I'm Almost There and He's Almost Here
Well looks like the year is coming to an end. Officially, only 2 more weeks of school left. This translates into 2 tests and an essay for me. Mostly I've been studying this weekend although today I finally got back into some 'Polish Combat' again after slacking off for a month. Needless to say the Pole had not been too happy with me and life becomes an uncertainty when a guy who can bench 250 lbs isn't pleased with you. The pain in my muscles was offset by the relief from knowing that my life was becoming more secure with each arm curl.
It is pretty interesting how much the media is trying to make of the Bush visit to Canada tomorrow compared to the PMO's attempts to play it down. Politics at play, I say. I mean even the fact that Albertan beef is on the menu has been given political significance. I think the whole thing is significant but only because Bush has not visited Canada, its very close and significant trade partner, in all his years in office (I am not counting the 2 times he has come to Canada for international summits). The Martin government has said not to expect anything major stemming from this visit, insisting that time is very tight on this "working visit" - however I think it would be prudent to be aware of any surprises they may through. So far a timeline for the resumption of the beef trade and an announcement on the softwood lumber issues are the primary suspects but we shall see...
On a side note, I think the anti-Bush sentiment in Canada has gone way too far; some people need to calm down and think a little more realistically. I'm a big supporter of political action to express opinion to our leaders but threatening a media outlet with jail for supporting Bush? Then there's the Lawyers Against the War, who want Canada to deny Bush from entering the country because he's a war criminal? Well in the end its all good because the people have spoken and all, but not allowing him to visit Canada would constitute a much more radical policy that I do not believe Canada will ever take. The problem with such protests is that they are not grounded in reality, as spirited and passionate as they are. Canada-US relations are very important for both countries, arguably more for us, and disagreements over past and current American policy should not threaten this mutually beneficial relationship. Admittedly I have to say that a scenario in which Canada gradually broke off all ties with the US has played in my head several times this weekend with interesting fantasy results. There are too many unknowns but I think that would be a case of "that which does not kill you only makes you stronger".
And finally just so none of you are fooled by anything the news outlets will tell you, the Canadian Da Vinci Project to launch a civilian space flight is terrible. It is my firm belief that the only reason they were ever considered a front runner for the X-Prize (which has already been won by the mind-blowingly expensive SpaceShipOne team) was because of their team leader Brian Feeney's amazing ability to lie with a straight face; by making it all appear like they were close to launch, they managed to secure sponsor and media interest in their project. For this reason I find all this hubbub that their launch date has been postponed due to the holidays to be quite humourous. Well for Canadian pride's sake I only hope their balloon-lifted space contraption doesn't disappoint if/when they do launch.
Anyway time to leave. Tired=Very Yes.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
And I Let Another Slip By
It is so incredibly hard I find to be even semi-productive on Fridays. I always repeat to myself that I have plenty to do and ergo it would be prudent of me to spend what remaining time I have wisely. The proverb 'easier said than done' comes to mind. And although my time wasting cannot nearly compare to the like of a certain Scrubs-obsessed person (who watches entire seasons in a single sitting), the results of my efforts today are only a half page of notes. *sigh* What can I say, at least they're typed?
In other news I have joined the ranks of people who have left their car with the headlights on in a parking lot. Unfortuantely I left it that way over a period of 3 days (the three days that I have classes each week) and when I returned to it today, the power locks weren't even working. Fortunately my dad keeps jumper cables in his trunk (as do I in my car) and I was able to find a kind soul to help me get the car started. The only reason this even happened in the first place is because I missed catching the GO bus at the Mount Joy station so I drove down to the Unionville station as fast as I could hoping to catch it there. While I succeeded I clearly overlooked some important things in my insane rush. Oddly, I did remember to lock the doors though.
On the topic of parked cars, I also paid a parking ticket week today. The problem was that it was last week's ticket and it had been 8 days since I was ticketed. It turns out they are not very strict on that 'voluntary fine payment' thing at all. This is where if you pay for the ticket within one week its a reduced fine than the amount that you are ticketed for. I had forgotten about the ticket until late last night so today I called Parking Tag Operations hoping for some leniency (I was told that I could expect it but I didn't quite believe it). Before I could even get to offer some lame on-the-spot excuse, the operator told me it was okay and transfered me to an automated system where I could pay the reduced fine with a credit card. Well... the ticket stills sucks but I guess I really can't complain.
Now that it's 6 in the morning I think the only thing I can say is that I never should have stayed up to watch X-Men...
It is so incredibly hard I find to be even semi-productive on Fridays. I always repeat to myself that I have plenty to do and ergo it would be prudent of me to spend what remaining time I have wisely. The proverb 'easier said than done' comes to mind. And although my time wasting cannot nearly compare to the like of a certain Scrubs-obsessed person (who watches entire seasons in a single sitting), the results of my efforts today are only a half page of notes. *sigh* What can I say, at least they're typed?
In other news I have joined the ranks of people who have left their car with the headlights on in a parking lot. Unfortuantely I left it that way over a period of 3 days (the three days that I have classes each week) and when I returned to it today, the power locks weren't even working. Fortunately my dad keeps jumper cables in his trunk (as do I in my car) and I was able to find a kind soul to help me get the car started. The only reason this even happened in the first place is because I missed catching the GO bus at the Mount Joy station so I drove down to the Unionville station as fast as I could hoping to catch it there. While I succeeded I clearly overlooked some important things in my insane rush. Oddly, I did remember to lock the doors though.
On the topic of parked cars, I also paid a parking ticket week today. The problem was that it was last week's ticket and it had been 8 days since I was ticketed. It turns out they are not very strict on that 'voluntary fine payment' thing at all. This is where if you pay for the ticket within one week its a reduced fine than the amount that you are ticketed for. I had forgotten about the ticket until late last night so today I called Parking Tag Operations hoping for some leniency (I was told that I could expect it but I didn't quite believe it). Before I could even get to offer some lame on-the-spot excuse, the operator told me it was okay and transfered me to an automated system where I could pay the reduced fine with a credit card. Well... the ticket stills sucks but I guess I really can't complain.
Now that it's 6 in the morning I think the only thing I can say is that I never should have stayed up to watch X-Men...
Thursday, November 18, 2004
One Early (weird) Morn
In theory I am more or less writing to myself here because aside from the random blog hoppers, no one I know reads JaGD anymore. I don't really blame them seeing as my last post was around half a year ago. Still somehow today I felt inspired. Strange I know, but here I am. *shrug*
So for the past few weeks, I have fairly busy, barely getting any sleep everyday. Having assigned work due every week really makes it hard/impossible to keep up with the weekly work. Somehow, the fact that I knew this years ago isn't helping me. Fortunately having my laptop this year has been helpful in that I am now able to do work almost anywhere with a power plug. Of course considering that I've fallen asleep on desks for more nights than I can remember now the computer might not be a good thing...
Fortunately, last night I was able to sleep on something soft as I stayed over at my friend Chris' house uptown. Unfortunately this meant that I had to catch a ride back downtown to get to school. Even more annoying was that Chris had to go buy aluminum sheets for his engineering design project before school, which meant that he had to get to some warehouse in Mississauga as soon as it opened at 8:30 AM. The downside of all of this is that it necessitated us to leave really early so I was woken up at 6:00 for a total of 3 hours of sleep. (at least it was 3 more hours than the night before)
After a quick (nonexistant) breakfast we were out the door by 7:00 and soon found ourselves amidst the usual morning highway traffic. I had twisted around in my seat for the first 10 minutes trying to find a semi-comfortable position that I could sleep in to no avail . I don't think I have ever felt worse in the morning. Of course I didn't know what to make of how Chris (Clown Extrodinaire!) felt in the morning; he had decided to wear his lab goggles while driving for some strange reason. He looked absolutely stupid but I didn't even have the energy to make any snide remarks. When you think you know a person...
Heading westbound on the 401 I think Chris (Driver Extrodinaire!) chose the slowest possible combination of the express and collectors lanes because every time he switched to the seemingly faster set of lanes, it became the slower one. Regardless we were making reasonably good time. Personally my greater concern was whether we would be able to find the place at all because our only guide was a little map that Chris (Cartographer Extrodinaire!) had scrawled on a small piece of paper after quick consultation with Yahoo!Maps. Because it hurt for me to open my eyes more than a slit, I was really glad that Chris was at least capable of the driving. Or so I thought.
At around 7:30, Chris suddenly asked if I was in any shape to drive. I told him dryly that I was not. Then he took the next exit and parked in at a gas station much to my puzzlement. Apparantly Chris was ALSO extremely tired getting barely any more sleep than I did the night before; I should have probably notice from the way he had to correct himself numerous times from drifting a little to one side on the highway. Bleh. I thought I could stay up late because I didn't have class until 11 but I think idiot is the only word I can use for Chris (Dummy Extrodinaire!). Since neither of us were in any shape to drive, and we had time since we were early, we rested in the car in the Shell Station parking lot (if you consider drifting in and out of consciousness resting on my part). As I tried to find sleep, I feverently hoped that no one would notice the parked car at the gas station with two unconscious teenagers in it...
At around 8:45 AM we were back on the road; albeit a little behind schedule but a less congested highway helped compensate for this. I do not really recall much of what happened because I continued be in a semi-asleep state but Chris somehow found his way to the warehouse and got his aluminum at around 9:30 AM. Having obtained all we came all the way to Mississauga for, we headed back downtown to U of T.
Nothing too eventful in school: lunch crew, testing my laptop with a projector for Raymond's presentation, charging the laptop between classes. By napping a bit in between classes I made it to the end of the day, although I lost it a couple times when facing the ever sleep-inducing Professor Thacker, who's primary profession is actually that of a lawyer.
On a side note, I think the Buttery is soon going to be my favourite hangout - I just found out they have wireless internet service there AND comfy plush couches. Hell yeah!
In theory I am more or less writing to myself here because aside from the random blog hoppers, no one I know reads JaGD anymore. I don't really blame them seeing as my last post was around half a year ago. Still somehow today I felt inspired. Strange I know, but here I am. *shrug*
So for the past few weeks, I have fairly busy, barely getting any sleep everyday. Having assigned work due every week really makes it hard/impossible to keep up with the weekly work. Somehow, the fact that I knew this years ago isn't helping me. Fortunately having my laptop this year has been helpful in that I am now able to do work almost anywhere with a power plug. Of course considering that I've fallen asleep on desks for more nights than I can remember now the computer might not be a good thing...
Fortunately, last night I was able to sleep on something soft as I stayed over at my friend Chris' house uptown. Unfortunately this meant that I had to catch a ride back downtown to get to school. Even more annoying was that Chris had to go buy aluminum sheets for his engineering design project before school, which meant that he had to get to some warehouse in Mississauga as soon as it opened at 8:30 AM. The downside of all of this is that it necessitated us to leave really early so I was woken up at 6:00 for a total of 3 hours of sleep. (at least it was 3 more hours than the night before)
After a quick (nonexistant) breakfast we were out the door by 7:00 and soon found ourselves amidst the usual morning highway traffic. I had twisted around in my seat for the first 10 minutes trying to find a semi-comfortable position that I could sleep in to no avail . I don't think I have ever felt worse in the morning. Of course I didn't know what to make of how Chris (Clown Extrodinaire!) felt in the morning; he had decided to wear his lab goggles while driving for some strange reason. He looked absolutely stupid but I didn't even have the energy to make any snide remarks. When you think you know a person...
Heading westbound on the 401 I think Chris (Driver Extrodinaire!) chose the slowest possible combination of the express and collectors lanes because every time he switched to the seemingly faster set of lanes, it became the slower one. Regardless we were making reasonably good time. Personally my greater concern was whether we would be able to find the place at all because our only guide was a little map that Chris (Cartographer Extrodinaire!) had scrawled on a small piece of paper after quick consultation with Yahoo!Maps. Because it hurt for me to open my eyes more than a slit, I was really glad that Chris was at least capable of the driving. Or so I thought.
At around 7:30, Chris suddenly asked if I was in any shape to drive. I told him dryly that I was not. Then he took the next exit and parked in at a gas station much to my puzzlement. Apparantly Chris was ALSO extremely tired getting barely any more sleep than I did the night before; I should have probably notice from the way he had to correct himself numerous times from drifting a little to one side on the highway. Bleh. I thought I could stay up late because I didn't have class until 11 but I think idiot is the only word I can use for Chris (Dummy Extrodinaire!). Since neither of us were in any shape to drive, and we had time since we were early, we rested in the car in the Shell Station parking lot (if you consider drifting in and out of consciousness resting on my part). As I tried to find sleep, I feverently hoped that no one would notice the parked car at the gas station with two unconscious teenagers in it...
At around 8:45 AM we were back on the road; albeit a little behind schedule but a less congested highway helped compensate for this. I do not really recall much of what happened because I continued be in a semi-asleep state but Chris somehow found his way to the warehouse and got his aluminum at around 9:30 AM. Having obtained all we came all the way to Mississauga for, we headed back downtown to U of T.
Nothing too eventful in school: lunch crew, testing my laptop with a projector for Raymond's presentation, charging the laptop between classes. By napping a bit in between classes I made it to the end of the day, although I lost it a couple times when facing the ever sleep-inducing Professor Thacker, who's primary profession is actually that of a lawyer.
On a side note, I think the Buttery is soon going to be my favourite hangout - I just found out they have wireless internet service there AND comfy plush couches. Hell yeah!