I'm just saying, the first thing I'd think wouldn't be "hey, I should spit on my wiener"

Ho hum. Things are a bit stagnant around here. I should have thought ahead and brought a PC game home to play. I downloaded a few demos, but this computer is a bit too dated to play them.

I had people over the other night. Sheena, Chanel, Grant, Martine, Christina, Adam, John and Julie. I rented 40 Year Old Virgin, but most people had seen it, and Martine had rented Brokeback Mountain, so we watched that instead. Good movie, but it was a bit too deep for me. Nice to watch them on my nice tv and surround sound system (the thunder was so loud!). After that, everyone was too tired to stick around, so the night ended relatively early.

Earlier that day, I went with John and Julie around some of the sights around Thunder Bay. We went for breakfast at the Hoito. She had her first taste of Finnish pancakes, and John and I got the deeeelicious hot turkey sandwich. We noticed some well dressed men come in, and then realized that one of them was none other than the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty.

Afterwards, we went to Eagle Canyon, which houses Canada's longest suspension footbridge. I'll tell ya...not the best place to go on a windy day for anyone afraid of heights. My legs were rather wobbly when we got off. After that, it was a short hop to Ouimet Canyon. Unfortunately, the park is not yet open, so we had to walk 3Km uphill to get to the canyon. That was intensely exhausting and time consuming. We saw the canyon, I threw a few coins off, and then we made the trek back.

Well, I have all my marks back. I got 80 in Real Analysis, which is likely more than I deserve, but about what I was hoping to get. After going into the Linear Optimization exam with a 70 in the class, I walked out with an 86! Much better than I thought. Group Theory is the big shocker: I knew I did well on the exam, but I never expected to get a 98! That lets my average rest at 87 for this term, and conveniently enough, my cumulative average is also exactly 87.

Well, enough gloating...I'm going to go get some lunch.

Listening to... Snapcase - First Word
Link of the moment... Maybe grad studies @ home are the way to go?

@home

I had a terrible time last night. It was my first night in town, and I decided to be nice and go to Scuttlebutt's with my sister, the neighbours, and everyone's respective significant other. Of course, I drove, and had to wait around to drive everyone back, being the sober little brother that I am. We were there from 9:30 til about 2:30, and it was definitely five hours of my life and my short time home wasted.

Highlights include:
-beer being spilled on my shirt
-Amy's bad breath
-screaming as loud as I could into my shirt
-finding LCM(1,2,...,n) for n=1,2,...12 to pass the time (LCM(1,2,...,12)=27,720, if I didn't make any mistakes)
-being told that I was going to drive 9 people in the (barely) 7-seat van
-imagining fighting Donny to the death for being such a smug asshole motherfucker

Moving was not a fun task. I wrote my last exam (which went spectacularly...I may have gotten perfect), and then started packing around noon, though I didn't work too hard at first. At about 3, Nicole stopped by for her lunch break, and that stifled any sort of work until 4. At 4, I helped Hugh move his stuff to Andrew's, then he helped with what little stuff I had packed by then. That was done at about 5, at which point I drove Hugh to the place he's staying for the next week. I got supper after that, an put some laundry in to finish up at abuot 6:15.

At 6:30 I agreed to go to a euchre meeting, and even give Aarish a ride. I got back from that at about 8:30, and then I realized I was not done packing by any means. Hugh and Mat stopped by at around 9, since I told them to earlier, thinking I'd be done packing by then. With their help, I finished everything up by 10, at which point John phoned on the way back from his exam. We all got together and watched Serenity and ate pizza at Andrew's. The pizza was too much for me, and I felt really ill for the rest of the night. The rest is history, I suppose.

I only got one of my marks back today (the unofficial marks are in today; anything I didn't get today likely won't be back til May). I got a 76 in CS 330, and checking on UWACE shows that I got 58% on the final. That's gotta be the worst exam I've ever written (and let's hope the the worst I ever will write). This terrible mark will hopefully be offset with some better marks in other courses.

Listening to... Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
Link of the moment... This or Civ 4 is on the chopping block, I think

Off the deep end

I think I actually snapped tonight! It's awesome. I was feeling immense stress and anxiety for about four hours, and then I got another straw that finally broke the fucking camel's proverbial fucking back! All I could do is laugh! AHAHA FUCK HAHA it's so BLEH! I feel like I could just start fucking some shit up or maybe drive into a pole and try to kill as many people as I can! FUCKIN YEAH FUCK BITCHES! I want you all to fuck up this shit! Cause I'll fuck you all up right in the old piehole!

My Tapeworm Tells Me What to Do

FOUR of them done now! Yesterday's Linear Opt went better than expected, Real Analysis went a bit worse than I'd hoped. Both of them are going to be decent enough marks. I'm hoping the Linear exam will bring my mark up to about a 75 (from a 70 average in the course). Real Anal should rest between about 80 and 85, thanks to a very nice midterm mark. Now all I have is Group Theory on Friday; only a handful of already-busy days to study for it though.

Last night Mat got back and he, Andrew and I watched a Firefly episode. This morning we're getting together to watch the last four. I went to bed at 2 last night (to get up for 7:30), but Ben and the bastardly Britts came in around 2:30 and were loud and drunken until about 4 AM. Man, I wish I had a smoke bomb...I'd have tossed it downstairs last night.

Well, my days are packed for the next while. I've got to contact my landlord Jay about moving in on the 30th, do some laundry, study for this last exam, pack up all my stuff and store it at Andrew's, bring my textbooks to the used bookstore, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

I went to see a movie with Sonja and her two friends, "Lucky Number Slevin". The first half of the movie was pretty good, but I found that the second part where the tied up all the losse ends was a bit contrived, like they were really grasping for straws. Not sure if it was worth ten bucks, but I got to see Sonja (though I suppose I was a bit withdrawn to her...I don't expect she noticed). She's got her last exam this morning, but I don't know if I'll get a chance to see her again. I suppose she'll be all packed up and ready to leave tomorrow, and I'm supposed to get together with friends tonight. It seems to be a very hit-and-miss relationship so far.

I have all of my meals planned out for the next few days. I'll leave the house with little more than a nearly empty box of pasta and rice (and I think one frozen perogie). The portions of everything seems to be working out very nicely.

Well, Mat and Andrew should be here soon-ish, so I'll await their arrival.

Listening to... Death By Stereo - Unstoppable
Link of the moment... Oh Borat, how I love you. Gotta get Da Ali G Show boxset.

Mulligan!

I would like a do-over for today. It's been a pretty much terrible day. I've done nothing, and it's nearly 8. I don't have plans to see anyone tonight.

Yesterday, one exam went really well (Number Theory), and the other went not nearly as well (Info Systems). I should be getting close to 95 in the first course, and maybe 80 in the second. After that I went to play Catan with Hugh, Andrew, Laura, Sonja, and Cathy. We were late getting there, but I don't think it bothered anyone but me. When we played Catan, it just felt like nothing was going right for me. I had a terrible time.

Afterwards, we played Rook, and my mood got worse as Sonja and Laura berated me for not playing "right". After that, I gave her a romantic shoulder pat (much to my chagrin), and us boys left for home. When I woke up today, I felt this odd feeling of emptiness, and I haven't been able to kick it all day. All I've done is sit at my computer and slept. Wait, I also played some Catan and Euchre online.

So I don't know what to do about my situation. I'm sorry, but I really need to be cryptic for the sake of others' privacy. In a nutshell, I have to choose between a bird in the bush now, or a bird in the bush later. None of this "in the hand" bullshit. For all I know, either one of these birds could have that damned avian flu.

Well, I'm down to three days to study for two very difficult exams. This should be interesting.

Listening to... Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl (with headphones...LOUD)
Link of the moment... If I were nerdy enough to cosplay, I'd try to make this ensemble.

Change the World

Well, thanks to the UW DC Hub (uwdc.no-ip.info for anyone using DC++), I've pushed my music folder up to 20.38 GB, 5219 items, 307 hours. Not hard when you get rates of 900 kB/sec. I'm getting some decent variety on my playlist now.

My mom sent some easter candy, and now I'm filling up on it. I don't wanna break into the bunny until these first exams are out of the way.

Ah yes, exams. I have two tomorrow, and what am I doing? Sitting on my computer. Well, I'm considering this my break. On the bright side, I dozed off at around 1 PM, so I think I'll be able to get to sleep early tonight for a good night's sleep. Writing a morning exam after not sleeping well is not a desirable experience.

It seems as though everyone is gone this weekend. Mat is heading home to Montreal for a week, John and Andrew are going to Barrie and Toronto for Easter, and Nicole is done exams. Hugh is sticking around, and Sonja will be a lot more freed up now that she's got only one exam left. I think I'll phone up Tunde as well, I haven't seen her in a while. I'm hoping the lack of people around CLV will motivate me to get started on studying for my next two exams, which will both require a lot of time and effort.

Listening to... Fugazi - Greed
Link of the moment... Marvel vs. Capcom is fun

Day of Diplomacy

Yesterday, Mat, Andrew and I played Diplomacy with some of Mat's friends. We started at 1 and we played until 10, and even then we still had to declare a truce between the five of us that were left. It was fun enough for me to not say that I wasted my Sunday, but I definitely didn't get anything prodcutive done.

We also ordered pizza, and I got some cookies from Tim Horton's. I think I definitely had too many cookies, because I felt very ill last night. I went to bed at 1 AM, but woke up at 2 and 5 sick to my stomach. Even at the moment, I'm feeling a bit woozy, so I hope I can kick whatever is floating around my system.

Every night I tell myself I'm going to get to bed early, but it never winds up happening. Last night I hung out at Mat's for banana bread, the night before, I think I was at John's...I keep finding excuses to stay out.

I think I'm in that mindset of "I'm such a terrible student" because I haven't spent nearly enough time studying for finals. It's no fun being disappointed in yourself. So long as I can pass my exams, I should be ok, but I do have a scholarship that I should be putting effort into maintaining.

Ugh...I need something to clear my head and my body. Too much bad stuff floating around in both.

Listening to... Soulfly - Soulfly IV
Link of the moment... Strawberry Pancakes..very catchy tune.

Happy anniversary!

Well, as of today, this blog has been running for two years. Good for me. I was going to waste time running stats to compare the first year to the second, but I'm afraid I do not have that kind of time to waste. Perhaps next year, eh?

Let's see what's happened in the last 12 months:

I did better in my 2B term than I thought I would, as usual. When I got home, I spent some time with Phil before he moved away to Calgary. I went back to my same job at the school board, starting much earlier than usual. I started playing poker regularly with Ryan Holm and his friends, and consistently lost money.

Right when I got home I made a few changes: I cut my hair down and have kept it short since (let's not forget the mohawk!), and I got my first pair of glasses, as well as a cell phone. The glasses were superfluous but have come in handy in some classes, and I don't know how I ever managed without a cell phone before.

My sister finally got her own place, leaving the house a bit more peaceful than usual. Work was really tough, since I had to move hundreds of really heavy iMacs up far too many stairs, but it was a decent enough workout, I suppose.

I got myself a GBA for a luxury item, and overall I'd say it was a good purchase. I got back into gaming with games like Shadow Hearts, God of War, Growlanser, Ratchet and Clank, and FFX, after disrespecting my PS2 for so long.

I arrived in Waterloo for my third year of university, and spent some time turning this room into my new home. I met some people in the first few days who are now my core group of friends, and even developed a crush on someone pretty quickly.

Classes weren't as fun as I thought. I had to wind up dropping my first undergrad course, Mathematical Optimization. It was a bit depressing, but I sort of expected it when signing up for five Math/CS courses. The four courses left were a handful, but got them out of the way.

I struck up conversation with Nathalie on a whim one day, and made a very good friend out of it. I also met Nicole, and consequently Steffi at Nicole's party, both of which made some interesting conversation pieces for some time to come.

I started going to the Euchre club on a weekly basis, and made some good friends there, as well as getting to play cards. For some reason, I got into board games like Risk 2210 and Settlers of Catan (I cannot remember how I got interested in Settlers).

I went to a few clubs and bars including the Bomber, Club Abstract, Fed Hall, the Silver Spur, The Fox and Fiddle, and the Starlight. I've learned that clubbing is not, by any means, for me.

New Years was spent with the family as usual. We had fun playing things like charades and werewolf, as well as some great food. It's less painful spending time with family when you haven't seen them in a while.

In January, I gave this blog a new design to make things seem new alongside my freshly formatted computer. The new design looks pretty good, though it is pretty generic when compared to other blogger blogs.

Andrew, Hugh, John and I signed a lease for the place we'll be staying at starting in May. I hope things go well, but at the very least, we found a place that is quite inexpensive. It will be my first summer away from home, and hence a very long stretch (20 months) living away from home.

Most of the beginning of 2006 was spent splitting my attention between Tunde and Steffi, neither of which panned out. In the back of my head, I put thought into a possible relationship with Laura during the summer. Near the end of the term, I started paying more attention to Sonja from the euchre club, who started off known merely as "Euchre Laura's replacement". Eventually, it became obvious that she was paying attention to me as well, and we started seeing each other (my first relationship in nearly 2 years, nearly since the beginning of this blog!). Unfortunately, we part ways in 2 weeks, and only time will tell what will happen after that.

So, that's most of what happened from April 2005-March 2006! Of course, there are a lot of posts in case you want to read about my life in more detail, but it's a good reminder of what I've accomplished in the last year, and how I've grown.

As for the next year, only time will tell. What will happen to my love life in the summer? Will the new house be everything I want it to be? Will Sonja and I get back together in September? How will university feel, now that I'm taking lighter terms? What will it be like, being away from home for so long? What will I do when I start to realize that my days as a student are quickly coming to a close?

These questions, and more, to be answered in the next year.

Listening to... From Autumn to Ashes - The Switch
Link of the moment... Supposedly the "cotton" anniversary

Carpe Diem, baby

April fools. I was gonna make a non-joke post that day, but blogger was acting up.

Let's see, what have I done lately? I watched a good number of movies over at Sonja's. Nothing too extraordinary to speak of. We also got together for a games night. We played two games of Catan and a game of Rook, and Andrew won all three. That kid had the winning streak of his life that night.

I've been taking a nice long vacation since Wednesday (the last day of classes). It's been quite relaxing, and I'm not looking forward to get back to studying all the course material.

I'm really at a loss for words. I have nothing interesting (and non-private) to talk about. I went shopping, but you don't care to read about that. I cleaned the house, but again, uninteresting.

Let's talk philosophy. Where does one draw the line between living for today, and looking out for the future? Is it better to give in to temporary temptations rather than avoid future repercussions? Certainly neither extreme is that desirable; I could spend everything I have today and live the rest of my days in poverty, or I could die sitting on more money than I can count.

I'm not talking just financially either. Is it better to give in to physical temptations with the first person who is willing, or do you wait for that theoretical "soul-mate"?

Discuss.

Listening to... In Flames - System
Link of the moment... Online settlers, my new addiction