January 2004 Archives

In my busy life, it is often hard to catch a good break, but last night around 1:15 or so, my friend from Peru (who has since moved to Victoria, BC) got on. Normally, this wouldn't be earth shattering, but since I am flying out to his house, I have been trying to get a hold of him for quite a few months. Needless to say, I believe my roommate was slightly less than impressed when I phoned him trying to work out when I can get over to Victoria, etc.

This weekend will be less than relaxing as I have quite a few midterms next week, and no less than three homework assignments due on Monday. Nasty stuff really. I really need to go into town tomorrow and pick up a raft of supplies, including juice and bagels. I also want to hit the rink, so I really have my work cut out for me.

Plus, there is always work to be done on here... Ah well, goodnight then.

Well, as you can see, I've done it. I finally chose and implemented my new blogging system on my new domain. Of course, it goes without saying that it needs some serious work, but for a new start, I choose to believe this isn't that bad. I intend to get a pretty cool Berserk Fox logo. Just how I am going to do this, I don't know quite yet, but I have a couple of days to think about it. Movable Type seems to work well, and though it is not open source, I won't be using it for anything commercial, so it should be ok.

I have two midterms (bio and organic) on Monday and Tuesday, so I am going to be studying a lot this weekend. I really want to increase my GPA to at least a 3.0. I realize that this will require hard work, but after seeing what doors close shut at 2.3, I will make it happen. This probably means less games and more coffee.

I am still excited to go to Vancouver this February. I hope to be uploading a lot of pics from my stay out there, so expect to see lots of action on here. Well, it is getting late, and I could use a bit more work in biology before I go to bed. Au revoir.

PS. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think of the new domain name and blogging system. Don't mock the aesthetics, though; they are being worked on.

I actually safewalked a shift today, and at -39° C, that is quite a
feat! Needless to say, I froze. But it wasn't all bad, I had a pretty
good time with it. On the whole, I find Safewalk to be a good time. I
was actually colder (due to less clothes) walking back from church on
Sunday, the wind picked up, and it got cold real fast. I am hoping the
temperature warms up a bit soon, so I can hit the rink. Although, it is
nice that there is definitely no slush. The snow crunches when you walk
on it. I am pretty sure I failed my organic lab this morning, which
means a great deal of practice is due for me in interpreting NMR
spectroscopy. That stuff is insanely hard, and my work is just not
cutting it. On the whole, I have a lot of studying to do. Tomorrow I
have a ton of classes, scattered all over campus, so I should get to
bed now to make sure I can stay awake all day. That, and I also have a
French 211 midterm tomorrow to take care of... I don't get done until
9:30 tomorrow night. Luckily, I no longer have to carry around a box of
kleenexes; the cold is slowly subsiding. I would love to hear from
everybody, so drop me an email when you get the chance! Goodnight.

My cold has unfortunately remained with me, but luckily I did not have
a partner to Safewalk with tonight, so I did not have to go out in the
cold. The temperatures here are really dropping. By Wednesday, it will
be -44° C, which is darn cold in my opinion. I am looking forward to
testing the hypothesis of spit freezing before it hits the ground.
Either way, I am not looking forward to the burning face syndrome.
I think I am going to hit the sack for tonight, but there will be a
nice update tomorrow. If I can't get on the ice that is, I couldn't get
on today because it was a bit too cold. Oh well, such is life.

I went to class this morning after waking up bright and early at 7:32
AM -- the time I would normally be leaving for class. Dazed and
disoriented, I threw everything in my bag, plus a box of kleenex.
Rare is the person that actually has need of one during the day, but I
wouldn't have made it without it. The cold has morphed from throat
irritation to nasal congestion. So much fun.
Class seemed to last forever today because I start at 8 AM and don't
get back to Lister until around 3:35 PM. For a university schedule,
that is a rather long day in my opinion. Regardless, I managed to stay
awake the entire time, surprising given my penchant for weird dreams
and short sleeping times. I swear this has something to do with the
cold, but I can't quite pin it down. I did not play dodgeball today
given my poor health and vision predicament, but I was delighted to
hewar that our team barely won to push us into a 2-5 status. Not bad, I
guess, we are on a two game winning streak.
Tomorrow I have a short day, so I think I will focus my attention on
getting my homework and studying done, along with some the of the
miscellaneous chores I have been meaning to get to. Anyway, later.

I slept for 11 hours last night, proving once and for all that a good
night's sleep apparently ensures that I can stay ahead and comprehend
what is happening in class. Well, comprehend may be a bit too strong of
a word, I didn't understand the last episode of Les Grignols at all. It
was quite difficult, and my skill level in French just isn't up to par.
Hopefully in a little while, it will be.
The fluids and sleep are helping out my cold quite a bit, and I am
under the impression it would be worse, were I not doing what I am
doing now. I have a completely full to-do list for the next few days,
so I suppose I will be staying quite busy. Labs have all started up, so
the amont of work I have to do tripled, but I suppose that is par for
the course. I am thinking about running a French version of this site
soon, not because I am foolish enough to believe that anyone that knows
me will be able to read it, but just for the practice. I need it.
Tomorrow is Chinese New Years which means my roommate wants to wake me
up at 4 AM to tell me how great the world is. He insists he won't make
a sound, but I am afraid I know otherwise...
Goodnight.

Absoutely exhausted tonight, as a result of short time sleeping and
apparently a cold (or strep). I find it disappointing to have caught a
nasty throatache this early into January, but I suppose I will live. I
barely caught any biology today due to nodding off in class. Of course,
it was all about evolutionary bull, so I am not heartbroken about it.
Anyway, my guess is that I will be going to bed a lot earlier tonight.
I feel terrible, or at least, not quite kosher.
Not much else to report on that I can think of (my mind is running on a
half a cylinder, so there may well be something I am forgetting). Seeya
later...

It really stinks that I have organic chemistry tomorrow morning. What a
terrible way to start out the week, eh? An organic chemistry lab. Oh
well, that's life in university, and tomorrow's lab is exceptionally
easy. It is all about getting ready for the next lab where we have real
stuff to do. I have no such luxury with inorganic. I hit it hard with
that one right off the bat.
I played squash on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I never did make
it to The Passion on Friday night. eventually I decided it looked like
a longshot, and I didn't want to risk it. I guess I will be waiting til
it comes out in February to see it. I will be there opening night. It
just looks that excellent.
I had a close call with my glasses tonight, which is scary, considering
I am blind without them. I need
to look into picking up an extra pair or something. If anything happens
to this pair right now, I can kiss the semester goodbye. Well, maybe
Special Services will take down my notes for me, but that would be a
disaster. It is getting late though, and I do have a lab at 8 AM, so I
had best hit the sack. Äœis morgaÅ­.

I have been reading extensively into information about The Passion and
I am deeply interested at this point. It looks to be a phenomenal
movie, and it is supposed to be totally literally accurate. Mel Gibson
has hired some excellent actors in my opinion. Monica Belluci and Jim
Caveziel are some big names in Hollywood. Even more incredible, I was
reading an interview
done earlier with Jim Caveziel in which he said, "but one of them
missed and [the bullwhip] hit me, flush, right on the back. It ripped
the skin right off my back, but I couldn’t scream because the pain
knocked the wind out of me". I think that gives a little hint at how
realistic this movie is. If you have seen the trailer, located here ,
you will have some idea of the caliber of this movie. It is way above
that of earlier Christian movies that I have I seen. I am sincerely
hoping that I am able to attend the screener tomorrow that is in
Edmonton. It is by invite only, but I have an ace up my sleeve and I
will play it tomorrow. Otherwise I will be seeing it on its premier,
February 25.
I think I am going to try and promote it on campus. I don't think that
anyone should miss it, so maybe I will put up some posters, etc. Mel
Gibson has put $25 million into this movie, and I would like to see him
get it all back for his leap of faith. I am seriously impressed with
Mel Gibson for producing it and Jim Caveziel for acting in it, knowing
it could be seriosuly detrimental to their careers. Otherwise, I have
been busy pounding away at crap this week. I need to do some serious
practice problems in organic and inorganic. Elsewhere, in the subjects
I am good at it, it is rewarding to see all of my French coming back in
a headrush. Economics is going quite well too. Tomorrow I have a squash
game with Nikhil, and we won the first game of Dodgeball tonight --
always more fun when you win. Well, lots to do tomorrow, I had best hit
the sack. Bien amicalement.

Spam Interceptor If you are
getting desperate about the amount of spam you get, give this service a
try. I went from 50 SPAM emails a day to none. Quite nice. I already
set one of my Aunts on it because she was getting 100 messages or more
a day. She wasn't checking her email because of that, so I wasn't
getting any letters back.

Today was a day of much accomplishment, if you can count winning many
Enemy Territory games as achievement. Even if it does not qualify, it
sure was a heck of a lot of fun. I figure this early in the semester I
can afford to blow a little time. Later on I will have plenty of time
to fool around with homework. I am hoping to increase my grades a bit
over what I am getting now. My current GPA isn't exactly -- impressive.
I have much to figure out over the next few days, not least of which is
figuring out where to get my next round of money. At some point, I have
to get back to Michigan, and this will require substantial financial
resources. These resources are somewhat absent at this stage in my
life, so I need to figure out how to procure them in my stretched for
time lifestyle.
I have big hopes for this semester, and I am hoping I have the
willpower to deliver the goods. I want to have fun, but I think I can
do that within the parameters of my study. Oh well, enough for tonight
I think. A French quiz is imminent, and I should see how much I can
recall. Salut.

Well, I have to make this a quick post, as I have class tomorrow. I
went ice skating today, which was great, and engaged in a lot of
gaming. Back to the grind tomorrow, however. We got a huge ice storm in
Edmonton on Saturday and that made things quite interesting for
shopping and going to church. Kind of life as normal up here. I will
update things more thoroughly tomorrow when I have the time. Á
bientôt.

Vos Family Photos
If you haven't been to that site yet, they are a few neat pictures of
me that you may feel free to check out. One is particularly pretty at
the Athabasca glacier. I am just trying to recover after the french
department tossed me a cold fish. Apparently, I cannot enroll in French
112, and I am being forced to enroll in 211 or higher, naturally, this
has me quite frustrated, but I have little choice.
Nothing else really eventful has happened today, with the exception
that it is -18° C in Edmonton today, which is pretty darn cold.
Needless to say, my 180°'s are getting excessive use. I am excited
about my little holiday in Vancouver coming up in a few months. I have
not been there yet, and it should be a lot of fun. I really want to
track down Carlos and go see him. It has been many years, but hopefully
he will not have forgotten me. Best get back to straightening my room.
Toodle-loo.

I am quite ecstatic about recent findings today. Other than the fact
that my room remains a small landfill, things seem to be on the up and
up. I received all of my grades back was jubilant upon learning that I
did not fail any of my classes. I didn't do so hot in Statistics, but I
still passed, and theat is all that matters for now.
I found an awesome sale on Westjet for flights up to March 3, so I
think I will be flying out to Vancouver to see my Dad for Reading
Recess at the end of February. I am really genuinely looking forward to
it. I have not yet seen Vancouver, and I have not seen my Dad for ages.
It is always fun to do something with him. It should be pretty fun to
see the ocean in the winter too. Credit will be offered for anything I do with the Summer
Language Bursary Program, making it more attractive than it already
was. All in all, a surprising number of things to look forward to.
Adios

I realize that I have not posted for quite a while. I got out of the
habit since my main reader base is where I was vacationing, killing the
need to maintain this page. I am now back in Edmonton for the fist time
in a couple weeks, and things should be getting back to normal. I was
somewhat reticent to return to the U of A since I have not a clue as to
what I am doing. I desperately need a serious sitdown with a counselor.
My flights were quite uneventful. I met my uncle and aunt out in
Minneapolis and had coffee and chatted with them for quite a while
before they went to church. I tried to get on the internet once I had
gotten past airport security again, but my wireless card was
disconnecting every 20 seconds. I cleared customs fine, and got new
drivers for the wireless card, and since then, I have had no problems.
Weirdness.
I got up at 3 AM MST this morning, which has left me absolutely
exhuasted. I have a crap load of stuff to take care of in the morning
because I am not going to accomplish anything further tonight. I am
quite discouraged, but I think that things will get better once I get
some sleep, clean up my room, get my fridge stocked, and figure out
what classes I am going to be taking. On top of that, someone very near
and dear to me has cancer, and a classmate of mine from High School
passed a way a few days ago in a auto accident; she was only 18...
Hopefully by Tuesday you will be able to access this website at http://nathaniel.vos.net/
That is if eveything goes according to plan, of course. I need to thank
Marc Vos in the Netherlands fo rthis favor. I am going to bed. Adieu.