door neighbour
Jun. 7th, 2007 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcAfter yesterday's travel debacle (though it was only at the very end that I lost the plot...otherwise I was quite serene), I slept until just after 10h--about 5 hours of sleep in toto. Puttered, abluted, then wandered down the hill to the proper conference site. Caught the tail end of a presentation on queer youth.
Which I must say, pisses me off: this is an adult education conference. We're pretty flexible about things, but learners that are adults is perhaps the only requirement. That the presenter was the conference co-convenor isn't a coincidence. How do I know? I was one of 3 who adjudicated the peer review...and tanked this proposal because it's not adult ed. But then again this is the guy who bursts into tears every time the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is mentioned. It was moving the first time; after the 5th or 10th you can't but think "dude, get a grip, you're 50 years old for Chrissake!"
But I digress.
A friend from Vancouver who know lives in Halifax was in the session, and we toddled off to lunch as we had agreed earlier (email). She's great, her kids are great, and she'd really like to move back to Vancouver. After lunch I went to a session on Alaska Native post-secondary success: a squandered opportunity with too much white liberal guilt hand-wringing by the presenters. There was nothing that grabbed me in the next 2 sessions, so I returned to my room and finished tarting up my presentation (tomorrow 09h30).
Then it was back down the hill for the Queer Caucus meeting. Professor Sobby also arranged this event and...OMG Becky! A high school teacher/activist pushing for anti-homophobia programmes in Nova Scotia's schools. Wholly laudable...and nothing the fuck to do with adult ed. That the presenter filled the entire hour with his own blathering "uh...what else do I have to say? Uh.....well I could tell you about..." Had he stopped at the first "uh" we could have had a nice 20 minute description. Meh.
I gave my friend T. and a colleague of hers a ride downtown to the banquet. There was a loud blues band playing during cocktails..just loud enough for people saying "what?" to one another again and again. Eventually a gang of 4 (another colleague of theirs joined us) were bemoaning:
T: Fuck, I know it's important, but mingling is so tedious
R: I know, hate it
?: Totally
Me: So let's make a pact: we are a mingling free zone tonight. We will only engage with people at least one of us in the group already knows.
T, R & ?: *squee*
So we did. We still had lots of folks to chatter with, but we stayed put and entertained ourselves. The banquet was very good: broiled chicken, baked salmon, roasted veggies, caesar salad and desserts galore.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
querrelle rang me just after the meal was served and we had a brief, lovely chat. :) Then it was time to explore Halifax. So I drove around for 30 minutes or so, then headed back to campus. Where I am about to lower my massive hiney into bed.
Which I must say, pisses me off: this is an adult education conference. We're pretty flexible about things, but learners that are adults is perhaps the only requirement. That the presenter was the conference co-convenor isn't a coincidence. How do I know? I was one of 3 who adjudicated the peer review...and tanked this proposal because it's not adult ed. But then again this is the guy who bursts into tears every time the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is mentioned. It was moving the first time; after the 5th or 10th you can't but think "dude, get a grip, you're 50 years old for Chrissake!"
But I digress.
A friend from Vancouver who know lives in Halifax was in the session, and we toddled off to lunch as we had agreed earlier (email). She's great, her kids are great, and she'd really like to move back to Vancouver. After lunch I went to a session on Alaska Native post-secondary success: a squandered opportunity with too much white liberal guilt hand-wringing by the presenters. There was nothing that grabbed me in the next 2 sessions, so I returned to my room and finished tarting up my presentation (tomorrow 09h30).
Then it was back down the hill for the Queer Caucus meeting. Professor Sobby also arranged this event and...OMG Becky! A high school teacher/activist pushing for anti-homophobia programmes in Nova Scotia's schools. Wholly laudable...and nothing the fuck to do with adult ed. That the presenter filled the entire hour with his own blathering "uh...what else do I have to say? Uh.....well I could tell you about..." Had he stopped at the first "uh" we could have had a nice 20 minute description. Meh.
I gave my friend T. and a colleague of hers a ride downtown to the banquet. There was a loud blues band playing during cocktails..just loud enough for people saying "what?" to one another again and again. Eventually a gang of 4 (another colleague of theirs joined us) were bemoaning:
T: Fuck, I know it's important, but mingling is so tedious
R: I know, hate it
?: Totally
Me: So let's make a pact: we are a mingling free zone tonight. We will only engage with people at least one of us in the group already knows.
T, R & ?: *squee*
So we did. We still had lots of folks to chatter with, but we stayed put and entertained ourselves. The banquet was very good: broiled chicken, baked salmon, roasted veggies, caesar salad and desserts galore.
querrelle rang me just after the meal was served and we had a brief, lovely chat. :) Then it was time to explore Halifax. So I drove around for 30 minutes or so, then headed back to campus. Where I am about to lower my massive hiney into bed.
