7:02am

Its been a week since I left for my geology field school, and most of it has been less than exciting. Snow, rain, 8a.m. departures every day and constantly changing schedules such that you can never plan anything worthwhile in your ‘free’ time make it difficult to be excited about anything, except getting home where I have a bit more control. The only news I’ve gotten since last Friday came via an awful FM ‘rock’ radio station out of Sudbury. Why do so many morning radio personalities try so hard to be funny, and sound like morons in the process? We tried tuning in an AM news station on the clock radio we have in our cabin, but after 3 times through the entire band we gave up. The news I have gotten has been less than relevant for the most part, and not at all comprehensive.

I’m writing this now cause I’m killing some time after waking up shortly after 6 with stomach cramps that are either a result of my steak last night, or the water up here catching up to me. Its amazing country up here; just about every view is stunning, but the water that tastes like salted peanuts leaves something to be desired. I took at least a hundred pictures of said views of the landscape, and posted the best of them here. I wish I’d remembered my camera for our quick trip down to Manitoulin Island yesterday. Driving through a native reserve just on the north side of the island we saw a doe eating grass at the side of a road cut. Like I said, its amazing country up here, particularly relative to Southern Ontario.

There’s actual sunlight poking out now, and the loons that were sitting on the water 50 meters from our cabin have gone elsewhere in search for food, or perhaps shade, but they’ll get plenty of that later as a wall of clouds is rolling in from the west, ensuring that we get one last April shower. I sure hope it’s the last. Bring on the May flowers, and June, July, and August girls in bikinis. There are after all various types of natural breathtaking views.

View from our cabin. 22/04/2005.


View from our cabin. Evening of 23/04/2005.


View from our cabin later that night...


Holed up in the cabin. 24/04/2005


Obligatory scenery shots (I have plenty more, but picked a couple of the best)

Fox News Inaccuracies? C'est Impossible!

Congratulations to Frank McKenna on taking a stance on this one from the CBC.

Speaking Tuesday on the Fox News political show Hannity & Colmes, Gingrich said: "Far more of the 9/11 terrorists came across from Canada than from Mexico."

None of the 19 hijackers entered the U.S. from either Canada or Mexico, information confirmed by former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft and the 9/11 Commission investigating the attacks, wrote McKenna in his letter to Gingrich.

The comments "perpetuate an urban legend that can take on a life of its own, especially when repeated by people whose opinions are deeply respected in the United States," he wrote.

At least Gingrich had the smarts and humility to make an apology and retraction when realizing he was in error, unlike so many other guests of the Fox News network.

This will be my last post for a couple weeks, unless I manage to find a connection for my laptop up north when I'm not busy mapping rocks. I should have a ton of pictures that may or may not be interesting when I get back...i'm hoping for more of the former than the latter, cause then the trip itself won't have seemed like a waste of time, money and rest.

Another Term Down

And so another term ends. According to those ahead of me, this last term is the most demanding of all of them, so hopefully its all downhill from here, that is assuming I passed everything this term. I still have a 10 day field course to do near Sudbury. Its not for credit, but its still mandatory, yet another of those departmental things that just makes you shake your head. Hopefully it won't be too intolerable, although I'm not looking forward to waking my ass up to be on the road at 8 every morning, that's just not how I work. The day after I come back, I start work back at the University for the summer again, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Far less demanding, and a far more structured timetable compared with classes, evenings and weekends will be my own! A small break to relax would be nice, but working outside most of the summer, and with frequent summer long weekends, I have nothing to worry about.

Oh, and Catholics everywhere have a new spiritual leader to pass on his interpretations of the Bible on to the rest of the meek. I am awed at the fact that someone voted in to such a leadership position, suddenly gains the ability to understand and declare what is right and wrong to do. I personally have never seen the need to be told what is right or wrong, especially by the interpretation of a many times over translated document which may or may not have ever been based on actual historical events, or just conceived as philosophical conjecture. Translations, even now, are never perfect. One only need look as far as instructions in english for products imported from Asia and certain European countries to see that much. I, as much as with most logically thinking people, agree that one should go about their lives treating others as they expect to be treated, and all the other basic principles that follow, it is a rational interpretation of human nature. On the other hand, not eating certain kinds of meat, remembering that fish don't have feelings, and not using condoms to prevent disease spread, are both ancient and modern interpretations that seem completely irrational. This is why I find it difficult to 'practice' a religion, beyond thinking logically and treating others with respect. But hey, if in 400 years the Church can accept that Galileo was right about that whole world goin around the sun thing, then maybe, just maybe, it will be okay for us to go ahead and look at curing debilitating and fatal diseases with stem cells. And maybe by that time governments will be such that they don't feel themselves extensions of Christian 'law'.

Waterbeds are Truly Complex Machines

After breaking a sweat wrestling the frame of my waterbed together, and finally getting it screwed in place, I put the matress bladder in and filled it, only to have it not fill out into the one corner properly. I'm too tired of all this crap to drain it and refill it again though. I figure the worst that happens is I wake up having rolled into the low corner every morning, no big deal really.

As for the rest of the renovation, its more or less done. I had some paint peel on me where there was water damage under the old paint years ago that I'll have to sand and touch up. I'll probably do it when I get around to sanding and painting the trim and doors, that you'll notice in the pictures are nicotine yellow, with some green from a sloppy paint job some years back.

The one wall is extremely bare now, although once I get a wall hanger for my acoustic it won't be so bad. I have a couple posters that I want to get set on some pressboard to hang up, and I have some of my GuitarWorld posters that I could hang up in tacky fashion again. Maybe I should put a big corkboard up, we'll have to see what happens, and what kind of free time I get in the near future.

Long Day...

Got the walls mudded, and mostly sanded smooth tonight...my eyes hurt like hell, and my nose and throat are all plugged despite wearing a dustmask...oh well, c'est la vie.

Renovating

I finally decided that I had the time to take down my wallpaper and properly repaint my room. I now have my crap cluttered all over the house, and I'm sure that that won't be tolerated long, so I'm trying to bust my ass on this project. Well for that reason, and that I have 2 exams next week yet.

The wallpaper came off surprisingly easily, I was impressed, but what I found underneath was remarkable. Apparently two of the walls in my room were used in the set of the original "The Shining".

All its missing is a mirror with 'redrum' written on it. Adding to the gaudiness of the room were the next walls. I have to confess to doing the green myself 3 or 4 years ago while the wallpaper was still up, but the red and pink, with light blue showing through....the 70's must have been good times.

I had to take my computer out of there cause there's no way I was going to let it collect all the paint and drywall mud dust that will accumulate in there over the next few days. So instead, I've got my systems set up in the basement (without a net connection on the PC). I think the jury is out on me being a geek.

I'll post finished room pictures in a few days, hopefully...

Compare and Contrast...

In the past 24 hours I've polished off two more exams, and the difference between them I have to say is remarkable. Both of them were worth 40% of the final grade in the respective courses. Both of them were 3rd year level courses. Both of them are targetted at more or less the same stream of students. And yet, one professor writes his exam as 2 hours worth of writing in a 3 hour period with clearly worded questions, asking for exactly what he wants to see in the answers. And the other designs the exam such that there is 4 hours of writing to be accomplished in 3 hours, with vaguely worded questions, and concepts barely touched upon in lectures, and not touched upon in the course text or handouts. It almost becomes an exercise in metacognition rather than knowing the course material you've supposedly been taught, an exercise in mind-reading.

What is the need for obscure references and vaguely worded inquiries when you're looking for a direct response? I've seen the same out of a couple assignments this term as well, but given the time to prod the prof for their exact meaning you can at least come up with something close to what he or she is looking for. On the other hand, in a strict time managed environment, with no outside resources available, a student shouldn't be forced to sit there and guess at what the hell the professor in question wants to see. For all profs or future profs out there, if you want a direct answer, ask a direct question, don't expect students to be call answerers on a fucking psychic hotline.

3 Down...

4 to go....exams of course. I just had Geotechnical Engineering 1 make me its bitch, but then, as long as I passed I'm happy...I don't need to know the fundamentals of foundation design and dam building. Yet another of those mostly useless courses selected by the faculty as a requisite. Its Friday afternoon, its sunny, its moderately warm, and I don't have another exam til Monday and Tuesday, so I'm gonna relax and try to forget about school for the day.

Woke up this morning to a painful roundtable discussion and analysis of the Pope's funeral. Obvious questions, obvious answers, but at least no passing on of illogical doctrines or preventing the use of condoms to prevent disease or anything, so I guess it was a win for the church.

And how about them Blue Jays! They're leading the American League! Granted, the season's only 3 games in but hey, when you're a fan of a team in the AL East that isn't well hung financially like Boston, New York and Baltimore, you'll take anything you can get. I actually think they have a nice solid line-up...solid defense (at least 2 gold glovers), good contact hitting. The problem is gonna be pitching, particularly from the pen, although there's a little bit of money to work with yet if someone worthwhile comes on the market and the Jays are halfway competitive still at that point. Time will tell, I can't hope for too much, being as I've already been blessed in sports this year with not having to watch, hear or otherwise experience Maple Leafs fans ramble on about how this is the year. There IS no year. And while we're on the hockey topic, not to be overly cocky or anything, but when is the world gonna do something about women's hockey because really, there's not much drama to 13-0, 12-0 and 10-0 victories. At least when the men kick some ass, there's a brief, whiff of something that could possibly be a remote opportunity at an upset.

Daylight Time

Well, time just magically sprung forward in its magical daylight saving kinda way, and wow do I feel relieved....or not. Instead I've just lost an hour of time I can waste/use for studying. I promised myself I was gonna get shit done today, but true to myself I couldn't let that happen, so instead I'll try to squeeze things in tomorrow between waking up late and going out to lunchy/dinner (if breakfast-lunch is brunch, is lunch-supper officially 'lupper'?) I think its an all you can eat, which means I'll be incapacitated for at least 2 hours afterwards, at which point the good Sunday night TV will start...rough life huh? I know I have no place to complain "...but sometimes I still do, life's been good to me so far" (Joe Walsh - "Life's Been Good").

Anyways, being 3am, I should probably decide on a movie to watch and go to sleep. Scarface last night into the morning had me wired. I think I might have to go for a laid back, innuendo laden, Bond movie tonight. The tough call is Connery, Moore, Dalton or Brosnan. Decisions, decisions...

This also marks my first post using my new laptop...yay? I've been impressed so far at least, no serious issues of any kind, at least for the relatively little I paid for a utility laptop. I realize this post is all over the place, and I should probably be going now...the goldfish in the downstairs tank are staring at me unpleasantly...its the time change, it fucks with yor head I swear...