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From: [me]
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 11:05:20 -0700 (MST)
To: [UBC Housing]
Subject: 2003-2004 Housing deposit appeal
Good morning,
I was referred to you by [Housing employee], who contacted me yesterday with a room offer in Fairview. Unfortunately, the offer involves moving in immediately and then moving out again by April 28, only 3 months from now. As I'm sure you can understand, there is no way I can move the middle of an academic term, forfeit my damage deposit (and likely much more, as I have a 1 year lease) by leaving my current apartment without giving 30 days notice, only to have to find another place to live and move again in 3 months.
As there were understably no rooms available this year (either starting in September or in January), I expected that my $75 deposit would be refunded. [employee] has been very helpful in explaining UBC Housing's policies and has informed me that there was an October 31st deadline to apply for a refund of the deposit. Unfortunately, I was not aware of this deadline and I have been unable to find any mention of it on the Housing web site at www.housing.ubc.ca nor in the UBC Calendar. The 2003-2004 Winter Session application form simply said:
"Application fee and deposit CAD$100 (Application fee is non-refundable)"
As it doesn't say the $75 deposit is non-refundable, I logically concluded that it would be refunded if there were no rooms available by Term 2. [employee] said the issue was out of her hands and suggested that I contact you to appeal the refund. Please let me know what we can do.
Best regards,
Tim
I applied to UBC Housing a year ago, just to cover my bases, and had pretty much forgotten about it (along with the $75 deposit), until yesterday. After a few emails back and forth with the person who sent me the room offer, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply to the above email saying that Housing would refund my deposit. I guess the system works sometimes.
A while back, Dick, Barry, and I decided that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow, it's the fucking truth.
High Fidelity
My first crack at a top ten albums list. In no particular order.
- The Traveling Wilburys: Volume 1
- Paul Simon: Graceland
- Nirvana: Nevermind
- Massive Attack: either Mezzanine (mostly for Angel) or Blue Lines
- Hole: Live Through This
- Beck: Odelay
- Portishead: Dummy
- Cowboy Junkies: Black Eyed Man
- The Donnas: Get Skintight
- The Distillers: The Distillers
I don't think "best of" compilations count, so I'm leaving out stuff like Forty Licks, Studio, and Nirvana. Movies present a problem. Are my favourite movies the ones I'll happily watch any day of the week, or are they the ones that had the most impact when I saw them for the first time? Obviously, I'll need two lists. First, the ones I can watch over and over again.
- The Big Lebowski
- High Fidelity
- Grosse Pointe Blank
- Pulp Fiction
- Office Space
- Ghostbusters
- Trainspotting
- Rushmore
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Now, some of those also had a big impact, so there's a bit of duplication for the 10 that made the biggest impression when I saw them.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Memento
- Office Space
- Trainspotting
- Requiem for a Dream
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (my first R-rated film, I believe)
- A Beautiful Mind
- Willow
- Permanent Midnight
- Dancer in the Dark
- Runners up: Tron, Alien 3 (which I saw before the other two)
TODO: revision, possibly ranking, books.
When I heard that Vancouver is Canada's robbery capital, my first question was "People still rob banks?" I could understand stealing an ATM when nobody's looking, but the old school "charge in, brandish guns, and yell at the tellers" act still exists? Do they put the money in sacks with big dollar signs on the sides, too?
While we're on the topic of things that piss me off, what is with those people who crowd around the outside of the classroom, then surge in and block the exits as soon as the bell rings? You're already made it to the damned classroom on time, people. You don't need to rush in and get in the way of people trying to get out and get to their next class in 10 minutes. Morons!
P.S. JWZ sure sparks some good discussions on his web log.
P.P.S. Bob finally found the "money money money money... money!" song sung by Brian (while peeing on a potted plant) in that episode of Family Guy. It became the moneyhouse theme song but we didn't know what it was called. Now we find out it's the Apprentice (best use of Donald Trump since Bloom County?) theme song and it's the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money".
I've noticed a few kids on campus forgoing the standard backpack in favour of a small suitcase with wheels and an extendable handle - the carry-on luggage kind. Some of the suitcases might be specialized backbacks rather than suitcases per se, but it's the same idea. I guess they feel that their textbooks are too heavy and the strain on their weak little shoulders is more important than the racket the wheels make over the uneven pavement and the traffic jams they cause in tight places. Here's a tip: you don't need to carry all your textbooks everywhere, brainiac.
Last night's house martini, as discovered by Wendy:
1.5 oz vanilla vodka
1 oz cassis syrup (see below) or possibly Ribena
ice
splash of lime cordial
Shake, strain into martini glass, finish with San Peligrino.
For the cassis syrup, combine 1 litre of water with 400 g of sugar and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Mix in 200 g of cassis puree. Not sure where normal people would get that.
