No, I ain’t dead. I’ve also been bad at responding to emails. :-S Bad Jeffery! I’ve been a bit busy, but also just chilling out with the family, I suppose. ;-) Anyway, here’s some news:

I had a wonderful connip-fit this past Thursday morning. I woke for my usual 4 AM class and was greeted with the realisation that my first assignment was to be due this coming Monday. I was bothered by this because a) I had overlooked the assignment while working on other previous tasks for school, and b) the lack of information or proper updates coming from the school about my faulted enrollment or certain class specifics has been slim to none at all. Anyway, I was pissed-off. I hate feeling I am behind on responsibilities, and being uninformed about such. Regardless, I’ve reviewed my priorities and am going to work with what I’ve got, such as it is. Thankfully the assignment was pushed back to next Friday, so I’m not completely lost at sea.

As such, I’m knee deep in Canadian, international intellectual property rights as it pertains to my professional practice, with a special focus on the internet and Creative Commons licenses. I’m a proponent of these licenses because I don’t like or believe that traditional copyright should be as restricting or limited as it has become. It’s meant to protect the authors’ rights but not cripple future authors. Years before I had heard of CC, I had wanted to basically do as they are outlining - explicitly say that people could use my work freely for performance, and even in some cases use it to create derivative works. Anyway, I won’t go on about the specifics of the licenses here. Suffice it to say that I appreciate them and do use them for my work.

Now, I’ve been home for a month already, and it’s a week and a half until my scheduled departure. I am inclined to stay another week perhaps - but I have to decide and check with the airlines for alternate dates. Something I really need to get on. As it is, I have already bypassed a planned outing of province I had tentatively slated for this weekend. (I had been planning on Montreal or Vancouver.) So far I have only even been to Toronto once! And I haven’t really even been talking to many of my friends here or back in BKK that much (with the exception of a few people). Which is not usual for me really.

I just seem to really be in a sedentary mode, surprisingly - staying here in my brother’s basement, hanging out with my my bro, sister-in-law, and of course my neices. :-D And of course, I have been seeing my parents every other day or so. I’ve also seen my cousins, aunts and uncles numerous times as well, which has been great. And I’ve been sucked into watching TV way too much. Or at least more than I think is necessary. ;-) But as my brother says, I’m on holiday so why not? hehe. Brotherly wisdom. ;-)

Knowing I have to be online for my classes each week, as well as the loom of impending homework, has also kept me from being more extroverted than I would have been otherwise, perhaps. This has also changed my view on my timeline for when I get back to BKK. I need to have internet access wherever I reside while in BKK, and beyond BKK - I have to do research and attend my virtual classes. That, as well as the niceties of being in a normal home, with a normal kitchen, and comfortable rooms and things I am accustomed to, makes me feel that after I leave here I should just settle down relatively quickly, find a well-paying gig, and focus on the next year of my MA and my personal project. So, sadly, I may not travel around Thailand or Laos as I had vaguely hoped to on my return. But then I’m forgetting the term break midway through December, of course. So, we shall see.

Anyway, I should really go do some actual work. I spent all day yesterday reconfiguring and revamping my laptop, after a much needed reinstall. So, I still have a 1800 word essay to write. ;-) Will try and write more soon.