peace at last... (for a little while)

(note1: this post took me much longer than I thought it would... a whole hour)
(note2: it's a long read. but there are some visuals so scroll down)

First off, thanks to all the people who commented on my last post.
I felt like I was recovering from surgery...
"Get well soon, Umar"
but yeah, thanks for the support :)



Arabic course = done.
Info Des 2 = done.
Design Internship = done.
Islamic Civilizations = almost done.
Package Design = far from done.


This week has been by far the busiest week ever. I've had my Info Design 2 project which was worth 45%, my Arabic exam which was worth 15% (I think), and I just finished my Design Internship presentation tonight (another... 10-15%?).

First, the design project kept me awake all night. Then on Tuesday I had an exam and essay due, so that kept me up all night on Monday. By Tuesday, I had gone for about three days on only 2 and a half hours of sleep. (I got a half hour in on Monday after class, when I crashed on the couch and got late for work, and another two hours on Tuesday when I gave up studying and called it a night).
Says my MSN nickname: You know something's wrong when getting atleast two hours of sleep is a GOOD thing

Info 2 is taught by the prof I so greatly complimented below. Once again, I'd like to reiterate how amazingly good he is. By 12:30 on Monday, (when class starts), I still wasn't 100% done my project. I had to rush to Staples to print it out, bind it, mount it, and then drive to school to hand it in. (by the way, one of the great benefits of working at Staples is I could go in, sit on a computer, print my stuff out and everything, while a line of 20 people waited outside) So, I thought it wouldn't take me too long to do all that. Then it was 3:00pm. Class ends at 4:30. Since it was the last class, I had assumed everyone came in, handed their stuff in and left early... so I wasn't sure if the Prof would still be there when I arrived. He was; along with a handful of other students. I knew I was probably the last person to submit my stuff (I found out the next day that I was actually the second person... no one else showed up to class, and those who did weren't done.) So yeah, Albert being the awesome professor he is, absolutely loved my project. Even gave me a pat on the back for an "excellent job".... (despite having some minor problems which he said he wouldn't penalize me for). So I think I can expect to receive a pretty good grade for that class.

For those of you who are interested, my project was to redesign York University's signage and wayfinding system. The following is a few examples of the solutions I came up with. (There's many other components to this project, but this is the interesting stuff...)

Main entry sign at entrance of campus

Building Identification sign

Directory pylon sign

Map Directory sign

Post sign

Room Identification sign

So yeah, I got home from school and put a slice of pizza in the oven to warm up. Went to the family room and thought I'd lay down while it warms up. I wake up 30 minutes later, with the pizza burnt and me being late for work. At work, this customer comes in and her order isn't done. She gets so ticked off, demands 10% off and that I drop it off to the hotel she's at. Get home at 10:30, and everyone's watching Indian Idol.

Mom: Now that you're done, go to sleep.
Me: Sleep? I have to stay up again to study and finish an essay.
At this point, my dad says he'll drive me to school because they don't want me driving without any sleep. It's a good offer, because I don't know how I made it home on Monday. It was a complete blur; one moment I was at York, an hour later I was at home. I vaguely recall me being on the highway, and one point where a truck honked at me because the light had turned green.

So now it's Tuesday night, I've had half an hour of sleep so far and I'm just sitting down to start my essay. I have no clue what to do, since I haven't read the book yet. (It arrived only a few days ago in the mail... damn Amazon.ca) I do the best I can with whatever summaries I've read about the story, but that still only gets me 2 pages out of the required 6-8. By this time, I'm so out of it, that I start typing random stuff that has nothing to do with anything about my essay. (example, without exaggeration: "A person cannot be expected to follow Shari`ah if they have not even come into photography") I say, screw it, write a conclusion and move onto studying for Arabic. At 4am, I give up and hit the sack. I leave a note for my mom to wake me up at 6.

So now my dad's driving me to school and I think it's great because it gives me a chance to do look at the Arabic book once more. This is the first time since I can remember that my dad has dropped me off anywhere. I've almost always drove myself.

The Arabic exam goes pretty ok. I seem to have an easier time with the oral part than the written part. We have these skits at the end that a few of the people did for extra marks. I think it's hilarious listening to white people speak arabic.

10:30. Falafel Hut. The last meeting we'll be having there until September. I wait until Popeyes opens next door. These people I've come to know through Arabic class are probably the first people I've gotten so close to in such a short amount of time. They're simply awesome. Ify gives us all presents. (Thanks!)

Now it's 12:30 and time for Islamic Civ. I can hardly keep my head up and my eyes open during the lecture, even though he's talking about Islamic art & architecture... things I find really interesting. What makes it worse is that I'm in the second-row-from-the-front and I'm sure he's seen me nodding off a few times.
Time to hand in the essays. I go speak with my T.A:

Me: Taufiq, here's my story: I have my essay here. I'm ready to hand it in and accept whatever mark you give me. BUT, I'm not happy with it. I've only done two pages and it's not great but if you want me to hand it in, I will. If you give me some extra time, I'd really appreciate it though.
Taufiq: How much time do you need?
Me: uh... Friday?
Taufiq: Sure, just email it to me. Don't forget.

Awesome. I have the best luck with T.As, Profs and assignments. It's not a good thing though, because it only reinforces the idea I have that no matter how much I screw up or slack off, it'll all work out in the end.

I take the subway home. It gave me a chance to catch some Zs. Too much Zs though. I missed the subway interchange and had to catch the other subway back and then get the interchange. It was good though... those 30mins of sleep got me pretty refreshed.

blah blah blah, skip ahead to Wednesday morning. I'm supposed to be in Packaging Design class for our final critique before class ends and we hand in our project (which I still haven't touched... but hey, it'll all work out in the end). I say screw it and decide to sleep in. So I wake up at 3pm and start getting ready for Design Internship. We had a presentation to do, otherwise I probably wouldn't have driven to Oakville for just that class. The presentation goes pretty ok. The prof was sitting one row infront of me, so I saw the mark she gave our group. (Seemed like an 80ish% average). Fine with me.

Now it's Wednesday night. I'm pretty much done all my York classes (except for the essay I gotta hand in on Friday and one exam on the 21st) What I really have to worry about is Packaging which is due next week. But for now, I must relax. There's plenty of time. I'll start reading the project guidelines Tuesday night...