Author Archives: Gillian

Myanmar Trip

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I may have mentioned before that I am going to Myanmar in November. If you missed that memo, here it is: I’m going to Myanmar in November. (For those still unsure, here is where Myanmar is. You may also know it as Burma.) I’ll be going with a group from the Anglican Diocese of BC as a part of our Partners in Mission Companion Diocese program. From the Island, a group of young people are going, and we’ll be taking part in the anniversary celebrations of their Anglican Young People’s Association.

One of the guys on our team has set up this skookum website; which is currently in the process of having info added to it. But when its all ready to go, it will be a fount of info and goodness! I might even post over there now and again. So check it out!

If you’re on the Island, we’ll be having a number of fund-raising activities in the months to come, and we’d love your support. If you’re not on the Island, we’d still love your support so drop me a line and I’ll let you know how you can get involved!

Oh the Vanity

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Facebook is the ultimate in status and vanity these days, it seems. How hot is your profile picture? How many cows did you save? How often do you update your status? How many friends do you have? Golly, even I’m not immune. Not that I am the pinnacle of that which is pure and holy, I’d just like to think of myself as above all of that.

It would appear not.

I noticed, a number of weeks ago, that an acquaintance-who-shall-remain-unnamed had changed me to a limited view of their profile. Slight insult ensued, but since we were not the most excellent of friends I decided to not care. Besides, the main reason for viewing that particular profile was mainly for its entertainment value.

Last night, when online for various reasons (school work, I promise!), I noticed I was down a friend. How I noticed, I don’t know. I swear that I do not sit and count my friends, my number had just been one with a large proportion of the number “8” which is my favourite number, so it stood out to me. I know, I’m strange. Get over it.

Today, I discovered who that minus one friend is: acquaintance-who-shall-remain-unnamed. Hah! The interesting thing is, our mutual friends are still mutual friends, there has been no “unfriending” of the others.

Take insult or laugh in this person’s face?

Here We Go Again

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And thus we begin another term of school: two down and two to go. That full week and a half off didn’t really feel like a break with all of the traveling that I did in there. Mind you, it was very nice to not have to take any school work with me to Montreal.

Today, the next course opened: Research Methods. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against research methods. I think it is a valuable component of any degree… I would just like to learn something new. I logged on to the course site earlier this week and began the readings. It is all review. In fact, it is less than review. I don’t think it will be even as in depth as any of my undergraduate courses.

I have, in my undergraduate degree, completed no less than five courses in research methods and statistics. In those courses, I wrote research proposals, I conducted experiments and collected data, I had labs where I used statistics software and analyzed my data, I wrote formal reports. Heck, one prof even used some of our data for her research.

When I wrote the school and asked for permission to not take the course, I was told I could only have that if my courses were taken at the graduate level. Fair enough, I can live with that. Maybe I’ll learn something more if it is a “graduate” course.

Then, I opened the text book and read the first sentence: “A course in research methods is possibly the most important course you will ever take in your psychology undergraduate career.” Kill me now.

In Brief

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  • Final paper of the term done. I’m quite fond of it. Title: “I
 and
 Thou: 
Spirituality, therapeutic
 presence,
 and 
becoming 
human through dialogical 
relationship 
in 
humanistic 
psychotherapies.”
  • I now get a week and a bit off, though the next course will open in a week so I should really start reading then.
  • I made eatmore bars last night and I have eaten more than I should have.
  • I leave tomorrow on the red-eye for Montreal! I’ll be there for four days – a wedding, a confirmation, and 3 or 5 birthdays!
  • I’m going to experiment with tweeting from the sky. We’ll see if that works or not.
  • Photos via twitter will likely be my primary mode of sharing photos of the weekend until I get back because computer is staying right here.

Friday Photo

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The Second Coming [of spring on the Island]


We had a long period of spring/cherry blossoms back in February. Then it got cooler again. This last week, the trees that didn’t get in on the action in February have decided to start the blooming. It is spring all over again!