Let's see a BIG turnout next Thursday!

Games night has been rescheduled from Tuesday nights to Thursday nights starting next week (due to Tuesday being cheap night at the local movie theater). Last Tuesday wasn't much of a games night anyways. Chris brought Mario Party 8 as he had just rented it, so a four player game of MP8 ensued (unfortunately leaving multiple people to sit and watch, something I hate doing). After that was over, Dan broke out Singstar for PS2, much to Grant's zeal. The rest of the night was nothing but loud karaoke in my basement (though I did manage to fit in a game of Hive with Adam (I finally won!) and an unfinished game of Balderdash that was quite hard to converse over).

This was quite a shame, since I really had a hankering to play Vegas Showdown which I picked up (along with Nexus Ops) at the border earlier that day. I tried to get a game tonight with the neighbours, but once again my plans fell through as they had unexpected visitors. I swear, I shouldn't even attempt to plan anything anymore, since the universe likes to spite my plans.

My mom's Mac came in the other day (did I mention she got a Mac? Cause she did). I'm in the process of migrating her files to it and organizing them in some fashion (14GB to sort through!). I already threw boot camp on it and installed XP on a partition (for all those files that I unfortunately cannot transfer over to a comparable Mac program). It's really not fun to try to sort through other peoples' messes, so I might just tell my mom to sort it out on her own time.

Super Mario Sunshine is shit. I don't like it, but dammit I'm going to beat it. I have a bad habit of being unable to control Mario while jumping, which leads to MANY frustrating attempts at the same parts of levels. Sometimes he'll want to do a wall jump when I don't want him to, or he won't when I do. Sometimes if I want to turn around and do a small hop, he'll do a crazy backflip into the endless abyss. I've never wanted to bring pain upon Mario as much as I do now.

Well, Traveler is over. Only 8 episodes long. It's a pretty good show, and it's a shame that it's not going to be renewed for a second season (especially since there are DOZENS of loose ends that I won't get to see resolved now). Chanel and I have decided that we're going to start watching Prison Break season 1 (my mom has the boxset) on Wednesday nights since Traveler is over.

Listening to... Opeth - Deliverance
Link of the moment... Quite humourous. Watch it.

Did I just say "ego-testicle?"

Beware the pronunciation of the word egotistical.

Well, my two pre-reading-week midterms are over and done with. I expect between 50-65 on Network Design (hey, a pass is a win in my books!), and perhaps between 75-85 on my network flows midterm. Another day of studying probably would have gone a long way towards the latter test, but what's another ten percent on my midterm going to get me in life? Nowhere, I'm sure.

I've only got a few hours of class tomorrow before I can truly start my week off. I think I'm already starting to go crazy from hanging around the house too much, so we'll see how long it takes before I snap.

It turns out that Katie (from the euchre club) lives a stone's throw away from my house. She walked home with Andrew and I last Tuesday. Last night, she was talking to Andrew on MSN, insisting that we play euchre with her and her friend. Long story short, we played euchre and crokinole until about 1:30. It was good times, but I was really dead tired before they even showed up, so I may have been a bit crankier than usual. The both of them convinced me to play Mario Party and Scene It in the near future with them. I'm pretty excited that I've got a friend that lives close by. We rarely have people over, and last night was a lot of fun!

Sometime this weekend, I've got to get my car to Canadian Tire to get the battery charged or replaced. I think I'll call CAA, get them to give me a boost to get my car started in the parking lot, drive to Canadian Tire, and then leave it running while I go in to get serviced. It'll take a few hours out of my day, but I'll have the time for it, and it'll be well worth it to have the car for the rest of the week.

Well, I've still got class tomorrow, and I'm pretty bushed, so I think I'm gonna get some sleep. Until later, diary!

Listening to... Billy Talent - Fallen Leaves
Link of the moment... Happy Valentine's day! Maybe next year I'll have someone with which to celebrate it.

Don't let the euchre club die!

Well, it seems like none of the current euchre exec want to come back for another year. I'll be graduated, and the other three have just been doing it too long and want to move on. I hope we get a good set of people who want to be exec for next year; it would be a shame if a club that I care about so much was to die out so quickly after it was started.

Speaking of euchre, I had a really good night yesterday. I had seven wins and one loss, and it shot me into second place in the rankings! I also enjoyed the company of everyone else I played with, of course, but it's nice to have a solid set of wins for a change. Let's see how long it lasts...

I had a pretty good weekend, overall. I was feeling pretty nauseous for most of it, unfortunately. I got some Mario Party and Ticket To Ride out of my system. We went out for dinner on Saturday night, and man it was freezing. A blizzard started up just as we were leaving for dinner. What's worse is that we had to keep going out into it becuase we couldn't find anyplace with a short enough wait time. We eventually settled on Kelsey's, and waited the 50 minutes.

Earlier that day, my car wouldn't start in the Sobey's parking lot. I had to call CAA, and wait for a towtruck. He gave me a jump, as the battery was lacking sufficient juice. I'm a little wary to use my car now, at least until the weather starts to get a little less harsh. Unfortunately, I seem to keep finding uses for my car; Quinn wants me to get pop for the next euchre meeting again. I'll probably use it while John is in Las Vegas, since our parking spot will be otherwise empty.

It looks like it might be another lonesome Valentine's day. I have a date with a midterm that night, so even if I did want to ask some girl out (say, someone in the euchre club), I wouldn't be able to go out that night.

At least it looks like I'll be able to kick back for the reading week. Like I said, John will be going to Las Vegas, and Andrew might be going on a ski trip. Hugh said he'll probably go home for a few days, so I might find myself home alone to catch up on some gaming. I might be able to find a person or two in the K-W area who might want to catch a movie, who knows.

My Network Designs course is not getting any easier. I haven't been able to follow along with the lecutres; the material is really over my head at the moment. I've got an assignment due Monday, which means I have to ask questions on Friday, which means I have to work on the assignment tomorrow. Of course, working on the assignment is pretty well dependent on my understanding the course, so in a perfect world, I'll learn most of the course tomorrow afternoon, at least to the point where I can understand the assignment. Then, I'll have to learn the rest for the midterm next Wednesday. Luckily, I'm done my two assignments that are due Friday, so I only have the one thing to worry about.

I bought Through the Desert this previous weekend, and had a game with Andrew and John. It was pretty good. As usual, there's not a very explicit sense of interaction with other players, but you do have to consider what other players will do on their turns. Andrew won and I came in a pretty distant second. This Saturday, there will be another games day, so I think I'll get out to it again (but this time I'll bring something with me in case I find myself waiting on games to finish again).

I'm not fond of my sleeping habits lately. I honestly find myself sleeping for eleven hours when given the opportunity. I suspect that it is due to my lack of physical activity (aparently walking an hour to and from class doesn't cut it), but I am unwilling to do anything about it. To actually get out and do some exercise would take at least a two hour commitment, and then I'd be using two hours a day to cut back on an hour of unnecessary sleep.

Speaking of, I think I'll get some sleep now. My mind and body need to be well rested to bend some approximation algorithms to do my bidding.

Listening to... The Distillers - For Tonight You're Only Here to Know
Link of the moment... I think I'll order this game this weekend, to save the use of my car

Last day of classes

Well in a few hours I'll be done lectures for the term. Just one more class left. I finished the last assignment for the term last night. Then, I think I'll be having lunch in the plaza with the usuals.

The case study project is done. The presentation went pretty well, minus a few small details (such as going over time). I don't know what sort of mark I'll get, but I'd think it'll hover around 80.

To celebrate the end of that terrible thing, I bought myself a new game from J&J: Apples to Apples. If I had to compare it to something, it would be Balderdash. It's a pretty good game, and more importantly, my roommates seem to like it. I'd say it plays best with about 5-6 people. Not a bad buy for $25, but I don't know how much use it will get.

John and I played a total of 45 turns of Mario Party 5 yesterday...I think we may have issues. It was fun times though. I'll probably play even more if Nicole comes over tonight. She doesn't come around much anymore, since she works in Brantford now.

Hm, not much else to say...I think I want to get in a post some day soon about the use of television as a medium for TV shows, movies, and video games, but I don't have the time right now. Tune in next time so you can destroy my poorly formulated argument

Listening to... the Black Mages - Battle Scene 2 (FF2)
Link of the moment...

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

Mario Party 6 must go

Andrew's home for the weekend, and Hugh, John, and Nicole went to some bar last night with John's sister and her friends. I took a stand and stayed home to get some work done (in lieu of being able to get a hold of Laura). I did some marking (which I actually find enjoyable), and got to bed at 1:30. They came back at 2 AM, and started playing Mario Party with what I am certain were not their late night inside voices. For lack of being able to sleep through it, and not being one for asking anything for myself, I went upstairs and watched them play it out until 3:30. So much for getting up early today to get some work done.

I feel like I have an awful lot of work considering I only have three classes, but I guess it's mostly just this one assignment for ENGL 119 due Wednesday worth 10% of my final mark. I can't believe they'd only give a week's notice for such an assignment.

I think I may have changed my mind from a Zen Vision:M to a Zen MicroPhoto. The differences include ~$100, 22GB, and the ability to play video. With 8GB I could store 1/3 of my music collection, which is likely all I'd really need. I doubt I'd watch much video on the go, but I suppose $100 is a small price to pay for staying on the cutting edge of technology. It all depends on if my parents are willing to shell out a nice gift for me. Hell, if it weren't near my birthday, I'd buy one myself (to hopefully make me seem like less of a spoiled white boy).

We're still waiting on furniture, but Andrew says his dad can drive down next weekend with a van, so hopefully that pans out. Until then, we continue to use cushions on the floor (generously donated by Julie).

I've been waking up at 11:30 consistently these days. I'm going to start setting my alarm for 8:30 every day, but of course I couldn't get up today since I was up late last night. Hopefully that will benefit my sleep schedule after a week or so. I seem to keep falling asleep in the evening.

So I guess the big news in my life these days is that I got a shoe rack. Yup, big news. No longer is our closet plagued with unorganized shoes.

Listening to... Winamp Radio
Link of the moment... $20 is a small price to pay for long term protection

From 249 Cedarbrae

It's been a long time since the last post, and so there's a lot to talk about. However, since there's so much new stuff that has happened, it's too daunting to talk about any of it.

I'm in the new house now with John, Andrew, and Hugh. I think we're mostly settled in now. We each have a bed (I bought a futon), I've got enough furniture to store all my crap, and now all we need is to find a way to get some furniture from Guelph to Waterloo in a relatively inexpensive manner (we can rent a UHaul for the day, but that would cost near $80). For the time being, we're playing games and watching TV on the floor.

We found a tv near the dumpster by our house, and it works well enough for us to use. It's about 27", and is fine aside from the fact that bright colours bleed a bit, and we have to use the RCA input rather than regular coaxial.

I've been spending a lot of money lately as well. I bought Mario Party 6 and WarioWare Inc for Gamecube from Blockbuster, as well as a third controller ($60+tx). I bought the PS2 Slimline kit that allows you to mod new PS2s to play burned games ($40). Soon I'll be spending another chunk of money for the new PS2 itself (~$130+tx). I also bought some nice headphones with a boom mic for my computer (for it for $50CAD on ebay, retails for $100USD!). I went to the UW bike auction which was a bust, but got a nearly-working bike at a garage sale ($50). All that crap, along with furnishings for the house and groceries make for a hefty Visa bill.

I also plan on getting myself a Creative Zen Vision:M for my birthday. (If anyone spots a good price for a new PS2 (less than $130) or a new Creative Zen Vision:M (less than $380) at any retailers, let me know will ya?)

Turns out Andrew is the marker for CS 234. Nifty, eh? I don't expect he'll need to mark me any nigher than needed, since it looks like the course will be easy (and I can always legitimately ask for his help before handing the assignment in). CS 338 looks boring as hell, and ENGL 119 looks like it'll be more or less easy, but stressful with all the group work and projects. It should be a good learning experience though, since I'm not well versed on technical writing, and my oral presentation could use some exercise as well.

So far I'm enjoying being completely bored all the time. I have enough stuff to keep me busy at the moment. I hope once things with the new house settle down a bit, I'll be bored enough to beat a few games. We've mostly been playing Mario Party since I got it.

Well, that's all I care to talk about for the moment. I seem to be spending much less time at my computer, since there's usually somene else dicking around the house that I can hang out with. We've had some good conversations around the dinner table.

Listening to... Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (Have you heard of this song, Nathalie? I put it on just for you!)
Link of the moment... You *should* have heard of them!