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.