I care not for this "homework" you speak of

I've been putting off these assignments for too long. I tried starting the Network Design assignment just now, and it actually cause me mental anguish to try to do any of the questions. If I don't wake up tomorrow morning with some sort of newfound enlightenment, I think I'm going to just ignore the very existence of these assignments and take a 5% and 2% hit to two of my marks. Right now, I just feel like coasting out of this university. I only need to pass these three stinking classes to graduate, and aside from getting a "conditional" acceptance to grad studies (which are still just a reason to not get to working), I don't see how getting a 90 in these classes will be any different from getting a 70. It's yet another one of those ruts that I seem to fall in to every few weeks.

I don't really understand why I'm more lazy this term than last term. Last term, I put a lot more time and effort into euchre related stuff than I do this term. Now I really only update the website when I need to, and I don't ever contribute any strategy articles anymore. I'm spending less time on my three classes this term than I spent on my four classes last term (granted, I did shit all in Linguistics). Perhaps it's just the winter weather that's weighing down on me. Walking to campus is certainly no treat anymore. Not to mention that I don't have any breaks between classes on campus, which I would put towards working on assignments. Maybe if I started eating breakfast I'd be a bit more productive for the rest of the day.

The recent games day has resparked my interest in board games. The actual event itself was pretty uninviting. I waited about two hours from the time I got there before I played any games. I suppose I got there just when people had begun a few lengthy games. What really bothered me is that no one so much as recognized my presence while I was waiting. They're not very inviting people.

I did get to play a tutored game of Puerto Rico, and I thought it was a pretty good game. It's very involved, in that every decision you make has an impact on every other player. I'm thinking of laying down a sizable wad of cash at J&J again. One could argue that I haven't gotten much use out of my four most recently purchased games. The way I figure, I'm going to wind up buying most of these games sooner or later, and J&J doesn't usually have sales (and if they do, I never hear about them), so I might as well buy them sooner than later.

Nicole is coming this weekend. I'm looking forward to the visit, because she has the wonderful property of wanting to do things that I mostly enjoy. In fact, there is not enough time to do all the things I'd like to do: play some board games, go bowling, play Mario Party, etc. It'll be a nice relaxing break, whether I actually finish either of my assignments or not.

Listening to... System of a Down - Violent Pornography
Link of the moment... I'd like to play this game sometime, but I can't justify buying a $50+ game.

Our hero returns after a short hiatus

13 days since my last post? Egads! I'd apologize, but I certainly have nothing to apologize for. I owe you all nothing, you hear me? NOTHING.

I can't say much has happened in the last two weeks, really. I went to the Silver Spur last weekend, with John's sister Maria and her boyfriend, along with John and Julie. It wasn't particularly entertaining, but nowhere near as bad as that one time I went to Scuttlebutt's (*cringe*).

Tonight I went to Polar Jam '07. There were six bands in six hours, but I wasn't really up for a six hour commitment, so I missed the first two bands (Intransit and Saigon Hookers, two bands I was particularly looking forward to). I saw The Junction (thumbs up), Brassmunk (if I had any more than two thumbs, they would all be down for this overly generic hip-hop), Idle Sons (recognized one song, most of their others were generic verse/chorus/verse/chorus/guitar solo/chorus, but overall enjoyable) and Thornley (great performance as usual, but their Come Again/Big Wreck setlist is getting a bit stale). It was an outdoor concert, so during most of the bands my toes were painfully numb. I was even wearing two pairs of socks! Not the warmest night we've had lately, most of the bands were complaining about it.

Today, I decided to try to get some sleep after getting back from classes. About half an hour into my rest, I heard a crowd of people, and assumed Hugh had some people over or something. Then I heard them come downstairs. Then I heard my door open, and saw some people poke their heads in. They seemed pretty shocked to see me, and I asked them what purpose they had in my bedroom, uninvited. It turns out that our landlord decided to give some people a tour of the house, without giving us any prior notice! I'm pretty unimpressed with him. Even if he los tour number, he should at least come to our house before he brings anyone else with him. What an ass.

My weekends seem to be chock full of things to do. Tomorrow I plan to go to campus to play some board games with Watsfic. Next weekend, Nicole is going to be in town, and I'll be going to a concert with her on Friday night. She said she might be going to a party on Saturday night, but if not, I'm sure we'll be doing something together. Maybe mario party, perhaps bowling; we'll see what the weekend has in store for me.

I'm not all that impressed with my assignments lately. I have two due next Friday, and I'm not entirely sure how much I will be able to finish by then. My big work days will be Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but I like to be essentially finished by Tuesday so that any problems I can't get past on my own can be solved on the Wednesday before the assignments are due. I took a look at Network Design, and it doesn't look too difficult. The bigger challenge will be Network Flow, since the questions deal with STUPID linear programming and matrix representations of graphs. I don't understand any of it, and I've noticed that staring at the page does not do much for me.

I finished Okami, after 34 grueling hours. I've started up a new save in my favourite game of all time, Final Fantasy Tactics. This year, it's ten years old, and still as engrossing as ever. Judging by my previously saved game of 50+ hours, it might take a while to beat this game. After playing Okami, I stand by my opinion that a short game (10-15 hours) with lots of replay value is more enjoyable than a long game (30+ hours) that relies more on its story than variety in gameplay.

Well, I should get some sleep. Our landlord is showing the house to people tomorrow at 2PM, so I should try to get up early to get a bit of cleaning done (I wouldn't want people to think I live a slovenly lifestyle!)

Listening to... Tool - The Patient
Link of the moment... Kudos to [station on channel 5 in Waterloo] for putting this on after The Simpsons at 5:30

Got wood for sheep?

Ugh. I'm feeling a bit down at the moment. Not really any particular reason, I guess. Just got the "every day is a waste of my life" doldrums. I guess I'm happy to be doing nothing instead of having too much to do, though.

I haven't done anything towards my idea of getting a bunch of clubs together for an event. I was aiming for February 3rd, but I think things would be too rushed if I tried for then. Everyone I've told says it sounds like a good idea, and I seem to have some support from other euchre people.

I've had only one assignment due so far. Network Flow has weekly assignments due on Fridays, and the other two have an assignment each due on the 24th, a Wednesday. What I'm hoping is that I can finish Okami in about a week and then just not play any video games until I'm done my assignments. That way, I won't have any distractions.

I finished season 2 of 24 the other day, and today was the premiere of season 6. There seem to be a lot of Canadian actors on the show so far. I'm excited to see Shaun Majumder on the show tomorrow night.

I made chili and it didn't turn out very good. I'm really sick of eating it, but I can't let it go to waste. So, I've got to pound down some crappy chili and rice for another few days. I treated myself to some McD's the other day, since we were out and about on the town. John, Julie and I went to Williams for a while to people watch. There wasn't really anyone interesting.

I've had a twitch in my eyelid for over a week now. It's intensely annoying and I'd like very much for it to go away. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to gouge my eye out, quite possible with a spoon.

Lately I've been sleeping for 11 hours when given the chance. Often, when I don't have school the next day, I'll go to sleep around 2AM and find myself waking up around 1PM. I don't mind sleeping in when I need to sleep, but sleeping that much on a regular basis probably isn't a good use of my time.

Nowrthern Ontario is so secluded from Southern Ontario. Once I move back home, there's not a very good chance I'll be seeing any of the people I met from University again. It's not really worth $350 in airfare or 14 hours of driving to visit friends for a few days. Looks like online communication is about as close of bonding I'll be doing with my friends. Of course, I might very well wind up getting a job in the GTA. It almost seems inevitable; there aren't many jobs that make good use of my degree that aren't in the heart of the country.

Maybe I should give Nathalie a call one of these days...there are a lot of people I should be calling: Phil, for instance. He called here the other day and said that he seems to do the same thing day in, day out, and doesn't really talk to any of his friends.

Listening to... Orgy - Fetisha
Link of the moment... I think I'll attend this event. At least it'll get me out of the house.

Fun trip to Brantford

Well, I'm back in "the 'loo". Hugh was home first on the third of January, then me, then Andrew, and finally John the next morning. Our family is once again complete. We went grocery shopping, but I forgot to look at what I had left in the cupboards and freezer. Because of that, I underbought and now I'm very low on food and I don't think anyone else wants to go shopping.

I only got to see Holly once while I was home. We went to the mall together. It was a very nice mall trip, she definitely made it fun. I got some pants and a nice zip-up spring jacket for $20 each. The pants are too long, so I'm either going to have to hem them or just let them be too long.

My classes are pretty boring so far. I few times, I've been close to nodding off during class. James, who I know from the Euchre club, is in two of my classes. The other class (Network Design) has only seven or eight students, and the prof isn't really that good of a lecturer. He goes a little too fast and writes a little too small for my liking.

The other day, I tried to beat Hugh in Smash Brothers with one hand. Specifically, my right hand. I used my thumb on the analog stick and my pinky for the buttons. Had I been able to react quickly enough to recover when off the edge, I'm certain I could have easily beaten him, but inability to recover proved fatal.

I had an idea at the euchre exec meeting. I'm not sure if it's a good idea or a bad one, but I'm going to put more consideration into it. We're trying to find new events to have for the club, and I think we're a bit wary about how Warrior Weekends are being managed. One problem I have with WW is that they tend to have a lot of events running concurrently, so people have to choose between events. What I was thinking is getting a few entertainment-based clubs (UWGamers, WATSFIC, etc) together, and having a day-long event with lots of back-to-back events. Then people can participate in as many events as they want without having to choose between them. Of course, it might be more work than it seems, getting a lot of clubs to be on the same page, and co-ordinating all the advertising efforts.

I beat the Warriors. As you might notice on the sidebar, it didn't take me very long. There are still a lot of extra backstory missions I can do, and a few more modes I can unlock, but for the moment I'm done with the game. I've moved on to Okami, which hasn't really wowed me yet. It's pretty fun, but I'm gonna say that LoZ: TP looks like a better game.

Listening to... Three Days Grace - Scared
Link of the moment... My latest wallpaper...I like this art style

A game I made up

Alirght, I'm going to give the 'rules' of a game I made up a little over a year ago. We played it last night for new year's and it seemed to go over quite well. To start, I'd like to say that I made this game before I ever heard of Apples to Apples, because they are similar in concept.

For lack of a better name, I'll call the game "Connection". It's best played with 4-7 people. To start, one person is elected the judge for that round. What they do is think of a word or a concept, and everyone else guesses what it is without anything beyond the psychic connection they have with the judge. Once everyone says what they think the judge's word is, everyone else has to justify why their word is the most closely connected to the judge's word. The judge then picks their favourite, be it due to relevance, originality, or comedy, and then the winner becomes the next judge (or, if you like, the person to the judge's left or right becomes the next judge).

This game is so simple that I needn't try to take any credit for it anyways. It's suprisingly fun if you're with the right type of people, and is a good game to play when you're either waiting for something or just can't find any game that everyone agrees on.

It's interesting to watch someone try to relate "Super Mario" with a knife (see, super Mario implies that he's already eaten one of the mega mushrooms, since he's not just regular Mario, and you usually cut mushrooms up with a knife when you eat them). It has a small bluffing element where you can make up false facts that you know (did you know the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas has bamboo furniture?), and if you can convince the judge that your reasoning is the best, then you've got a good chance at being picked.

It's also good to know something about the judge. I usually like to give more points to someone who picks something really obscure, and I like to pick obscure things myself. If you pick a person everyone knows or The Simpsons, it'll be pretty easy to relate the two. It's harder when you choose "a Machete" or "six toes".

So, if you're sitting around with nothing better to do, give it a shot and see what develops.

Link of the moment... I don't think I have enough for a patent yet...