Reading week? More like...BLEEDING week...yeah.

Well this is my reading week, but I've had a lot of work tacked on to me, so I've had to spend a good part of it working. Two loads of marking, two assignments (one in TeX), a lecture to prepare, and my usual commitment of trying to find a research topic. I think I've found out so far that research just isn't my thing.

Well, another lonesome valentine's day has passed. If I recall correctly, it was a pretty lousy day for me. I've been having more lousy days than normal lately. I just don't really look forward to anything anymore. I live every day thinking "alright, if I sludge through today, maybe things will be better tomorrow". I miss the life I was leading when I was in Waterloo. I got out of the house more often, and enjoyed spending time with all my friends there. To be honest, I don't really enjoy the time I spend with my friends here. Sure, it beats doing nothing, but it just doesn't have the same feeling as when I hung out with my old roommies.

[Edit: Alright, alright, that sounds a bit malicious. I guess what I really meant to say is that I miss hanging out with my roommies because after spending so much time with them, my personality changed, and after hanging out with them for so long, I feel like I'm not really being "myself" when I'm hanging out with my friends in Thunder Bay. Besides Adam, who I only see on the weekends, I don't really have anyone here that I feel I can just be myself around.]

Speaking of which, John was in town this previous weekend for "Family Day" (what a lame name for a holiday). I had fun hanging out with him this weekend. I played lots of games over the weekend with him and his parents, including 7 hands of euchre. To be honest though, playing euchre with his mom is like being skinned alive. She never retains any of the rules of the game. Sure, I understand if you can't remember the order of trump if you're just starting, but she's played at least a dozen games now. On Saturday night, I went to John's house along with Adam and we played "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" with John's cousin Dina. Well, apparently I am indeed smarter than a fifth grader cause I won the game. After that we played Balderdash (well, Ultimate Balderdash to be honest). It turns out that John is the best Balderdasher among us, and it was a close game for second, with Dina coming out on top in the last round, and Adam and I tying for third. Overall good times!

We had a game of Risk 2210 that spanned the last 2 games nights. I enjoyed it, but it would be much better playing with people that actually wanted to play. It felt like Chanel was just going through the motions, making truces with everyone possible. I guess it kind of worked for her, but on the last turn she could have easily taken over lots more territory, but didn't. I think she's too impatient for a game as long as Risk 2210. By the end of the game, I was left with 3 territories and no chance to win, but for some reason, Sheena saw it fit to try to obliterate me (even though doing so would give her no real benefit). Luckily I got some good dice rolls to secure my 9 point last place (the next lowest was around 20 I think).

In an effort to try to veer my life off its current path, I've asked someone out on a movie date. You can argue all you want that asking via email is a coward's way out, but I think it's better than phoning someone up and putting them on the spot, as well as not putting me at risk of saying something stupid. If this was someone I see in person regularly, I'd ask face-to-face, but I don't have that luxury.

Listening to... Matchbook Romance - The Greatest Fall
Link of the moment... Funny little video

Update #1 - Birthday Hijinx

Well I guess I have a moment to recap some stuff.

Wednesday (my birthday) wasn't a particularly good day. Classes crawled along as usual, a handful of people sent me some e-cards, and we got to go out for Chinese food (which was probably the highlight...it was really good). I was feeling really tired all day. Just before bed I figured I'd have a game of chess with Hugh (who learned how to play only last week), and he beat me. I could have easily checkmated him too, but I didn't see the move until Andrew pointed it out after the game.

On Friday night, I went bowling with Nathalie, Steve, Laura, the roommies, Nicole, and Nicole's friend Sofia. I didn't do as well as I usually do in the first game. I have the uncanny ability to place the ball about a half an inch to the right of the head pin every time. Half an inch cost me about 6 or 7 strikes, I'm sure. John got the high score of something like 190 after getting five strikes in one game. Hugh got a turkey, but since we were paying by the hour, he didn't get to finish that game.

Afterwards, we headed back to my place and we waited around for the second car to get back. When they did, they waited around upstairs doing god knows what to my cake, and waiting for Julie and her friend Agnes to come. When they finally did (after me trying to keep Nathalie, Steve and Laura entertained), I blew out the 22 candles on my cake and we all had a slice with some ice cream.

We followed that up by playing an 11-player game of Cranium. We couldn't fit nearly that many people in the now-furnished living room, so we played in John's relatively massive room (which also worked out since we were in need of some A/C). My team fell behind early, but caught up late. We weren't in the dash for first place, but I blame that on being on the team of three. We did pretty well for ourselves though.

After that, it was past midnight, so I dropped off the UWP people and came back for a game of Mario Party 4 (notice, not MP6) with Nicole, John, and Hugh. That kept us up until 3, which was likely not in our best interests since we were going to Niagara Falls the next morning.

Overall, I give this birthday 8/10. The 24th wasn't a great occasion, but the fact that we got 11 people together for games at my place more than compensates for it. Plus, I can consider Niagara Falls a little birthday trip.

Listening to... Snapcase - Gates of Steel
Link of the moment... This looks like fun, I'll have to keep an eye out for it