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[ Sunday, June 30, 2002 | 10:50 p.m. ] |
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Sitting on the lawn beside S Lot. I came back to campus and there were all these people leaving the building (MKV). I thought there was some big social event I hadn't heard of. Actually, it was the fire alarm. We've been out here for about half an hour. The sad part is, I bought a Palm keyboard today (it's in my bag) but I haven't installed the software, so I can't use it. Wait, I've got a laptop in my bag too, haven't I? Laptop = music. Sweet.
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[ Thursday, June 27, 2002 | 01:13 p.m. ] |
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I've been thinking.. There's a Rush concert at the Molson Amphitheatre on Wednesday July 17. It's a crappy venue, a crappy day for me, and only 400-level tickets are still available.. but it would be possible. I could take the five o'clock Greyhound from UW (I'd only miss one class), which would get me to Toronto at seven, and then I'd have an hour to get to the proper location at Ontario Place. Then I could go home to sleep, and somehow get downtown in the morning to take the 6:45 Greyhound back to Waterloo... That seems rather insane when you go through it like that. Damn this university and its stupid spring term. I were at a normal school I'd be back home now, and I could pull this off without any problems.
On a different note: "Raingear & an umbrella," said one of the orientation week brochures on its list of things to bring to res. "It's not called WATER-loo for nothing." I am now experiencing that. I didn't mention last Friday's rain, did I? Well, it was it quite intense and monsoon-like. There was similar rain this morning, a few hours ago. There was also a similar rainfall last night, right around the start of my evening class. The height of the storm coincided exactly with the period during which I was walking from here to Hagey Hall. Luckily, it started raining one or two minutes before I left, because I was all set to go without rainwear. Well, in the end the crew jacket that I threw on didn't help all that much. By the time I got to class I looked like a drowned rat. The one part of me that should've stayed dry, my torso, well.. didn't. I think the rain came down the neck of my jacket. Let's just say it was a good thing I was wearing a black t-shirt. Also, within seconds of sitting down, there was a huge pool of water at my feet. I am not exaggerating. There was a lot of water. Still, my clothes fared better than some things; at least they're not damaged by water. Things like papers and coursenotes don't fare quite as well. Last night I discovered that my bag was not quite as waterproof as it should be. My coursenotes for Philosophy got pretty trashed, as did everything in my folder: Philosophy notes, Calculus notes, some old assignments, and the last issue of mathNEWS. Particularly funny is how you can see where I switched from half-decent to cheap-ass paper, 'cause the old stuff's just a bit crumpled, but all the lines bled from the new stuff. My electronic gadgets survived, though. In conclusion, the rain would've been really cool if not for my notes getting trashed and having to sit through two and a half hours of class while still dripping-wet.
I've been procrastinating in the extreme this week. You may've noticed that I'm blogging with alarming frequency. I did some work Monday night, but since then it's pretty much been games, games, games. I've started playing Pyramid Solitaire on my Palm again. It's a wonderfully fast and mindless game. I've played for hours at a time. [I love this song("Time Stands Still") —Ed.] I haven't started the discrete event simulation CS assignment yet. I could probably do it this weekend if I were staying here in Waterloo, but of course I'm going home. (It does concern me somewhat that I might've stayed up here if not for the.. boyfriend factor, but I'll worry about that some other time.) I tried to do my Calculus assignment this morning. I got up at six thirty, and work 'till at least nine, I think. I finished four questions. Four easy questions. I would say five, but on the last one I did, everything looks right to me, but my graphing calculator seems to suggest a very different bound on the error. (I should stop. All I do anymore in this blog is whine about Calc problems.) My drive to finish the assignment this morning stemmed from the fact that Sean is coming to visit this afternoon. Or make that now. Right now.
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[ Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | 11:20 a.m. ] |
So. I got a job. Which I suppose I should be happy about. Well, I am happy about it. I was really overjoyed on Monday when I read that I'd been matched because I didn't think I would be, but now.. Now my problem is that I don't actually want to work. Anyhow, there's one not-so-great thing about it, which is that it's a math job, not a CS job. Not that I really wanted most of the computer jobs I applied for—the ones I managed to get interviews for were mostly tech support, and what I'd really like to do is programming. The
problem is that next term, when I'm once again looking for a CS job, I'll be in no better position than I was this term, with regards to work experience. Ah, well. At least I'm not in Continuous Phase.
But let me tell you about my weekend. I went to party on Friday night. I only knew a couple of people, and I was terribly anti-social. Worse than usual. I parked myself on a couch and just sat there for a few hours. On Saturday I
went over to Sean's and we watched movies: Lord of the Rings and Episode II. In the evening we went out for bubble tea with ChiQui and Dave, which was somewhat sketchy. (We ran into Tory!) Anyhow, due to circumstances that don't need explaining at this point, I didn't have a
bubble tea, though I really wanted one. The next day, Sean and I went out for lunch at one of his usual places, which happens to serve a few flavours of bubble tea. So, I ordered bubble tea... only to be told that they were out of tapioca. Thus is the suckage of my life. Still, it wasn't a bad day. We watched Star Trek: First Contact, which was not what I expected it to be. (I've grown tired of the Borg, but it was better than I thought.) We also bought used CD's; I picked up Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream and Rush - Chronicles. I'm totally loving the Rush CD. I haven't stopped listening to it since Sunday night. Shit. Class in eight minutes. I will be late.
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| I don't need you to worry for me 'cause I'm alright |
[ Friday, June 21, 2002 | 08:00 a.m. ] |
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Twelve thirty a.m. Bright and early Friday morning. Struggling with calculus, staring at my reflection in the window, finishing off the last of my Twizzlers, and feeling no particular need to make sense. I do, however, feel the need to take a shower, but I might not get around to that for a while. Thank goodness I'm going to that party tonight; I'll need to make myself presentable.
Things were going well. I was listening to System of a Down and working steadily, at least on the power series questions from 12.9. I couldn't get the last one, though. After a while I gave up and moved on to 12.10 and Taylor series. Did the first question. Played with the second for a while, then started killing time. I got out the course outlines for my classes and marked down the due dates of the remaining assignments. Then I flipped open the laptop to get the dates for CS. Then I had to check my usual websites, email, etc., and I sure didn't want to go back to the calc that I just wasn't getting. I think I first stopped working at seven, when Sean called. And now here I am.
The past few weeks have brought all sorts of fun. Woah, hold it. It's been almost five weeks since I last posted anything of substance. Okay. Back-tracking a way-long-way, May 24 was Grad Nite at Canada's Wonderland. Yes, I know it's for this year's high school grads. I realise I graduated last year, and that I don't go to HC anymore. Still.. I was talking to Jacq the night before, and she mentioned that she could possibly get me tickets. How could I not go? I dragged Sean along, and he was disturbed as hell at being stuck on a school bus (apparently no one else calls them cheese wagons) with around thirty insane girls. He said the experience shed new light on some of my oddness. At the park we hung around with Jacq, El, Karen, and her boyfriend Charles. Last year, in the whole night, I made it on three rides. This year.. I made it on three rides: the one that's like Jet Scream, but it's a boat (I think it's called The Rage, which is a really lame name), The Fly, and Thunder Run. It was my first time on Thunder Run, and despite whatever impression I may've given to the contrary, I thought it was great. The only thing is, the seat's pretty tiny. I'm pretty wide, and Sean, being rather tall and all, is also pretty wide, and squeezing the two of us into that seat was rather painful. But hell, at least we were less cold for a minute or two.
Did I mention the cold? It's hard for me to imagine it now, on--hey, look at that, it's the first day of summer--but damn if that wasn't the coldest I'd ever been. (That's including my little swim in Lake Ontario when we tipped our four two years ago.) It was stunningly cold. Cold-like-we-thought-we-would-die cold. And standing around doesn't help much, and we were doing plenty of that. We stood in line for about half-an-hour to get funnel cakes, and almost an hour, I think, to get hotdogs. Brutal. Still, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Also, I was browsing through Candice's web photo album the other day (or more like two weeks ago) and I found a picture of us on the bus! It's not great, in fact it's pretty crappy, but it's the only picture I have of Sean and I. (Also featured are Kim & Sara in the background.)
***
Right. Well... Seven thirty-five a.m. I really did get up early this morning. I was up straight through the night. Actually straight through: not so much as a one-minute nap. You see, sometime in the middle of the night there, I decided to logon to ICQ. Around three a.m. Kim came online. (She was up to watch the England vs. Brazil match.) And sometime in the middle of that conversation, I had a brainwave on the calculus, and realised what some of the stupid things I was doing were. So I kept working. The game ended; England lost 1-2. Now I'm done all but that one question that was bugging me before: #34 in 12.9. I don't feel any overwhelming need to do it. Last term (okay, maybe at the beginning of last term) I might've gone to the Tutorial Centre to grab an answer, or at least a clue, but I don't quite care that much. My priorities right now are sleep and shower, in that order. By the way, I'm listening to one of the Billy Joel Greatest Hits CD's that Chris burned for me, and it is so insanely good. It makes me sad that I saw him in concert and completely didn't appreciate it. (I was in grade six.) I'm feeling very hyper. Uh-oh. The post-all-nighter rush. I've got to stop singing out loud--I wouldn't want my suitemates to hear. So I suppose I'll leave you here. Now I'm only a month behind... :-)
They will tell you you can't sleep alone in a strange place
Then they'll tell you you can't sleep with somebody else
But sooner or later you sleep in your own space
Either way it's okay, you wake up with yourself
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[ Monday, June 17, 2002 | 10:48 a.m. ] |
The idealistic speechwriter is well-liked by just about everyone. He's known for his excellent writing, sense of humor, and tendency to be clutzy. Although being younger than the rest of the staff, he's often treated as so, much to his dismay.
:: Which West Wing character are you? ::
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[ Monday, June 10, 2002 | 08:56 a.m. ] |
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I've made a somewhat radical decision, for me at least. I'm not going to my classes today, except possibly Calculus. I'm going to study. I must study. I won't let me do this to myself!
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[ Monday, June 10, 2002 | 08:10 a.m. ] |
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The problem with the summer is that you don't notice it getting late. Earlier this afternoon I quoted eight or nine o'clock as when I'd freak out and start working. I thought it was a rather late estimate. It's now ten to eight. It feels earlier, though. I mean, it's warm and the sun's shining brightly. But it's ten to eight. I was just kicked from HERS 'cause my connection's gone screwy, but I'd been on since four thirty. That's so not good. I really, really need to study. Of course I don't want to study, so I'll take this opportunity to update my much-neglected blog. (Unfortunately, I've been able to get back on HERS. I fear it will be a long while before I finish this and get off email.) Anyhow, it's been a while since I posted anything of substance, but don't worry, I'm not going to subject you to one of those minute-by-minute recaps of the last three weeks. Just broad strokes, you know.
***
Quarter to ten. I got distracted by things. I ended up going back and reading through all the archives for the current incarnation of my blog, that is from January to the present. And now... The problem that has plagued me all my life is showing up in full force. I don't feel like studying. In fact.. I'm going to watch a movie. Right now. Then I'll come back and finish this up, and then I'll do some studying.
***
And there it went. I watched the movie, laid awake in bed for around another hour, and then fell asleep. Which brings us to eight a.m. Eleven hours 'till my Calc midterm. Total time spent studying: zero days, zero hours, and zero minutes. I'm completely screwed. And I miss some people (one person) so bad I can scarcely think of anything else.
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| Scences from a Wednesday Evening Class |
[ Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | 11:40 p.m. ] |
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7:29 pm Our prof is having technical difficulties turning on the overhead projector. (He has just left the room to possibly "borrow" another one.) I got my essay back from last week. Did I mention that I wrote an essay? I think so. Anyhow, I got 77%. The weird thing is, I don't know how I feel about it. I can't decide if that's good or bad. It's passing, at least. At Havergal, I would've been aiming for an eighty, but that was highschool.
7:59 pm I'm dying here.
8:34 pm Sean's coming up to visit tomorrow. That should be good. I've got nothing else due this week, but I do have a two-part interview Friday morning (group & individual). (It'll manage to result in my missing both Algebra & Calculus.) But I'll be somewhat free the rest of the time, when I'm not studying, at least.
9:06 pm Well, scratch that. Goddamn fucking bloody group projects! I'm meeting this guy for the next PHIL 215 GA @ 4 o'clock, Friday afternoon. (It's due Wednesday at the start of the midterm.)
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