KINDA SORE
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.
POKER AND IVANHOE
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.
SUMMER'S COMIN'
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 resum� 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.
DEAD TIRED
I am sitting in the Mac lab at the bottom of Sub. As it turns out, it is a pleasant lab to relax in between my class on MWF. Right now, I am fervently hoping that I can manage to stay awake in my next class, pharmacology. I got into a stupid novel yesterday, and proved my prior point about why I don't read fiction while in school. For me, it would seem it has a cocaine-like effect. I simply can't give it up, even to the detriment of my studies. I have thusly finished the book, and do not plan to pick up another until it is once again safe for me to do so. Perhaps I can attack one during Reading Week. My apologies for not posting last week. I'd like to say I was incedibly busy, and I was busy. But my lapse in posting was primarily due to apathy on my part. However, not a whole lot happened during the whole of last week anyway, so that is not too big a concern. I will try to put up a picture or two tonight because it will be a while before I can again. I am approaching midterms this term with the intention of beating them. For too long, I have been complacent, not willing to pay the price to achieve high marks. This semester I have no choice but to outperform in every way. It shall be my last chance to. I am confident about the midterms, but not overly confident. I am pragmatic. I plan to study obsessively for them. I have already started to a minor extent. More tonight, I hope...
FEDORA CORE 3
So, I amazed even myself and installed Fedora Core 3 tonight. The majority of my readers will have no clue what this means, so I will elaborate - just a little. It is a specific distribution of Linux that is very easy to install and use. It prides itself on completely setting the average computer user up with no technological abilities. I wound up using it for two reasons. It supports SELinux (a special version made by our friends at the NSA), and it could get my SATA drive to behave. It's really that simple. Since I have no time to troubleshoot this stuff myself, I now rely on something that is made for people without the time to tinker. Fair enough. My classes are ertainly interesting this semester. With the exception of a few classes that are starting out a little slow, the others have captivated my attention. This is quite an amazing feat, considering that I normally have reflex arc between my ears and my midbrain. I hear the prof and fall asleep. Suffice it to say, the material is now sufficiently relevant and fascinating that I don't usually feel drowsy. The first time in fact I drifted off a little was at the end of my biochem class today. I am hoping to get a fair bit of studying done this weekend. As the jobs that I hoped to get have not materialized, I am going to have to go with second tier, IGA or Safeway, perhaps. This could get interesting.
GROCERIES, CARTS, AND ELECTRON MICROSCOPES
I had my first Microbiology lab today, and while it did seem a little tedious at times, it was also quite interesting. It was certainly my first exposure to an actual electron microscope, which is quite useful for viewing bacteria. They are sizeable machines, and the price tag isn't so small either. Just one of them will put you back a good $300,000. I also saw an eSEM (environmental Scanning Electron Microscope), which was almost cooler than the former. It takes topographical scans, allowing you to see microscopic structures as if they were life size. They had a fluit fly's head blown up to poster size. That machine was quite loud, and I can only surmise that this was the pump to keep a vaccuum in the chamber. I went afterward to Costco, Wal-mart, and Superstore. I picked up a heck of a lot of grcoeries and assorted other junk. I got the job done, but carrying the 45 pounds in my arms for 2 miles had them shaking by the time I got back to my room. Needless to say, I am more than ready to call it a night and see what tomorrow brings.
A POINTLESS WEEKEND
Well, this is exactly why I love the Ada Lowell 5. This picture was actually taken over the Christmas holidays, but I am a little slow. The best thing about this? This is the only theater I know of where you can rent out the entire thing for $12, with a student discount of course. Dan and I got the theater to ourselves to watch Meet the Fockers. Kinda nice, really. This weekend I have truthfully accomplished very little. I have kinda been reorganizing and cleaning my room, but my progress is laclustre, mostly due to my constant breaks to watch TV or a movie or play a game. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if this room will ever get cleaned... OTher than that, not too much schoolwork this weekend, and so far, no great leads on a job. I am still waiting to hear back from some places I applied to...
FIRST WEEK WOES
It is Friday of my first week of the new semester, and I must say, this should be quite interesting. I am registered in all but one of my classes, that one possesing a weird glitch. So, I hve to go down to the registrar to complete that one. This semester looks like it will be quite challenging, but hopefully interesting too. With classes like pharmacology and biochem in the lineup, I am quite sure I can stay busy. Now if I could only fix my job problem, I'd be all set. Hopefully, I will get a call back from one of the resumés that I sent in. If not, well, there is always a phone sales company out there. Ugh. In the meantime, with the slow start to classes, I have been playing a few games, and I have to say, Far Cry is absolutely outstanding. Nothing quite like the excellent AI and the beautiful viusals. Not saying I spend a whole lot of time in it, but every once in a while, I don't mind loading it up a bit and trying my luck.
END OF THE HOLIDAYS
I think it is always hard for me to end a holiday, unless it has gone exceptionally bad. I have been enjoying my time in Edmonton, but truth be told, I really don't feel like going back yet, but then of course, I never do. It is a sad cold hard fact of reality that a vacation can never be too long for me. At least, it sure seems that way right now. Any way, it looks like I have about 2 hours of sleep before my flight, so I will put up some photos tomorrow when I am back in Edmonton on my good connection.
COLD, SNOWMOBILING, AND XBOX
Well, I may very well be on my way to my third cold this season. Something's gotta give. I can't say for sure this is one, but the back of my throat is feeling pretty odd and my nose is a little runny, so this could be it. If it is, I am going to ticked. Once a season is good enough for me. I am praying that this doesn't go any further... We got dumped on with snow last night. Dan and I were out to see a movie (Meet the Fockers), and the drive back got interesting. After doing a few donuts, we took it easy. A pretty site, but the roads were so bad 5 hours later or so they cancelled just about every school there is around here. The best part about the whole deal is the type of snow. It is the good thick stuff and plenty of it. Hence, I got to go snowmobiling for the first time in at least a few years. The ride was nice, if not a little short due to a goofy headlight. Hopefully I can go again on Saturday or something. I am just about done registering for classes (procrastination), and I don't think I am going to be able to slide into the Violent Weather class. The thing is packed at 454 students. Unless I get lucky, I am going to have to shop around for something else. This semester has got to be better. I say that every time, but my improvement is too slow. Last semester was a lot better than the previous year, but not nearly as good as I needed it to be. We'll see about this time around. I spent half the night playing Xbox, so I am getting kinda sleepy. I think I am going to cut this off here...