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.

"They taste like burning..."

Weirdest thing happened last night...I was playing Super Mario Strikers with the roommates (which seems to be a nightly event these days...Andrew and I ALWAYS manage to beat John and Hugh by one or two points), and I suddenly got a slight stinging pain in my stomach. Over the course of a minute, the pain grew ever more painful until I thought I was going to explode. I had to call a timeout midway through the game and take a breather. It went away through some processes that shouldn't be discussed in public, but the rest of the night I was still a bit woozy (luckily this was before bedtime so it didn't cause me any downtime). Today I feel better but my legs are oddly sore. I suppose it doesn't sound like that odd a story to you, but I've never really had that sort of pain come from out of nowhere and build up so strongly over the course of a minute. I hope it doesn't come back anytime soon...

After class on Thursday, I told Nathalie that I would have one of two weekends. Either I would find some motivation after taking the week easy and study for my midterm and get lots of progress on my CO485 assignment, or I would do absolutely no work over the weekend. Unfortunately, this last weekend fell under the second category. I'm just coming off about 84 hours (three and a half days for anyone who doesn't feel like dividing by 24) of doing no work. Normally I have class Monday, but yesterday was just midterm review, so I decided I wasn't about to wake up at 8:30 for that. I wasted all that time, but I'm not too disappointed about it. I mean, what's going to come of it? I really don't think I could fail any of my courses unless I really let myself go. If the graph theory midterm is half as easy as I hope it will be, I should be able to do it all on the spot without studying (unless we are asked to recite a proof or definition, but it's only 45 minutes long so I doubt it).

I'm in a different lab today, the MFCF Unix lab on the third floor. It's much emptier in here than the 2nd floor, but they have the air conditioner going all the time and it's effing freezing in here. I'll head back to old faithful next week, I think.

Well, I 'beat' Mario vs Donkey Kong 2 yesterday (that is, I beat the last boss but there are extra levels I could do), and I doubt I'll play it again, so I'm going to trade it in to EBGames for $17US (or at least that's what they say they'll give me on the american website), and get a new game. I realize there's really not much of a used game market for DS games yet, but I only need enough games to play until Xmas, then I'll get hooked up from mom. Oh yeah, I exchanged my DS for one with no dead pixels (that I have noticed yet).

I don't know what's going on for Halloween. I still have to get a hat for my costume, and I've got less than a week to do it. That is, if we're even going out for Halloween this weekend. We really can't find any good places to go. The university only has something going on on the Tuesday. Rev is 21+, excluding Hugh, and the only other two places I've found events for are Abstract and Elements, neither of which exhibit genres that everyone else is very fond of (alternative and electronica, respectively). I'm not too thrilled about going clubbing myself, but I like getting dressed up for Halloween. Well, at least I'll have the euchre club tournament to dress up for...

This crypto assignment is just making me feel stupid. It's way too difficult. The difficulty of this course is one of the reasons that I feel like grad studies aren't in my future. I'll be meeting up with Nathalie today, and we'll probably talk about the assignment, but the poor girl can't work miracles. I think I'll just put another hour or two into working on this assignment and then submit what I have for whatever pity marks the prof wants to give me.

I'm really tired right now...but I know I'll never find a couch in the SLC to sleep on. That was one nice thing about the summer term: you could always find a couch to sleep on in the SLC. Now I've got to bring myself low enough to sleep in the Math Comfy Lounge. I've heard stories of the couches in that room.

Hence ends another summary of Kevin's life, one week at a time.

Listening to... FBLA II - Helmet
Link of the moment... Honestly? I didn't like it. Shame, Brett Ratner...

$220 later...

Given that I'll be getting $500 from marking, and I have renewed my $1000 scholarship for yet another year, I felt as though I deserved to treat myself to something, as money was burning a hole in my pocket. I forget where I got the idea from, but recently found myself with an urge to get a Nintendo DS. So I did.

The service at FutureShop was terrible as usual, but they had a deal where I could get a game for $10 with the system. I wound up going with Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, which is a pretty decent game, but I'll need to invest in some more titles sometime soon. I started playing and noticed a dead (blue) pixel on the right side of the top screen. I threw out some of the packaging, but I'm hoping if I bring the DS along with the box with the same serial #, I can exchange it at FShop. It's not a terrible error, but if I'm going to pay $160 for something, I might as well get something without any flaws.

Along with my new system purchase, I got Super Mario Strikers for GC, because it underwent a recent price drop. It's a pretty decent multiplayer game, but single player doesn't have that same feeling. As far as a mario game goes, I feel it's sort of lacking. More play modes and minigames would have been nice as well as unique fields to play on and unlockable content (new captains and sidekicks perhaps?). Now I bide my time until Mario Power Tennis gets its price chopped...

Well I guess I'm sort of caught up now. I've got a few assignment deadlines coming up, but I have enough time to relax for a while. I got my ENGL midterm back: I scored an 84.5%. I guess that's ok, but it's below my peronal goal of 87%. Next is CO342...I think I have a good feeling about that midterm. I understand Graph Theory pretty well, and now we're getting into Vector Spaces, which I've already (more or less) covered in Rings and Group Theory. I only got 33/40 on the last assigment, so I've got to make sure I don't make any errors on this next one.

The other day, John Julie and I wanted to play kickball. We went to the school nearest my house, and sure enough, the very first kick of the game resulted in Julie kicking the ball onto the roof of the school. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon getting a ladder from Julie's house and getting the ball. It was an adventure to say the least. After that, the three of us went to Red Lobster to celebrate getting the ball. Well, in reality, we all just wanted to go to Red Lobster.

I updated the euchre website! Now we have the house rules listed, the current scores for the members, and some of my personal tips on the strategy page. Quinn and I had a dispute over the colour scheme of the site. We decided Molly's vote should be the deciding vote, and unfortunately she went with him on it. I still completey stand by my argument, but I'm willing to concede the point since we agreed Molly would have the final say. I should start my own Euchre Club, one that's not color-blind...

It's been almost two weeks since I played euchre. I'm dying to take some tricks! Now that midterms are starting, I wonder if our member turnout is going to be lower than usual. Well, so long as we have enough for at least one table, I guess it doesn't really matter.

I think my DS purchase is going to push back my Wii purchase...I'm not sure if I can justify buying so many systems in such a short period of time. The way I figure, I'll be getting a Wii for Christmas; it's just a matter of who is paying for it.

Well, I think I've run out of things to say. I'll head over to RCH and play my DS until Nathalie shows up.

Listening to... AFI - File 13
Link of the moment... Any thoughts on what I should buy next?

Oh Phil, come back again!

Ah, good old Phil. It was more than a pleasure to hang out with him again. There was a point where we were laughing so hard I thought I was going to vomit. That's how I'll always remember Phil.

I have an urge to have another LAN party. I can't remember what the largest number of computers I've had in my basement was...not nearly 8, but perhaps 5 or 6. I hope to do it again next summer. I'd like to give Battlefield 1942 a try. The ever-changing control-point mode seems a lot better than multiple, short rounds as in Counter-Strike. On top of that, you can set an entire team of bots in 1942 to make it a co-op affair with large teams, whereas in CS, the best you can hope for is a 2v2 battle. One of these days, I'd like too see a 7-8 player match of Starcraft. I have a feeling there might be some bitter feelings on alliance betrayals, though. Oh! And I'd have some Super Smash Brothers going on the Wii on the bigscreen, too! Ah, what dreams I have.

Well, that speed dating hookup is definitely not happening. I still haven't received a reply, so I don't expect to get one anytime soon. In my mind, the Warrior Weekends staff was unable to read her email address and screwed it up, and she's thinking about me all the time, but I just tell myself that to keep my self-image up.

I signed up for Lavalife while I was at home, and sent a smile to someone today. I read a good quote that makes me feel a little less like a loser resorting to online dating: "Twenty years from now, the idea that someone looking for love without looking for it online will be silly, akin to skipping the card catalog to instead wander the stacks because 'the right books are found only by accident.' " (courtesy Wired magazine, 2002). Unfortunately, my actions are limited unless I feel like paying for services (not bloody likely).

The roommies are out at Oktoberfest right now. They'll get back in about an hour, then we party down and annoy the neighbours. Until then, I bide my time. I've done my marking, so I'm giving myself a little break with my blog. I plan to finish Physics tomorrow, and then perhaps graph theory and/or relaxing on Sunday. On Monday, I've got to update the euchre stats and website, but that shouldn't take very long.

I went to Nathalie and Steve's apartment the other day for lunch, before classes to get some notes. Man, her place is pimped out! They've got all new furniture, and the layout is nothing short of superb. Now I can't wait to get my own apartment! Of course, to do that I'll have to find a good job, so I guess I'll have to do this one step at a time.

I'm still very much up in the air about grad studies. For my own good, I think I'll make a little Pro/Con list right now.
Pros:
-Another year to 'relax' before finding real work
-Masters degree will get me a higher paying job (or so I'm expecting)
-Masters makes me look really smart, garners pride from parents
-Increases sense of self-satisfaction

Cons:
-Most friends will no longer be in Waterloo
-Must live in student housing one more year
-Difficult work, courses, and thesis
-Increases chances of going on random killing spree due to stress

Neither of these options really has an outstanding argument. I'm just not sure what I want to do yet. There are some aspects of studying mathematics that I enjoy, and some that I do not.

Listening to... Static-X - I'm With Stupid
Link of the moment... Soon to be regularly updated by me. I'll even throw in some strategy articles, if I have the time.

Aparently I'm too ugly for the other three

I've been working myself silly lately, but I'm not entirely sure I've really made as much progress as I should have. I did my marking all in the first two days, and did my physics assignment in the course of about a day, but CO485 is killing me. I'm not sure when the last time was that I spent so much time on an assignment. I have a feeling I'll be handing it in with some questions left unanswered. I'm hoping to confer with Nathalie today, but I'm not sure if she's looked at the entire assignment. It looks like the tables might be turned for a change, where I'm the one who has it done way ahead of time.

Clubs days went well. Waking up early enough to be on campus at 8:30 was no fun, but it's not as though I was put under any strenuous work. We got at least 70 new people sign up, and it's very likely that another 20 came after I left on Friday before lunch. Of those, I'm not sure how many will actually show up to meetings, but it looks like we should have a turnout at least as large as other terms.

I think the weekend is where all my juicy info comes from. On Saturday, I went to the Watsfic games day, at abuot 4-5PM. There were a fair number of people already playing game. I wouldn't say that I got an overly warm welcome, but I made myself visible enough to warrant being invited to play a game (Princes of Florence). None of us knew how to play, save one or two of the five players, so I didn't feel like I was slowing things down too much. I came in dead last, by a fair margin, but I enjoyed learning the game.

During the game, Nicole phoned because she was in town. I told her I could meet up with her in the plaza for supper at about 8, and we did. At 9PM, I headed over to the speed dating event and signed up. They told me I'd be in the "second round", so I played some DDR for a while with Nicole and Carissa. After working up a sweat, I headed back to wait for the call. Eventually, they herded us in, ten guys and ten girls. Each 'date' lasted only three minutes, and I found it difficult to get a good impression from each girl. After all was said and done, I gave a "yes" to four of the girls, and eagerly awaited a reply from the Warrior Weekends staff. After that, John and Julie appeared as if from nowhere, and they said they phoned Nicole as they were on their way back from bowling. We headed home (I opted out of Superman Returns), and started watching LotR: tTT on CBC. Not much else to say about that.

Yesterday, I got a reply from WW, saying that I got one match, so now I've got the email of a girl who supposedly would like to get to know me a little better. Unfortunately, I'm pretty well busy until next weekend, what with thanksgiving leaving me little time to get any assignments or midterm studying done.

There's a new show in my Monday line-up: Heroes. I caught the first episode, and found myself a little intrigued. To be honest, I found the first episode pretty dull, but I'm curious to see where the series is headed. The second episode did a bit more to catch my curiosity, and I figure since it's on right after Prison Break, I might as well give it a go. I've realized that Monday is my TV night, as there's not really much else on any other night. Sure, I'll watch CSI if I'm home on Thursdays, but it's not enough to say "no, I don't want to miss CSI" if someone has a better idea. Family Guy on Sunday is the highlight of my week as well, but half an hour isn't much of a line-up.

I started fiddling a bit with my euchre system. I've got two spreadsheets filled with paid members and game scores, as well as a score sheet to bring to meetings. I've yet to set up the database aspect of it yet, but I don't think there's any need to have stats after only one meeting.

I think I had the epiphany the other day that I enjoy graph theory the most out of all the CO disciplines. I enjoy doing math-like proofs, and graph theory is chock-full of that stuff. I'm disappointed that I'm unable to take CO442, as it's only offered in the fall term, and I'm currently doing my last fall term of my undergraduate degree. I'm still debating donig grad studies. Unfortunately, I'd be forced to take some courses I'd rather not (optimization courses, etc). Isn't that kind of funny to think about? Not only am I interested in Math, and not only am I interested in Combinatorics and Optimizatin, but I'm interested in Graph Theory. I'm sure that most people in the world didn't know that math could be broken down into so many disciplines.

Tomorrow there is a lunch for students and staff in CO, giving the students a chance to meet some of the profs. I'm going, mostly for the fact that it's a free lunch. I also realize, though, that if I apply for grad studies, I'll need three reference letters. I think my best bet is going to be with Willard and Tasic, since I've had two classes with them each, and I did very well in all four of those courses. For the last one, I'll probably choose either Richter or Menezes, since they're teaching me this term. Whatever...I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Well, I've spent entirely too much time NOT working on my CO485 assignment, so I'm gonig to head over to RCH and work on that until the class starts.

I don't know when I'll update next, since I'll be in Tbay next Tuesday, but it shan't be very long.

Listening to... Refuse Resist - Sepultura
Link of the moment... I signed up for this stupid shit by request, but I'll NOT be one of the 60% that log in daily, nor of the 85% that log in weekly.

You know who I miss? Serial Joe.

Time for my regularly scheduled Tuesday afternoon post. Today has been a pretty filled day for me. I woke up earlier to get to campus at 10:30 so I could pick up some supplies for the euchre meeting tonight (none of the other execs could be there early enough to set up). When I picked up "the goods", I fired up a physics lecture I put on my Zen so I could try to get back on schedule with the lectures. Then Linguistics, as usual, followed by lunch, and then another t-e-r-r-i-b-l-y p-a-c-e-d physics lecture, and a Nathalie-filled Cryptography. And now here I am, preaching to my wonderful audience of (what I expect to be) three.

I'm a little disappointed at the moment...it turns out that euchre night and mathsoc games night is the same night, during the same timeslot. I suppose my existence as an exec of the euchre club obligates me to favour the prior, but perhaps in the future I could play games at 6, and when that game ends, clock in my time at the euchre club. If the gods are smiling on me, mathsoc will change the games night schedule.

I've been doing a pretty good job of staying on top of work (or so I think). Every day I have about an hour and a half to work on campus, away from the syren's call of my computer. So long as I keep throwing physics lectures onto my zen, I should never be at a loss for work, and the time I spend on the work on campus turns out to be pretty productive.

I baked up a storm last night. Well, just muffins and cinnamon rolls, but that's two more things than I usually cook on a given night. The rolls were on sale; 8 small ones for $2.50. They're really tasty, but any less than two makes for nothing more than a taste.

For all of you who are wondering what I did after beating Paper Mario (ie no one), I chose to start up a game in Dragon Quest VIII. It's got really nice graphics and music over my other main choice, Shadow Hearts Covenant (which I am also looking forward to playing through).

This last Friday, I was pretty well bored to tears. I was home alone for a while, and for some reason was not in the mood for sitting in front of the TV (be it TV, games, or a movie), so I just sort of sulked around the house for a while. On Saturday night, I visited the Medieval Faire in Waterloo Park. I got to see a few choreographed and even unchoreographed displays of weaponry and armor, among other events set up mostly for kids. I didn't really walk away with anything besides the program, but it was time well spent in Waterloo,, seeing something that I wouldn't be able to see in Thunder Bay. I'm glad I got to do some things like that in the summer.

Later on in the night, some of us hopped in John's car and drove to Brantford so Nicole would stop asking us to. We went bowling (where I got the high score and an impressive shot), and then to Boston Pizza where I got a piece of cake (hey! I already ate supper....I'm not a pig, really). After that we drove around looking for a bar, and found one. As usual, I sat around wondering exactly what the draw to such places was. The majority of us sat around at a table, complaining about the music, paying for overpriced beer, while some others got up and danced (besides picking up questionable people, dancing is the only other reason I can imagine people would want to go to these places). I can't say I had a good time, but I had a time nonetheless.

Phil (from Calgary) phoned me the other day. We had a nice chat about video games (he being one of a very few people who I can have such talks with). Aparently he's making some very nice green at his new job, because he was telling me how he was going to play a game on his 62" TV. He says he got some nice furniture, a fully paid pre-order on a PS3, and even a new truck, so it sounds like he's definitely doing well for himself. I can't imagine he'd have half of what he has if he'd stayed in Thunder Bay (though he doesn't have me, and I'm worth more than any amount of money).

There's a Warrior Weekend this weekend, so I guess I'll be going to it alone once again. They're showing three movies I haven't yet seen (Click, Pirates 2, and Superman Returns), and on the Saturday, they're having a speed dating event. I am both looking forward to and dreading the speed dating. I would really feel more comfortable if I could find someone else to bring with me, but I don't really know anyone who would be willing.

This Thursday and Friday is clubs days, so I expect that I'll be sitting at the euchre booth. Mr. President hasn't delegated any hours yet, but I've volunteered myself for all of Friday, and aparently the parts of Thursday where he has classes, so I will probably be doing a fair bit of sitting.

I've been typing pretty furiously, and I have really tapped my brain on non-video game related matters to dicuss, so I think I'll go find something else to do before grabbing some supper from Brubakers.

Listening to... Nothing...
Link of the moment... WW schedule

Another update from MC20XX

Tuesdays are looking like a good day to update the blog from this MC lab. Normally, I'd be sitting in the SLC Great Hall doing homework, or sleeping, or playing GBA during this hour and a half, but it's way too packed to find a chair. I miss the Summer term in that respect; the extra crowd on campus doesn't do much for me (although it does mean more events during the term which is a good thing).

This morning I scanned my physics assignment, and when I get home I'll put it all into one PDF and submit it electronically, but I'm not too sure how convenient that method is. I don't have much of a choice though, it's probably the most convenient option I have, unless I start getting assignments done ahead of time.

I'm getting towards the end of Paper Mario:tTYD, and I've started playing X-Men Legends with Andrew. Unfortunately, he doesn't play games nearly as often as I do, so any progress we're making in that game is minimal. I could play it single player, but the real joy of that game is playing it with friends.

I acted as a good roommate would this morning: I took out the recycling (which had been put off for far too long lately), and I did most of the dishes that were in the sink. It's like the work never ends.

It looks like Nathalie might be switching classes and taking Crypto with me. It looks like I have a reason to show up to class! Classes aren't nearly as good when you don't have anyone to ask for help when you get stuck with something.

Nicole came to visit last Friday. Good to see her. We went out to a pub and a bar, both of which I didn't find particularly fun. I just don't see what we did there that we couldn't do at home, aside from order an expensive plate of nachos and listen to some bad country music.

Time again for some useless banter about video games about which no one but me really cares. The Nintendo Wii has been given a release date (November 19th) and a price ($249US). On top of that, extra controllers will cost $40 plus $20 for a nunchuk attachment. Games will be $50 each, and only a handful will be ready at launch (I plan to buy Rayman and ExciteTruck, though we'll see what happens when the day comes). That's all, I'll stop boring you.

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to excite you with. I've got one hour left in 24, bought some gingerbread cookies, and am getting my bike fixed tomorrow. That's about it.

Listening to... (High) Visibility - Helmet
Link of the moment... I think I might want to watch the six Star Wars movies again. Is that nerdy of me?

Let's try that again

So here's my first interesting story: last weekend (namely Sunday), we realized there was no hot water in the house. We put up with it for the day since we couldn't call anyone about it. The next day, I phoned a few places that were no help to me. I left a message with my landlord, who I STILL have not heard back from. I decided to try anything I could do by myself; namely check the fuses. We have an old style fuse box, so without a voltmeter I can't actually check the fuses myself. I popped out the fuses for the hot water heater and brought them to Canadian Tire. They were different amperages, which was odd, and the 30A fuse was blown instead of the 15A, even more odd. Anyways, I bought a new 30A fuse and popped them back in when I got home, and that seemed to do the trick. Later that day I had a shower of both cleansing and victory.

Sometimes I feel a little unappreciated around here. No one will ever do anything with me. All I want to do is play a game of cards instead of watching stupid TV, but no one around here will co-operate. Andrew would play but he's always too damned busy.

The other night I fell into a state of borderline depression. I got back my process paper from ENGL 119 and got a 60% on it. I'll admit I didn't put too much effort into it, but I feel I deserve way more than a lousy 60%. Between 8 and midnight, I waited. I waited for one of my roommates to acknowledge my existence. I played solitaire for a while, slept on my desk for a while, sulked for a while, and the whole while, no one came. I make a habit of it to wander the house every now and then and asking people how their days have been going.

I think I'm going to stop giving them so much credit. No more free dinners, no more "I'm going to Sobeys, do you want anything", no more "sure I'll do whatever you want to do". More than anything I'm sick and tired of getting my hopes up, thinking that maybe something will actually turn my way one of these days. I think maybe it's about time I start looking for someone who can sympathize with me. Sometimes I feel like I just don't belong in this world. People will listen to me blather on, but they certainly don't enjoy it. I think my only real saviour is Nathalie, god bless her. She will always lend a compassionate ear, and I think she really understands me.

Well it looks like my schedule is picked out for next term for the most part. As expected, I'll be taking
CO 342 (Graph Theory),
CO 485 (Public Key Cryptography),
ENGL 306A (Intro to Linguistics), and
PHYS 121 (Mechanics and Waves 1, by distance ed).
Overall a decent term. I was hoping to take classical studies, but it is only open to first year arts students. I'm glad to be taking the Physics course, as mechanics is the only real branch of it that interests me. I wish I could have taken an on-campus section with a good prof that fits into my schedule, but unfortunately no such section exists. I was also slightly interested in the intro to cognitive science course, but I think it might be too much work and thinking for my liking.

Don't you wish you could set your body like an egg timer? Tell it exactly when you want to go to sleep, and tell it exactly when you want to wake up, fully refreshed. I went to bed at about 11, but as I hope you are able to conlude, it did not work.

I've had games on the brain lately. I'm still not sure if my schedule is clear enough for me to start playing, but I think I've more or less got the time. So long as I work efficiently when I do work on my assignments, I can finish them all pretty quickly. I wish I could waste this weekend playing some games, but this is the weekend I go to Windsor with my mom and sister for my cousin's wedding. It's a four hour drive to Windsor! I guess I'll just have to speed. I've already got a playlist queued up on my Zen. All I need to do is make sure I put some good tv episodes on there too for when I get bored and I'm set.

Well I'm still not tired, so I guess I'll peruse the internet for a while, read up on some games perhaps. I certainly hope my lack of sleep doesn't cause me to crash while driving tomorrow.

Listening to... The Police - Fallout
Link of the moment... Hopefully I can secure this for less than $20 on eBay

"Are you still serving breakfast?" "Uh, you mean right now, or in general?"

Well this should be interesting. Next Friday I have to pick up the M136 assignments to mark by Wednesday morning, I have a comparison paper due that same Wednesday, and a midterm on the Tuesday just before, and the entire weekend I'll be in Windsor at my cousin's wedding. What I hope is that I can get my paper done by this coming Wednesday (week ahead of time!), study ahead of time for the CS234 midterm, and then mark all the papers in the morning at the hotel room in Windsor. I hope I can stick to my schedule or I'm screwed.

I think tomorrow I'm going to have to buy a PS2 wether I find a deal or not. We need a working DVD player on the tv. Besides, I've paid off my credit card...we can't have me not owing money, can we?

Yesterday morning, I found something out: I have allergies. I'm not sure what to, but I'm willing to put money that it's to some sort of pollen from some tree, since this is my first spring in Waterloo. My eyes were really watery and itchy in tutorial, and Nathalie told me to go get doped up on antihistamines. I gladly obliged, and they seem to be doing something for me (I still felt it today after taking one in the morning, but to a lesser extent). It's relatively expensive, but I just gotta put up with it for a few months.

I went to Dooleys the other day; Mathsoc had a free night for math students. Andrew was too busy, but I met up with Gee there instead. I more or less kicked his ass but lost a few games by scratching, and he won a few games of nineball against me. Good guy. It's good to know that we're on relatively good terms with one another.

Gee, Trevor, Amanda, and Laura all seem to have good taste in nerd games. I never have a chance to play anymore. Andrew is usually willing to play when he has free time, but John is never around and Hugh seems to be too good to play with us anymore. Most games aren't really good unless you have 4-6 players playing them. Maybe I'll buy some card game from J&J and bring it around to lunch with me (though to be honest I'd like to play some regular card games like Spades or Euchre or Oh Hell).

This weekend, I really hope I can finish my CS338 and CS234 assignments due next week, start and finish my comparison paper, and make some sort of contribution to the case study. I've got four days, so hopefully I can just keep my motivation up.

Laura will be out of town this weekend, and I'll be gone the next. We never seem to have a chance to get together. It's a shame she's always so busy. It's the life of the student, I guess. It's almost like my time at University is just dead. Everyone is always too busy to spend any time with me.

Listening to... Metallica - Trapped Under Ice
Link of the moment... Maybe I'll get this after my BMath

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