February 2005 Archives

It is back to the things that I love most in life, namely Edmonton and studying. Ok, so not really, but that's what I have been up to lately. On Wednesday I have my microbiology midterm, and I am more than a little concerned about it. I have a deep seat and well-justified fear that it will be ridiculously hard. The historical average is somewhere around 61%, which I personally find far from inspiring. Oh well, here goes...

Otherwise, it is back to normal. I have quite a few papers and other miscellaneous stuff to work on in addition to my job search. I think that March will be far from boring. And with this, I am off to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow so I can cram some more random details about cross-linking with N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid.

This morning I woke up bright and early, actually, at 7:16 when I was jolted awake by large amount of beeps and blips. I later determined that these oringinated from MSN, and I had forgotten to turn the speakers off. I wound up just waking up then so I could go meet the guys featured in the picture above before they left Edmonton. Anyway, tonight I am planning on getting much better sleep.

Today, I sure didn't accomplish much, so Sunday will be busy. Sadly, I have a lot of studying to do if I expect any kind of passing grade in microbiology. Hopefully I am productive tomorrow.

After flying back last night and arriving at Lister around midnight, I wound up hitting the sack at 2 AM or so after trying to get a little bit of work done. I woke up this morning at 8 or so and trekked off to West Ed to meet with my uncle for some wild times with his family. Spending the day with them, for me at least, is exhausting. My cousins are a blast to play with them during the day, but I love that I can hand them off whenever there is a dirty diaper or a scuffed knee. Actually, in all honesty, I thought the little rascals were pretty good today

I came up with the idea of a full body bib today after watching Colin eat. I think its just not practical to expect that a piece of cloth over the torso could do the job. I can see why aunt packs a change of clothes whenever she takes the munchkins out. Andrea broke her sippy cup and had to be completely changed midway through the day. I don't think that is out of the ordinary either.

I had one of the scariest moments ever today, when one of the people working at WestEd assumed that I was Colin's Dad... Even more scary? The guy was probably justified in assuming that. I am eighteen years Colin's senior, and my uncle looks more like his grandpa, due to the beard growing contest at his church. Don't get me wrong, I love the little guy, but I am not even close to ready to have kids.

Anyway, they are leaving tomorrow morning, and I am supposed to meet them at 8 AM, so I am off to bed.

Well, the weather here has been truly fantastic. I really have no complaints. It has been sunny and warm here for the last three days, and that is supposed to continue for the rest of the time that I am here. I am hoping to finish up with the job hunt stuff tomorrow, and then I can get on with the business of having fun out here. Hopefully, I can go out to Granville Island on Saturday. I am probably not going to head out to Vancouver Island this time out here though. There's just not enough time.

My notebook has been trudging along out here ok, but the last four days or so, I have really put it through the paces. I really don't have enough RAM for what I am trying to accomplish. When you sre running six or seven different applications, and whatnot, 256 megs just does not cut the mustard. Other than that though, this computer handles the work out I give it fairly well.

I think I am going to hit the sack soon though... My eyes are starting to involuntarily slam shut on me.

So, yes, the picture is completely irrelevant, but I really liked it. It was taken by a friend of mine who lives on this floor. Anyway, both he and I should be studying for exams right now, but -- as you can well see, this isn't happening. Actually, while I am a bit nervous about French and Bioethics, I have made up a ton of notecards for pharmacology. I am not there yet, but I am definitely making some serious progress, which is inspiring. I am counting on this semester to turn things around for me.

We spent the microbiology lab today with gas chromatography and the output of bacteria from raw sewage. It was interesting, though a little disgusting. That class is getting a little wearisome as we have to memorize so much stuff. We are expected to know all kinds of different individual species, their habitats, all kinds of silly details. It's interesting, but I'd like to take a breather.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this summer is going to be a little lonely! It sounds like a friend of mine is going to leave me in the dust, so I am going to have to go it alone. I am still looking for jobs everywhere. Today someone mentioned an institute in Washington DC, if only I could be so lucky... I guess we will see what I can turn up and thus, where I wind up moving to. I am really hoping for something good and maybe profitable this summer. I have been looking at my debt figures, and they are astronomical. With the money I have burned on school, I would definitely have a good car right now.

So, the midterm week is now finally beginning. I have completed a very minimal amount of preparation this weekend, devoting the majority of my time to other pursuits. I did that conference on Saturday, studied a lot this afternoon, had small groups this evening, and now will shortly hit the sack. I am confident, however, that I will be prepared by the time that I need to deliver. I have been working on making lots of notecards, and hopefully with the help of those and some deciated time in the library, I will be ready to take on the challenge. I am looking for a minimum of 75% for each exam, which is a tall order.

In the small group tonight we did a passel of interesting personal tests. They seemed to describe everyone fairly adequately, with the a exception of a few. Definitely had a good time going through them all, however. I wonder if the results can be used to focus myself towards tasks and situations that are more beneficial to myself and those around me. Something to think about anyway.

I am kind of getting excited now. I go to Vancouver in less than one week. It should be great, and I can wait to have a little bit of time off too...

I went to a conference today at the King's University College on Christian faith in the Shadow of the Empire. While some of you may be thinking I lost my mind what with midterms next week, and all, I still believe it was important that I went. I actually think I learned a lot there today, and if nothing else, I got a free lunch, which is truly difficult to turn down. The keynote and workshops took the view that the world we live in, and the world of the majority of Biblical time, was under the authority of Empire. Whether that empire was that of the Romans, Babylonians, Syrians, Egyptians, Persians, or one of their own making, they were undeniably living under a framework that God did not intend. Today, they painted an interesting picture of the US as that Empire or today, and I cannot help but admit that there are striking parallels.

The US shares much more in common with its brethran than I would like to admit in a patriotic sense. Easily, the gigantic political machinery with complex political ties and a massive military do much to extend the ideas of Empire. If not so apparent quite yet to the people within the United States, it is easy to see it from outside. I do not care to rehash the the keynote, but suffice it to say that I found their insight compelling and fascinating. Their conclusions and a more elaborate explanation than I could ever provide here is found in the book Colossians Remixed.

I got so little sleep last night. I am heading to bed considerably earlier tonight because I am absolutely exhausted. I don't know how I managed to stay awake during the conference today. I really need my sleep for tomorrow, so I can study effectively (and look for a job in my break times).

So, it turned out about as I expected. Some of the night studying, and a lot of fooling around with the Ivanhoe foolishness. I made a video of it, but one other guy had a much better camera there, DV, and he got some nice ground level stuff. The problem with this video is that there is a fair bit of language because it was shot at a university residence event, so I am going to rate this as R. Please consider yourself warned. If there are any complaints, I will pull the link. [daveupton.net]

I woke up this morning and I postulate that either the complete shortage of sleep or the exercise has done my poor legs muscles in. I was so sore this morning that I felt like Old Man River. The Ivanhoe competition required me to wake up at 4:45 AM this morning to go read a clue and get a sword made out of paper for points. I didn't get there first and somebody from 4 Mac beat everyone on our team. Sadly, my efforts went to waste. Now I kinda feel like a nap, bit I don't think that is going to be possible due to the fact that I have another class in 15 minutes or so. I think tonight's free time will be consumed with finishing the catapult for competition this evening.

I am completely undecided about what I am doing for next year. Alberta announced a complete tuition freeze, which I have to admit, is very attractive to me, but I am afraid that my bridges around here are somewhat burned. By burned, I mean that I am saddled with a very uncompetitive GPA. I am working on improving that, but it is a rather slow process. I had planned on moving to GRCC for a couple of years to work on getting out of debt before finishing my Bachelors, but there are now several impediments to that. If any of you faithful readers have an ideas, please leave a comment by clicking the link below this post, or send me an email. Your ideas will be taken seriously, as I don't like my options as they stand.

I have a forkload of midterm examinations next week that I am diligently preparing for. Bioethics, French written and oral, and pharmacology all fall on either Thursday or Friday and I am more than a little concerned. Luckily, the Ivanhoe competition finishes up on Friday evening, but I have a lot of other stuff, relating to the prior paragraph and more that I have to deal with. I feel like a deer in headlights.

It has been a busy time for me. As I get closer into midterms and Ivanhoe, I realize how much more I need to study to get the grades that I desperately need for this semester. So far I am rather optimistic, it is hard to say for sure, but I really think that I am actually making progress. The marks so far seem to be better than average, so hopefully I can keep it up.

Ivanhoe has started now as well, which is definitely a distractor. I am hoping that our floor can make a good showing in it. Last year, with a lot more motivated people, we came in 2nd place. I have little hope we will get that high this year, but we will try. For those of you who are not Listerites, Ivanhoe is an annual hall competition, which is probably the best of its kind in Lister. It's a lot of fun, but today's Capture the Flag event out in the snow didn't go too well. It was -20° C out there, so we lost our flag and froze. I am thinking the rest of the competitions will go better though.

A chunk of the floor came in to play poker, but I took off to work on my Microbiology lab report, which is due at 2 PM tomorrow.

Well, not really, but it was so warm today that I decided to post this funny classic from the ferry ride over to Beaver Island out in the middle of Lake Michigan. In my mind, this picture is the spirit of summer, and I guess, a cheap shot at the Titantic. Still, it brings back good memories of life in High School when times were somewhat more carefree.

I am gearing up for a massive job hunt. I have pegged out my first targets and I will see what I can land for this summer. I am in no sense limiting myself to just what is in Grand Rapids. I plan to hit up the Continent and see what the best deal is, in terms of money and resumé building. Heaven knows its about time that I got of the retail industry. It's now a very drain on my soul. Erm, not really, but at the very least a huge drain on my finances. I did those tonight too... They didn't look so pretty.

I have a huge task list for tomorrow morning, so it's off to bed with me.