clucking_potato ([info]clucking_potato) wrote in [info]uvic,
@ 2006-03-10 22:39:00
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Current mood: curious

Peter Verin
So, what can you tell me about Peter Verin, the homeless, middle-aged guy who hangs out in the SUB?


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[info]chaoticmatter
2006-03-11 07:40 am UTC (link)
I've heard rumours he used to be a professor or something, gave up everything to live a simple life.

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[info]chaoticmatter
2006-03-11 07:41 am UTC (link)
Oh, something to add: He also writes articles and editorials for the Martlet sometimes.

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[info]clucking_potato
2006-03-11 05:43 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I was Googling and I saw a couple of his Martlet articles. So much anger! In another article he wrote (not for the Martlet), he denied that he's an ex-professor... so I wonder why he chooses UVic.

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[info]victriviaqueen
2006-03-11 07:43 am UTC (link)
I can tell you he has been on campus since the 1970s, he wasn't a prof then though, and if he ever was, it wasn't at UVic. Also, he reads several languages (including Russian).

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[info]ingridmarie
2006-03-11 07:51 am UTC (link)
my brother told me he was a philosophy student somewhere who gave it up to live a less consumeristic life (if consumeristic is a word...)

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[info]clucking_potato
2006-03-11 05:46 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, wow... he is so philosophy. I could definitely believe that.

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[info]starquest
2006-03-11 08:14 am UTC (link)
Is that guy still there?? What a hoot! I remember him back in the late '80's. I also remember an old bag lady who "lived" at one of the desk cubicles in the library. It's amazing what kind of human traffic UVic attracts.

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[info]ikorose_shinsou
2006-03-11 08:33 am UTC (link)
I've always wondered about him! I was in class last week and he was sleeping on the grass outside the window. My prof noticed him and said that he had a couple philosophy degrees and had been around for a long time.

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[info]clucking_potato
2006-03-11 05:45 pm UTC (link)
A couple of philosophy degrees? Does that mean he's a PhD? Oh man.

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[info]missquirt
2006-03-11 12:57 pm UTC (link)
He's also not actually homeless.

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[info]clucking_potato
2006-03-11 05:40 pm UTC (link)
How do you know he's not homeless? Does he try to make people to think he's homeless, or does everyone just assume that?

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[info]brownjenn
2006-03-11 09:42 pm UTC (link)
Peter Verin is a professional salvager and the self-professed campus enviro-intellectual. There is no truth to either of the common rumours a)that he's a former professor, nor b)that he resides on campus
Taken from August/September 2005 vol.2 no.2 StreetNewz

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[info]leaf_green
2006-03-12 07:32 am UTC (link)
But I see him in the same spot 8:30 every morning, by the admissions building, wall facing clearihue. Waking up from the looks of it too.

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[info]ltmurnau
2006-03-13 05:45 pm UTC (link)
He has been a UVic institution back to at least 1982, when I started going there. At that time he was keeping himself busy recycling all the printed-on newsprint to be found in the bins in the computer lab.

The rumour that he was once a professor who fried out his mind on drugs is an enduring one, but I don't think it's true. Universities attract autodidacts, and he sounds like an especially angry one, certainly after one of his frequent run-ins with campus security folks who object to him leaving mounds of what he calls "salvage" in classrooms and hallways.

I don't think he's homeless, but where his home is is a matter of conjecture too. Another rumour is that he's a remittance man, surviving on an allowance given him by his wealthy family back East. That's a good story too - Victoria used to be full of remittance men.

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[info]wronske
2006-03-13 07:49 pm UTC (link)
awww i love ol' pete. i had some pretty interesting conversations with him; he seemed kind of intrigued that a "non-mainstream female such as [myself]" would choose to pursue a degree in engineering.

one time i was on the bus, and the driver wouldn't let him on because he had a baby carriage. his argument was that pete didn't have a baby in the carriage, so he wasn't allowed to bring it on the bus. mean driver.

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[info]hielandman
2006-03-15 07:22 am UTC (link)
He's a nice guy. He's a good facilitator for Socratic-style discussion. We've talked about academic discipline boundaries, how values should be considered in decision making, pitfalls in predicting societal change, links between culture and perception, and things like that. I've never asked about his past, or why he's here. I don't get the feeling that he wants to talk about it.

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