So I was sitting
in my dorm, attempting to avoid the many forms of pressing duties that
I have (like cleaning up this sty, doing homework, getting a haircut,
or averting my imminent financial collapse) when I realized that many
of you in the lower 48 would be amused by this picture. I took this
about 2 minutes ago with my webcam outside my window. Yes, it is that
cold... (-3° C). Halloween and Safewalking just got that much more
interesting...
October 2003 Archives
Oh, quick thought. Make sure to look for the Aurora Borealis tomorrow,
if you live in the northern United States or Canada. It should be
awesome due to the coronal mass ejection earlier on Tuesday. It has
been snowy here, and hence, overcast, but if it clears up, I want to
see it. It should be an awesome show. If you wonder what I am talking
about, check MSNBC in the Science/Tech section. The flare is rate X.18,
the highest since 1989. 'Night.
Wow, all I can say is that I was incredibly tired today. I had a lab
quiz for Biology at 8 AM, which went as well as could be expected,
followed by biology (lecture) and organic chem. Kristy tells me that I
drifted off in organic chem, but I don't remember doing so... Bad sign.
I cam back to Lister with all kinds of stuff in mind that I should do,
including a litany of homework and a haircut. Instead, I decided to lie
down for a "few minutes". Promptly 125 minutes later, I woke up.
Craziness. I had class tonight too, so that was wild. What a waste of
time.
I have decided that I would receive better marks if I started studying
a week before a midterm, rather that 24 hours or so. So, tonight I am
going over my
favorite class, organic chemistry. Lots of fun stuff here including
nomenclature ( what exactly is 2,5-Dimethyl-2-hexane anyway?),
conformations, and transitional states. This is sooooo much fun. Oh
well, I have warmed up to the labs quite a bit. I actually enjoy them
for the most part. Monday was interesting enough. I accomplished very
little, other than the usual labs and whatnot. I am going to hit the
sack now I think. It is almost 2 AM, and as usual, I have class
tomorrow. And I should probably attend my lecture, as I need the good
grades. I am really getting into the chemistry though. I have been
doing a lot of research tonight, including looking at this site
http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/index.html ,
which has an awesome sodium type experiment, some really cool stuff,
Anyway, I am pretty tired. Auf Wiedersehen.
The weekend is unfortunately an exceedingly short phenomenon, and I am
getting tired of seeing it disappear so quickly. This weekend we got an
extra hour due to Daylight Savings and I still managed to blow that
just as easily. Oh well, I get a nice two weeks or longer as Christmas
time, so I cannot complain too much. I am definitely looking forward to
the break. I went Safewalking Friday night at le Faculté St. Jean,
which was a lot of fun. Le Fac was completely dead, except for a few
High School aged youths walking the sidewalks with rakes every hour or
so. It was cold too, but pleasant as there was no wind and no clouds in
the sky. All I did was chat with my partner for 2½ hours before
getting back on the bus and heading back for Lister. The bus pass was,
of course, expired, so I had some fun with that and the bus driver, but
all's well that ends well. But on that walk I noticed something about
the Fac, the dorms were brand new! Yes, that's right, they just put up
a brand new building within the past three years, and they totally
renovated the other one. Needless to say, I certainly consider staying
there next year. The catch? I would have to speak French.
I totally blew the whole of Saturday. I cannot remember accomplishing
anything even remotely productive. I worked on cleaning up the pigsty I
lovingly refer to as "my room", which soon it will not be. Liang Liang
is supposed to be moving in sometime this coming week and I have
absolutely no idea about who he is... One small morsel of knowledge
achieved from yesterday? I need to learn how to cook.
So, now I am working on my prelabs and this site. I want to add a
little about me section and add some more images. Catch ya on the
flipside.
The biology midterm is over and while I would have felt pretty
confidant about it, I actually missed the last and eigth page. As one
might imagine, this is not exactly a way to get a 90%. So I scambled to
fill in some bull within the two minutes I had left. Whatever. Sheer
stupidity in inevitable in high stress environments, and while I wish I
was not one of the afflicted, I am. So, I hope I am ready for stats
tomorrow, and it is a good thing it is tomorrow, and total apathy is
dangerously close to overtaking my faculties.
I was reading today that Miami is actually 62% immigrants. Now, I have
absolutely no problems with latinos/latinas. Some of my better friends
at the U of A are actually from Central America, but I do think that
the US should begin to encourage the immigrant population to diffuse
into the rest of the US, out of the urban areas in the southwest and
Florida. America is a melting pot, or at least, it always was, so more
should be done to encourage "mixing". While I doubt the US is going to
become anything like Canada, with an official bilingual policy, I think
they had better start encouraging the English language and better
integration.
Which brings me to another topic. I am a conservative Christian white
male and a geek in University, and I find that I am in the minority.
According to Statistics Canada, only 42% of the students in university
are males, and this is only going down. Furthermore, it would seem that
the conservative population around here is in the decline as well.
Fine, I can deal with reality, what I have hard time dealing with are
the comments made by some referring to people that are socially
conservative as rednecks. Minorities have fought for special rights in
Canada, and in many cases achieved them. It is no longer politically
correct to direct epithets or slurs at homosexual individuals, and as
such, I believe that the white male, who is now the minority in the
University, should be given special status too. Language that offends
them it to be avoided at all costs, while I see absolutely zero respect
for the conservative minorities beliefs, like course language in
something as public as the Gateway. While this University is cutting
programs and staff due to lack of funding, and yet still directing
funds at polarizing projects like the Women's Only Space, I think it is
only fair to direct equal funds at the real minority in the university.
Just my two cents. Hasta mañana.
I know I didn't post yesterday, and for that, sorry. It was a rather
long night. I just got busy with other stuff and I never got around to
posting the day's entry. I have my biology midterm tomorrow, and I have
done a lot of studying for that. I really, really hope that I am ready
for it. The following day, I have my statistics midterm, and then I am
done!, well, for about 10 days or so. I haven't even looked to see when
my next midterm is. I am too scared to know when it is exactly. I am
betting they all happen right around Remembrance Day. So, there is not
a whole lot I can say. As far as my life is, things have taken a turn
for the weird, but I cannot elaborate on that. So, since most everybody
is either sleeping, studying, or fooling around to avoid studying, I
think I will join them. Which would I join you ask? No idea, but I am
leaning towards sleep. I can study a bit more tomorrow morning. Peace
Out.
At this point, I feel like I have had a massive lobotomy. After hours
of mind-numbing financial calculations, I am still not done figuring
out where I stand, except for one thing that is dramatically clear. My
net worth is overwhelmingly negative. That's right, I have absolutely
nothing once everything is accounted for. Not only do I not have money,
but I carry a massive debtload. I guess that makes me no different than
most Americans, but it is a sickening realization. I need booze. No,
not really, I can't afford it! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after
all, I am in university, but man... this is sad.
So, I guess now that I have 25% of my fianancial calculations done, I
will clean up the old dorm room and then move onto to my chemistry lab
report. I think I am going to fry up some eggs as well, just for the
heck of it. I could use an upper at this point. Especially since I get
to start filling out loan paperwork in a little bit. I will almost
surely be posting tomorrow, and I welcome any calls, but tomorrow I
have class until 9:30, so I will be a bit late. Perhaps another night
would be better. Email always works. Au revoir.
It is roughly 9:30, and once again it has been a rather long day. It
wasn't that it was terrible, it is just that it wasn't great. Of
course, my mood is somewhat affected by the recent discovery of my
impoverishment. As any person should do, I recently took a quick glance
at my credit card bill, as it must be payed tomorrow. Then I took
another look at it, this time a little harder. My jaw dropped, and I
looked at my checking account. Well, no problem there. I have enough to
pay it, and then have a whopping $7 left!!!! Yes, that's right, while money does not make one happy, the lack of it I firmly believe can make one sad...
On a serious note, this is an interesting
development. I am trying to think of ways to deal with it, including
selling all my worldly possessions and wearing paper grocery bags,
petty theft, and maybe not-so petty theft. Of course, I could consider
what normal people do when they run out of money -- suicide. But that
seems so... passe. I guess I will be getting a job pretty soon. I make
it sound worse than it is. No, I was deadly serious about the $7 ( I
have blown through $1500 recently in college related expenses -- no!
that does not mean beer!), but I do have a little more money stashed
away; tomorrow brings another day and a serious one of accounting. I
don't know. I will figure something out in short order. Student life is
good for bringing humility into one's life. Something I probably need
more of. Once I submit and have approved my BC Student loans and get
the check, plus the part time job, things should look a little better
for me. If not, well, Afghanistan is always an option.
I went to Costco today and picked up some groceries for the week,
blissfully unaware of my lack of funds. I think I would have been
better off to continue in bliss, at least, it would have been more
pleasant until the collection agencies retained Boba Fett to hunt me
down. I saw the intramural hockey game between our Hall and the
Mechanical Engineers. We lost.
Now, I had better get to finishing my homework, lest I flunk out of
university and be totally broke. Adios.
Once again, it is about 2:30 AM on Sunday morning, and I am posting
now... I had kind of a long day, and fatigue is starting to set in. I
went to the Safewalk training today on the 10th floor of South
Education. I wondered if I was going to make it there. I was soooo
tired this morning it was difficult to get out of bed. But I did get
there on time. It was interesting. We went over things like
emergencies, basic protocol, disclosure by clients/partners. I was
pretty darn tired, I think I missed a few details because I was
drifting in and out of consciousness. Anyways, I definetely got the
bulk of it. They fed us pizza for lunch, and I had a ton. All in all,
good times. I signed up for my first walk on Friday at le Faculté St
Jean. I figured it was a good way to practice my French (if I see
anyone). We got back and I hung out for a while here. We went to
Yanni's for the floor formal. Which was fun, but... We wound up waiting
45 minutes for enough cabs to take us all there, and I had had so much
pizza, I wasn't really that hungry, whatever. Anyway, I ordered a $7
appetizer and stuck to the water. They had some pretty festive music
there. Most everyone else had wine, but I took a peek at the prices,
$24 a bottle and up and decided to pass.
So anyway, since I accomplished nothing today, I
will be studing quite a bit tomorrow. Yay. I also look forward to
talking to all of you, as it is a weekend, and I should be hanging by
the phone, or at least my cell phone. A lot of the people on our floor
are camped out in the lounge with the big sceen TV watching the Italian
Job (they will be watching movies all night long) so I think I will
watch a little more of that and hit the sack. à bientöt.
So, now it is Saturday morning. If you're reading this and thinking
that I don't have a life, well, you would be absolutely and totally
correct. I guess that I am a little bored. I got all of my laundry
done, so now I am contemplating studying or hitting the sack, I have
the first round of photos ready to go up on here, so check them out if
you get a chance. I think they are pretty darn good. I will try to
throw up more when I can, but as I don't have a scanner or a digital
camera, I am at the mercy of those who do. As soon as I can, I will get
some more.
I was looking at the people stumbling around drunk on my floor, and I
think that is all I need to keep my alcohol consumption low. It just
seems to me that it is not worth it. One person needed to be watched to
make sure she didn't fall over. For me, it seems like a lot of hassle.
Why not just drink Coke and be able to walk yourself home? On the
upside, we got an awesome picture of my FC. I am going to post it up
here when I get a chance. Anyway, I really should hit the sack.
Tomorrow is going to be a long
day.
So, tonight is Friday night, and I am feeling unusually exhausted. I
chose to forgo the Friday party at Dukes, in Togas no less. Now,
Edmonton is really cold right now --- I can think of many more amusing
things than freezing myself in the great outdoors in nothing but a
sheet and boxers. So I am here in Lister publishing my blog. I really
want to relax, but I can't. I have stuff to do. I have my Biology
midterm next week, so I have to study for that. Not only that, but I
have my stats midterm plus the homework for that class on Friday. I am
busy lately. The one best thing about all this is that my biology lab
has a break, so that is one less thing to worry about.
Tomorrow I have Safewalk training and then the 9 Mac floor formal, but
I am not sure if I am going to the floor formal. I f I am feeling
tomorrow anything like I am tonight, I have a problem. Luckily my cold
has mostly gone away. So, anyway, I have to do my laundry tonight,
since I won't be here tomorrow, and then make dinner. That's right, I
am going to try to cook. Well, anywho, I'll let you know how that goes.
Ciao.
