December 2007 Archives

As is painfully evident from the picture, I received the license plate that I have been so desperately seeking around 8 tonight. This is, of course, deplorably late. What was supposed to be five or so business days according to USPS turned out to be about 2 weeks. In fact, it is so late that I had already paid Fedex and the Secretary of State to get a 30 day plate overnighted to me with Saturday delivery. It's painful just thinking about it. I put in official complaints with both of the offenders, but thus far I have heard a lot of hemming and hawing about whose fault it is. This is why, I am happy to report, that credit cards are the best way to pay for most things. One word: Chargeback.

Regardless, I am absolutely going to leave Canada tomorrow for what has become a brief sojourn in Michigan to quick see some of the relatives. I found and bookmarked all the sites that give road conditions, bought a few audiobooks, and picked up a ton of music from Rhapsody. I am praying for smooth sailing, because heaven knows I have earned it. This frozen road trip has brought some non-trivial angst to the people that I have notified about it, and I'd like to prove them all wrong. Hard to do since I missed Christmas, but I digress.

I am curious as to who everybody is going to vote for in the primaries. The next few days should be fascinating as the race tightens up and the second tier candidates drop off. Personally, I have not really decided on any one candidate, but since my voter registration was in MI, it doesn't matter anyway. Our votes were disqualified by an over eager legislature, eager to cash in on Iowa and New Hampshire's share of electoral funds. I guess I'll watch and see what they come up with.

In one of the odder holidays that I have experienced, I spent Christmas in Edmonton. This was of course not my preference but I lay the blame at the criminally incompetent USPS/Canada Post that stranded me here. Despite what you may have wished to believe about our postal services, I have come to realize that they are appallingly bad. So bad, in fact, that I wonder why people would willingly consign items and packages that they are care about to these bumbling oafs. We may all have wished to believe that the express service (3 to 5 day) meant just that, but as I have so recently found out, one needs to at least triple that time frame. So, I have been waiting in Edmonton since Tuesday last week when I finished my exams to receive my license platein the mail. It, of course, has been completely and totally absent.

So I spent my Christmas in Edmonton. It was certainly peaceful. It's surprising how much this neighborhood clears out around the holiday season. I wouldn't necessarily say that everyone left, but if I had to put a number to it, I'd guess at least 80%. It was quite different than the normal, which is caught up with family and parties. I would ideally not like to miss out on New Years festivities, but of course that completely depends on when I receive that plate. As far as I am concerned, it could not arrive here soon enough. I have lost more than enough time as it is.

The tube you see above is a tube of mayonnaise that my roommate brought back from Switzerland. I had to throw it up here, because I have never in my life seen a tube of mayonnaise. He insists it's pretty close to the stuff that we keep over here in a jar, but I am mistrustful of anything that looks like its container was more suited to toothpaste. Heh. Anyway, I am going to get some sleep.

December brings nearly the same every year -- a dash of snow, a sprinkling of insanity, and heaping spoonful of stress. I have been getting plenty of tiem in the library lately, trying to figure out a series of chemical reactions, equilibria, and kinetics. Believe it or not, several of the libraries on campus have extended their opening hours to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the two week period of final exams end. This means that a few times already I have been found in the library past 2 AM. Personally, I think that's a little ridiculous, but there it is. I look forward to writing my environmental chem final and being done with all of this.

In addition to exams, I am trying to get done with the normal flurry of tasks that all hit around the Christmas time, not least of that are the travel arrangements. Trying to clean up the apt and get it ready for a few weeks without me (without killing my plants or fish), make arrangements for my car, finishing up with jobs, and getting done all of that miscellaneous stuff that gets put off when busy. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to getting out for a while and visiting family over the break. Once again, it's been a long time. So, as long as my drive is uneventful, I'll be happy.

And now I am exhausted, going to try to salvage my sleep cycle...

Now, perhaps some of you can make sense of the first problem there, but I am not sure that I can. It's nucleophilic substitution reaction, but I can't for the life of me figure out the mechanism. And this is all that I have been working on for the past few days, and pretty much all I will do until Tuesday evening. i am not sure that I can pass this final either. All I know is that it is 10:30 on a Saturday night, and I am in the student union building with about 8 inches of paper and a meg of online notes. The exam is, of course, completely cumulative. So I would guess that I have well over a hundred mechanisms to memorize in detail along with various reactivities and reagents. I certainly don't remember the one for above.

I finally got my car re-plated and insured after an excruciatingly long hiatus. I miss driving, but I certainly don't miss any of the bills associated with the operation of a vehicle. Every little thing adds up, and even the little things for an automobile wind up costing and arm and a leg. I don't have any kind of shop up here, so anything big (or anything at all) needs to be done by a mechanic. Now I all I have left is to psych myself up for a drive across the Prairies in December. I think I am going to pick up an XM radio and an audiobook copy of Crime and Punishment or the Brothers Karemazov. I figure while in the pursuit of epic feats... The last time I drove across the country was a few years ago now, crazy as it seems. Past due for another trip, I think.

I am going to be seriously cutting back on the amount of time that i spend in class as of next semester, and likely cutting down to just one job, and so I hope to be on here a little more often. I am sad to say that when things get a little hectic, it's usually the side projects that get cut first.