"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 #2 - Niagara Falls

(I left more time between the two updates than I thought I would)

Saturday was an interesting day -- Andrew, John, Julie and I went to Niagara Falls for the day. The whole experience was a nice break from the ordinary, but I wouldn't say it was a life changing event.

We left around 10 AM, after checking my tires and filling up my tank. At first, John folowed me in his car, but apparently he found my driving incompetent and got in front of me, at which point he promptly made a wrong turn. Serves him right. A good few hours later, we finally got into Niagara Falls.

Our cars got separated when we hit the very, very busy main street, so I pulled off into a hotel and phoned him to figure out where he was. We parked our cars at the Falls and met up, and then my picture taking began.

We visited the Falls first, since we were there. Quite impressive, but like I said, it wasn't breathtaking. No one went over in a barrel that day, unfortunately. After that, we had lunch at a very busy Burger King, where I had a very delicious Bacon Cheeseburger.

The only real attraction we took in was Ripley's Believe it or Not. There really wasn't too much else on the strip of great interest, though I think I might have liked to see the wax museum of the stars. We looked around at smoe of the souvenier shops, but I'm pretty sure I'm the last one to see Niagara Falls in all of Canada, so I didn't bother buying anything (though I was keeping an eye out for something for Nathalie since she got me something from Las Vegas). We also headed into the casino to waste a few bills.

By then it was getting a bit late, so Andrew and I headed home, as John and Julie were staying the night to see Marine World and Niagara-on-the-Lake the next day. We got a bit lost on the way back; we headed too far into Toronto than we were supposed to, so it was still a 2-hour trip even after going 140km/h most of the way.

All in all, a good trip, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Maybe I'll head out to Toronto next and see the hustle and bustle of downtown.

Listening to... The Witness Protection Program - Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
Link of the moment... Now off to do some clothes shopping

Need a touch of humanity

I've got that feeling that I'm going out of my mind because I haven't have any human contact for the last 6ish hours. I did some marking (and found my first set of cheaters!), and I'm not in the mental condition to get any work done. I think I'd like to fire up a game like Dragon Quest 8, but since it's burned I'd rather not put up with the possible frustration of trying to get it working.

Well, I got Tunde's bike. It's definitely a piece of work. The back tire is not on the wheel, the front tire is dead flat, the chain is off the gears, and the gears look pretty rusted. I'm really hoping that both bikes have the same size wheels so that I can take the good wheels off my other bike, put it on the newer bike, and then clean up and lube up the gears and chain on the newer bike. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll have something that is workable. I realize now I should have just bought a new one to save myself the torment that I'm going through now. Let that be a lesson to me.

Well it looks as though my ENGL 119 class should be...interesting. Most people take it expecting it to be less work than a "real" course. Unfortunately, the term-long case study project works out to be quite a bit of work. Well, it subverts a final exam, so I guess I don't care one way or another. Me and Sivji were trying to recruit competent members ahead of time (that is, people who will be easy to communicate with and will do well in all oral aspects of the project). However, we still got stuck with two ESL girls, which may but a barrier of communication in the group. We'll still do well, it's just a matter of having to take more time to make sure everyone is on the same page. I've taken the responsibility of being the team project leader for the first week, meaning I have to have a formal status report ready for next Wednesday. I really don't know what they expect out of the people who are doing it the first week as we have no real progress to report on. All we'll have accomplished by next week is whatever brainstorming we get done on this Monday (we arranged an extra out-of-class meeting to get an early start). Not only that, but I have no idea what the layout of the report should look like.

Andrew and Hugh came back a while ago. We chatted, but as I expected we didn't really have anything to do. Andrew is tuckered out and has to get up early tomorrow. I could go to bed myself, but I never feel right going to bed before I feel like my day is over with.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be productive, though I say that every day. I hope to work on my bikes, go shopping, go to Value Village, and get either my marking or my CS338 done. Beyond that I have some lower priority things that I've been putting off for a while such as talking to people at the plaza about securing a parking space for John, doing my laundry, and recycling all these boxes stored in the basement.

Next Saturday (May 27), Julie and I are going to Niagara Falls. I don't know who else is coming, though I suspect John and Andrew are in the "maybe" pile. If you've ever been there and know of some good attractions, stores, or cafes to visit, then let me know.

It's sort of a shame, as there is a Warrior Weekend that weekend. I'd like to go to some of the events on both the Friday and Saturday, but I suppose my Niagara plans will interfere with that.

Well...I guess I'll get back to sitting on the computer wasting away my youth. Blah.

Listening to... Death From Above 1979 - Cold War
Link of the moment... I've been looking at recipes. Maybe one day I'll actually have the time and effort to make something.