Grad photos

In case anyone cares, I have posted some of my grad photos. Yes, I look like a total tool, but I guess that's the way it is. But notice the RING. ;-) hee hee...

Listening to: Underworld - Why Why Why

Sunday already?!?

I just don't know how these things happen... somehow I have blown through the last 2 days like they were nothing. At this rate, the whole semister is just going to be a blur.

I finally downloaded bit torrent (which Peter has just mentioned) so that I could get the new Matrix trailer because when ever I tried to download it from the net, the server kept on killing my connection and Mozilla thought that the download was compleate. It seemed to work well, but I didn't like the client at all, so I ended up getting a new one. I think that it just has a different UI on it, and I think that I will be able to put the files together to get it to work. We'll see though.

I tried to help Liz with a scholarship application today, but I am not too sure just how much I helped... but it was another set of eyes, which I think is what she wanted. I hope so at any rate.

One of the coolest things that google does is that it is also a calculator. I saw this before on a slashdot thread. They used it for older conversions too... units that are pretty much in use anymore. So cool.

Listening to: Monolith - No One Lives Forever - Suisse Chalet

feeling the pre-crunch

Not that there has been anything due so far that has made me loose sleep, but I can see it coming. Five courses seemed like a blessing to me before, but I can tell that this is not going to be a cake walk. I had hoped that it would be, but looking back that was a false hope. But alas, there is only 88 days to go, so dispair not!

I got my grad photos done today... the girl taking them had me laughing. Not so much because she was really funny, but because the guys in front of me were. She puts on the iron ring for the photos, and when she did that to one of the guys that went before me, he said "I do". It really freaked her out. But I totally understand why he said it... it was really weird, but it felt right at the same time. Like I said, weird.

Laura ended up dropping by for a surprise visit today since she was on campus. There is nothing like a surprise visit to brighten up my day and generally make it nice. Ah, the weekend doesn't seem so far away anymore. ;-)

Listening to: David Usher - Black Black Heart Version 2

I'm in the dark here!

Well, not really. Only because I have a generator though. This is freaking annoying. 1/2 of Friday without power, most of Saturday, and today for about 3 hours (and counting). Thank goodness for laptop batteries and the generator. I think that that is one thing that I like about laptops, the lower power consumption. That and the LCD, but that is what most ppl are getting for desktops now-a-days. I can see it now, "In my day we had CRT monitors... 14" viewable, big as a beer fridge, and we were glad to have them!".

I think that this Birthday is one of the first that I am starting to feel older. More like an "adult". Maybe it comes from the fact that my friends are getting married, people are talking about buying houses, and talking about getting real jobs. That and I keep on having thoughts run though my head and I go "woah! That's an old-person though!". Weird. That and I seem to be able to fall asleep in mid-sentence now. I'm turning into my dad. Yikes.

Listening to: Rufus Wainright - Across the Universe

WebCT

One of my not so favourte sw programs is WebCT. I used it at Carleton, and now at U of O, and it seems okay, except for how people are using it. Every prof seems to use it in a different way, using different terms and key words. And what I don't like his having to "logout" between different courses in WebCT. How dumb is that? grrr...

I used it to submit my Security assignment. I am quite happy with the electonic submissions... no more going all the way into school just to drop off some paper. I hate killing trees, so this makes me happy. Plus, I bet that the profs can check for cheating a lot easier if it's all soft copy too. Humm....

I've been reading kibbee's blog a lot lately. It's pretty funny most of the time... but it makes me wonder, why do I like reading someone's thoughts in blog-based form rather than talking to them? It is because it can be better formed? Can it be because it is a snapshot of how they are feeling at the time? Or is it just because there doesn't seem to be as much social layers on it most of the time. I don't know. I think that this paragraph is more for me than anyone else.... ah well.

Well, I am going out with a bunch of ppl tomorrow for a drink downtown to celebrate me turning 23 on Sunday. I hear that this is the prime of my life. Prime. Get it? 23 is a prime number? Oh, that's the dummest joke ever, and I still love it. *happy sigh*

Listening to: John Williams - The Patriot Soundtrack - Ann and Gabriel

Kitchen counters suck.

Yes, you heard me. Kitchen counters suck. I am again helping my dad do a product reset for Belanger countertops. They are taking out some products that are not selling too well, and bring in some new colours. It's not how I want to spend my mornings this week, but that's the way things are going to be. It sucks 'cause he is getting me up at 5 am (yes, there is a 5 am now. Who knew?) so we can do it before many customers get to the store. *sigh* I just needed to bitch.

At least this isn't like last time where we started at closing time, and have to move a whole isle including moving all the steel. That time we had a team of about a dozen ppl though. This time it's just my old man and myself. One store down, like 4 to go.

Listening to: Starsailor - Tie Up My Hands

They've stopped laughing

It looks like scientists have stopped laughing at Clark's idea in Fountains of Paradise of building a space elevator. I think that most people loved this idea. Imagine, being able to go to space for about 100 $ / pound.

Currently, the cost of just putting something, anything, including fuel into orbit makes things really expensive. Too expensive for most things other than telecommunication or governments.

I think that this idea has caught the imagination of many other people, including Kim Robinson which had "Clarke elevators" in his (her?) Mars series (red, green, blue). One thing that was done durring a takeover / civial upheaval on Mars was they shot the elevator out of the sky... it's not like it can really dodge or anything. Well, when that thing would come done, it would wrap around the world several times, and lay destruction to anything in it's path. Not cool. That is definally something that would have to be seriously looked at when building something like that.

Some frontiers are still frontiers because of how inaccessable they are. This might just be the door opening that we need to be able to go beyond this rock.

Listening to: The Tragically Hip - Ahead By A Century

Good stuff.

I am happy to see that someone has decided to pay the 2000 $ settlement for file sharing against the 12 year old girl and her mother in public housing. RIAA must be pissed at who ever decided to do that... it has been such bad PR for them, it's not even funny. I think that it great that the P2P community has grabbed this and made it into good PR for themselves. The thing that really surprised me is that it says that she was only sharing 1000 songs, much less than I expected. That worries me 'cause I have many times that amount of music on my computer. Most has been ripped that I have purchased, but some has been, ahh, obtained in other ways. ;-)

Another story that has got me (and I am sure most of the city) pissed is a story about a guy who wanted a bear for a pet, and then kidnapped it from it's mother. He "wore it down" by repeatidly dunking it in water (read: drowning it) till it started to give up. Well, of course the bear was taken away from this nut job, and now released 60 km from where it last saw its mother. Now, most likely it will not surive. Stupid, stupid freaking people. AhhgghH!

Grrr...

Just a quick bitch. I am using trillian which I think is a great IM client. It has been in the "news" that microsoft (and MSN) are going to start blocking any IM clients that use the old protocol and third party ones too. And we have to update. Well, since I really like Trillian, I was getting a little worried 'cause I kept on checking out their main page, and there was no info about it at all. I checked the FAQ. No info. I figured that this would be a big concern for a lot more people other than myself, so I did a search of the forums, and I found that one of the developers has posted a fix. Well, this is great. Things look like they will work fine now. However, they provided really no instructions or anything, so you have a bunch of people that are trying to open a dll file with some application. Now, to me it seemed obvious what to do, but that is more than what the user should be expected to know. Users should not have to guess what to do, not matter how easy the change. And more to the fact, if you have some change that you have to search for through the forums, that just sucks and is poor business. Imagine if every software company only provided info on a forum. Imagine searching MS site for updates that are required to make the sw work? Grrr... it is just such an easy change for them to have done, but they were too lazy to do it. I am just not impressed with that practice at all.

Listening to: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

Back to the grindstone

Well, it's back to classes. I have almost done a full week of school, and so far I have not resorted to drinking coke. And that's a good thing. I am sure that the time will come soon enough, but I am trying to hold it off. Of course there seem to be weaknesses with the classes... my robotics prof could be better. He keeps on turning down his mike and when I asked him on the first day to turn it up, his brilliant responce was "but I can hear me just fine". Yes, the man has a PhD. *sigh*

I was checking out the AudioMan page today and I think that Pete has done a really nice job. It's his prettyest site yet. If anyone wants to download a copy of the app and play around with it, please go ahead. I think that nightly builds will be coming soon to it. ;-)

I'm going to be going to a semi formal dinner / dance Friday at the NAC. It starts at 6, but I don't get out of class till like 5:20-5:30, so I will have to bring all my stuff and do a super man act just before I go. I have not been to something like this since first year... I just hope that I don't make too big a fool out of myself. Ah well.

They speak English!

Yay! It seems that all my profs (right now) speak passable English. Yay! That makes me happy now. That's always a big concern for me. And, I have learned that the exam schedule only goes to December 22rd, 2003, that means that I have been able to bump up the time line of when I am done school. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel... I just hope that it's not the light of the oncoming train. ;-)

I went out to the Helsinki Lounge and Disco which was pretty good. Last time I was in there, it was a gay bar, so I am sort of glad that it's changed. Really cool place, but it was a bit expensive. Not somewhere you would go to get really drunk unless you had TONS of cash.

Tomorrow I should be going camping with Laura and her new med friends to Lac Phillippe which should be cool. I love camping... I just have to figure out what sort of food I will need to bring and what-not. I have a feeling that there will not be any boats that we can use at all though, which is a shame, but oh well. ;-)

Listening to: Hams Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - All That Remains

Helsinki in Ottawa?

First day of school done, 13 weeks to go. Well, 110 days, but who's counting. ;-) Only really had one class today, and thankfully the guy seems to speak passable english. Always a good thing in my program. He does say some things differently, but I am sure that I can get around that okay. And the midterm and final are not crazy percentages. Yay! I just hope that I can do well. My GPA has been dropping, and I would actually like to keep it high-ish. Ah well.

I'm going to go out and meet Laura at the Helsinki Lounge and Disco tonight. It looks cool. I just hope that it feels nice. Oh oh, gotta run....

Listening to: The Cardigans - My Favorite Game

School time

It's that time of year again. Yes, you guessed it. I am going to go back to school for the final (hopefully) leg. I am not really looking forward to the work again, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone. School is a pleasent place to be, I just don't want to stay there. ;-)

I finally did some running today. It has almost been three weeks, and it really felt like it. I don't think that I should stop for so long again. Today was the first day that I tried to go running in the morning, which is a habit that I think that I need to have. I won't be able to run at lunch when school starts, and it's cooler in the morning anyways.

I was talking to Liz the other day and she sent me some great pictures. She sent two of them in an email (500 k each) and I ended up putting one as my desktop. It is such a great shot. It's the one looking out over the mountians (no people) with the sun breaking through the clouds in beams. Awesome.

I honestly don't know where the last four months went. It was a total blur to me. For that matter, the last 4.5 years seem to be a bit of a blur, but that's another story. I can't believe that it's time to go back. My head is spining just thinking about it. Or maybe it's the cleaning products that I was using on my car, I can't really tell. ;-)

Listening to: Foo Fighters - Disenchanted Lullaby