I borrowed this book Behling, John H. Guidelines For Preparing The Research Proposal (New York: University Press of America, 1984), to help me write my research proposal for LAWS4908.

I got the first question of my first assignment for MATH3806 answered using Maple to make a copy I can hand in on a printed page. I might redo this with MATLAB this Sunday or Saturday. It took me about an hour. I have about 70 pages to read in the text book in two weeks now so about 2 or 3 pages a day. I haven't read anything since I last reported on this textbook.

I volunteered to be on a panel this weekend. The panel is part of the training for learning assistants in the Paul Menton centre, the disabled student's centre at Carleton University.

I have about 50 pages to read of Giffen, P.J., Endicott, Shirley & Lambert, Sylvia. Panic and Indifference: The Politics of Canada's Drug Laws (Ottawa,ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, 1991). Then I must prepare to faciliate a discussion for next Tuesday, of chapter 2 of that book. I should get this read by Monday so should read about 12 pages a day until Monday.

I have been super busy with school work. I have attended both my first classes now. So I have started the study of drug law and must facilitate a discussion in the class next Tuesday on the history of Canadian drug laws. I have attended now two lectures in my numercial analysis course and have begun to use MATLAB and write some of my first assignment due next Friday, not this Friday. But this Friday I will have an in lab assignment to do. I also have met to discuss my honours paper with my supervisor. I must now write a research proposal that defines the questions I hope to answer in my paper. My supervisor was telling me that asking the right questions is the most important part of doing research.

I have been trying to settle into working as a teaching assistant but my work schedule keeps changing and I can't be sure what classes I am working in yet. I have also been attending various union meetings and events and have a meeting tomorrow at noon. I might be staying awake until then.

I was in the past week reading, Piragoff, Donald, K. Canada: Computer Crimes and Other Crimes against Information Technology in Canada Sieber, Ulrich. Ed. Information Technology Crime: National Legislation, Jus Informationis European Series on Information Law v 6 (Köln: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 1994). This covers the Supreme Court hacking case in 1980 of R. v. McLaughlin [1980] 2.S.C.R. 331, so I was wrong that no hacking case had gone to the Supreme court yet. This case prompted the newer laws that eventually in 1985 covered hacking or unauthorised use of a computer in the Canadian Criminal Code. This was a brief look at the history of the hacking legislation. I also read some legal technicalities concerning defining the difference between data and information. I have a fair amount more of this paper to read still.

I read a little of 1.3 in my MATH3806 textbook and have ten pages left to read in this section and chapter 1. I should find time to solve the exercises in MATLAB and print out my answers at school. I also have chapter two to read in the next two weeks and chapter 2 is 60 pages long so I should read at a pace of two pages per day. I was able to work in pen and ink on problem #1 in the assignment #1 for this MATH3806 course and this assignment is due September 24th I think. I want to present my assignment as a word processed document and also we are required to print out our MATLAB m files and output. I have only about 1.5 more hours to work on this course planned until Tuesday's second class. If I go to school this afternoon I should try to print out some of my MATLAB work and practice.

I woke up tonight in the early evening and will stay up all night studying. In the morning I will attend a meeting concerning disAbilities on behalf of city hall. We are starting to look at next year's city budget. Also on Wednesday I have a meeting at city hall then that evening some volunteer tasks. I have classes on Tuesday and volunteer training on Tuesday night. I have the same thing Thursday and then have a lab on Friday then basically have the weekend off from work but can study then.

I bought a copy of a course pack by Woodside, Ann. Learning SAS Version 8 (Ottawa, ON: Carleton University, 2002). Ms. Woodside taught me ANOVA and is generally a supportive and friendly instructor in our school.

I cleaned up my office a fair amount. I am trying to get our third couch into my office and may do that tonight. This was I would have a nice comfortable place to study and place my books right beside myself. I have a couple of books on setting up home offices and can get some ideas from these books.

I did my usual lengthy emails and some short emails to professors. I bought a copy of Linux for Dummies Quick Reference. I also got a copy of the Computers of Star Trek. I took back the Data Mungling with Perl book and also the NAG library guide book that was almost 30 years old. I used the computers at school yesterday and used MATLAB for the first time to do some numerical analysis homework.

I got 2 hours done on that course, MATH3806, since Saturday morning and 3 hours done on law courses. I read more of the first week's readings for LAWS4306B and read more of Piragoff on computer crime law in Sieber's book for LAWS4908. Thus I have 2 more hours to put into MATH3806 before class on Tuesday, 3 more hours for LAWS4306B to complete reading the historical look at Canadian drug legislation and I would like to put in 6 more hours studying computer crime before I meet with my supervisor on Tuesday.

I have been hired again as a teaching assistant. This term I will be helping with MATH1004, Calculus for Engineering students and MATH2007 Elementary Calculus II. I gave a talk to some of the other TA's in the school about our union. Speaking of unions the support staff may have reached an agreement with the University now.

I read the first section of chapter 1 of Mathews, John H. & Fink Kurtis D. Numerical Methods Using MATLAB, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, 2004). I started and am almost completed reading section 1.2. There are three pages left in 1.2 then 13 pages in 1.3 and I am done until Tuesday evening. I have put about 2 hours so far out of class time on this course, MATH3806. I would like to go to school today and start the use of MATLAB, but have a volunteer committment today too.

I already opted out of attendance at my volunteer committment this morning. I must attend this afternoon or wait for my certification exam. Also I have missed one session so far in sexual assault. The storm rains on Thursday have brought me down and I had a busy first week of school. I was able to volunteer with my unions this week.

I spent an hour last night studying for LAWS4306B. I should get another two hours done on that course today and another two tomorrow. This will just be reading and keeping notes on my blog here.

I want to spend about four hours or a little more on the MATH3806 course this weekend and on Monday. I need to try MATLAB this weekend. For that I need to check the lab schedule and see if the lab is open on the weekend.

I just checked the school of mathematics and statistics web site and the lab is open daily on the weekend. I can also take back some books to our school library today. I have about 20 books out but am not reading some of them. Some of these books are math books I borrowed to explore nunmerical analysis before the course, MATH3806 began.

I put in about an 2 hours this past week on LAWS4908. I need to put in about 12 hours a week on this course so should put in another 8 this weekend. So that is 16 hours I plan to study this weekend and Monday. I have no classes on Monday or Wednesday this week. I may or may not have a lab this coming Friday. Most likely we do have our first lab that day. I have classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I will also visit my LAWS4908 supervisor on Tuesday morning to start to discuss expectations and plan out the course and supervision of the paper.

I am slowly plodding through Manning, Peter K. Policing new social spaces, in Sheptycki, J.W.E. Ed. Issues in Transnational Policing (London: Routledge, 2000). This is a little dated and I think the potential in police computer systems is more actualised these days than when this paer was written in 2000. Also the high tech euphoria has come down a bit since then.

I bought copies of Watt, David & Fuerst, Michelle. The 2005 Annotated Tremeear's Criminal Code, student ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2004) and McGill Law Journal. Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 5th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2002). These two books are reference books.

I printed some lengthy 60 pages documents, two of them. One is an Ontario Appeals Court case concerning marijuana law, the other is a Law Commission of Canada(LCC) paper looking at what constitutes a crime. These papers are for my two law courses. The case is for the second last week of the drug law course. The LCC paper was suggeted to me by my supervisor for my honours paper. My course notebooks are prepared. I have spent about 5 hours on each courses now out of class study time.

Today is the first day of classes. I have been helping a bit with the TA union this week but I really need to help on Friday when I present the union to new math and statistic's TA's at the TA orientation session in the department.

I have gotten my textbooks purchased now. I read the review of calculus section in the numerical analysis textbook this morning and last night. I did start the practice exercises in that section. My first numerical analysis class is today. We have some 25 or 26 classes in this course. I have spent about 1 hour this week on that course. I have spent about two hours on that course previous to this week and during this past month. In the past I have tried to read some books on scientific computing and numerical analysis. I am ready to be at my class early this morning.

But before my class I will show some solidarity with the university support workers union and walk the info picket line with them. I will take some photos of the picket line. I am becoming a journalist with an article published this week and now more labour picket photos. The support union CUPE2424 have had the universities contributions to their pension fund reduced by the university. Our TA union is also in negotiations right now. We are still talking and seeing if we can work things out without a strike vote.

It is a dirty business buying school books. They are generally expensive. I compared prices at Amazon.ca and the school's book store and there is no difference except in softcover being available at Amazon. One fellow worker will have 300$ in books for one course. Another sister worker's daughter must pay 1600$ for books for one term in college. I suggested she shop at Chapters as that is what a college student friend does to save money. I am buying Canadian law books today. They are just a basic legal writing citation guide book and a Canadian Criminal Code book. All in all I will spend almost 300$ today to buy school books

I have some reactions to Becker's chapter four now. This chapter attempts and does a good job of describing group processes and sanctions concerning the use of marijuana. From a criminological perspective this maybe seen as morals, but in my view this is a limited view of morals. "A friend with weed is a friend indeed" suggests that supplying some one with weed is a good act. Do you see where I am going with this? I mean morals and ethics are about doing good deeds, only in criminology do morals mean acting in the approval of group values. This is, in fact, Becker's main point in this book Outsiders. He defines deviance via groups. Also, one defintion of law is that it supports social ordering, in other words behaviour is approved by group agreed values. Other readings in this course suggest this idea of law is falling apart in late modernity, but that's a side point here. Philosophy does not always need a group to suggest morals. Only really cultural relativism suggests groups have power over morals. Ok, maybe the Kantian universal is a socially derived ethic but the Kantian is better known as against the relative and setting absolutes for ethical behaviour. I think I want to look more at the consequential ethical view of crime.

In fact, marijuana dealing could be considered as it lies in ethical behaviour fully analysed. Does giving some one pot help them? What of other acts such as say, painting someone's house for them including smoking pot at the end of the day of painting? Ethical behaviour could be associated with the drug users but might not include the drug directly. In fact, I have found that marijuana users as an in-group that Becker identifies well, have a certain in-group solidarity which could cause and does cause some to behave ethically, that is behave in a good and helpful way to other in-group members. People in the in-group would rather work for, do favours for, support other in-group members. All these support actions could be considered to be good acts and thus morally and ethically proper in their own right, but Becker does not open up the word morals very widely to see all this. He does leave it possible in his book to make further conlusions but he only really looks at morals as creating sanctions against use. This is about as narrow a view as the stereotype he gets this idea from.

Of course, a broader look at the musicans would look at thier productivity in bringing music to the world as a good act. Productivity is the thing supposed to be lacking in the moral view of the stereotype. Yet, many of our best and most popular rock 'n' roll music has been made by drug users. Also, the creation of the in-group solidarity is by itself a good thing in that it produces an ordering and this is a difficult enough task that it should be applauded when it has happened like in the case of dance hall musicians. Numerous are the stories of musicians overcoming their drug problems because they got help from other musicians to get clean. Creating social solidarity is, as far as, I can see apriori a good act.

I just completed reading the first paper after reading the introduction on Thursday and Friday in Sheptycki, J.W.E. Ed. Issues in Transnational Policing (London: Routledge, 2000). The first article was Johnston, Les. Transnational Private Policing: the Impact of Global Commercial Security. This article was more of an economics piece or business report on international commercial security companies than an in depth theoretical piece. He does suggest that private security could produce some good results. In particular he suggested the preventative approach of commerical risk reduction could be likened to harm reduction in prisons as opposed to the punishment style corrections linked to reactive policing. It seems the beginning of this book is mostly terminologial giving me words to use in the study of policing.

I managed to make five pages of notes on this blog in four days.

My latest study topic is policing. I have it seems been studying directly the policing literature for about a month now. In four months I could find my self studying policing in a criminal law issues course at school. That course starts in January 2005. No I don't want to be a police person or professional but the topic is interesting and certainly related to my present work as a security guard and my latest volunteering in victims services. Some studies suggest preventative policing that we security guards do is actually similar to a more humane approach to corrections in that reactive punishment is not practiced but rather harm reduction and rehabilition is the prefered positive outcome.

Grief needs to be expressed for children heading back to school who didn't make it this year. The crimes in a school terroism incident are chilling me right now. My tears of rage are shed for these poor victims. My going back to school is great this year but some people somewhere in the world will now never have a chance to study because they have been murdered by terrorists. This is sad and the worlds armys should put down there weapons once and for all. I guess, Russia will never survive her military excursions.

I completed reading Sheptycki, J.W.E. The 'drug war': learning from the paradigm example of transnational policing in Sheptycki, J.W.E. Ed. Issues in Transnational Policing (London: Routledge, 2000). This is for week 6 of the LAWS4306B course and will be taken up on October 19th, 2004. The topic that day will be policing and drugs. So I was wrong that this paper was included for the books' main arguments concerning transnational perspectives in the social sciences. It is not meant to be a paper just on the topic of drug laws and international perspectives. Instead I must see this paper as contributing to my knowledge of policing and drug laws in the international sense. In fact, the end and later half of the paper is more specifically about how policing internationally is solidified around drug law enforcement.

In conclusion Sheptycki makes three points, one non-state actors affected international drug law formation in the past and could act to reform laws and this might be something or someone, while difficult to predict, to be watched for in the international drug law scene. But also this reflection will help us study transnational policing and the international state system as this paper calls it. Second point, is that sub state actors, namley officals in charge of national agencies, play a role in international relationships. Again suggested for study are these roles that Sheptycki feels are ignored by senior state officals. Third point, Sheptycki suggests we take away from this article is that police studies must look at what is termed "High Policing" rather than looking at the local municipal and national level of policing or the study I have done on my own all summer namely studying policing work and tools. Thus, although the first two points concern law making and law reform, the third point suggests something about the focus of police studies and carries the topic with an international dimension. But international drug laws are not really looked at until week 9 November 9th. I guess this article prepares us for week 9 at the same time as it works in week 6.

Although the International policing efforts around anti-terrorism in the 1970's is mentioned as equivalent to the drug law policing in the 1990's, the article was written in 2000 and thus does not account for the obvious change in focus from drugs back to anti-terrorism that has occured this past few years. Somehow I was thinking that terrorists had managed to be the actors that changed this focus of international policing. Also interesting is what could be become of Canada as an international relevant state when we change our marijuana laws shortly. Needless to say I can totally agree with Sheptycki that it is the bureaucracy that will act to prevent the reform of the drug laws.

I am up late studying and waiting for the morning paper that I will deliver to the neighbourhood, then I will study and stay up until my Staples order of computer/school supplies arrives, than I will sleep. I will start the cycle of night studies again on Thursday night Friday morning. The next appointment I have is on Friday at 4 PM so hopefully if my sleep plan works I will sleep only once before Friday's appointment. This will be bad for my physcial and mental health but good for my productivity in the short term. Maybe I can get a fair amount completed in my legal studies work for the term in the next few days before classes even begin.

I reread the parts of Sheptycki, J.W.E. The 'drug war': learning from the paradigm example of transnational policing in Sheptycki, J.W.E. Ed. Issues in Transnational Policing (London: Routledge, 2000) that I first read on the day I borrowed this book. These sections in this paper start with a suggestion of the wider implications of studying transnational policing to the study of globalisation, then covers the historical interplay of domestic drug policy and international law. Domestic policy in the USA(prohibitionists with criminal law results), and then Europe(prohibitionists and drug companies with medical regulation results), is described and sequenced with the international legal and geopolitical events such as the American-Spanish war and briefly the European world wars.

Somewhere in this section is coverage of the drug laws being used to control immigrants to the USA. But this leaves me with an understanding of Canada that either must be little brother to the USA in terms of immigrant control or leaves me with no understanding of what might have been our drug control history. It also seems very Euro centred. This is the International section of this LAWS4306B course? Parla vous Français?

I just read the preface and executive summary of What is a Crime? by the Law Commission of Canada. This study or paper was recommended to me both by my new supervisor in my honours paper course and my Mom's roommate. It had been written about by Dan Gardener a local criminal law journalist. My mom's roommate had sent me the link to the article a few months ago after Gardener wrote about it and my mom's roommate Hugh had read the article. I had read it a little back then. Today I was struck by the psychological language with the word behaviour used extensively when what is meant is actions by individuals. Near the end of the executive summary some mention is made of the difficulty with viewing crimes as individualistic in other words individuals being held responsible for their acts. I would prefer an objective or is it subjective standard of intention, where one looks at the group an individual belongs too such as a teen hacker as part of the group of limited income youngsters, thus not being punishable for their intent with the same standard for intent as a group of middle class high income Internet users in their thirties.