Fearless Oscar Forecast 2007

This is a tradition I started via email a few years ago. Last year, I put it on Filipino Librarian, and got 6 out of 8 right. For more information on my Oscar obsession, see "Notes on the Oscar Nominations."

Best Picture
The Departed

Best Actor
Peter O'Toole (Venus)

Best Actress
Helen Mirren (The Queen)

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Best Director
Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Departed

Best Original Screenplay
Little Miss Sunshine

Winter in Orillia, ON

I've been to North America before, but never during winter, not even fall. I was more fearful than excited about winter, and snow was just one more thing I needed to deal with. Nothing to blog about. Except when I got to play in the snow.

Through the International Student Centre, I was able to join the free, annual International Student Weekend hosted by the very generous and accommodating Rotary Club of Orillia, which is about two hours north of Toronto, and has had the most snow this year in the province of Ontario. I also enjoyed interacting with other international students, including those from continents I've only ever dreamed of visiting =)

My first photos in heavy snow...


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On the snow mobile...



Snow tubing...

FIS3005: Historiography

This presentation should have been up a long time ago, but for some reason, SlideShare wasn't cooperating, so I couldn't put it up. And eventually forgot about it.

Like the last one, this won't really make much sense unless you were there and I'm putting it up for posterity. The only advantage this time is that I didn't have to convert from Keynote to PowerPoint, just from Keynote to PDF. So everything is as it should be.

FIS3005: Journey 4

The presentation above is based on "Untangling the relationship between displayed emotions and organizational sales: The case of convenience stores" by Robert I. Sutton and Anat Rafaeli (Academy of Management Journal 31 [1988] 461-487), which is discussed in "Journey 4," in Doing Exemplary Research (ed. Peter Frost and Robert Stablein; Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992). The article may be downloaded as a pdf file via Anat Rafaeli's website.

I came to class wearing what I used to wear in a previous life as a "banker": long sleeves, slacks, leather shoes... and my smiley tie! I then started by showing a video of Cumberland Bank and Trust because it was the only one I could find online. It was almost like being back at a service quality seminar =)

It won't make much sense unless you were actually at the presentation (that's if it made sense to the class at all), but I'm really just putting this up for posterity. Some garbage was added when the file was uploaded (e.g., not all bullets were converted, there's a missing title), but that's SlideShare Beta.

Goodies

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Yesterday my parents arrived in Canada. It was like a family reunion with three aunts, one uncle, husbands, wives, cousins and kids. I brought home so much stuff that I knew it was time to put together a "goodies" slideshow and post =)

I got the MasterCard freebies a few weeks ago when I applied for a credit card. I don't know if they'll give this student with no credit history a card, but the water bottle has been very useful.

Cards are now being used for so many things! Who knew that you could put dental floss and perfume in them? And I got them just by walking around.

Then there was the org fair where just about every org was giving something away: Ballpens, Post-It pad, Excel gum and KitKat.

I attended an orientation for graduate students and won a Broken Flowers DVD and free entrance to a movie at Cumberland. Now I just need to figure out when I'll have time to watch...

Last night, my relatives gave me a lot of stuff on my wish list: a desk lamp, scarves, gloves, hand towels and magnets; plus instant noodles, lotion, tissue paper, fabric softener and a first aid kit! And the marinated chicken breasts are already in the freezer =)

Here's what my parents brought (some from my sister, others from my brother): Sustagen, Fibermate, Chippy, blank CDs, and instant lomi. Guess which one I didn't ask for? =)

And then there's Scripture and the Quest for a New Society, the book that I started editing in Manila and finished from Boston; and the eighth edition of History of the Filipino People, which I'll be using for my dissertation.

Seven Songs

Filipino Librarian, the blog, just got tagged by Manuel L. Quezon III. If I weren't so busy (actually, lazy is probably more accurate), I could probably think of a way to turn the meme into a reference question that would justify posting it on that blog. But I can't, and that's why I'm continuing the meme on this blog. The instructions:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now.

I can't really say that I'm "into" all of these songs right now, but they're the ones I hum every now and then:

Arms of Love (Amy Grant) - lyrics
Stella Maris (Bukas Palad) - mp3 sample
I Won't Last A Day Without You (Carpenters) - video

There's A Fine, Fine Line (Avenue Q) - lyrics
Corner of the Sky (Pippin) - sing-along
Nothing's Gonna Harm You (Sweeney Todd) - post
Something's Coming (West Side Story) - lyrics

And now I'm tagging Sacha, Rickey, Ghee, Ayeza, Gibbs, Paolo and Clair.

My Suitemates

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Koji is from Japan, majors in computer science, and is 25 years old.

Donald is from California, majors in the classics, is 27 years old, and will be leaving our suite by next week.

Mustafa, my roommate, is from Michigan, majors in Near and Middle Eastern civilizations, and is 27 years old.

Except for Donald, all of us are first-year PhD students at the University of Toronto, and new Graduate House residents.