We like to do it late at night with Giant Robots
I'm currenting in the Eng Sci Computer Lab. How did I end up here you ask? It all starts with a call from the Pole...
Phone Call - 12:31 am
Chris: Hey Font
Me: Hey. You still on campus?
C: Yeah.
Me: Really? Where are you? Bahen?
C: Yeah in the common room.
Me: Why?
C: There's an X-box here along with Mech Assault.
Me: Ah. So you're not going home?
C: Well, not necessarily. I mean I've defeated all those that have challenged me so I guess, yeah, I might take off soon.
Me: Ah. I'm still working on my essay here at Robarts.
C: Robarts? Should I come drop by?
Me: Well you couldn't get in without a T-Card... should I come to Bahen?
C: Well there IS Mech Assault here.
Me: Heh, nah I really do need to finish this essay.
C: How's it coming along?
Me: Slow, but mostly because they don't have Word on this computer I'm working on.
C: NO WORD?!?
Me: Yeah.
C: That's so stupid, come over to Bahen. There are millions of computer here.
Me: With Word?
C: Definitely.
Me: I'll be over in 5. Get the door for me?
C: Play Mech Assault?
So as of now I am kicking it up at Bahen and will probably be here until the break of dawn (and probably longer). First though, some kicking has to be done in a certain X-Box game...
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
We like to do it late at night
Well this has potential to be my first all-nighter/really-late-nighter of the academic year. I'm currently at Robarts putting together my essay due tomorrow. Maybe its the practice from year of doing it but surprisingly enough, I'm actually feeling good about doing this. It's like all my thoughts are coming together and research is coming up with exactly the supporting points that I need. Sometimes I think a part of me was born to do stuff like this...
*groans* Who am I kidding, I going to have to stop slacking on these under 1500-word essays (its too easy to slack on something so small). And I'm going to need to find a caffeine source soon in case the (creative) juices stop flowing - I don't think my half bottle of Coke is going to hold out.
Well this has potential to be my first all-nighter/really-late-nighter of the academic year. I'm currently at Robarts putting together my essay due tomorrow. Maybe its the practice from year of doing it but surprisingly enough, I'm actually feeling good about doing this. It's like all my thoughts are coming together and research is coming up with exactly the supporting points that I need. Sometimes I think a part of me was born to do stuff like this...
*groans* Who am I kidding, I going to have to stop slacking on these under 1500-word essays (its too easy to slack on something so small). And I'm going to need to find a caffeine source soon in case the (creative) juices stop flowing - I don't think my half bottle of Coke is going to hold out.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
We don't need no stinkin' updates
Yes I'm still alive (and blogging surprisingly!) I just finished up my midterms last week, which took up most blogging time (naturally I couldn't cut other essential activities like fiction reading, MUDding and chatting). I still hoping they went well. *cross fingers*
Last Thursday, something unprecedented took place - the Polish Combatants (Chris Wilmer and myself) met up with the Chinese Combantants (Wayne and Raymond) at the Athletic Centre. It turns out that we have the same scheduled time. I guess this means I'll be seeing more of those two every week. Its pretty horrible actually but alas, what can you do?
Naturally after midterms there can only be more things that I enjoying just as much, namely essays in this case. *sigh* The exception to this proliferation of work is my intro to IR course (taught by a certain Welch that some slackers are familiar with) in which I will be watching a movie. *cheer* It's called... actually I've forgotten but its a documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm looking forward to it (seriously).
Anyhow, I'll leave you with two quotes from my US Politics teacher (he's actually an American - they hired him this year).
"Cows, are cows."
"Its understandable that US politics must have slipped from your mind after Turkey weekend, or if you're like me, after Bridget Jones' Diary on the W Network..."
Yes I'm still alive (and blogging surprisingly!) I just finished up my midterms last week, which took up most blogging time (naturally I couldn't cut other essential activities like fiction reading, MUDding and chatting). I still hoping they went well. *cross fingers*
Last Thursday, something unprecedented took place - the Polish Combatants (Chris Wilmer and myself) met up with the Chinese Combantants (Wayne and Raymond) at the Athletic Centre. It turns out that we have the same scheduled time. I guess this means I'll be seeing more of those two every week. Its pretty horrible actually but alas, what can you do?
Naturally after midterms there can only be more things that I enjoying just as much, namely essays in this case. *sigh* The exception to this proliferation of work is my intro to IR course (taught by a certain Welch that some slackers are familiar with) in which I will be watching a movie. *cheer* It's called... actually I've forgotten but its a documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm looking forward to it (seriously).
Anyhow, I'll leave you with two quotes from my US Politics teacher (he's actually an American - they hired him this year).
"Cows, are cows."
"Its understandable that US politics must have slipped from your mind after Turkey weekend, or if you're like me, after Bridget Jones' Diary on the W Network..."
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
"If you feel hostile to someone, try walking a mile in their shoes... then you'll be a mile away and have their shoes!"
I had my professor ask my American History class about my phone that had gone missing last week. My professor had this idea that after the annoucement he would ask me if there was any more information and then I would say something that would get to the class' hearts eg. "Its a poor lost Nokia that really wants to go home." (I checked with the janitorial staff and they have nothing). But there really is no point in these things - I mean that fact is that someone took it. It just bugs me more that that person was likely sitting somewhere in the same room as me pretending that it was nothing of his/her concern! Is that what some people's morals are worth these days? The cost of a 1+ year old low-end cell phone?
Well I've given up on my phone and am probably going to get another one tomorrow. My dad is having problems with his computer so I'm probably going to go take a look at that. Does anyone have a copy of Office XP and/or Office 2k they can lend me? I need both and its getting troublesome trying to pretend that I don't. Also, will a certain person please return a copy of WinXP to me? =P And yes I realise there are other people out there that have stuff of mine... oh, I know.
I had my professor ask my American History class about my phone that had gone missing last week. My professor had this idea that after the annoucement he would ask me if there was any more information and then I would say something that would get to the class' hearts eg. "Its a poor lost Nokia that really wants to go home." (I checked with the janitorial staff and they have nothing). But there really is no point in these things - I mean that fact is that someone took it. It just bugs me more that that person was likely sitting somewhere in the same room as me pretending that it was nothing of his/her concern! Is that what some people's morals are worth these days? The cost of a 1+ year old low-end cell phone?
Well I've given up on my phone and am probably going to get another one tomorrow. My dad is having problems with his computer so I'm probably going to go take a look at that. Does anyone have a copy of Office XP and/or Office 2k they can lend me? I need both and its getting troublesome trying to pretend that I don't. Also, will a certain person please return a copy of WinXP to me? =P And yes I realise there are other people out there that have stuff of mine... oh, I know.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
"Rogers AT&T Wireless. The customer you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again later."
If anyone tries to call me after today this is likely the message you will receive. It seems that someone thought that my monophonic, monocromatic display Nokia was worth the moral guilt and burden as my cell phone was stolen from the top of my bag at around 7:57 p.m. on Tuesday October 7 in rm 7 in the Northrop Fyre building at Victoria University. I guess I should learn to not leave anything of the slightest value lying around for the 4 minutes that I go and ask the professor a question? Or maybe some people should try to understand that living unscrupulous lives will lead them to ruin? RUIN TO MY BENEFIT!
Argh!
UPDATE: Yes I did call my phone right afterward and what happened was the phone rang but then the call was declined (ringing once or twice followed by a beeping tone). After I called about 5 more times there ceased to be any ringing at all, only the Rogers AT&T message - this usually indicates that the phone is off. I've cancelled the phone service temporarilly but I'm still hoping against hope that it will turn up somewhere. "Faith in the hearts of men?", you wonder. Well I figure a little optimism never hurt anyone. =/
And yes, I voted last Thursday - it only took me about an hour. It's no wonder the voter turnout is at a record low sometimes... I mean I went to 3 different polling stations in my area AND I had to line up at all of them. And it wasn't just me either, some other people like myself went from school to school trying to find the right one that they were to be at. It was chaotic I guess mostly because I live in a new area and lots of people are not on the voters list yet. But still, this should have been anticipated in new subdivisions. Gah.
If anyone tries to call me after today this is likely the message you will receive. It seems that someone thought that my monophonic, monocromatic display Nokia was worth the moral guilt and burden as my cell phone was stolen from the top of my bag at around 7:57 p.m. on Tuesday October 7 in rm 7 in the Northrop Fyre building at Victoria University. I guess I should learn to not leave anything of the slightest value lying around for the 4 minutes that I go and ask the professor a question? Or maybe some people should try to understand that living unscrupulous lives will lead them to ruin? RUIN TO MY BENEFIT!
Argh!
UPDATE: Yes I did call my phone right afterward and what happened was the phone rang but then the call was declined (ringing once or twice followed by a beeping tone). After I called about 5 more times there ceased to be any ringing at all, only the Rogers AT&T message - this usually indicates that the phone is off. I've cancelled the phone service temporarilly but I'm still hoping against hope that it will turn up somewhere. "Faith in the hearts of men?", you wonder. Well I figure a little optimism never hurt anyone. =/
And yes, I voted last Thursday - it only took me about an hour. It's no wonder the voter turnout is at a record low sometimes... I mean I went to 3 different polling stations in my area AND I had to line up at all of them. And it wasn't just me either, some other people like myself went from school to school trying to find the right one that they were to be at. It was chaotic I guess mostly because I live in a new area and lots of people are not on the voters list yet. But still, this should have been anticipated in new subdivisions. Gah.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Something Incredibly Stupid We Did
(a.k.a The Real Polish Experience)
After my class, Chris was waiting for my outside. We both wanted to head back home but I had one more thing to take care of - I needed to go speak with the people over at NAMUN regarding my staff application. So together we marched off in search of the "Sussex something" building... 30 minutes later, I finally found myself standing in front of a building with the sign "Sussex Court" in front. Up we went to the 4th floor... Well the NAMUN office turned out to be closed - I did not realise that this was one of those offices that opened on a volunteer shift basis. Normally speaking, this is where the story would end if I had gone alone.
But no, with my appetite for wasting time not quite sated and it being the first day of the renaissance (like that word huh?) of Polish Combat - I was on the lookout. The initial instigator to this entire operation was my discovery that the room next to the NAMUN office was one that belonged to none other than the PSA - better known (or not) as the Polish Student Association!
On there door, there was poorly taped sheet of 8.5 x 11" paper with the words "moved to rm 415" scrawled on it. Seeing as it was only across on the other side of the building, we walked over to the indicated room to find out more about this seemingly elusive club. The Pole himself was most interested...
On the door of 415, we found yet another poorly taped (this one worse actually - only one piece at the top) sheet of 8.5 x 11" paper, this one with the words "everyone we're meeting in 513" written on it. Hmm... suspicious... well if they wanted to play chase-the-PSA-around-rooms then that's what we'd play. So we went and took the stairs one floor up... (it's to be noted too that we discovered at this point what this whole affair was about.
Up on the 5th floor, we found them in a room with the door slightly ajar. To the untrained eye, it would seem like just a group of Polish people gathering in a room for the purpose of establishing a hierarchy of responsibility for the coming year - however, we did not let ourselves be fooled by such a display. After establishing visual contact we ducked out behind a corner to gather ourselves. I was of the opinion that we should have just gotten out of there - the meetings just didn't seem like it had much potential. Chris however had other ideas as he quickly went back to the door to eavesdrop. I followed his lead even though I could not understand a single word that was being said (Polish language classes not being offered in high school and all). Our situation remained good for a moment, until a girl opened the door and asked if we needed any help with anything.
I froze naturally but Chris seemed to respond good-naturedly to the girl. After a quick exchange Chris started to follow the girl back into the room while gesturing at me to follow. I tried to pull him back but I guess, as he explained to me later, it was too late to back out at that point. Once inside the room, the entire meeting froze as we entere, all eyes on the newcomer and his Chinese friend. Chris once again put his language skills to good use and introduced himself. When it was my turn I just said, "No, I'm not really Polish" and they all laughed for some reason. And with that the meeting continued and I realised we had done it. We were in the heart of the beast.
And I'm not kidding about it being the heart, we really had somehow gotten into the core of the group - I think we were the only people in that room that were not past PSA executives. Undetered, we just stay quietly in the corner and just observed. On their part, that were happy to just ignore us in return. They had already voted on the President when we had arrived - we had missed our chance to influence the selection of the head of the club but we certainly worked our magic on the other leaders.
That's right, we got to vote and we didn't need to register on any freakin' voter's list. We, whom they had never met before in their lives. We, one of which was not even a current student at UT and the other one who was not Polish by any definition of the word. Yes we got to vote on the other executive members of the PSA. Vice-President, Treasurer, PR, Movie Night Director... we got to choose them all. What was more frightening was that all of the individuals that we voted for had won the position for which they were nominated! Democracy works in mysterious ways... at least I'm sure that's what some of the people there that evening though ("Why is that Chinese guy voting on our Treasurer? And why does that Polish kid next to him look like he wants to break something?")
At this point I'll be honest with you - I depict this whole thing as pretty interesting but after the 10th speech or so, I was ready to pull out my British history reprotext to pass the time. (I understood what was going on because the chair of the meeting said everyone had to speak English with a non-Polish speaker in the room, namely me - I really hope I didn't ruin anyone's election chances). Throughout the undercover operation, we had to maintain silence so Chris and I resorted to other crafty ways of communication. (our codenames have been altered to protect our identities) Please note lines 5 and 6. recorded at 5:46 and 5:47 respectively. I think that about sums up how we felt about the operation - you can see how we came to those conclusions from our report.
Before the Webmaster position nomination we got out of there... conveniently for Chris. From there we found our way to a subway station to head down to Union station where our ticket out of the city would be waiting. Only once we were certain that we were safe from any would-be Polish pursuers did we dare speak of the PSA. For myself though, I vowed that there would be no more Chris-Fontanie stupidity... at least not for the next little while.
(sorry it took so long to post more! blogging is really on the bottom of priorities these days...)
(a.k.a The Real Polish Experience)
After my class, Chris was waiting for my outside. We both wanted to head back home but I had one more thing to take care of - I needed to go speak with the people over at NAMUN regarding my staff application. So together we marched off in search of the "Sussex something" building... 30 minutes later, I finally found myself standing in front of a building with the sign "Sussex Court" in front. Up we went to the 4th floor... Well the NAMUN office turned out to be closed - I did not realise that this was one of those offices that opened on a volunteer shift basis. Normally speaking, this is where the story would end if I had gone alone.
But no, with my appetite for wasting time not quite sated and it being the first day of the renaissance (like that word huh?) of Polish Combat - I was on the lookout. The initial instigator to this entire operation was my discovery that the room next to the NAMUN office was one that belonged to none other than the PSA - better known (or not) as the Polish Student Association!
On there door, there was poorly taped sheet of 8.5 x 11" paper with the words "moved to rm 415" scrawled on it. Seeing as it was only across on the other side of the building, we walked over to the indicated room to find out more about this seemingly elusive club. The Pole himself was most interested...
On the door of 415, we found yet another poorly taped (this one worse actually - only one piece at the top) sheet of 8.5 x 11" paper, this one with the words "everyone we're meeting in 513" written on it. Hmm... suspicious... well if they wanted to play chase-the-PSA-around-rooms then that's what we'd play. So we went and took the stairs one floor up... (it's to be noted too that we discovered at this point what this whole affair was about.
Up on the 5th floor, we found them in a room with the door slightly ajar. To the untrained eye, it would seem like just a group of Polish people gathering in a room for the purpose of establishing a hierarchy of responsibility for the coming year - however, we did not let ourselves be fooled by such a display. After establishing visual contact we ducked out behind a corner to gather ourselves. I was of the opinion that we should have just gotten out of there - the meetings just didn't seem like it had much potential. Chris however had other ideas as he quickly went back to the door to eavesdrop. I followed his lead even though I could not understand a single word that was being said (Polish language classes not being offered in high school and all). Our situation remained good for a moment, until a girl opened the door and asked if we needed any help with anything.
I froze naturally but Chris seemed to respond good-naturedly to the girl. After a quick exchange Chris started to follow the girl back into the room while gesturing at me to follow. I tried to pull him back but I guess, as he explained to me later, it was too late to back out at that point. Once inside the room, the entire meeting froze as we entere, all eyes on the newcomer and his Chinese friend. Chris once again put his language skills to good use and introduced himself. When it was my turn I just said, "No, I'm not really Polish" and they all laughed for some reason. And with that the meeting continued and I realised we had done it. We were in the heart of the beast.
And I'm not kidding about it being the heart, we really had somehow gotten into the core of the group - I think we were the only people in that room that were not past PSA executives. Undetered, we just stay quietly in the corner and just observed. On their part, that were happy to just ignore us in return. They had already voted on the President when we had arrived - we had missed our chance to influence the selection of the head of the club but we certainly worked our magic on the other leaders.
That's right, we got to vote and we didn't need to register on any freakin' voter's list. We, whom they had never met before in their lives. We, one of which was not even a current student at UT and the other one who was not Polish by any definition of the word. Yes we got to vote on the other executive members of the PSA. Vice-President, Treasurer, PR, Movie Night Director... we got to choose them all. What was more frightening was that all of the individuals that we voted for had won the position for which they were nominated! Democracy works in mysterious ways... at least I'm sure that's what some of the people there that evening though ("Why is that Chinese guy voting on our Treasurer? And why does that Polish kid next to him look like he wants to break something?")
At this point I'll be honest with you - I depict this whole thing as pretty interesting but after the 10th speech or so, I was ready to pull out my British history reprotext to pass the time. (I understood what was going on because the chair of the meeting said everyone had to speak English with a non-Polish speaker in the room, namely me - I really hope I didn't ruin anyone's election chances). Throughout the undercover operation, we had to maintain silence so Chris and I resorted to other crafty ways of communication. (our codenames have been altered to protect our identities) Please note lines 5 and 6. recorded at 5:46 and 5:47 respectively. I think that about sums up how we felt about the operation - you can see how we came to those conclusions from our report.
Before the Webmaster position nomination we got out of there... conveniently for Chris. From there we found our way to a subway station to head down to Union station where our ticket out of the city would be waiting. Only once we were certain that we were safe from any would-be Polish pursuers did we dare speak of the PSA. For myself though, I vowed that there would be no more Chris-Fontanie stupidity... at least not for the next little while.
(sorry it took so long to post more! blogging is really on the bottom of priorities these days...)