Old Lane Sign?

I've managed to deflect plans from going to Niagara Falls for New Years, which I had neither the money, nor particularly the energy for, to relaxing around here, playing some games, enjoying fondue, and drinking with friends. Getting smashed with friends is after all the point of yet another arbitrarily set holiday. New beginnings, resolutions, blah blah blah, there's really no significance to the day anyways, except that its the day of the Rose Bowl. And that's not til 5 which means I'll have plenty of time to clean up and sober up before I watch Michigan show that they really should have been in the title game.

In other news, the sasquatch has invaded the wooded areas of the Waterloo moraine. Sasquatch's girlfriend appears to enjoy taking pictures of sasquatch's moss stained crotch, and hitting him there with knees, or foosball table handles at every available opportunity.

Oscar the Grouch

I went out today with the intention of spending the gift certificate to the fish store that I got for my birthday from Carolyn. After wandering around for 45 minutes, dodging the kids of families wandering over from the Chinese buffet next door, and finding the fish I was after was out of stock, we moved on to the smaller, more local fish store I've been to for years.

The people who run the little shop have known me since I was so little that I had to be lifted up to look in the tanks above the bottom row, or warned not to put my little digits into the piranha tank. I found out today that they've finally found someone to buy them out of their little shop and allow them to retire home to their own personal wildlife community and family. While they were nice people and all, I'm going to be most disappointed if the new ownership either a) runs the place into the ground or b) jacks up the prices, and changes the selection much, or some combination thereof.

Anyways, I picked up some new fish for the tank downstairs which was down to just my oscar. The oscar has been getting pickier over food as it gets bigger, so I decided to grab some feeder guppies to change it up a bit. Little was I expecting to be so entertained by watching the oscar hunt down 11 of the 12 guppies within half an hour. Slowly at first, but with more effectiveness as it figured out the technique, and wore down the smaller fish. The smarter of the guppies, or at least those who lucked out by zigging instead of zagging lucked out for a little while behind the filter, but that no long-term memory thing will kill you every time.

Unfortunately, now that the fleeting guppy supply has been dispensed with, the oscar has kept up a bit of an aggressive streak and is poking at the other, larger (but not large enough) fish I also picked up. They're doing a slightly better job of finding the places in the tank the oscar can't get to. Survival of the fittest at its finest; hopefully they hold out a bit longer to give me a bit more enjoyment out of my rapidly dwindling savings.

Aftermath Redux

I'm happy to report there was no drunken frollicking in the snow associated with birthday drinking this year. I'd like to attribute it to maturity and better handling of my liquor this time around, but mostly I think it was the lack of snow.

The night was a blast. Lots of drinking, kissing cousins, and only one prairie fire to contend with. That one prairie fire came too early in the evening to be handled smoothly, but really there's no good time to take prairie fires.

Later in the evening, the night turned into a small highschool reunion, with another buddy of mine since elementary school showing up with a group of friends. Its funny how with some people the gossip and drama don't get left behind somewhere. I did my best to leave all of those things in the long locker lined hallways of my highschool, but for some people its good entertainment. I suppose looking in from the outside on those same situations has its own entertainment value, just not in the same ways.

And so another birthday is gone by, as is the associated hangover, and now its time for some poker to try to aid the coffers that have already been drained by the holiday season.

Sweet Sweet Freedom

The exams are gone, the lab work is done until the new year, with me pretending to ignore all the problems that have crept into that situation. The x-mas shopping got squeezed into a one day affair yesterday, despite having to fight with my 'pimpmobile' and its frequent stalls, and with the obscene number of people who take holidays from work just to get shopping done. Those kind are the worst, with their over-eagerness to throw away money, while pushing around and running into as many people as possible with their oversized bags of crap.

This year I pretty much managed to have a list of what I wanted to pick up for everyone on my list before I went out. The most difficult of course was shopping for the girlfriend; leave it to the holidays to really reveal your shortcomings as a guy and your ability to read subtle hints/remember details. The first idea that came to mind was the requisite gag gift. For whatever reason, my Simpsons boxers are quite amusing to the girlfriend, so I was going to try to find some Simpsons underwear for herself. Of course I was unwilling to spend much time milling around the ladies undergarment section of any store that might carry such things, and there's a distinct lack of gimmicky stores in the malls around here anymore, so I first turned to the internet.

Try typing in 'Simpsons panties' without the proper use of search strings in Google and see what comes up. eBay had a poor selection, and all the items were across the border which generally means risking a long wait on delivery. So it was off to the mall, not only in search of the gag, but a decent 'real' gift, as well as picking up the other items on my list. I found most of my list without issue, but of course the one item I decided on for the girl was nowhere to be found, and cursory searches of the women's intimates were fruitless. By cursory, I mean actually walking through the department, and looking for anything with cartoons on them, but not spending much time.

With the van stalling 4 times in the same parking lot, I decided it was time just to get my piece of shit ride home and wait for another set of wheels. I managed to regroup in the evening and pick up the outstanding items on the list, plus a new gag gift, thus concluding all my x-mas shopping in one day. Not quite down to the one hour dash like some, but I'll take it.

As for the panties, it turns out my girlfriend and I were on the same wavelength, as for my early birthday gift last night, I received none other than...well okay, not Simpsons panties, but, some shiny polyester Simpsons boxers. Between that and this glorious weather (see picture above and the distinct dominance of the colour green), I couldn't ask much more for the birthday. That said, there is still the birthday drinking to participate in tonight.

These G-Strings Ain't Shakin'

At the end of the summer I worked on my best Bob Vila impression, renovating the converted room in the back of my garage. At the point I left it off, there was some carpet down and an otherwise empty room. For the first bit of this term, while it was still warm, I let the room serve as a room for my buddy and I to crank our amps, or to host games of poker.
Since the onset of the cold weather however, the poor insulation back there, combined with the unrelated piling on of course work, has seen me go back there less and less frequently. I've since moved the weight machine that was acting only as a threat to toes everywhere as an obstacle back there, and not used it as much as is warranted either. I've found a little time to pluck away at my mid-range Washburn acoustic that otherwise hangs on display in my room, but other than that my guitars have been neglected. I haven't touched my electric since early October, or put new strings on either since perhaps late August.

But after I finish the lab work for my thesis on Monday, I plan on stopping at the music shop on the way home to grab new strings for both and doing something about all that. None of this means anything of course because I still have no intentions of ever playing for anyone but myself, but I still find my fun. Infact, I probably should have taken the time out from work more often this fall to plug in the guitar. Few things work quite as well for releasing tension as cranking the gain, and thrashing out some old school speed Metallica riffs, with no care for the quality.

Aside from the guitar, and its neglect, I've switched to Foobar for playing my music collection. Its a simple, plug-in oriented music player that I've known of for years but was unwilling to part with Winamp over. Winamp started pissing me off, and Windows Media Player is, in short, trash, so here we are. Foobar works well, with far fewer resources than either of the above, and has also lead to me re-tagging most of my collection, and starting to add track numbers to the tags to facilitate the excellent sorting options that it offers. The advent of mp3s has for most meant a lean away from listening to albums front to back, as some of the greater ones of all time were originally intended, but Foobar is getting me away from that again.

If you're not gonna give Foobar a try, at least buy/'legally' download the new Emily Haines (of Metric; I wonder how long that qualification will last) album, as its well done.

Oh, and I switched to 'Blogger beta'...we'll see how this goes.

I Lied

So, when I suggested I would be around posting more frequently, I did so with the best intentions. And then I got sick. First time I'd really say I was 'sick', not hungover, in 5 or 6 years. Usually I'll end up with one of a cough, stuffed sinuses, a headache, or a sore throat, but never all hitting at the same time. Does it mean I'm gonna get off my ass and get a flu shot next year? Of course not.

It really only managed to kill me for one exam anyways, which in itself seemed like an unfair test of the material taught to us in the course. There's a history of that with the prof for the course too, but I'm not a whiner and don't plan on raising a fuss over it. I'll still pass the course, the mark from there will just depend on leniency and part marks.

The end of term party was as usual a blast with all the bar regulars making their appearance. As far as I recall, it was for me the first time I wasn't around to close down the bar at the end of the night, but there's also been somewhat of a priority shift since those 'younger' days.

In other news, I think I might try switching to the new Blogger, if only for the ability to tag my posts, which was the reason I wanted to switch to Wordpress way back when. The Maple Leafs are now on a 7 game losing streak and I'm loving every minute of it, despite the fact that the Avalanche are comparatively no better right now. Raymi wants/needs your vote. Tony was almost deemed wikipedia material. And I'm thinking about getting some of these to keep me amused, and maybe help mess with some of those creationists with my buddy Steve:

Its Here

Damnit Nick, I told you to keep this shit to yourself, have you no common decency?!

Yes folks, its that time of year. The snow, the christmas shopping, and final exams are all combining in one implicit formula for fun. But the thesis presentation is out of the way, and off the radar, until the next one in April, and only went off with minor embarrassment. Oh the joys of computers and a school that's world renowned for their computer science program, yet doesn't keep their presentation room computers up to date. And now just a paper and two finals, one of them open book, separate me from my relative (in)sanity for the holidays.

And so, in the interest of study procrastination, along with the likely added influx of photos from the next few weeks of end of term, birthday, and holiday partying, you can expect an increased posting frequency around here for a while.

"I was just guessin' at numbers and figures"

For all the course work and lab work that is part of my program, I was just playing a part as a scientist today, not the real deal. One of my thesis supervisors e-mailed me suggesting we should meet leading up to my presentation on Thursday, so I went in for that this afternoon, and realized how out of touch I really was with my own project.

"Why are we even doing this project, how is it relevant?" Uhhh.


"How is your project expanding on the studies already done at the site?" Uhhh.

I felt like I was having teeth pulled, which is ironic, given that my thesis is focused on the natural production of what is commonly known as laughing gas. With a few minutes of discussion I was more in step with where I should be, although probably still not quite as far along as I should be. Over the Christmas break I get to give myself a refresher on isotope enrichment, as it relates to nitrification/denitrification. Sound like a laugh riot?

The supervisor I'm in contact with a majority of the time has been pretty laid back about things though (typical of our Department), and understands that I plan on focusing more on the thesis next term when the course load is lightened. The other supervisor is a much more old-school, field-oriented worker, and is seldom to be found on campus, except when teaching the 4th year basic field work principles course in hydrogeology. Handwritten notes, handdrawn maps and plots, in the field, likely with hands numb from the cold and damp, this is how my second supervisor gets the job done. And while its a pain in the ass for anyone working from the data later, I think its a practice to get in to as it forces one to really look at and interpret data as its obtained, rather than compiling it all later.

Alright, done geeking out on you all now, back to making contour plots I go.

Down and Goal to Go

Its been a hectic week. At this point that much is assumed. But I've now got one course completely done and off the radar, and 2 more are done lectures, with just a final exam or paper to chug through. That leaves me with one course, and my preliminary thesis project presentation to focus on.

As a kid I was great with public speaking, but with the onset of highschool and university I lost my confidence in getting up infront of an audience and speaking like I know what I'm talking about. Sure I know all the principles of how to address the audience, stand tall, speak loudly and clearly, make eye contact, but its still somewhat of a chore, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

The key will be to actually understand what I'm trying to convey before then with the limited data I've got, and some cursory diagrams. Just enough to fill 10 to 15 minutes and then everything should be smooth sailing on into next term, and its collection of joke arts electives. Psychology 101, Anthropology 101, watch out.

Take a Good Look at the Date

See that date stamp above? What does it say? November 17, 2006 right?

N-O-V-E-M-B-E-R.

Not D-E-C-ember.

Yes everyone knows Christmas is a commercial sham of a holiday that's become less about spending time with family and friends, and more about trying to out pace them in realms of baking, gifting, Kris Kringling and...tacky decoration!

The decorating, more than a month before the damn day, is absolutely out of hand. Last week already on a walk I noticed more than a handful of houses already decked out in a mish-mash of various Christmas lights, LED's and flood lights. Tonight I notice that the City of Waterloo already has their bloody wreaths up on the light posts uptown, and the lights on the trees lit up already.

November 17.

Sure, hang your lights and other decorations while the weather is good. By all means, I'm not asking people to go sliding off roofs. I can even take your tacky splatters of whatever was the brightest/most colourful/most likely-to-induce-seizure-flash-sequences in decorations for a week or two leading up to the 25th...of December. But is it really necessary to spend more than a 12th of the year plugging those things in?

"But the Christmas parade is tomorrow." you argue? That's fine. Again no need to have the kids huddled outside in weather any colder than necessary all running around with the flu and getting everyone else sick. The City can have its wreaths, I'll concede them that, but damnit, don't light them at the very least until December.

Maybe its high time the entire month of November become akin to Devil's Night before Hallowe'en, and let the kids loose on those endless strands of icicle lights. Sucks to be you if you went and hung them and lit them way too early, cause now you have to hope every other idiot in town hasn't bought them out at the local Canadian Tire, buy more, and hang them in the more frigid, snowy conditions of December.

Its time to relax on the aggrandizing of this shopping bonanza celebration.

Edit:
I suggest you do something more productive with your Christmas decoration money (via Rick Mercer)

The Crushed Dreams of a Would Be Superstar

My fast-track to slo-pitch superstardom met a difficult roadblock this afternoon. After making a run to the championship game undefeated, and dominating every statistical category kept by league officials (read: volunteer students), we were beaten by a group of Campus Rec organizers. Were the the opposing team less a bunch of dicks, and had they not had at least 3 calls work in their favour that wouldn't have, had they not been the employers of the game's umpire, I would have walked away satisfied. But losing like that just leaves a bitter aftertaste, and not the good kind from a bottle of Grolsch or Pilsner Urquell.

They were in fact the better team, with more team speed and size, I'll concede that much, but we hung right with them, and had there not been a few of those deflating calls, we had a real shot. And so end the dreams of multi-million dollar contracts and chartered team flights. Now its off for beer and wings with the team!

Team photo will come later when Buzznet decides to stop being a bitch.

Look What Fell in My Lap

Once in a while the University decides to take a break from running the students around, and drops a tasty treat in your lap. In the past any scholarships I've received have all been distributed by the 2nd week of October, so I had given up on the possibility of having some extra cushion for a graduation trip. Imagine my surprise then when a letter and cheque were dropped in my mailbox this morning. Almost enough to make me feel like working an extra bit at all on some assignments to round out the week.

Combine that with the Democrats finally not losing an election down in America, and my surprise check of my Yahoo Fantasy Football Pick 'Em rank, and its been a good day.

My one regret is not showing up for my Quaternary Geology class today, where the cranky old prof in his last term teaching the course, or any other course, apparently straight up told the class we were illiterate. Gotta love it. The guy has been around long enough that there are quite possibly Masters dissertations on his mobile fossil remains. He seems like a nice enough guy, and he knows his field like nobody's business (he has infact written a large proportion of the geological reports for Southern Ontario), but its also quite obvious that he's lost the enthusiasm for the teaching. Its a shame our department doesn't do a better job of bringing in comparable replacements in a more timely fashion. Phrases to the effect of "have a typist transcribe and edit your work" should not appear in the directions for submitted term reports in your higher level educational facilities in the year 2006.

Weekend Update

The first of Saddam Hussein's trials results are in.

"...today’s verdict represented a moment of triumph and catharsis for many Iraqis after decades of suffering under Mr. Hussein’s tyrannical rule.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Iraq in spite of an around-the-clock curfew imposed on the capital and other regions. People fired pistols and assault rifles into the air in a common gesture of jubilation."

...

"'We saw this trial, along with the others, as an opportunity to bring justice to those Iraqis who had suffered horribly under Baath Party rule,' Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement today. 'Unfortunately, we believe the serious shortcomings in the fairness of the proceedings undermined the legitimacy and credibility of the trial.'"

Mr. Dicker said the proceedings were marred by 'some disturbing court practices,' including, he said, the court’s failure to deliver documents to the defense in a timely manner; public criticism by government minister of the first presiding judge, Rizgar Amin, who resigned in protest in January 2006; and the failure of Mr. Amin’s replacement, Mr. Rahman, 'to demonstrate proper judicial demeanor in his management of the proceedings.'"

Now, regardless of those questions about the fairness, and true just nature of what was thought from the beginning in many minds to be a sham set-up, am I misguided for thinking that the execution of Saddam as early as the spring, will unite his Sunni supporters under a martyr figure? Instead of dissolving this insurgency as is being optimistically touted, will that lead to another large scale upwelling in violence? Remember how those U.S. forces were going to be greeted with flowers and celebrated as liberators when Saddam was overthrown? Eternal pessimist, or realist?


And in "do as I say, not as I do" news, Pastor Ted has resigned (or been removed, depending on the source) from his position over drug possession and alleged homosexual activities with a masseuse. Alter boys and wine must have lost their edge, and required some envelope pushing. Hopefully the congregations donation envelopes weren't included in any of that activity. Meanwhile a female bishop has taken over a leadership position for the first time anywhere in the Anglican church. One stride forward, one leap back.


The first game of the Slo-pitch playoffs goes today. Looking at the bracket, the one other good team we wanted to meet, got knocked out by one of the bottom seeds. The lesson learned is that we can't go in cocky and risk losing an otherwise dominant season. Its not below freezing with windchill today so, either way, it should be a fun game.

Bring on the Sugar Highs

The fun sized candy bags made their appearance at school today, along with the over-eager dress-up types. And between being done the tough part of the semester, and the glucose and sucrose loading, people were wound in the opposite direction of late today. Of course, if I'd gotten out to Value Village to complete a costume idea I had, I mighta dressed up too. A shoutout goes out to the person dressed up as one of the Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And what did I learn today? Well nothing really, but attention was once again brought to the giant mammals that used to walk these lands prior to all the cracked asphalt roads and ugly buildings. Included in those, giant beavers. Giant old beavers. I can think of no more productive thing to sit and contemplate than 2 metre beavers this afternoon. Its almost enough to make me find a costume and a party tonight.

Let me tell you, no-one could get a party rockin like a Castoroides ohioensis. I'll leave all the wood and further beaver jokes up to you all...I need more candy.

Edit: Check out Letterman vs. O'Reilly Round 2, I missed it.

Proving The Cosmologists Wrong

Here I am. I managed to break free of the black hole that was the last 2 weeks of assignments, labs and midterm exams. Some of the early assignment and exam marks are in with alright results, but I have this feeling that those are going to fall off a bit with the later stuff at which point I was all but burnt out. The important thing though is that its all behind me, and should be relatively smooth sailing for the rest of the term.

Of course spending time with the girl (and by girl I mean girl, Nick) has been worked in there too, but what I lost in sleep, I made up for in having kept my sanity. Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am to live at home still, but not have my mother still try to 'parent' me. As long as I do a reasonable amount of work around the house to keep things in order, I tend to be exempt from the clichéd rants on how this is 'still her roof', or how 'I'll understand when I'm a parent' (an argument which has obvious flaws with me).

Well, some parents aren't quite as laid back about things anymore, particularly with the daughter versus son double-standard. Sure 5:30am is a bit late to get home, maybe, but I know I wouldn't have to deal with the questions the next day. I've definitely cemented the role as the bad boyfriend anyways. Its one of the issues I didn't think I'd have to deal with with having a slightly older girlfriend as well, but all in all, some are just luckier than others in their pursuit of an education while surviving on more than past expiry foods, and beer.

Another Sunday

And so some of the craziness is behind me. One more week of madness ahead of me and then things should relax a bit until the end of term in about a month.

Today was supposed to be a slo-pitch league game and then some R&R around the house, but apparently the people who run the league are made of sugar and melt in the moisture left after the rain has already blown through, so we just hit the ball around some, and will likely have to make the game up as part of a triple-header next Sunday. Hopefully that kind of schedule won't lead to us dropping our undefeated record.

Of course, that would also require no rain for a period of more than say 5 hours, which I don't think has happened for over a month. This has to be one of the rainiest autumns I can remember, always dreary and overcast, adding to the already rapidly shortening days. I have a feeling its gonna be a long winter. But a lighter courseload, and the prospect of being done my bachelors degree will loom large and hopefully carry me through til the spring, and the westward roadtrip.


Tony Pierce is back home from touring the U.S., parts of Canada, and is celebrating his one hundred-rd birthday today. Drop by and say hey!

Scientists Employ Very Helpful Figures Portraying Great Things

Midterms, assignments, labs, rinse and repeat. Its been a crazy couple weeks, again made moreso by my lack of real drive until a day before a given due date or tests. And yet, here I am 4th year still pulling this stuff outta my ass when I need it most.

That may all change with my less than spectacular memory for derivations of all the different thermodynamics relationships I should know for 9am tomorrow. It would help a bit perhaps if the 3 sample exams we've been given access too had answer keys so as to know if you actually knew your shit, but hey, why not frustrate everyone a little more when they're already bogged down.

But after tomorrow's exam, and the lab due, and the lab tutorial, freedom! Freedom for an evening to cook dinner for the girl, and freedom for a day to get caught up on some reading, and get stuff prepped for a field day Saturday. The fun is endless.

So that's where I'm at, and why there's been a serious lack of effort around here lately. Matt Good has been posting some awesome stuff lately. Rick Mercer has had some great posts after returning from summer abroad. My del.icio.us has some interesting reading in it, although I haven't had time to add much to it lately. Go check em out, while I come up with something more meaningful to say!

Thank you, come again.

Worst to First Cliches Ensue

Detroit, I'm happy that you knocked out the Yankees. Hell, I'm happy that you managed to grope and grasp your way out of the AL Central cellar. But once you knocked off those Yanks that give the A's fits every year, you were supposed to lay down and die. Now you go and knock them out too? I'm disappointed in you.

Granted, the A's aren't the Mulder, Zito, Hudson machine they used to be, but damn. And yet, I may still end up having to cheer for you again in the next round. I'm too lazy to look up if/when a team has gone on to knock off both NY teams in the same playoffs, but suffice it to say I'll be looking for it to happen if the Mets pull through. Its not an anti-NYC thing, its just being a Jays fan. The Yankees clearly inherit their status by default, and a ridiculous addition to the payroll to the bankroll there every year. But the Mets now because they field two deserting Jays who wanted a 'chance to win' and couldn't honour their club. So Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, when you lose either this round or next, we'll see who wants to come crawling back to the blue birds and their promising squad for next season.

In other news, like the money loaded Yankees, the monstrosity that is Micro$oft reared its ugly buggy software head at me again yesterday and killed my MSN Live Messenger. After searching for hours for a way to actually remove all files and references to it completely and start over, and finding that like Internet Whorer, its impossible, I opted for the full format.

Enter the trial download version of Windows Vista. I have to say, for a beta, and for Microsoft I'm slightly impressed. Sure there are issues still with driver support for just about everything I have in my computer, but the only thing that won't work at all is adding our new printer over the network. Aside from that it looks sharp, has some interesting, halfway useful features in the new sidebar gadget, and with the exception of said sidebar, is respectably customizable. If you too are a nerd looking to waste time while you should be studying/working/being sociable, I suggest giving it a try.

Go Cards!

What the hell am I doin' here, I don't belong here

Its only October 12, wtf.

Saving Souls

Good thing I had the Baptists looking out for me at the Thanksgiving Day Parade this morning.

Give a Christian thumper a credit card, and they'll buy a bunch of text printed prayer cards; teach a Christian thumper to use CorelDraw and they'll give you an excellent pictorial description of you going to hell, complete with a liquid surface on the depths of hell.

Oktoberfest Sucks

The second week of October every year sees Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest go down. A copycat of those held in Germany, and the largest in the world outside of Bavaria. The large German population in and around our area lead to the formation of 4 or 5 German clubs each growing to have its own featured attraction in the form of a good strudle, or the best schnitzel, or a good solid dance group.

Enter my bias. My dad's side of the family, being of a German descent, strongly urged involvement for me as I grew up; as a child I either had the choice of attending German school early saturday mornings, or dancing with our club's dance group. So guess who made the poor future choice, and instead of becoming versed in a new language, got himself decked out in lederhosen, white knee socks and dance shoes, and cut up the hardwood floors of festhalls across K-W, southern Ontario, and into the States?

But letting the bias go, in a completely objective light, Oktoberfest sucks. Of course the first argument against me is the 'massive boost to economy' that Oktoberfest brings. I suppose. But most of that money I'm sure doesn't go solely to the local beer breweries for example, and all the pins and hats and random gaudy memorabilia aren't all made here, so really the number estimates they throw out there are strongly inflated I'm sure.

Is that profit then worth going out and pretending to be of German descent, cause lets face it the demographics here have changed a lot in 60 years, and paying marked up prices on beer, and the obligatory shots of Jager and/or Schnapps, all while listening to the same polkas and waltzes cranked through the house system for hours on end? Never mind the rage inspiring chicken dance.

And then there are all the out of towners and foreigners that come to town to see what all the fuss is about. Anyone who's been here knows that we have some of the most backwards, apparently random street set-up anywhere in North America, still following old mennonite and farmer pathways, weaving, and intersecting 3 times within the Region limits. Throw in the increased incidence of drunk drivers, and the so required increased RIDE check programs and police presence on the streets, and you wonder why?

Celebrating German heritage? At this point that's just a thrown out excuse, its not so much the German crowds that go out to these things anymore. Like I said the population demographics have changed. And now its a lot more of those that would otherwise denounce the Germans still leading back to the World Wars that go out and celebrate this 'German heritage'. So then the next excuse becomes increased sense of community. Sure, except everyone still goes out with the same groups of friends, just with a different excuse to party, there is no building of community. In fact, in most cases it ends up with running into people you haven't seen in years be it since school, or a previous job, with a good reason for having avoided them. Bring on the awkward moments, and another 6 dollar beer.

And so it is, that aside from the schoolwork, and finding time to hang out with the new female persuasive figure, I'll be hibernating around the house for a week. Gemütlichkeit my ass.

Cottage Country

The clouds and cold wind rolling in at 2am Saturday morning were a good indication of things to come for the weekend (or 24 and a bit hours) in cottage country. The weather I was prepared for, the ceaseless activity on the other hand was a bit more unforseen. I've always been of the mind that the cottage is meant for kicking back and calming down, which is exactly what I was hoping for in heading up there if only for a little while.

Bring on the ATV's, and the turkey deep fryer, and the boats and your time slips away pretty quickly. Not that all said activities didn't have their fun, nor was I disappointed with the Port Carling area combined with the change of season, and the occasional burst of unobstructed sunlight. Infact the whole story behind the cottages we were in added to the whole northern experience of it all.

It turns out that Anne's (the buddy's girlfriend) grandfather ran a lumber mill on the lake, and owned all the property on the laneway coming in (which has since been named after him). The family still owns most of the cottages along there, but more interesting are the shacks built on obscure rock outcrops in the middle of the woods or down long since weeded over paths with notes hanging on the wall from squatters, and with curious family history.

The lumber mill hasn't really been run in years now, although with a few well placed drops of oil to the various pieces of equipment, it seems like it could spark to life at any time. They still sell some of the remaining stock lumber, including massive 4x10 planks to the locals, but other than that the whole area serves up the true cottage experience.

And then there was the deep fried turkey. When approaching hickville Ontario, do as the hicks do I suppose. But as greasy and disastrous as it first sounded, it didn't turn out half bad in the end. As long as you steered clear of the dark meat, you didn't feel like you were ingesting 50% oil in each bite.

And so, while not the recovery weekend I was hoping for, I still had my share of fun, got some awesome pictures, and helped keep up some ridiculousness for J's birthday. Can't very well bitch about all that.

Too Busy to be Tired

The forecast for tonight is a low of 11. The chill of autumn is here to stay, until its time for it to get worse. Despite all my work this week, both for courses and on my thesis, I still did manage to spend a bunch of time outside with an evening walk and chat or two; the days of watching the moisture of your breath diffuse into the air are back.

All that said, I don't have much time to write tonight. Heading out to wander around the city for a bit before coming home to catch a few winks and then heading up to cottage country to celebrate a buddy's birthday. Beer, fishing, fire, and...a homework assignment on tap for the weekend. The student life after the 8 month break has come on faster and harder than it did in any previous term, leaving me with barely the time to catch up on the news. Graduation in the spring will be that much sweeter.

Maybe they'll give me an office slightly bigger than this for my Masters work

Hoarse

I was bang on in figuring the work would start piling on this week. Tuesday's 9 and a half hours straight of class, without break, was a real winner in my books, and I can't wait to do it again for the next 4 weeks. I'm pretty much locked into the thesis project I didn't really want now, although the meeting I had today kinda had the thesis going in a more interesting direction. Here's hoping.

Of course, I could have been misinterpreting everything that was said because I was pretty spaced out all morning from the vast quantities of hydroxyls consumed last night. My voice is still raspy from having to yell over the live band, who played with some great energy all night long for a party cover band. It was kind of an awkward set-up in the bar, but everyone seemed like they had a good time.

After the band stopped playing, we stumbled down the street to hit up another bar to close down. Now, I know waitresses have to deal with all the stupid drunks, and just general outright idiots, so when they keep a sense of humour about things at closing time while they're trying to clean up for the night, they deserve a shout-out. In particular was the waitress last night who, upon one drunken buddy telling her how a couple other drunken buddies cock-blocked him by telling some girl he had gonorrhea, replied with "You know what the best part of you having gonorrhea is? The 'gone' part". Line of the night.

And now its time for the weekend again, which is itself looking pretty hectic with a hiking trip pencilled in for tomorrow, our first slo-pitch league game Sunday, and compiling a bunch of previous data for my thesis to prepare for sampling next week. In that realm, things to do items are racking up a hell of a lot faster than the things already done. Time to go attempt to turn that around.

Tie It Down, Then Tie One On

27 degrees and sunny around here yesterday, and now the slow decay into winter. Time to pull out the window air conditioner and stuff it away in the basement until next year. And time to buckle down for the endless reams of notes, and hours in labs. That's right racefans, its the third week of September.

If the weekend to kick the week off is any indication then the week shouldn't be too bad. It started with my 4-day weekend being broken up by an e-mail reply about finding myself a thesis project so as to graduate at the end of these 8 months of classes. Now, they're not ideal topics, the details of which I won't begin to attempt to bore you with, but this point in time isn't the one to be picky, so I'm rolling with it. Two topics: one an on-going project, an hour plus away near London, studying greenhouse gas release from groundwater reaction systems (read - not my ideal); and the other a project just getting off the ground, closer to home near Shakespeare, and more to do with groundwater itself than gases (read - the better project). But clichés exist for a reason, and I am the one in the beggar role.

So then, despite having my weekend shortened, it was better than sitting around in limbo with no topic. Then came the usual sitting around gaming and drinking with friends, with an unusual dose of stamina that kept some of us playing the original Mario and talking until all hours of the morning. Some nice warm weather, some slo-pitch practice with the campus rec team, more interesting conversation getting all nostaligic about the silly toys and games of youth, the horrible clothing fads, the kids TV shows that were so much better than they are today, and the haircuts our parents subject us to, before we go ahead and are old enough to make our own horrible choices (see mullet).

Throw in some good weather, a University of Michigan statement against the Notre Dame Whimpering Irish, some domination in the Pro Fantasy Football realm, and San Francisco actually pulling out a win under their 2nd year QB who seems to be settling into his role, and you've got yourself a pretty solid weekend.

Now I just have to carry that through the week, get some assignment work done, and prepare for the annual Logan Day drinkfest. Apparently the goal for the night is to get Steve on the stripper poles, as the bar we have reserved serves by day as a peeler bar...

Shouldn't be an issue.

Now That Wasn't So Bad Was It?

The first week back to classes is usually a joke. This term was no different. Already I'm sitting, doing my best to will the professor through the material faster. Of course once all the assignments and labs start rolling out next week, I'm gonna get bogged down quickly.

So this week I just let it roll at its own slow pace and didn't put in any undue effort, aside from a bunch of us cleaning up our student lounge, so as to be able to lounge like students in it. Our foosball table needs to be rebuilt, but the new dart board and air hockey table are good to go in my attempt to earn a 6th credit for the term in gamesroom domination.

I also managed to finally get myself on an actual, league play involved, slo-pitch team. Will I take it a bit too seriously? Probably. I'm a bit competitive, but not to the point of yelling and screaming at umps, who are after all volunteering anyways as far as I know. At the very least it'll get me fit to the point where my shoulders and hamstrings aren't taut like guitar strings 5 days after playing like they are right now. And I'll feel better about taking some kind of advantage of the ever climbing tuition like that Cliff Hangers game in the Price is Right, but without the possibility of ever falling off.

The school sure hasn't pumped that money into better wireless support in the Earth Sci building since I left, but seems to have put a ton of money into our student dive bar, making it into a more upscale bar, and less into a student dive bar, like the feel for a campus bar SHOULD be. I can guarantee Douglas Coupland won't be mentioning it in any more books again any time soon. Clearly not the worst thing to happen at post-secondary school this week though.

Anyways, 4 day weekend starts....now! Go have fun with bubble paper.

Bitch Tits Parcells

I don't have a TV capture card in my computer yet to add proper visual evidence. For that you should be glad. Bill Parcells needs to NOT wear a golf shirt at least a size too small for him. I realize when you get old certain things get beyond your control, but at that point you realize the genius of loose fitting clothing.

Man, I'm givin it to the old people this week...but they probably deserve it.

Rock Out

The room at the back of my garage is at long last respectable again. Not finished by any means, but all the major pieces are together. And to test it out my buddy Dave brought down his amp and we jammed for a while. Now, I don't want to put the exercise equipment that's chewing up room in our basement back there, and instead keep that room for rocking out, as well as I can pretend to do that.

As is always the case, we'll see what happens, and it'll be a while before the room is finished enough for that equipment to go up there anyways. I'll likely be bored of reliving my younger days playin in a 'garage band' by then anyways.

Classes at the university officially open tomorrow, but I have until Tuesday morning for my first class. As expected, my time off disintegrated rather quickly, but at least it was productive. That is, after all, always the goal right? Like an automotive plant, production production production. In all seriousness, I'd like to keep that up for the first few weeks of classes for once, where I usually tend to drop the ball and end up playing catchup for the rest of the term.

Although its never really bit me in the ass, I'd rather not churn out those last minute assignments so much anymore, cause at some point it will kill me, and I can't go doing that in my last year making sure to keep the grades for Grad school. That would all seriously hamper my plans to do nothing but laze about in academia for a few more years til I find a job I could truly enjoy.

Until Tuesday then, somewhat of a highschool reunion baseball game, some NFL opening weekend play and some surfing will be the chef's special. Go Niners!

Idiots

Hey old people, maybe unless you're homeless and are living on that money, you should NOT bring back 3 carts full of empties scattered into bags with a few cases at the after work rush hour and during the first week of school when every student in the city is stocking up. You're old, you have all damn morning every week day to take care of that crap. Do better next time.

I'm Wearing White, Fuck the Fashionistas

I have some peace around the house again for a week before my own classes start again. Everyone else has gone back to their working worlds or early start classes, which means I can get things accomplished again. But along with back to school comes the throng of yellow bananas, students, bad foreign student drivers, and a surge of parents helping all the frosh move in. In short, its busy again in this 2 university town, and a pain in the ass to get around, or get shit done.

Along with the annual surge in traffic, is the annual reminder that I'm getting older. The frosh don't even fall in the half age + seven safe zone anymore. They're kids. My little brother is apparently in grade 11 already. And to top it off, Retro Much More Music played the videos for About a Girl (Unplugged in NY) and Outshined (if anyone has a good site for free video or audio streaming, post a link). Maybe a bit premature for retro, but still over 12 years already. That's some craziness.

And I guess that Steve Irwin thing was the real deal; a shame for his young family, but getting to go out doing what you love is something we could all be so lucky to have.

Closing out, Raymi shows once again that Lindsay Lohan can't keep herself covered up. When your bits are popping out that often, its not so accidental anymore.

The Steve Irwin Legend?

It seems that the Croc Hunter may have finally met his match. Now I'm skeptical, cause I remember reading the stories as the man was getting famous about being killed by crocs, or snakes, or whatever other dangerous animal of the day sparked people's imaginations. Those hoax reports helped build the huge persona he went on to become.

So when I realize that Steve Irwin hasn't been on a north american talk show plugging a new series lately, and not getting much syndicated play, at least on the channels I have, I wonder whether this might be an attention grabber from a guy that comes off as somewhat of a prankster.

If not, then ouch, cause dude just got killed with a Hollywood style stringray barb to the heart. But he'll have a reputation right up there with James Dean, and be the answer to Trivial Pursuit questions for years.

Well, Shit!

Apparently we're already in September. No wonder I had to bust out a long sleeve shirt this evening, and no wonder my little bro is all pissy about only having four days of freedom left. I, to be fair, only have a week more, but we all know I'll be doing my best to stretch that week into eternity.

On top of moving another buddy this week, I also managed to get some drywalling done, a computer built, a bike tuned up, a birthday celebrated, and a bunch of beer and whisky downed. I can't say its been time wasted, which is a welcome change from my norm. This weekend was looking like a trip up north to party it up cottage style, but true to form, I have no idea what's going on, and the forecast is for rain, rain and some rain.

Saves me some gas and some nearly inevitable drama anyways. So instead tomorrow night calls for a backyard fire, and then from there, the plans can fall in whatever haphazard drunken manner they wish. So if you're lookin for something to do...come help destroy my liver!

Separation of Church and State Is A Sin

You know you've gotta be exceptionally extreme when the Republicans won't even have your back for you. I just came across this article on CNN about a recent Kartherine Harris interview with a Christian journal.

Separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told," Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is "wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers."

"If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," Harris said.

I think even the most right leaning of Republicans realize they don't need to be perpetrating discrimination and closed-mindedness to this extent.

I suppose its possible to find truth in the statement that the separation of church and state is a lie, but under quite different contexts than she would have her supporters believe.

And what a great thing to be teaching the younger generations. Don't work hard, and strive to make change and gain positions of power, cause after all, God's just gonna grab a name from a hat, and badda boom you're a ruler. Kick back, frat party it up, smoke some dope, skip out on any chance to fill the shoes of a hero; you'll have plenty of chance to send hundreds of thousands more without ever being one after all, once God chooses you!....On second thought, maybe that is the thing to be teaching the kids, its obviously worked for some.

Farewell and Adieu

Matt Good is running a private concert tonight for some of the luckiest bloggers and fans around. The guy goes through a wreck, and decides he needs to get away from VanCity and scrub the mind and still engages in a send off like that, so much for 'I hear Matt Good's a real asshole'.

To all those lucky fans, hope that's a blast, I can't imagine there will be any other concerts in the near future, let alone, any as intimate and honest as that one.

In other news, if you're a big fan of mixed drinks, apparently you coulda been sippin on bacardi and everyone's favourite carcinogen, benzene, recently. Granted, only at levels slightly above drinking water standards and not, one would hope, in vast quantities. No need to go all paranoid and ban Coca Cola on this one, just pointing out the facts.

Fishy

Last week I thought it would be a good idea to add some variety to the fish tank downstairs. Really, I was just sick of the boring gold fish lazing about the tank, so I picked up a South American Silver Cat. I'd had one before, a couple years back, and had it grow to a 5 or 6 inch long fish before we went away on a trip and it was overfed by my grandmother who was still active and able back in those days. They can be spastic little things, with a smooth sharklike skin, and they're a bunch more entertaining than your 5 cent goldfish.

Unfortunately, this one must have been carrying a disease from the store, and within two days of getting it in the tank it was belly up. My thought was just that it was shocked and that did it in, even though I've never really had much of an issue like that with fish in the past. But then, another 3 days after the silver cat made its journey through the municipal sewer system, the rest of the goldfish went for a float too.

And so yesterday morning was spent draining, disassembling and cleaning out the tank, right up until the part where I pulled something in the back of my right shoulder while rinsing out the tank and nearly dropped the damn thing on my feet. The shoulder ached for the rest of the day, and quashed any hopes, real or imagined, of getting some drywall up, all on top of the wasted morning. All for a bloody 4 dollar fish. I need to find myself some better hobbies.

And instead of going to the beach this week like I'd hoped, I was an idiot and answered the phone this morning to accept some work at my recently departed job because they're too swamped around there to get everything done. Between all the moving and running around, it hardly feels like I've even been off work in the first place.

Check the Colbert Video Challenge.

Playing Catch Up

I wasn't even a star in the wedding, and wow what a hectic few days its been. But all in all a success. A success in that nothing went horribly wrong at the ceremony. A success in that there were only minor issues with the reception, most of those likely driven by the open bar. And a success in that 2 days later I think I've caught up on my sleep, and that my liver has been rinsed through enough to keep going with normal day to day stuff and not feel like I should be at a meeting.

After waking up yesterday morning to go help the best man take care of rounding up all the tuxes so I could run them back today, I got roped into helping polish off the mountains of leftover food just from the rehearsal dinner. Then, 'since I was around', which was a common theme for most of the afternoon, I helped move some decent old couches, that I spent at least a few drunken nights on in my younger years, out of his parents living room. Then, it was across the city to move a substantially more heavy, hell downright tank, of a La-Z-Boy to replace the old duds.

Forget wasting money on gym memberships, I'm telling you right now, all you gotta do is spend a few weeks helping carry couches, bedsets and mattresses around.

But after all was said and done, I received enough free leftover beer to restore any beer gut that I may have shed and more. Of course my liver was still aching a bit from the previous two nights of open bar drinking, so I just came home fell asleep for a few hours and then started trucking through the first season of Lost, since its apparently only catching bits and pieces that has left me with a less than amazed impression of the show. We'll see what happens.

And as I just glimpsed at my cellphone on my desk, I must have gotten a voice-mail while I was asleep yesterday aft...what sounds like a friend holding up a phone to an audio promo for Snakes on a Plane, awesome. If I wasn't such a cheap bastard, I'd have call display and give em a shoutout. If I wasn't even more of a cheap bastard than people might really think, I'd actually consider going to the theatre to see it, instead of waiting a couple months for the DVD. If there's one thing stinginess teaches you, its patience.

A Big To Do

Its nice when that couple that you figured back in highschool was gonna get hitched some day makes it to the wedding day. A formal event to legally, and for some religiously, bind yourselves for the rest of your lives til death, or lawyer do you part. An obvious cause for celebration. But oh the traditions.

Spoken and unspoken, there are a million traditions and customs and nuances to weddings that just add to the whole craziness of the situation. Even without the presence of a 'bridezilla' or totally overinvolved parental figures, people like to hang on to what seem be, to me anyway, silly little formalities.

The gifting of china that may ever be used three times, otherwise living in fear of breaking, nicking, or overwearing ridiculously over-priced clay; formed, painted and fired. Ugly vases, tacky party dishes, weird contraptions with unknown function, I've seen it all come from one wedding alone, the couple forced to put on an appreciative face and give a smile and a thank you, and then inconspicuously find a new home, or convenient hiding place for the piece of work.

Tomorrow's ceremony and reception too will have its little trivialities to keep everyone outwardly happy, although there has to be a greater proportion of people than just myself who will be sitting there asking 'why?'.

The bride and groom are ready to go though as far as can be seen. No signs of cold feet, and everyone carrying themselves well and not getting stressed out. It should be a great wedding and a great start to more formal years of happiness. And now before the blog turns into a Hallmark card, I'd best cut this off.

Congrats to S.S. Intelligence Mountain.

Backyard Bloggin

Another chilled out day, and then a headache decides to rear its ugly head. I'm attempting to cure the situation with Pilsner Urquell, a few no-name acetaminophen extra strength tablets, and sittin outside to get out of the stuffiness.

As long as I don't cut myself with this nicely thinned blood like I did last weekend, I'll be good to go. The only question now is whether to watch Brazil or V for Vendetta, neither of which I've seen, both of which I've heard good things about. But then I have all the time in the world to watch both. That is, once the sun goes down enough to let me actually see the screen out here without squinting.

UPDATE: I guess my decision has been made for me cause apparently I'm a retard and downloaded a Spanish copy of Brazil without even english subtitles...so Vendetta it is.

UPDATE v2: I downloaded Vendetta onto my PC inside and my wireless connection out here is barely keeping me connected to the net, and definitely not enough to run it from inside...so Scarface Two Disc Anniversary DVD it is.

Kickin' Back

Movies, some reading, latenight TV, 3 hour Goldeneye binges; it can't get much better than this. Or can it?

I still have 4 weeks of nearly unobstructed freedom ahead. The trick is gonna be to stay amused for that time while spending as little as money as possible, and then continuing that trend for another 8 months straight of school without income.

After all that, I'm still maintaining the possibility of a month long road trip out west through the mountains that I only got a taste of a few week back, and to the ocean. Then maybe a jaunt down the coast, a zig across to Nevada and Utah, maybe a trip back down to the Grand Canyon, and the journey home.

But a month is a long time to go on student money without income, and without a travel buddy for at least part of the trip as of yet, it could be a rough time. Campgrounds and diner specials will quickly become my friend I'm sure. Anyways, that's plenty far enough away to not be concerned with yet.

Right now its time to take care of some leftover bachelor party beer and grilled meat.

Stink of Defeat

The past week ended up being a bit busier than I was really expecting, but now with work down, one buddy moved, and a bachelor party completed, its time to kick back and enjoy the quickly fading summer.

Of course, being busy has had its fallout, the most noticeable consequence being my removal from guest post status at Nick's blog; a result of my uninspired performance in The Sac...Photo Scavenger Hunt. Congrats are in order however for the survivors.

And so I must now go and shower off the stink of defeat, or perhaps its just the smell of a night of pubcrawling, in any case, this is all you fine people are getting for now.

Murphy's Law of Fieldwork

I'm in the middle of my last week at my co-op job and ready to be out of there. I've managed to schedule enough field work to make the already holiday shortened week go by a bit more quickly, but I'm also operating on less than 100% concentration.

Field work on the best of days under the nicest of circumstances will always see stupid shit happen; broken equipment, seized locks, wasp nests etc. When you add to that a bit of a lackadaisical attitude, field work leads to managing to finally lock the keys in your pimpin soccer mom van that you've managed to avoid, even if narrowly, all term.

The upside is that when you've done enough of the field work, and had all your fights with Murphy along the way, solutions to problems don't take long to present themselves, and you don't even have to call CAA to bust into your van. Instead, you stand in the middle of the street in a rundown neighbourhood with relics of circa 1940's and 50's small industry buildings around feeding a tape measure into your window to pull the lock. There's something to be said for those old flat style window locks, and for 12 years of wear and tear making the lock that much easier to pull....and bein' straight outta Compton.

Lock opened, keys retrieved with no questions asked, not too shabby. I thought I'd have it easy for the rest of the day, but apparently every other person in a bit of a rundown neighbourhood feels the need to have a German Shepherd, or some mutt combination with one, for protection.

I have nothing against German Shepherds, I actually happen to like them, but I don't however like owners who leave them tied up to a post all day long in the backyard with little to nothing for shade and not a cloud in the sky. I dislike the owners more when they see someone in the neighbourhood is going around to do some checks in wells that are installed right in the backyards, and then leave their dog barking at you for 20 minutes without either shutting the thing up, or taking it inside. Instead they leave it go nuts, so sparking a cacophony of all the rest of the dogs in the neighbourhood that goes on for 5 minutes in the distance as you move a block away.

Stupid pet owners deserve a slap, or a good mauling by a disgruntled pet more often. And I kind of want to have a dog around the house again.

This Just In

If you're gonna call someone stupid or 'developmentally challenged' or 'mentally handicapped' you probably shouldn't spell the word 'retarded' as R-E-T-A-R-T-E-D. If something is retarted it must have been a tart, butter, butter-pecan, whatever your choice, at some previous time. If you can't get it right, you're in no place to be making fun of mental deficiencies.

If I Were A Better Blogger:

-I'd have sweet stories about the long weekend and drinking beyond foam sword fights, sparkler cans, and only weakly successful mentos and diet coke experiments.

-I'd have better pictures of said activities.

-There would be changes to the template more often to keep even the most depleted of attention entertained.

-I would post a lot more a) insightful comments or b) drunk comments on other people's much better posts.

-I'd stop raving about the Blue Jays so much, but probably will now that they went on a seven game slide and all but took themselves out of the hunt.

-I'd give more shout-outs to all those other better blogs that have fun stories about travelling the U.K. or have contests amongst all the new guest bloggers or being an unemployed graduate and getting drunk harder and more frequently than me, or just a reminder of the classics more often. And then, I wouldn't let you leave til you clicked them all.

-I'd quote more of the meaty parts of other posts so you could be lazy and not click all those links, even though I always have them open in a new window or tab for you.

-I would actively reinforce the evils of Internet Explorer.

-I'd finally go ahead and move this blog to my own, easy to remember domain like I used to allude to and save the trouble of all those dashes and slashes or google searches for gaming servers and 'void'.

-I'd stop adding pictures that you can go to in the sidebar anyways to make the post look more full.

-I wouldn't make lists and pass them off as legitimate blog posts.

Fifteen Hour Friday

Nothing will quite drain you like 11 hours of jerking milky fluid into buckets, vials and jars. Add to that four hours of driving, that should only have been three if not for the main bridge home being compressed from 4 lanes to 1 for some obscure 'repair' work. More like a bunch of pissed off construction workers who felt like being thorns in a few tens of thousands of drivers sides.

And I didn't even get down to the 'falls' part of Niagara Falls, where I haven't been in probably 7 or 8 years. The last I remember it had become even more of a black tourist hole than I remembered as a kid. The development of the Casino owes the responsibility for that one.

The Falls themselves though are still awesome to see every time. The scale always takes a pause to grasp. I think with my time off I will plan a day trip down to check out the hiking trails downstream of the falls in the gorge, which apparently take you right down next to the river just upstream of the whirlpool.

Four days of work, and then its time for some birthday celebrations, some libations in preparation for and to confirm lifetime imprisonment of a buddy, and otherwise random projects and daytrips for a month. The Summer of George - Aaron style.

Too Much of a Good Thing

I love the summer heat. I don't mind working up a good sweat from as little as taking the garbage out to the curb. And I don't generally mind coping with it all without the benefit of a/c. But when I start losing sleep for consecutive nights then it starts to wear on me.

So this evening I've given in, turned off my PC and fan and moved my stuff to the basement; below the main floor where the rest of the family has had the window conditioner running, adding to the record high power consumption numbers. With all the cool air sinking down the stairs into the basement where the temperature is moderate year round, I figured I'd be better off with a bit of a musty. damp smell, than sweltering one more night upstairs.

The basement also has the benefit of my new stereo surround receiver and a clearer signal on the coaxial to watch the Jays begin their most important series of the season so far against the Yankees. Of course from here til the end, it goes without saying that every series against the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Twins is the most important of the season so far.

Bernie Williams just cleared the bases with a double, isn't he in a home yet? Must be nice to have a higher payroll for your eight starting position players than just about every other teams entire roster. What? You're sick of my bitching about the Bronx Bankrolls? Too bad for you, but I'm done for now.

Here's hoping I get a good night's sleep tonight so I can attempt to dredge up some creativity for round 3 of Nick's competition. I'm sitting in an okay position, but am gonna need to step it up if I want me a mix tape. I'd whore for your votes at this point, but Nick has gone and claimed the role of judge, jury and island kickeroffer so, maybe I can just get you to go whore him in my name?

Goddamned Yankees

Once again the Yankees have gone out and bolstered their forces at the deadline with no care for salary issues or the future. Why not trade away all the farm prospects after all if you can just trade or buy a player for every position you need to fill.

I'm a bit more bitter because the Jays were within 3 games of a playoff spot this week. The end of July and we're almost right there. Of course aside from Hillengate the Jays haven't pulled off anything, nor are they really in a position to. The most tradeable pieces as I see them are Hinske and Catalanotto, and they're not enough to pull in the bullpen help we need down the stretch. At least, not without giving away most of our future simultaneously a la Yankee, but minus the Steinbrenner buying power.

If J.P. Ricciardi finds a way to prove me wrong tonight before the deadline, I'll be ecstatic. But given the Jays' performance on this road trip, the Yanks improvements, and knowing how both they and the BoSox can turn it on in the stretch, the East is gone and the wildcard pretty much as well.

Can't give up yet though, not with a bunch of gamers like Reed Johnson who will play out every game til the finale. There's always a place for Cinderella in any playoffs.

During the Getaway She Will Drive the Vespa

Every 6 months or so the circle of friends from highschool that I've otherwise fallen out of touch with drops word of a keg party around town. Last night was one of those semi-annual gatherings.

Between the years spent together in school as kids and the long periods of time between the parties, there's always plenty to talk about. "Bryan moved to Halifax and got MARRIED?" "Jen is doing what??" And so the time goes and everyone keeps pretty relaxed. Most of us being another year removed from the real partying days just keep things mellow and want to sit and drink and have a good time, but as always with these keggers, the drama seems to work its way into things.

Some people just can't have a good time and chill out and need to go that extra mile for attention, others just like to be pricks. Around 1am some of the guys from a couple years above us in highschool decided to try to walk off with one of the empty kegs to return for the deposit. My buddy steps in to settle things in what by all accounts was a civil discussion, quite contrary to the old way of settling things with some of my friends, and is blindsided, headbutted in the face and punched in the mouth, chipping off half a tooth.

All in all behaviour that you'd expect from the younger kids, and definitely not from the older ones that should be bored with the antics. But I guess that's what you do with all your buddies when you're in your mid to late twenties with no real job, and no real ambitions in life.

Despite the drama, I still managed to get wrecked, have a good time, and end up with a solid beer hangover this morning afternoon, even having chugged two litres of water after the drunk pedal home.

Neighbourhood Demographics

I guess its the way things work in time, but most of my neighbourhood has gone from middle-aged to senior-aged to something like mid to late twenties-aged. Across the main street has always been a bunch of older students who no longer want to live in partyville right near campus, but still be a reasonable walk away. But, now there's a bit more of a young infusion of the non-students as well. It seems strange given the houses in the area just keep going up in value, and we keep getting fucked by region property tax even though we're really doing nothing to improve the quality of our property.

The old people are clearly gone for non financial reasons in most cases, but I would have figured they'd be replaced by some more middle-agers. Instead, on any given evening there are at least 2 milfs strolling around with their kids and new pups.

I guess that explains the real reasoning why one of my buddies going way back to elementary school is moving back into the neighbourhood to the apartment building I can hit with stones (and tennisballs, baseballs, soccerballs, and just about anything ball-like, within reason) from my backyard. Of course I'm sure his girlfriend doesn't know about that whole milf part yet, but since she already knows I'm an ass, and buddies are there to give a hard time to, I can drop that word any time now that the lease is signed. And needless to say there will be many more barbecues going down around here for a while.

As for the whole young thing, I obviously can't really complain because I don't get crotchety old women calling in noise complaints for my guitar or music, or for the smoke from my occasional fires. As long as we don't get that one overachieving, prissy tool, this can keep up. And soon the milfs will all be my age...the verdict is still out on whether that's really a good thing though.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

...a pirate's life probably not so much for me. Before having a party with the Captain last night it was months since I'd had hard liquor of any kind. Liquor and me are more of a winter affair, while I have various flings with blondes, ambers, and the occasional darks along with numerous others of the lager girls during the summer heat.

Some combination of rum, heat, smoke and mosquitos devouring half my blood volume really kicked my ass last night, and I spent the whole day feeling like my head was under a hundred feet of water. I guess I'll have to find some other life that doesn't involve wenches, pillage, plunder and gold. What a let down.

A Bit Loopy

The week began with me watching Office Space and getting myself set to be in a sarcastic mood about being stuck in the 3 and a half walls of my cubicle most of the week. Four 11 to 13 hour days later I'm exhausted, grimy, grungy and aching like the old man I shouldn't be for another 10 years. And I feel like I actually accomplished some real work as opposed to going through the motions. The counterintuitive part of it all is that this week streaked by as long as it was.

Three weeks from now I'll be done and bumming around finishing some wiring and drywalling that has been an 'on-going' project that really hasn't been going, and has been off more than on, for far too long. And then 8 months will bring me an Honours Bachelors degree, and that time too will be like crowded like the 400 on a Friday summer evening, but instead of moving at a crawl, it too will fly by.

My time at the university already has flown by. Not so much with individual courses at a given time, but on the whole. I've been on campus in some capacity for 5 years, that feel not more than 2. I say all this because of all the times I've been on the job the past few weeks and been asked my background by drillers and my intentions by site project managers. The background part always comes easy enough, but looking ahead there's not much besides a thick mist beyond my masters project, whatever and with whomever that may be.

These things aren't going to get any clearer tonight though. Infact, there's also a thick mist beyond a few brews and a good night's snooze. And 2 weeks worth of laundry, casting a spotlight on the other upside of fieldwork; complete disregard for appearance and cleanliness in wearing nearly the same shit for a week.

And so its time to get the literal stink out of here, the figurative pungeant aroma around here will likely linger a while though.

What the Shit?

George W. Bush says 'shit' within earshot of a microphone or two, and the media latches on like its an impeachable offense or something. Its not even close to the worst thing he's done in his schoolboy whim and prayer type leadership so far, and it gets this much attention?

Anyways, what was looking to be another grey week in the office has turned into a bright, hot and humid week in the field. I've been loving every sweaty, salty drop of it so far. Tomorrow I'll be off to Barrie again, like today, but likely will get the luxury of a night in a hotel again to save some mileage and time and get the current phase of our project there done.

Hopefully, in some backwards, ironic, twist, the hotel room in what is the beginning of Ontario redneck country will be better equipped for internet than my room in Edmonton was. If not, then I guess I'll grace this electronic black hole with my presence again in a few days.

New Tensions

Another day, another set of eruptions of social differences in the world. Its been brewing for weeks, and I certainly don't profess to be enough of a historian to go into the background of the whole affair, but the better news sources are doing a job well enough on their own.

I think in North America with our massive national borders we are inherently ignorant of the real proximity of some foreign nations, and the combustion cells they quickly form under provocation.

A guest post over at Matt Good's blog today gives an excellent perspective and discussion in detail more appropriate than I could hope to give.

Around here we apparently still operate on a "he started it" principle in politics.

Stem cells are in the news again too, with Bush still swearing by vetoing any bill passed by congress toward loosening some restrictions on funding in the U.S. for lines of cells. Its beyond amusing the irony behind supporting the bombing of civilians and yet still holding blind in the denial of anything irrefutably helpful in the search for medical advance in embryo cell research. Just think of where we'd be as a global society if we could all pull our heads out of our asses.

Reset to Default

The flight home was good, great even. The seat next to me was empty so I had some space to myself on the way home. Maybe its cause I was so busy with work for the most part, or simply because I failed to find Edmonton itself very exciting, I wasn't really disappointed to be leaving as I often am when I spend some time in a new domain.

There's more work planned for out there, and I would go, only for the sake that its better than some of the bullshit work I've had to strain through since getting back (with no time off mind you). But I'm really in no hurry, and am likely going to schedule myself to be done within the month, having already met the requirements for my co-op program that I intend to drop anyways. In reality, the only reason for me to be there is for the money.

The longer I work, the less time I'll have to spend money, and the shorter window I will have to budget for. 8 months straight of school will be harsh enough on the wallet, but things like weddings and birthdays and ideally a month long road trip out west add to the need.

A truly dedicated person would give up their guilty pleasures like booze and CD's and booze. One booze cut is perhaps an option, especially once the summer drinking season fades away again in its shitty way, but two? CD's for the most part is doable as my collection of the 'must have classics' is pretty solid now, and to be honest not too much 'new' stuff is really new or inspiring enough to buy, with some obvious exceptions.

I'll find a way somehow I'm sure, but right now the burnout of 10 days straight of work is getting to me, and I need to be done with that soon. I'll take sanity over salary thanks.

Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again

It looks like I overestimated the traffic, check-in and security times this morning, so here I sit with an hour before boarding. Once again I'm without internet access, as I was last night again after a strong band of thunderstorms rolled through the Edmonton area and knocked out the power grid.

Around the time that storm was rolling through, I was wandering around between the mountains in the front range of the Rockies in Jasper, a 3 and a half hour drive from Edmonton that I'm glad I made.

What a feeling of distance from everything you get when you're a kilometer up a hiking trail thousands of kilometers from home, your cell phone turned off and left behind in the car. It was all at once incredibly relaxing, but also brought on the pangs off stress. It'll be back to work at the office tomorrow.

Back to the monotony.

I do look forward to having an actual conversation with a human being again though. This morning instead of just saying no to a credit card offer and moving on, I let the woman work through her sales pitch, saving both of us some boredom I suppose, before passing and moving on to my gate.

And so here I sit, contemplating dropping 4 bucks for 15 minutes of net access on the in-house wireless access point. I think some food and the pages of jPod are the better option for the moment.

Running on Vapours

Upon my return to my hotel room this morning I had worked 34 hours, and slept 8, in the preceding 54 hours total since walking out my front door for the airport on Friday morning. I grabbed myself a Timmy's coffee (the Tim Horton's are fewer and farther between out here, read, not one every 3 blocks) on my way back from dropping off my samples, hoping to stay awake at least for the game, and possibly into the late afternoon before grabbing a short nap, and then getting a good night's rest and getting back into a halfway normal pattern before hitting the road for Jasper in the morning.

In actuality, I managed to make it to about the 56 minute mark of the soccer game before zonking out. Just as well I suppose since I didn't have to sit through the suspense only to be let down once again; the recurring theme of this World Cup.

The one thing I've always liked about hotel rooms is the wide selection on the tube that we don't opt for at home, when I'm awake enough to watch, but my eyes are too sore and tired to read any more of jPod, which has been awesome so far. I have to give credit to a highschool english teacher that most people disiked for recognizing my personality and turning me on to Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, which likely would have been against the position of the schoolboard. In truth jPod is the only other of his books that I've cracked since, but I'm sure I'll end up picking up a few more in the near future.

My fingers ache from 12 hours of cutting and trimming pvc tubing, and at the lowest point of my fatigue slipping with tinsnips and jamming them into my left wrist, while simultaneously slicing open the fingers on the other hand as they dragged down the fresh rough cut in the PVC. That said, I'm done with typing for now, and will go seek a cold beverage at the hotel bar to soothe the hands and dumb down the brain some.

The Shakes

Well clearly I finally found myself a connection...had to come to the foyer 'business center'. Plugged my laptop into the LAN jacks here and still had no luck, but I did manage to grab a wireless link somewhere, and have finished sifting through all my e-mail/and spam.

Said business centre is conventiently located right next to and acoustically linked with the central courtyard area which just had a wedding finish. Congratulations to you Amanda and Bryan!

Anyways, worked myself 15 hours yesterday, another 5 so far today, and I'm due back at 10pm mountain time to work until 8am. After that storm cleared up last night it turned into a gorgeous evening, with the exception of the mosquitos. I think there's a methodone clinic or something around where I'm working. I say this because of the sketched out people I see walking around, and the guy that came up to me yesterday looking for smokes sayin he just finished treatment and presenting with a bad case of the shakes. I'm not really an addiction specialist though, but wow there are some classy people that hang around a hole in the wall liquor store in Edmonton on a Friday night.

I drive by the West Edmonton wall on my way back and forth between hotel and site, but have yet to stop in. I should probably take advantage of the exodus of people to Calgary for the Stampede and enjoy the mall with a less dense crowd.

For now though its back to the hotel room to grab a nap. Hopefully my cable doesn't go out all night again...

Edmonton

Flew into Edmonton well enough, no lost luggage, but all the equipment I had to bring raised a few eyebrows. Small but strong thunderstorm cell is blowing through and I'm letting it pass before I get started on my sampling for the evening, and have my laptop in the car. The problem however is that I haven't been able to connect to any wireless networks which is needless to say getting rather annoying.

Anyways, had my lunch/dinner at a local small brewery. The flirty waitress made a solid suggestion with her recommendation. The first store I walked into here sold pocket breath-alcohol meters; do I expect this of Edmonton? Maybe a little. The rain's stopped, time to get to work and post this later somehow. One last comment...how great it is to see oiler flags everywhere and not those ugly blue maple leafs.

The Vines, The Burns and The Beer

Ahhh what a relaxing weekend, if not for that it once again went by so quickly. Too much, and probably too similar to most other people's Canada Day long weekend to really spend too long dwelling on it, and so missing it.

It involved plenty of beer, friends, hops (not the kind related to brewing, nor tiny jumps or rabbit like movements), fire, sun, and sand. The only real oddity in there is the hops, which grow as a climbing vine on, and over the fence between here and the neighbours to the east. The thing about them is that the vine has little spines, sort of like those of a raspberry bush, but more dense, all turned in one direction giving roughness in one direction and a smooth feel in the other like a cat's tongue.

Well, when you walk quickly through one of said vines carrying say, a garden lantern broken by a poorly controlled soccer ball, it tends to grab your skin and rip it open, occasionally leaving marks across your torso looking at times remarkably like finger nail scratches. And they burn for a while, and they inspire questions, all of which are handled with the consumption of some beer.

Of course the beer consumption tends to lead to other random, completely preventable, stupid injuries, moreso in the presence of fireworks and bonfires. But again, no need to be repetitive of the numerous other long weekend shenanigans.

And now its back into the hustle and rush of trying to get everything lined up for my ass and ten thousand dollars worth of equipment and supplies to get out to Edmonton leaving Friday with the first rays of light. On top of this, I get called on to spend 12 hour days amongst the steel factories of Hamilton, and get my hands stained by chemicals that make me look like I was at a loss for toilet paper or a good leaf. In short, definitely looking forward to a hike in the mountains, and the next long weekend.