A Learning Process

Hi VIU! It’s been awhile. Between school and work and everything else, things have been hectic—but I’m still around. I’ve been having a great (and slightly crazy) semester now that I’m in upper level. One of the best things about my schooling this year is that through a couple of my courses I’m getting some real-world experience in an area that I’m thinking about pursuing a career in: editing. It’s one thing to learn the job in the classroom, but another entirely to put it in to practice for a published magazine. That’s what I’m currently working on as senior copyeditor for VIU’s literary magazine, Portal (which you should all read). It’s a job that was assigned to me back in the fall and I thought, “Hey, that’s awhile off, no worries. I don’t need to learn how to identify comma splices quite yet.” Well, time flies, and here I am with a week and a half to do the job asking myself, “So, what does a comma do exactly?” Okay, perhaps I’m not that amateur, but working a project where the 750 copies of the results are available to the public does cause me to question my abilities—I’ve had comma splice and grammatical criticisms regarding entries on this blog, after all. But the thing to remember is that this is an education—a learning process, where not everything is going to be perfect the first time. And it’s kinda more fun that way.

Kaitlyn

Portal 2011 Announcements

This semester I'm enrolled in the publishing class that puts together VIU's literary magazine, Portal. Portal's aim is to give VIU students the opportunity to see their prose, poetry, art, photography, or script in publication. Portal provides the first publication credit for many student writers and looks great in a portfolio!

We're currently seeking submissions, and here is the info for our postcard prose contest and the early bird draw! Deadline for both is November 25. The final deadline for submissions is January 7, 2011.


I encourage student writers to submit their work to Portal—whether you're in the creative writing program or not. It's a daunting experience to put a piece of writing out there, and in my first year I didn't submit anything at all. I thought I couldn't possibly write anything good enough or that anyone would want to pay to read my work. Perhaps I was right at the time, but that shouldn't have stopped me submitting. In my second year I submitted two stories and one of them was published in Portal. I initially wasn't going to submit the piece that made it in to the magazine—once again I thought it wasn't good enough, but a (literal) last second change of heart made all the difference!

So don't hesitate to send us your work, we want to read it, and perhaps you'll make it into Portal too! Any questions? Email portalmagazine@viu.ca, or leave a comment below.

Kaitlyn

Alive and Kicking

Hello faithful readers!

It’s been awhile, how are you?

It’s safe to say that my semester has been intense. Starting upper courses level feels like learning to walk again with assignments due every week, and everything counting a whole lot more. If the first two years was the practice round, upper level is the big show. But I find the stress rather fun, if anything, it’s only hard because I care.

That being said, I have had time to attend a couple of excellent events which I thought I’d re-cap over the next few days.

On the last Sunday of September Word on the Street is held in five major cities across Canada, including Vancouver. The last two years I have attended the event with a contingent of students from VIU’s creative writing department. Word on the Street is an all-ages, all-day free event held in library square that celebrates the joy of reading. Authors read in tents and BC publishers and magazines have booths set up to visit. There is music and fun activities for everyone. One of my favourite parts of the event is Word Under the Street- in one of the large meeting rooms below the library, Vancouver comic book artists set up booths where there are lots of pins, comics, and the chance to meet the artists themselves. Back up on street level, VIU has its own booth to promote our literary journal, Portal.

Another of my favourite activities is the treasure hunt. For twenty dollars attendees can purchase one of 250 treasure bags and fill it with books, pens, and other goodies from participating booths. This is serious business, and being my second year undertaking this quest, I felt like something of an expert. The only daunting aspect of the thing was knowing how much pain my shoulders would be in by the end of the day. Participating in the Word on the Street treasure hunt is like volunteering to be a pack horse for a day. Here are a few photos from the day.

A portion of our group on the morning ferry.


Library square.

The Portal Booth.

Rearranging bags for maximum efficiency.

A Word on the Street veteran on the hunt for more treasure.

The Treasure.

Exhausted Adventurers head home.

Like what you saw? Word on the Street will happen again next year, on the last Sunday of September, and is an excellent cheap trip for anyone who loves reading!

Up next? The Gustaffson poetry event and a few announcements regarding Portal.

Your still-alive blogger,
Kaitlyn

A Piece of Wisdom

One of the most dreaded things that happens in the first or second class of semester is volunteering for class presentations. How it will often work is a sheet of paper goes around the room and everyone writes their name down for a week to talk on a given subject. Nobody wants to be The Last Person To Sign up. Said Last Person To Sign Up almost invariably has to go first (and if they’re really unlucky, they’ll only have one week to prepare).

Now what are commonly viewed as the prime choices tend to be in the mid to latter half of semester, but I’m here to argue in favour of that dreaded first spot.

The Student Who Goes First might risk misunderstanding instructions, or may miss out on a strong example of how to approach the material, but here’s the so-called “worst” possible reason for going first: the student has to get to work the first week of semester, while it still feels like summer. So why go first when you can give yourself, say, six weeks to prepare?

Well, lets be honest. How many of us will really use those six weeks to whip that presentation into 12-15 minutes of perfection? No, those weeks will be spent with other deadlines, late night tv, videogames, anything but working on the assignment. That is, until we get to week five and four days and realize, “Whoops.” There are only three days left to produce this thing.

So why not get it out of the way? If you’ve turned procrastination into an artform (like myself), there is value in being forced to get that assignment over and done with. You also won’t have to worry about it when the bigger projects are coming due.

But best of all? Once you’ve presented, it’s smooth sailing from there. As your classmates forget all about their assignment, or are juggling six things due in one of those sleepless end-of-semester weeks, you can sit back, and privately chuckle, smugly satisfied that you decided to go first.

Kaitlyn

Back to School

Hello students of VIU, professors, Grandma, and random readers. Welcome back!
Labour Day is nearly gone and tomorrow it’s back to school where I’ll be entering in to my third year at VIU. Each year I find that throughout the month of August I look forward to the first day of classes, that is, until Labour Day weekend when I realize that my freedom hangs by a thread. Tomorrow I shall be bound by deadlines and obligations (I must admit, I do love a solid deadline). For now there is a final evening to relax with a piece of cake, a light read, and Mythbusters on my tv. My school supplies and books are neatly stacked on my desk and my bus pass is nestled in my wallet, ready for tomorrow’s trip up to campus.
And yes, I am once again excited.

Coming soon on the blog:

A last minute course pack is added to this student’s book list: how will she survive the bookstore mayhem of the first week? Will her foot fall asleep while standing in line? Stay tuned!

Also, adjusting to night classes: two in one semester? How will this morning learner cope!?

Online classes: A New Adventure, in slippers!

Enjoy your first day everyone,
Kaitlyn Till

Grab Some Popcorn

Watching waitlists is like watching snails race.

It’s course selection time, and I delightfully ended up on nine waitlists. For me this is a new experience, exempting last semester when my late sign-up for a course resulted in anxious waitlist-watching over the Christmas holiday. (In November I started with little hope at spot 22 on the list and it ended with me snagging the last place in the class a week in to term- talk about cutting it close!) Needless to say, I have thought carefully about which courses I want to take in the coming year and signed up at the stroke of noon on my registration date.

This, of course, was not enough to keep the waitlist monster at bay. The good news is that I’m likely to get in to most, if not all of my classes as there will be a lot of waitlist movement over the coming months and reserved seats will open up. All of my reasoning tells me this, yet I still anxiously watch my student record. It’s quite a spectator sport! Yesterday morning I even moved from spot 13 to 12 on my most dire waitlist, the discovery of which resulted in an enthusiastic air punch.
Happy course selection everyone!

Kaitlyn

The Post-Exam World

Welcome to the post exam world! I've just about recovered, as I hope the rest of you have, so lets take a trip back in time and review the last month and conclusion of the semester.

The last week of school, the work was nearly done, school was almost out, let there be cake!

The Portal 2010 Launch cake. Delicious as it was beautiful.

Let us now skip the "studying" week, because that's just boring, and move on to post-exam excitement!

The post-exam view from the business building where one of my english exams took place. Perhaps not the most exciting, but just think about it! It's a whole outdoor world ready for the exploring now that we are no longer tied to our books for four months!

Exams must be followed by copious amounts of sugar in the form of ice cream at Tim Horton's. Note the wearied student in the center who has retreated into her shell...err...hoodie.

And here is the part where I get to experience nature, for the first time in many many months.

And learn how to use my camera.

I held a work-op shelving books in the campus library the past two semesters, and most days the fourth floor was busy from morning until evening. On the last Friday of exams, however, students made themselves scarce. Very, very scarce. I could have skipped laps around the fourth floor singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and no one would have known. But I showed restraint, and didn't.....or did I?

Silence in the library.

Now that school is out, I can put my expensive education to good use, such as for party games:

Unfortunately I didn't take the course in how to draw a horse on paper on top of my head after drinking, see Exhibit A:

Of course I maintain that my effort looked more like a horse than Desiree's, see Exhibit B:

You can judge the winner!

Summer holiday means time to participate in sports:

Trips to Pirate Chips:

Fun in the park:

And attempting to look cool in others sunglasses:

Hope you've all enjoyed your post-exam recovery!

Kait