Hope comes back down to Earth...

After nearly two years, one of the world's most memorable campaigns finally came to a close with the climactic and historical election victory of Barack Obama on November 4th. The chants of 'hope', 'change' and 'yes we can' have become staples of a revamped America and his campaign seemed to bring out the best in his supporters. Quite simply, the campaign was electric.

But now we're over a week past that momentous occasion and things seem to have settled down quite a bit. There's no more Barack supporters running around in droves trying to spread the word of 'hope' and Obama's speeches now lack the same vigour they were once made famous for. But is this necessarily a bad thing?

The campaign was ultimately successful in what it was trying to accomplish: putting Obama in the White House. The first stage of 'yes we can' was certainly met when his victory was announced. But the sense of 'hope' is still very much there, only it has now been toned down. 

After we all finally leveled off our post-Nov. 4th highs, it became time to get back to business. Not just for Mr. Obama, but for everyone else. Obama wasn't simply telling everyone how he could 'change' the world and America, he was saying how everyone together could do it. He was offering an open invitation for everyone to participate. 

And we did our first job by getting him elected. The next stage is on us to do our part in our own lives. 

You can sense it even here in Canada. We were more caught up in that election than our own election. But now that it's over, we can get back to our lives. It's nice. But it has nothing to do with forgetting Obama or his message and everything to do with being active participants in a system that does not always recognize people's contributions.  

Good Studying Music...

Studying comfortably and relaxed are two of the most important factors I attribute to academic success. I always find that in order to do so it helps to have a nice combination of music playing while you study.

Now, some may prefer to study with no music whatsoever, and that's cool, but I suggest trying it with some of the selections I recommend below. You never know, it might help.

The biggest keys I find to nice studying music are the lack of lyrics and fairly soft songs. We're not talking really quiet boring songs, just nothing to sharp or rough, like say, an instrumental of a Godsmack song.

Classical is always a good place to start. Many speak of the Mozart effect, whereby people are supposed to get higher marks if they study and read while listening to Mozart. I think there is something to that, but it also covers a wide range of classical composers; Beethoven, Bach, Handel and Chopin, to name a few. 

If playing around with classical, I find four specific instruments to be particularly nice. The first is the piano, which kind of speaks for itself. The violin and the classical guitar are also very nice. My favourite is by far the cello, which seems to span so many different levels of sound. Very cool. Give it a chance some time.

But classical can wear on you a bit from time to time. You can always try switching it up to some more ambient, electronic music. You can find this almost anywhere. I find mine on the online radio station, Iceberg Radio, under the genre 'Chill'. 

But my all-time favourite studying music is by a band from Texas called 'Explosions in the Sky'. They're an instrumental band that uses typical instruments you would find in a modern rock band and they use lots of high guitar. A lot of their songs are in movies, in those reflective and/or dramatic scenes, but they're wicked. They are a nice change of pace from classical. Highly recommend them.

Roc on, kids. 

Has our neighbour really changed?..

I've spent much of my past year considering different law schools to attend after my undergraduate time at Trent. For the longest time I had simply dismissed any possibility of attending an American law school, largely because it would involve living and eventually staying in the United States.

But during the last week I suddenly had a spurring interest in that very possibility; something that hadn't appeared on my radar for nearly a year. But why now?

Sure, American law schools have several advantages (and disadvantages) over Canadian schools, but these have been apparent to me for quite a long time. After thinking about it, I realized that it was the election results that led to this renewed interest.

I had been following the election and the campaigns incredibly closely for years, cheering for Obama from the get-go. But it had never occurred to me that he might have had such an effect on me.

I find it quite amazing. Here I am considering such a significant decision in my life and subconsciously the fact that Obama will be President has put America back on the map for me.

I also thought that this may simply be a brief cresting of interest coming off the election victory, but I realized that this was an interest that came subconsciously. At no time had I thought, "Oh boy, this is where Obama is President". The United States just doesn't seem like such an awful place to go anymore, at least at first glance. Of course, when you think about, it hasn't changed too much, but it's a step in the right direction.

I was sure that Obama's victory would give the United States a slightly better identity abroad, but I never thought it would hit me that quickly and stealthily.

I wonder if this is simply a brief spike in interest and whether I'm standing alone here in these weird experiences. Has anybody else's perspective of the United States changed at first glance, either consciously or subconsciously?

Just close your eyes and check back in two (or five) years...

I'm young. And I'm not particularly wealthy. But like many, I have investments in the market. They're not doing so hot these days. Surprise, surprise.

But, I'm also not running scared and taking everything out. For one, it's all mutual funds. With time, they'll go back up and start making money again. It's not as if I invested in some crappy company that has fallen into oblivion.

Why? I look at it in two ways. First, this money will come back up. I just don't know when, but it will. That's the nature of the market. And I'm in no rush. It's savings, so I don't intend on using it anytime soon. Second, I look at it like I'm buying cheap (yes, I continue to invest monthly).

So if you're in the same situation, try doing that. But I'm lucky. I'm not about to retire and I don't rely on the money invested.

My other piece of advice: don't watch the market. I started to, quite a bit. But it's so volatile that one day you'll feel super-excited and the next day will cause me to cry. In the end, it never really changed. But in a few years it'll make its way up and your cheap investments will start to make some solid moolah.

Rock on, kids.

Funding the unusable...

Here at good ol' Trent University, we find ourselves in a precarious situation. The school has no formal student centre. Because we're based on the 'college system' (whereby the campus is divided into four separate colleges), there is no large gathering space for students to call their own.

Apparently, many students are calling for the construction of such a building. It would house food services, student organizations and clubs, studying and meeting spaces and give the students a general feel that there was a spot on campus just for them. And the architects have put together formal plans for the centre, which is to be built in a location that wouldn't cause significant damage to Trent's naturalistic aesthetics.

Great. Sounds good, I guess. I don't really mind the way it is now, but the voice of the people must be heard. So let's get building.

But wait. Who is going to pay for this thing? Well, the university of course. We pay our tuition and all those extra fees (which go up every year), so why wouldn't the university be prepared to pay for this thing? After all, the other spots on campus would open up for other ventures now that the students would be gathering somewhere else.

Wrong. The university is somewhere in the midst of a $10m deficit, which will probably only get worse with the impending shrinkage of its endowment funds coming from this delightful economic crisis. And it's not like students are lining up to go to school. Enrollment rates around the country are falling, which means less money for the university. And the government is certainly not helping out at all.

So who does that leave to pay for it? Well, there's the private sector. "Booooo" come the disgruntled complaints of the left-wing, anti-establishment, hippie students. We don't want "The Man" owning our building. There is some justification to that. Much of Trent is becoming increasingly privatized and the consequences are slowly coming to fruition. For instance, the damn cafeteria food is priced up the wazoo. Today, in fact, I ended up paying an additional dollar to have ONE slice of less-than-fresh bacon put on my burger. Bastards.

So where does that leave us? The latest student president, Liam Mooney, is proposing that the students pay for it. A good $60-$100 each for the next four or five years (call it ten at Trent's pace). Wow. That's almost a month's worth of bills. I don't know about this.

The argument: we'll get to own it. It will belong to the students. Great. But wait, in five years I'll be long gone (fingers crossed) and I won't get to use the damn thing. And I sure as hell ain't paying for something that some damn grade nine kid will be using at my expense come 2012.

The student president continues to push for it and is threatening to put it to a referendum in the next student election. I hope (and predict) it will get blown out of the sky.

And even if it did go through, I would expect some recognition that I'm an owner. Perhaps a giant plaque with the names of every student forced to pay for the damn thing, with a special board dedicated to those who graduated or left before it was built. Or maybe, make it like some kind of a co-op, whereby each one of us receives a dividend of whatever profits this building somehow makes in the future. Then we can feel like those WestJet employees, you know, the annoying 'we're also WestJet Owners' people. Maybe they'd even build a statue to commemorate our hard-earned investment in the building, or at least call it the 'Poor Suckers' building.

McCain breathes a sigh of relief...

You may look at the title of this piece and notice the corresponding date. Yes, the historical campaign for the 44th U.S. Presidency finally came to a close as Sen. Barack Obama handily defeated Sen. John McCain to become the first African-American President-Elect in U.S. history.

But this piece does not focus on the country's next President, but instead his dearly defeated opponent, John McCain.

In watching John McCain's very gracious speech last night, whereby he conceded defeat to Obama, there was a sense that John was not about to raise hell or whine like a baby. There was a slight touch about his voice and they way he smiled that indicated McCain was feeling something quite unexpected that night: relief.

I may be relatively young, but I remember the pre-election McCain. He was a humourous, delightful old guy who routinely made appearances on late night television shows like David Letterman and Jay Leno, and was one of the oldest and only politicians to go on those shows. Despite the recent overdose of the term, John McCain was actually a maverick by Republican standards. He was loathed by many members of the Republican party because of it. He prescribed to a more moderate approach than many of them, taking a more progressive stance on health care, climate change and gun control. And just as he said repeatedly throughout the campaign, he had crossed the floor many times and worked with the Democrats.

While he agreed with numerous fundamental conservative principles, he was not a bad guy. From a liberal's point of view, you couldn't find a better Republican.

Then came the election. Republican's were unsurprisingly nervous when John McCain became the forerunner and ultimate victor in the race for the Republican nomination. He was considerably more moderate than his opponents: the bass-playing Evangelical Mike Huckabee, the millionaire businessman Mitt Romney and the former New York Mayor (and soon to be featured on next week's 'Where are they now?') Rudy Giuliani. But as the Democratic freight train began to pick up steam, with Obama at the helm, it became clear that McCain's moderate approach would sink him in the election.

The Republican party relies on a few key parts of the country: rural, old white voters and the religious white voters. McCain didn't really appeal to them the same way a Mike Huckabee might've, so it became clear to the party advisors (and to McCain) that John would have to change his tune. He began leaning considerably farther to the right and adopting many traditional Republican strategies including the notorious attack ads. His most notable move was his (though probably made against his true wishes) pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential nominee. That sure pulled back the Republican base. But McCain lost a lot of respect among the more moderate Republicans, for good reason: Palin is an idiot.

I wouldn't be surprised if McCain is slightly relieved to not be assuming office in January. First of all, look at what he'd inherit. One of the world's most devastating economic crises, two seemingly-endless wars and an America that was reviled by many internationally and domestically. And he'd have to deal with Palin (whom I don't believe he ever would have associated himself with in any other situation) to work through it, not to mention a Democratic House and Senate.

And look who he gets to lose to: one of America's most dynamic and groundbreaking figures of all time, who has electrified an entire nation. Not a bad deal. It might've been a little worse if it had been some Joe-Schmo old white guy.

It's a shame that McCain was forced into changing his tune. Many have lost a lot of respect for him. But after his speech on Tuesday night, he may have gained much of it back.

I've thought throughout the election he's had to act a certain way, a way that was certainly not genuine John McCain. He's been an actor. Now hopefully he can go back to being the old John, keeping everyone in check and playing hardball with both parties. I wouldn't be surprised to see a very positive relationship form between McCain and Obama, or even some kind of post for McCain within the new administration. Either way, he's certainly not going anywhere.

McCain may not have been the worst President we've ever seen, but phew, thank goodness Obama won.

Do Not Call List Can Hurt at Home...

If you were as eager as hundreds of thousands of other Canadians today, you may have signed up for the Federal Government's much-touted Do Not Call List (DNCL) which became available for the first time today. As reported by the Globe and Mail, over 200,000 people had signed up by 9 am this morning and within hours the site had crashed. Clearly this is a popular move in the public's eyes.

While I may be more than happy to eat my Kraft Dinner without disruption come 6:00, there may be a large mass of people who now find themselves without a job.

In Peterborough, Ontario (where I live and go to school), a fairly hefty chunk of the local economy is made up of call centres. They may be annoying workplaces, but it can not be denied that they employ a solid percentage of the Peterborough population.

The DNCL may have a very detrimental effect on call centres in general and they will be forced to downsize with such a fall in the demand for their services. For Peterborough, this is less than desirable.

Peterborough is not the richest city in Ontario. Its economy has historically been centred around the manufacturing sector, which as we're seeing in the globalized world, is a dying sector in Canada. As community staples like the General Electric plant begin to downsize, the last thing the city needs is the gradual fall of another one of its main employers.

On a more personal front, Peterborough is home to Trent University's main campus, with roughly 7,000 students enrolled. For a student, additional cash throughout the school year is a definite plus and one that is certainly hard to come by in a city like Peterborough, where good student jobs are hard to find. This leaves many students to pursue part-time work through the call centres. These guys might be in trouble, too.