AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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 bientôt.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.
AUTHOR: NATHANIEL VOS
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.