I started reading shinypants a few days ago and I had to laugh at today's entry. Her experiences with ICQ mirror mine fairly closely. In fact at one point I had absolutely no information (name, sex, age, or otherwise) listed with ICQ because I was getting so many weird people contacting me, I figured they wouldn't be interested in talking with me if they knew nothing about me. I also got interesting URL's from people who just "knew I'd love this!", 'this' being a porn site or some other similar place. I never thought of listing myself as a 15 year old boy though. But you'd be surprised. Some of the people messaging me with these offers and innuendos listed themselves as girls.
[ 6:22 PM | link ]ooo. I just realized that I get to open my advent calendar tomorrow! Maybe a daily dose of chocolate is just what I need to get me out of this school funk.
[ 5:28 PM | link ]I have absolutely no motivation to study for my quiz tomorrow morning. I think if it was at any time other than 8:30 in the morning I might be all right. Hmm, actually, it probably wouldn't matter when it was, I still wouldn't have any motivation to study for it. It is Actuarial Science after all. The only reason I took it was because a friend was whining that he never got to see me and wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a class together (oh please, tracy, please take actsci!! You have to take actsci, you just have to!! Do it for me tracy!!) and didn't stop bugging me until he saw me write it on my pre-registration form. Of course after the first few weeks he stopped showing up altogether and left me alone in the boring class to fend for myself. Dammit. I don't do well in subjects I hate, no matter how easy they are. It's the whole motivation thing ...
Actually my lack of motivation has not been limited to actsci this term. I have only attended half the classes for one of my econs (that's probably why I had the whole surprise midterm. I would have known about it had I actually gone to the class before it). CS I've managed to get to all the classes, but I'm contemplating just skipping the last assignment. It's kinda half, sorta optional-ish. C&O .. well, that's my gonna-fail class this term. We were talking about this today: we figure that each term there's always that one class where no-one has a clue what's going on in it and you spend the night before the final in a cold sweat because you've figured out the exact mark you need on the final exam in order to pass the class and your chances of getting that mark aren't looking too good. C&O is that class for me. The prof makes no sense, the assignments make no sense because the prof makes no sense, and the midterm seemed straightforward until we discovered that the T.A.s make no sense either and seem to arbitrarily assign marks to questions.
But enough about me, how are you today?
[ 29.11.00 11:10 PM | link ]
So, I've just been informed that the cam doesn't work in Netscape. It works in 6, but not in 4.7, which surpised me because I haven't changed the code and it worked before. After a little contemplation, I think it's because of the streaming cam (which works in neither version of Netscape, BTW). I had to change a few settings, and I guess this is interfering with how Netscape gets the image because all that shows up is the top 1/4 or so of the picture. I'll try to work on it soon. After all, I doubt my hair is really all the interesting.
[ 10:40 PM | link ]Today was not a happy day. I came home and cleaned my hedgie 's cage, only to discover one of his eyes unable to open all the way and blood on his side. After a visit to the vet, it was determined that he has mites , which was the cause of both the eye problem and the blood. So $110 later at least I know what's wrong with him, but I have no idea where he got them. Oh, and I have medicine to give to him. Orally. Prying his spikey little body open enough to stick the syringe in his mouth is going to be interesting.
[ 28.11.00 6:39 PM | link ]
woohoo! My surprise midterm of two weeks ago turned out better than I thought. I actually got a 72 on it! Today is a happy day!
[ 2:47 PM | link ]If you scroll down this page, at the bottom of all the little sections on the left you'll see links for a UW webring. It's new and hence it's still pretty small, but we want people to join, we really do. So, if any of our fellow UW students who read this have a blog, journal, or some similar site that we don't know about, give it a thought.
we promise not to bite ... hard.
[ 7:28 AM | link ]And of course, the Liberals are back in government, which surprises no one but Stockwell Day. Looking at the final party results, I wonder if anyone who would normally vote NDP, PC or for one of the smaller parties voted for the Liberals in fear of having Stockwell Day running the country.
[ 27.11.00 5:42 PM | link ]
I think I may now know why my prof does weird things like give out the answers to an assignment before it is due . We went down to ask him a question after class today and the scent of the dry erase markers was overpowering. Inhaling that for the better part of an hour would get to anyone's head after a while. It goes a long way to explaining the reason his proofs make absolutely no sense.
[ 3:57 PM | link ]A week or so ago I was having a conversation with Steve about how you never run into people on campus if you are specifically looking for them. His advice to me was: try your best to avoid them, think about how you don't want to run into them, and you will run into them. Well, his advice proved very true today. You see, yesterday I did my laundry, and being the silly person I am, I put *all* my nice comfy jeans in. Unfortunately, this morning they were *still* not dry, so I was forced to wear my uncomfortable, crappy looking jeans to school. Add to this the fact that the misty air made my hair kinda curly and poofy, and I just wasn't looking my usual, stunningly beautiful self. All day long I thought "I hope I don't see (names withheld for my sake), since I look like such a mess". And of course, who do I see but the hot guy from one of my classes. Argh.
[ 26.11.00 2:20 PM | link ]
It took them three months, but they did it, they finally did it. My roommates finally broke me. I have now officially lost all hope that dishes will be done in anything that could be called a reasonable amount of time, that doors will be closed, that lights and/or the tv will be turned off when not in use, that spills will be cleaned up, that garbage will actually be put in the garbage, and finally, that food will not be left to rot in the fridge or spoil on some hidden shelf in our living room. The game is over, you win.
[ 24.11.00 5:51 PM | link ]
Here's one for the "not well thought out" files: I had an assignment due in one of my classes today. The prof handed out solutions to the assignment at the beginning of class. Assignments can be handed in up until the end of class. Hmmm, do you think he's going to get a lot of assignments that bear more than just a passing resemblance to the solution set?
[ 23.11.00 2:22 PM | link ]
Two new writings: post its and 2800feet . Surprisingly, they were both actually written within the past two weeks, unlike most of my other writings these days it seems. I was going to post them last night after my class, but I came home to find my roommates having an impromptu drinking party, which of course I was obligated to attend. :)
[ 22.11.00 4:49 PM | link ]
Busy, busy, busy. Every term it seems that profs (some, not all) fall behind in assignments and course teachings and then rush to finish it all before the last lecture. This term seems to be no exception. I have been a busy little bee the last two weeks, trying to get all the things done that need to be done. Some of the rush was due to my own lack of planning. Some due to profs. Whatever the case, it will soon be over. Tonight marks the last of the rush.
Of course, some profs are actually ahead of schedule and choose to start teaching you things that aren't on the outline, and aren't in the course notes. And they teach you very badly at that, so you end up cursing the class and cursing the prof and cursing the fact you ever chose to be in math in the first place. And this term is no exception either.
But of course, the more that was piled on me, the less I wanted to do it. Yesterday I spent in the comfort of our house, watching DVDs. All day. X-men. American Beauty. Gladiator (love it). Monday actually saw me go to the theatre for a little Grinch -y fun. And the weekend I spent in the comfort of homehome, again not doing the work I brought with me. And no, that's not a typing error; homehome is my permanent home (as opposed to my Waterloo home which I vacate every four months). I've even gotten quite a bit of writing done while not doing the school work I should be doing. Not finished yet, but on it's way. Patience my pretties. I think I'm getting tired of the school thing. I find myself repeating over and over "only two more terms ... only two more terms ..."
[ 20.11.00 11:17 PM | link ]
hee hee. I told my hedgehog he couldn't go back in his wheel until he ate up all his mealworms. I feel like such a parent.
[ 16.11.00 5:06 PM | link ]
I added a streaming cam to go with the still cam. But I can't seem to get it to work with Netscape. I tried, I really did. It's supposed to ... so, if anyone out there can give me a hand with this, please, feel free.
[ 12:00 PM | link ]Was I the only one having problems with my cam page not refreshing properly? Or were you all just too afraid to tell me? I know people watch it because it always shows up in my stats ...
ah well, either way, I think it's fixed now, so you can all revert back to your voyeuristic tendencies.
[ 14.11.00 8:33 PM | link ]
I'm glad to see someone besides me is making use of my words of the "day". Scourge was one of my favs too.
But for someone who got an outstanding on his work report, you sure do have a lot of spelling errors ... { grin }
[ 8:25 PM | link ]Well, I just finished my "surprise" midterm. It wasn't a surprise in that our prof didn't tell us about it. He did. Way back in the beginning of the term. The surprise part came from the fact that I accidentally wrote it down in the wrong week of my planner, so I thought it was *next* week and not this week.
fun fun fun!
[ 9.11.00 5:47 PM | link ]
Woohoo! Brad has finally figured out links. This will make my life so much easier :)
Oh, and if you want to check out his piercing (we went together) take a peek.
[ 5:27 PM | link ]A new word: obfuscate . I came across this word on a blog and had to look it up in the dictionary because I had no clue what it meant. The meaning: "to make (something) confusing." I guess the author of the blog acheived that result.
[ 5:21 PM | link ]A good thing I see coming out of this very close Presidential race in Florida is that anyone who uses the excuse "one vote won't make a difference" in an attempt to justify their decision not to vote in an election now no longer has that excuse.
[ 4:04 PM | link ]
I wasn't going to do this, but I just can't resist. This is my new navel
piercing. I got it done a scant 2 hours ago, and I can't stop looking at it.
Every time I walk by the mirror in my room, I'm tempted to lift up my shirt a
little. I wanted a tongue piercing but I've heard too many stories about it
being really bad for your teeth, so navel it was. I mean, what's the worst
that can happen with it there? Belly button lint build-up?
[ 8.11.00 1:22 PM | link ]
While looking for the results of yesterday's US elections (I was really just curious how Nader did) I came across Ballot Measures for the different states. This is a pretty interesting thing, something you don't really get to see on the ballots here in Canada. So I browsed through them, curious about what issues were being considered. Most states had the standard issues that have been debated for a while concerning health care, urban sprawl and eduction vouchers. A few had ones related to marijuana. And then there were these ones, which quite frankly I take for granted here in Canada so they surprised the hell out of me:
Alabama: Although it is pointed out that the US Supreme Court had ruled this law unenforceable, only yesterday was the law banning interracial marriages repealed, and even then it was only passed by a 59% margin. One person called interracial marriages "bad for our Southern culture."
Maine: An astounding 51% voted against legislation making it illegal to discriminate against someone based on his or her sexual orientation. True, the legislation was only barely defeated, but the fact that it was defeated at all is scary. The fact that it is an issue at all is scary. 'Tis a sad day in Maine.
Oregon: Under the title "Student Protection Act", there is a meaure calling to "prohibit gay education". I don't even understand why this is on the ballot. The definiton in part on the ballot measure is this: "Prohibits public schools from instructing on behaviors relating to homosexuality and bisexuality in a manner that encourages, promotes or sanctions such behaviors." I just don't get it. But so far 51% of voters have voted against it, so at least this gives me hope.
**all above ballot measure information from cnn.com **
[ 11:55 AM | link ]This morning I awoke to 11 emails in my inbox, 10 of them from cnn.com , all about the elections last night. I flipped through them, half reading them until I came across the one that said CNN: BUSH WINS , which kind of confused me because all the other things I had read this morning before that had said it was still an undecided race. Guess they should have waited a little longer. Of course he might still win. I laughed until I got to school this morning and glanced at the Waterloo Record.
Guess they should have waited a bit longer too ...
[ 6.11.00 10:16 PM | link ]
I have been constantly hungry for the past week or so, and couldn't for the life of me figure out why. I would eat a huge meal, twice my normal consumption, and an hour or two later I'd already be hungry again, which really is so unlike me. So, after careful contemplation, I have come to the only conclusion that makes sense to me (having ruled out some strange disease and such): my body thinks I'm going into hibernation. Before you start to laugh, as my lovely roommate did when I told him my theory, hear me out. It's been much colder the last few days - there's even been frost on the grass in the morning. The clocks have just been moved back an hour so it's darker outside. The air has that crisp feel to it. So, to me, it makes (almost) perfect sense that my body would realize that winter is coming and hence be gearing up for a season of coldness, spurring my system to crave more food to build up a nice little layer of cold-fighting fat.
Of course, the downside to this is that I don't want to put on a layer of cold-fighting fat. I never completely got rid of last year's layer of cold-fighting fat, so I really don't need yet another one added on. The fat never goes where you want it to anyway. And since I don't even have the luxury of walking the PATH this winter as I have in the past since I'm going to be in Waterloo I guess I'm just going to have to live with it. Because heaven forbid I give up ice cream day and all the other sweets I eat ...
[ 5.11.00 3:58 PM | link ]
What Brad neglected to mention in his post today about his shower incident is that not only did he slip in the shower, but that slip caused him to actually fall *out* of the shower and onto the bathroom floor. So picture a 6'5" guy, feet in the bathtub, ass on the floor, wrapped in a shower curtain. Too funny.
Not that I saw it happen or anything. But I do have a good imagination.
[ 1:29 PM | link ]I do not like phoning my father. I love talking to him, but phoning him is not all that easy (and he *never* phones me. Only once did he phone me last term, and that was for my birthday, so I'm not sure that really counts. But that's another rant ...) The reason I don't like phoning him is simple: he never answers his phone . Even if he is sitting right beside it, he lets the machine pick it up. Which places me in a funny situation. Do I leave a short message ("Hey Dad, call me when you get this message") assuming he is not home, which does not give him enough time to actually pick up the phone if he is home? Or do I let my message drag on ("Hey Dad, just calling to see how things are ... and to catch up on stuff ...") giving him enough time to pick up the phone if he is home, but making for a very long and disjointed message if he is not? And how long do I let the message drag on? Is ten seconds sufficient? Thirty seconds? I don't want to babble, and yet I know that often just as I am about to hang up, he finally picks up.
I think my problem is that I really don't like talking to answering machines. With virtually everyone else I just hang up and call back later. My father is almost the only person I will leave messages for, and even then I only do it because I don't know if I am actually talking to him through the machine, or just leaving a message to be returned later.
Oh well, time to go call my dad's machine ... { grin }
[ 3.11.00 11:47 PM | link ]
I think I shall follow burnt orange's idea of giving up boys for now ... but instead of giving them up for baseball, I shall give them up for basketball.
[ 10:53 PM | link ]I love the way Brad can turn the simple act of opening a piece of mail into an amusing story.
[ 10:36 PM | link ]Oh, and since I'm sure you are all just *dying* to find out the results of rankings, it appears that I will indeed be staying in Waterloo for my next work term. I'm happy. It was one of my two first choices. Of course my other first choice didn't even rank me. Why that bothers me so much, I'm not quite sure ... after all, I got what I wanted.
[ 10:34 PM | link ]Is there some secret ingredient in sushi that makes you all sleepy? My friends and I had the bright idea of making our own sushi tonight, and since none of us has come down with food poisoning (yet), I think we can call it a sucessful venture. I'm pretty darn impressed with the sushi-making talent of my friends right now. The only problem is that we've all been falling asleep for the last hour. Whether it was the sushi itself, or simply the copious amounts of it that we ate, I do not know. But there are plans for a repeat night sometime in the future, so maybe then I will find my answers. And maybe everyone can actually make it out to that one.
[ 2.11.00 9:48 PM | link ]
I'm kinda excited. I ordered some things from La Senza.com . Buying new girlie stuff is always fun. Of course it's more fun to buy it in person, but this is a reasonable stand-in.
[ 9:20 PM | link ]A new story has been posted: Daydreaming. Wish I had a day like this ...
[ 8:37 PM | link ]I loathe to admit this, but I am actually watching Surprise Wedding. The premise: women give their partners an ultimatum: marry me *NOW*, or give me up forever. I know, I know, shame on me. From the same people who brought us Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? Oh My.